[The following depicts the fall of the Russian Provisional Government which took place after the surrender of its ministers in the Winter Palace, during the October Coup.]
After midnight, the palace filled with a mob which looted and vandalized its luxurious interiors. Some of the women defenders are said to have been raped. P. N. Maliantovich, the Minister of Justice, left a graphic picture of the last minutes of the Provisional Government:
Suddenly a noise arose somewhere: it at once grew in intensity and scope, drawing nearer. In its sounds – distinct but fused into a single wave – there at once resounded something special, something different from the previous noises: something final… It became instantly clear that the end was at hand…
Those lying or sitting sprang to their feet and reached for their overcoats…
And the noise grew all the time, intensified, and swiftly, with a broad wave, rolled toward us… It penetrated and seized us with an unbearable fear, like the onslaught of poisoned air…
All this in a few minutes…
At the door to the antechamber of the room where we were holding watch one could hear sharp, excited shouts of a mass of voices, a few isolated shots, the stamping of feet, some pounding, movements, the commingled, mounting, integrated chaos of sounds and the ever-mounting fear.
It was obvious: we were under assault: we were being taken by assault.
…Defense was useless; victims would be sacrificed in vain…
The door flew open… A iunker rushed in. At full attention, saluting, his face excited but determined: “What does the Provisional Government command? Defend to the last man? We are ready if the Provisional Government so orders.”
”No need for this! It would be useless! This is clear! No bloodshed! Surrender!” we shouted like one without prior agreement, only looking at one another to read the same feelings and resolution in everyone’s eyes.
Kishkin stepped forward. “If they are here, this means that the palace is already taken.”
”Yes. All entrances have been taken. Everyone has surrendered. Only these quarters are still guarded. What does the Provisional Government command?”
”Say that we want no bloodshed, that we yield to force, that we surrender,” Kishkin said.
And there, by the door, fear mounted without letup, and we became anxious lest blood flow, lest we be too late to prevent it… And we shouted anxiously: “Hurry! Go and tell them! We want no blood! We surrender!”
The iunker left… The entire scene, I believe, took no more than a minute.
Arrested by Antonov-Ovseenko at 2:10 a.m., the ministers were taken under guard to the Peter and Paul Fortress. On the way they barely escaped being lynched.
Source:
Pipes, Richard. "The October Coup." The Russian Revolution. New York: Knopf, 1990. 495-96. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Maliantovich in Byloe, No. 12 (1918), 129-30.
Further Reading:
Временное правительство России (Russian Provisional Government)
Владимир Александрович Антонов-Овсеенко (Vladimir Alexandrovich Antonov-Ovseyenko)
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