Table Of ContentFIVE DAYS WHICH
TRANSFORMED RUSSIA
THE
SECOND
WORLD
The Second World series m
I rit
SECOND
Series editor Teodor Shanin WORLD
Professor of Sociology, University of Manchester
Already Published
THE ECONOMIC CHALLENGE OF PERESTROIKA
Abel Aganbegyan
THE PEOPLES OF THE SOVIET UNION
Viktor Kozlov
RURAL RUSSIA UNDER THE NEW REGIME
Viktor Danilov
Forthcoming Titles
IS THERE A FUTURE FOR THE WARSAW PACT?
Oleg Bogomolov
SEMIOTICS OF CULTURAL HISTORY
Yuri Lotman
THE SOCIAL DIMENSION OF THE PERESTROIKA
Tatiana Zaslavskaya
FIVE DAYS
WHICH
TRANSFORMED
RUSSIA
Sergei M stislavskii
Translated by Elizabeth Kristofovich Zelensky
Introduced by William G. Rosenberg
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
U.S. edition published by
Indiana University Press
Tenth and Morton Streets
Bloomington, Indiana 47405
© 1988 by Hutchinson Education, London
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying and recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher. The Association
of American University Presses' Resolution on Permissions
constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publlcation Data
Mstislavskii, S.D. (Sergei Dmitrievich), 1876-1943.
Five days which transformed Russia.
(The Second World)
Translation of: Piat dnei.
1. Mstislavskii, S.D. (Sergei Dmitrievich),
1876-1943. 2. Soviet Union--History--Revolution, 1917-
1921--Personal narratives, Russian. I. Title.
II. Series.
D K265.7.M6513 1988 947.084*1 88-636
ISBN 0-253-32482-3
ISBN 0-253-21117-4 (pbk.)
1 2 3 4 5 92 91 90 89 88
CONTENTS
List of Maps and Plates vii
Akcnowledgements viii
Foreword to The Second World: Teodor Shanin ix
Introduction: William G. Rosenberg 1
1 The First Day 17
THE FEBRUARY RISING
27 February — 1 March 1917
2 The Second Day 57
THE FOUNDING OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT
3 March 1917
3 The Third Day 79
THE ARREST OF NICHOLAS II BY THE PETROGRAD
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
9 March 1917
4 The Fourth Day 109
THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION
25 October 1917
5 The Fifth Day 133
THE DAY OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY
5 January 1918
Glossary: Jonathan Aves 157
Plate 1 Armed revolutionaries, October 1917
LIST OF
M APS AND PLATES
Map
Street map of Petrograd, 1917 xii/xiii
Plates
1 Armed revolutionaries vi
2 Revolutionary Military Committee leaflet xiv
3 Revolutionary soldiers 16
4 Red Guards, Petrograd 41
5 Michael V Rodzianko 58
6 Aleksander Fedorovich Kerensky 69
7 Nicholas II 78
8 Russian soldiers 91
9 Kronstadt sailors 108
10 Factory meeting 121
11 Sverdlov, Chernov, Martov, Spiridonova, 132
Lenin, Trotsky
12 Revolutionary soldiers and sailors 145
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The publishers would like to thank the following for
permission to reproduce photographs:-
BBC Hulton Picture Library: Plate 11 (bottom right);
Fotokhronika Tass: Plate 9; John Massey Stewart Photo
Library: Plates 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, (exc. bottom left and
right) ,12 ; Mary Evans Picture Library: Plate 4.
FOREWORD TO
THE SECOND WORLD
'In the West they simply do not know Russia . . . Russia
in its germination.'
Alexander Hertzen
As a publication project The Second World pursues an explicit
goal, admits to a bias and proceeds on a number of assumptions.
This should be stated at the outset. The series will aim to let the
Soviet authors and their historical predecessors in tsarist Russia
speak with their own voices about issues of major significance to us
and to them. It will focus particularly on their explorations of their
own society and culture, past and present, but set no rigid boundaries
to these; some of the texts will be more general while others will
carry primary evidence, for example, memoirs, documents, etc.
Many of the texts have been commissioned to reflect the most
recent efforts and the controversies of Gorbachev's perestroika.
To bridge differences of culture and experience each of the
books will carry a substantial introduction by a Western scholar
within the field. Particular care will also be taken to maintain
satisfactory standards of translation and editing.
A word about words. A generation ago the term 'Third World'
was coined in its current meaning, to indicate a somewhat
imprecise combination of societal characteristics — the post
colonial experience, under-industrialization, relative poverty and
the effort to establish an identity separate from the superpowers,
the 'Bandung camp'. This left implicit yet clear which were the
x FOREWORD
other two 'worlds'. It was 'us' and 'them', those best represented
by the USA and those best represented by the USSR. Much has
changed since, giving the lie to crude categorizations. But in
research and the media, at the UN and on television, the words
and the meanings established in the 1960s are still very much with
us. This makes the title of our project intelligible to all, yet,
hopefully, should also make the reader pause for a moment of
reflection.
Turning to the invisible rules and boundaries behind our editorial
selection let us stress first the assumption of considerable social
continuity between pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary
societies. Present without past is absurd (as is, of course, the
treatment of the USSR as simply the Russia of old). Next, to talk
of pre-revolutionary Russia/USSR is not simply to talk of the
Russians. The country is multi-ethnic, as have been its intellectual
achievements and self-evaluations. Yet all the books presented are
deeply embedded in Russian language and cultural traditions.
Lastly, we shall aim to show Russia/USSR neither as the 'goody'
nor as the 'baddy' but focus attention on the characteristics
particular to it.
The Second World is biased insofar as its choice of titles and
authors consistently refuses the bureaucratized scholarship and
paralytic tongue which has characterized much of the Soviet
writing. In other words, it will prefer authors who have shown
originality and courage of content and form.
Western perceptions of the Soviet scholarly achievement,
especially of its social self-analysis, have usually been negative in
the extreme. This was often enough justifiable. Heavy censorship
stopped or biased much Soviet research and publication. 'Purges'
have destroyed many of the best Soviet scholars, with whole disci
plines closed on orders from above. The Soviet establishment has
excelled in the promotion of safe scholars — the more unimagina
tive and obedient, the faster many made it into the limelight.
However, much of the hostile detachment of the Anglo-Saxon
scholarship and the media originated in its own ideological bias,
linguistic incompetence and a deeper still layer of mutual mis
comprehension. To understand the human experience and thought
in a particular social world, one must view it on its own terms —
that is, with full awareness of its context — of history, political
experience, culture and symbolic meanings. This necessitates the
