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Revolutionary Politics in Provincial Russia: The Tsaritsyn “Republic” in 1917

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Donald J. Raleigh
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In a recent article in Voprosy istorii KPSS entitled “The Bolsheviks and Revolutionary Creativity in the Provinces (July-October 1917),” A. S. Smirnov analyzes those hotbeds of radicalism where events took a sharp swing to the left, at a rate often surpassing revolutionary developments generally, even those in Petrograd itself.1 In such diverse and far-flung places as Helsingfors, Lugansk, Shlissel'burg, Minsk, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Kazan', and Tsaritsyn, revolutionary politics bred endless crises, demoralizing the national government and at times embarrassing and perplexing leaders of revolutionary parties. One would think that Soviet historians and propagandists would seize eagerly upon the opportunities these case studies provide to show the degree to which revolutionary ideas had gained support from local populations across the country. But this is not necessarily the case.

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Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , Summer 1981 , pp. 194 - 209
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1981

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References

1. Smirnov, A. S., “Bol'sheviki i revoliutsionnoe tvorchestvo na mestakh (iiul'-oktiabr’ 1917 g.),” Voprosy istorii KPSS , 1979, no. 6, pp. 59–69.Google Scholar

2. The pioneer provincial study is Ronald G. Suny's The Baku Commune, 1917-1918: Class and Nationality in the Russian Revolution (Princeton, 1972). Less ambitious are Ezergailis's, Andrew The 1917 Revolution in Latvia (Boulder, Colo., 1974)Google Scholar and Snow's, Russell E. The Bolsheviks in Siberia, 1917-1918 (Rutherford, 1977)Google Scholar. Apart from these monographs, several broad surveys have assessed provincial events. See Marc Ferro, La Révolution de 1917, vol. 1: La chute du tsarisme el les origines d'Octobre, vol. 2: Oclobre: Naissance d'une société (Paris, 1967, 1976), and Keep, John L. H., The Russian Revolution: A Study in Mass Mobilization (New York, 1976)Google Scholar. Mention also should be made of two articles: Pierce, Richard A., “Toward Soviet Power in Tashkent, February-October 1917,” Canadian Slavonic Papers , 17, no. 2-3 (1975): 261–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Mosse, W. E., “Revolution in Saratov (October- November 1917),” Slavonic and East European Review , 49 (1971): 586–602.Google Scholar

3. Saul, Norman E., Sailors in Revolt: The Russian Baltic Fleet in 1917 (Lawrence, Kans., 1978)Google Scholarand Mawdsley, Ewan, The Russian Revolution and the Baltic Fleet: War and Politics, Feburary 1917-April 1918 (New York, 1978)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4. Descriptions of Tsaritsyn's historical development can be found in Khovanskii, N. F., Ocherki istohig. Saratova i Saratovskoi gubernii (Saratov, 1884)Google Scholar; Turovskii, K. G., Ocherkipo istorii igeografii Tsaritsynskogo uezda (Tsaritsyn, 1911)Google Scholar; and Vodolagin, M. A., Ocherki istorii Volgograda, 1589-1967 (Moscow, 1968)Google Scholar.

5. This figure does not include the Tsaritsyn garrison. See Romanov, I. and Sokolov, N., Ocherk istorii revoliutsii 1917 goda v Tsaritsyne (Stalingrade) (Saratov, 1930), pp. 5–6 Google Scholar.

6. Ibid., pp. 6-8.

7. Minin, S. K., Gorod-boets. Shest’ diktatur 1917 goda (Vospominaniia o rabote v Tsaritsyne (Leningrad, 1925), p. 6 Google Scholar.

8. See Vul'fson, G. N., Raznochinno-demokraticheskoe dvizhenie v Povolzh'e i na Urate v gody pervoi revoliutsionnoi situatsii (Kazan', 1974)Google Scholar, and Tomarev, V. I., Bol'sheviki Povolzh'ia vo glave bor'by proletariev protiv tsarizma (Volgograd, 1977)Google Scholar.

9. The most informative single volume available to me on the 1905 revolution in Tsaritsyn is Gavrilov, G. T., Sokolov, N. N., Shcherbakov, M. M., eds., 1905 god v Stalingradskoigubernii (Stalingrad, 1925)Google Scholar.

10. Tomarev, Bol'sheviki Povolzh'ia, p. 248. Vodolagin cites thirty-two dead and eighty wounded (Ocherki istorii Volgograda, pp. 169-70).

11. Tomarev, Bol'sheviki Povolzh'ia, pp. 257-58.

12. According to one memoirist, soldiers in the 141st Regiment were the most volatile because they already had been to the front. In contrast, the 93rd and 155th Regiments for the most part were comprised of recently mobilized peasants up to age fifty-five. See Korolev, S. Z., “Sredi soldat,” in Kleinman, M. la., ed., Za sovetskuiu vlast’ (Sbornik vospominanii uchastnikov revoliutsionnykh sobytii v Tsaritsyne) (Stalingrad, 1957), p. 125 Google Scholar.

13. Tomarev, Bol'sheviki Povohh'ia, p. 269.

14. Romanov and Sokolov, Ocherk istorii revoliutsii, pp. 10-11. One Soviet source claims that for two weeks in early 1917, soldiers from the 155th Regiment refused to subordinate themselves to their officers (see lonenko, I. M., Soldaty tylovykh garnizonov v bor'be za vlast’ sovetov [Kazan', 1976], pp. 24–25 Google Scholar). Wildman underscores Sandetskii's unpopularity (see Wildman, Allan K., The End of the Imperial Army: The Old Army and the Soldiers’ Revolt [March-April 79/7 /[Princeton, 1980], p. 71 Google Scholar).

15. My related work on Saratov and district towns in Saratov province suggests that this scenario was widespread.

16. Gerasimenko, G. A., Vozniknovenie sovetov rabochikh, soldatskikhikrest'ianskikhdeputatov v Nizhnem Povohh'e (1917-pervaia polovina 1918 gg.) (Saratov, 1966), p. 5 Google Scholar.

17. For descriptions of the February Revolution in Tsaritsyn see Romanov and Sokolov, Ocherk istorii revoliutsii, pp. 12-16 and Gavrilov, G. T., comp., 1917 god v Stalingradskoi gubernii (Khronika sobytii) (Stalingrad, 1927), pp. 3–22 Google Scholar. Less detailed accounts can be found in Burdzhalov, E. N., Vtoraia russkaia revoliulsiia: Moskva, front, periferiia (Moscow, 1971), pp. 210–12 Google Scholar; Vas'kin, V. V. and Gerasimenko, G. A., Fevral'skaia revoliulsiia v Nizhnem Povolzh'e (Saratov, 1976), pp. 14, 29–30 Google Scholar; Gerasimenko, G. A. and Rashitov, F. A., Sovety Nizhnego Povolzh'ia v Oktiabr'skoi revoliutsii (Saratov, 1972), pp. 11–13 Google Scholar; Presniakov, I, “Iz podpol'ia na prostor” Partiinyisputnik , 1923, no. 9-10, p. 68 Google Scholar; and memoirs by D. A. Pavin and A. A. Rogachev in Kleinman, Za sovetskuiu vlast', pp. 29-37, 77.

18. Mints, I. I. et al., Oktiabr’ v Povolzh'e (Saratov, 1967), p. 85 Google Scholar.

19. Minin's memoirs are a rich source on the revolution in Tsaritsyn. See Minin, Gorod-boets and Minin, S. K., “Iz dnevnika Sergeia Konstantinovicha Minina za 1917 god” Partiinyi sputnik , 1922-23, no. 7-8, pp. 137–2.Google Scholar

20. Trotsky, Leon, Stalin: An Appraisal of the Man and His Influence, ed. and trans. Malamuth, Charles (London, 1968), p. 290 Google Scholar.

21. Unfortunately the Tsaritsyn party committee's independence under Minin's leadership and his resistance after October 1917 to growing bureaucratic strains within the party worked against him once Stalin had consolidated power at the end of the 1920s. At the Fourteenth Communist Party Congress in 1925 he aligned himself with the anti-Stalin opposition, and it may have been only a debilitating illness striking in 1927 that saved Minin from Stalin's purges in the 1930s. According to reliable Soviet historians and to a relative, Minin suffered from mental illness after 1927. No official Soviet biographical entry substantiates this point. For a biographical sketch, see his obituary in Pravda, June 29, 1962, no. 180. For an account of Stalin's feud with Trotskii consult Tucker, Robert C., Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879-1929 (New York, 1973), pp. 190–95 Google Scholar; see also Trotsky, Stalin, pp. 282-96. Trotskii or his editor incorrectly dates Minin's dramatization of the seige of Tsaritsyn to 1925. The play, The Encircled City, was actually published in 1920 (Gorod v kol'lse[Revoliutsionnaia khronika v shesti kartinakh][Moscow, 1920]). It is worth noting that Soviet historians have attacked Minin's role in the revolution. Some representative accounts can be found in Khmel'kov, A. I., Tsaritsynskie Bol'sheviki v bor'beza ustanovlenie Sovetskoi vlasti v Tsaritsyne (Stalingrad, 1947)Google Scholar. See also Kaden, G. S., “K voprosu ob ustanovlenii Sovetskoi vlasti v Tsaritsyne,” in Iz istorii Stalingradskoipartiinoi organizatsii (Sbornik statei) (Stalingrad, 1959), pp. 5, 7 Google Scholar.

22. Gavrilov, 1917 god v Stalingradskoi gubernii, p. 26; Romanov and|Sokolov, Ocherk istorii revoliutsii, pp. 22-23.

23. Actually, the soldiers’ soviet was supplanted by a military committee under tighter officer control. Afterward soldiers began to elect deputies to the workers’ soviet (see Vas'kin and Gerasimenko, Fevral'skaia revoliutsiia, pp. 118-19). The merger is discussed in lonenko, Soldatytylovykhgarnizonov, pp. 63-64.

24. Romanov and|Sokolov, Ocherk istorii revoliutsii, pp. 37-39. See also Minin, Gorod-boets, p. 28. Circumstantial evidence can be found in Izvestiia Kazanskogo voennogo okruga, June 10,1917, no. 18, p. 3.

25. Ovrutskaia, S. Sh., “Proval politiki kontrrevoliutsionnoi voenshchiny v iiule-avguste 1917 g.,” Istoricheskie zapiski . 87 (1971): 352–53.Google Scholar

26. Presniakov, “Iz podpol'ia,” p. 70. Minin threatened to publish his own slogans when the Menshevik-dominated committee opposed internationalist ones.

27. Minin, Gorod-boets, p. 33.

28. Erman, a former student at St. Petersburg University, was sent by the Central Committee to Tsaritsyn to work among soliders in the student battalion.

29. Gavrilov, 1917god v Stalingradskoigubernii, pp. 38-39. See the Bolshevik newspaper Sotsialdemokrat (Saratov), June 7, 1917, no. 23, p. 3.

30. Romanov and|Sokolov, Ocherk istorii revoliutsii, pp. 30-31.

31. Gavrilov, 1917 god v Stalingradskoi gubernii, p. 27; Minin, Gorod-boets, pp. 24-25.

32. M. A. Golubov, Saratov v 1917g.: Vospominaniiapomoshchika kursovogo ofitsera Saratovskoi shkoly praporshchikov (Innsbruck, 1955), manuscript in Butler Library, Columbia University, pp. 27-28. 1 wish to thank Professor John Bushnell of Northwestern University for bringing this manuscript to my attention.

33. The administration in the larger factories tended to be made up of foreign nationals, especially from France and Belgium ( Chuprikov, V. V., “U metallurgov” in Kleinman, , Zasovetskuiu vlast' , p. 73 Google Scholar). As elsewhere in Russia, the eight-hour day was sometimes introduced iavochnym poriadkom. See A. A. Rogachev, “Na zavode Diumo,” in ibid., p. 81 and V.N. Kas'min, “Rabochie orudiinogo,” ibid., p. 83. Documents relating to the labor movement in Tsaritsyn in the spring of 1917 can be found in Zavazin, S. I., Shkodina, E.N., Tomarev, V.I., eds., 1917 god v Tsaritsyne (Sbornik dokumentov i materialov) (Stalingrad, 1957), pp. 35–2 Google Scholar.

34. Recently published studies on the Russian army in 1917 substantiate my point and suggest that evacuated soldiers had a similar impact wherever they were located. See Kuz'mina, T. F., Revoliutsionnoe dvizhenie soldatskikh mass Tsentra Rossii nakanune Oktiabria (Po materialam Moskovskogo voennogo okruga) (Moscow, 1978), pp. 50–51, 55Google Scholar and Frenkin, Mikhail, Russkaia armiia i revoliutsiia 1917-1918 (Munich, 1978 Google Scholar). According to Frenkin, sixty of ninety-seven garrisons in the Kazan'Military District were classified as being in a state of extreme trouble in June (Frenkin, Russkaia armiia, p. 330). Frenkin also notes that from January to June the number of soldiers evacuated to rear garrisons grew, whereas the percentage returning to the front dropped substantially (ibid., pp. 302-303). Interestingly, the Tsaritsyn events substantiate Wildman's conclusion that the command authority of the army “was a direct casualty of the February Revolution itself’ (see Wildman, Endof the Imperial Army, pp. 374-75).

35. Demobilized worker-soldiers returning to Tsaritsyn also may have provided an important link. On April 10 workers at the French Factory passed a resolution allowing drafted workers returning from the front to resume their old positions (seeZgVSfilp*i917god v Tsaritsyne, p. 33).

36. Ionenko, Soldaty tylovykh garnizonov, p. 112.

37. Romanov and|Sokolov, Ocherk istorii revoliutsii, p. 33. Growing Bolshevik gains at Menshevik expense during April and May are discussed in the Menshevik newspaper Proletarii Povolzh'ia (Saratov), August 2, 1917, no. 50, p. 3.

38. Ovrutskaia, “Proval politiki,” p. 353.

39. Minin, Gorod-boets, pp. 48-51; Gavrilov, 1917 god v Stalingradskoi gubernii, pp. 43-45; Sotsial-demokrat, June 7, 1917, no. 23, p. 3.

40. Tsaritsynskii vestnik, May 28, 1917, no. 5458, p. 3.

41. Ovrutskaia, “Proval politiki,” p. 353.

42. Ibid., p. 354.

43. On June 5 the Saratov soviet decided to send a delegation of representatives of the three main Socialist parties to investigate the murder of Boiarnitsev. See Antonov-Saratovskii, V. P., ed., Saratov skii sovet rabochikh deputatov, 1917-1918: Sbornik dokumentov (Moscow-Leningrad, 1931), p. 137 Google Scholar and Saratovskii vestnik, June 7, 1917, no. 123, p. 3. The Saratovskii vestnik was a daily identified with the Edinstvo group.

44. Gavrilov, 1917god v Stalingradskoigubernii, pp. 183-88; Antonov-Saratovskii, V. P., “Saratov s fevralia po oktiabr’ 1917,” Proletarskaia revoliutsiia , 4, no. 4 (27) (1924): 206–10Google Scholar. The report of the Saratov delegation can be found in Sotsial-demokrat, June 18, 1917, no. 33, pp. 2-3.

45. Ovrutskaia, “Proval politiki,” p. 355. Antonov claims that he was aware of a secret report ( Antonov-Saratovskii, V. P., Pod sliagom proletarskoi bor'by: Otryvki iz vospominanii o rabote v Saratove [Moscow-Leningrad, 1925], p. 136 Google Scholar).

46. Gavrilov, 1917 god v Stalingradskoi gubernii, pp. 62-65; see also Zavazin, 1917 god v Tsaritsyne, pp. 64, 67-70.

47. Rabinowitch, Alexander, The Bolsheviks Come to Power: The Revolution of 1917 in Petrograd (New York, 1976), pp. 17–87 Google Scholar.

48. Gerasimenko, G. A. et al., eds., Khronika revoliutsionnykh sobytii v Saratovskom Povolzh'e (Saratov, 1968), p. 86 Google Scholar.

49. Antonov-Saratovskii, Saratovskii sovet, pp. 170-71; Gerasimenko and|Rashitov, Sovety Nizhnego Povolzh'ia, p. 68.

50. Antonov-Saratovskii, “Saratov s fevralia,” pp. 202-205. Both were released the next day, but Minin was arrested a second time and imprisoned in Saratov until the Kornilov days. See Proletarii Povolzh'ia, July 27, 1917, no. 45, p. 4; Saratovskii vestnik, July 25, 1917, no. 163, p. 3; Lebedev, P, “Fevral'-oktiabr’ v Saratove” Proletarskaia revoliutsiia , 2, no. 10 (1922): 244.Google Scholar

51. Proletarii Povolzh'ia, August 23, 1917, no. 68, p. 3.

52. Delo naroda, July 29, 1917,no. 113, p. 3. This was the organ oftheSR Central Committee as of July 1, 1917.

53. Izvestiia Kazanskogo voennogo okruga, August 25, 1917, no. 77, pp. 2, 4.

54. Antonov-Saratovskii, Saratovskii sovet, pp. 169,174-75; Ovrutskaia, “Proval politiki,” pp. 366-67.

55. Romanov and Sokolov, Oeherk istorii revoliutsii, p. 53.

56. Golubov, Saratov v 1917 g., p. 33.

57. Ovrutskaia, “Proval politiki,” p. 370. Interestingly, reports from the front note that the echelons of the 155th Regiment from Tsaritsyn arrived with Bolshevik propagandistic literature (see Frenkin, Russkaia armiia, p. 422).

58. Zavazin, 1917 god v Tsaritsyne, pp. 73-75; emphasis added. Also see the minutes of the Tsaritsyn soviet for August 1-2, published in Gavrilov, 1917godv Stalingradskoi gubernii, pp. 194-203.

59. Romanov and|Sokolov, Ocherk istorii revoliutsii, pp. 51-52, 56, 63-64; Ovrutskaia, “Proval politiki,” p. 372; Izvestiia Kazanskogo voennogo okruga, August 25, 1917, no. 77, pp. 2-3.

60. Zavazin, 1917 god v Tsaritsyne, pp. 73-75; Gerasimenko, Khronika revoliutsionnykh sobytii, p. 96.

61. Ovrutskaia, “Proval politiki,” pp. 375-76.

62. Ibid., p. 376.

63. Gerasimenko, Khronika revoliutsionnykh sobytii, p. 101; Zavazin, 1917godv Tsaritsyne, p. 79.

64. Proletarii Povolzh'ia, August 23, 1917, no. 68, p. 4; and Antonov-Saratovskii, Saratovskii sovet, pp. 181-82.

65. Romanov and Sokolov, Ocherk istorii revoliutsii, pp. 57-58. (Erman had favored boycotting the duma elections, but eventually was overruled by the local committee.)

66. Ibid., pp. 58-59. See also Izvestiia Saratovskogo Soveta, September 5, 1917, no. 79, p. 2.

67. Ovrutskaia, “Proval politiki,” p. 379.

68. Romanov and|Sokolov, Ocherk istorii revoliutsii, p. 60; Antonov-Saratovskii, Pod stiagom, pp. 131-32.

69. Kaden, “K voprosu,” pp. 20-21.

70. Romanov and Sokolov, Ocherk istorii revoliutsii, p. 60; Gerasimenko, Khronika revoliutsionnykh sobytii, pp. 109, 114-15.

71. Gavrilov, 1917 god v Stalingradskoi gubernii, pp. 213-14.

72. Gerasimenko and Rashitov, Sovety Nizhnego Povolzh'ia, p. 85. Romanov and Sokolov report that the Bolsheviks won 121 seats, all other Socialists combined, 67 (Ocherk istorii revoliutsii, pp. 68-69). Gerasimenko and Rashitov, however, probably are correct because they had access to the Volgograd oblast archive (GAVO).

73. Minin, Gorod-boets, pp. 74-75; Kaden, “K voprosu,” pp. 20-21.

74. Minin, Gorod-boets, p. 59.

75. As I suggested at the beginning of this essay, the Smirnov article published in Voprosy istorii KPSS may have signaled a subtle change in Soviet historical writing. Smirnov approves of the Tsaritsyn Bolsheviks’ efforts to push events in the provinces, even when they deviated from Central Committee rulings. He likewise acknowledges the popularity of the Left SRs. For an analysis of the regime's reluctance to permit such discussions see Heer, Nancy W., “The Non-Bolshevik Left and the Idea of Political Opposition,” in Windows on the Russian Past: Essays on Soviet Historiography since Stalin , ed. Baron, Samuel H. and Heer, Nancy W. (Columbus, Ohio, 1977), pp. 157–70.Google Scholar

76. Wildman, End of the Imperial Army, p. 157.