Ten Days That Shook the World · Chapter
Appeals Against Insurrection explained
This chapter presents two appeals—one from the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets (Tsay-ee-kah) and one from the Petrograd Electoral Committee of the Mensheviki-oborontzi—urging workers and soldiers not to demonstrate or revolt.
What happens
This chapter presents two appeals—one from the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets (Tsay-ee-kah) and one from the Petrograd Electoral Committee of the Mensheviki-oborontzi—urging workers and soldiers not to demonstrate or revolt. Both warn that any uprising would play into the hands of counterrevolutionaries and the Dark Forces, leading to pogroms, civil war, the collapse of the front, and the destruction of the Revolution and the Constituent Assembly. They specifically accuse the Bolshevik newspaper Rabotchi Put of inciting disorder and call on conscious revolutionaries to resist provocation.
Themes in this chapter
Counterrevolution and Civil War
Both appeals frame any Bolshevik-led demonstration as a provocation that would unleash counterrevolutionary forces and civil war.
Struggle for Legitimacy and Power
The appeals are a direct struggle for the allegiance of workers and soldiers, with each side claiming to defend the Revolution against its enemies.
Characters to notice
- Vladimir Lenin
Implied as the leader of the Bolsheviks whose newspaper Rabotchi Put is accused of inciting demonstrations.
- General Lavr Kornilov
Referenced as the figure whose domination the Dark Forces hope to re-establish through disorder.
- Alexander Kerensky
Implied as the head of the Provisional Government that the appeals seek to protect from insurrection.
Key passages
“Under the pretext of establishing order, and of protecting the inhabitants, they hope to establish the domination of Kornilov, which the revolutionary people succeeded in suppressing not long ago.”
The Tsay-ee-kah warns that calls for order are a cover to restore Kornilov's power, which was recently defeated.
Highlights the fear of a counterrevolutionary coup disguised as a restoration of order.
“Rabotchi Put, the newspaper of the Bolsheviki, is pouring oil on the flames: it is flattering, trying to please the unenlightened people, tempting the worker and soldiers, urging them on against the Government, promising them mountains of good things.”
The Menshevik appeal accuses the Bolshevik newspaper of demagogically inciting workers and soldiers against the government.
Illustrates the deep mistrust between moderate socialists and Bolsheviks on the eve of the insurrection.