Krasnoiarsk Republic

in the history of the Revolution of 1905–07, the name for the power exercised by the United Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies in the city of Krasnoiarsk between Dec. 6, 1905, and Jan. 3, 1906.

The emergence of the soviet was preceded by the work of the Electoral Commission of the Workers of Krasnoiarsk, which was formed on Oct. 20, 1905, during the October political strike. The commission’s leaders were the Bolsheviks A. A. Rogov, a member of the committee of the RSDLP, K. V. Kuznetsov, and I. N. Vorontsov. Without the prior agreement of the authorities, the commission established the eight-hour workday. It also organized workers’ druzhinas, directed the strikers, conducted negotiations with entrepreneurs, and maintained contact between the workers and soldiers.

On December 6 the United Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies was founded. (A. A. Mel’nikov, a member of the committee of the RSDLP, was chairman, and I. N. Vorontsov, deputy chairman.) Approximately 120 persons were elected to the soviet, including Bolsheviks, nonparty workers and soldiers, Mensheviks, and SR’s (Socialist Revolutionaries). During the strike by soldiers of the railroad battalion (December 8–13) the Committee (Soviet) of Soldiers’ Deputies of the Krasnoiarsk garrison was organized. (Ensign Kuz’min, who was affiliated with the SR’s, was chairman.) The Electoral Commission was reorganized as the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies on December 10, and Vorontsov was named chairman. The three soviets functioned simultaneously.

The general political strike which began on December 8 developed into an uprising. Leading an armed demonstration of workers and soldiers on December 9, the United Soviet in fact took power in Krasnoiarsk into its own hands and began to play the role of a provisional revolutionary government. It ordered the provincial printing office seized on December 8. The United Soviet took up publication of the newspaper Krasnoiarskii rabochii published a decree guaranteeing freedom of the press and assembly, took control of the railroads and industrial enterprises, created a people’s court, began to disarm the police, and strengthened the fighting druzhinas and organized the defense of the city. However, the opportunistic leadership of the soldiers’ soviet expressed its opposition to the mass arming of the workers, the seizure of the arsenal, and the distribution of weapons from the railroad battalion’s supply to the workers. Because they feared “discord,” the Bolsheviks did not bring up these issues for a broad discussion.

Revealing a complacent attitude, the United Soviet did not arrest representatives of the tsarist regime, nor did it take measures to broaden the uprising. Despite the opinion of the Bolsheviks, who indicated that it was necessary first “to spread the uprising further and to take up arms in earnest,” the United Soviet concentrated on preparing for elections to a new city duma. Having suppressed the uprising in the center of the country, in the Urals, the tsarist government sent punitive detachments to Siberia. Subunits of the Krasnoiarsk and Omsk regiments, which arrived in Krasnoiarsk on December 25–27 from Manchuria, established a patrol in the city. On December 28, Krasnoiarsk was declared to be in a state of war, and the governor issued an order for the disarming of the railroad battalion. In order to prevent the disarming, 227 soldiers and more than 500 workers barricaded themselves in the railroad workshops. Led by members of the committee of the RSDLP and the United Soviet, they steadfastly fought off tsarist troops for seven days (December 28-January 3).

The numerical advantage of the tsarist troops, news of the situation in Irkutsk, Chita, and other Siberian cities, which shattered hope for aid from outside, and lack of arms, food, water, and fuel forced the besieged soldiers and workers to surrender on January 3 on the condition that the civilians in the workshops be permitted to leave freely. This condition, however, was violated by the authorities, who arrested workers as well as soldiers. Nine soldiers who participated in the uprising in January and February 1907 were sentenced to eight years’ hard labor, and more than 160 workers and soldiers were imprisoned or sent to penal battalions.