11 • Lenin's Campaign for an Insurrection
1. Among historians and memoirists in the Soviet Union, there is no unanimity about the exact date of Lenin's return to Petrograd from Vyborg. While the officially accepted date is October 7, some writers indicate that Lenin returned to the Russian capital on October 20. Others claim that the date was significantly earlier—September 22 according to some, September 29 according to others. Confusion over the correct date is the result of the deception and secrecy that naturally surrounded Lenin's movements in the fall of 1917, extensive tampering with historical sources that occurred in Stalin's time, and present-day political and ideological requirements.
The late P. N. Mikhrin contended that Lenin returned to Petrograd on a Friday in late September, most probably September 29. His case for this date is based on careful analysis of memoirs by Krupskaia, Margarita Fofanova (in whose apartment Lenin stayed after his return), and Alexander Shotman and Eino Rakhia (who were in close contact with Lenin during these days); the personal testimony of Elena Stasova (the chief Central Committee secretary in September and October); Lenin's writings of this period; and archival documents unavailable to me. Having sifted through the available literature on this issue, I find Mikhrin's case in support of a date in late September very convincing. Mikhrin's arguments appear in I. I. Mints, ed., Lenin i oktiabr'skoe vooruzhennoe vosstanie v Petrograde, pp. 11924.
Here Lenin referred to Zinoviev's essay "Chto ne delat' " (JRabochii, August 30, p. 2), written during the Kornilov crisis. Zinoviev had warned that a workers' uprising in Petrograd would end in defeat, as in Paris in 1871.
Lenin, PSS, vol. 34, pp. 248-56.
Ibid., pp. 257-63.
Ibid., pp. 264—68.
Ibid., pp. 280-83.
Ibid., pp. 340-41. In view of what was to come, it is worth noting that towards the end of this letter Lenin suggested that in the prevailing circumstances "it might be that power could be seized without an armed uprising." Moreover, he asserted, there was no reason that action against the government could not be initiated in Moscow. In what subsequently proved to be a particularly blatant mis- judgment he added: "In Moscow our victory is assured and there is nobody to fight."
Lenin, PSS, vol. 34, pp. 284-86.
Protokoly TsentraVnogo komiteta, p. 74.
M. Ia. Latsis, "Rol' Petrogradskogo komiteta v oktiabre," Petrogradskaia pravda, November 5, 1922, p. 2.
M. Ia. Latsis, "Nakanune oktiabr'skikh dnei," Izvestiia, November 6, 1918.
P. 2.
Ibid. See also M. Ia. Latsis, "Iz oktiabr'skikh vospominanii," Bakinskii rabochii, Nobember 1, 1927, p. 3.
Perepiska sekretariata TsK RSDRP(b) s mestnymi partiinymi organizatsiiami, vol. 1, p. 315.
Protokoly TsentraVnogo komiteta, pp. 75-76. It is worth noting that members of the Central Committee, such as Rykov, Zinoviev, and Nogin, who would have sided with Kamenev, were absent from the October 5 meeting. At this meeting the Central Committee took one other step which reflected the possibility that a major change in policy might be imminent. A Congress of Soviets of the Northern Region was scheduled to open in Petrograd on October 10, and at Stalin's behest the committee agreed to organize a conference of Central Committee members and party representatives from Petrograd and Moscow in conjunction with this congress, presumably for a thoroughgoing reassessment of goals and tactics. Protokoly TsentraVnogo komiteta, p. 76.
Ibid., p. 76.
Trotskii, Sochineniia, vol. 3, part 1, p. 456; Sukhanov, Zapiski 0 revoliutsii, vol. 6, pp. 247-48.
Latsis, Izvestiia, November 6, 1918, p. 2. The minutes of this meeting are contained in Pervyi legaVnyi Peterburgskii komitet, pp. 296-306.
Iukka Rakhia was the brother of Eino Rakhia, who served as a liaison between Lenin and the Central Committee.
Pervyi legaVnyi Peterburgskii komitet, p. 303. Komissarenko ("Deiatel'nost' partii bol'shevikov," p. 369) reaches the same conclusion.
Latsis, Вakinskii rabochii, November 1, 1927, p. 3.
Latsis, Izvestiia, November 6, 1918, p. 2; Latsis, Petrogradskaia pravda, November 5, 1922, p. 2.
Protokoly TsentraVnogo komiteta, p. 80.
Latsis, Petrogradskaia pravda, November 5, 1922, p. 2.
Rech\ October 8, p. 3; Miliukov, Vtoraia russkaia revoliutsiia, vol. 1, part 2, pp. 123-28; Sukhanov, Zapiski 0 revoliutsii, vol. 6, pp. 248-51.
Sukhanov, Zapiski 0 revoliutsii, vol. 7, p. 33; Iu. N. Flakserman, "10 oktiabria 1917 goda," in Petrograd v dni velikogo oktiabria: Vospominaniia uchastnikov revoliu- tsionnykh sobytii v Petrograde v 1911 godu (Leningrad, 1967), p. 266.
Protokoly TsentraVnogo komiteta, pp. 83-86. Iakovleva, who was responsible for taking notes, subsequently indicated she was instructed to be cryptic for security reasons.
Fortunately for the historian, Kamenev and Zinoviev prepared a detailed resume of their arguments for broad circulation immediately following the October 10 meeting (see below, pp. 212-13). The complete resume is contained in Protokoly TsentraVnogo komiteta, pp. 87-92.
Protokoly TsentraVnogo komiteta, pp. 83-92; G. Lomov, "V dni buri i natiska," Bakinskii rabochii, November 5, 1927, p. 4; V. Iakovleva, "Podgotovka oktiabr'skogo vosstaniia v moskovskoi oblasti," PR, 1922, no. 10 (22), pp. 305-6; A. Kollontai, "Ruka istorii," Krasnoarmeets, 1919, nos. 10-15, p. 69; Flakserman, "10 oktiabria," pp. 264-69.
12 • Obstacles to an Uprising
Latsis, Izvestiia, November 6, 1918, p. 2.
V. Breslav, Kanun oktiabria 1911 goda (Moscow , 1934), p. 17; a special delegation from Moscow also participated.
Rabochii puf, October 8, p. 2; Proletarskoe delo, October 10, p. 1; Breslav, Kanun oktiabria, p. 19.
See Rakhia's speech at the opening session in Vtoraia i Trefia petrogradskie obsbcbegorodskie konferentsii, p. 108.
Ibid., p. 132; Oktiabr'skoe vooruzhennoe vosstanie, vol. 2, p. 132.
Lenin, PSS, vol. 34, pp. 385-90.
On this point see V. I. Startsev, "O vybore momenta dlia oktiabr'skogo vooruzhennogo vosstaniia," in Lenin i oktiabrskoe vooruzhennoe vosstanie v Petrograde, p. 71.
Breslav, Kanun oktiabria, pp. 18-22; see also Oktiabr'skoe vooruzhennoe vosstanie, vol. 2, p. 250.