At the demonstration

At the demonstration

A source: Stalin I.V. Works. - T. 3. - M.: OGIZ; State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1946, pp. 100–103.

Note 33: Ibid. pp. 398–399.

Clear, sunny day. An endless line of demonstrators. The procession goes to the Field of Mars from morning till evening. Endless Banner Forest. All businesses and establishments are closed. Traffic has been suspended. Demonstrators walk past the graves with their banners bowed. “Marseillaise” and “Internationale” are replaced by “You fell a victim”. There is a rumble in the air from the exclamations. Every now and then they hear: “Down with ten capitalist ministers!”, “All power to the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies!”. In response, a loud approving “Hurrah!” is carried from all sides.

What is striking when reviewing the demonstration is the absence of the bourgeoisie and fellow travelers. Unlike the demonstration on the day of the funeral, when the workers were lost in a sea of philistines and petty bourgeois, the demonstration of June 18 was a purely proletarian demonstration, for its main participants were workers and soldiers. Even on the eve of the demonstration, the Cadets announced a boycott, declaring through their Central Committee the need to "refrain" from participating in the demonstration. And, indeed, the bourgeois [c.100] not only did they not participate, they literally hid. Nevsky, usually crowded and noisy, on this day was absolutely clear of bourgeois regulars.

Briefly speaking. It was a truly proletarian demonstration of revolutionary workers leading revolutionary soldiers.

The union of workers and soldiers against the runaway bourgeois with the neutrality of the layman - such is the appearance of the procession on June 18.

Not a manifestation, but a demonstration

The procession on June 18 was not a simple walk, a manifestation-parade, which certainly was a manifestation on the day of the funeral. It was a demonstration of protest, a demonstration of the living forces of the revolution, calculated to change the balance of power. It is extremely characteristic that the demonstrators did not confine themselves to merely proclaiming their will, but demanded the immediate release of Comrade Khaustov.* , a former employee of Okopnaya Pravda33 . We are talking about the All-Russian Conference of the Military Organizations of our Party, a participant in a demonstration that demanded from the Executive Committee, in the person of Chkheidze, the release of Comrade Khaustov, moreover, Chkheidze promised to take all measures for the release "today".

The whole character of the slogans expressing protest against the “orders” of the Provisional Government, against all his policies, no doubt says that the "peaceful demonstration", from which they wanted to make an innocent walk, has turned into a powerful demonstration of pressure on the government.

Distrust of the Provisional Government

A striking feature: not a single plant, not a single factory, not a single regiment put up the slogan “Confidence in the Provisional Government”. Even the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries forgot (or rather did not dare!) to put up this slogan. They had everything: “Down with the split”, “For unity”, “Support for the Council”, “For universal education” (don’t like it, don’t listen) - there was only the main thing - there was no trustTo the Provisional Government, at least with a cunning reservation "in so far as". Only three groups dared to put up the slogan of trust, but even those had to repent. This is a group of Cossacks, a group of the Bund and a group of Plekhanov's "Unity". "The Holy Trinity," the workers on the Mars Pope quipped. Workers and soldiers forced two of them to roll up the banner (the Bund and “Unity”) while shouting “Down with”. The Cossacks, who did not agree to roll up the banner, tore the latter. And one nameless banner with “confidence”, stretched “in the air” across the entrance to the Field of Mars, was destroyed by a group of soldiers and workers with approving remarks from the public: “Confidence in the Provisional Government hung in the air .”

Briefly speaking. The distrust of the government on the part of the vast majority of the demonstrators, despite the obvious cowardice of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries to go “against the current”—such is the general tone of the demonstration.

The collapse of the policy of the agreement

Of all the slogans, the most popular were: “All power to the Soviet”, “Down with ten capitalist ministers”, “No separate peace with Wilhelm, no secret agreements with the Anglo-French capitalists”, “Long live control and organization of production”, “Down with the Duma and the Council of State”, “Cancel orders against soldiers”, “Declare just peace conditions”, and so on. The vast majority of the demonstrators proved to be in solidarity with our party. Even such regiments as Volynsky, Keksholmsky came out under the slogan: "All power to the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies!" The members of the majority of the Executive Committee, who deal not with the mass of soldiers, but with the regimental committees, were sincerely struck by this "surprise."

Briefly speaking. The vast majority of the demonstrators (400,000-500,000 participants in all) expressed direct distrust of the policy of agreement with the bourgeoisie - the demonstration was held under the revolutionary slogans of our party.

Doubts are impossible: the tale of the "conspiracy" of the Bolsheviks has been completely exposed. A party that enjoys the confidence of the vast majority of the workers and soldiers of the capital has no need for "conspiracies." Only an unclean conscience or political illiteracy could dictate to the “creators of higher politics” the “idea” of a Bolshevik “conspiracy”.

"Pravda" No. 86,

June 20, 1917

Signed K. St.

NOTES

33 Okopnaya Pravda is a Bolshevik newspaper published since April 30, 1917 in Riga. The first issues of the newspaper were published by the Soldiers' Committee of the Novoladozhsky Regiment at the expense of the soldiers themselves. From No. 7 (May 17, 1917) the newspaper became the body of the military organization and the Russian section under the Riga Committee of the RSDLP (b), with No. 26 (July 5, 1917) - the body of the military organization of the XII Army under the Riga Committee, and then under the Central Committee of the Social democracy in the Latvian region. On July 21, 1917, it was closed, but a day later, on July 23, instead of Okopnaya Pravda, the newspaper Okopny Nabat, the organ of the united military organization of the Social Democracy of Latvia, began to be published until the capture [c.398]Riga by the Germans. On October 12, the publication of Trench Alarm was resumed in the city of Wenden. On October 29, 1917, the newspaper adopted its former name - Trench Pravda. Since then, the newspaper was published without interruption until February 1918. – 101.

* Ensign, sd. Bolshevik, namesake of the Social-Democrats Menshevik worker, former member of the IV State Duma