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THE MURDER OF THE GERMAN AMBASSADOR MIRBAH AND THE UPRISING OF THE LEFT SRs
Chicherin is speaking, 1 I heard a familiar, somewhat melodious, rather weak voice over the telephone of the direct Kremlin wire. - German ambassador Count Mirbach was killed by a bomb; I ask you to immediately inform Vladimir Ilyich about this and take the measures that you find necessary ...
Details known?
So far nothing is known...
I immediately understood the enigmatic behavior of many of the leaders of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, which I had observed with alarm the day before at the session of the Congress of Soviets. The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, as if torn off the rifling, rushed about behind the scenes of the stage of the Bolshoi Theater, were extremely nervous, almost hysterical. In every way they provoked a scandal, entering into the most unpleasant, caustic conversations with many communists. I personally knew many of them well, and it seemed to me that this was their mood for a reason.
The German ambassador Count Mirbach appeared in the diplomatic box with all his retinue.
The Left Socialist-Revolutionary Kamkov 3 took the floor and began, like a broken-down hysteric, to spew senseless curses at the Germans and their accredited ambassador. There was not an iota of political meaning in these cries, but the chaotic and passionate speech, raised on false patriotic yeast, beat on a shallow feeling, exciting both the party members of this Socialist-Revolutionary on the stage and his like-minded people in the huge theater hall.
The atmosphere backstage was so heated that every minute you could expect a fight. The Socialist-Revolutionaries, not embarrassed, cursed both the Soviet government and its representatives, and the Communist Party. Our workers, who were here in large numbers, did not at all want to listen to all this, for their part did not remain in debt and covered the Socialist-Revolutionaries with words that were far from flattering to them, noting both their adventurism, and their verbiage, phrase-mongering and obviously petty-bourgeois aspirations, which completely deviated from the aspirations and desires of the working class. When the passions reached their climax, I spoke with Vladimir Ilyich, and he advised me to immediately write a note to Spiridonova 4 , who was sitting right there on the presidium, to summon her, to talk to her so that she would have an impact on her comrades.
That's exactly what I did. Spiridonova, smiling coyly, told me that, they say, "there's nothing to be done, our guys are real revolutionaries, and they cannot restrain their feelings, their impulses." It was funny to me to hear this characterization of "revolutionary", but I still insisted that she, as the most influential member of the Central Committee of her party, take measures against her dispersed brethren. She promised, went backstage, talked there for a long time, and part of the noisy audience, cursing at the Bolsheviks, left the theater.
All this was highly suspicious. The actions of the Social Revolutionaries, both these and others, were clearly provocative in relation to the government, of which they were still members. The air smelled of gunpowder. Excitement reigned everywhere.
Even the best of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, who seemed to be the most calm, who worked side by side with us for a long time, ruffled and looked sullenly, frowningly. All this was involuntarily disturbing. The conflict was brewing.
Right there in the evening there was an unexpected explosion of a bomb, accidentally dropped in the box of the Bolshoi Theater by one of the Socialist-Revolutionary militants. The explosion killed the culprit himself, and several of his comrades were wounded.
Ya. M. Sverdlov, who presided over the congress, was not at all taken aback; the meeting continued, and the wounded were taken to the hospital. But, of course, this circumstance, which revealed that the Socialist-Revolutionaries were armed at the Congress of Soviets, could not but put us on our guard.
The morning revealed the intentions of the Left SRs. It explained their nervousness, their excitement.
The German ambassador was killed by them. Of course, this was an event of great political importance.
I call Vladimir Ilyich and tell him the news I received from Chicherin.
I ask you, - said Vladimir Ilyich, - to immediately go to the German embassy, take all necessary measures, protect the Germans from any further possible troubles and report everything to me by telephone.
I immediately called the head of the consolidated detachment of Latvians who were in the Kremlin and suggested that, on an emergency basis, put a company of well-armed people on cars and go to the line to the commandant's office in the Kremlin. Then I summoned the commandant of the Kremlin P. D. Malkov and tried to navigate the events by phone, calling the Cheka and the Commissariat of Internal Affairs.
The Commissariat of Internal Affairs knew absolutely nothing, and they only learned about the events from me.
No details could be given from the Cheka. They only knew about the fact from the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs and reported that Dzerzhinsky had left for the German embassy.
I briefly told the commandant of the Kremlin who came running what was the matter, and asked him to immediately place reinforced guards at the gates of the Kremlin, often check all the internal guards in the government building, and do not leave the Kremlin anywhere.
I extremely dislike the whole situation of today, - I added to him, - we must wait for major events ...
The whole conversation took several minutes.
Glancing out the window, I saw a company of Latvians hurried past, already boarding two large trucks.
Having called for myself a military vehicle from the Kremlin special-purpose detachment, I immediately left. After informing the company commander where to go, ordering the trucks with the Red Army men to follow mine, I invited the company commander to my car to discuss further actions on the road.
We moved. Everything was normal on the streets. The city did not yet know what had happened. Passers-by looked at our group with astonishment. I agreed that upon arrival we would immediately cordon off the German embassy on both sides of the lane, we would not let anyone through, except for members of the government; all those going to the embassy with his passes will be handed over directly to the embassy administration.
We drove up to the embassy, quickly cleared the alley of the crowd that had already gathered, and established a strict order. I immediately went to the embassy with one of the secretaries of the Administrative Council of the Council of People's Commissars.
The first rooms of the embassy were completely empty. Only one porter loomed here and there. A woman ran out and immediately disappeared. In the third room, I met a clean-shaven German with a protruding "a la Wilhelm" mustache, told him my last name and explained that I had come from the government in order to find out everything about what had happened.
He is no more! exclaimed the German. - He's dead! - And we entered the room where the floor was torn apart by the explosion, the windows were broken. The ceiling and walls were riddled with pits and abrasions. It was clear that the explosion was strong.
A petitioner came... The count was very kind... He accepted everyone... He waited for him and spoke so little, and suddenly threw a bomb... It tore the count apart... The killer was wounded... He fled in confusion... Everything was so unexpected...
The German, apparently retired or disguised as a military man, was embarrassed by this surprise, but spoke calmly, evenly, with restraint, almost without agitation.
Do you have internal security? I asked him a diplomatic question.
Yes, yes, our own, all of ours ... Well, they overlooked it, no one expected this ...
Are those who serve you well known?
Oh yes, we have all our people...
Didn't you have our people?
No, it was not.
It was extremely important for me to ask all these questions in order to establish the complete official innocence of our government in the protection of the high personage of the plenipotentiary inside the German embassy.
We continued our conversation and went into another room. We were joined by several more embassy officials. Everyone was extremely saddened, but restrained, and no one expressed any complaints, because everyone understood perfectly well that to accept or not accept petitioners was the full will and good will of the ambassador himself, and our government had no way to control those who came to the embassy and whom the ambassador himself or embassy officials received.
At this time, F. E. Dzerzhinsky in a somewhat strange suit came out of the next room. He was wearing a gray school cloth shirt, sewn in Russian cut, on the collar of which two small brass buttons shone. It was girded with a dark brown leather belt. Loose gray trousers, the color of a soldier's cloth, harmonized with the jacket, giving him a completely civilian look, more like a student.
He thought something, walked, looked and paid no attention to anyone, apparently forgetting his high official position.
I took him aside, told him about the security measures taken, and said that I would immediately talk to Vladimir Ilyich and that we should start an energetic investigation into this very unpleasant political scandal, which could bring us many complications.
I went to make a phone call. I informed Vladimir Ilyich about everything. Dzerzhinsky - to another room, to make orders for the Cheka.
Vladimir Ilyich said that he was leaving at once.
Leaving the room, I met Dzerzhinsky, who was very excited. I said that Vladimir Ilyich, together with Sverdlov, as Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, were coming here.
This is good, - Dzerzhinsky threw me.
What is this? - as if continuing his hidden thought aloud, he suddenly said.
And what? I asked him.
I call, no one comes. I barely made it ... I call Alexandrovich, - he is not there. There is no one, there is no other, everything is in some kind of turmoil, and all the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries ...
Isn't this the work of their hands? I said to Dzerzhinsky.
I'm starting to think so myself.
They were really pissed off yesterday...
Yes, yes, there is something...
At that moment, Vladimir Ilyich came in with a hurried step, and Sverdlov with him. I had a brief exchange with Vladimir Ilyich and immediately informed the German officials that the heads of government had arrived and wished to speak officially with a representative of the German embassy.
We were invited into a large front room. We all sat down. There was solemn dead silence. There were five Germans and the same number of us. Vladimir Ilyich, seated, uttered a brief remark in German, in which he apologized to the government about what had happened inside the embassy building, where we were unable to provide assistance to the German mission. He expressed deep condolences on the tragic death of the ambassador and added that the case would be immediately investigated and those responsible would face legal punishment. We stood up, shook hands with the representatives of the German embassy and went out into the courtyard to consult what to do next.
At this time, one of the comrades who worked in the Cheka rushed in a car and reported that the cavalry regiment of the Cheka, which was under the command of the Left Social Revolutionary Popov, had rebelled and refused to obey the orders of the Soviet government.
How? - Dzerzhinsky exclaimed indignantly. - This can not be! This is nonsense! .. I'll go there now and figure out what's the matter there ...
In no case do you need to go, - I said to Dzerzhinsky, - you will only spoil the matter ...
Sverdlov joined Dzerzhinsky's opinion, saying that all this was nothing, that if Felix came, everything would be all right.
Information was immediately received by telephone that all the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries who worked in the Cheka disappeared from the premises, and the Socialist-Revolutionary Alexandrovich, a member of the Commission and Dzerzhinsky's deputy, not only disappeared, but also took with him the Cheka's cash desk, in which there were about one and a half thousand rubles. . It was quite clear that a whole plan of action was being revealed here, which would have to unfold by itself. For me there was not the slightest doubt that we were standing on the very threshold of great events and that the assassination of the German ambassador was only the first step in that political farce that the extremely short-sighted Socialist-Revolutionaries had started.
But why did they start with the German ambassador? Is it because they want to play on the darkness of the masses, assuming that they are infected in the old way with extreme chauvinism and leavened patriotism, due to which hatred of the Germans against the background of the war should be traditional, and that everyone will rise up against the Germans, and therefore, Will they be for the Socialist-Revolutionaries against the Bolsheviks, who concluded, in the opinion of these stupid people, the “shameful”, but in fact very wise Brest Peace? The Social Revolutionaries, of course, miscalculated and suffered retribution in the very near future.
Dzerzhinsky was indignant. The information that came from different directions not only irritated him, not only worried him, but very much excited him.
No, I will go to them at all costs ... - he repeated his own.
Of course, of course, you have to go, - Sverdlov supported.
Seeing that no amount of persuasion could help, I decided on the last resort. Having seized a moment, I called Vladimir Ilyich aside and drew his attention to the fact that the conversation was not going on in business terms, that it would all end very sadly, that there was no need for Dzerzhinsky to go, that he would probably be arrested there, and thus the situation more difficult.
But what to do? See how they insist!
It's from being overly excited.
Vladimir Ilyich hesitated.
I spoke, but they are both members of the Central Committee, and their opinions are independent.
Yes, but this is not a meeting of the Central Committee, this is not a vote, but only the opinion of individual comrades, and of course they will listen to you.
Hardly.
But they are members of the government and by their rash act they can put the government in an extremely difficult position...
We must immediately move troops, - I continued to say, - we must surround the rebels, offer them to surrender immediately, and if they do not agree, shell the houses occupied by them and shoot them all; along the way, immediately introduce selected units to the central telephone exchange, telegraph and electric station; stations completely take over and declare them under martial law.
This plan of mine apparently pleased Vladimir Ilyich.
Tell Podvoisky at once to be ready...
None of this is necessary, - Sverdlov boomed, - in no time we will calm everything down. What happened? There is nothing...
The military unit of the Cheka, - I said with an emphasis on the Cheka, - rebelled ...
Well, what kind of rebellion is this? Dzerzhinsky should only appear there, and everything will calm down ... You, Felix, go there right now and telephone us. And then we'll figure it out.
Vladimir Ilyich took no further part in the conversation, and we immediately went to the car.
I'm going, - Dzerzhinsky shouted and almost ran past us, jumped into the Cheka car and disappeared.
Sverdlov caught up with us. We all got into the open car. I suggested to the head of the Latvian detachment that a platoon of Red Army soldiers be left here, and that the rest of them immediately return to the Kremlin.
And we went.
I immediately asked Vladimir Ilyich to give me a written order by virtue of which all passes issued for automobiles would be annulled. Those who need to travel around the city must obtain new passes from the Administration of the Council of People's Commissars, all cars will be checked on the streets by police and patrols, with old passes they will be detained and sent to government garages. Access to the Kremlin is terminated by ordinary passes. I listed to Vladimir Ilyich other precautionary measures which I had already had to apply several times during the troubled days of the October Revolution in Petrograd and then in Moscow.
Vladimir Ilyich agreed.
We quickly rushed to the Kremlin.
Come to me, - Vladimir Ilyich told me, getting out of the car.
In twenty minutes. I consider it necessary first of all to check everything here, here, in the Kremlin. After all, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries could have connections here too...
This is right...
And we broke up.
We immediately brought the Kremlin into a combat position, strengthened security everywhere, checked passes, appointed two troikas of communists from the garrison and members of the Cheka, who were instructed to check all the inhabitants of the Kremlin according to their party affiliation.
The garrison turned out to be a small group that consisted of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party. We interned them inside the Kremlin and placed them under surveillance. In addition, there turned out to be one clerk, a Left Socialist-Revolutionary, whom I had known well and for a long time, and who worked in solidarity with the Communists in everything.
Well, what kind of Left SR am I? he said breathlessly as he ran towards me. - Vladimir Dmitrievich, after all, I have always worked with you, I am a worker and now I am ready to join the party and go fight the traitors to the revolution.
This comrade, a worker, was a completely reliable person who had worked for me back in Petrograd, in Room 75, and I took him on bail. And he immediately applied for admission to the Bolshevik Communist Party, where he was soon accepted.
Around two o'clock in the afternoon I went home to have something to eat. In the apartment I had a lot of young people, Komsomol members, who heatedly discussed the state of affairs. We crowded around the kitchen table and had breakfast as we went. I settled down near the window overlooking the inner garden behind the Cavalry Corps of the Kremlin. From the window one could see the Assumption Cathedral and the domes of the Annunciation loomed. The smart sun flooded the ancient buildings of the Kremlin, gleaming on the gold-bearing domes of the cathedral.
Suddenly something hooted, crackled, hesitated, and then fell down and rustled after it.
Shoot! It's an artillery shot! someone shouted.
I quickly got dressed and ran out to have a look. The Annunciation Cathedral was pierced, and a pile of rubble and stone testified that a shell had just hit here, stuck somewhere inside the dome.
Will it or won't it? - I thought, and I wanted to see what was happening in our Kremlin Square. Only a few minutes passed, and the always crowded square was completely empty, and I saw only sparkling heels and hemlines of passers-by fleeing with all their might in different directions: this was the effect of a deafening artillery shot, which was heard especially loudly and terribly among the stone buildings of the city.
I went to the Council of People's Commissars. There were no more shots fired. To this day, I still don't know very well where this projectile flew into the Kremlin, obviously fired by the hand of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary. Then they said, as if from somewhere in the Sparrow Hills. I don’t remember at all whether there was an investigation into this matter and whether it produced any results.
There was a very lively mood in the Administration of the Council of People's Commissars. Many commissars arrived at odd hours, made inquiries, brought news. It was perfectly clear that everything that had happened was not sporadic facts, but the fulfillment of a plan worked out in advance, and that it was necessary to wait any minute for further action. An artillery shot at the Kremlin was intensively discussed here. It was clear to everyone that the Socialist-Revolutionaries in the troops had some connections.
I ran to Vladimir Ilyich for a minute, asking him to sign the text of the telephone message about cars, since during the uprising the possession of cars is very important, and we knew for sure that some of the cars were at the disposal of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and that, of course, there would be among the "non-party "those who rejoice at all the difficulties of the workers' and peasants' government and will immediately go over to the side of the insurgents and will help them by all means, including cars.
“At about 3 o’clock in the afternoon two bombs were thrown at the German embassy,” read Vladimir Ilyich’s telephone message, “hardly wounding Mirbach. This is clearly the work of the monarchists or those provocateurs who want to draw Russia into the war in the interests of the Anglo-French capitalists, who have also bribed the Czechoslovaks.
Mobilize all forces, raise everyone to their feet immediately to catch the criminals.
Detain all vehicles and hold until triple check.
Presovnarkom V. Ulyanov
(Lenin)»*.
This telephone message was received by the Presidium of the Moscow Soviet of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies at 4:20 pm on July 6, 1918. issued the following ruling in this regard:
“The Presidium is instructed to immediately take the most energetic measures to catch and detain the criminals. Detain all suspicious and also cars and keep them until the triple check. Presidium of the Moscow Soviet.
The telephone message of the presidium, together with the text of Vladimir Ilyich under No. 16235, was received by the telephone operator comrade. Borisov at five thirty minutes in the afternoon. Unfortunately, we see that even during the tense days of the uprising we were not in a great hurry either. A whole hour and ten minutes of precious time elapsed before the telephone message signed by Vladimir Ilyich had an effect and was sent for transmission to the districts. But, unfortunately, then the elements of nature themselves became contrary to our desires. After some time, the telephone operator reports to the presidium: “It was not possible to immediately transfer to the counties on the occasion of a thunderstorm. Borisov. By evening, finally, this first telephone message from Vladimir Ilyich, informing the broad masses of what had happened in Moscow, was transmitted. But, as we see from its text, there is still no mention of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, firstly, because many still did not want to believe that all this was the work of their hands, and secondly, a tactic was pursued here so as not to frighten off the Socialist-Revolutionaries from their seats and a telegram about their speech in the center, do not incite their like-minded people in the periphery, in the districts, to similar actions.
When Vladimir Ilyich found out about this slow transmission, he jokingly said:
We have learned how to make a revolution, that is certain, but we cannot overcome the routine in our institutions. After all, the matter is so clear, but we discussed it for more than an hour. However, after all, the Socialist-Revolutionaries are even more fond of talking than we are. They probably have a discussion in full swing now. This will help us while Podvoisky is swaying... But we can't hear him at all! he added, laughing.
Having given telephone messages throughout Moscow through the police, to the Moscow Soviet and government agencies about the annulment of car passes, transferring the protection of the German embassy to the police, I removed the abandoned platoon of Latvian Kremlin shooters and immediately telephoned Podvoisky about Vladimir Ilyich’s desire that they, i.e. the troops of the Moscow garrison, were at the ready, established a permanent telephone and bicycle connection with him, asked to send patrols around the city and immediately organize reconnaissance, having sounded out the mood of the Red Army soldiers. He himself was asked to come to the Council of People's Commissars as soon as he was free. Of course, there was no phone call from Dzerzhinsky.
I was just about to go to Vladimir Ilyich a second time to inform him of everything that had been done and to consult him about the future, when information was received at the Administration from the Cheka from the arriving driver that Dzerzhinsky was received very hostilely in the detachment of the Cheka troops and as a result of him there arrested.
This news caused great excitement in the Council of People's Commissars. Everyone understood that events were developing, that they were greatly complicated by the arrest of Dzerzhinsky. I immediately went to Vladimir Ilyich's office. He was alone, and when I entered, he was standing at the window.
Dzerzhinsky has been arrested, I told him.
Vladimir Ilyich - one cannot say turned pale, but turned white. This happened to him when he was overcome by anger or nervous shock under very dangerous unexpected circumstances.
He rushed towards me. I briefly told him everything new that had accumulated up to that moment.
Soon I went to the telephone to transmit the orders of Vladimir Ilyich; First of all, he called Podvoisky and ordered that all people's commissars be summoned to an emergency meeting of the Council of People's Commissars at the request of its Chairman. I transmitted to him by telephone the order of Vladimir Ilyich to attack the rebellious regiment of the troops of the Cheka Popov, achieving either its surrender or complete destruction using merciless machine-gun and artillery fire.
Podvoisky listened to all this with attention and told me that he would concentrate troops behind the Moskva River and begin the offensive from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, maintaining communication between all parts and guarding the flanks. It all came out very smoothly, but it seemed to me that it would be executed extremely slowly. The enemy was not that strong at all. It would be enough to take one battery, a good detachment of shooters, like the Kremlin’s, with machine guns attached to them, and immediately go on the offensive, surrounding this small area where the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries have settled down, showing no activity so far, except for setting up small outposts in their area (near Pokrovsky barracks) and distribution to the immediate vicinity of patrols.
The telegraph and telephone, the water supply and the electric station had simply to be occupied by detachments of the Red Army, declared under martial law and administered through commissars. But we, civilians, could no longer interfere in military affairs at that time and had to patiently wait, how, according to all the rules of military art, they would take those who were unworthy of this art and who represented a military unit that had broken out of obedience, decomposed, turned into into a gang that wished to undermine the lawful will of the proletarian dictatorship and its government by an unreasonable violation of the revolutionary order. It seemed to me that revolutionary methods should have been applied here, immediately destroying and stunning, where speed and onslaught should play the first role.
I reported to Vladimir Ilyich about the decisions of Comrade. Podvoisky and that the troops will soon begin to concentrate behind the Moscow River, deploying at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and then they will flow in avalanches along the dim streets (they are unlikely to be able to complete all the maneuvers until the evening), and then they will attack the insidious enemy.
Yes, our commanders-in-chief have started a serious trick, - Vladimir Ilyich remarked, smiling good-naturedly. "Couldn't it have been a little faster?" They are playing a real war!.. You call there more often, reminding them that we need to finish this business as soon as possible.
Soon an emergency meeting of the Council of People's Commissars was held, at which all emergency measures already taken by government bodies were approved.
The mood in the city grew tense. Patrols of hostile parties in some places stood against each other. Comrades who fell into the "other half" were detained and arrested. Soon we received information that Latsis, Smidovich 5 and some other comrades had been detained.
All this information made even more excitement. The streets were empty. Almost no one dared to leave. I called up the telegraph, then the telephone, where we nevertheless sent our commissars.
I call the telegraph again. I call our commissioner and hear a sharp answer:
There is no one here!..
Who is on the phone?
Proshyan...
It means that the Socialist-Revolutionaries have occupied the telegraph office, I thought. I hang up and go to tell this news to Vladimir Ilyich.
He is extremely angry. Worried. Demands to phone the military authorities and scolds abusively for slowness. They promise to move soon. But what is the use of promises?
I was attacked by correspondents who not only wanted to get new information, but also reported the city news themselves, and many considered it necessary to declare that their editors - at that time there was still a liberal press - and their circles of public opinion were indignant at the speech of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries.
Vladimir Ilyich was always very interested in how certain events were regarded, not only in the working-class districts. When I informed him of what the newspaper correspondents were saying, he was at first distrustful of this illustration of the public mood. But it so happened that, walking down the corridor to his house, he looked into the reception room, where there were many correspondents. They immediately surrounded him and bombarded him with questions about the events. He immediately, in turn, put questions to them, and they, in a unanimous chorus, expressed their complete reproach to the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, and one of them seriously said that the adventure of the Socialist-Revolutionaries would not find the slightest support anywhere. Vladimir Ilyich cheerfully threw them a few remarks and disappeared as quickly and unexpectedly as he had appeared among them.
And so it happened: absolutely no one supported the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries for a single minute. They were completely alone in the empty public arena around them.
The night was coming on. Soon we received information about new arrests. The mood became even more unsettling. Detachments of the Socialist-Revolutionaries penetrated to the center. Vladimir Ilyich showed complete impatience with the actions of our military leaders. The Council of People's Commissars became aware of the internment of some of the Kremlin garrison. This brought anxiety. Vladimir Ilyich asked me to check all the guards in the Kremlin. I took with me the commandant, the breeder, as well as my longtime collaborator, worker M. D. Tsygankov, and went to inspect and check the entire Kremlin. The reinforced guards were all in place, very vigilant and extremely picky about everyone.
The night has come. The exhausted commissars and other comrades dozed in armchairs and sofas. Some ate boiled potatoes with brown bread and butter, which my teenage daughter and her nanny delivered to us at the Council of People's Commissars.
About two o'clock we finally received information that the troops, having completed their concentration, turned around and were moving along the extinct streets. Camping infirmaries are arranged. Kitchens are located. Everything is in motion, the authorities inexorably apply all the rules of tactics and strategy...
Finally, they are advancing ... Here are the diggers ... - Vladimir Ilyich joked, angry. “It’s good that we still have a meek enemy, he rebelled and rested on his laurels, fell asleep, otherwise it would be trouble with such troops ...
It began to dawn, and pale shadows loomed over sleepy, gray, dusty Moscow. We all went around the Kremlin and climbed the wall. Vladimir Ilyich gazed intently at where, as one could assume, the Socialist-Revolutionaries were seated, as if he wanted to see them and our troops, who were already approaching this area. This is where they should have started. An orderly rode up with a message addressed to Vladimir Ilyich, saying that the Socialist-Revolutionaries were surrounded, that artillery fire was about to begin.
Finally! .. - everyone burst out relieved, and involuntarily we looked back there, into the foggy distance, listening to the silence, slightly broken by some unknown noises.
And finally, something crashed and disappeared into the predawn silence. The sky was red with a distant crimson stripe on a gray-blue horizon.
We listened intently, and there was no more sound.
Is this the end of the matter?
Looks like... - someone said.
And we moved off the wall. Near the porch of the Council of People's Commissars, Vladimir Ilyich was handed a report stating that the Socialist-Revolutionaries were fleeing in disorder, that the telegraph office was occupied by our troops, that we were occupying houses where the Socialist-Revolutionaries had fortified themselves.
And Dzerzhinsky? - burst out from someone.
Unknown.
When it became clear to everyone that the action of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries was not some random phenomenon, but a prepared uprising with the aim of seizing government power into their own hands, it goes without saying that they had to immediately notify the entire population with an emergency issue of Government messages. Three such messages were issued. The first message, issued on the first day of the Left SR uprising, informed the population of the assassination of the German ambassador Mirbach. Unfortunately, I can't find it in any way 6 ; the second and third** have been preserved in my possession in the proclamation form in which they were first of all published and distributed throughout Moscow: pasted up and distributed to the population. The Second Government Communication, written personally by Vladimir Ilyich, signed by the Council of People's Commissars, informed the population about the decision of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets on the foreign and domestic policy of the Council of People's Commissars.
Here is the text of this historical document:
GOVERNMENT REPORT #2
Yesterday the All-Russian Congress of Soviets approved by an overwhelming majority the foreign and domestic policy of the Council of People's Commissars. The so-called Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, who in recent weeks have entirely gone over to the position of the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, decided to disrupt the All-Russian Congress. They decided to involve the Soviet Republic in the war against the will of the vast majority of workers and peasants. For this purpose yesterday, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the German ambassador was killed by a member of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party. At the same time, the Left SRs tried to develop a plan for an uprising. Tov. Dzerzhinsky, a Bolshevik, chairman of the Commission for Combating the Counter-Revolution, was treacherously captured by the Socialist-Revolutionaries at the moment when he appeared at the premises of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary detachment. The Bolsheviks were also treacherously captured - comrade Latsis and the chairman of the Moscow Soviet of Workers and Red Army Deputies comrade Smidovich. A small detachment of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries penetrated the telegraph building for two hours and, before being expelled from there, the Socialist-Revolutionary Central Committee sent several false and buffoonish telegrams around the country. Completely in the spirit of the unbridled Black Hundreds and White Guards and the Anglo-Japanese imperialists, the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Central Committee speaks of the Bolsheviks drawing prisoners of war to Moscow, etc., etc.
The Council of People's Commissars, of course, could not tolerate a handful of intellectuals frustrating by means of bombs and childish conspiracies the will of the working class and the peasantry on the question of war and peace. The Soviet government, relying on the will of the All-Russian Congress, took all necessary measures to suppress the miserable, senseless and shameful rebellion. The Left Social Revolutionary faction of the congress was detained by the Soviet government in the theater building. At the present moment, Soviet troops have surrounded the area in which the rebels against Soviet power have entrenched themselves. There can be no doubt that within the next few hours the uprising of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary agents of the Russian bourgeoisie and Anglo-French imperialism will be crushed. What further consequences the insane and dishonest adventure of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries will have for the international position of the Soviet Republic is still impossible to predict, but if the German party of extreme imperialism gains the upper hand, if war again falls on our exhausted, bloodless country, then the blame for this will fall completely and completely. on the party of the Left SR traitors and traitors.
At this critical hour, let all the workers and peasants clearly and firmly assess the situation and unite unanimously around the All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies.
Council of People's Commissars***
If we clearly felt that we had finished with the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, then we also perfectly understood that the case regarding the murder of the German ambassador was just beginning, since the embassy was obviously waiting for directives from its government from Berlin. In view of this, our government immediately took a number of measures to organize an investigation into the murder of Mirbach and to carefully guard the embassy.
All the government's attention was focused on settling the conflict with the Germans, as the specter of a new war hung over ruined Russia. At the same time, we had to devote a lot of attention to the final elimination of the Left SR insurrection.
It was necessary to immediately take measures for the final destruction of these newly appeared counter-revolutionaries, for their complete defeat and the detention of everyone who was possible.
It was quite obvious that together with the flight of Popov's detachment, this whole adventure came to an end. Popov's detachment now worried everyone the least, for we knew perfectly well that this decomposed public would not go anywhere beyond the suburban taverns, and by the evening they would turn themselves in with a confession or be detained by the police. The head of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, of course, will try to run away in order to harm the Soviet government in the provinces by all means. It goes without saying that the majority will flee in cars along highways, along the radius from Moscow through its outposts. Also, everyone was firmly convinced that most of the leaders of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries were scattered around the city in private apartments, where, bleeding with verbiage, they are waiting for the outcome of the event in order to declare themselves heroes of the day when the chestnuts from the fire of battle will be pulled out by the hands of the decayed detachment of Popov. And since it was still early in the morning, I undoubtedly thought that most of them were sleeping blissfully in the warm and cozy shelters that the liberal, grumbling bourgeoisie always so willingly gave to these Don Quixotes of the revolution, who always made noise, always shouted about their exploits, always who had several ready-made plans in their pockets for explosions, uprisings, conspiracies and several active provocateurs and traitors in their central organizations.
Consequently, there was still time to issue expedient orders for the capture of the greatest number of these leavened patriots from socialism. First of all, I gave the Cheka a telephone message from Vladimir Ilyich to send all possible forces in the wake of the escaped Popov’s detachment, trying to detain him in parts, in groups, immediately disarming the detainees and delivering them in trucks to the internal prison of the Cheka, and hand over the weapons to the storeroom of the Cheka. The best forces of the Cheka were sent to search all the apartments where it could only be assumed that the Socialist-Revolutionaries could spend the night, and very soon the news was received that Aleksandrovich, Dzerzhinsky's deputy, had been arrested while trying to get into a car and escape. A few days after the analysis of his case in the Cheka, he was sentenced by the collegium of the Cheka to capital punishment and immediately shot. So shamefully died once a former terrorist, an admirer of the People's Will, a member of the Executive Committee of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies in the February Revolution, now decomposed along with his entire party and daring to raise a hand against the proletarian state, deceiving the trust of the government of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which nominated him to the responsible and high post of deputy chairman of the Cheka.
The troops, of course, were ordered to pursue on the heels of the fugitives - for the most part in the direction of the Rogozhskaya Zastava. In addition, I immediately sent an order signed by Vladimir Ilyich to all volost and city executive committees with immediate transmission to the village councils of the Moscow district, to all factory committees and committees of factories and factories located in a 30-verst ring around Moscow, near highways, with a proposal everywhere lower barriers on the highway and place armed detachments of workers near them, as well as on bridges across rivers, where to detain all cars, carefully check them and, at the slightest suspicion, arrest passengers and send them to Moscow to clarify their identities. Thus, all escape routes were cut, and a fairly significant number of fugitives were detained at these outposts.
Here I am, - Dzerzhinsky said cheerfully, quickly entering the Administration of the Council of People's Commissars.
Finally arrived! We greeted him with greetings. There was no news about Dzerzhinsky in any report. And we were wondering where he was. Some thought that the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries took him with them as a hostage, others assumed that they shot him, and others were sure that he had fled. But since no one knew anything positive, everyone was worried.
An impromptu meeting of the Council of People's Commissars was immediately opened under the chairmanship of Vladimir Ilyich, where Dzerzhinsky recounted his "odyssey" in detail.
It turns out that when he left the German embassy with the firm intention of restoring discipline in the detachment of the Cheka troops, he went straight to the location of this battalion. The sentries, seeing their chief commander, were dumbfounded and let him through without asking for a password. Dzerzhinsky demanded that Popov come to him and ordered him to report everything that had happened. Popov was taken aback and began to babble that the detachment had fallen out of obedience, that he could not do anything, that another boss had come. Under the first pretext, Popov left. For a long time no one appeared and there was complete silence. Glancing through the doors, Dzerzhinsky saw across the room a guard posted to the door. He realized that he was under arrest. After a while, Latsis and Smidovich were brought into his room. They animatedly discussed the state of affairs and did not themselves know what the Socialist-Revolutionaries would decide.
By evening, the discipline, which had already been shaken in the detachment during the day, was completely shaken. Drunk people showed up. They left the guard and patrols without permission. Some got caught in street robberies. Street women were dragged into the house of the detachment, by midnight they got drunk and fell asleep, whoever stumbled where, completely forgetting about weapons.
I summoned Popov. He came, - said Dzerzhinsky, - and I began to reproach him, how could he dissolve the detachment so that no one listens to him and that the battalion, previously quite disciplined, in a few hours turned into a slovenly gang of robbers and drunkards. Popov was silent and sometimes only tried to cowardly babble something with a stuttering tongue.
Give me your revolver here,” Dzerzhinsky demanded, “I will shoot you like a scoundrel who has dishonored the Cheka with his disgusting behavior.
Popov turned pale, recoiled, did not give the revolver, and rushed to the door.
You are a coward, you are a contemptible coward, - Dzerzhinsky shouted after him.
Popov disappeared and no longer dared to appear in front of the stubborn, piercing gaze of his boss, unshakable by the will.
There was nothing else to do but wait until everything calmed down to try to leave this house. I understood very well that ours were about to come up and in the confusion, either it would be possible to leave, or it would be possible to be shot on the spot.
Fatigue took its toll, and we, too, dozed off in the ensuing silence, through which completely drunken voices of men and women occasionally broke through, half-asleeply wailing an incoherent drunken song somewhere. And when the dream completely took possession of me, suddenly there was a terrible roar and crackling. The house shook. Plaster fell on us from the ceiling and cornices, glass broke, the door opened and hung. We jumped up. It was in our house that an artillery shell fucked. The turmoil began desperately. Everyone jumped up and screamed, thinking nothing. Who grabbed the weapon, who threw it; everyone rushed about, smashed frames, jumped out of windows. I went into the next room and thought: "We must leave now." We entered a room where half a wall was missing; through this hole we jumped out into the street, got mixed up in the crowd and quickly disappeared, soon reaching the location of our troops, - this is how F. E. Dzerzhinsky ended his story.
Popov's detachment shamefully, randomly ran in all directions, without looking back, without firing a single shot and without showing the slightest resistance. The leaders of the detachment also shamefully, contemptuously ran behind the house through neighboring courtyards there, to the Kursk railway station, to the Rogozhskaya outpost.
It goes without saying that the government could not ignore the extremely difficult circumstance that in the troops of the Cheka, and in its highest collegium, not only disobedience, but also black treason was discovered. The strictest investigation was ordered. Dzerzhinsky resigned 7 . On this occasion, a special decree of the Central Government was published, which was fully included in Government Communication No. 3. It was printed not only in newspapers, but also pasted throughout the city. Here is his text:
RESOLUTION
In view of the statement of Comrade Dzerzhinsky about the need for him, as one of the main witnesses in the case of the murder of the German ambassador Count Mirbach, to step aside from the leadership of the work of the Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, Profiteering and Sabotage, the Council of People's Commissars appoints comrade. Peters.
The board of the Extraordinary Commission is declared abolished.
Tov. Peters is instructed to submit within a week to the Council of People's Commissars a report on the personnel of the workers of the Extraordinary Commission with a view to eliminating all those members who were directly or indirectly involved in the provocative Azev activities of Blumkin, a member of the "Left Socialist-Revolutionary" party.
The farce, which had turned into a tragicomedy, was ending. Our troops were soon recalled to the barracks. The police and agents of the Cheka completed the defeat of the newly-minted rebels, everywhere establishing law and order established by the proletarian government.
This quick defeat of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, which seemed to us so slow, made a stunning impression in the city.
Already at four o'clock in the afternoon on July 7, 1918, the government published its Communication No. 3, in which it calculated the results of the defeat of this new counter-revolutionary action.
The counter-revolutionary uprising of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in Moscow was liquidated. The Left Socialist-Revolutionary detachments, one after the other, turn into the most shameful flight. An order was issued for the arrest and disarmament of all the Left Socialist-Revolutionary detachments, and above all, the arrest of all members of the Central Committee of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Those who offer armed resistance to arrest are to be shot on the spot.
Several hundred participants in the counter-revolutionary rebellion were arrested, including a prominent member of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party, Aleksandrovich, who held the post of deputy chairman in the Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and acted in the same way as the provocateur Azef acted.
Workers and Red Army soldiers are called to vigilance. The mobilization of forces must continue. Every single member of the Left SR detachments must be neutralized*****.
“To investigate the case of the murder of the German ambassador Count Mirbach and the organization of the counter-revolutionary uprising of the so-called Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in Moscow on July 6 and 7, the Council of People's Commissars decided to form a special commission of inquiry consisting of: Comrades. P. I. Stuchki, V. Kingisepp and Ya. S. Sheinkman” ******.
Thus read the government message on the formation of the commission of inquiry, published at four o'clock in the afternoon on July 7, 1918.
The People's Commissariat of Justice set to work investigating these out of the ordinary events, fraught with enormous political consequences. The German embassy in Moscow obviously received categorical directives from Berlin and made demand after demand to our government. Everything that concerned the satisfaction of the injured pride of the Germans, Vladimir Ilyich ordered to be carried out in full. We carried out the ceremonial transportation of the body of the murdered ambassador to the station in the presence of members of the government with an honorary military guard, offering many apologies for what had happened, since Vladimir Ilyich firmly declared that we must decisively exhaust everything, if only to avert the prospect of war, for "a drop of blood of workers and peasants should be dearer to us than tens of thousands of heads of members of the bourgeois-noble governments and their class allies, ”he repeatedly repeated. The very fact of the uprising of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries helped us a lot, since it became obvious to everyone that this gross provocation came from the ranks, unconditionally hostile to Soviet power. Such a quick suppression of the new counter-revolutionaries, the arrests of the centers of the rebels and the severe reprisal against both the instigators and the leaders immediately made it clear to everyone that our communist government firmly holds power in its hands and is not going to give anyone mercy. All this taken together undoubtedly made an impression on the ruling German spheres, and the specter of an almost inevitable war began to gradually recede. But appetite, as you know, comes with eating. The Germans thought that Soviet Russia had weakened to such an extent that after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk they could do whatever they wanted in it. They obviously forgot the lessons of February, when in 1918 they went on the offensive near Pskov, taking advantage of the fact that the old army, having decomposed to the end, spontaneously rushed home, leaving all weapons and artillery equipment in the trenches and positions. The Germans forgot the alarm horns given at that time in Petrograd at all factories and plants at twelve o'clock at night, forty-five minutes after receiving the telegram about the occupation of Pskov by the Germans. They forgot that on the very next day, the newly mobilized workers in orderly battalions, with a new fire burning in their hearts, calling them to defend the borders of their socialist fatherland, rushed there, to the borders, and, reinforced by armored trains, quickly threw back the advancing German troops, impenetrable becoming a veil on the borders of what was then Russia.
All this was apparently forgotten by the Germans when, with the insolence inherent in the Hohenzollerns, they demanded the Soviet government to send their soldiers in the form of a regular military unit to Moscow to guard the embassy.
Vladimir Ilyich at that time was near Moscow, in the dacha area of Maltsebrodovo, away from the village of Tarasovka, near the village of Komarovka, where a rather picturesque estate was located along the Klyazma River, formerly owned by Dr. N.V. Solovyov, and where an agricultural trust "Forest meadows". It was in this place, on the recommendation of I. I. Skvortsov (Stepanov), that a holiday was arranged for Vladimir Ilyich and his family. He often came there.
In the same wing where he and his family were placed, I lived with my family. Having a direct telephone connection with Moscow, I, as my manager of the affairs of the Council of People's Commissars, received all urgent information to the village, trying to postpone everything possible until Monday, not wanting to disturb Vladimir Ilyich unnecessarily, knowing that he needed an unconditional rest at least once a seven days. At that time, he was extremely overtired in a week, especially since Nadezhda Konstantinovna was ill all the time, and this greatly worried Vladimir Ilyich.
After the uprising of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries was liquidated, Vladimir Ilyich resumed his trips to Maltsebrodovo, and on one of these days they called from Moscow and announced the ultimatum of the German government. In a number of different conditions, it was stated there that the German government resolutely and categorically demanded that a battalion of soldiers of the imperial army be sent to Moscow, that only they could be entrusted with the protection of the high personality of the ambassador of His Majesty the German Emperor, and that this demand was an ultimatum, the failure to comply with which will be followed by all that what happens after decisive ultimatums.
The time was extremely difficult. Then our army was still in its infancy, uprisings were in full swing everywhere, and a new war could plunge us into innumerable disasters. This was not the time when we responded to Curzon's ultimatum 8 with a squadron of military airplanes, quickly organized at the expense of the workers of our Union.
With a heavy, oppressed feeling, I immediately went to report to Vladimir Ilyich about the short notice received.
I informed him that there was very important news from Moscow.
From the Germans?
Yes, - and I gave him the received telephone message. Vladimir Ilyich quickly read it, and as he read it, he began to turn pale.
It means that indignation seized his heart, I thought. He looked up from the paper and raised his head, his wide eyes glowing with stubborn fire.
What did they want?.. Ah!.. Scoundrels! Here the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries are getting their way. Should we be turned into a colony?.. No!.. - and he laughed with that quiet laugh behind which, I knew, the firm and clear decisions of a statesman, an inflexible revolutionary, are forged from him.
He quickly walked several times around his room, where there were two beds and a small table at which he studied.
Well, we will answer them, - he said menacingly and, as always before work or performance, he ran both hands over his head several times, smoothing the whisk of once slightly curly hair.
He suddenly smiled, even laughed softly, and sat down at the table, pushed a stack of forms into half a writing sheet, and immediately plunged into his work.
There was dead silence. We quietly left. Everyone realized that the fate of our revolution, the fate of Russia, was now being decided, its honor and dignity were being measured.
I knew that Vladimir Ilyich expected the worst possible consequences from the provocative murder of the German ambassador by the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries; he had a presentiment of war, which he had already announced in the Government Communication he had written. No ultimatums could take Vladimir Ilyich by surprise, for he always foresaw everything, weighed everything and amazingly clearly understood the whole complex pan-European state of affairs.
But all the same, in these solemn and exciting moments, my heart skipped a beat.
The door opened a little, and he came out to us with clear eyes, in which a really stubborn unbending will shone. Clearly and calmly, standing up, exactly announcing the manifesto, he read the answer of the Soviet government to the German ultimatum, where every word sounded the greatest dignity of the representative of the nation, where every line was saturated with flaming anger, where every phrase testified to the inflexibility and heroic determination of the revolutionary masses, the growing in its political consciousness and self-determining people.
“The government of the Soviet Republic was well aware, when concluding the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, what a difficult task the workers and peasants of Russia, due to the prevailing international situation at that time, had to undertake. The will of the overwhelming majority of the Fourth Congress of Soviets was quite clear: the working classes demanded peace, in need of rest for work, organization of the socialist economy, for gathering and strengthening the forces torn by the painful war.
Fulfilling the will of the Congress of Soviets, the government strictly carried out the difficult conditions of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and recently our negotiations with the German government on the most precise determination of the amount of those payments that fall on us, and on the methods of payment, which we decided to make in the shortest possible time, have already advanced quite far. possible timeframe.
But, fulfilling the conditions of Brest-Litovsk in the most precise way and guarding the will of the workers and peasants to have peace, the government of the Soviet Republic never lost sight of the fact that there are limits beyond which even the most peace-loving working masses will be forced to stand up and stand up, as one man, in defense of their country. armed hand.
The senseless and criminal adventure of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries has brought us within a hair's breadth of the war. Our relations with the German government, contrary to our wishes, could not help but become aggravated. Recognizing the legitimacy of the desire of the German government to strengthen the security of its embassy, we have gone and are going far to satisfy this desire.
But when we were informed of the desire of the German government, which did not yet bear the character of an unconditional demand, that we let a battalion of armed German troops in uniform into Moscow, we answered - and now we repeat this answer in the face of the highest organ of Soviet power, the workers and peasants, in the face of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee - that in no case and under no circumstances can we satisfy such a desire, because this would, objectively, be the beginning of the occupation of Russia by foreign troops.
We would be compelled to respond to such a step, as we respond to the rebellion of the Czechoslovaks, to the military actions of the British in the north, namely: increased mobilization, calling all adult workers and peasants without exception to armed resistance and to destroy, in case of a temporary need for retreat, all and sundry , without any exception, means of communication, warehouses, and especially food products, so that they cannot fall into the hands of the enemy. War would then become fatal for us, but an unconditional and unconditional necessity, and the workers and peasants of Russia will wage this revolutionary war hand in hand with the Soviet government to their last breath.
The internal policy of the Soviet government, strictly following the decisions of the Fifth Congress of Soviets, as well as the external one, remains the same. The criminal adventure of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, who turned out to be accomplices of the White Guards, landlords and capitalists, now, when the clouds are gathering and the danger of war is intensifying, will be even more criminal in the eyes of the people, and we will fully and in every way support and carry out a merciless reprisal against the traitors, irrevocably condemned by the will of the Fifth Congress of Soviets. If the war, despite all our efforts, becomes a fact, we will not be able to have a shadow of confidence in the gang of Left Socialist-Revolutionary traitors who are capable of frustrating the will of the Soviets, committing military treason, and the like. We will draw new strength for the war from the merciless suppression of both insanely adventurist (Left SR) and consciously class (landlord, capitalist, kulak) leaders of the counter-revolution.
We appeal to the workers and peasants of all Russia: triple vigilance, caution and restraint, comrades! Everyone should be at their post! Everyone must give their lives, if necessary, to defend Soviet power, to defend the interests of the working people, the exploited, the poor, to defend socialism!
Take it for printing,” Vladimir Ilyich told me, “rewrite it and send it on. Do not give the original to anyone, keep it for yourself ...
The second and last time I heard this desire from him. In the same way, with almost the same words, he gave me his famous proclamation "The socialist fatherland is in danger!" Pskov.
Having come to my room, I immediately made an inscription on this document, which I have now transferred to the V.I. Lenin Institute:
“Personally handed over by V. I. Lenin to me for preservation. For publication, V. I. Lenin asked to rewrite, but not to give the original to anyone.
Vl. Bonch-Bruevich.
I immediately carefully examined the historical document handed to me by Vladimir Ilyich, written by his hand. He was almost without blots. Vladimir Ilyich re-read it before reading it aloud, as can be seen from several corrections made in blue pencil. In some places, vague letters are inscribed in blue pencil, commas are placed, and on the second page of the text a significant amendment has been made. Vladimir Ilyich replaced the word "lands" with the word "countries" in the phrase "they will be forced to stand up and stand up, as one man, to defend their country with an armed hand."
In the original document, written by the hand of Vladimir Ilyich, there are only five pages, half a sheet of writing paper. In the morning everyone became aware of this energetic, truly revolutionary rebuff by the Soviet government to the impudent claims of the Hohenzollern gang and the entire court and military clique.
An extremely tense situation was felt in Moscow, but everyone breathed freely. Tired of the imperialist war, having already expended huge forces on the outbreak of civil war, the masses of the people clearly realized that, in spite of everything, the Germans needed to be rebuffed, that no one would ever allow anyone to turn our country into a colony, to begin its occupation in Russia.
The Germans realized that it was impossible to insist on their monstrously ridiculous demands. Gradually, this sore point resolved, and it did not come to a conflict. Events in Germany were brewing. The German ruling clique had to think most of all about its own destiny. Military happiness has changed her. German troops retreated from the borders of Russia. The German revolution was drawing near.
The Left SRs were completely crushed as rebels. Everywhere and everywhere they were expelled from the working environment, from government and economic organizations. Those workers who had previously shared their point of view now immediately opened their eyes to the whole adventurist nature of their party, and they clearly understood that the interclass position that they had always occupied could not lead to anything good. Their program, which was not based on a solid class foundation, gave rise to absurd tactics, clearly hostile to the interests of the proletariat and the poorest peasantry, and, of course, had no points of contact with the most important, cornerstone of our October Revolution - with the dictatorship of the proletariat. Moreover, she came to light as clearly hostile to her. All this taken together at once tore away from them the last, on the whole, insignificant masses of workers who still had some connection with the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party. The handfuls of "leaders" left with nothing had to emigrate and drag out their miserable existence abroad, indulging in dreams of the past, obviously completely forgetting that "you can't go far in the carriage of the past."
Years have passed... The Soviet government emerged victorious from all the most difficult trials. The Party of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, like those of the Right, has been consigned to the archives of history. The revolutionary power of the people has been established, our really united Communist Party, which sacredly fulfills the behests of Vladimir Ilyich, is in power.
* V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 50, pp. 112-113. - Ed.
** The third Government Communication, entitled "Government Communication No. 3, July 7, 4 p.m.", contained: 1) an announcement of the final defeat of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, beginning with the words: "The counter-revolutionary uprising of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in Moscow has been liquidated ..."; 2) an announcement entitled "Formation of an investigative commission"; 3) a resolution beginning with the words: “In view of Comrade Dzerzhinsky’s statement about the need for him ...”, etc. Government Communication No. 3 at the end is dated for the second time: “Moscow, July 7, 1918.”
All these three parts of the same decision are published by us here in the corresponding chapters of our memoirs.
*** See Decrees of Soviet Power, vol. II, M, 1959, pp. 532-533. - Ed.
**** "Izvestia", 8.VII 1918, No. 141. - Ed.
***** See "Decrees of Soviet Power", vol. II, p. 534. - Ed.
****** See Decrees of Soviet Power, Vol. II, pp. 536-537. - Ed.
******* V. I. Lenin. Full coll. cit., vol. 36, pp. 524-526. - Ed.
Notes:
1 GV Chicherin (1872-1936) - Soviet statesman, outstanding diplomat. From 1904 to 1917 he was in exile, where in 1905 he joined the RSDLP, in 1918 - in the RCP (b). Member of the Soviet peace delegation in Brest during the second period of peace negotiations. From 1918 to 1930 - People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. He headed the Soviet delegations at international conferences in Genoa and Lausanne. Member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. (Page 299.)
On July 24, 1918, the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets opened in Moscow. The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries took a sharply hostile position at the congress to all the proposals of the Bolsheviks. On July 6, the work of the congress was interrupted due to the beginning of a counter-revolutionary revolt of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. Resuming work on July 9, the congress ended on July 10, 1918 (Page 299.)
3 B. D. Kamkov (Katz) (1885-1938) - one of the leaders of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party. For counter-revolutionary activities he was arrested and convicted by the Military Tribunal. Later he worked in the field of statistics. (Page 299.)
4 M. A. Spiridonova (1884-1941) - one of the leaders of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party. (Page 300.)
5 M. I. Latsis (Ya. F. Sudrabs) (1888-1938) - a Bolshevik since 1905. In the October days he was a member of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, a member of the collegium of the Cheka and the NKVD. In 1932-1937 - Director of the Moscow Institute of National Economy. G. V. Plekhanov.
P. G. Smidovich (1874-1935) - member of the party since 1898. In 1905 - an active participant in the December armed uprising in Moscow. After the October Revolution - in responsible Soviet work. (Page 311.)
7 The Council of People's Commissars accepted the resignation of F. E. Dzerzhinsky, but when the new composition of the Cheka was formed, he again included him; On August 22, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars again appointed F.E. Dzerzhinsky chairman of the Cheka. (Page 318.)
8 This refers to the ultimatum of British Foreign Minister Curzon, sent by him in May 1923 to the Soviet government, containing a number of slanderous accusations and provocative demands. (Page 322.)
The reasons for the murder of Count Mirbach should be sought not only in the internal political situation in Russia in 1917-1918, but also in the development of international, in particular Soviet-German, relations. These relations were steadily drawn into the Gordian knot, cut on July 6, 1918. In 1918, Germany, losing the First World War in the West, won it in the East - the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk became proof of this. However, the German military-political elite, with the help of the Brest Peace, supporting the power of the Russian Bolsheviks, inevitably brought the revolution in their country closer. The Bolsheviks, weighed down by the "obscene", "predatory" and "enslaving" peace with the German imperialists, were forced to comply with it, since the fate of the Russian revolution now depended on the German Kaiser, his military and diplomats.
Count Mirbach became a hostage, on the one hand, to the policy of forced partnership between the Reich and the Bolsheviks, and on the other hand, to Germany's search for political alternatives to Lenin's government and its support for anti-Soviet forces in Russia. The Bolsheviks pursued an ambivalent policy towards Germany, on the one hand, having concluded a separate peace in Brest-Litovsk and thereby helping the Kaiser to stay in power and continue the war in the West, and on the other hand, kindling the center of the world revolution in Germany.
Thus, the German ambassador, often acting at his own peril and risk, was forced to pursue two mutually exclusive political lines at once, which made possible the political provocation of which he became a victim.
The Left SRs launched a terrorist act against the German ambassador in order to change the mood at the Congress of Soviets, and after the murder of Mirbach took responsibility. However, before the massacre of the German ambassador, neither the Central Committee of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party, nor the congress of this party made a decision on the murder of Mirbach.
 In the murder of Mirbach, all the traces - "royal", "money", "Chekist" and "Socialist-Revolutionary" are intricately intertwined. “The German government, personally Kaiser Wilhelm II and his all-powerful governor in Soviet Russia, Count Wilhelm von Mirbach, did everything to save and take the tsar and his family to Germany. They constantly put pressure on Lenin and Sverdlov, there was a big political game, - writes V. I. Sakharov, researcher at the Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “Here a tragic knot in the history of Russia and Germany has been tightened, which only the death of the Romanovs could cut.”
On May 18, 1918, two days after meeting with Lenin, Mirbach, in a telegram to Berlin, expressed concern about the situation in Russia and emphasized that, according to his estimate, a one-time sum of 40 million marks would be needed to keep Lenin in power; A few days later, on June 3, the German ambassador telegraphed to the Imperial Foreign Office that, in addition to a one-time amount of 40 million marks, another 3 million marks would be required monthly to support Lenin's government.
“Count Mirbach said that he now needed 3 million marks a month for these expenses. However, it should be borne in mind that if circumstances change, this amount may double. The fund we used for acquisitions in Russia has been exhausted. Therefore, the State Secretary of the Imperial Treasury must be provided with a new fund, which, taking into account the above circumstances, should total at least 40 million, ”reads a note from the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs R. von Kühlmann dated June 5, 1918. Already after 6 days - June 11 In 1918, the imperial treasury allocated 40 million marks "for the requested purposes."
The German ambassador was convinced that in the summer of 1918 the Bolsheviks were living out their last days. Therefore, Mirbach proposed to hedge against the fall of Lenin's government and to form a pro-German anti-Soviet government in Russia in advance. Berlin approved this proposal. On June 13, 1918, Mirbach reported to Berlin that he was being approached by various Russian politicians who were looking into the possibility of the German government rendering assistance to the anti-Soviet forces in overthrowing the Bolsheviks. On the eve of his death, in the last telegram sent to Berlin on July 3, 1918, Mirbach warned his government against a break with the Russian bourgeois parties, since this could negatively affect relations with them in the future: “If you maintain the existing opportunities, then the hopes for the subsequent probable softening of the terms of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty will not be completely destroyed.
The activation of Mirbach's contacts with the anti-Bolshevik forces did not go unnoticed. Already from mid-May, representatives of the political forces overthrown in October 1917, the so-called rightists, noted that “the Germans, whom the Bolsheviks brought to Russia, peace with which was the only basis for their existence, are ready to overthrow the Bolsheviks themselves.” As an alternative to the Bolsheviks, the Germans even considered the option of a possible restoration of the monarchy, the first step towards which would have to be the release of the royal family. The cousin of the Russian Empress, the Grand Duke of Hesse Ernst Ludwig (Ernst Ludwig von Hessen und bei Rhein), after the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, appealed to the Soviet embassy in Berlin with a request to release the royal family and send it to Germany. For this, he promised to prevent the probable offensive of German troops on Moscow and to cancel the indemnity imposed on Soviet Russia by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
Despite the improbability of the assumptions that Nicholas II, even if the Germans had rescued him and his family, would have recognized the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, we note that Mirbach, acting on instructions from Berlin, made efforts to save the royal family. The political decision on the fate of Nicholas II and his family, who were shot by the Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg 11 days after the murder of Mirbach, was made in Moscow by the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. I. Lenin, the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Ya. M. Sverdlov, and the leader of the Ural Bolsheviks, F. I. Goloshchekin in early July 1918 - after Count Mirbach was killed. Obviously, this decision was also connected with the attempts of the German side to help the Russian Tsar and his family. Not only Russian right-wing circles and foreign diplomats were aware of the activities of the German embassy in Russia directed against the Bolsheviks. The Soviet government also knew about the change in the mood of the Germans. It is no accident that the time when in Berlin and in the German embassy in Moscow preparations began to change the course of German Ostpolitik, in the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK), headed by the left communist and opponent of the Brest peace F. E. Dzerzhinsky, in the most important department of the VChK for combating counter-revolution , a counterintelligence branch was created, aimed at working against the German embassy. The “Department to Combat German Espionage” was headed by 19-year-old Yakov Blyumkin, and Nikolai Andreev was an employee (photographer) of this department: Mirbach’s killers were not just Left Social Revolutionaries, but Chekists.
By virtue of his official position, Blumkin had extensive information about the German embassy in Moscow. He managed to introduce his employee Yakov Fishman under the guise of an electrician. As a result, in the hands of Blumkin was the plan of the premises and posts of the internal security of the embassy. The head of the department for combating counter-revolution of the Cheka, Martin Latsis, Blumkin's immediate superior, recalled: "Blumkin boasted that his agents give him anything and that in this way he manages to get in touch with all persons of German orientation." But in order to kill Mirbach, Blyumkin and Andreev had to personally penetrate the heavily guarded embassy building, which was legally considered German territory, and get a meeting with the ambassador.
As a pretext for a meeting with Count Mirbach, Blumkin used the “case” fabricated by him of the alleged nephew of the ambassador, the “Austrian prisoner of war” Robert Mirbach, whom the Chekists accused of espionage. In fact, Robert Mirbach was neither an Austrian prisoner of war nor a German spy - he was just a namesake or a very distant relative of the German ambassador. The Russified German Robert Mirbach never served in the Austro-Hungarian or German armies. He was a Russian subject, before his arrest he lived in Petrograd and worked at the Smolny Institute on the economic side.
Blumkin printed a certificate on the letterhead of the Cheka: “The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission authorizes its member Yakov Blumkin and the representative of the Revolutionary Tribunal Nikolai Andreev to enter into negotiations with Mr. German Ambassador to the Russian Republic about a case directly related to Mr. Ambassador. Chairman of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission: F. Dzerzhinsky. Secretary: Xenofontov.
Andreev and Blumkin left this certificate, together with a folder called "The Case of Robert Mirbach", at the German embassy. After the assassination attempt, these documents became the main evidence.
We do not undertake to assert that Blumkin acted on the direct orders of Dzerzhinsky. However, circumstantial evidence suggests that Dzerzhinsky knew about Blumkin's intentions. Obviously, Dzerzhinsky, accidentally or deliberately, “allowed” his subordinates to kill Count Mirbach and, thereby, provoke a severe internal political and international crisis, beneficial to Lenin’s opponents, who intended to disrupt the Brest Peace.
But paradoxically, it was Lenin who won most of all from the murder of Mirbach, who managed, with the help of official Berlin, to maintain the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and to destroy the last obstacle on the way to the one-party dictatorship of the Bolsheviks - the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party - to destroy.
As the People's Commissar of Education A. V. Lunacharsky testified, Lenin, in his presence, immediately after the assassination attempt on Mirbach, gave the following order by telephone to arrest the killers: “Search, search very carefully, but ... not find.” Lenin could be pleased with how events unfolded after Mirbach's assassination, and soon "forgave" Dzerzhinsky. A new board of the Cheka was formed with the direct participation of Dzerzhinsky, and already on August 22, 1918, the “punishing sword of the revolution” was again in the hands of the “iron Felix”.
The "scapegoat" for the murder of Mirbach was the deputy chairman of the Cheka, a member of the Central Committee of the Left Social Revolutionary Party V. Aleksandrovich, who put a seal on the mandate of Blumkin and Andreev and was aware of their intentions to kill the German ambassador. On the night of July 8, 1918 Aleksandrovich was shot.
Official Berlin, after the assassination of Count Mirbach, had a chance to refuse support for Lenin's government. Although Germany presented the Soviet government with an ultimatum, Wilhelm II did not have the strength to resume the war against Russia. Moreover, the Kaiser opposed the severance of relations with Russia and called for "supporting the Bolsheviks under any conditions."
How did the terrorist attack in Money Lane happen? On July 6, 1918, at 2:15 pm, the dark-colored Packard of the Cheka, in which Blumkin and Andreev were, stopped at the mansion of the German embassy. Getting out of the car, Blyumkin ordered the driver not to turn off the engine.
The murderers showed the doorman of the embassy the identity of the Cheka and demanded a personal meeting with Count Mirbach. They were led through the lobby to the living room and told to wait. The ambassador, having heard about the impending assassination attempt, avoided meeting with visitors, but, having learned that official representatives of the Cheka had arrived, he decided to go out to them. Mirbach was joined by Dr. Kurt Riezler and Lieutenant Müller as interpreter. The conversation lasted over 25 minutes. Blumkin presented the ambassador with papers that allegedly testified to the espionage activities of the "ambassador's relative." Mirbach noted that he had never met this relative and that his fate was indifferent to him. Then Andreev asked if the count wanted to know about the measures that the Soviet government was going to take. The Count nodded. Then Blumkin pulled out a revolver and opened fire. He fired three shots but missed three times. Mirbach, jumping up from his chair, rushed to run. Andreev threw the bomb, but it did not explode. Then Andreev shot at Mirbach and mortally wounded him. Mirbach, covered in blood, fell on the carpet. Then Blumkin picked up an unexploded bomb, and for the second time threw it with force. There was an explosion, under the cover of which the killers tried to escape. Leaving the VChK identity card, the “Robert Mirbach Case” and a briefcase with a spare explosive device on the table, the terrorists jumped out the window shattered by the explosion and ran through the garden to the car. Andreev was in the car in a few seconds. Blumkin also landed extremely unsuccessfully - he broke his leg. He struggled to climb over the fence. From the side of the embassy, the Germans opened fire indiscriminately. The bullet hit Blumkin in the leg, but he also got to the car. The driver pressed the gas pedal and the KGB "Packard" rushed to Tryokhsvyatitelsky Lane to the headquarters of the Cheka detachment headed by Popov. In Popov's detachment, Blyumkin was cut, his beard was shaved off, he was dressed in a Red Army uniform and taken to a nearby infirmary. “If we left the embassy, then an unforeseen, ironic event is to blame,” wrote Blumkin. At 15:15 Count Mirbach died. He was 47 years old...
In order to preserve the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and maintain a veneer of diplomatic propriety, Sverdlov, Lenin and Chicherin went to the German embassy to express official condolences on the assassination of the ambassador. Trotsky flatly refused to go to the Germans: his formula "neither peace nor war" did not require expressions of sympathy for the murdered "imperialist and enemy of the world revolution" Mirbach.
A chic Rolls-Royce from the former tsarist garage was carrying the head of the Soviet state, the head of government and the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs to Money Lane. Lenin was in a great mood: Count Mirbach, who was aware of the dark affairs of the Bolsheviks with the Kaiser Reich; Count Mirbach, who made efforts to save the royal family; Count Mirbach, who was the epitome of the humiliation of revolutionary Russia by German imperialism, was no longer alive. Lenin joked: “I already agreed with Radek: I wanted to say “Mitleid”, but I should say “Beileid”” - and laughed at his own joke i ...
On July 6, 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II's ambassador to Soviet Russia, Count Wilhelm von Mirbach-Harf, was assassinated in Moscow. For decades, this terrorist act was unambiguously interpreted in the USSR as a provocation by the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party, which since October 1917 was part of a government coalition with the Bolsheviks, whose goal was to violate the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Germans and seize power in the country.
MONEY LANE, 5
At this address in Moscow was the mansion of the German embassy in the RSFSR. On July 6, 1918, at 2:15 p.m., a dark-colored Packard stopped near him, from which two people got out.
They showed the doorman of the embassy the certificate of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission and demanded a personal meeting with the German ambassador. The Chekists were led through the lobby to the Red Drawing Room of the mansion and offered to wait a bit. Count Mirbach was warned of a possible attempt on his life and therefore avoided receiving visitors. But, having learned that official representatives of the Cheka had arrived, I decided to go out to them. Mirbach was joined by the embassy adviser, Dr. Kurt Rietzler, and the adjutant of the military attaché, Lieutenant Leonhart Müller, as an interpreter. The conversation lasted over 25 minutes.
The Chekist, who introduced himself as Yakov Blumkin, presented Mirbach with papers that allegedly testified to the espionage activities of a "relative of the ambassador" of a certain Robert Mirbach. The diplomat noted that he had never met this relative. Then the second employee of the Cheka - Andreev - asked if the count wanted to know about the measures that the Soviet government was going to take. Mirbach nodded. After that, Blumkin pulled out a revolver and opened fire. He fired three shots: at Mirbach, Rietzler and Müller, but hit no one. The ambassador started to run. Andreev threw the bomb, and when it did not explode, shot at Mirbach and mortally wounded him.
The Count, covered in blood, fell to the carpet. Blumkin, on the other hand, picked up the failed bomb and threw it a second time. There was an explosion, under the cover of which the killers tried to escape. Leaving the VChK identity card, the “Robert Mirbach file” and a briefcase with a spare explosive device on the table, the terrorists jumped out the broken window and ran across the garden to the car. Andreev was in the Packard in a few seconds. Blyumkin landed extremely unsuccessfully - he broke his leg. He struggled to climb over the fence. From the side of the embassy, the Germans opened fire indiscriminately. The bullet hit Blumkin in the leg, but he also got to the car.
At 15:15 Count Mirbach died. He was 47 years old
TWO POLITICAL LINES
So, the Kaiser diplomat was killed by Blumkin and Andreev, the Left SRs. But did they only want the death of Mirbach?
In the summer of 1918, the situation of the German troops on the Western Front of the World War became more and more difficult. That is why the military-political elite of Germany was in dire need of preserving the peace treaty signed by the Bolsheviks in Brest-Litovsk. The Bolsheviks, however, weary of the "obscene", "predatory" and "enslaving" peace with the German imperialists, were forced to observe it, since the fate of the Russian revolution now depended on Berlin.
Count Mirbach became a hostage, on the one hand, to the policy of forced partnership between the Reich and the Bolsheviks, and on the other, to the search for political alternatives to Lenin's government and support for anti-Soviet forces in Russia. Thus, the ambassador was forced to pursue two mutually exclusive political lines at once, which made possible the provocation of which he became a victim.
The materials of the political archive of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, documents of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Chancellor Gertling, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Kuhlmann speak of their high appreciation of the work of the German ambassador to Soviet Russia. Count Mirbach's official letters sent from Moscow to Berlin, on the whole, testify to his correct understanding of the situation in the host country, although there is an overestimation of pro-German sentiments.
The report of Count Mirbach on the conversation with Lenin on May 16, 1918 is one of the few documents containing the recognition by the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the failure of the Brest policy. However, Mirbach believed that Germany's interests still required its orientation towards the Leninist government, since those forces that might replace the Bolsheviks would seek, with the help of the Entente, to reunite with the territories torn from Russia by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
On May 18, 1918, two days after his meeting with Lenin, Mirbach sent a telegram to Berlin expressing concern about the situation in Russia and stressing that he estimated that a one-time sum of 40 million marks would be needed to keep the Bolsheviks in power. A few days later, on June 3, the German ambassador telegraphed to the Reich Ministry of Foreign Affairs that in addition to the one-time sum of 40 million marks, another 3 million marks would be required monthly to support Lenin's government.
State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Kuhlmann instructed Mirbach to continue to provide financial assistance to the Bolsheviks. However, neither Kühlmann nor Mirbach were sure that with the help of German money, which helped the Bolsheviks come to power in October 1917, Lenin could continue to hold on to the helm of government. The German ambassador was convinced that in the summer of 1918 the Bolsheviks were living out their last days. Therefore, Mirbach proposed to insure against the fall of Lenin by forming a pro-German anti-Soviet government in Russia in advance.
Berlin approved this proposal. On June 13, 1918, Mirbach informed his leadership that he was approached by various political figures who were looking into the possibility of the German government assisting the anti-Soviet forces in overthrowing the Bolsheviks. Moreover, these forces consider the revision of the articles of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk by Germany as a condition for the overthrow of Lenin.
On June 25, 1918, in his last letter to Kuhlmann, Mirbach wrote that he could not "put a favorable diagnosis on Bolshevism. We are undoubtedly standing at the bedside of a dangerously ill person who is doomed." Based on this, the ambassador proposed to fill the "vacuum" with new "government bodies, which we will keep ready and who will be entirely at our service."
The change in Germany's position and the intensification of Mirbach's contacts with anti-Bolshevik forces did not go unnoticed. As early as mid-May, representatives of the political parties overthrown in October 1917, the so-called "rightists", noted that "the Germans, whom the Bolsheviks brought to Russia, peace with which was the only basis for their existence, are ready to overthrow the Bolsheviks themselves."
But not only Russian "right" circles and foreign diplomats were aware of the anti-Soviet activities of the German embassy in Russia. The Soviet government also knew about the change in the mood of the Germans. It is no coincidence that at the time when preparations began in Berlin and at the German embassy in Moscow for a change in the course of German Ostpolitik, the counterintelligence department was created in the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission, headed by the left communist and opponent of the Brest Peace, Felix Dzerzhinsky, in the most important department of the Cheka to combat counter-revolution , aimed at working against the German diplomatic mission. "Department to combat German espionage" was headed by 19-year-old Yakov Blyumkin, and Nikolai Andreev was an employee (photographer) of this department.
HOW THE ATTEMPT WAS PREPARED
By virtue of his official position, Blumkin had extensive information about the German embassy in Moscow. He managed to introduce his employee Yakov Fishman under the guise of an electrician. As a result, the plan of the premises and posts of the internal security of the diplomatic mission ended up in the hands of Blumkin. Martin Latsis, head of the department for combating counter-revolution of the Cheka, recalled: "Blumkin boasted that his agents give him everything they want, and that in this way he manages to get in touch with all persons of German orientation." But in order to kill Mirbach, Blyumkin and Andreev had to personally penetrate the heavily guarded embassy building, which was legally considered German territory, and get a meeting with the ambassador.
As a pretext, Blumkin used a "case" fabricated by him, supposedly the ambassador's nephew, the "Austrian prisoner of war" Robert Mirbach, whom the Chekists accused of espionage. In fact, Robert Mirbach was just a namesake or a very distant relative of the Kaiser diplomat. The Russified German Robert Mirbach never served in the Austro-Hungarian or German armies. He was a Russian subject, before his arrest he lived in Petrograd and worked at the Smolny Institute on the economic side.
According to the memoirs of Latsis, "Blumkin showed a great desire to expand the anti-espionage department and more than once submitted projects to the commission." However, the only "case" in which Blumkin was really involved was the "case of Mirbach-Austria", and Blumkin "went entirely into this matter" and sat "over the interrogation of witnesses for whole nights." As a result of Blumkin's diligence, the modest caretaker of Smolny turned into an Austro-Hungarian officer who allegedly served in the 37th infantry regiment of the army of Emperor Franz Joseph, was captured by Russians and was released after the ratification of the Brest peace treaty. In anticipation of his departure to his homeland, he rented a room in one of the Moscow hotels, where he lived until the beginning of June 1918, when the Swedish actress Landstrom, who was staying at the same hotel, unexpectedly killed herself. Whether this suicide was set up by the security officers or not, it is difficult to judge. The Cheka, meanwhile, declared that Landstrem committed suicide in connection with her counter-revolutionary activities, and arrested all the inhabitants of the hotel. Among them, they say, was "the nephew of the German ambassador."
The Cheka immediately informed the Danish consulate, which represented the interests of Austria-Hungary in Russia, about the arrest of Robert Mirbach. On June 15, the Danish consulate began negotiations with the Cheka "on the case of the arrested officer of the Austrian army, Count Mirbach." During these negotiations, the Chekists suggested to the representative of the consulate the version that Robert Mirbach was a relative of the German ambassador. On June 17, the Danish consulate handed over to the KGB the document they had been waiting for: “The Royal Danish Consulate General hereby informs the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission that the arrested officer of the Austro-Hungarian army Count Robert Mirbach, according to a written message from the German diplomatic mission in Moscow, addressed to the Danish Consulate General, is in fact a member of a family related to the German Ambassador, Count Mirbach, who settled in Austria."
Obviously, the German embassy decided to consider the unknown Count Robert Mirbach as a relative of the German ambassador in the hope that this would alleviate the fate of the unfortunate Austrian officer, and he would be immediately released, especially since the charges against him seemed frivolous.
However, the "nephew case" formed the basis of a dossier against the German embassy and the ambassador personally. The main evidence in Blumkin's hands was a document allegedly signed by Robert Mirbach: "Commitment. I, the undersigned, a Hungarian citizen, a prisoner of war officer of the Austrian army, Robert Mirbach, undertake voluntarily, at my personal request, to deliver secret information about Germany and about German embassy in Russia. I confirm everything written here and will voluntarily fulfill it. Count Robert Mirbach."
Of course, the manager of the Smolny Institute could not tell the Chekists "secret information about Germany and the German embassy in Russia": he simply did not know them. The fact that the “commitment” of Robert Mirbach is a dubious document is evidenced by its appearance: the text is written in Russian in one hand (obviously, by Blumkin’s hand), and the last sentence in Russian and German (with errors) and signatures in Russian and - German - in a different handwriting.
The "Robert Mirbach case" became a pretext for the Chekists to penetrate the German Kaiser's ambassador. Blumkin printed a certificate on the letterhead of the Cheka: “The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission authorizes its member Yakov Blumkin and the representative of the Revolutionary Tribunal Nikolai Andreev to enter into negotiations with the German Ambassador to the Russian Republic regarding a case that is directly related to the Ambassador. The Chairman of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission: F. Dzerzhinsky Secretary: Ksenofontov.
Andreev and Blyumkin left this certificate, together with a folder called "Robert Mirbach's case," at the German embassy. After the assassination attempt, these documents became the main evidence.
"IRON FELIX" IS JUSTIFIED
According to Dzerzhinsky's testimony to the commission of inquiry of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, his signature on the certificate was forged, and, therefore, he was not involved in the murder of the German ambassador. However, new data show that the left-wing communist and opponent of the Brest peace, the Polish gentry Dzerzhinsky, whose homeland Poland was occupied by the Germans, was playing his own political game. Not without reason, the day after the murder of Mirbach, Lenin removed Dzerzhinsky from the post of chairman of the Cheka: obviously, Lenin, Sverdlov and Trotsky considered the events of July 6, 1918 as a joint conspiracy of the Chekists and the Socialist-Revolutionaries.
On July 7, 1918, Dzerzhinsky filed an official application with the Council of People's Commissars for his dismissal from the post of chairman of the Cheka due to the fact that he is "one of the main witnesses in the murder of the German envoy Count Mirbach." The question of removing Dzerzhinsky was considered at a special meeting of the Central Committee of the RCP(b). Apparently, in order to reassure the Germans somewhat, Lenin gave the decree on the removal of Dzerzhinsky a demonstrative character: it was printed not only in newspapers, but also pasted around Moscow. The Collegium of the Cheka was declared dissolved and subject to reorganization within a week.
Dzerzhinsky's testimony is a very confused and contradictory document, which is, in fact, an attempt at self-justification. Dzerzhinsky calls the accusation of Kurt Rietzler, who said that the chairman of the Cheka "turns a blind eye to conspiracies directed directly against the safety of members of the German embassy," "fiction and slander." However, according to Lieutenant Muller, at the beginning of June 1918, cinematographer Vladimir Ginch turned to the embassy, saying that the underground organization "Union of Allies", of which he became a member, was preparing the murder of Count Mirbach. Ritsler reported the information received to the Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Karakhan, who, in turn, informed Dzerzhinsky.
When Ginch warned the German embassy for the second time and about ten days before the assassination attempt named the date of the impending terrorist attack - between July 5 and 6, 1918 - Dzerzhinsky made personal contact with him. During a meeting at the Metropol, Ginch told Dzerzhinsky that members of the Cheka were involved in the case.
On June 28, Ritsler again informed Karakhan (and he - Dzerzhinsky) about the impending assassination attempt and handed over the relevant materials. At the direction of Dzerzhinsky, a search was carried out at the address indicated by the Germans and the British citizen Wiber, "the main organizer of the conspiracy," was arrested. During the search, the Chekists found "six ciphered sheets." Having familiarized himself with their content, Dzerzhinsky came to the conclusion that "someone is blackmailing both us and the German embassy, and that Mr. Wiber may be the victim of this blackmail." Dzerzhinsky expressed his doubts to Ritsler and Lieutenant Muller.
Thus, Dzerzhinsky "from about the middle of June of this year." knew about the "prepared attempt on the lives of members of the German embassy and a conspiracy against the Soviet power," but did nothing to stop them. The chairman of the Cheka claimed that he "was afraid of attempts on the life of Count Mirbach by the monarchist counter-revolutionaries who wanted to achieve restoration through the military force of German militarism, as well as by the counter-revolutionaries - Savinkovites and agents of the Anglo-French bankers." Meanwhile, Dzerzhinsky's subordinates were completing the preparation of a terrorist attack against the ambassador of the German Kaiser.
And here is what the chairman of the Cheka said about his employees who became the murderers of Mirbach: "Who Andreev was, [I] did not know"; "I did not know Blumkin closely and rarely saw him." Yes, Dzerzhinsky really could not have known that a simple photographer Andreev was working for him, but Dzerzhinsky probably saw Blumkin quite often as the head of the most important area of Soviet counterintelligence, the department for combating German espionage.
Dzerzhinsky's testimony is refuted by Blumkin himself, who in April 1919 claimed that all of his "work in the Cheka in the fight against German espionage, obviously, due to its importance, took place under the continuous supervision of the chairman of the Commission, comrade Dzerzhinsky and comrade Latsis."
We do not undertake to assert that Blumkin acted on the direct orders of Dzerzhinsky. However, indirect evidence indicates that Felix Edmundovich knew about his intentions.
So, even before the murder of Count Mirbach, Dzerzhinsky decided "to dissolve our counterintelligence and leave Blumkin without a position for the time being" (he was accused of violating the law and exceeding power). But, despite this, Blumkin was able to receive the investigation file of Robert Mirbach from Latsis on the morning of July 6, issue certificates for himself and Andreev, call an official car and go to the German embassy.
Consequently, Blumkin, formally removed from his post, in fact, with the tacit consent of Dzerzhinsky, continued to prepare a terrorist act. It is obvious that the chairman of the Cheka actually allowed his subordinates to kill Count Mirbach.
Moreover, as Anatoly Lunacharsky, People's Commissar for Education, testified, Lenin, in his presence, immediately after the assassination attempt on Mirbach, gave the following order over the phone to arrest the murderers: "Search, search very carefully, but ... do not find." Later, in the mid-1920s, Blumkin, in a private conversation with his housemate, the People's Commissar's wife Rozanel-Lunacharskaya, in the presence of her cousin Tatyana Sats, claimed that Lenin was well aware of the plan to assassinate Mirbach. True, Blumkin did not personally talk to the leader of the Bolsheviks on this subject. But he discussed it in detail with Dzerzhinsky ...
LENIN LAUGHING
But, paradoxically, it was Lenin who won most of all from the murder of Mirbach, who managed, with the help of official Berlin, to maintain the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and to destroy the last obstacle on the way to the one-party dictatorship of the Bolsheviks - the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party.
An employee of the Soviet embassy in Berlin, Solomon, told how People's Commissar for Trade and Industry Leonid Krasin, who arrived in Germany shortly after the July events in Moscow to prepare an economic agreement, told him that he "did not suspect such deep and cruel cynicism" in Lenin. Lenin, on July 6, 1918, telling Krasin how he intended to get out of the crisis created by the murder of Mirbach, "with a smile" said that we "will make an internal loan among the comrades of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and in this way we will maintain innocence and acquire capital."
Lenin could be pleased with how events unfolded after Mirbach's assassination and soon "forgave" Dzerzhinsky. The new college of the Cheka was formed with the direct participation of the "iron Felix", and already on August 22, 1918, the "punishing sword of the revolution" was again in his hands.
After the assassination of Count Mirbach, the Kaiser had the opportunity to refuse help to Lenin. However, although Germany presented the Soviet government with an ultimatum, Wilhelm II did not have the strength to resume the war against Russia. The emperor spoke out against breaking off relations with Russia and urged "to support the Bolsheviks under any conditions."
Let me remind you of one well-known fact: Sverdlov, Lenin and Chicherin went to the German embassy to express official condolences on the assassination of the ambassador. Trotsky flatly refused to go to the Germans: his formula "neither peace nor war" did not require the expression of sympathy for the murdered "imperialist and enemy of the world revolution" Mirbach.
A chic Rolls-Royce from the former tsar's garage was carrying the head of the Soviet state, the head of government and the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs to Money Lane. Lenin was in a great mood: Count Mirbach, who was aware of the dark affairs of the Bolsheviks with the Kaiser Reich, Count Mirbach, who made efforts to save the royal family, Count Mirbach, who was the personification of the humiliation of revolutionary Russia by German imperialism, was no longer alive. Lenin joked: “I already agreed with Radek: I wanted to say “Mitleid”, but I should say “Beileid”, and laughed at my own joke (these are words that are close in meaning and can be translated into Russian as “sympathy”; however, the former rather means “ sympathy, complicity", in the second - "condolence").
In the embassy mansion, Lenin delivered a short speech in German. He conveyed to the German side the apologies of the government of Soviet Russia about what had happened and, of course, added that "the matter will be immediately investigated and the perpetrators will suffer the punishment they deserve." But these words remained empty promises. So instead of condolences, it really turned out to be complicity ┘
FORGIVEN, AWARDED AND... SHOT
Meanwhile, Andreev and Blumkin simply disappeared. Soon the first one ended up in Ukraine, where he died of typhus.
Blumkin, on the other hand, had a different fate. In May 1919, he arrived in Moscow and turned himself in to the presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, which forgave the terrorist. The decision of the supreme body of Soviet power of May 16, 1919 read: "In view of the voluntary appearance of Ya.G. Blyumkin and the detailed explanation given by him of the circumstances of the murder of the German ambassador Count Mirbach, the presidium decides to grant amnesty to Ya.G. Blyumkin." Yakov Grigorievich was even accepted into the Bolshevik Party. And on the recommendation of ... Dzerzhinsky!
But the appearance of Blumkin in Moscow did not go unnoticed by the German side, who demanded that the killer of Mirbach be punished, and his patrons preferred to send their ward away from Moscow for a while. Blumkin was seconded to the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. In June 1920, he arrived in Northern Iran, where he developed a plan for a coup d'état, took part in it himself and became a member of the Central Committee of the Iranian Communist Party. The government of Kuchuk Khan was overthrown. New people came to power, offering Blumkin a high military post. The former Left SR did all this enormous work in just four months. Moscow encouraged the enterprising and successful employee by awarding him a military order and enrolling him in the Military Academy of the Red Army.
In 1922, Blumkin was recalled from the academy and sent to Trotsky's secretariat. And already in October 1923, Dzerzhinsky took him to the Foreign Department of the OGPU. Blumkin led Soviet intelligence in Tibet, Mongolia, northern China, and the Middle East.
In the late 1920s, Yakov Grigorievich became one of the most famous people in the USSR. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia devoted more than thirty lines to him. Sergei Yesenin dedicated poems to Blumkin, and Valentin Kataev in the story "Werther has already been written" endowed his hero, Naum Fearless, with his features and portrait resemblance.
However, in 1929 in Istanbul, Blumkin met with his former boss and friend Trotsky, Stalin's worst enemy, expelled from the USSR, and even undertook to transfer the disgraced leader's letter to the Soviet Union. On November 3, 1929, the "case" of the Trotskyist Blyumkin was considered at a court session by the OGPU. The verdict is shooting.
The terrorist act, which went down in history as the murder of Ambassador Mirbach, took place on July 6, 1918 in the center of Moscow on the territory of the German embassy at Denezhny lane, house 5. Representatives of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party Yakov Blyumkin and Nikolai Andreev entered the embassy, having with them the mandate of the Cheka. The time was about 3 pm when Ambassador Wilhelm von Mirbach received them. All those present sat down at the table, and with the ambassador were his adviser and translator. The conversation lasted about half an hour, and then the Left SRs opened fire. As a result of this, the German ambassador was mortally wounded, and the terrorists escaped.
German embassy in Moscow where Mirbach's assassination took place
These are dry historical facts, but real people and specific political events stand behind them. So what prompted the Left SRs to shoot at an official representing the German Empire on the territory of the world's first state of workers and peasants? To understand the essence of the issue, you need to have an idea about the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party and their attitude to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which was ratified by the IV All-Russian Congress of Soviets and Emperor Wilhelm II back in March 1918.
Left SRs
Who are the Left SRs? This is a party that initially represented the left wing in the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, formed during the First World War. After the February Revolution, the left wing acquired the status of the left opposition. This meant that serious political differences appeared between the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. In particular, the left opposition was categorically against cooperation with the Provisional Government.
The Left SRs finally formed as a party at the end of 1917. They took part in the October Revolution and expressed support for the Bolshevik Party at the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets. They did not leave the congress along with the rest of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, they voted for its decisions and became members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. This meant a complete break with the Social Revolutionaries and support for the Bolsheviks. By December 1917, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries began to be considered an independent party.
Socialist-Revolutionaries in 1917
Working closely with the Bolsheviks, they entered not only the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, but also the SNK (Council of People's Commissars), that is, they became members of the government. But in February 1918, a black cat ran between the Left SRs and the Bolsheviks. The Brest peace became a stumbling block. The Left SRs voted against both signing it and ratifying it. However, their opinion was ignored. At the same time, representatives of the Left SRs continued to work in various Soviet institutions.
At the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the Left SRs had only 30% of the mandates. But, being in the minority, they openly opposed the Bolsheviks. The congress was held from 4 to 10 July 1918. And it was at this time that the leaders of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries decided to split the Bolsheviks and the Germans in order to annul the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in the future. As already mentioned, on July 6, 1918, the German ambassador Mirbach was killed. This crime was committed by the Left SRs. They then arrested several Bolshevik functionaries and Dzerzhinsky.
These actions were regarded by the Bolshevik party as an uprising. It was suppressed on the morning of July 7 by the forces of the Latvian riflemen, and the deputies from the Left SRs who were at the congress were arrested. But the Bolsheviks did not limit themselves to this and on July 11 declared the Left Socialist-Revolutionary party outlawed.
There is a point of view that the assassination of Ambassador Mirbach was organized by the Bolsheviks themselves. The latter needed a pretext to destroy a strong opposition party. And this was successfully done. After July 1918, a one-party Bolshevik dictatorship was formed in the country, which lasted 72 years.
Chronology of the assassination of Ambassador Mirbach
As we already know, members of the Cheka and members of the Left SR party Yakov Blyumkin (1900-1929) and Nikolai Andreev (1890-1918) were entrusted with carrying out the terrorist act. Blumkin was 18 years old at the time of the crime. He worked in the department for combating international espionage. Andreev was older by 10 years. He was listed as a photographer in the Cheka. Both of these people were born in Odessa, that is, they were countrymen.
Blumkin received the order to carry out the terrorist act, and he had already chosen a partner for himself. On the morning of July 6, this couple arrived at one of the apartments on Tverskaya Street, where they received 2 bombs and 2 revolvers. Then the performers got into the car and drove to the Arbat, to Denezhny Lane.
At 14:15 the car drove up to the German embassy. Blyumkin and Andreev left it and presented a certificate of the Cheka signed by the chairman of the Cheka Dzerzhinsky and secretary Ksenofontov. The certificate also flaunted a blue seal, put by the deputy. Chairman of the Cheka, the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Alexandrovich. Subsequently, the Bolsheviks claimed that the signatures of Dzerzhinsky and Ksenofontov were fake.
Yakov Blyumkin - one of the terrorists
The terrorists demanded a meeting with the ambassador and they were escorted to the adjutant of the military attaché, Leonhart Müller. He checked the certificate, made sure that the people were from a serious state organization and reported them to the first adviser to the embassy, Kurt Rietzler. He spoke with the arrivals and went for the ambassador. He soon returned with Count Mirbach.
5 men sat on the chairs: Blyumkin, Andreev, Ambassador Mirbach, Ambassador's adviser Kurt Rietzler and Leonhart Müller as an interpreter. Blumkin started talking about a certain Count Robert Mirbach, a Hungarian officer. According to the assumption of the Cheka, he was a relative of the ambassador and was to appear in the coming days before the court of a military tribunal. The ambassador replied that this was the first time he heard about this man. And in the course of further conversation, the representative of the German Empire remained absolutely indifferent to the fate of some Robert Mirbach.
At some point, Andreev, sitting somewhat further than Blumkin, said that the ambassador might be interested in learning about the measures that would be taken against the arrested Hungarian. Apparently this phrase was a prearranged signal, since after it Blumkin jumped to his feet, pulled out a revolver from his briefcase and fired several shots at all three men sitting opposite, starting directly from the ambassador.
But the bullets did not hit a single person, since Blumkin's hands were apparently shaking from nervous excitement. After the shots, the ambassador jumped up and ran into the next room. But then Andreev took out a revolver and fired after him. The bullet hit the back of the head, and Mirbach fell. Ritsler and Muller fell to the floor, and Andreev threw the bomb, but it did not explode. Then he threw a second bomb. This time there was an explosion, and the terrorists after it rushed to the window.
They jumped out into the street, while Blumkin broke his leg. Andreev helped him up; The criminals got to the car, got into it and left. The embassy guards started firing too late, so their bullets didn't hit anyone. This is how the assassination of Ambassador Mirbach happened, which caused a whole series of serious political events.
The room in the German embassy where Mirbach's murder was committed
It is noteworthy that the terrorists left a whole bunch of evidence at the crime scene. The embassy staff found the killers' own IDs. The case that was opened against a "relative" of the German ambassador. A briefcase in which revolvers and bombs were carried into the embassy building. Therefore, the identity of the criminals was immediately established. However, strange as it may sound, Blyumkin and Andreev could not be detained. Each was sentenced in absentia to 3 years in prison.
It seems that the Bolsheviks did not try hard to catch the killers. And this could only happen if the Bolshevik Party itself was involved in this unsightly act of terrorism, violating all diplomatic norms and rules.
Who benefited from the assassination of Ambassador Mirbach
The fate of the killers of the German ambassador was different. Andreev fled to Ukraine. There he was a member of several political movements, and then died of typhus. As for Blumkin, he, having changed his surname, first hid in Moscow, and then plunged headlong into the thick of the Civil War. In 1919, Trotsky liked him, and very soon Blumkin was forgiven for the assassination of the ambassador. The OGPU shot him at the end of 1929 for his connection with Trotsky.
But this, so to speak, is a saying, and now let's figure out who benefited from the murder of Ambassador Mirbach? This man is considered by many to be the curator of the Bolsheviks. It was he who supplied them with money, thanks to which the October Revolution was carried out. The Germans bet on the Bolsheviks and received the Brest peace, which was extremely beneficial for them.
However, in addition to the Germans, the French and the British were present in Moscow. They began to forge links with other political parties and movements. Mirbach could not stand aside and also began to negotiate with the opposition. In addition, he soon realized that the Bolsheviks were unreliable people. They are uncontrollable and are guided only by their own interests, which at any moment can run counter to the interests of Germany.
German Ambassador Mirbach
The Bolsheviks, having learned that Mirbach was changing his orientation, decided to eliminate him, which was done on July 6, 1918. But they used the assassination of the ambassador to the maximum advantage for themselves, destroying the party of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. However, this is only one of the assumptions, indirectly proving that the death of the German ambassador was beneficial to the Bolsheviks.
In principle, it can be assumed that the death of poor Mirbach was also beneficial for the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. Thus, it was planned to violate the conditions of the Brest Peace, to introduce disagreements between Germany and the world's first state of workers and peasants. But we must not forget that the treaty has already entered into force, and after a fight they don’t wave their fists. No one's death could already reverse the decisions of the Brest Peace.
The Left SRs needed to take the initiative back in February, March 1918, and not kill the German ambassador in July. Did the leaders of the Left SR party understand this? They probably understood, and therefore it is unlikely that they could act as the initiators of the murder of the representative of Germany. So the scales are still leaning towards the Bolsheviks.
In July, Lenin and his associates were not at all afraid that Germany would again begin hostilities against Russia. The Germans had many problems on the Western fronts, because the First World War ended only in November 1918. Indeed, after the assassination of his ambassador, Wilhelm II did not take any drastic measures. He only expressed a desire to send a battalion of German soldiers to Moscow to guard his embassy. But the Bolsheviks refused, and the Germans accepted this refusal.
Therefore, whatever one may say, the murder of Ambassador Mirbach was beneficial primarily to the Bolsheviks. They developed the script and brought it to life. And after that they dealt a decisive blow to their main political opponents - the Left SRs. Mirbach himself, who imagined himself a puppeteer, turned out to be just a bargaining chip in the game that the Bolsheviks started, striving for absolute power in the country and the World Revolution.
