Ten Days That Shook the World | Page 6

emerge at last, with the rest of the world,
into full-fledged Socialism. Naturally, therefore, they agreed with the propertied classes
that Russia must first be a parliamentary state—though with some improvements on the
Western democracies. As a consequence, they insisted upon the collaboration of the
propertied classes in the Government.
From this it was an easy step to supporting them. The “moderate” Socialists needed the
bourgeoisie. But the bourgeoisie did not need the “moderate” Socialists. So it resulted in
the Socialist Ministers being obliged to give way, little by little, on their entire program,
while the propertied classes grew more and more insistent.
And at the end, when the Bolsheviki upset the whole hollow compromise, the
Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries found themselves fighting on the side of the
propertied classes…. In almost every country in the world to-day the same phenomenon
is visible.
Instead of being a destructive force, it seems to me that the Bolsheviki were the only
party in Russia with a constructive program and the power to impose it on the country. If
they had not succeeded to the Government when they did, there is little doubt in my mind
that the armies of Imperial Germany would have been in Petrograd and Moscow in
December, and Russia would again be ridden by a Tsar….
It is still fashionable, after a whole year of the Soviet Government, to speak of the
Bolshevik insurrection as an “adventure.” Adventure it was, and one of the most
marvellous mankind ever embarked upon, sweeping into history at the head of the toiling
masses, and staking everything on their vast and simple desires. Already the machinery
had been set up by which the land of the great estates could be distributed among the
peasants. The Factory-Shop Committees and the Trade Unions were there to put into
operation workers’ control of industry. In every village, town, city, district and province
there were Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, prepared to assume the
task of local administration.
No matter what one thinks of Bolshevism, it is undeniable that the Russian Revolution is
one of the great events of human history, and the rise of the Bolsheviki a phenomenon of
world-wide importance. Just as historians search the records for the minutest details of
the story of the Paris Commune, so they will want to know what happened in Petrograd
in November, 1917, the spirit which animated the people, and how the leaders looked,
talked and acted. It is with this in view that I have written this book.
In the struggle my sympathies were not neutral. But in telling the story of those great
days I have tried to see events with the eye of a conscientious reporter, interested in
setting down the truth. J. R. New York, January 1st 1919.

Notes and Explanations
To the average reader the multiplicity of Russian organisations-political groups,
Committees and Central Committees, Soviets, Dumas and Unions-will prove extremely
confusing. For this reason I am giving here a few brief definitions and explanations.
Political Parties
In the elections to the Constituent Assembly, there were seventeen tickets in Petrograd,
and in some of the provincial towns as many as forty; but the following summary of the
aims and composition of political parties is limited to the groups and factions mentioned
in this book. Only the essence of their programmes and the general character of their
constituencies can be noticed....
1. Monarchists, of various shades, Octobrists, etc. These once-powerful factions no
longer existed openly; they either worked underground, or their members joined the
Cadets, as the Cadets came by degrees to stand for their political programme.
Representatives in this book, Rodzianko, Shulgin.
2. Cadets. So-called from the initials of its name, Constitutional Democrats. Its official
name is "Party of the People's Freedom." Under the Tsar composed of Liberals from the
propertied classes, the Cadets were the great party of political reform, roughly
corresponding to the Progressive Party in America. When the Revolution broke out in
March, 1917, the Cadets formed the first Provisional Government. The Cadet Ministry
was overthrown in April because it declared itself in favour of Allied imperialistic aims,
including the imperialistic aims of the Tsar's Government. As the Revolution became
more and more a social economic Revolution, the Cadets grew more and more
conservative. Its representatives in this book are: Miliukov, Vinaver, Shatsky.
2a. Group of Public Men. After the Cadets had become unpopular through their relations
with the Kornilov counter-revolution, the Group of Public Men was formed in Moscow.
Delegates from the _Group of Public Men_ were given portfolios in the last Kerensky
Cabinet. The Group declared itself non-partisan, although its intellectual leaders were
men like Rodzianko and Shulgin. It was composed of the more "modern" bankers,
merchants and manufacturers, who were intelligent enough to realise that the Soviets