On This Day
On This Day, 9 November 1917
On 09, Nov 2017 | In On This Day | By Nicola Gauld
Birmingham Mail
Friday 9 November 1917
FIGHTING IN PETROGRAD.
WINTER PALACE TAKEN BY MAXIMALISTS.
KERENSKY DISAPPEARS.
WILL THE ARMY SUPPORT THE SOVIET?
Fighting has already taken place in Petrograd. On Wednesday night the Winter Palace, the seat of the Provisional Government, was attacked by the Maximalists, assisted by a cruiser in the river, and ultimately occupied. Several members of the Government, including M. Terestchenko, were arrested, but M. Kerensky could not be found. One report represents the Premier as having left Petrograd earlier in the day, in order to summon loyal troops to his aid in the capital.
The Revolutionary Committee has issued an order for his arrest. At the same time it abolished the death penalty at the front, which Kerensky, under Korniloff’s persuasion, had reluctantly re-established. The troops are also to be allowed complete freedom of political propaganda.
It is noteworthy that the Committee insists on the maintenance of the solidarity of the front.
On the vital question as to the extent to which the provinces and the Army, especially the latter, are disposed to support or oppose the new self-appointed authority there is at present no reliable evidence. In one of its proclamations, the Revolutionary Committee claims to have the support of the Fifth Army. Troops from the northern front are said, moreover, to have sided with the Maximalists, and to be marching on the capital, but as this report admittedly emanates from a German source it will not be taken seriously at present.
The Petrograd correspondent of the “Times” doubts whether the Bolsheviks will command sufficient authority to attempt outside the capital to negotiate a separate peace. Russians understand quite well, he states, ‘that any overtures to the enemy, initiated without the concurrence of the Allies, would only involve Russia in surrender to Germany.
Communication between Russia and Finland is reported to have been cut.
Up to a late hour last evening the Russian Embassy in London was without any official news regarding events at Petrograd. M. Nabokoff, the Chargo d’ Affaires, informal Reuter’s representative that in the meantime one must regard with a certain amount of reserve the news, which was evidently coming from a controlled source. It should also be borne in mind, he said, that the Petrograd garrison by no means represented the whole of the Russian Army.
2017 marks the centenary of the Russian Revolution, hence this entry marking the anniversary of the October Revolution (which according to the modern calendar, occurred in November). For further reading on the Revolution, visit these links for archive sources about the Revolution on the British Library website and for articles on the implications of remembering the centenary.
https://www.bl.uk/russian-revolution
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/17/russia-1917-revolutions-legacy-lenin-putin
