Ten Days That Shook the World | Page 9

growing power of organisations based on economic groups.
5. Zemstvos. May be roughly translated "county councils." Under the Tsar semi-political,
semi-social bodies with very little administrative power, developed and controlled largely
by intellectual Liberals among the land-owning classes. Their most important function
was education and social service among the peasants. During the war the Zemstvos
gradually took over the entire feeding and clothing of the Russian Army, as well as the
buying from foreign countries, and work among the soldiers generally corresponding to
the work of the American Y. M. C. A. at the Front. After the March Revolution the
Zemstvos were democratized, with a view to making them the organs of local government
in the rural districts. But like the City Dumas, they could not compete with the Soviets.
6. Cooperatives. These were the workers' and peasants' Consumers' Cooperative societies,
which had several million members all over Russia before the Revolution. Founded by
Liberals and "moderate" Socialists, the Cooperative movement was not supported by the
revolutionary Socialist groups, because it was a substitute for the complete transference
of means of production and distribution into the hands of the workers. After the March
Revolution the Cooperatives spread rapidly, and were dominated by Populist Socialists,
Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries, and acted as a conservative political force until
the Bolshevik Revolution. However, it was the Cooperatives which fed Russia when the
old structure of commerce and transportation collapsed.
7. Army Committees. The Army Committees were formed by the soldiers at the front to
combat the reactionary influence of the old regime officers. Every company, regiment,
brigade, division and corps had its committee, over all of which was elected the _Army
Committee. The Central Army Committee_ cooperated with the General Staff. The
administrative break-down in the army incident upon the Revolution threw upon the
shoulders of the Army Committees most of the work of the Quartermaster's Department,
and in some cases, even the command of troops.
8. Fleet Committees. The corresponding organisations in the Navy.
Central Committees
In the spring and summer of 1917, All-Russian conventions of every sort of organisation
were held at Petrograd. There were national congresses of Workers', Soldiers' and
Peasants' Soviets, Trade Unions, Factory-Shop Committees, Army and Fleet
Committees-besides every branch of the military and naval service, Cooperatives,
Nationalities, etc. Each of these conventions elected a Central Committee, or a Central
Executive Committee, to guard its particular interests at the seat of Government. As the
Provisional Government grew weaker, these Central Committees were forced to assume
more and more administrative powers.
The most important Central Committees mentioned in this book are:
Union of Unions. During the Revolution of 1905, Professor Miliukov and other Liberals

established unions of professional men-doctors, lawyers, physicians, etc. These were
united under one central organisation, the Union of Unions. In 1905 the _Union of
Unions_ acted with the revolutionary democracy; in 1917, however, the Union of Unions
opposed the Bolshevik uprising, and united the Government employees who went on
strike against the authority of the Soviets.
Tsay-ee-kah. All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers' and
Soldiers' Deputies. So called from the initials of its name.
Tsentroflot. "Centre-Fleet"-the Central Fleet Committee.
Vikzhel. All-Russian Central Committee of the Railway Workers' Union. So called from
the initials of its name.
Other Organisations
Red Guards. The armed factory workers of Russia. The Red Guards were first formed
during the Revolution of 1905, and sprang into existence again in the days of March,
1917, when a force was needed to keep order in the city. At that time they were armed,
and all efforts of the Provisional Government to disarm them were more or less
unsuccessful. At every great crisis in the Revolution the _Red Guards_ appeared on the
streets, untrained and undisciplined, but full of Revolutionary zeal.
White Guards. Bourgeois volunteers, who emerged in the last stages of the Revolution, to
defend private property from the Bolshevik attempt to abolish it. A great many of them
were University students.
Tekhintsi. The so-called "Savage Division" in the army, made up of Mohametan
tribesmen from Central Asia, and personally devoted to General Kornilov. The Tekhintsi
were noted for their blind obedience and their savage cruelty in warfare.
Death Battalions. Or Shock Battalions. The Women's Battalion is known to the world as
the Death Battalion, but there were many Death Battalions composed of men. These
were formed in the summer of 1917 by Kerensky, for the purpose of strengthening the
discipline and combative fire of the army by heroic example. The _Death Battalions_
were composed mostly of intense young patriots. These came for the most part from
among the sons of the propertied classes.
Union of Officers. An organisation formed among the reactionary officers in the army to
combat politically the growing power of the Army Committees.
Knights of St. George.