One of the secrets of the 20th century is how the seizure of the residence of the Provisional Government, the Winter Palace, took place on the night of October 26, 1917. Was it a bloody assault on an impregnable citadel, as shown in the film of the Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein? General of the Imperial Army Pyotr Krasnov in his novel "From the Two-Headed Eagle to the Red Banner" described a crowd that had rushed to wine cellars and staged a drunken orgy with the captured "shock women" of the women's battalion. Where is the truth?
Lucky find
All the memories of “the days that shook the world” were written, as they say, in hindsight, much later than that same October 26. But here is a rare archival find. It turns out that the grand-niece of the Minister of Railways of the Provisional Government, Alexander Liverovsky, kept his diary. In this diary Liverovsky punctually, minute by minute, recorded the events that took place in the Winter Palace and Petrograd from 11 hours 15 minutes on October 25, when he arrived at the Winter Palace at the call of Prime Minister A. F. Kerensky. The last entry was made at 5:00 am on October 26th. At this time, the arrested minister ended up in cell No. 54 of the Peter and Paul Fortress. It is not possible to publish the entire diary within a journal article. We bring to your attention just a few eyewitness accounts,dispelling all the most persistent myths about the capture of the Winter Palace in the fall of 1917.
Kerensky in a woman's dress
Who has not heard that the head of the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, escaped from the Winter Palace, disguised as a woman's? This is the most famous legend. How was it really? From the diary of Minister A. V. Liverovsky: “On October 25, at 11:15 am, the secretary announced that Kerensky was calling to immediately come to the meeting at the Winter Palace. I found some ministers in the Malachite Hall … Kerensky was not there. When I asked where he was, Konovalov (A. I. Konovalov - Deputy Prime Minister, leader of the Progressives Party, after the revolution - an emigrant - ed.) Replied that he left the district headquarters today in a car towards troops marching to Petrograd to support the Provisional Government. Alexander Fedorovich, having learned that there were no troops, decided to go to the district headquarters at once and take upon himself all the orders of the defense. But Konovalov told him that, in his opinion, the situation was so serious that it was necessary to immediately convene a meeting of the Provisional Government, discuss everything together and work out measures. Aleksandr Fyodorovich nevertheless left for the headquarters and from there set off in the car of the British Embassy to Luga, leaving Konovalov with a directive to assemble the Provisional Government and make it permanent.
As we can see, on the night of the capture of the Winter Palace by the Red Guards, the Prime Minister himself was not even in Petrograd. He left in a men's jacket in the car of the British ambassador.
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Violence against women - "shock workers"
Like General Krasnov, all the defenders of the Winter Palace claimed that the revolutionary sailors, having seized the palace, got drunk and staged a mass rape of women volunteers, allegedly the most staunch defenders of the Provisional Government. However, there were collection wines in the cellars of the Winter Palace. But at that time there were no more women. From the diary of Minister A. V. Liverovsky: “12 hours 20 minutes. A member of the committee of the Peasant Union came. He made his way into the palace with several sailors while the women's battalion was leaving. The part of the palace left by this battalion remained, according to him, unguarded, and anyone who wished could freely enter from the street.
13 hours 50 minutes. Konovalov asked General Bagratuni (at that time Major General Ya. G. Bagratuni was the chief of staff of the Petrograd Military District, - author's note): "Why were women's battalions withdrawn from Petrograd yesterday?" Bagratuni: “According to the terms of accommodation. In addition, I was informed that they willingly go to the front, but do not want to interfere in the political struggle."
So the women volunteers left both the Winter Palace and Palace Square in the afternoon. There was no one to rape at night. All this is a fiction of anti-Soviet "memoirists".
Shrapnel from the cruiser "Aurora"
We read the diary entry of Minister Liverovsky: “13 hours 45 minutes. Someone reports that a radio message has been intercepted that the Revolutionary Committee is counting on the support of the Aurora.
19 hours 10 minutes. An ultimatum was delivered by two delegates from the Revolutionary Committee. Our surrender is required - we have been given 20 minutes for reflection, after which fire will be opened on the Winter Palace from the Aurora. The guns of the ships "Aurora" and "Amur" are aimed at the Winter Palace and the General Staff building.
22 hours 40 minutes. The ministers were delivered most of the shrapnel, which got into the Alexander Hall of the palace, breaking through the wall and damaging the portrait of Peter the Great."
There was no one to defend the palace
Allegedly, the rebels were resisted by rare chains of cadets, and there was no battle as such. How were things really? From Liverovsky's diary: “13 hours 50 minutes. The beginning comes. headquarters of the Bagratuni district. Konovalov: "I wish to receive from you, General, definite answers to three questions: have the forces been calculated, what forces are there now and who will command them?" Bagratuni replies: “We still have military schools and warrant officers' schools. This power is great, but it is inert. There are about 900 junkers here. All are in the Winter Palace and some are in the district headquarters. In addition, we have up to a hundred officers at our disposal. Colonel Ryneisky will be in command.
Another 10 hours 15 minutes. At Tereshchenko's suggestion, the Provisional Government decided: to appoint units that will hold out until the arrival of reinforcements - the National Guard Troops of the Constituent Assembly.
From the same diary it is known that up to 21 hours 45 minutes in the Winter Palace there were three hundred Cossacks of the 14th Don Regiment and an officer's battery of four guns. But, without receiving intelligible orders - the ministers only discussed everything, dined and drank tea, the military went to the barracks. There was another reason for this behavior.
“15 hours 30 minutes. It turned out that there was no food for the cadets. Measures are being taken. Having summoned more than 1,000 people to defend themselves, the Democratic ministers did not think about what to feed them. Although they themselves did not starve.
Liverovsky clarifies the menu of the Provisional Government's dinner on its last day: “18 hours 30 minutes. All the ministers went to dinner upstairs to Kerensky's dining room. Soup, fish, artichokes were served. At a special table Konovalov, Tereshchenko (Minister of Foreign Affairs, - author's note), Kartashev (Minister of Religions, under the Tsar, Ober-Prosecutor of the Synod, - author's note) and me."
Ministers clung to portfolios
This is not true. They were indecisive, but not stupid or power-hungry. From Liverovsky's diary: “20 hours 15 minutes. Verderevsky (rear admiral, naval minister, after the revolution - an emigrant, - author's note) and Kartashev raised the question of reality in the circumstances of the current moment of our powers. All broke away from us. Shouldn't we surrender power?"
Everyone understood that this should be done, but they could not decide on anything.
There was no fight at all
This is partly true. Neither side blazed with rage towards the enemy. But this does not mean that no shots were fired at the Winter Palace.
Excerpts from the diary: “15 hours 30 minutes. The first shots rang out near the Winter Palace. From the windows overlooking the Admiralty, the sailors, soldiers and Red Guards could be seen running. The junkers did not budge.
21 hours 15 minutes. We were drinking tea.
21 hours 30 minutes. Machine gun fire began. Ours answered several times with guns.
23 hours 50 minutes. There was a terrible crackling sound, followed by shots in the next room. It turned out that a bomb had been dropped from the upper gallery in the corridor by sailors who made their way through the back door through the infirmary. A few minutes later, a cadet wounded in the head was brought to us, and another came himself. We made dressings. Then they extinguished the fire caused by the explosion."
The killed and wounded were also among the Red Guards attacking the Winter Palace.
How and when the ministers were arrested
The diary entries for the last minutes are short and accurate.
“October 26, 1917. About 40 minutes. Rutenberg asked if anyone had a revolver? No one had it. I gave my little nickel-plated browning.
1 hour 20 minutes at night. The telephone operator on duty informed the delegation of 300-400 people about the approach to the Winter Palace.
1 hour 50 minutes. Arrest. Drawing up a protocol.
2 hours 10 minutes. They sent me under escort.
3 hours 40 minutes - arrived at the Peter and Paul Fortress.
5 hours 5 minutes. I'm in cell No. 54."
After October 1917, Alexander Vasilyevich Liverovsky, like a number of his fellow ministers from the Kerensky government, remained in Russia and faithfully served the Soviet regime. The former minister taught at the Institute of Railway Engineers, survived the Great Terror of 1937, and the blockade, and the Leningrad affair. He was awarded the Orders of the Red Banner of Labor and the Red Star and the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad". He died in Leningrad in 1951. I tried to forget about my diary. One can only guess what the old professor felt and thought about when he found himself in the Hermitage and quietly walked along the corridors to the Malachite Hall of the Winter Palace.
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №45, Alexander Smirnov