(1)
In his book, My Reminiscences of the Russian Revolution, Morgan
Philips Price described the Red Guard demonstrations that took
place in Russia on 1st May, 1917.
I do not think I ever saw a more impressive spectacle
than on this occasion. It was not merely a labour demonstration, although
every socialist party and workmen's union in Russia was represented
there, from anarcho-syndicalists to the most moderate of the middle-class
democrats. It was not merely an international demonstration, although
every nationality of what had been the Russian Empire was represented
there with its flag and inscription in some rare, strange tongue,
from the Baltic Finns to the Tunguses of Siberia. The First of May
celebration, 1917, in Petrograd and throughout the length and breadth
of Russia was really a great religious festival, in which the whole
human race was invited to commemorate the brotherhood of man. Revolutionary
Russia had a message to the world, and was telling it across the roar
of the cannons and the din of battle.
(2) In her book The Red
Heart of Russia, Bessie Beatty
described how the Red Guards left their factories in order to defend
the Bolshevik Revolution from the threatened attack by troops led
by Alexander Kerensky.
The factory gates opened wide, and the amazing army
of the Red Guard, ununiformed, untrained, and certainly unequipped
for battle with the traditional backbone of the Russian military,
marched away to defend the revolutionary capital and the victory of
the proletariat.
Women walked
by the side of men, and small boys tagged along on the fringes of
the procession. Some of the factory girls wore red crosses upon the
sleeves of their thin jackets, and packed a meague kitbag of bandages
and first-aid accessories. Most of them carried shovels with which
to did trenches.
(3) On 7th November, 1917, Louise
Bryant and John Reed visited the Red
Guards defending the Winter Palace.
They said they had no objection to our being in the battle;
in fact, the idea rather amused them. One of them was not over eighteen.
He told me that in case they were not able to hold the Palace, he
was "keeping one bullet for himself." All the others declared
that they were doing the same.
Once while
we were quietly chatting, a shot rang out and in a moment there was
the wildest confusion. Through the front windows we could see people
running and falling flat on their faces. We waited for five minutes,
but no troops appeared and no further fighting occurred.
(4) Albert Rhys Williams,
Through the Russian Revolution (1923)
The Revolution was not everywhere powerful enough to check
the savage passions of the mobs. Not always was it on time to allay
the primitive blood-lusts. Unoffending citizens were assaulted by
hooligans. In out-of-the-way places half-savages, calling themselves
Red Guards, committed heinous crimes. At the front General Dukhonin
was dragged from his carriage and torn to pieces despite the protesting
commissars. Even in Petrograd some Yunkers were clubbed to death by
the storming crowds; others were pitched into the Neva.
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
