100 years ago, on March 2 (15), 1917, the Russian Emperor Nicholas II abdicated the throne. The tsar's court historiographer, General Dmitry Dubensky, who constantly accompanied him on his trips during the war, commented on the abdication: “I handed over like a squadron was handed over … I had to go not to Pskov, but to the Guard, to the Special Army”.
The day before, the tsarist train, having failed to pass in the direction of Petrograd, already controlled by the rebels, arrived in Pskov. There was the headquarters of the armies of the Northern Front under the command of General Nikolai Ruzsky, and the tsar hoped for his protection. However, even here a heavy blow awaited the autocrat: as it turned out, Ruzsky was a secret enemy of the monarchy and personally disliked Nicholas II. And the chief of staff of the army, General Alekseev, organized a "general opinion poll" by telegraph. The next day, all the front commanders sent telegrams to the tsar with requests to lay down power to save the country. After that, Nicholas II signed a Manifesto of abdication in favor of his younger brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. But the next day he also gave up the crown, saying that he would wear it only if the Constituent Assembly of the new Russia spoke in favor of it. At the same time, a de facto dual power was established in Petrograd: on the one hand, the Provisional Government of Russia, on the other, the Petrograd Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies.
Thus, the palace coup ended with the complete success of the Februaryist conspirators. The autocracy fell, and with it the collapse of the empire began. The Februaryists, without realizing it, opened the Pandora's box. The revolution was just beginning. The Februaryists, having crushed the autocracy and seized power, hoped that with the help of the Entente (West) they would be able to build a "new, free Russia", but they were greatly mistaken. They crushed the last obstacle that held back the fundamental social contradictions that had been accumulating in the Romanovs' Russia for centuries. A general collapse began, a civilizational catastrophe
In the countryside, a peasant war of its own begins - the defeat of the landowners' estates, arson, armed clashes. Even before October 1917, the peasants will burn down almost all of the landlord's estates and divide the landlord's lands. The separation of not only Poland and Finland, but also Little Russia (Little Russia-Ukraine) begins. In Kiev, on March 4 (17), the Ukrainian Central Rada was created, which started talking about autonomy. On March 6 (19 March), a 100,000-strong demonstration took place under the slogans "Autonomy of Ukraine", "Free Ukraine in a free Russia", "Long live free Ukraine with the hetman at its head." All sorts of nationalists and separatists all over Russia raised their heads. National formations (gangs) appear in the Caucasus and the Baltics. The Cossacks, formerly a staunch pillar of the throne, also become separatists. In fact, independent state formations arose - the Don Army, the Kuban Army, etc. Kronstadt and the Baltic Fleet in the spring of 1917 got out of the control of the Provisional Government. There are mass killings of officers in the army and navy, officers lose control over the units entrusted to them, the army loses its combat capability by the summer of 1917 and falls apart. And all this without any influence of the Bolsheviks!
February 28 / March 13
The uprising continued to gain momentum. At 08.25, General Khabalov sent a telegram to Headquarters: “The number of those who remained loyal to the duty decreased to 600 infantry and to 500 people. riders with 13 machine guns and 12 guns with 80 rounds in total. The situation is extremely difficult. " At 9.00-10.00, answering General Ivanov's questions, he said that at his disposal, in the building of the Main Admiralty, “four Guards companies, five squadrons and hundreds, two batteries. Other troops went over to the side of the revolutionaries or remain, by agreement with them, neutral. Individual soldiers and gangs roam the city, shooting at passers-by, disarming officers … All stations are in the power of revolutionaries, they are strictly guarded … All artillery establishments are in the power of revolutionaries … ".
Armed workers and soldiers advancing from the assembly point at the People's House in Alexandrovsky Park, crushed the outposts at Birzhevoy and Tuchkov bridges and opened the way to Vasilyevsky Island. The 180th Infantry Regiment, the Finnish Regiment, revolted here. The insurgents were joined by the sailors of the 2nd Baltic naval crew and the cruiser Aurora, which was being repaired at the Franco-Russian plant in the Kalinkin bridge area. By noon, the Peter and Paul Fortress was taken. The garrison of the fortress went over to the side of the rebels. The commandant of the fortress, Adjutant General Nikitin, recognized the new power. The soldiers of the reserve battalion of the Pavlovsk regiment, arrested two days earlier, were released. The insurgents had at their disposal the artillery of the Peter and Paul Fortress. At 12.00, the revolutionaries presented General Khabalov with an ultimatum: under the threat of artillery shelling from the guns of the Peter and Paul Fortress, leave the Admiralty. General Khabalov withdrew the remnants of the government troops from the building of the Main Admiralty and transferred them to the Winter Palace. Soon the Winter Palace was occupied by troops sent by the Provisional Committee and the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet. The remnants of the government forces went over to the side of the rebels. The headquarters of the Petrograd military district also fell. Generals Khabalov, Belyaev, Balk and others were arrested. Thus, on this day, about 400 thousand people from 899 enterprises and 127 thousand soldiers took part in the movement, and the uprising ended in a complete victory for the rebels.
New centers of power were finally formed. On the night of February 28, the Provisional Committee of the State Duma announced that it was taking power into its own hands, in view of the termination of its activities by the government of ND Golitsyn. The Chairman of the State Duma Rodzianko sent a corresponding telegram to the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General Alekseev, commander of the fronts and fleets: "The Provisional Committee of the State Duma members informs your Excellency that in view of the removal from management of the entire composition of the former Council of Ministers, government power has now passed to the Provisional Committee of the State Duma." … During the day, the Provisional Committee appointed General L. G. Kornilov to the post of commander of the troops of the Petrograd district and dispatched its commissars to all ministries.
At the same time, the second center of power, the Petrosovet, was being formed. As early as February 27, the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet distributed leaflets to factories and soldiers' units with an appeal to elect their deputies and send them to the Tauride Palace. Already at 21.00 in the left wing of the Tauride Palace the first meeting of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' Deputies began, headed by the Menshevik N. S. Chkheidze, whose deputies were the Trudovik A. F. Kerensky and the Menshevik M. I. Skobelev. All three were State Duma deputies and Freemasons.
By five o'clock in the morning on February 28, the imperial trains left Mogilev. The trains had to cover about 950 versts on the route Mogilev - Orsha - Vyazma - Likhoslavl - Tosno - Gatchina - Tsarskoe Selo. But they didn’t arrive there. By the morning of March 1, letter trains were able to reach through Bologoye only to Malaya Vishera, where they were forced to turn around and go back to Bologoye, from where they arrived in Pskov only by the evening of March 1, where the headquarters of the Northern Front was located. With the departure, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief was actually cut off from his Headquarters for forty hours, since the telegraph communication worked with interruptions and delays.
March 1 / March 14
In this situation, the mood of the tsarist generals, their readiness to support the tsar and suppress the uprising in the capital, comes to the fore more and more. And also the readiness of the tsar himself to fight to the end and decide on the most severe measures, right up to the start of the civil war (it was already inevitable, with the separation of the national borderlands, the peasant war and the most severe class struggle)
However, the top generals took part in the conspiracy. The headquarters of the armies of the Northern Front under the command of General Nikolai Ruzsky was located in Pskov, and the tsar hoped for his protection. However, even here a heavy blow awaited the autocrat - as it turned out, Ruzsky was a secret enemy of the monarchy and personally disliked Nicholas II. Upon the arrival of the tsarist train, the general defiantly did not arrange the usual welcoming ceremony;
Chief of Staff of the Headquarters Mikhail Alekseev was also inclined to support the Februaryists. Even before the February uprising, he was properly "processed", inclined to support the conspiracy. Historian GM Katkov wrote: “It was impossible to avoid official contacts between the commanders-in-chief of the fronts and the leaders of public organizations, whose functions were to help the army, to care for the wounded and sick, weapons and ammunition. The leaders of public organizations … were quick to use official contacts to constantly complain about the inertia of government institutions and exacerbate the problems that already complicated the relationship between the commanders-in-chief and the ministries. Guchkov himself and his deputy Konovalov treated Alekseev at Headquarters, and Tereshchenko, the head of the Kiev military-industrial committee, made every effort to influence in the same spirit Brusilov, the commander-in-chief of the Southwestern Front. " Katkov noted that the position taken by General Alekseev both during this period and during the February events can be qualified as two-faced, ambivalent, insincere, although the general tried to avoid direct participation in the conspiracy.
According to the historian GM Katkov, “on the evening of February 28, Alekseev ceased to be an obedient executor towards the tsar and took on the role of mediator between the monarch and his rebellious parliament. Only Rodzianko, having created the false impression that Petrograd was under his complete control, could have caused such a change in Alekseev”(GM Katkov. The February Revolution).
As one of the most active conspirators, Chairman of the Central Military-Industrial Committee A. I. "… was so aware [of the fact that in certain circles there may be known plans] that he became an indirect participant." An indirect fact that Alekseev supported the Februaryists and the transfer of power to the liberal-bourgeois government is the fact that, when the Bolsheviks took power, with the support of the then political and financial-economic elite of Russia, he became one of the founders of the White movement. The Februaryists, having lost power in October 1917, unleashed a civil war in an attempt to return Russia to the past.
At a time when the Headquarters and the high command had to act in the most decisive way in order to suppress the uprising, they were playing for time. If at first Alekseev rather accurately covered the situation in the capital before the commanders-in-chief of the fronts, then from February 28 he began to point out that the events in Petrograd had calmed down, that the troops, “having joined the Provisional Government in full force, were being put in order,” that the Provisional Government was “chaired Rodzianki "speaks" of the need for new grounds for the choice and appointment of the government. " That negotiations will lead to a common peace and avoid bloodshed, that the new government in Petrograd is filled with goodwill and is ready to contribute with renewed vigor to the military efforts. Thus, everything was done to suspend any decisive actions to suppress the rebellion by armed force, to prevent General Ivanov from forming a shock group to suppress the uprising. In turn, the leaders of the Februaryists, Rodzianko, were keenly interested in stopping General Ivanov's expeditionary forces, which they believed were much more numerous and powerful than they actually were. The Provisional Committee created the illusion that it was holding Petrograd under complete control.
The king was also confused. On the night of 1 (14) to 2 (15) March, General Ivanov received a telegram from Nicholas II, which he sent after his negotiations with the commander of the Northern Front, General Ruzsky, who acted on the basis of agreements with the Chairman of the State Duma Rodzianko: “Tsarskoye Selo. Hope you arrived safely. I ask you not to take any measures before my arrival and report. On March 2 (15), General Ivanov received a dispatch from the emperor, canceling the previous instructions on the movement to Petrograd. As a result of negotiations between the emperor and the commander-in-chief of the Northern Front, General Ruzsky, all the troops previously assigned to General Ivanov stopped and returned back to the front. Thus, the highest generals in alliance with the conspirators in the capital thwarted the possibility of an immediate military operation to restore order in Petrograd.
On the same day, the Provisional Government was formed. At an expanded meeting of the Provisional Committee of the Duma with the participation of the Central Committee of the Cadet Party, the Bureau of the "progressive bloc" of State Duma deputies, as well as representatives of the Petrograd Soviet, the composition of the cabinet of ministers was agreed, the formation of which was announced the next day. The first chairman of the Provisional Government was a high-level freemason, Prince Georgy Lvov, formerly known as a cadet, and then a progressist, a State Duma deputy and a prominent figure in the Russian zemstvo. It was assumed that the Provisional Government will have to ensure the management of Russia until the elections to the Constituent Assembly, at which the delegates elected in democratic elections will decide what will be the new form of state structure of the country.
A political program of 8 points was also adopted: full and immediate amnesty for all political and religious matters, including terrorist acts, military uprisings; democratic freedoms for all citizens; the abolition of all class, religious and national restrictions; preparation for elections to the Constituent Assembly and local self-government bodies on the basis of universal, equal, direct and secret ballot; the replacement of the police by a people's militia with elected officials; the troops that took part in the revolutionary uprising in Petrograd remained in the capital and retained their weapons; soldiers received all public rights.
The Petrograd Soviet formally recognized the power of the Provisional Government (only the Bolsheviks who were part of it objected). But in fact, he himself issued decrees and orders without the consent of the Provisional Government, which increased the chaos and disorder in the country. So, issued on March 1 (14), the so-called "order No. 1" on the Petrograd garrison, which legalized the soldiers' committees and placed all weapons at their disposal, and the officers were deprived of disciplinary power over the soldiers. With the adoption of the order, the principle of one-man command, fundamental for any army, was violated, as a result of which a landslide fall in discipline and combat effectiveness began, and then a complete collapse of the entire army.
In modern Russia, where part of the "elite" and the public "enthusiastically creates the myth of the" crunch of a French roll "- an almost ideal structure of" old Russia "(which implies the idea of the need to restore the then order in the Russian Federation), it is generally accepted that the mass killings of officers began under the Bolsheviks. However, this is not true. Lynching of officers began during the February coup. So, when on February 26, the rebels captured the Arsenal, where the famous designer of artillery systems, Major General Nikolai Zabudsky, was killed.
On March 1 (14), the killings took on a mass character. On that day, the first victim was Lieutenant of the Watch, Gennady Bubnov, who refused to change the St. Andrew's flag to the revolutionary red one on the battleship "Andrew the First-Called" - he was "raised on bayonets." When Admiral Arkady Nebolsin himself, who commanded a brigade of battleships in Helsingfors (modern Helsinki), climbed onto the ladder of the battleship, the sailors shot him, and then five more officers. In Kronstadt, on March 1 (March 14), Admiral Robert Viren was stabbed to death with bayonets and Rear Admiral Alexander Butakov was shot dead. On March 4 (17) in Helsingfors, the commander of the Baltic Fleet, Admiral Adrian Nepenin, was shot dead, who personally supported the Provisional Government, but negotiated with him secretly from the elected committees of sailors, which aroused their suspicions. Nepenin was also reminded of his rude disposition and inattention to the requests of the sailors to improve their life.
It is worth noting that from that moment on, and after the Bolsheviks put their order there, Kronstadt became an independent "republic". In fact, Kronstadt was a kind of Zaporizhzhya Sich with an anarchist sailor freelancer instead of the "independent" Cossacks. And finally Kronstadt will be "pacified" only in 1921.
Then the commandant of the Sveaborg fortress, Lieutenant General for the Fleet V. N., the commander of the cruiser "Aurora" Captain 1st Rank M. Nikolsky and many other naval and land officers. By March 15, the Baltic Fleet had lost 120 officers. In addition, at least 12 officers of the land garrison were killed in Kronstadt. Several officers have committed suicide or are missing. Hundreds of officers were attacked or arrested. For example, for comparison: all fleets and flotillas of Russia have lost 245 officers since the beginning of the First World War. Gradually rampant violence began to penetrate into the province.
