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Strikes and Demonstrations, Manifestations and Pogroms: Violence on the Streets of St. Petersburg (July 1914)

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Abstract

The authors examine the mass workers’ demonstrations and patriotic manifestations of July 1914 through the analysis of the political violence that spilled onto the streets of St. Petersburg. The strike movement escalated into clashes with the police, and marches in support of the First World War ended with the destruction of the German embassy building. The article discusses the features of the reaction of the population of the capital to the internal social and foreign policy crises. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the political culture of the urban lower classes, who took part both in the protests in the working-class outskirts and in the demonstrations in the city center.

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Notes

  1. Pushkareva, I.M. (2014) Studying the “working history” of the First World War, Via in tempore. Istoriya. Politologiya, No. 21, p. 129.

  2. Ibid.

  3. Haimson L. (1964, 1965) The problem of social stability in urban Russia, 1905–1917, Slavic Review 23 (4); 24 (1); Haimson, L. and Petrusha, R. (1989) Two strike waves in Imperial Russia, 1905– 1907, 1912– 1914, in Haimson, L. and Tilly, C. (Eds.) Strikes, Wars, and Revolutions in an International Perspective: Strike Waves in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Cambridge, pp. 101–166; Haimson, L. (1999) The development of the political and social crisis in Russia in the period from the eve of the First World War to the February Revolution, in Russia and the First World War: Proceedings of an International Scientific Colloquium, St. Petersburg, pp. 17–33 [in Russian].

  4. McKean R. (1990) St. Petersburg between the Revolutions: Workers and Revolutionaries, June 1907–February 1917, New Haven; London.

  5. Porshneva, O.S. (2000) The Mentality and Social Behavior of workers, Peasants, and Soldiers in Russia during the First World War (1914–March 1918), Yekaterinburg, p. 166 [in Russian]; Tyutyukin, S.V. Patriotic enthusiasm at the beginning of the war, in The World Wars of the 20th Century, in 4 cols., Vol. 1: The First World War, Moscow, 2005, p. 361 [in Russian].

  6. Aksenov, V.B. (2020) Rumors, Images, Emotions: Mass Sentiments of Russians during the Years of War and Revolution (1914–1918), Moscow, p. 24 [in Russian].

  7. Ibid., p. 174.

  8. Ibid., p. 8.

  9. Kolonitskii, B.I. (2010) “Tragic Erotica”: Images of the Imperial Family during the First World War, Moscow [in Russian].

  10. Buldakov, V.P. and Leont’eva, T.G. (2015) The War That Gave Birth to the Revolution, Moscow, p. 144 [in Russian].

  11. Kruze, E.E. (1961) Petersburg Workers in 1912–1914, Moscow, p. 306 [in Russian]; Neuberger, J. (1993) Hooliganism: Crime, Culture, and Power in St. Petersburg, 1900–1914, Berkley, p. 257.

  12. Trudovaya pravda, 1914, July 2, 3; Kruze, E.E. Petersburg Workers…, p. 309.

  13. Trudovaya pravda, 1914, July 4, 5; Nasha rabochaya gazets, 1914, July 4; Gazets-kopeika, 1914, July 4; McKean, R. St. Petersburg between the Revolutions…, pp . 298–300.

  14. History of the Workers of Leningrad, 1703–1965, Vol. 1, Leningrad, 1972, p. 456 [in Russian].

  15. Nasha rabochaya gazeta, 1914, July 6, 8.

  16. Russkoe znamya, 1914, July 16; Golos Rusi, 1914, July 6.

  17. For an analysis of some versions of events, see: McKean, R. St. Petersburg between the Revolutions…, p. 299.

  18. Rech’, 1914, July 5.

  19. McKean, R. St. Petersburg between the Revolutions…, pp. 303–306.

  20. Nasha rabochaya gazeta, 1914, July 5; Gazeta-kopeika, 1914, July 5; Peterburgskii listok, 1914, July 5.

  21. Central State Historical Archive of St. Petersburg (hereinafter, TsGIA SPb), Fund 569, Inventory 18, File 270, fol. 8 [in Russian.

  22. Ibid., Fund 569, Inventory 18, File 270, fol. 24; Novoe vremya, 1914, July 10; Kolokol, 1914, July 10; Gazeta-kopeika, 1914, July 10.

  23. TsGIA SPb, Fund 569, Inventory 18, File 270, fols. 29, 29 verso; Peterburgskii listok, 1914, July 11.

  24. McKean, R. St. Petersburg between the Revolutions…, pp. 307–310; State Archive of the Russian Federation (GA RF), Fund 102, Inventory 123, File 61, Part 2, Letter А, Notebook 2, fols. 219, 220 [in Russian].

  25. A.M. Kollontai wrote with reference to A.G. Shlyapnikov that “Poincaré’s arrival in St. Petersburg only adds fuel to the fire. The Russian proletariat consciously shows the head of the French government that there is a smell of revolution in the air, that new demonstrations can be expected ….” Kollontai, A.M. (1924) Excerpts from the Diary of 1914, Leningrad, p. 4 [in Russian].

  26. GARF, Fund 102, Inventory 123, File 61, Part 2, Letter А, Notebook 2, fol. 163 [in Russian].

  27. Ibid., Inventory 265, File 990, fdol. 916.

  28. S.L. Obleukhova, a member of the Main Chamber of the Michael the Archangel Russian People’s Union, wrote in a letter to V.M. Purishkevich about the “second revolution,” GA RF, Fund 102, Inventory 265, File 990, fols. 910, 910 verso [in Russian].

  29. GARF, Fund 102, Inventory 265, File 975, fol. 64 [in Russian]; TsGIA SPb, File 569, Inventory 18, File 270, fols. 29, 29 verso [in Russian].

  30. GA RF, Fund 102, Inventory 265, File 990, fol. 910 [in Russian].

  31. Russkoe znamya, 1914, July 6; Vechernee vremya, 1914, July 9; Golos Rusi, 1914, July 10.

  32. See Neuberger J. Hooliganism…

  33. Vechernee vremya, 1914, July 7; Moskovskie vedomosti, 1914, July 11; Gazeta-kopeika, 1914, July 10.

  34. Rodzyanko, M.V. (2002) The Collapse of the Empire and the State Duma and the February 1917 Revolution, Мoscow, pp. 84, 85 [in Russian].

  35. Gazeta-kopeika, 1914, July 14; Peterburgskii listok, 1914, July 14; Kolokol, 1914, July 15.

  36. Rech’, 1914, July 15, 17; Peterburgskii listok, 1914, July 15, 17; Golos Rusi, 1914, July 17.

  37. Rech’, 1914, July 19.

  38. Peterburgskii listok, 1914, July 15

  39. TsGIA SPb, Fund 569, Inventory 18, File 270, fol. 32.

  40. Den’, 1914, July 20.

  41. TsGIA SPb, Fund 569, Inventory 18, File 270, fol. 50.

  42. Even more exaggerated are the claims of some historians that there were 250 000 demonstrators on Palace Square. For a well-founded critique of such estimates, see: Aksenov, V.B. Rumors, Images, Emotions…, pp. 100– 103.

  43. Peterburgskii kur’er, 1914, July 22; Golos Rusi, 1914, July 22, 23.

  44. Russkoe slovo, 1914, July 24.

  45. TsGIA SPb, Fund 569, Inventory 10, File 191, fol. 22 [in Russian]; Den’, 1914, July 23; Russkoe znamya, 1914, July 24; Peterburgskii listok, 1914, July 23; Rech’, 1914, July 23; Kolokol, 1914, July 23; Rumyantsev, A.G. (2016) The smash of the German embassy in July 1914—Myths and reality, in Petersburg Military-Historical Readings: Interuniversity Scientific Conference, March 20, 2015, St. Petersburg, p. 70 [in Russian].

  46. Rumyantsev, A.G. The defeat of the German embassy…, pp. 70, 71; Peterburgskii listok, 1914, July 23; Kolokol, 1914, July 23; TsGIA SPb, Fund 569, Inventory 10, File 191, fols. 22, 22а.

  47. TsGIA SPb, Fund 569, Inventory 10, File 191, fols. 22, 22а; Peterburgskii listok, 1914, July 23; Kolokol, 1914, July 23.

  48. Peterburgskii kur’er, 1914, July 24; Peterburgskii listok, 1914, July 23; Rumyantsev, A.G. The smash of the German embassy…, p. 71; Aksenov, V.B. Rumors, Images, emotions…, p. 104.

  49. Rumyantsev, A.G. The smash of the German embassy…, p. 71; Novoe vremya, 1914, July 23, 24; Novoe vremya, 1914, July 23; Gazeta-kopeika, 1914, July 23; Peterburgskii kur’er, 1914, July 23; Den’, 1914, July 23; Rech’, 1914, Juy 23; TsGIA SPb, Fund 569, Inventory 10, File 191, fol. 22а.

  50. Rumyantsev, A.G. The smash of the German embassy…, pp. 72, 73; Aksenov, V.B. Rumors, Images, Emotions…, p. 105; Den’, 1914, July 23; Rech’, 1914, July 23; TsGIA SPb, Fund 569, Inventory 10, File 191, fol. 22а.

  51. Rumyantsev, A.G. The smash of the German embassy…, pp. 72, 73; TsGIA SPb, Fund 569, Inventory 10, File 191, fol. 22а.

  52. The commander of a separate corps of gendarmes recalled it: Dzhunkovskii, V.F. (1997) Records of the Past: Memories, in 2 vols., Мoscow, Vol. 2, p. 375 [in Russian].

  53. Novoe vremya, 1914, July 24.

  54. Peterburgskii listok, 1914, July 23.

  55. Den’, 1914, July 24.

  56. Novoe vremya, 1914, July 24.

  57. Novoe vremya, 1914, July 24. And subsequently, the police did not allow demonstrations even on the occasion of the victories of the Russian troops. Novoe vremya, 1914, July 22.

  58. Peterburgskii listok, 1914, July 25.

  59. Gazets-kopeika, 1914, July 26, 28 (Second emergency (evening) addition), 29.

  60. Rech’, 1914, July 24.

  61. Rech’, 1914, July 25; Golos Rusi, 1914, July 25; Gazeta-kopeika, 1914, July 25.

  62. Russkoe znamya, 1914, July 24.

  63. Golos Rusi, 1914, July 23.

  64. Zemshchina, 1914, July 23.

  65. For this opposition, see: Aksenov, V.B. Rumors, Images, Emotions…, p. 109.

  66. Rech’, 1914, July 24.

  67. Tolstoy, I.I. (1997) Diary, 1906–1916, St. Petersburg, P. 526 [in Russian].

  68. Sadovskii, B. (1914) In front of the German embassy, Apollon, Nos. 6–7, p. 13; Lilin, V. (1975) Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin, Leningrad, p. 86 [in Russian]; Chukovskii, K.I. (2011) Diary, in 3 vols., Vol. 1: 1901– 1921, Moscow, pp. 195–196 [in Russian]; Lopukhin, V.B. (2008) Notes of the Former Director of the Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, St. Petersburg, p. 234 [in Russian].

  69. Rozanov, V.V. (1915) War of 1914 and Russian Revival, Petrograd, pp. 13, 15 [in Russian].

  70. Lohr, E. (2003) Nationalizing the Russian Empire: The Campaign against Enemy Aliens during World War I, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

  71. Aksenov, V.B. Rumors, Images, Emotions…, p. 27.

  72. Neuberger, J. Hooliganism…, pp. 256–271.

Funding

This article was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, project No 20-18-00369 “The Processes of Legitimisation of Violence: Conflict Cultures in Russia and the Escalation of Civil War.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. European University at St. Petersburg (EUSP), St. Petersburg, Russia

    B. I. Kolonitskii & K. V. Godunov

  2. St. Petersburg Institute of History, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia

    B. I. Kolonitskii & K. A. Tarasov

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  1. B. I. Kolonitskii
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  2. K. V. Godunov
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  3. K. A. Tarasov
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Correspondence to B. I. Kolonitskii, K. V. Godunov or K. A. Tarasov.

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Translated by B. Alekseev

Boris Ivanovich Kolonitskii, Dr. Sci. (Hist.), is a Professor in the Faculty of History, EUSP, and a Leading Researcher at the St. Petersburg Institute of History, RAS. Konstantin Valer’evich Godunov, Cand. Sci. (Hist.), is a Researcher at EUSP. Konstantin Andreevich Tarasov, Cand. Sci. (Hist.), is a Researcher in the Department of the History of Revolutions and Social Movements in Russia, St. Petersburg Institute of History, RAS.

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Kolonitskii, B.I., Godunov, K.V. & Tarasov, K.A. Strikes and Demonstrations, Manifestations and Pogroms: Violence on the Streets of St. Petersburg (July 1914). Her. Russ. Acad. Sci. 92 (Suppl 11), S1024–S1033 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1019331622170087

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