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Appeal of the Petersburg inter-district committee of the
RS-DRP
February 1917 - SRs and SDs appeal to soldiers
to support the revolution
Appeal
of the Petersburg inter-district committee of the RSDRP and the PSR
[Translator's note: This appeal was produced as a leaflet
jointly by the RSDRP inter-district committee (perhaps the largest and
most active of the Marxist groups in Petrograd at the time of the fall
of Tsarism) and the Socialist-Revolutionary Party - presumably its
Petrograd committee. It is interesting not least in that it reflects
the degree of grass-roots co-operation between the different socialist
parties and factions around the time of the February revolution. The
heading of the leaflet bears the characteristic slogans both of the SRs
("in
struggle you will find your rights!") and of the SDs ("workers of the
world unite!"). The slogans at the bottom combine both traditional SR
demands ("all land to the peasants!") and more general radical
socialist sentiments about the war. Although joint statements continued
to be issued by diverse groups on various questions throughout the
course of 1917, in general the delineation between the factions became
much sharper as the year progressed, especially as the emigre leaders
returned to Russia to reassert control over their parties.]
27
February 1917
In
struggle you will find your rights!
Workers
of the world unite!
Comrade
Soldiers!
The
working class, driven by hunger, has risen in struggle with your and
our enemies, in struggle against the war, and against the autocracy
of our criminal rulers. It has risen in struggle for freedom and
land! Comrades! For 2 1/2 years you have been suffering in trenches
and barracks, for 2 1/2 years you have been tormented by your inhuman
commanding officers. The soldier’s lot is a hard one. You are
treated no better than dogs. Comrades! Brothers! Your hopes lie with
us! We place our hopes in you! We extend our calloused hands,
crippled with work, to you. Brothers! Some of you have shot at the
people. Workers’ blood has been shed! Soldiers! Do not stain your
hands with the blood of your brothers! Down with fratricide! Glory
and honour to those of you who supported the people! Honour to the
Cossacks who drove the city police out of the Znamenie cathedral!
Honour to the soldiers of the Pavlovsky regiment who avenged the
violence of the city police! Brothers! If you are ordered to shoot at
the people, shoot those who gave you the orders. Let your bayonets be
turned against the oppressors. Our starving wives await your help.
Comrades! Read our leaflets! Organise yourselves! Join up with the
workers! It is our sacred belief that the soldiers will not betray
the people! Brothers! Hear our voice! Long live the unity of the army
and the people! Down with the autocracy! Down with the war! Long live
the revolution! All the land to the peasants! Full freedom to the
people!
Petersburg
inter-district committee of the RS-DRP
Party
of Socialist-Revolutionaries.
Archive
source: GARF 1741/1/35278
Published
in O A Shashkova, compiler, Fevral’skaya revolyutsiya 1917:
sbornik dokumentov i materialov, Rossiyskiy gosudarstvennyy
gumanitarnyy universitet, Moscow, 1996, p. 79.
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