Tale of Cossacks and Men #6: Notes and research

Today, I want to take notes from Chapter 2 of "1917: Russia's Year of Revolution". However, I want to also note that a major theme I would like to maybe consider for this book would be the how men view each other, and how based on a man's reputation, men can seem like gods.

• By the beginning of Feburary, all the ordinary people cared about was bread. In contrast, members of the upper class noted the recent season for the sale of gowns and diamonds.
• The Okhrana were becoming nervous, warning the government of an inevitable uprising.
• One young foreigner living in Russia at the time noted that for the poor, life was very cheap and for them, cruelty and beatings were a way of life.
• Strike action continued to rise in the Vyborg districts, in the Putilov arms factory as well as many minor factories, while the government continued to do little to respond.
• However, there was no real plan for revolution, just a scattering of ideas, while the Duma refused to support any revolutionary action.
• When General Krimov came by train to Petrograd to speak with the Duma, he spoke of the need to overthrow the tzar.
• It must be noted that while there was more bread in many of the countryside towns, it was a struggle to transport such supplies to the capital due to the rail system being dogged by strikes and breakdowns.
• One solider, highlighting the dismay and confusion in the trenches, questioned whether his enemy was the Germans or his company commander.

While 170 thousand men were stationed in Petrograd, and another 153 thousand in surrounding regions, most were either troublemakers inciting strikes or forcefully conscripted Cossacks from the Kuban (angered by the fact they were conscripted, when they usually volunteer).

• On Febyrart 14, Kerensky made a speech in the Duma that further built his reputation as a man of the people, with his hot revolutionary rhetoric. He would always shake everyones hand wherever he went. Afterwards, he delivered a further broadside in front of 90,000 striking workers with anti-war and anti-government banners, and when Alexander called for his arrest and execution, no one listened to her.
• The days until 23 Feburary were marred by strikes and freezing temperature.
• On Feburary 23, thousands of female workers began to protest in the streets on the occasion of International Women's Day. Many called for bread, and in the past, would have spent entire days in bread lines only to get nothing.
• Challenging the male workers and others to come out and join them, soon a great column of people were marched through the city, armed with knives, pieces of wood, anything that could be used as a weapon.
• Red flags began to appear throughout the crowd, singing songs like Marseillaise, and Comrades, Boldly in Step. Moreover, many young soldiers began to join the protestors.
• Eventually, the army and Cossacks arrived but were unwilling to fire, while police were torn apart by mobs. One story says an old woman approached the Cossacks to help, and they dashed in to help the workers. Another story speaks of a Cossack celebrated by a crowd for killing a policeman.
• It was the bridges across the Neva that were most guarded by policeman and troops, but by the 25th, the crowd simply push through. There were even several light-hearted attempts to stop the crowd by Cossacks.
• NOTE COSSACK INFORMATION: the Cossacks were a class of mobile riot squad armed with lances, whips, sabres and rifles, as colonizers of lands along the Ural, Don and Dniper history all the way of the 16th century. In their self-governed communities, there would be an annual election around a campfire for a new hetman, with their lives revolving around fishing, hunting and plundering. In return for the grain they gave the Tsar, married Cossacks would be given a plot of land on the banks of the river. By past tsars, they had often been used with ruthless efficiency to cut down all resistance to the regime. They were men who lived in the saddle, carrying a bale of hay on their horse. By this time howevr, the Cossacks had been overwhelmed by pragmatism. These romanticized figures often also had a softer side for the opposite sex, and were thus uncomfortable attacking the female protestors.
• Some police shot at protestors from machine gun nests on roofs, while others attempted to hold prisoners in houses only to be overrun by mobs.
• Foreigners often noted sympathy for the peasants, who weren't allowed to walk on the same pavement as the other classes, or visit a restaurant or theatre if there were other classes there.
• While some soldiers and Cossacks did begin attacking the crowds at one point, they quickly became sympathetic and joined the crowd.
• Over the course of the 27th of Feburary, the 170,000 strong garrison would mutiny. On this same day, on the advice of his wife, Tsar Nicholas dismissed the Duma, and called on general Ivanov to assemble loyal troops and restore order in the capital.
• As the workers began to hold elections between themselves, the Duma reassembled in a different building and assembled in a committee to restore order in the capital, becoming a provisional government, while the workers formed the Petrograd Soviet. It should be noted that the oviet would only follow the orders of the provisional government as long as it did not conflict with soviet policy.
• As the Soviet met with jubilation, the Provisional government set up a cabinet, with Lvov as head, Kerensky as minister of Justice, Miliukov as minister of foreign affairs and Guchkov as minister of war.
• All the same time, Nicholas remained oblivious, simply trusting general Ivanov and seeking to join his family at Tsarskoe Selo.
• However, general Ivanov found the situation untenable, with no food supplies, no secure railway stations in the capital and no loyal troops. He simply retreated, as news of a huge naval mutiny at Kronstadt spread. Even the troops of Tsarskoe Selo had mutinied and killed their officers.
• When Rodzianko pleaded with the Soviet to continue the war, the Soviet replied they would not fight for a land controlled by princes and barons.
• On 2 March, Nicholas abdicated the throne in Pskov.
• In March, Lenin learnt about the revolution from a Polish Bolshevik, and upon hearing it, he realized he needed to return to Russia as soon as possible.
• Regarding a story about soldiers destroying the body of Rasputin, the superstituts muzhiks (peasants) believed the men in their red armbands had not only incinerated Old Russia, but hidden its very history away.

All this information is mostly focused on the events of the Feburary revolution, which will be the climax of this book. However, there is a lot that will also be focused on prior to this. Here is an early outline of the storyline I am considering:

• Beginning with the battle of Kovel, showing the situation on the front from the perspective of a Petrograd worker turned conscript soldier.
• Moving on the transportation of the wounded soldier from the battle by the Cossacks, a number of whom are sent to Petrograd by railway.
• For a time, the Cossacks remain in the town of Dino, where they spend a time.
• Arriving in Petrograd, the Cossacks quickly are integrated into the garrison, finding pragmatism and despair. (around the 14 of January).
• On a night patrol, the Cossacks witness the murder of Rasputin.
• For a time, the Cossacks witness the build up in anxiety and anger among the people.
• By the Feburary revolution, the Cossacks are stationed by the Neva bridge, only to turn on police and loyal army units, adored by the crowd. They storm a building where a revolutionary is being held by police.
• Within a few days, the Cossacks find themselves out of place as the provisional government and Petrograd soviet, but take notice of the kind of people beginning to show themselves.

While there is a lot more to flesh out, which I will, my next entry will deal with evidence from chapter 3 (the last chapter of this book I will study for now), as well as study into my first main character.