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Workers‘ Unrest and the Bolsheviks‘ Response in 1919

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Vladimir Brovkin
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At the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks appeared to enjoy considerable social support. They were perceived as the proponents of soviet power; support for the Bolshevik party meant support for soviet power. The majority of workers (especially those in large industrial centers) identified with the Bolsheviks because they promoted greater workers’ control at the workplace. The Bolsheviks were perceived as uncompromising defenders of workers’ interests. For the peasants, the Bolsheviks represented a party of black repartition, that is a party that encouraged peasant land seizures. For the soldiers, the Bolsheviks were a party that promised to stop the war. For the Kronstadt sailors, the Bolsheviks exemplified direct rule from below, the rule of Soviets. All of these diverse constituencies converged in their support for the Bolshevik party at the end of 1917, each for a different reason.

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Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , Fall 1990 , pp. 350 - 373
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1990

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References

1. For the Bolsheviks as defenders of the workers’ interest, see David, Mandel, The Petrograd Workers and the Soviet Seizure of Power: From the July Days 1917 to July 1918 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984)Google Scholar and Smith, S. A., Red Petrograd: Revolution in the Factories, 1917-1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Analysis of the encouragement of land seizures is in Marc, Ferro, La Revolution de 1917: Octobre, naissance d'une societi (Aubier: Montaign, 1976 Google Scholar), and analyses of soldiers are in Wildman, Allan K., The End of the Russian Imperial Army: The Old Army and the Soldiers’ Revolt (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980 CrossRefGoogle Scholar), and Leopold Haimson, “The Problem of Social Identities in Early Twentieth Century Russia,” Slavic Review 47 (Spring, 1988), 1-21, here 8.

2. Evan Mawdsley believes that the Kronstadt uprising was triggered by the strikes in Petrograd; see idem, The Russian Civil War (Boston: Allen and Unwin, 1987), 245.

3. Israel, Getzler, Kronstadt: The Fate of a Soviet Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983 Google Scholar. On the events in Izhevsk and the Urals, see Mikhail, Bernshtam, ed., Ural iprikam'e, noiabr’ 1917-ianvar’ 1919: Dokumenty i materialy (Paris: YMCA, 1982 Google Scholar. For the other uprisings see Michael, Malet, Nestor Makhno in the Russian Civil War (London: Macmillan, 1982 Google Scholar; Radkey, Oliver H., The Unknown Civil War in Soviet Russia: A Study of the Green Movement in the Tambov Region, 1920-1921 (Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1976 Google Scholar).

4. Sheila Fitzpatrick wrote of “active support of urban working class” for the Bolsheviks in her The Russian Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 70; see also Remington, Thomas F., Building Socialism in Bolshevik Russia (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1984), 101Google Scholar. On the other hand, William Chase acknowledged that “mass worker unrest” took place in Moscow but mistakenly saw it as beginning only at the end of 1920, after the victory over the Whites; Chase, William J., Workers, Society, and the Soviet State: Labor and Life in Moscow 1918-1929 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 11 Google Scholar.

5. Haimson, “The Problem of Social Identities,” 13, discusses the reabsorption of the soldiers. Martyn Latsis counted 245 peasant uprisings in 1918 and 99 in 1919 in his Dva goda bor'by na vnutrennem fronte (Moscow, 1920), 75.

6. William Rosenberg, “Russian Labor and Bolshevik Power after October,” Slavic Review 44 (Summer 1985): 213-239.

7. Vladimir, Brovkin, The Mensheviks after October: Socialist Opposition and the Rise of the Bolshevik Dictatorship (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1987), 126–160 Google Scholar.

8. This thesis is put forward by Theda, Skocpol, “Social Revolutions and Mass Military Mobilization,” World Politics 40 (January 1988): 14.Google Scholar.

9. Keep, John describes this process in great detail in The Russian Revolution: A Study in Mass Mobilization (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1976), 337, 152, 471Google Scholar.

10. Pravda editors were concerned that workers were censored by local party bosses. They cited numerous examples of workers’ not daring to write to Pravda without authorization from the local party cells. This concern led to the title of the article: “Mogut li rabochie sotrudnichat’ v Pravde,” Pravda, 4 February 1919, 2. Unless otherwise indicated, all Russian-language periodicals cited in this article were published in Moscow.

11. International Labour Office, The Trade Union Movement in Soviet Russia, Studies and Reports, series A; Industrial Relations, no. 26 (Geneva: ILO, 1927), 168.

12. I have not included the Ukraine since such an investigation would have necessitated discussing other forces: the Whites, the Ukrainian independence forces, Cossacks, Jews, Russian settlers, Bolsheviks, and an array of independent peasant formations, like that of Nestor Makhno, that dominated political struggle in the Ukraine in 1919.

13. Rosenberg, “Russian Labor and Bolshevik Power after October,” 213-239.

14. Diane Koenker discusses the composition of Moscow workers as a social group in “Urbanization and Deurbanization in the Russian Revolution and Civil War,” Journal of Modern History 57 (September, 1985): 442, 437, and 443.

15. “Rabochaia zhizn’ pora opomnitsia,” Izvestiia, 5 April 1919, 4, and “O vystuplenii Spiridonovoi,” Pravda, 6 February 1919, 4.

16. “Privykli chuzhimirukami zhar zagrebat': Presnenskii mekhanicheskii zavod,” Pravda, 18 February 1919, 4.

17. The Menshevik refusal is in “Na zavode Gracheva,” Izvestiia, 16 April 1919, 4; on the Duks factory see “Rabochaia zhizn',” Pravda, 5 July 1919, 4; on the printers, “Belogvardeiskie vykhodki,” Pravda, 16 March 1919, 4.

18. Vos'moi s “ezdRKP(b) stenograficheskii otchet (Moscow, 1959), 220.

19. “Bol'shoi miting v narodnom dome,” Petrogradskaia pravda, 14 March 1919, 2.

20. “O vystuplenii Marii Spiridonovoi,” and “K vystupleniiu Dana na fabrike Dement,” Pravda, 4 February 1919, 4.

21. This letter was seized by the Cheka when it raided the office of the Menshevik paper Vsegda vpered and it was published in “Tupoumie ili prestupnaia demagogiia,” Petrogradskaia pravda, 4 March 1919, 1. A translation was published as “Workmen against Bolsheviks” in Bulletins of the Russian Liberation Committee, no. 7, 5 April 1919. The Russian Liberation Committee was a group of Russian exiles in London who published some reprints from the press of the Soviet Union, as well as their own political opinions. Their views appeared to be close to those of the Kadet party.

22. “V perovskikh masterskikh,” Delo naroda, no. 9, 29 March 1919; “Rabochaia zhizn’ sabotazhnyi zavkom,” Izvestiia, 22 June 1919, 4; and “Moskovskii metallicheskii zavod, byvshii Guzhona,” Izvestiia, 1 July 1919, 4.

23. For the Bolshevik commentary on Spiridonova's speeches, see “Aresty sredi Levykh Eserov,” Pravda, 13 February 1919, 3.

24. “Indictment of Bolshevism. Russian Socialists’ Proclamation,” Times (London) 10 April 1919, 12.

25. Iaroslavskii, E, “Chego khotiat Levye Esery,” Pravda, 6 February 1919 Google Scholar; Tverdovskii, “Snova avantiura,” Pravda, 13 February 1919, 1; “Eshche o zavode, byvshii Guzhona,” Izvestiia, 1 July 1919, 4. The Mensheviks are referred to as the Black Hundreds and the SRs are likened to the White Guards in “Rabochaia zhizn',” Pravda, 16 March 1919, 4. Kolchakovites were supporters of Admiral Kolchak.

26. Petropavlovskii, S, “Prekrasnaia taktika,” Pravda, 11 March 1919, 4 Google Scholar.

27. “Iz professional'nogo i rabochego dvizheniia,” Rabochii internatsional, no. 1, 11 March 1919. This paper was published by the Menshevik Central Committee; this first issue was the only one that came out. The paper was immediately shut down by the authorities, and was the last issue of a legally published Menshevik newspaper in Moscow.

28. “Sudebnyi otdel. Delo o zabastovke na Aleksandrovskoi zheleznoi doroge,” Pravda, 23 May 1919, 4; “Iz professional'nogo i rabochego dvizheniia,” Rabochii internatsional, no. 1, 11 March 1919; “K zakrytiiu masterskikh Aleksandrovskoi zheleznoi dorogi,” Pravda, 1 April 1919, 4. “Slid nad Aleksandrovtsami,” Pravda, 29 May 1919, 1, and also a report to the State Department by the consul in Vyborg, Finland, give details of the official investigations. Of all reports on file in the United States Department of State for 1919 to 1920, those of Imbrie are consistently the most thorough and well documented, especially on the situation in Petrograd. His and all other dispatches are numbered in decimal files. Hereafter the number of the file will be cited; the place of origin, the date, the author, and title will be given when applicable. All dispatches cited are in Records of the Department of State Relating to the Internal Affairs of Russia and the Soviet Union, Washington, D.C., National Archives. The relevant source here is Imbrie, “Excerpts from Soviet Newspapers,” 22 May 1919, Vyborg, dispatch no. 861 00 4566-4567.

29. “Vybory v Moskovskii Sovet,” Delo naroda, No. 8, 28 March 1919, 2; “Rabochaia zhizn'. masterskikh, V Aleksandrovskikh,” Pravda, 1 April 1919, 4 Google Scholar (the same information is in Imbrie, 7 April 1919, Vyborg, dispatch no. 861 00 4227); “Chrezvychainoe zasedanie Mossoveta,” Izvestiia, 5 April 1919, 3; and “Sredi zheleznodorozhnikov,” Pravda, 12 April 1919, 4; “Sobytiia na masterskikh, Aleksandrovskikh,” Severnaia kommuna (Petrograd), 9 April 1919, 3 Google Scholar, and Imbrie, “Excerpts from Soviet Newspapers,” 22 May 1919, Vyborg, dispatch no. 861 00 4566-4567; “Sudebnyi otdel. Delo o zabastovke na Aleksandrovskoi zheleznoi doroge,” Pravda, 23 May 1919, 4; “Liubopytnyi dokument,” Delo naroda, no. 8, 28 March 1919, 2. In this last article, the SRs published an ordinance by the Cheka section of the Aleksandrovskii railway workshops to all employees, outlining these regulations.

30. For information on the strike at the Bogatyr’ factory in Moscow, see “Profsoiuzy kak karatel'nye organy,” Vsegda vpered, no. 9, 18 February 1919, and on the strike at the Sokol'niki trampark, see Bulletins of the Russian Liberation Committee, no. 5, 24 March 1919, 2. On the Aleksandrovskii railway workers’ strike, see also Peter, Scheibert, Lenin an der Macht: Das russische Volk in der Revolution 1918-1922 (Weinheim: Acta Humaniora, 1984), 319 Google Scholar.

31. Quoted here from a report by a participant: “Rabochee dvizhenie v Moskve,” Listok dela naroda, no. 2, 4, no date indicated. An underground SR publication, Listok dela naroda can be found in the Amsterdam Institute for Social History, PSR archive, file no. 2003.

32. For the Bolshevik assessment of this nakaz, see “Zheleznodorozhniki i revoliutsiia,” and “Konferentsiia zheleznodorozhnikov,” hvestiia, 22 June 1919, 4.

33. For a detailed discussion of the Upolnomochennye strikes, Vladimir Brovkin, Mensheviks after October, chap. 8, “The Mensheviks under Attack,” 220-256. Strumilin, S. documents the flight of workers in “Petrogradskaia promyshlennost’ na pervoe ianvaria 1919 goda,” Statistika truda, no. 8-10, April 1919, 17 Google Scholar. Strumilin's calculations of food rations are in “Arbeitslohn und Arbeitsproduktivitaet in der russischen Industrie,” Lebensbedingungen staedtischer Bevolkerung von 1917-1921 in “Arbeitsverfassung und Arbeiterschaft in der Sowjet Union zwischen den Kriegen,” ed. Horst Temen, Bremen, 1984. This unpublished collection of documents contains this information on 28-48. Strumilin, S, “Vybory v Petrogradskii Sovdep v dekabre 1918 goda,” Statistika truda, no. 8-10, April 1919, 27 Google Scholar.

34. “Delo Spiridonovoi,” Vsegda vpered, 25 February 1919, 2. Data on the arrests of the Left SRs, city by city, are in the Menshevik source “Opiat’ krasnyi terror,” Vsegda vpered, no. 16, 14 February 1919, 1, and a Bolshevik source “Deiatel'nost’ chrezvychainykh kommissii,” Petrogradskaia pravda, 28 February 1919, 3, and “Aresty sredi Levykh Eserov,” Pravda, 13 February 1919, 3.

35. Cited here from “Putilof Meeting,” the Times (London), 4 April 1919, 10. The editors dated this report 21 March 1919.

36. Strumilin, S, “Zabastovki v Petrograde,” Statistika truda, no. 8-10 (April 1919): 37–38Google Scholar. One and a half pud was the limit on food that had been established by the authorities. This limit was a major concession made to workers during the protests in May 1918. The demand that ration increases not come at the expense of other parts of the population was a verbatim repetition of the Workers’ Assembly demand in May 1918, when the Bolsheviks raised workers’ rations at the expense of “nonproletarian” groups (ibid.). See also Remington, Building Socialism in Bolshevik Russia, 108 (but he cites only the demands listed by Strumilin); and Gogolevskii, A. V., Petrogradskii Sovet v gody grazhdanskoi voiny (Leningrad: Nauka, 1982), 175 Google Scholar.

37. “Putilof Meeting,” Times (London), 4 April 1919, 10, and “Russian Documents,” Struggling Russia (London), 28 June 1919, 230.

38. Gogolevskii, Petrogradskii Sovet, 176, on the Siemens-Schuckert protests, and “Russian Documents,” Struggling Russia (London), 28 June 1919, 230, for the Rechkin strike. Strumilin, “Zabastovki v Petrograde,” 37. This estimate is conservative. A British parliamentary report cites an “intercepted Bolshevik wireless message, which states that 60, 000 workmen are on strike in Petrograd, demanding an end to fratricidal war and an institution of free trade” (Document no. 54, “Summary of a Report on the Internal Situation in Russia,” in A Collection of Reports on Bolshevism in Russia, abridged ed. Parliamentary Paper: Russia no. 1 [London: HMSO, 1919], 60).

39. For the dates on Lenin's presence in Petrograd, see editor's note to Lenin, V. I., Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, 55 vols. (Moscow: Izdatel'stvo politicheskoi literatury, 1974) 38: 520 Google Scholar, for the text of his speech, 31-38. For a more detailed account, see “Bol'shoi miting v narodnom dome,” Petrogradskaia pravda, 14 March 1919, 2. Soviet sources failed to note a negative reaction of the audience to Lenin's speech. See also western reports “Strike against Bolshevists,” Times (London), 2 April 1919, 12. Another source on workers’ demand that Lenin resign is the United States military attache, Switzerland, “Summary of the Bolshevik Situation … during Week Ending 5 April 1919,” dispatch no. 861 00 4510, 4. On reaction to Zinoviev see “Putilof Meeting,” Times (London), 4 April 1919, 10. See also Imbrie, “Telegram to Department of State,” 19 March 1919, Vyborg, dispatch no. 861 00 4105; Gogolevskii, Petrogradskii Sovet, 176.

40. Gogolevskii, Petrogradskii Sovet, 177; “Strike against Bolshevists,” Times (London), 2 April 1919, 12; “Petrograd Revolt against Soviet,” Times (London), 3 April 1919, 14; the suppression at the three plants is found in Gogolevskii, Petrogradskii Sovet, 178; “O novom prestuplenii Levykh Eserov v Petrograde,” hvestiia, 18 March 1919, 5; Imbrie, dispatch no. 861 00 4147, and “Petrograd Revolt against Soviet,” 14.

41. “Petrograd Revolt against Soviet,” 14. “Strikes in Petrograd,” Bulletins of the Russian Liberation Committee (London), 24 May 1919, 4. On the Baltic sailors see Flerovskii, I, “Miatezh mobilizovannykh matrosov 14 oktiabria 1918 goda,” Proletarskaia revoliutsiia, no. 8, 55 (1926): 237 Google Scholar. The author was a Baltic fleet commissar in 1918. As he stated in this article, this abortive rebellion remained largely unknown. Imbrie reported on the forces brought into Petrograd in dispatch no. 861 00 4330, dated 20 April 1919, Vyborg. See also “Strike against Bolshevists,” Times (London), 2 April 1919, 12; “Putilof Meeting,” Times (London), 4 April 1919, 10; Gogolevskii, Petrogradskii Sovet, 178; “Les Ouvriers chez les Bolchewiks,” Bulletin Russe (Lausanne), 15 June 1919, 3; “V Chrezvychainoi Kommissii,” Petrogradskaia Pravda, 13 April 1919, 3; “Soviet Russia: A Letter from Petrograd,” Bulletins of the Russian Liberation Committee (London), 3 May 1919, 3-4. Imbrie reported on the workers shot on Zinoviev's orders in dispatch no. 861 00 4323, dated 18 April 1919, Vyborg.

42. George, Leggett, The Cheka: Lenin's Political Police (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981), 313 Google Scholar.

43. Data on workers’ being forced to work are in the report of the United States Military Attache, Switzerland, “Summary of the Bolshevik Situation … during Week Ending 5 April 1919,” dispatch no. 861 00 4510, 4; on taking hostages, see “Na belyi terror otvetim krasnym,” Petrogradskaia Pravda, 9 April 1919, and “Strikes in Petrograd,” Bulletins of the Russian Liberation Committee (London), 24 May 1919, 4.

44. Remington, Building Socialism in Bolshevik Russia, 110.

45. “Labour Disadvantages,” Times (London), 12 August 1919, 11-12.

46. “Strike Movement in Petrograd,” Bulletins of the Russian Liberation Committee (London), 18 August 1919, 3. For an estimate of casualties in Petrograd in May and June 1919, see “Latest News from Petrograd,” Bulletins of the Russian Liberation Committee (London), 19 July 1919, 4. Imbrie, “Report on Conditions in Petrograd by an Agent Acting on Office Instructions,” 20 July 1919, Vyborg, dispatch no. 861 005111.

47. Imbrie, “Report on Conditions in Petrograd by an Agent Acting on Office Instructions,” 20 July 1919, Vyborg, dispatch no. 861 00 5111.

48. Ibid.; “Labour Disadvantages,” 11-12; Haimson, “The Problem of Social Identities in Early Twentieth Century Russia,” 5.

49. For a brief discussion of strikes in Petrograd, Tula, and Astrakhan’ see Remington, Building Socialism in Bolshevik Russia, 108-110; for more detail see Scheibert, , Lenin an der Macht, 319–321 Google Scholar.

50. Spirin, L. M., Klassy i Partii v Grazhdanskoi voine v Rossii (Moscow: Mysl', 1968), 308–310 Google Scholar; Martyn Latsis, “K zagovoru Levykh Eserov,” hvestiia, 21 March 1919, 1; Iakov, Peters, “Komu oni pomogaiut,” hvestiia, 12 April 1919 Google Scholar; “Rasporiazhenie Lenina sekretariu, 3 Aprelia 1919 goda” in Belov, , historii Vecheka, 270 Google Scholar; and Leggett, , The Cheka, 319 Google Scholar.

51. This account appeared several months after the strike in an official report of the provincial Communist party Committee to the Central Committee in an internal party publication: “Iz otcheta deiatel'nosti Tul'skoi gubernskoi organizatsii za mart i aprel’ 1919 goda,” Izvestiia TsKa RKP(b), no. 3 (4 July 1919), 4.

52. “Prozhitochnyi minimum v gorode Tule. Doklad tovarishcha Berlina, zaveduiushchego podotdelom statistiki, Tul'skogo otdela truda,” Statistika truda, no. 5-7 (March 1919): 35-36.

53. This unique document was published in a Siberian newspaper in White territory after the author was taken prisoner of war at the front ( “Chto delaetsia v Tule,” Nasha zaria [Omsk], no. 185 [26 August 1919]).

54. “O Men'shevikakh,” Pravda, 6 April 1919. The Tula Menshevik committee tried to prevent the strike; they feared it would lead to severe repressions and bloodshed ( “Pis'mo v redaktsiiu,” Delo naroda, no. 10 [30 March 1919], 3). “Chto delaetsia v Tule,” Nasha zaria (Omsk), no. 185, 26 August 1919. According to Peters, the Cheka functionary, the secret police arrested forty (Peters, “Komu oni pomogaiut “).

55. Dzerzhinskii, Latsis, and Peters, the Cheka bosses, mentioned troubles in Tula and Briansk in several articles, and nothing else was said in the official Bolshevik press (Latsis, “K zagovoru Eserov, Levykh,” Izvestiia, 21 March 1919 Google Scholar, 1. See “Belye polosy,” Delo naroda, no. 2 (21 March 1919), 1.

56. This is reported by a worker who participated in the strike: “Iz nastroenii rabochikh, Nizhegorodskaia guberniia,” Listok dela naroda, no. 2, 4 [no date], PSR archive, file no. 2003.

57. “Likvidatsiia zabastovki v Tveri,” hvestiiapetrogradskogo soveta, 28 June 1919, 2. It is curious that the Bolsheviks published such an embarrassing fact as that a strike had been called against the draft. V. I., Nevskii, “Tverskaia zabastovka,” hvestiia, 1 July 1919, 1 Google Scholar; “Tverskie sobytiia, Beseda s tovarishchem Nevskim, V. I.,” hvestiia, 28 June 1919 Google Scholar.

58. “Tverskie sobytiia, Beseda s tovarishchem V. I. Nevskim; “Vseobshchaia zabastovka,” Listok dela naroda no. 2, 8 [no date], PSR archive, file 2003.

59. According to a recent Soviet analyst, peasant rebels remained an independent third force in the struggle between the Reds and the Whites; see Vasilii, Seliunin, “Istoki,” Novyi mir, no. 5 (1988), 166 Google Scholar. On attitudes toward the food tax see Fomichev, A.: “Sezd sovetov Brianskogo uezda,” Vsegda vpered, no. 8, 16 February 1919 Google Scholar. Drunkenness was admitted in a letter of the Orel Communist party City Committee to the Central Committee (received 4 February 1919), Perepiska Sekretariata TsKa RKP(b) 6, 226.

60. Izvestiia orlovskogo soveta, 31 January 1919, reprinted in “Zverinym obychaem (po telefonu ot sobstvennogo korrespondenta)” Vsegda vpered, no. 3, 6 February 1919.

61. Mikhailov, Iu, “Orlovskii Gorodskoi Sovet,” Vlast’ sovetov, no. 2, 30 January 1919, 20 Google Scholar.

62. “OrlovskomuGubernskomuKomitetuRKP(b),” Perepiska sekretariata TsKa RKP(b) 6: 100-101 (26 February 1919), 6: 311 (18 February 1919). “Protest TsKa RSDRP,” Vsegda vpered, no. 13, 22 February 1919. Also see “Protiv Menshevikov, ,” Vsegda vpered, no. 9, 18 February 1919 Google Scholar.

63. “Smertnyi prigovor kommunistam,” Vsegda vpered, no. 5, 12 February 1919.

64. On the numerical strength of opposition parties in the Soviet see Vsegda vpered, no. 4, 11 February 1919, 4, and Kirev, G, “Volki v ovech'ei shkure,” Izvestiia, no. 103, 18 May 1919, 1 Google Scholar.

65. “Besporiadki v Orle i Brianske,” Pravda, 21 March 1919, 1; “Prodovol'stvie mashinostroitel'nykh zavodov,” hvestiia, 20 February 1919, 4. “Ot Orlovskogo Gubernskogo Komiteta,” (18 May 1919) “Doklad o rabote Orlovskogo Gubernskogo Komiteta RKP(b) za aprel’ i pervuiu polovinu maia,” Perepiska sekretariata TsKa RKP(b) 6: 416; 415-416. Imbrie, 26 May 1919 Vyborg dispatch no. 861 00 4587.

66. “K sobytiiam v Brianske,” Delo naroda, no. 3, 22 March 1919, 2; “Besporiadki v Orle i Brianske,” Pravda, 21 March 1919, 1. On taking hostages, also see the editorial in Delo naroda, no. 2, 21 March 1919; la. Miakotin, , “K sobytiiam v Brianske,” Delo naroda, no. 9, 29 March 1919 Google Scholar; Peters, , “Komu oni pomogaiut,” hvestiia, 12 April 1919 Google Scholar.

67. “Chto delaetsia v Tule,” Nasha zaria (Omsk), no. 185, 26 August 1919; “Ot Orlovskogo Gubernskogo Komiteta,” “Doklad o rabote Orlovskogo Gubernskogo Komiteta RKP(b) za aprel’ i pervuiu polovinu maia,” Perepiska sekretariata TsKa RKP(b) 6: 416 (18 May 1919). “V Moskovskoi Butyrskoi tiur'me,” Volia rossii (18 December 1920); Imbrie, “Intelligence report,” 26 May 1919, Vyborg, dispatch no. 861 00 4587.

68. Of the numerous reports in this category, several stand out: a report by the special emissaries of the NKVD to Tambov in March 1918 reported by Shanukhin, Shirokov, and Butiugin, “Doklad emissarov Kommissariata Vnutrennikh Del,” Vestnik Kommissariata Vnutrennikh Del, no. 9, April 1918; a report on the newly elected soviet in Sormovo in “Doklad v Kremle o sobytiiakh v Sormovo,” Vecherniaia zvezda, no. 71, 21 May 1918, 3; and a report by a political commissar on his measures against the Greens in the summer of 1919 in Smolensk province—B. Ardaev, “Donesenie Roslavl'skomu Uezdvoenkomu,” Smolensk Archive, Harvard University, Cambridge, file 119, 6 August 1919, Roslavl'. Ossinskii, N.'s speech is in Vos'moi S'ezd RKP(b) stenograficheskii otchet, 309 Google Scholar.

69. Haimson, “Problem of Social Identities in Early Twentieth Century Russia,” 13 and 16; Latsis, Dva goda bor'by na vnutrennemfronte.

70. “Ot Astrakhanskogo Gubernskogo Komiteta RKP(b),” Perepiska Sekretariata TsKa RKP(b) 7: 371-373 (May 1919, Astrakhan).

71. Viktor Chernov, “Krovavoe delo” [a newspaper clipping], Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, California, Nikolaevsky Collection no. 7 PSR, folder 64. The SR paper in Moscow reprinted the explicit report of the Astrakhan’ Communists from the newspaper Kommunist, 16 March 1919, that had been published in Astrakhan'. Moscow Communists not only did not reprint it but did not even mention its existence: “Vosstanie v Astrakhani” Delo naroda no. 10, a reprint from Kommunist (Astrakhan’), 16 March 1919.

72. Kommunist (Astrakhan’), 16 March 1919.

73. Handwritten document, “Astrakhan “’ PSR archive, folder no. 2046.

74. Silin, P, “Astrakhanskie rasstrely” in Cheka (Berlin: PSR, 1922), 248–255 Google Scholar; Mel'gunov, S. P., Krasnyi Terror v Rossii (New York: Brandy, 1979), 50–51 Google Scholar.

75. Miakotin, V, “Zhutkaia kniga,” Na chuzhoi storone no. 7 (1924), 266 Google Scholar; Chernov, “Krovavoe delo. “

76. Brovkin, , The Mensheviks after October, 183 and 260-261Google Scholar.

77. Latsis, “K zagovoru Levykh Eserov,” 1. The United States State Department reacted to this information by responding, “what is the source of information regarding executions first quarter 1919?” (861 00 6346). Imbrie replied, “our agent [in] Smolny reported regarding Moscow executions. His statement being based on report of Moscow Executive Committee.” 16 February 1920, Vyborg, dispatch no. 861 00 6362.

78. Latsis, Dva goda bor'by na vnutrennemfronte.