Russia's Red Guards (original) (raw)
The Red Guards were armed factory workers. They first appeared during the 1905 Revolution and they reformed in March 1917 in order to defend the government that replaced the overthrow of Nicholas II. The American writer, Bessie Beatty, saw them in action in early 1917: "The factory gates opened wide, and the amazing army of the Red Guard, ununiformed, untrained, and certainly unequipped for battle with the traditional backbone of the Russian military, marched away to defend the revolutionary capital and the victory of the proletariat. Women walked by the side of men, and small boys tagged along on the fringes of the procession. Some of the factory girls wore red crosses upon the sleeves of their thin jackets, and packed a meague kitbag of bandages and first-aid accessories. Most of them carried shovels with which to did trenches."
Albert Rhys Williams was much more critical of the Red Guards: "The Revolution was not everywhere powerful enough to check the savage passions of the mobs. Not always was it on time to allay the primitive blood-lusts. Unoffending citizens were assaulted by hooligans. In out-of-the-way places half-savages, calling themselves Red Guards, committed heinous crimes. At the front General Dukhonin was dragged from his carriage and torn to pieces despite the protesting commissars. Even in Petrograd some Yunkers were clubbed to death by the storming crowds; others were pitched into the Neva."
Under the influence of the Bolsheviks, the Red Guards played an important role in the defeat of the revolt led by General Lavr Kornilov in September, 1917. They also were used to seize control from the Provisional Government in November, 1917. It is estimated that by the end of the revolution there were 7,000 Red Guards in Russia.
Primary Sources
(1) In his book, My Reminiscences of the Russian Revolution (1969), Morgan Philips Price described the Red Guard demonstrations that took place in Russia on 1st May, 1917.
I do not think I ever saw a more impressive spectacle than on this occasion. It was not merely a labour demonstration, although every socialist party and workmen's union in Russia was represented there, from anarcho-syndicalists to the most moderate of the middle-class democrats. It was not merely an international demonstration, although every nationality of what had been the Russian Empire was represented there with its flag and inscription in some rare, strange tongue, from the Baltic Finns to the Tunguses of Siberia. The First of May celebration, 1917, in Petrograd and throughout the length and breadth of Russia was really a great religious festival, in which the whole human race was invited to commemorate the brotherhood of man. Revolutionary Russia had a message to the world, and was telling it across the roar of the cannons and the din of battle.
(2) In her book The Red Heart of Russia (1919), Bessie Beatty described how the Red Guards left their factories in order to defend the Bolshevik Revolution from the threatened attack by troops led by Alexander Kerensky.
The factory gates opened wide, and the amazing army of the Red Guard, ununiformed, untrained, and certainly unequipped for battle with the traditional backbone of the Russian military, marched away to defend the revolutionary capital and the victory of the proletariat.
Women walked by the side of men, and small boys tagged along on the fringes of the procession. Some of the factory girls wore red crosses upon the sleeves of their thin jackets, and packed a meague kitbag of bandages and first-aid accessories. Most of them carried shovels with which to did trenches.
(3) On 7th November, 1917, Louise Bryant and John Reed visited the Red Guards defending the Winter Palace.
They said they had no objection to our being in the battle; in fact, the idea rather amused them. One of them was not over eighteen. He told me that in case they were not able to hold the Palace, he was "keeping one bullet for himself." All the others declared that they were doing the same.
Once while we were quietly chatting, a shot rang out and in a moment there was the wildest confusion. Through the front windows we could see people running and falling flat on their faces. We waited for five minutes, but no troops appeared and no further fighting occurred.
(4) Albert Rhys Williams, Through the Russian Revolution (1923)
The Revolution was not everywhere powerful enough to check the savage passions of the mobs. Not always was it on time to allay the primitive blood-lusts. Unoffending citizens were assaulted by hooligans. In out-of-the-way places half-savages, calling themselves Red Guards, committed heinous crimes. At the front General Dukhonin was dragged from his carriage and torn to pieces despite the protesting commissars. Even in Petrograd some Yunkers were clubbed to death by the storming crowds; others were pitched into the Neva.