Dispatches From The Revolution: Russia, 1915-18

Dispatches from the Revolution: Russia 1916-18 Morgan Philips Price Edited by Tania Rose Pluto Press Dispatches from the Revolution Russia 1916–18 Morgan Philips Price Edited by Tania Rose Pluto P Press LONDON • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS First published 1997 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA Copyright © Tania Rose on behalf of the Morgan Philips Price estate 1997 Foreword © 1997 Eric Hobsbawm British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7453 1210 1 hbk Disclaimer: Some images in the original version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Production Services, Chadlington, OX7 3LN Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton Printed in the EC by WSOY Contents Acknowledgements Foreword by Eric Hobsbawm Introduction viii ix 1 Notes on Russian Political Parties, 1880–1918 12 1. Russia in 1915–16 Memorandum to C.P. Trevelyan, Tiflis Memorandum to C.P. Trevelyan, Tiflis Common Sense, Memorandum to F.W. Hirst, Kharkov Common Sense, Memorandum to F.W. Hirst, Tiflis 16 18 20 22 23 2. The Eve of the Revolution Postcard to Anna Maria Philips, Kutais, 16 December 1916 Letter to Anna Maria Philips, Tiflis, 1 February 1917 Letter to C. Lee Williams, Tiflis, 1 February 1917 25 3. The March Revolution Postcard to Anna Maria Philips, Tiflis, 13 March 1917 Manchester Guardian, ‘How the Revolution Came to the Caucasus’ UDC, ‘The Background of the Revolution’ 28 30 4. The Provisional Government, April–August 1917 Memorandum to C.P. Scott, Rostov on Don, 31 March 1917 Memorandum to C.P. Scott, Moscow, 6 April 1917 UDC, ‘The Background of the Revolution’ Manchester Guardian, ‘Russian Control of the Straits’ Manchester Guardian, ‘Free Russia’s Peace Formula: Miliukov Repudiated’ Common Sense, ‘The Parliament of Russian Labour’ 26 26 27 31 33 35 37 38 40 42 42 43 vi DISPATCHES FROM THE REVOLUTION Postcard to Anna Maria Philips, Petrograd, 25 July 1917 48 New York Tribune, ‘The Kronstadt Commune’ 48 5. The Interregnum, August–November 1917 Common Sense, ‘Economic Crisis in Russia’ Letter to C.P. Trevelyan, Samara, 22 September 1917 Manchester Guardian, Series: ‘Through the Russian Provinces’ ‘The Peasants and their Land Programmes’ ‘The Revolution and its Effects on Rural Life’ ‘How the Peasants are Taking Over the Land’ ‘Asiatic Russia and the Revolution’ ‘Equality for All and Cossack Privilege’ ‘At a Cossack Provincial Assembly’ ‘The Russian Tartars and the Revolution’ ‘The Voice of the People on the Revolution’ ‘How the Maximalists Have Come to Gain Control’ Memorandum to C.P. Trevelyan, Petrograd, 2 November 1917 ‘On the State of Russia’ 6. The November Revolution Manchester Guardian, ‘Bolshevik Ascendancy: Causes of Kerensky’s Downfall’ My Reminiscences of the Russian Revolution by M. Philips Price (London 1921): from Chapters 9 and 10 7. November 1917–February 1918 Letter to Anna Maria Philips, Petrograd, 30 November 1917 Letter to C. Lee Williams, Petrograd, 30 November 1917 Common Sense, Extract from Memorandum to F.W. Hirst Manchester Guardian, ‘The Russian Class Struggle: Bolshevik Syndicalism Leading’ Manchester Guardian, ‘Bolshevik Terrorism: How the Russian Electors Voted. The New Dictatorship’ Letter to Anna Maria Philips, Petrograd, 22 December 1917 Letter to Robin Price, Petrograd, 22 December 1917 51 52 54 56 56 59 61 63 66 69 72 74 77 82 87 88 89 100 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 CONTENTS Manchester Guardian, ‘Cleavage in Russia: South Against Social Upheaval’ Letter to Anna Maria Philips, Petrograd, 10 January 1918 Manchester Guardian, ‘