https://socialistworker.org/2017/09/27/comrades-of-the-sea
Re: The article on the comrades-of-the-sea
Although the article shares the revolution experience via
the eyes of Albert Rhys Williams and others...the tale of the "comrades of
the sea" is one which includes glory as well as tragedy...
The sailors of the Tsar's fleet would indeed become known as
the "armed fist" of the Russian Revolution. Although, only studying the fleet's actions
during the year 1917 provides an
incomplete picture...a false understanding of what Trotsky referred to as the
"glory and pride" of the revolution.
Beginning prior to 1905...the fleet was formulating its
actions. Understanding an ideal
eloquently expressed by Zinaida Vassilievna Konopliannikova, at her trial for
the murder of General Mien...an aide de camp of Tsar Nicholas II guilty of
unmercifully slaughtering of 100's demonstrators at St. Petersburg in October
of 1905 and following up with the massacre of thousands of Russian Citizens who
rebelled at Moscow in December 1905 and January 1906.
A portion of her full statement:
"I saw clearly that the autocratic and bureaucratic
super structure rests on the armed force of the Government, and is able to
maintain itself only through the constant practice of bloody terror, on the
part of those steering our ship of State.
And life itself has taught me as follows: you cannot create anything new
without first destroying the old; if you cannot pierce and idea with a bayonet,
neither can you resist the power of the bayonet with ideas only."
So it came to pass at least twelve years earlier than
1917...the fleet would stand in the vanguard in the fight for liberty, freedom,
and dignity.
Professor Reussner...a Russian national teaching at Berlin University
stated in 1905.
"It was the sailors and their history that would
naturally place them at odds with the ruling government. The mutinies of the sailors, which were then
numerous, were not due to bad food but to revolutionary agitation carried on
for years in the navy. The Russian army
was forced to become a political arm of the party that supported absolutism
against the then popular will. Many in Russia believed
the sailors’ movement would accomplish the most important part in the
approaching struggle for liberty. While
others, whose lot were cast in the Old Guard, classified the sailors as rebels
and murderers. In the end, the sailors
convictions should have ensured them a place in Russian history as men who were
heroes willing to sacrifice their lives for their country not as 'elements or
fanatics'."
In the early months of 1905...Revolts in the Baltic lands, Baku, Moscow, St. Petersburg and other
regions have all shaken the Tsar's rule to its foundations. Even some of the Tsar's most trusted
officials acknowledge with baited breath the Tsar had lost his way. Dissent is not limited to the workers,
peasantry, and others...but from engineers, professors, students, including the Tsar's
own mother, and from the most loyal of subjects...high officials within his
government.
In May of 1905 an article appeared in the Quarterly Review
followed by another in the National Review; entitled simply "The
Tsar"...
Reading the article one comes to know, as many Russians did
in 1905, the understanding;
"the sun began setting on the Romanov rule"
Moving forward during the years between 1905 and 1917...the
sailors were active in the struggle for liberty and dignity...Revolts and
rebellions would become a continuous theme for the sailors.
In 1905-1907 Kronshtadt, Odessa,
St. Petersburg, Reval, Sebastopal and Vladivostok all saw the
actions of the revolting sailors. Tsar
Nicholas II orders the press share that the manifestations of these uprising
were due to bad food and discontent of a "few" officers.
A major revolt happened in 1912...a revolt swept under the
rug of historical significance by both the Tsar and Lenin...
The Tsar could not allow for the rebellion and its
widespread ramifications to become known...and Lenin could not allow for a
political consciousness to be developed by anyone other than himself...history
is surely written by winners as Napoleon suggests.
In one sense the 1912 revolt, had it had time to mature, had
a more amazingly daring object in view than that which led to the revolutionary
mutiny on the battleship Kniaz Potemkin in June of 1905.
The purpose of the naval plotters were to seize the imperial
yacht Shtandart, while the Tsar and imperial family were being conveyed from
Yalta to Sevastopol en route to Tsarskoe-Selo.
The Tsar was to have been compelled to abdicate or abrogate his
autocratic power and proclaim a limited monarchy and a constitutional regime.
The seizure of the imperial family was to have been the
signal to a mutinous the Baltic squadron, the crews of which were to have
murdered or arrested all their officers and attacked Kronstadt and St. Petersburg
simultaneously.
Besides ruthlessly suppressing the action...Tsar Nicholas II
decree's a special order issued to officers of all grades of the Black Sea
fleet, forbidding them under pain of degradation and dismissal to discuss the
political unrest among themselves or with civilians, of even with their own
wives. The whole commissioned personnel
were compelled to sign a pledge to this effect.
Historian Alan Woods, during his investigation came across
an Ohkrana report from 1915 that put forth the summation that the sailors of
the Baltic fleet had created their own independent political vision...one that
was separate and without influence from the Petrograd's
Political bodies.
From before 1905 through up to the year 1917 one see's blood
spilled from not only the sailors but from active individual Russians who gave
their lives for the concept of individual freedoms, liberty, dignity...
All the while, Lenin played chess or as other
"Professional Revolutionists" sat pondering Russia's future
all vying for some sort of authoritative value to the movement. The people of Russia acted; knew what they
desired...they did not need for Lenin and his associates to tell them...
The sailors of the Tsar's Navy continued to openly challenge
the Tsar's rule...and in 1917...the most famous freely elected body came into
existence.
Tsentrobalt or the Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet.
Pavel Yefimovitch Dybenko is elected its Chairman and
leader.
The following are three quotes from Dybenko in the early
years of 1917.
"The fleet and its political view for a responsible
social democracy did not derive from university trained theoretical knowledge,
nor an understanding for legal opportunisms.
Moreover the sailors may not have had their own printing press or enough
of the elite literature thought necessary for complex thinking. Nevertheless the sailor’s classroom and their
views were crafted by the many confrontations with Tsarism."
"The Baltic fleet should be united, so its voice can be
clearly heard by the government"
“Recognizing the principle of election on the ships
positions is the only correct way which
alone leads to the realization of democracy.
The Helsingfors Sailors parliamentary in conjunction with marine
committees commit to this principle and will defend this decision with all
available means”
The government had essentially lost its authority over the
men of the Baltic Fleet.
Dybenko believed in the abilities of the enlightened
minorities believing they clearly heard the protestations and understood the
plight of the Russian people, the suppression, the massacres...
It is important to recall that the efforts of the sailors
responded to the desires of the Russian citizens...becoming the force necessary
to take on the Tsar's bayonet...
Lt. Colonel Roustam Bek wrote
“…from a purely strategically point of view, actions
required great secrecy; therefore for a certain period there was almost no
information about it. Nonetheless, the
part played by the Baltic Fleet during the Revolution was of great
importance. It must not be forgotten
that the victory of the Revolutions in February, March, and in October 1917,
was due chiefly to the activity, firmness, and self-sacrifice of the members of
the Baltic Fleet. The period from 1905
to 1917 represented a solid history of repeated revolts and rebellions by the
determined sailors in their efforts to overthrow the existing social
structure"
Tsentrobalts Pavel Dybenko...and the fleets newly formed
independence would be challenged by Alexander Kerensky and the Executive
Committee during the events in July...the challenge and brash deeds to Kerensky
as Trotsky recalls came from Tsentrobalt in Helsingfors not Kronshtadt!
Lenin, Trotsky and others see that Tsentrobalt and its
leader Dybenko would be its ticket to power.
Lenin stated;
"an insurrection would be impossible without the
sailors of the Baltic fleet"
So the guise begins...as Noam Chomsky and G.P. Maximoff tell
their readers...Lenin perpetuated grand fraud upon the people of
Russia...declaring his leadership would stand for liberty, freedom, and
dignity...Lenin wrote numerous declarations regarding these
understandings...Lenin lied!
Lenin sent to Helsingfors supporting politico's like Anton
Ovseenko and others to influence Dybenko in order to garner his support...Lenin
also sent to Dybenko...Alexsandra Kollontai...the black raven of the Russian
peoples rebellious ideals. She courted
Dybenko...shared Lenin held Russia's best interest in his pocket...a famous
relationship for the history books...more accurately a swindle of
confidence.
While in Kresty during July and August...Dybenko heard more
from Lenin's conspirators...Trotsky, Kamenev, and Lunarcharsky.
All said...Dybenko was invited to the table of the powerful
elite...not realizing he was being used.
Truly believed in Lenin's declarations...
Fast forward to Gatchina
Palace...while Dybenko
was in the lower floors of the palace speaking to the Cossacks...Kerensky was
in conversation with General Krasnov...the latter recalled:
Kerensky declaring that "Pavel Dybenko was his
enemy."
Why not Lenin or Trotsky?...
Great October was realized!...the efforts of the peoples of Russia
and the sailors armed fist combined to force, to realize social change.
Unfortunately for Russia, under the banner of the peoples
revolution...Lenin et al would go on to destroy the gains of Great October...to
exploit their efforts for personal gain and power.
For any future actions taken against an autocratic
regime...the movement toward realization of freedom should be wary of individuals
who sit in the rear...all the while declaring they know what is best!
Lenin and Trotsky would go on to do away with Dybenko and
the power of the fleet.
But that is a tale for another day.
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