Stalin: A Biography

The existing government of landlords and capitalists must be replaced by a new government, a government of workers and peasants.

The existing pseudo-government which was not elected by the people and which is not accountable to the people must be replaced by a government recognised by the people, elected by representatives of the workers, soldiers and peasants and held accountable to their representatives.

The Kishkin–Konovalov government should be replaced by a government of soviets of workers’, soldiers’ and peasants’ deputies.

Kishkin was Minister of Internal Affairs, Konovalov the Minister of Industry. Stalin recommended readers to ‘organise your meetings and elect your delegations’, ending with the invocation: ‘If all of you act solidly and staunchly, nobody will dare to resist the will of the people.’¹⁸ The revolutionary intent was obvious even if Stalin pragmatically refrained from spelling it out.

Presumably it was his editorial duties that prevented him from attending the Central Committee on the same day. Trotski too was absent, but this did not inhibit him from denigrating Stalin as a man who avoided participation in the decisions and activities connected with the seizure of power.¹⁹ The story got around — and has kept its currency — that Stalin was ‘the man who missed the revolution’.²⁰ Proof was thought to lie in the assignments given by the Central Committee to its own members. Here is the list of assignments:²¹

Bubnovv – railways

Dzierżyński – post and telegraph

Milyutin – food supplies

Podvoiski (changed to Sverdlov after objection by Podvoiski) – surveillance of Provisional Government

Kamenev and Vinter – negotiations with Left SRs [who were on the radical extreme of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries]

Lomov and Nogin – information to Moscow

Trotski thought this demonstrated the marginality of Joseph Stalin to the historic occasion being planned.

Yet if inclusion on the list was crucial, why were Trotski and Lenin omitted? And if commitment to the insurrection was a criterion, why did the Central Committee involve Kamenev? The point was that Lenin had to remain in hiding and Trotski was busy in the Military-Revolutionary Committee. Stalin as newspaper editor also had tasks which preoccupied him, and these tasks were not unimportant. As soon as he had the time, he returned to the Smolny Institute and rejoined his leading comrades. There he was instantly given a job, being sent with Trotski to brief the Bolshevik delegates who had arrived in the building for the Second Congress of Soviets. Stalin spoke about information coming into the Central Committee offices. He emphasised the support available for the insurrection from the armed forces as well as the disarray in the Provisional Government. Stalin and Trotski performed their task well. There was recognition in the Central Committee of the need for tactical finesse. A premature rising was to be avoided; and in order to gain the acquiescence of the Left SRs it was sensible to act as if every measure was merely an attempt to defend the interests of the Revolution against its militant enemies.²²

The Petrograd situation was dangerously fluid. Troops were on their way from outside the capital to help the Military-Revolutionary Committee, which already controlled the central post office. Stalin was confident that facilities could be established to restore Rabochi put despite the raid on the press earlier in the day.²³ Everything would depend on the balance of forces assembled next day by the Military-Revolutionary Committee and the Provisional Government. Kerenski faced a decisive trial of strength.