24 November 1917. John Reed

Non-fiction

Project 1917 is a series of events that took place a hundred years ago as described by those involved. It is composed only of diaries, letters, memoirs, newspapers and other documents

John Reed

Petrograd, Russian Republic

Lenin suddenly mounted the tribune; for ten minutes the room went mad. “Down with him!” they shrieked. “We will not listen to any of your People’s Commissars! We don’t recognise your Government!”

Lenin stood there quite calmly, gripping the desk with both hands, his little eyes thoughtfully surveying the tumult beneath. Finally, except for the right side of the hall, the demonstration wore itself out somewhat.

“I do not come here as a member of the Council of People’s Commissars,” said Lenin, and waited again for the noise to subside, “but as a member of the Bolshevik faction, duly elected to this Congress.” And he held his credentials up to that all might see them.

“However,” he went on, in an unmoved voice, “nobody will deny that the present Government of Russia has been formed by the Bolshevik party—” he had to wait a moment, “so that for all purposes it is the same thing….” Here the right benches broke into deafening clamour, but the centre and left were curious, and compelled silence.

Lenin’s argument was simple. “Tell me frankly, you peasants, to whom we have given the lands of the pomieshtchiki; do you want now to prevent the workers from getting control of industry? This is class war. The pomieshtchiki of course oppose the peasants, and the manufactures oppose the workers. Are you going to allow the ranks of the proletariat to be divided? Which side will you be on?

“We, the Bolsheviki, are the party of the proletariat—of the peasant proletariat as well as the industrial proletariat. We, the Bolsheviki, are the protectors of the Soviets—of the Peasants’ Soviets as well as those of the Workers and Soldiers. The present Government is a Government of Soviets; we have not only invited the Peasants’ Soviets to join that Government, but we have also invited representatives of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries to enter the Council of People’s Commissars….

“The Soviets are the most perfect representatives of the people—of the workers in the factories and mines, of the workers in the fields. Anybody who attempts to destroy the Soviets is guilty of an anti-democratic and counter-revolutionary act. And I serve notice here on you, comrades Right Socialist Revolutionaries—and on you, Messrs. Cadets—that if the Constituent Assembly attempts to destroy the Soviets, we shall not permit the Constituent Assembly to do this thing!”

, and others

3 Like

2 Comment

✍ Also today

Maria Feodorovna

Ai-Todor, Crimea, Russian Republic

They are saying that Ukraine has declared itself an independent republic uniting nine gubernias: Kievskaia, Podol’skaia, Volynskaia, Chernigovskaia, Khar’kovskaia, and also Tavricheskaia, not including Crimea itself. How very funny and stupid this is.

, and others

1 Like

Comment

Nadezhda Krupskaya

Smolny Institute, Petrograd, Russian Republic

The emergency congress of the Soviet of Peasant Deputies has begun. Vladimir Ilyich spoke at this congress twice, considering it very important. See more

, and others

3 Like

Comment

Amedeo Modigliani

is working on «Portrait of the Mechanical»

Paris, France

, and others

2 Like

Comment

Zinaida Gippius

Sergievskaya 83, Petrograd, Russian Republic

The barometer currently stands at the “tempest” setting. I was very sad today… but they advise me not to write it down. Slavery has returned to us—only in a horrible, perverted way and hiding behind the mask of terror. See more

, and others

2 Like

Comment

Vladimir Lenin

Petrograd, Russian Republic

Decree on the Abolition of Social Estates and Civil Ranks

1. All classes and class divisions of citizens, class privileges and disabilities, class organizations and institutions which have until now existed in Russia, as well as all civil ranks, are abolished. See more

, and others

7 Like

Comment

George Buchanan

4, Dvortsovaya embankment, Petrograd, Russian Republic (British Embassy)

The Mayor of Petrograd called to-day to assure me that Russian democracy strongly condemned the opening of negotiations for a separate anuistice and the publication of our secret agreements. See more

, and others

Comment

Serge Diaghilev

is going to Lisbon

23 November

Red Guardsmen are buried on the Red Square

“A voluntary “truce” has been announced”

“The unrest, thank God, didn’t reach us; the Caucasus seemed immune from them”

1916: Year in Review.

Nightmare before Christmas

Death of Rasputin. Murder conspiracy and its consequences

in Petrograd

in Moscow