The Editors and Board of Trustees of the Russian Review
Antibourgeois Propaganda and Anti-"Burzhui" Consciousness in 1917
Author(s): Boris I. Kolonitskii
Source: Russian Review, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Apr., 1994), pp. 183-196
Published by: Wiley on behalf of The Editors and Board of Trustees of the Russian Review
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/130822 .
Accessed: 02/01/2014 15:30
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Wiley and The Editors and Board of Trustees of the Russian Review are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,
preserve and extend access to Russian Review.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 193.63.81.241 on Thu, 2 Jan 2014 15:30:13 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Propaganda
Antibourgeois
and
Anti-"Burzhui"
in 1917
Consciousness
BORIS I. KOLONITSKII
The central question in the study of any revolution is that of power. A mere
description of power and authority, however conscientiously done, would not be sufficient to answer that question. D. S. Merezhkovskii has called revolution a "governmental meltdown" and underscored the instability, mobility and "provisionality"
of all structures of authority during such revolutionary periods. Accordingly, the direct influence of political cultures and subcultures on the formation and activities of
institutions of authority is extraordinarily great during revolutionary eras. During a
revolution, the peculiarities of political cultures that have taken shape over decades
and even centuries become manifest. It is impossible to penetrate the riddle of "the
secret of power" without exploring the forms of consciousness and culture of revolutionary eras.
Inherent in revolutionary eras are specific forms and methods of exercising
power that differ greatly from those practiced during "normal" times. The operation
of laws, for example, is rather limited: the old juridical order weakens, while new
centers of "revolutionary law-making" appear.1 Several legal systems begin to operate within a country and in fact neutralize each other; as they resolve their conflicts,
the opposing sides rule not by juridical acts but by their own revolutionary (or counterrevolutionary) morality.
In such circumstances, the role of force as an instrument for exercising authority
grows significantly. But this leads to the state's loss over the monopoly on the legitimate use of force. Both the old and new centers of authority must constantly persuade "their" military and police supporters that their right to use force is justified.
In a period of revolution, therefore, that authority acquires significance which employs certain structures for inspiring respect: they must literally daily re-conclude
the "social contract" with the masses that support them. And, accordingly, the role
Translated from Russian by Kurt S. Schultz
Iu. S. Tokarev, Narodnoe pravotvorchestvo nakanune Velikoi Oktiabr'skoi sotsialisticheskoi revoliutsii (mart-oktiabr' 1917 g.) (Moscow, 1965), 186.
The Russian Review, vol. 53, April 1994, pp. 183-196
Copyright 1994 The Ohio State University Press
This content downloaded from 193.63.81.241 on Thu, 2 Jan 2014 15:30:13 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
184
The Russian Review
of ideology and propaganda as instruments for exercising authority in such periods
also grows significantly. Any study of the Russian Revolution of 1917 must give special attention to the ideologies and propaganda of the socialist parties.
The peculiarity of dual power was manifest in the ability of the centers of authority to rely on their "own" propaganda apparatus. For one thing, the soviets and
soldiers' committees themselves were effective propaganda structures, serving as
channels for distributing literature, centers for lecturing and so on. For another, the
various soviets and soldiers' committees already had begun to function as political
censors by the spring of 1917. The Bolsheviks were the first to experience pressurefrom many soviets controlled by moderate socialists. But the blows of "soviet" censorship fell most often upon the so-called bourgeois publications, something that
appeared most graphically during the Kornilov affair.2And, finally, the socialist parties, using their influence in the soviets and committees, were able to establish control
over a large number of presses, paper supplies and other printing establishments.
Thanks to this they could quickly create their own propaganda structures. In JulyAugust 1917, for example, the total press run of daily "bourgeois" newspapers in
Petrograd was 1.5-1.6 million; for SR-Menshevik papers it was 640,000 to 740,000;
while for the Bolsheviks it was approximately 80,000 (from 7 to 24 July the Bolsheviks
were unable to publish their daily paper in Petrograd).3 The moderate socialists,
however, led in the publication of brochures on sociopolitical themes: in Petrograd,
presses of that orientation put out no less than 500 titles with an overall press-run
of more than 27 million. "Bourgeois" presses published over 250 titles with a total
run of over 11 million. And the Bolshevik press "Priboi" put out no less than 50
brochures, its overall run exceeding 1.5 million.4
The Bolsheviks' and moderate socialists' propaganda did have points in common. Soviet historiography as a rule did not touch on this matter: it viewed the Bolshevik party as a single force struggling for socialism, a view in keeping with the wellknown diagram of the "two camps." But the Bolsheviks by no means had a monopoly
over anticapitalist propaganda. Take, for example, the unusual "best-seller" of 1917,
a brochure by Wilhelm Leibknekht called Pauki i mukhi. It went through over twenty
editions and was published by Bolshevik, SR and Menshevik presses, including G. V
Plekhanov's publishing group "Edinstvo." The brochure, which was widely distributed even before 1917 by the revolutionary underground, vividly sketched an "enemy
image"-the class enemy:
The spiders are the gentlemen, the money-grubbers, the exploiters, the gentry, the wealthy, and the popes, pimps and parasites of all types! . . . The
2 For further details see B. I. Kolonitskii, "Bor'ba s
petrogradskoi burzhuaznoi pechat'iu v dni kornilovskogo miatezha," in Rabochii klass Rossii, ego soiuzniki i politicheskie protivniki v 1917 godu: Sbornik nauchnogo truda (Leningrad, 1989), 297-304.
3Total press runs have been calculated on the basis of data contained in reference works of the
Russian Book Chamber, Sankt-Peterburgskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv literatury i iskusstva, f. 306, op. 1,
dd. 20, 21 and 49.
4Sources used for my calculations include Knizhnaia letopis', 1917, nos. 1-50; Tsentral'nyi gosudarstvennyi voenno-istoricheskii arkhiv, f. 13251, op. 2, d. 25, 1. 3; Manuscript Division, Rossiiskaia
Natsional'naia biblioteka (Gosudarstvennaia Publichnaia biblioteka), f. 601, op. 1, d. 1580, 11.1-2(ob.);
and Sovetskie arkhivy, 1967, no. 3:39.
This content downloaded from 193.63.81.241 on Thu, 2 Jan 2014 15:30:13 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Boris I. Kolonitskii
185
flies are the unhappy workers who must obey all those laws the capitalist
happens to think up-must obey, for the poor man has not even a crumb
of bread. The spider is the factory-owner earning five or six rubles every
day from each of his workers and impertinently giving them a paltry wage
as if it were a kindness.5
The brochure, which during the First World War was often attributed to Karl Liebknecht rather than Wilhelm Liebknecht, enjoyed widespread popularity before February 1917. A participant in the Revolution subsequently recalled that
I always had an excellent memory and earned only high marks in school.
But I began to see things clearly in 1915, after I read Pauki i mukhi by the
truly ardent revolutionary Karl Liebknecht. It ignited in me the spark of
revolutionary disagreement with existing affairs. And what had I been before my "encounter" with this torchbearer of reason? A country lad, the
son of a poor woman.6
Liebknecht's brochure had a similar effect on many readers in 1917:
The brochure was most interesting. It exposed the bourgeoisie and its role
in capitalist society. The exposition was so popular that, after a brief explanation, even a semiliterate soldier understood: the bourgeoisie holds all
the nation's wealth in its hands and has de facto power. Through merciless
exploitation it sucks out the juices of the toilers like a spider. The brochure
was very useful for soldiers in the trenches. It helped to raise their consciousness and became, as they say, our first political textbook.7
Obviously, such a perception did not depend on which press-Bolshevik, Menshevik,
SR-had published the copy of the brochure in the reader's hands.
S. R. Dikshtein's brochure, Kto chem zhivet, also went through many editionsno less than eleven in 1917-and was published by Bolshevik, Menshevik and SR
presses. Both Liebknecht's and Dikshtein's brochures were among the most popular
publications of the Russian revolutionary underground, and several young generations of revolutionaries were raised on them. It is not surprising that they were reprinted in much greater numbers when the legal circumstances were favorable.
The various expositions of party programs, published most often by party committees and organizations, also deepened the antibourgeois orientation of mass consciousness. Za chto boriutsia sotsialisty-revoliutsionery,a brochure that went through
at least seven editions, announced that
people who previously had enjoyed equal rights in everything have been
divided into classes: a class of property-owning capitalists; and a class of
toilers that has been deprived, or practically deprived, of property and that
has been forced to feed a small group of effete drones. As a result of this
state of affairs, people who have worked indefatigably their entire lives live
in dirty hovels, in need, suffering from hunger and cold, while the drones,
sV. Liebknecht,Paukii mukhi(Samara,1917), 4.
6L. Beliaeva, "Gotovruchat'siaza nego golovoi (Beseda s I. S. Shkapoi),"Literaturnaia
gazeta,
23 November1988.
7S. Dundukov,"Burnoevremia,"V bor'beza Sovetskuiuvlast' (Minsk,1967), 42.
This content downloaded from 193.63.81.241 on Thu, 2 Jan 2014 15:30:13 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
186
The Russian Review
the capitalistsandproperty-owners,enjoy all the best of life withoutlifting
a finger.8
It seems that the moderatesocialists'propagandacontaineda deep contradiction: countervailing the strategicprogrammatic goal-the negation of capitalism-was
the tactical task of the moment-reaching agreement with the "bourgeoisie."
The Socialists,however,often conductedconcretepoliticalcampaignsas if they
were class-based,antibourgeoisacts. On the eve of electionsin Kievfor local offices,
for example, they distributedthe leaflet Get' burzhuev,whichcalled upon people to
vote for the Ukrainianslate.9
The influenceof the socialistpoliticalsubculturealso could be seen in revolutionarysymbols:the red flag became the de facto bannerof post-FebruaryRussia
and flew above the Winter Palace when A. F. Kerenskiioccupied it. New revolutionarysymbols arose as well: the hammerand sickle appearedas early as the
springof 1917.10The liberalscould not offset the socialistswith their own political
symbols.11
The influence of the socialist subculturealso manifesteditself in all sorts of
renamings.On 19 April, for example, the transportship NikolaiII becamethe hospital ship Tovarishch.2 The socialist movement'sholidaysbecame official governmentalholidaysin the new Russia. On the eve of MayDay, G. E. L'vov receiveda
telegram stating that "the entire Fourth CavalryDivision, at full battle strength,
greets you as representativeof the first responsibleministryof free Russia on this
great internationalworkers'holiday."13
It was not only the socialistparties,however,whichconductedvarioustypes of
socialistpropaganda.The Unionof EvolutionarySocialism,foundedin partby N. O.
Losskii, propoundedan ethical socialist ideal.14The Union's position, "Througha
people's Great Russia-to socialism,"won supportamongthe ProvisionalGovernment's propagandaofficials, who financedthe publicationof brochurescarryinga
correspondingmessage.15Severalmembersof the PetersburgReligious-Philosophical
8 Za chto boriutsia sotsialisty-revoliutsionery (Tver, 1917), 3-4.
9 Kievlianin, 27 July 1917.
0On
symbols of the February Revolution see P. K. Kornakov, "Znamena Fevral'skoi revoliutsii,"
Geral'dika: Materialy i issledovaniia (Leningrad, 1983), 12-26; and idem, "Opyt privlecheniia veksilologicheskikh pamiatnikov dlia resheniia geral'dicheskikh problem," Novye numizmaticheskie issledovaniia, no. 4, Trudy Gosudarstvennogo Istoricheskogo muzeia, 1986, vyp. 61:134-48.
1R. Stites, Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vision and Experimental Life in the Russian Revolution
(New York, 1979), 82.
"2Tsentral'nyigosudarstvennyi arkhiv Voenno-morskogo flota (TsGA VMF), f. R-661, op. 1, d. 81,
1. 31(ob.).
13
Tsentral'nyi gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Rossiiskoi federatsii (TsGARF, formerly TsGAOR SSSR), f.
1778, op. 1, d. 80, 1. 110.
14N. O. Losskii, "O sotsializme," Vestnikpartii narodnoi svobody, 1917, no. 8:3-5; V P. Buldakov,
"Politicheskie manevry kontrrevoliutsii v 1917 godu: K voprosu ob izuchenii neproletarskikh politicheskikh obrazovanii," Neproletarskiepartii Rossii v gody burzhuazno-demokraticheskoi revoliutsii i v period nazrevaniia sotsialisticheskoi revoliutsii: Materialy konferentsii (Moscow, 1982), 166.
'5Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv (RGIA, formerly TsGIA SSSR), f. 1278, op. 10,
d. 14, 1. 315.
This content downloaded from 193.63.81.241 on Thu, 2 Jan 2014 15:30:13 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Boris I. Kolonitskii
187
Society also adhered to a socialist orientation.'6 All sorts of organizations propagandizing the ideals of Christian Socialism appeared.17 Advocates of a radical reform
of the Church utilized "antibourgeois" rhetoric in their arguments: "Is it not a disgrace when the overfed bourgeois, with their fat bellies and fine garments, talk of a
world-wide Christian brotherhood and pray for peace on earth?"18
Several clergymen of the Orthodox Church also took an anticapitalist position.
A. A. Vvedenskii, the future founder of the "Living Church," wrote on behalf of
"socialist clergymen":
How great a love for the Church we have seen from even the most inveterate
Bolsheviks! We have appeared in factories, in military units, on cruisers
and so on. We have not made unfeasible promises, but we have said that
the Gospels and the holy fathers are not deaf to societal evils, that Christianity has long condemned capitalism, and that [Christianity] "stands behind the sorrowful and those left out." I would dare to maintain that many
[Bolsheviks] have come to terms with the Church .... The struggle on behalf of the poor is the basic principle of socialism, and it is our own Christian
struggle.19
It stands to reason that the author of those lines was one of the most radical clergymen, and it is not surprising that he was elected to the Petersburg Soviet by the
"democratic clergy."20But it is indicative that even the editor of the Holy Synod's
newspaper was fairly sympathetic to the sort of critique of capitalism leveled by the
socialist parties.21Subsequently, the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church
created a special "Commission on Bolshevism in the Church." From its sessions came
the admission that "Bolshevism has captured a significant number of clergymen."22
The "fashion for socialism" had already spread widely before the February Revolution. Attesting to its further spread is the appearance of a variety of socialist
organizations, even a Socialist Union of Deaf-Mutes. They demanded that non16 See
my article, "Izdatel'stvo 'Druz'ia svobody'," Knizhnoe delo v Rossii vo vtoroipolovine XIXnachale XX veka: Sbornik nauchnogo truda, vyp. 4 (Leningrad, 1989), 79.
7See Katekhizis khristianina ili sotsialista (Ekaterinoslav, 1917), 15; A. A. Mudrov, Khristossotsialist, ili khristianstvo i sotsializm (Ekaterinoslav, 1917), 15; Soiuz novykh khristian-sotsialistov (Kiev,
1917), 16; and Evangelie khristianskogo sotsializma (Tver, 1917), 8. In August 1917 the creation of the
"Socialist Church Party ("tserkovnosotsialisticheskaia partiia") was announced. See Kh. M. Astrakhan,
Bol'sheviki i ikh politicheskie protivniki v 1917 godu (Leningrad, 1973), 366.
Various concepts of "national" socialism were formulated: "Today's capitalist system is the reason
for our sorrows," declared P. Al'berg, asserting further that Wilhelm II was the "Antichrist" and Marx
was a "false prophet" and "the Antichrist's helper." See Al'berg, Da zdravstvuet chestnaia rabota! Kto
rabotaet, tot dolzhen byt' syt! (Riga, 1917), 6, 8. See also Partiia russkikh natsional'nykh sotsialistov:
Osnovy partii (Moscow, 1917), 1 ff.
"N. A. Rtishchev, Kto iz nas burzhui? (Moscow, 1917), 20.
19A. Vvedenskii, "O sotsializme," Vserossiiskii tserkovno-obshchestvennyi vestnik (Petrograd), 5
August 1917. The Bogoslovy held a similar point of view: "We have Christians, and then there are the
greedy priests who try to play with socialism and even declare themselves Social-Democrats." Curiously,
this tract went on to say, "Don't we know instances where worker-Bolsheviks called themselves sincere
Christians?" See G. Prokhorov, Sotsializm, khristianstvo i khristianskii sotsializm (Petrograd, 1917), 54.
20Vechernee vremia (Petrograd), 5 August 1917.
21 B.
Titlinov, "Politicheskie partii v svete khristianstva," Vserossiiskii tserkovno-obshchestvennyi
vestnik, 3 August 1917.
22RGIA,f. 833, op. 1, d. 33,1. 29.
This content downloaded from 193.63.81.241 on Thu, 2 Jan 2014 15:30:13 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
188
The Russian Review
socialist groups precisely define their attitudes toward socialism. The executive organ
of the Kadet Party, for example, received a letter which in part read:
Why are the Kadets not socialists? Why do they say nothing about this?
What other ways for a better life or better economic arrangement are there
besides socialism? Only capitalism or socialism? Or is there something else?
Do tell us. After all, you are not socialists yet you admit that we cannot go
on like this. How, then, should things be?23
When he examined this "fashion for socialism" the well-known historian A. A.
Kizevetter took note of "the general aspiration of a huge mass of Russians to declare
themselves, no matter what, to be absolute socialists, to the amazement of foreigners."24It stands to reason that various models of socialism and various tactical
approaches for achieving the socialist ideal countervailed each other at this time. But
they all helped to shape antibourgeois attitudes. Thus, the numerous examples of political mimicry are revealing: the efforts to paint oneself "in the protective color of
socialism"; the desires to conduct propaganda "with a socialist stamp"; and, as A. S.
Izgoev ironically noted, "even Birzhevye vedomosti did not deny itself the pleasure
of wounding 'the bourgeoise' and laughing at 'bourgeoisness.' 25 The Interregional
Group's journal wrote indignantly about the same phenomenon: "The yellow street
press calls itself nonparty socialist. The financial newspapers repaint themselves with
the protective color of 'realistic socialism,' while banks try to protect themselves by
raising the red banner of revolution over their buildings."26
One of the most vivid examples of political mimicry can be found in Petrograd's
Malen'kaia gazeta, which was widely read well before February. This was a lively
urban chronicle (covering the criminal scene for the most part), with a religious moralizing tone and a position as a defender of the weak against "the powers-that-be"
and "rich men"-all of which made it the Petrograd plebians' "own" newspaper.
Malen'kaia gazeta's political line, meanwhile, was decidedly chauvinistic, antiSemitic and militaristic. After February, the paper's publishers, with a fine sense of
the political competition, decorated the paper with the subheading: "The paper of
nonparty socialists." "Our ideal," it informed its readers, "is working humanity. The
first stage toward this lies in the ideals of the proletariat, the liberation of labor."27
Malen'kaia gazeta took an anti-Bolshevik stance, interestingly, while several
ultraright publications welcomed October. The Black Hundred organ Groza, for example, wrote that
the Bolsheviks have prevailed: they have swept that servant of the English
and the bankers, the Jew Kerenskii, who insolently arrogated the high title
of supreme commander and minister-chairman of the Orthodox Russian
realm, from the Winter Palace, where his very presence defiled the repose
of the Tsar-peacemaker Alexander III. On 25 October the Bolsheviks
united around themselves all those regiments who refused to obey the gov23TsGARF, f. 579, op. 1, d. 876, 1. 2.
24A. Kizevetter, "Moda na sotsializm," Russkie vedomosti, 25 June 1917.
25A. Izgoev, "O burzhuaznosti," Vestnikpartii narodnoi svobody, 1917, no. 1:8-9.
26Vpered (Petrograd), 1917, no. 1:1.
27Malen'kaia gazeta, 15 June 1917.
This content downloaded from 193.63.81.241 on Thu, 2 Jan 2014 15:30:13 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Boris I. Kolonitskii
189
ernment of Jew-bankers, traitorous generals and landowners, and robbing
merchants.28
There also were several attempts to use antibourgeois propaganda to start pogroms.
On 26 June, for example, leaflets of the "Free Association of Anarchists and Communists" appeared in Kiev: "Down with the Provisional Government, smash the
bourgeoisie and the Jews."29
It is rather curious that the enemy tried to make use of the Russian soldier's
antibourgeois moods. Russkii vestnik, a newspaper published in Berlin, had invariably denounced the "English vampires" even before the Revolution. After the Revolution similar denunciations became tinged with an antibourgeois tone. "The
Russian people has not freed itself in order to replace tsarism with the capitalist yoke
of the English and their friends," the German paper proclaimed in late April. It
continued in this vein throughout the spring, writing in early June that "the government officials in Petrograd are paying in blood, the blood of their compatriots, to
receive money which in turn flows into the pockets of English and French capitalists."30The paper also printed similar letters from Russian soldiers: "We do not want
millions of people like us to perish because of the whims of our capitalists."31AustroHungarian propaganda used similar arguments. The Vienna-based Vestnikwrote that
"Russian soldiers must continue to sacrifice their lives for the fantastic plans of the
Entente; in reality they are fighting for England's mercenary aims and on behalf of
French capitalists."32
Efforts to engage in counterpropaganda also attest to the prevalence of antibourgeois sentiment, one example being a brochure put out by the Petrograd Union
of Trade and Industry.33Curiously, the cover of this brochure carried a revolutionary
soldier with his rifle and a worker with a hammer, itself an indication of how widespread symbols of the socialist subculture had become. I should note that such counterpropaganda appears to have been counterproductive. It often happened, for
example, that entrepreneurs refused to refer to themselves as "bourgeois," preferring
to be part of the "trade and industry class." At other times they proferred moralistic
tracts: any greedy and egotistical man, regardless of his social class, was "bourgeois."
In both cases the negative connotations of the term not only was not called into
28Groza (Petrograd),29 October1917.
29Kievlianin,27 June 1917. At times the Bolshevikstried to take advantageof "antibourgeois"
pogromistmoods. At a session of the PetrogradSoviet, L. D. Trotskysaid: "Pogromsare a movement
by the desperatemasses, and the most nonconsciousmassesat that. Comingas day-laborersfrom the
countryside,spendinghoursin line, a hatrednaturallyarisesagainstthose who are better dressedand
richer;after all, the rich have twice the clothes and get food withoutrationcards.Their hatredthen is
directedagainstthose who are better educated,who have differentbeliefs, and so on. We understand
them, and we regardthem differentlythan the bourgeoisbastardwho wantsto shoot them"(Rabochii
put', 18 October1917). On the anti-Semiticattitudesof portionsof the Red Guardssee D. V. Filosofov,
"Dnevnik,"Zvezda, 1992, no. 3:160.
30Russkiivestnik(Berlin), 26 April (9 May) 1917;ibid, 1 (14) July 1917.
31
Ibid., 15 (28) March 1917.
32Nedelia(Vienna), 2 (15) April 1917.
33L. Nemanov,Burzhuaziiai proletariat(Petrograd,1917), 32. See also otherbrochuresfrom this
press: V S. Ziv, Chto poteriaiut russkie rabochie i krest'iane otpobedy Germanii? (Petrograd, 1917); and
M. Dobrov, Chto takoe burzhuaziia (Petrograd, 1917).
This content downloaded from 193.63.81.241 on Thu, 2 Jan 2014 15:30:13 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
190
The RussianReview
question but ratherwas confirmed.Finally,the fact that the "bourgeoisie"as a thematic subject began to appearin folklore, satire and parodiesindirectlytestifiesto
the broaddiffusionof antibourgeoisattitudes.34
While conductingtheir antibourgeoispropaganda,variouspartiesand organizations set out definitionsof the term "bourgeoisie"that were markedlydifferent.
On the level of mass consciousness,however,antibourgeoispropagandaled to the
appearanceof new appraisalsthat at times were quite differentfrom the "correct"
evaluationsgiven by the parties.Often, for instance,all property-owners,even those
just livingcomfortably,were called "bourgeois."The termwasoften used to describe
a person's social status: the soldier consideredofficersto be "bourgeois";soldiers
at the front regardedsoldiers in the rear as "bourgeois";and the infantrylooked
upon artillerymenas "bourgeois."Then again, the navalofficerwho was infuriated
with the demandsof his sailorswould call them "bourgeois."35
The frequentutilizationof this understandingof the termfacilitatedthe rise of
socioculturalconflict. "Who isn't called bourgeoisthese days?"asked a contemporary. "Workerscall all nonworkersbourgeois;peasants-all 'gentlemen,'including
anyone dressed in city clothes."36In reality, the "term" helped reveal an antiWestern,anti-urbanmood: "Don't you believe the newspapers,"a peasantadmonished a schoolteacher."The bourgeoisiewritesthem."37It is not surprisingthat outwardappearancesoften determinedmembershipin the "bourgeoisie":"Thereare
some who think that anyone who wears a hat and has a 'seigniorialface' is bourgeois"; "Theword'bourgeois'sticksto anyonewhose clothesare cleanor who wears
a starchedcollar and cuffs"; "Manypeople often are called bourgeoisbecausethey
are educated,live cleanly,weara gentleman'ssuit insteadof a worker'sblouse, even
thoughthey barelymakeends meet and live solely throughtheirown labor";"Soon
it will be dangerousto put on a collar, tie, hat or decent suit without being called
'bourgeois.' 38Socioculturalconflictsarose in innumerableeverydayarguments:
The masses do not see an abstract"bourgeoisie"or social class, but real,
living people whom they call burzhui[bourgeois],barzhui[barge-owners]
and birzhui [stockbrokers],and they feed their anger not against some
imaginaryclass of "bourgeoisie"but againstlivingpeople whomthey meet
on the streets, tramsand trains.39
A similarsocioculturalconflictinfluencedthe outcome of politicalcampaigns.
When analyzingthe resultsof local electionsin Moscow,whichthe SRs won, A. A.
Kizevetterwrote:
The shawlsand peaked caps voted againstthe fur hats, regardlessof what
sort of worldview-bourgeois or non-bourgeois-filled those hat-covered
34"Iz dnevnika Burzhueva," Revel'skoe utro, 28 April 1917; Voinakukharki s burzhuem na Tverskom
bul'vare (Moscow, 1917).
35TsGA VMF, f. R-21, op. 1, d. 14,1. 39.
36N. A. Kabanov, Chto takoe burzhui (Moscow, 1917), 1.
37Ezhemesiachnyi zhurnal, 1917, no. 11/12:149.
38Dobrov, Chto takoe burzhuaziia, 3; Kabanov, Chto takoe burzhui, 3; and D. N. Vvedenskii, Nasha
revoliutsiia i khristianstvo (Rannenburg, 1917), 3.
39Dobrov, Chto takoe burzhuaziia, 15.
This content downloaded from 193.63.81.241 on Thu, 2 Jan 2014 15:30:13 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Boris I. Kolonitskii
191
skulls.... To be sure, the masses have masteredthe "prevailing"terminology of "socialist"and "bourgeois,"but while using these terms quite
boldlyandconfidentlythey haveinfusedthemwiththeirown meaningsthat
have nothingin commonwith the programsof the [Social Democrats]or
SRs.40
"Bourgeois"was used as a swear-word."From1 Marcha new swearwordhas
appeared in party newspapers,"the well-knownpublicistA. Iablonovskiiwrote:
"Bourgeois. It seems that this word, with its abusivemeaning,occupies a position
between 'scoundrel'and 'swine,'and its wide usage is explained,apparently,by its
polemicalconvenience."41
Finally,the term was utilized as a type of ethical category."A genuine 'bourgeois' is not bourgeois because he is rich, owns a factory,is educated, or is not a
Socialist,"wroteN. Kabanov."Rather,he is bourgeoisbecausehe placeshis interests
and those of his class highest of all."42And N. Kadmindeclared:
A bourgeoisis someone who thinksonly of himself, of his belly.It is someone who is aloof, who is ready to grab anyoneby the throat if it involves
his moneyor food. A bourgeoisis a personwho leads an egotistical,meaningless and aimless life unilluminatedby the vivid and wonderfulgoals of
any cherished, spiritual labor....
Such people, regardless of their class
identity-be they rich merchants,kulaks or a skilled workerwhose only
goal is his paycheck-all are in such cases identicallybourgeois.43
In line with such an interpretation,egoism and cupidityalso were signs of "bourgeoisness."As noted above, this was the plane on which the polemic with the socialists often was conducted. In criticizing a Bolshevik leaflet, for example, a
provincialnewspaperwrote: "You say that our ProvisionalGovernmentis 'bourgeois.'But it consistsof honest, intelligentcitizenswho ferventlylove theircountry."44
Such argumentssomehowimplied that the "bourgeoisie"lacked honesty, intellect
and patriotism.
Accusationsof "bourgeoisness,"moreover,were often a way of attachingpoliticallabels. The socialistsconsideredall otherpartiesto be "bourgeois";however,
the term also was used in the polemic between the varioussocialist groupings.As
A. Izgoev noted with maliciousglee:
The Social Democratscall the SocialistRevolutionariesa bourgeoisparty;
the Socialist Revolutionariesdo not recognizeas true socialistseither the
PopulistSocialistsor those in their own partywho call for waruntilvictory
over the Germans. The Social Democrats also are riven by internecine
strife: the Bolshevikscurse the Mensheviksas bourgeois,while the Menshevikstry to prove that the Bolsheviksare a petit bourgeoisparty.45
40A. Kizevetter,"Itogimoskovskikhvyborov,"Russkievedomosti,28 June 1917. On the use of the
term "bourgeoisie"in the newspaperpolemicof 1917see L. McReynolds,TheNewsunderRussia'sOld
Regime:TheDevelopmentof a MassCirculationPress(Princeton,1991), 270.
41 Russkoeslovo, 22 March1917.
42Kabanov,Chtotakoeburzhui,1.
43N. Kadmin,Chtotakoeburzhui?(Moscow,1917), 10.
44
V, "Revel'skielenintsy,"Revel'skoeslovo, 21 April 1917.
45Izgoev,Sotsialistyi krest'iane(Petrograd,1917), 5.
This content downloaded from 193.63.81.241 on Thu, 2 Jan 2014 15:30:13 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
192
The Russian Review
The Moscow Soviet numbered G. V Plekhanov's group among the "bourgeoisie"
and called upon people not to vote for it in local elections.46 The question of "bourgeois" identity, moreover, at times was decided according to various criteria even
within a single military unit. In April, for example, both the 2d Company and a
detachment of young soldiers from the Petrograd Electro-technical battalion listed
Edinstvo as one of the socialist newspapers and contrasted it with "bourgeois" papers, which were to be boycotted. At the same time, however, the battalion's 3d
Company demanded that the "bourgeois" Edinstvo be boycotted.47
Antibourgeois ideas also colored the antimilitary mood that had spread: the
"bourgeoisie" was regarded as primarily responsible for the war. Thus, on 25 May
a meeting of workers from the Moscow factory "Dinamo" adopted a resolution declaring that "the cause of all the destruction is a war that no one needs but the greedy
capitalists."48Tellingly, the text of the resolution was put forward by the SRs; the
Bolshevik resolution (which we should assume was more radical) was rejected.
On the other hand, even the advocates of "revolutionary defensism" utilized
antibourgeois arguments. On 19 April the Kolomna Garrison Soviet declared itself
in favor of "laying down weapons only after that lair of global militarism-the German ruling classes-has been destroyed and all peoples have reached the threshold
of general disarmament and liberation from the excessive weight of arms that is ravaging nations on behalf of the interests of dynasties and capital."49While trying to
demonstrate the need for continuing the war, I. G. Tsereteli noted that "we have
declared to all the world's people what Russian democracy has done, what is the sole
way out of this murderous situation in which, on behalf of the interests of a few
Trying to end the possibility of
bourgeois, millions of people must shed blood....
war is senseless as long as personal property and bourgeois states, even the most
democratic ones, still exist."50 Such declarations obviously aided in the spread of
antibourgeois feelings.
In socialist propaganda, "bourgeois" was often counterposed to democracy"revolutionary democracy." At the same time, repression of the bourgeoisie was not
considered to be contradictory to democracy. In one and the same resolution the
Slutskii Soviet, for example, demanded the restoration of a free press and the closing
of the counterrevolutionary press.51 And a resolution to the "Central Soviet" from
workers at the Baltic Factory in Petrograd demanded that "our socialist newspapers,
regardless of the party, be circulated freely and no arrests be made." At the same
time, however, it wanted "decisive measures to close all counterrevolutionary newspapers of the hateful and dirty bourgeoisie."52
46Belorussov, "Soldatskii sotsializm," Russkie vedomosti, 22 June 1917.
47See my article, "Rezoliutsii rabochikh i soldat o burzhuaznoi pechati (mart-aprel' 1917 goda),"
Vspomogatel'nye istoricheskie distsipliny, vyp. 19 (Leningrad, 1987), 235.
48 Trud (Moscow), 27 May 1917.
49TsGARF, f. 1778, op. 1, d. 83, 1. 54.
50Rechi N. S. Chkheidze, M. I. Skobeleva i I. G. Tsereteli, proiznesennye na s"ezde soldatskikh i
rabochikh deputatov Zapadnogo fronta v gorode Minsk 8-go aprelia 1917 goda (Petrograd, 1917), 13, 1516.
51TsGARF, f. 6978, op. 1, d. 247, 1. 60.
52Tsentral'nyi gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Sankt-Peterburga (formerly TsGAOR Leningrada), f. 4598,
op. 1, d. 247, 1. 60.
This content downloaded from 193.63.81.241 on Thu, 2 Jan 2014 15:30:13 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Boris I. Kolonitskii
193
In practice, groups that were considered "bourgeois" were placed beyond the
pale of the democratic process, making repressive measures against them justifiable.
On 7 September the Min'iarskii Soviet of Workers' Deputies urged postal workers
to deliver only socialist newspapers; "bourgeois" papers should be taken to the Soviet, which would "sell them for wrapping paper, if possible."53The Sobinsk Factory
Soviet, meanwhile, called for "halting the importation and trade of bourgeois newspapers and placing them under strict control: subscribers will receive them after the
lapse of one month."54
It stands to reason that it was the Bolsheviks and their political allies who most
frequently introduced such resolutions. But the moderate forces also called for political discrimination against the "bourgeoisie." A resolution of greetings to Kerenskii also contained a call for "curbing the bourgeois press, which is disseminating
vile slander."55And the influential SR-Menshevik paper Golos soldata proclaimed
"the need to stop the piles of bourgeois newspapers, which no one reads, from clogging up the postal system."56It seems to me that such a broad dissemination of "antibourgeois" attitudes, differing in their form, depth and content, left an imprint on
the development of the political situation in 1917.
It is well known that many viewed the February Revolution as a "resurrection
of our beloved motherland from death."57The theme of "resurrection"-a rebirth
of the country, the nation, and the people-is fairly characteristic of many revolutionary eras. But the theme seems to have played a special role in the circumstances
of the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Memoirists frequently compared February to the Easter holiday: "It was an allround holiday. The crowd rushed into the street. Everyone greeted one another, as
on Easter Sunday"; "In both Moscow and Petrograd the people strolled as they do
on Easter. Everyone praised the new regime and the Republic."58Contemporary diaries also recorded the "Easter" mood: "The streets were so lively, as if it were the
Easter Holiday," wrote one Petrograd resident on 28 February.59Periodicals of various political leanings also compared the Revolution to Easter.60One reader wrote
to the editors of Malen'kaia gazeta: "I do not know what will happen next, but if
everything they write, say and promise comes true, then I can only say that this is
53Bor'ba za Sovetskuiu vlast' na Iuzhnom Urale (1917-1918 gg.): Sbornik dokumentov i materialov
(Cheliabinsk, 1957), 131.
54Sotsial-demokrat (Moscow), 22 September 1917.
55TsGARF,f. 1778, op. 1, d. 362, 1. 311 (a resolution of the officers and soldiers of the staff of the
3d Railway Battalion).
56Golos soldata (Petrograd), 3 October 1917.
57On the moods of February see G. L. Sobolev, Revoliutsionnoe soznanie rabochikh i soldat Petrograda v 1917 godu (Period dvoevlastiia) (Leningrad, 1973), 109-10; and Stites, Revolutionary Dreams,
79-83.
58K. Oberuchev, V dni revoliutsii: Vospominaniia uchastnika Velikoirusskoi revoliutsii 1917-go goda
(New York, 1919), 49; P. A. Sorokin, "Boinia: Revoliutsiia 1917 goda," in Sorokin, P A.: Chelovek.
Tsivilizatsiia. Obshchestvo (Moscow, 1992), 228.
59G. A. Kniazev, "Iz zapisnoi knizhki russkogo intelligenta vo vremia voiny i revoliutsii 1915-1922
Russkoe
proshloe, 1992, no. 2:114.
gg.,"
600. Mirtov, "Khristos Voskrese," Russkaia volia, 10 March 1917; S. Pushkin, "Paskhal'nyi zvon,"
Soldat-grazhdanin (Moscow), 1 April 1917; V Sventsitskii, "Krest i pulemet," Malen'kaia gazeta, 7 March
1917; Lukomor'e, 1917, no. 9-10 (the entire issue is devoted to this subject).
This content downloaded from 193.63.81.241 on Thu, 2 Jan 2014 15:30:13 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
194
The RussianReview
the second coming of Christon earth; He will not come in orderto descendto the
Hell of tormented,offended and oppressedpeople but ratherto resurrectthem to a
new, joyous and free life."61Prominentculturalfiguresalso gave their blessingto
such an interpretation.Merezhkovskiiwrote that "perhapssince the time of the
Christianmartyrsthere has been no phenomenonin historymore Christian,more
Christ-like,than the RussianRevolution."62
Society,whichwas quickly-explosively-being politicizedunderrevolutionary
conditions,at times utilizedtraditionaland significantreligiousimagesand ritualsin
place of empty political symbols, concepts, slogans and cliches. This explainsthe
constantcomparisonof the TauridePalacewith the "Templeof Revolution"andthe
universal"rite"of kissingsoldiers:"Thereare timeswhenone wantsto embracethe
whole world in joyful ecstasy and kiss everyonewithoutend," Soldatskoeslovo exclaimed.63It is not surprising,then, that the workers'campaignto collect Eastergifts
for front-linesoldierswas conductedunderthe slogan, "Sendred revolutionaryeggs
to the trenches."
This political consciousness,however,was rationalonly in form. In essence it
was a quasi-religiousconsciousness;the symbolsand institutionsof the Revolution
had become an objectof worship.Peopleexpectedthe Revolutionto bringnot merely
social and political changes but also a miracle-a rapid and universalpurification
and "resurrection."The path towardthis "brightfuture,"this "resurrection,"had
been opened thanksto the miraculouseliminationof the "darkforces."
The term "internalenemy"(or, sometimes,the "internalGerman"),whichhad
been borrowedfrom the old armylexicon, was used ratherfrequentlyin the spring
of 1917 to describe the old regime. But quite soon after Februarya well-known
phrase from the era of the FrenchRevolutioncame into use-"enemy of the people"-and included at times among the numberof "enemies"that springwas the
An appealfrom a factorycommitteeof the RussianSocietyfor the
"bourgeoisie."64
Productionof Shells and Ammunitionfor the Soldiersproclaimed:
Comrades!We are very pleasedthat you have understoodus and now fully
realize who the enemies of the people are. You have seen that you could
not and cannotfindsuch an enemyamongworkers,particularlyamongthe
workersof our factory.For the workerand the soldier representa single
entity,one armyof laborruthlesslyandpitilesslyexploitedby a smallgroup
of bloodthirstycapitalists,headed by Nicholas and Rasputin,which built
its happinessupon our ignorance.65
A few months after February,not manypeople retainedthe sense of a "revolutionaryholiday"or a "miracleof the revolution":the war draggedon, the supply
situationworsened,inflationrose, and crimegrew threatening.The Revolutionhad
not lived up to the hopes of the "little man":his life became more dangerous,hun61Malen'kaia gazeta, 18 March 1917.
S. Merezhkovskii, "Angel revoliutsii," Russkoe slovo, 1 April 1917.
63Soldatskoe slovo (Petrograd), 22 March 1917.
64Izvestiia Narvskogo Vremennogo komiteta revoliutsionnykh rabochikh, 1917, no. 1:1.
65Tsentral'nyi gosudarstvennyi arkhiv istoriko-partiinykh dokumentov (formerly Leningradskii partiinyi arkhiv), f. 1, op. 1, d. 18, 1. 1.
62D.
This content downloaded from 193.63.81.241 on Thu, 2 Jan 2014 15:30:13 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Boris I. Kolonitskii
195
grierand unpredictable.By the autumnof 1917the euphoriaandhyperpoliticization
of the Februarydays had been replacedby political despondencyand disappointment.66For many,meanwhile, "deepeningthe revolution"offered an escape from
the situation.Massconsciousnessexplainedthe rushof crisesas a "bourgeoisplot."
In describingsuch attitudes, N. A. Berdiaev wrote that "our social problemhas
turnedinto a problemof searchingfor those 'scoundrels'and 'blackguards'-those
'bourgeois'-from whose ideas flows all evil. Exclusivemoralismis leadingto morally ugly results."67
Mass consciousnesshas been inclined duringmany differenteras to find the
"reasons"for criticalsituationsin the plots of sabotagingminorities(be it the myths
about Jewish, Masonic, or Jesuitplots, for example). The logical "wayout," then,
was to expose and cut short the plot. In Russiancircumstances,the idea of needing
and antipopular"bourgeoisplot" became an
to suppressthe counterrevolutionary
importantelement of politicalconsciousness.A certainPetr Okurikhin,who wrote
"A Message from the Sailorsof the Baltic Fleet to the Oppressedof the World,"
proposed an eloquent recipe for savingthe Revolution:"Let all those bloodthirsty
butcherswho oppressthe people perishin the stormof social revolution.Smashto
smithereensthe skull of capital, the skull of bloody despotism,whichfor centuries
has darkenedthe workingpeople's sepulchrallives, the lives of honestworkingpeople."68(It is instructiveto note thathere, as in manyothercases, "capital"and"working people" were portrayedas eternallyopposed oppressorsand oppressed.)In the
mass consciousnessof 1917, the "bourgeoisie"was not so muchan economic,social
or politicalcategory;rather,it was an infernal,insidiousandpowerfulforcestanding
in the wayof the greatandholy resurrectionpromisedby the Revolution.The image
of the "bourgeoisie"was made diabolical.
The Bolsheviks'and their politicalallies' propagandatook such moods into account and made good use of them. It stands to reason that in the autumnof 1917
variousentrepreneurs,bankersand like-mindedpoliticalfigureswouldparticipatein
secret enterprisesthat genuinelycould be called "plots against the Revolution."69
But both mass consciousnessand leftist propagandaexplainedeverythingas a grandiose and overarching"bourgeoisconspiracy":an ideologicalmetaphorbegan to
take on a life of its own, becomingan importantfactorin the politicalprocessand
giving shape to, provokingand strengtheningconflicts between structuresof authority.
The manifestationof "antibourgeois"sentiments,understandably,
was not provoked solely by socialistpropaganda:the latterfell on fertile soil. The anti-urbanist
antibourgeoisattitudesof the intelligentsia,the anti-burgherposition of the gentry,
the anti-Westernrhetoricof Russiannationalists,and the egalitariantraditionof the
660. N. Znamenskii, Vserossiiskoe Uchreditel'noe sobranie: Istoriia sozyva i politicheskogo krusheniia (Leningrad, 1976), 227-29; V F. Shishkin, "Revoliutsionnoe nastroenie mass v preddverii Oktiabria," Istoriia SSSR, 1977, no. 3:39-41.
67N. A. Berdiaev, "Torzhestvo i krushenie narodnichestva,"Russkaia svoboda, no. 14/15 (1917): 5.
68TsGA VMF, f. R-95, op. 1, d. 14,1. 83.
69On this see G. Z. loffe, Krakh rossiiskoi monarkhicheskoi kontrrevoliutsii (Moscow, 1977), 8595; and N. G. Dumova, Kadetskaia partiia v period mirovoi voiny i fevral'skoi revoliutsii (Moscow, 1988),
204-18.
This content downloaded from 193.63.81.241 on Thu, 2 Jan 2014 15:30:13 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
196
The RussianReview
Russianpeasantry,rooted in the ancientobshchinatradition-over the decadesthey
all preparedthe way for an "antibourgeois"explosion.Because of this, the Russian
Revolutioncould not help but be antibourgeoisin tone, althoughthe concreteforms
of the Revolution'sdevelopmentcould of course have been different.
It seems to me that the significanceof this factor (along with others) must be
taken into accountwhen discussingpotential alternativesof social developmentin
1917.70The spreadof "antibourgeois"sentiments,in the formationof whichthe most
varied and at times conflictingpoliticalforces took part, hamperedthe chancesfor
a workable and durable agreementbetween moderatesocialists and liberals. All
other alternatives,includinga "unifiedsocialist government,"scarcelycould have
avertedcivil war.
70P. V Volobuev, "1917 god: Byla li al'ternativa?" Oktiabr' 1917: Velichaishee sobytie veka ili
sotsial'naia katastrofa? (Moscow, 1991), 139-50; V I. Startsev, "Al'ternativa: Fantazii i real'nost'," ibid.,
124-38; J. Frankel, "1917: The Problem of Alternatives," Revolutionary Russia: Reassessments of 1917
(Cambridge, 1992), 3-13.
This content downloaded from 193.63.81.241 on Thu, 2 Jan 2014 15:30:13 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions