17 July 1917. The New York Times

The New York Times

Petrograd’s Night of Sudden Riots

By Harold Williams

Again there has been bloodshed on the streets of Petrograd, this time more than at any time since revolutionary week. All night long armed soldiers and workers have marched about the streets demonstrating for or against—what nobody could tell, least of all the demonstrators themselves.

The Government crisis was seized on by conspiratory as the long-looked-for occasion for action. About 7 in the evening several factories in the disaffected quarter on the north side of the river struck work. Soldiers in motor lorries from Leninite and anarchist regiments scoured the town and called on workers and soldiers to come into the streets. Some consented, some refused, and a strange movement began. An armed battalion marched about commandeering motor cars. Trams were stopped. Lorries and cars with machine guns whizzed and rumbled, some whither. Crowds of idlers gathered in the central streets. Meetings were improvised. There were fierce disputes. Some of the loyal units came out and acted as a kind of guard.

The government sat in Prince Lvoff’s private rooms. The Council of Delegates sat in the Taurida Palace, and after an excited debated passed against a minority of twenty, a strong resolution condemning the demonstration and appealing for tranquility.

Shots Fired on Nevsky Prospect

On Nevsky Prospect about 10 o’clock shooting began. Who began the shooting is not clear, but men on motor lorries with machine guns began firing indiscriminately into the crowd, which scattered in panic. This happened several times on the Nevsky Prospect and in other parts of the town.

A typical case occurred near the Moscow station at 11:30. A great crowd had gathered around the monument of Alexander. Three motors came up and scattered an appeal from the Council of Delegates condemning the demonstration. Immediately afterwards machine gun lorries rumbled up and were hooted by the crowd. Fire was opened from the lorries and the crowd fled. Hundreds flung themselves on the ground to avoid the shots. A fair number were wounded.

Soldiers of one of the local units brought the wounded to the Town Hall. They declared their regiment had been in barracks all day, but when they heard firing in the evening they took their rifles and went out to defend the Provisional Government. At the corner of Sadovaya Street and Nevsky Prospect they met disaffected regiments who, hearing them shout “Long live the Provisional Government!” fired on the loyalists.

Late in the evening life in the streets became complete and unintelligible chaos. It was a hot, close evening. The streets were unlighted to dusk of the falling white night. Lorries and cars buzzed about filled with yelling soldiers, the nozzles of their machine guns pointed threateningly at the crowds and groups gathered at corners to discuss, to exclaim, to wonder, and to inquire. Yard keepers and their families sat placidly at house gates.

The talk was curiously mingled. One or two soldiers talked against the offensive and complained of Kerensky. Others cursed the Leninites.

On the Liteiny big street crossing on the Nevsky large crowds stood everywhere disputing. Delegates from the Council of Delegates tried to disperse them, saying “Go home, comrades, go home. There have already been victims;” but the crowd lingered on, watching with some anxiety passing armed cars.

Huge Procession of Soldiers

At the end of the Liteiny came a huge procession with banners inscribed “Down with the capitalist Ministers! All power to the Council of Workmen and Soldier Delegates! Down with the War!”

It was a strange sight, this great, silent, moving mass in the dusk, with the blur of guns, caps and bayonets of the men on lorries and the bent figures of soldiers on artillery horses, all silhouetted against the pale sky. I asked a young man looking on what it all meant. “This,” he said solemnly, “is a reply to the cadets.” He waved an evening paper and added, “The cadets have started sabotage. This is the answer of the workers and revolutionary army.”

As a matter of fact, the workers and revolutionary army did not know about the resignation of the cadets.

When the huge procession came to the Duma shouting, “Down with the capitalist Ministers!” M. Tcheidse went out to them and said: “The non-Socialist Ministers have already resigned,” and the crowd was surprised and could not understand why it was demonstrating. A little later Tcheidse went out to another crowd. Someone fired a shot and missed. The cry was started, “Down with the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates!”

In another part of the town the agitators shouted that all the Socialist Ministers, including Tsereteli, had been bought by the bourgeoisie for millions of rubles.

Hour after hour the crowds trudged the streets aimlessly and excitedly. I saw a long procession march down the Liteiny, soldiers in an endless armed stream. Mostly they were silent, but one party was singing the revolutionary “Marseillaise.” Then a shot rang out. There followed hubbub and a scuffle and indignant cries. Then some vigorous voice yelled out the “Marseillaise” again. Others joined in, and the procession marched on.

Leninites Shirk Responsibility

Official Leninites denied responsibility for the demonstration. They said it was the work of counter-revolutionists, whose name they knew, but in the Taurida Palace they refused to vote their condemnation. They sat on the fence and promised they would try to make the demonstration peaceful.

There happened last night to be a meeting of the new Town Council in the City Hall on the Nevsky Prospect. The majority in the Council is Socialist. After a debate on the food question the councilors were coming out of the hall when suddenly a rattle of machine guns and rifles rang out from near the Kazan Cathedral, and then shots were fired on the council building.

The councilors ran back followed by a panic-stricken crowd. Then the sitting was renewed.

The Socialists were alarmed and indignant at the firing, and this impression was deepened by the arrival of a number of wounded, who were treated in the council buildings. A committee was formed to draft an appeal to the people. The committee sat for three hours, all because of a Leninite who objected to various phrases, and finally fought a pitched battle of words “for the good of our country.” The new Mayor, Schreiber, a Social Revolutionary just returned from long exile. Indignantly declared, “But I have fought and suffered for the good of my country all my life,” and the Leninite subsided. I saw Leninites there. They were pale and haggard and most obviously frightened.

An attempt was made to arrest Kerensky, but he had left by a train a few minutes before the soldiers who sought him reached the station.

While the Ministers were in session at Prince Lvoff’s quarters their motor cars were seized by armed soldiers and then a raid made on the Government garage.

When I returned home about 4 o’clock this morning the streets were quiet. Small parties of soldiers and workers were drifting home. Here and there stood wrecked and abandoned motor cars.

I passed the Novoe Vremya offices. They had been seized by an armed band, who were printing their own proclamations.

On the next day, so far, everything has been quiet, and it is to be hoped the Council of Delegates have control of the situation. A majority of the troops are loyal, and many of the soldiers in the disaffected regiments have not the least idea why they came out. A characteristic incident was the seizure of a small station on the Finland Railway by men from a machine-gun regiment who put machine guns on the line and refused to allow any trains going to Finland to pass, although they passed incoming trains.

There is Germany’s hand in the whole business. Watchwords were hopelessly mixed. There was talk of a protest against the disbandment of an insubordinate grenadier regiment at the front. There were outcries against the bourgeoisie, against the Provisional Government, against Kerensky and the offensive. But it was all chaotic.

In this meantime an attempt is being made to form another coalition Government. The Council of Delegates is reluctant to try a Socialist experiment. Prince Lvoff for the present remains at his post, but has put conditions. The crisis is complicated by the fact that the food problem is much worse, and serious privation seems imminent.

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Rurik Ivnev

Petrograd, Russian Empire

A crisis of power again. On the streets, there have been demonstrations, shooting and utter chaos. It is unclear who is marching, where to, and why. Cars rush by, carrying armed soldiers and machine guns. It is unclear what tomorrow will bring. The Provisional Government is impotent. I am not afraid for Russia. See more

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Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich

Gatchina, Russian Empire

Since yesterday there are disturbances in Petrograd—there are many Bolsheviks, more than 6 thousand sailors came from Kronstadt, there are still some units on the side of the government that will protect it. A lot are hurt, around 500.

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Irakli Tsereteli

Petrograd, Russian Empire

We are faced with a governmental crisis again. When we hear demands made on behalf of the armed regiments of a single city to adopt predetermined resolutions made by them, then no matter how we change a previous resolution, the people as a whole will see it as a decision adopted merely to serve the victory of disorderly groups and not in order to express the true will of democracy, of the workers, peasants and soldiers at the front. See more

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Elizaveta Naryshkina

Petrograd, Russian Empire

It turns out that yesterday, in Petersburg, there were demonstrations against the government. Five ministers walked out. Some say there was cannon fire. I could not get ahold of any details—the newspapers didn’t come out today. Here, there were some commodity shortages, but it is nothing serious. Two possibilities scare me: Kerensky’s resignation and the capture of Petrograd by the Germans.

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Pierre Pascal

Petrograd, Russian Empire

Once again, this morning, cars full of armed men at the ready, with fixed bayonets. From 2.30 to 3, there was heavy shooting on Nevsky Prospect and Liteiny Prospect. Apparently, the crowd was forcibly dispersed in front of the Tauride Palace.

The Russian offensive has surged back. Brusilov claims that the Russian army will be unable to survive the winter due to the complete state of chaos within the country and because of desertion – which will be the subject of a speech to the Constituent Assembly. See more

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Provisional Government

Petrograd, Russian Empire

All those who participated in the organization and leadership of yesterday’s armed demonstration against government authorities and all those who supported and encouraged it are to be arrested and assigned legal responsibility for treason against their homeland and betrayal of the revolution.

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Felix Yusupov

Yusupov's Palace, 94, Moyka embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

The Bolsheviks have attempted to seize power for the first time. Trucks full of armed men drove around the city. Lines of machine gun fire fanned out from the trucks.

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Sergey Prokofiev

Apartment house, 122, Fontanka embankment, Petrograd, Russian Empire

In the morning, I’ve heard on the phone, that it was quiet on the Nevsky: Bolsheviks, having demonstrated into the night, were resting. I decided to use their moment of rest and headed to Nevsky. Some stores were open. I bought English cigarettes, lobsters, a book by Kuno Fischer on Kant, and headed to the Nikolayevsky train station. I left at one, and at half past two the Bolsheviks woke up, and a lively fire fight started all along the Nevsky. See more

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