Soldiers, Militias & Red Guards

When the soldiers heard the news of the February Revolution "All the soldiers said, 'Thank God ! Maybe now we will have Peace'.", as a delegate to a conference of soviets in March reported. As army discipline collapsed, the soldiers' demands were for dignity and respect, to be treated as humans, not insulted by their officers or addressed in the familiar form reserved for pets and children, not to have to salute, and for the same political and civil rights as any private citizen. Above all, they wanted an end to the war. They elected soldiers' committees which controlled arms, and sent representatives to soviets. One million soldiers simply deserted the front to get back home and take their share of the land. After April, the soldiers started to back the workers; some took part in the July Days. After that, attempts were made by the authorities to restore discipline in the army. However, the soldiers' distrust of their officers had gone too far by then. As the future creator of the Red Army -- and future employer of Tsarist officers -- noted: "The workers on the other hand, along with the 'dark' rank-and-file, saw every possible danger exactly in the ranks of those brilliant officers." The soldiers' committees started to demand land for the peasants, the abolition of private property, the setting up of workers' militias, and workers' control. Bolshevik popularity increased amongst them because the soldiers thought they too wanted peace.

In the early days of the revolution, in February and March, 30,000 revolvers and 40,000 rifles disappeared from military stores, and many found their way into the hands of workers. The first workers' militias were started by printers. Usually set up by non-party workers in some secrecy, they were intended to defend the factories. The Workers' Guards in the plants gave factory committees the power to enforce their decisions on reluctant employers and managers. Red Guards also acted to prevent sabotage by the bosses and their agents. When attempts were made after the July Days to disarm workers, they surrendered useless rubbish and kept the worthwhile weapons. After the abortive Kornilov coup, workers kept rifles constantly by their side at work. Working women set up Red Cross divisions in the plants and lectures were arranged on the care of the wounded. Factory committees gradually got material together for makeshift hospitals and ambulances. The Vyborg factory committees had their own military-revolutionary committee. This set up patrols of the district, got keys for all the drawbridges' and studied the weakpoints in the districts defence.

The arming of the workers was too extensive for the authorities to do anything about it. At the time of Kornilov's attempted coup, they had to rely on the workers. Railwaymen tore up tracks to stop Kornilov's men, and armed themselves; postal clerks held up communications; soviets in large stations misdirected trains and regiments. The pressure from below rebuilt local soviets to face the reactionaries. The workers' militias and Red Guards were close to the factory committees and local soviets. Service in them was worked out by lots, so that all workers spent at least some time in them. Factories worked extra hours to produce arms and ammunition. While those with arms drilled in the handling of weapons, the unarmed learned other useful military skills such as building fortifications. The 40,000 strong Red Guards kept order in the working class districts, stopping theft, protecting strikers and demonstrators, supporting and defending the factory committees physically.