Moscow uprising of 1905

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Moscow uprising of 1905
Part of the 1905 Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution, 1905 Q81555.jpg
Date7–18 December 1905
Location
Moscow, Russia
Result Government victory
Belligerents

 Russian Empire

Revolutionaries

Commanders and leaders
Fyodor Dubasov
Vladimir Dzhunkovsky		 Zinovy Litvin-Sedoy
Strength
Unknown Unknown
Casualties and losses
400

The Moscow uprising, centered in Moscow's Presnia district between December 7 and 17, 1905, was the climax of the 1905 Russian Revolution. Thousands of workers joined in an armed rebellion against the imperial government for better socio-democratic conditions. The uprising ended in defeat for the revolutionaries and provoked a swift counter-revolution that lasted until 1907. The revolution of 1905 was a turning point in Russian history, and the Moscow Uprising played an important role in fostering revolutionary consciousness among Russian workers.[1] The Moscow revolutionaries gained experience during the uprising that helped them succeed years later in the October Revolution of 1917.[citation needed]

Background

The October Manifesto may have satisfied Russia's liberals with a constitutional monarchy, freedom of speech, rallies, and unions, but most left-wing revolutionaries viewed it as an attempt by Tsar Nicholas II to separate the middle and upper classes from the workers and peasants, whose own social and political demands remained unanswered. Socialists continued to encourage revolutionary movements.[citation needed]

After months of delay, Lenin returned to Saint Petersburg from Geneva on November 21 [O.S. November 8]. He immediately called for an armed uprising, indifferent to whether or not it succeeded:[2]

"Victory?!...That for us is not the point at all...We should not harbour any illusions, we are realists, and let no-one imagine that we have to win. For that we are still too weak. The point is not about victory but about giving the regime a shake and attracting the masses to the movement. That is the whole point. And to say that because we cannot win we should not stage an insurrection-that is simply the talk of cowards."

The final provocation for the uprising was the arrest of the Saint Petersburg Soviet on December 3.

Nicholas II's government knew an uprising was being planned but allowed it as a justification to crush the revolutionaries. The Tsar wrote to his mother: "Although the events in Moscow are very distressing and cause me much pain, it seems to me that they are for the best."[3]

Revolt

Moscow's Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, and Socialist Revolutionaries planned a revolt on December 5 and hastily called a general strike on December 7. For the first two days, the strike continued peacefully; however, on December 9, the situation changed.

Four Soviets of workers' deputies coordinated the uprising. The governor of Moscow, Vice Admiral Fyodor Dubasov, tried to arrest the ringleaders, which provoked a citywide uprising. The revolt was based in Maxim Gorky's apartment—bombs were made in the study and food for the revolutionaries in the kitchen. Gorky disliked the Bolsheviks' dogmatic collectivism but saw them as allies against backward peasants and the Tsar.[citation needed] The Joint Council of Volunteer Fighting Squads armed the workers with 800 stockpiled weapons. They constructed barricades from whatever they could find, including overturned trams. 2,000 men held the barricades with 200 guns. The police tried to dismantle them but failed. Students and even some bourgeois who were angered at the government's violence joined the workers.

December 9: About 150 representatives of Moscow's worker squads gathered at Fidler's technical school, which served as the workers' "war ministry", where thousands of worker squads had received military training.[4] Despite the besieged group waving a white flag, troops shelled Fidler from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. Most workers were killed.

December 10: The Socialist Revolutionaries bombed the Moscow Okhrana's headquarters at night.

December 11: The Bolsheviks issued a handbook on street fighting. The military wing of the Moscow Committee of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party sent out a pamphlet to its members during the uprising: "Comrades, our top-priority task is to hand power in the city over to the people. In the section we have seized we'll establish an elected government and introduce the 8-hour work day. We shall prove that under our government the rights and freedoms of everyone will be protected better than they are now."[4]

December 12: Six of the seven railway stations and many districts were under the revolutionary's control. Fifty officers were seized as they arrived by train. The troops and artillery were hemmed in the squares and Kremlin.

December 15: The head of the Moscow Okhrana was assassinated.[5] The Moscow Soviet had its last meeting. The Semyonovsky Regiment of the Imperial Guard arrived in Moscow by rail from Saint Petersburg, reinforcing the local garrison.

December 17: Presnia was shelled.

December 18: General Min ordered the last assault: "Act without mercy. There will be no arrests."

December 19: Realizing its imminent defeat, the Moscow Committee of Social-Democratic Workers' Party ordered its comrades back to work.[4] The commander of Presnia's fighting unit, Litvin-Sedoy, issued a last communiqué: "We are ending our struggle… we are alone in this world. All the people are looking at us — some with horror, others with deep sympathy. Blood, violence and death will follow in our footsteps. But it does not matter. The working class will win."[4]

Aftermath

After the proclamation of the October Manifesto and the end of the Russo-Japanese War, there was limited hope for a socialist revolution, but the Moscow rebels of 1905 could have taken the Kremlin.[6] They failed because each rebel area looked after its own and did not consider the city as a whole. The main rebel district was Presnia, home to 150,000 citizens, mainly textile workers. It organized its own police instead of attacking the Kremlin. Another key failure was that the Nikolayevsky railway station remained in government hands.[7] This allowed the Semyonovsky Regiment to arrive from St. Petersburg on December 15 and destroy the uprising. The Moscow garrison remained unused due to the government's fear of a mutiny.[8] The regiment shelled Presnia into submission after only two days. On December 18, the uprising was called off, followed by the general strike the next day. 35 soldiers were killed,[9] while 1,059 rebels were killed, including 137 women and 86 children.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ "Revolutionary history. Moscow". aha.ru. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
  2. ^ Figes, Orlando (1996). A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891–1924. London: Jonathan Cape. p. 199. ISBN 0-224-04162-2.
  3. ^ Pipes, Richard, ed. (1960). "The Russian Intelligentsia". Nature. 188 (4746): 37. Bibcode:1960Natur.188S.190.. doi:10.1038/188190c0. S2CID 37856005.
  4. ^ a b c d Ilyasova, Tatiana (3 November 2008). "The 1905 revolution in Moscow". Voice of Russia. Archived from the original on 2014-08-01.
  5. ^ "(3) Oct-Dec.1905: The Crisis of the Revolution – Russian Chronology, 1904-1914". cnparm.home.texas.net. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
  6. ^ Figes, Orlando. A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891–1924. p. 200.
  7. ^ Gilbert, Martin (2007). "The Moscow Uprising 1905". The Routledge Atlas of Russian History. Routledge Historical Atlases (4th ed.). Routledge. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-415-39483-3.
  8. ^ Rappaport, Helen (2010). "Chapter Eight: 'On the Eve of Barricades'". Conspirator: Lenin in Exile. London: Windmill Books. p. 123. ISBN 978-0-099-53723-6.
  9. ^ Woods, Alan (1999). "The Moscow Uprising". Bolshevism: The Road to Revolution. London: Wellred Publications. pp. 238–248. ISBN 1-9000-07-05-3. Archived from the original on 2016-11-09.

External links

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