Meantime the telegraph here and abroad was busy spreading news according to which the Bolsheviks’ adventure was at an end. Kerensky had entered Petrograd, and order had been restored by his iron hand. At the same time, the bourgeois press of Petrograd, comforted by the proximity of Kerensky’s troops, was telling its readers about the complete demoralisation of the Petrograd garrison, about the Cossacks’ irresistible advance and their numerous artillery, and was predicting the coming doom of the Smolny. Our greatest difficulty, as already stated, consisted in the absence of an efficient technical apparatus and of men able to direct the military activities. Even those officers who had conscientiously accompanied their soldiers to the positions declined to accept the post of Commander-in-Chief.
After various attempts to solve the problem we selected the following combination: a garrison meeting elected a committee of five persons who were charged with supreme control over all operations against the counter-revolutionary troops advancing on Petrograd. This committee then came to an agreement with the Colonel of the General Staff, Muraviev, who during Kerensky’s regime had been in opposition, and now, on his own initiative, had offered his services to the Soviet Government.
On 12th November, in the night which was very cold, Muraviev and I motored to the military positions. Carts loaded with provisions, fodder, guns, and munitions were moving all along the road in the same direction. All that had been organised by the workers of various factories. Pickets of Red Guards stopped our car several times in order to verify our pass. Since the first days of the November Revolution all the cars of the city had been commandeered, and without a pass from Smolny no car was allowed to move in the streets or suburbs of the capital. The vigilance of the Red Guard was beyond all praise. Armed with rifles, they had been standing round the small bonfires for hours and hours, and the sight of these young armed workmen standing in the snow in the light of bonfires was the best symbol of the proletarian Revolution.
We found a good number of guns at the positions, and there was no lack of munitions. The decisive action took place on that very day, between Krasnoye Selo and Tsarskoye Selo. After a fierce artillery bombardment, the Cossacks, who had advanced as long as they met with no serious resistance, hastily fell back. They had all along been misled by tales about the atrocities of the Bolsheviks who intended to sell Russia to the Kaiser. They had been made to believe that the whole garrison of Petrograd was impatiently expecting them as liberators. The first serious resistance made havoc in their lines and doomed the whole of Kerensky’s adventure.
The retreat of General Krasnov’s Cossacks gave us a chance of retaking the radio station of Tsarskoye Selo, and I at once wired the news of the victory over Kerensky’s troops.
Here is the text of the wire –
PULKOVO VILLAGE STAFF, 2.10 a.m.
The night of 12th-13th November will become historical. The attempt of Kerensky to lead counter-revolutionary troops against the capital, the seat of the Revolution, has met with a decisive repulse. Kerensky is in retreat; we are advancing. Soldiers, sailors, and workmen of Petrograd have shown that they are anxious to, and know how to, assert the will and power of the workers’ democracy with their arms. The bourgeoisie strove to isolate the revolutionary army; Kerensky attempted to crush it under the Cossacks’ heel. Both attempts have proved a miserable failure.
The great idea of the supreme power of the workers and peasants’ democracy has consolidated the ranks of our army and steeled its will. The whole country will now perceive that the power of the Soviets is not a passing event, but an irrefutable fact of the rule of workers, soldiers, and peasants. The repulse of Kerensky is a repulse of the bourgeoisie, the landlords, and the Kornilovites. The repulse of Kerensky is the establishment of the people’s right to a peaceful and free life, to land, bread, and power. The Pulkovo detachment has, by its valiant deeds, consolidated the cause of the Workers and Peasants’ Revolution. A return to the past is impossible. There are still struggles, obstacles, and sacrifices in front of us. But the road is open and victory is certain.
Revolutionary Russia and the Soviet Government have a right to be proud of their Pulkovo detachment and its Commander, Colonel Walden.
Eternal memory to the fallen! Glory to the warriors of the Revolution, soldiers and officers faithful to the people!
Long live revolutionary, popular, Socialist Russia
On behalf of the Council of the People’s Commissioners,
L. TROTSKY
13 November 1917
We subsequently learnt from our friends abroad that the German wireless stations had received an order from the High Command not to intercept this message. Thus, the first action of the German Government, in respect of the November events, betrayed the fear lest they should cause a fermentation in Germany itself. Austria-Hungary intercepted a portion of our message, and, as far as we know, it became the source of information from which all Europe learned that Kerensky’s luckless attempt to regain power had ended in a miserable failure. Signs of fermentation were now apparent among Krasnov’s Cossacks. They began sending scouts to Petrograd and even official delegates to the Smolny. There they were able to see for themselves that perfect order reigned at Petrograd, maintained by the garrison which was supporting the Soviet Government. The disorganisation among the Cossacks became the greater as they soon realised the absurdity of the idea of capturing Petrograd by means of a thousand or so cavalrymen, since the promised support from the front was not forthcoming.
Krasnov, with his Cossacks, retreated towards Gatchina, and when we reached there the following day, the members of his staff were already practically prisoners in the hands of the Cossacks themselves. Our garrison at Gatchina was in occupation of all the most important positions. The Cossacks, although not disarmed, were absolutely incapable of further resistance. They desired one thing only, to be allowed to return to the Don as soon as possible, or at least to the front.
The Gatchina Palace was a curious sight. All the entrances were guarded by strong pickets. At the gates were artillery and armoured cars. The spacious rooms of the Palace, the walls of which were covered with valuable paintings, were crowded with soldiers and sailors and Red Guardsmen. On the tables of costly wood were scattered soldiers’ clothes, pipes, and sardine boxes. One of the rooms was occupied by the staff of General Krasnov. The floor was covered with mattresses, soldiers’ coats, and caps. The representative of the Military Revolutionary Committee who accompanied me entered the room occupied by the staff, lowered his rifle upside down with a clang, and, leaning on it, declared “General Krasnov, you and your staff are prisoners of the Soviet.” Armed Red Guardsmen immediately took up posts at both doors of the room. Kerensky was not there; he had fled, as he fled previously from the Winter Palace. General Krasnov described the circumstances of his escape in his written evidence handed in on November 14th. I publish here this curious document verbatim –
14 November 1917, 6 p.m.
It was about 3 p.m. when I was summoned by the Commander-in-Chief [Kerensky]. He was very agitated and nervous.
“General,” said he, “you have betrayed me: your own Cossacks here definitely say that they will arrest me and hand me over to the sailors.”
“Yes,” said I “they talk a good deal about it, and I know that there is no sympathy with you anywhere.”
“Do the officers say the same?”
“Yes; the officers are exactly those who are the most discontented with you.”
“What shall I do? I shall have to take my life.”
“If you are an honest man you will go at once with a white flag to Petrograd and appear before the Revolutionary Committee and talk the matter over as the head of the Government.”
“Yes, I will do that, General”
“I will give you a guard and I will get a sailor to go with you.”
“No; any one but a sailor. You know Dybenko is here.”
“I do not know who Dybenko is.”
“He is my enemy.”
“Well, nothing is to be done. You have engaged in a big game and you must take risks.”
“Very well; I will go tonight.”
“Why in the night? That would be a flight. Go openly and calmly; let everybody see that you are not trying to escape.”
“Very well. Only give me a convoy which I can trust.”
“Agreed.”
I went out, called a Cossack of the 10th Don Cossacks’ Regiment, Russkov, and ordered him to appoint eight Cossacks to form a bodyguard for the Commander-in-Chief.
Half an hour later the Cossacks came in to tell me that they could not find Kerensky anywhere – that he had fled. I raised the alarm and ordered a search to be made for him; I am inclined to think that he could not have fled from Gatchina and is still hiding somewhere here.
MAJOR-GENERAL KRASNOV
Commander of The 11th Corps.
Such was the end of this business.
Nevertheless, our opponents did not want to surrender or to admit that the question of government authority had been settled. They still nourished hopes of help from the front. The leaders of the ex-Soviet parties – Chernov, Tsereteli, Avksentiev, Gotz, and others, one after another, went to the front to negotiate with the old army committees gathered at Dukhonin’s headquarters, tried to incite him to resist, and, according to the press, even attempted to form at his quarters a new ministry. But nothing came of it. The old army committees had lost all their influence, and the front was feverishly busy calling together conferences for the new elections to all the army organisations at the front. At these re-elections the Soviets’ regime was everywhere victorious.
Meanwhile our detachments were moving by rail further from Gatchina towards Luga and Pskov. There they met several trains with ‘shockers’ and Cossacks, who had either been summoned by Kerensky or despatched by various generals. An armed conflict occurred between our troops and one of these Cossack echelons. But the majority of the soldiers sent from the front to Petrograd, on meeting with the representatives of the Soviet troops, immediately declared that they had been deceived and that they would not raise their arms against the authority of the workers and soldiers.