Chapter 138 Petrograd Chronicle

The international security zone, even in world history, is an extremely fresh term, but in February 1917, this term and its corresponding institutions appeared in Petrograd, the capital of the Russian Empire, and the emergence of this institution is that "countries" cannot be guaranteed in view of the chaotic situation in Russia. The refugee area established by the Petrograd International Security Zone Committee, which hinders the security of embassies and expatriates of various countries, is managed by the Petrograd International Security Zone Committee composed of embassies of various countries. Within the scope of the headquarters of the East Asian Expeditionary Force across six blocks to the embassy area, nearly 1,000 Russian police, non-commissioned officers and students cooperate with 1,500 expeditionary forces. The guards of the Ling Department are responsible for the security of this area.

If it is in peacetime, there may be some Russians there who accuse this behavior of "infringinging" Russia's national rights, but in the face of the chaos of the capital, especially after the capital fell into a state of no political axe, those revolutionaries who took advantage of the fire to burn and rob everywhere, even those who are regarded as "a share of the people" The State Duma also sent his family to the international security zone for protection. To some extent, when the whole of Petrograd fell into turmoil, the international security zone remained quiet due to the presence of the expeditionary force.

Of course, this kind of tranquility and security are only relative. The people who launched a "revolution" outside the security zone have repeatedly blocked and robbed vehicles carrying supplies in the security zone. However, it may be because they are afraid that this [***] team, which has not been affected by any "revolutionary trend", will become "imperial accomplices". People You can always maintain a trace of reason in the frenzy.

However, despite this, protests and demonstrations are naturally indispensable, because the front door of the Chinese Embassy is outside the security zone, so first of all, it became the center of the protest, so that in the face of the stones, bricks and ink bottles thrown into the embassy, the embassy had to close the front door at the same time. The windows are nailed with wooden boards. In addition, there are machine guns and warning lines at the gate.

In this storm, as more and more Russians flock to the international security zone to seek asylum, the Chinese embassy, as an advocate of the security zone, has naturally become the center of consultation and action among countries. For Liu Jingren, in addition to coordinating with other countries to ensure the interests of China, um, all countries in Russia. In addition, of course, the most important thing is to negotiate with all sides of Russia, at least to obtain accurate information. At this time, he must rely on the support of those intelligence agencies that were "somewhat annoying" in his opinion.

"...After the chaos, Luo Jianke and others proposed to organize the Provisional Committee of the State Duma in order to restore order and rebuild state institutions and social relations. This proposal was unanimously approved by other groups in the State Duma. After all, the chaos in Petrograd has harmed their interests, even if Some revolutionary leaders were also forced to send their families to safety zones for protection. With the public statement of the State Duma, it was wrapped up in this revolutionary tide by the people..."

Although he wanted to use the riot to describe the events that happened here, he finally used the word "revolution". In his opinion, perhaps this word is undoubtedly more appropriate.

"At midnight yesterday, representatives of the State Duma and various groups elected the Provisional Committee of the State Duma. The members are: Rozenko, Klensky, Tsziheze, Shulikin, Miyukov, Karaulov, Konovalov, Dmitrykov, Lezhevsky, Colonels Sdlovski, Nekrasov, Liłov and Engelhardt. According to the recommendations of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, Colonel Engelhardt, the representative of the State Duma and the General Staff, served as the commander of the Petrograd garrison of the uprising..."

Almost as soon as the voice fell, Liu Jingren asked excitedly.

"Then can we contact the interim committee?"

If the safety zone was set up at the beginning because he saw an unprecedented opportunity, now Liu Jingren undoubtedly regrets this move. Ambassadors of various countries did not oppose the establishment of an international security zone, but they did not want to get involved too much in it. Everything in the whole security zone was crushed on his head. Even the ambassadors of various countries sent someone today to tell him that embassies and their expatriates need food, and this problem naturally needs to be solved by him, the chairman of the International Security Zone Committee.

And Petrograd's state of no political axe made him not know who to contact and who to negotiate with. Now the emergence of the interim committee still makes him see a glimmer of hope in the dark.

"Sir, things are not as simple as we thought!"

At a glance at the ambassador who looked a little excited, he continued.

"Ziheze, the leader of the Menshevik caucus, clearly refused to be elected to the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, while Kerensky, the leader of the Social Revolutionary Party, hesitated. They..."

After he finished speaking, Liu Jingren said angrily.

"These damn politicians have to destroy this country sooner or later!"

Deep in his heart, although Liu Jingren, as a professional diplomat, is barely a political figure, he has no good impression on those so-called "commissar politicians", whether from China or Russia. In his opinion, they are only keen on debate and personal gains and losses. There is no other advantages at all. Except for adding chaos, there is no ability. If Russia is destroyed one day, it must have nothing to do with them.

"Sir, now, we must face the fact that the death knell of the Russian Empire dealing with us has rung!"

"Ah..."

The intelligence officer's words only made Liu Jingren slightly stunned. After a moment of silence, Liu Jingren lay lazily on the desk and finally squeaked.

"Oh, history always develops like this. It's really... there's nothing I can do!"

On the evening of March 12, soldiers, workers, students and citizens flocked to the Tavrida Palace. When they poured into the Tavrida Palace, a large amount of arms were brought into the palace from all directions, and then stored in a room. The Mensheviks and Bolsheviks released from the prison two days ago, in In the Tavrida Palace, they met the leaders of the trade union movement and cooperation movement, the leaders of the right, and the parliamentarians of the Mensheviks, such as Ziheze, Skoverlev, Kronsky, Pogdanov, Gvozdev, Sokolov, Volkov, etc. Like the 1905 Revolution, they spontaneously organized Peter. The workers represented the interim executive committee of the Soviet, and for a while, the Tavlida Palace became the center of the uprising and the revolutionary headquarters.

The revolutionary situation pushed the two major parties, the Social Revolutionary Party and the Social Labor Party, to the political front. Although they have different understandings of the role of the Soviets, there is no dispute about their organizational form. At 9:00 p.m. on the same day, the first meeting of the Petrograd Workers' Representation of the Soviet was held at the request of the Provisional Executive Committee of the Soviet Union. The meeting was attended by workers' representatives, citizens' representatives, college students' representatives, and very rude soldiers. Although the whole meeting was very fierce, in the end, due to its high prestige in the Duma, the Menshevik caucus leader Zikhze was elected as the chairman of the Soviet, and the social revolutionaries Kerensky and Mensheviks Kobelev were elected as the vice chairman. Among the 11 members of the Soviet Executive Committee elected, the Mensheviks were six Name, three Bolsheviks and two members of the Socialist Revolutionary Party.

The most surprising thing is that the sincere members of the Soviet Executive Committee have an amazing feature. Non-Russians are in the majority, including Jews, Georgians, Latvians, Poles, Lithuanians, etc. The meeting decided to invite representatives of all parties to the Soviet Executive Committee and have the right to vote. These parties are the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks in the Social Labour Party, the Social Revolutionary Party, the People's Socialist Party, the District Party, the Latvian Socialist Party, the Bend Party, etc.

The Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviets is a hastily established body that dominates the situation within the Executive Committee of the Soviets, mainly the moderates in the political parties. At this time, the number of Bolshevik members is small, and the influence in the Soviets is not large. During the meeting, people come in to congratulate at any time, and the meeting is often interrupted. There is no procedure. Each speaker speaks freely, while others interrupt at will. The first topic is to study the food issue and set up a food committee, which is different from the law-oriented temporary committee of the State Duma. This meeting is mostly composed of lower-class people and rough and uneducated soldiers, authorizing the committee to confiscate all official and public reserves of flour and be responsible for arranging the bread for the grisons and the residents of the capital. With other food supplies, the meeting decided to combine the grisons with the workers in the engineering corps representing the Soviet Union. According to the Bolsheviks' proposal, the Soviet took measures for armed workers, instructing one-tenth of the workers in the enterprise to participate in the workers' Red Guards. The Red Guards are a voluntary armed force. Any citizen, regardless of political and revolutionary beliefs, surnames and ethnicities, may become Red Guards, regardless of remuneration. In short, this It is an armed force of workers who obey the orders of the Soviets, but in fact, only a few people know who this team belongs to, and by no means belonging to the so-called moderates who dominate the Soviets.

When two newly established organizations in the Tavrida Palace were also in a hurry to try to seize state power and restore order in the capital, the masses rushed into the Maria Palace, the tsar's office, and arrested all the ministers in the meeting. At this time, the revolutionary command center accepted the slogan put forward by Kerensky - the state du The horse does not bleed.

As a result, a group of arrested princes, ministers and generals were escorted to the Tavrida Palace, and several rooms became exhibition rooms and shelters for the arrested people. The once magnificent hall was full of these people's talk and laughter, but now only sobs and sighs were heard here. An arrested general sat powerlessly in a nearby chair. Several Duma councillors attentively poured a cup of tea to a countess.

Another general, looking at the arrested colleagues around him, shouted excitedly:

"We are seeing the death of an empire!"

But no one paid attention to his words, and for the Duma legislators, the most important thing now is to prevent their former friends from becoming victims of revolutionary emotions, so they make full use of the people's trust in him and constantly understand the situation of the arrestees who are constantly being escorted. Most of the people who can be released were temporarily placed in Luo Jiangke's office, and then began to coordinate and check to prepare release documents for them. They usually sit here for hours before the release documents are ready.

"My friend, as soon as you leave here, you immediately escape to the safe area and go there to find Ambassador Liu of China, or the British..." Whenever a release document is sent to the releaser, the senator will whisper to his former friends in French or even German that he once learned from literature. What the revolution is how to carry out the "revolution" is that they naturally know that if they can no longer restrain these mob, what will happen here, maybe these newly released people will be thrown into prison again, and at that time, the guilloon will be waiting for them.

"Don't worry, my friend, you will be treated well there..."

In the chaos, when he was sending off a lieutenant general, Luo General Ke found that the soldiers were coming with the cabinet minister Sheklovitov, who was also his friend. He immediately invited the arrested Sheklovetov to his office, but the soldiers categorically refused to hand over the "hateful" minister to him.

"Soldier, I'm the chairman of the State Duma Provisional Committee, this is my order"

When Luo Jenko tried to show a little authority, he was surprised to see that the soldiers were stunned when they first looked at him, and then surrounded the prisoner. When they looked at Luo Jenko, they not only did not have a trace of respect, but also had a provocative and rude expression, and even pointed their rifles at Luo. Ke, just when he was forced out of a cold sweat by the bayonet, he didn't know what to do, but Sheclovitov didn't know where he was taken.

"They are just a group of bombers..."

Just as the soldiers laughed and left with rifles on their backs, Luo Jianke cursed them in his heart, he heard a message.

"Minister of the Interior Proto Popov couldn't stand the fear and walked into the Tavrida Palace,"

What?

Did Proto Popov send it to the door by himself?

This idiot! Doesn't he know that the whole Petrograd is arresting him?

"He said to the first student he met, "I'm Protopopov..."

As he hurried out of the palace, Kerensky ate the report of the college students around him. At this time, Kronsky had no other ideas except to sigh at Protopopov's stupidity in his heart. When he rushed out of the palace, the "revolutionary culprit" Protopov was surrounded by indignation. Angry crowd.

"Kill him, kill this butcher..."

Listening to the shouts, Kerensky panicked and quickly accelerated his pace. As a lawyer, he never agreed with any untrial punishment.

"Don't touch this person!"

As he shouted and squeezed into the crowd, people were stunned, thinking that he was coming to take the improving offender to death. The crowd dodged a road, and he immediately pulled Protopopov into the palace, and every time he walked, there would be people who would recognize the "revolutionary criminal". The scolding was endlessly and drooling from time to time. Spitting on him, even the soldiers were ready to kill this man at any time.

However, compared with everyone's contempt for Luo Jianke, for Klensky, the "justice lawyer" who was exiled for the righteous words of the revolutionaries twelve years ago, they are extremely respectful, and he is also the first person to stand in the ranks of the people in the national Duma, so they will not treat Luo like Luo. Like Ke, he sneered and spoke with the bayonet of the rifle. Although he was scolded, he still took the initiative to give way.

"Don't touch this person!"

In this way, Kerensky shouted all the way, taking Protopopov to the "Minister's Exhibition Room".

Finally, after entering Rozenko's office, Kerensky, who was also scared out of cold sweat, sat on the sofa, and then looked at Protopopov, who was pale, and said:

"Please sit down, Alexander? Dmitrievich.

Although he doesn't have much affection for Protopov, Kerensky still regrets why he threw himself into the net. In his opinion, if these people are guilty, they should also be tried by the court, not handed over to those mobs to execute, and this kind of execution will only encourage the mob to ignore the law. Arrogance.

"Alexander? Dmitrievich, tell me why you came here by yourself. Don't you know that almost everyone in the whole of Petrograd wants to kill you?

Looking at Kerensky and looking at his former companions in the room again, Protopopov's white face squeezed out a wry smile. He looked at everyone and said in a self-deprecating tone.

"Originally, I had been hiding in the British Embassy. I knew that after the temporary committee was established, I thought... I thought everything had returned to normal. As a Russian..."

His answer was in exchange for a silence from everyone, especially Karens and Luo Jianke. The two of them were even more silent and speechless for a moment. Did the order really recover? At this time, in the face of the sight of the people around him, Kerensky was unwilling to face them again. After leaving the room, he still rescued other ministers who were besieged by the masses, and even some of the tsar's political axe officials he once hated most. He knew that if he had killed his surname, maybe this palace The palace will be dyed red immediately, but reason told him that he could not do so.

"Any bloodshed is likely to destroy the whole of Russia!"

In this regard, like Kerensky, most of the Duma parliamentarians who advocate freedom and constitutionalism have the same contradictory mentality towards the revolution. They accept the will of the revolution and fear of social chaos and other emotions gnaw at their hearts. For the Duma parliamentarians who are used to parliamentary struggle, they celebrate the revolution. Praise the revolution, shout "Long live" to the revolution, wear red ribbons, and hold red flags to march with the masses.

At the same time, unlike those who do not think about the future, as the elite of this country, they are also thinking about the order and future of the country. In order to restore order in the capital and Russia, the interim committee of the Duma immediately appointed 24 members of the State Duma as representatives. Take control of the management of the country.

Subsequently, accompanied and protected by representatives of the Petrograd Soviets, Duma sent representatives to the Petrograd grisons, the Imperial Village, Kroonstadt and the Peter and Paul Fortress to prevent the rioting soldiers from continuing to issue weapons to workers, while calming the conflict in the main areas of the capital.

In the Tavrida Palace, Luo Jianke, Miliukov and others gave a speech to the Petrograd grisons, calling on the soldiers to return to the barracks, return their weapons, and restore order in the capital as soon as possible. In the face of those barbaric and unreasonable soldiers, Luo Jianke shouted:

" Orthodox soldiers, please listen to my advice. I'm an old man and I won't deceive you - you have to listen to the officers. They won't teach you to do bad things. They will do things in full accordance with Duma's advice. Long live the holy Russia!"

Some soldiers listened to his advice, and some soldiers' direct answer in the face of this advice was that they dragged the officers held in the barracks to the river and then stabbed them to death with bayonets, while the Bolshevik-led Red Guards continued to compete with other groups for actual control of the capital, while striving for as much as possible. More power.

In the face of the chaotic situation, the anxious Luo called Queen Alexandra to explain to her that the situation was in danger and urged the queen to leave with her children as soon as possible. In his opinion, if the queen did not leave the imperial village, sooner or later they would become victims of the revolution.

However, the queen calmly told him that the children were having measles, and she had to take care of the patients by herself and refused to leave the imperial village. One night later, after the chaos in the capital, people finally thought of the imperial village, so the imperial village drove into several trucks carrying a large group of soldiers from the miscellaneous army. They claimed to catch the "German woman" and her son and take them back to Petrograd.

However, when this group of people entered the imperial village, they were stunned by the magnificent imperial village. The "firm revolutionary warriors" immediately became obsessed with money. They plundered the property in the palace. After discovering the wine cellar, they immediately drank alcohol. When they were drunk, they annihid the female court officials one after another. The situation in the imperial village was more and more When it looks chaotic.

Benkendorf, the chief minister of the palace, came to the imperial village. In the face of the chaos in the imperial village, he immediately transferred a battalion of marines and two battalions of palace guards that were still loyal to the royal family, with a total of about 1,500 people to guard around the palace to ensure the safety of the royal family. But not long after, news came from the phone that, The rebels have arrived. The queen walked through the soldiers guarding them, saying that she fully trusted them and claimed that the crown prince's life had also been handed over to them.

"They are all our own people here."

The queen repeatedly said this to her children to convince them that the soldiers would protect them, but when the rebels who came heard that the palace had been defended by a brigade, they immediately withdrew.

But the soldiers guarding the palace were not comfortable with their tasks. Although there was no threat from the rebels, they slipped away from the imperial village in groups. When they saw this situation, Alexandra said with no pain:

"What, is this our sailor? Our own sailors are the same. I can't believe it..."

(to be continued)