R.H. Bruce Lockhart was a British Government agent in Russia before and after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. He met all the main leaders of the Tsarist regime, the Provisional Government as well as the Soviet leaders, Lenin and Trotsky. His first-hand experiences and lucid observations were published in his remarkable book entitled Memoirs of a British Agent in 1932. It became an instant best-seller in Britain and America. Although it presents things from the standpoint of a staunch supporter of the British establishment, it is nevertheless a fascinating account.
Coming from a privileged upper class background, Lockhart found employment in the higher echelons of the British Foreign Office. In early 1912, he was responsible for overseeing a Parliamentary Delegation to Russia and was soon appointed as Vice-Consul at the British Consulate in Moscow. In this capacity, he met a whole host of dignitaries with connections to Russian upper class life.
The Tsar and the War
The First Word War proved a fundamental turning-point. The tsarist regime entered the war with great confidence and its early triumphs stiffened its resolve. However, the wave of patriotism which swept the country did not last.
Russia was dominated by the autocratic Tsar Nicholas and above all his wife, the Tsarina. His blind obstinacy gave rise to frequent frictions within the regime. “Moscow, always much more anti-German that St Petersburg, was a perfect cesspool of rumours of pro-German intrigues in high places”, writes Lockhart. In his diary for February 1915, he notes, “Today an officer telephoned to ask when England was going to rid Russia of ‘the German woman’”, which was a reference to the Empress. “This is the third time that this kind of thing has happened this week.” It was to happen still more frequently as the months passed.
Things started going badly on the German front. The Russian advance into Austria had stalled. Lockhart reported the growing anti-government mood, with increasing socialist anti-government and anti-war agitation taking place amongst the workers. There was a growing antagonism between the masses and the regime, especially against the Tsarina. Riots broke out in Moscow. “For the first time since 1905”, wrote Lockhart, “the mob had felt its power. It's appetite for disorder had been whetted.”
Lockhart greatly admired the British Ambassador, Sir George Buchanan, who had foreseen the catastrophe that was approaching and attempted to warn the Russian autocracy. But to no avail. One day, Buchanan went to see the Tsar personally. “He informed me that if the Emperor received him sitting down all would be well. The Tsar received him standing.” Typical of the Foreign Office, Buchanan was treated as a scapegoat for the coming revolution.
“To the aristocracy”, states Lockhart, “the complete absolutism of the Tsar was something more than a religion. It was the rock on which its own sheltered existence was built.”
Things got progressively worse on the Russian front. There was retreat in Galicia and the Carpathians as the Germans advanced on Warsaw, which finally fell in the summer of 1915. Rumours quickly spread of Russian troops manning trenches with no guns or ammunition. But there were worse things to come.
The Liberal politicians politely demanded reforms and more representative government. But the authorities resisted, fearing that reforms would open the road to revolution. “The Tsar’s reply was to dissolve the Duma and dismiss the most popular ministers. He then appointed himself ‘Supreme Commander’”, states Lockhart. “It was the most fatal of the many blunders of the unfortunate Nicholas II, for Commander-in-Chief he became personally responsible in the eyes of the people for the long succession of defeats which owing to Russia’s technical difficulties were now inevitable.”
“In my own mind, the feeling of inevitable disaster became stronger and stronger”, he wrote. “The inexorable hand of fate was already stretched out over the ruling class of Russia.” Rasputin, the mad monk, had so much influence over the Tsarina and the Tsar, that it caste a cloak of mysticism over the whole regime. “Under the strain of so much madness the last props of Tsarism were falling away.”
There was increasing discontent not only in the villages but also in the trenches. The Tsar simply brushed this to one side. “What is all this talk about my people’s confidence?” he barked. “Let the people merit my confidence.”
Not surprisingly, the Tsar and Tsarina were great admirers of the fascist Black Hundreds and their pogroms against the Jews.
The revolution begins
Lockhart reveals that the atmosphere in St Petersburg was more depressing than ever. “Champagne flowed like water”, he wrote, describing the frivolity of the upper classes. “And in the streets were the long queues of ill-clad men and garrulous women, waiting for the bread that never came.”
In the factories, revolutionary propaganda had a huge impact. The shortage of bread provoked a series of riots. Then, on 12th March (new calendar) a bread riot turned into a “revolution”, to use Lockhart’s words. Within five days, the old regime had collapsed and the Tsar had fled. “In Moscow there was no bloodshed. There was no one left to defend the old regime”, notes Lockhart. “My most vivid memory of that afternoon was the warmth of the surging mob before the Town Duma.”
"What is important to realise is that from the first the revolution was a revolution of the people”, explained Lockhart. Describing the sweep of the revolution, he says that “The floodgates of three hundred years had been swept away.” The Allies were stunned by the revolution, which they were forced to greet “first with feigned enthusiasm and then with increasing alarm.”
As in 1905, the revolution threw up workers’ councils or Soviets. The old regime had collapsed and power was in their hands. However, under the influence of the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries, they handed power to a Provisional government, headed by Prince Lvov. “He would have made an excellent chairman of the London County Council,” writes Lockhart. The Provisional Government was composed of bourgeois representatives, who threw away their tsarist braids for “democratic” credentials.
The Allied powers were desperate to get the new Provisional government to continue the war. However, the masses wanted bread, land and above all peace. The new government resisted these demands, and therefore became increasingly unpopular. Even when the “socialist” Kerensky assumed the premiership, there was no change of policy.
“Caught between the cross-fires of the Bolshevik Left”, explains Lockhart, “which was screaming peace at every street-corner and in every trench, and the Right and of the Allies who were demanding the restoration of discipline by Tsarist methods, he [Kerensky] had no chance. And he fell, because whoever had tried to do what he did was bound to fail.”
The Soviets under pressure from the masses talked of “peace without annexations”. But as Lockhart reveals, “It was a formulae which caused considerable annoyance and even anxiety to the English and French governments, which had already divided up the spoils of victory not yet won, in the form of both annexations and contributions.”
Bolsheviks in power
Finally, in September, the Bolsheviks succeeded in winning a majority in the Soviets on the basis of bread, land and peace and all power to the Soviets. Within a month, the Bolsheviks were in power. “I had long foreseen the inevitability of the Bolshevik Revolution”, states Lockhart. “I could not share the general belief, stimulated by the opinion of nearly all the Russian experts in London that the Lenin regime could not last more than a few weeks and that then Russia would revert to Tsarism or a military dictatorship.” He then adds, “Rather futilely I sought to combat the firmly-rooted conviction that Lenin and Trotsky were German staff officers in disguise or at least servile agents of German policy.”
Lockhart had been forced to leave Russia for medical reasons before the Bolsheviks had taken power but was soon sent back to “unofficially” establish links with the Bolsheviks. However, his diplomacy ended in failure as the push for military intervention by the imperialist powers gained the upper hand.
The October Revolution was greeted favourably by workers everywhere. However, the capitalists internationally saw it as a deadly threat. The Russian bourgeois were desperate to overthrow the revolution by any means they could and get back “their” property. As Lockhart explained, “The one aim of every Russian bourgeois (and 99 per cent of the so-called ‘loyal’ Russians were bourgeois) was to secure the intervention of British troops (and, failing British, German troops) to re-establish order in Russia, suppress Bolshevism and restore to the bourgeois his property.”
“The consensus of official opinion in London seemed to be that Bolshevism would be swept away within a few weeks”, explained Lockhart. The bourgeoisie were openly delighted at the prospect of a German advance, which had emboldened the anti-Bolshevik press to attack the Bolsheviks with a frenzied fury.
Lenin and Trotsky
When Lockhart returned to Moscow he had an interview with Trotsky in the Russian Foreign Office. “He struck me as perfectly honest and sincere in his bitterness against the Germans”, he says. “He has a wonderfully quick mind and a rich, deep voice. With his broad chest, his huge forehead, surmounted by great masses of black, waving hair, his strong, fierce eyes, and his heavy protruding lips, he is the very incarnation of the revolutionary of the bourgeois caricatures.”
He also met with Lenin. “He received me in a small room on the same floor as Trotsky's. It was untidy and bare of all trappings except a writing desk and a few plain chairs. It was not only my first interview with Lenin. It was the first time that I had set eyes on him… Yet in those steely eyes there was something that arrested my attention, something in that quizzing, half-contemptuous, half-smiling look which spoke of boundless self-confidence and conscious superiority.”
“Later I was to acquire a considerable respect for his intellectual capacity, but at that moment I was more impressed by his tremendous will-power, his relentless determination, and his lack of emotion.”
Lockhart gives a frank appraisal of life in St. Petersburg during this period. “The Bolsheviks had not yet succeeded in establishing the iron discipline which today (1932) characterises their regime”, he says. “They had, in fact, made little attempt to do so. There was no terror, nor was the population particularly afraid of its new masters. The anti-Bolshevik newspapers continued to appear and to attack the Bolshevik policy with violent abuse… The bourgeoisie, still confident that the Germans would soon send the Bolshevik rabble about its business, was more cheerful than one might have expected in such disturbing circumstances. The population was starving, but the rich still had money. Restaurants and cabarets were still open, and the cabarets at any rate were crowded.”
Lockhart actually pins the blame for violence not on the Bolsheviks but on the imperialists. This is in complete contradiction to today’s “historians”, who do everything to blacken the name of the Bolsheviks. “I mention this comparative tolerance of the Bolsheviks, because the cruelties which followed later were the result of the intensification of the civil war. For the intensification of that bloody struggle, (the) Allied intervention, with the false hopes it raised, was largely responsible… I do suggest that our intervention intensified the terror and increased the bloodshed.”
Lockhart reveals that the situation was so easy going, that the Bolsheviks gave him practically a free hand. He was even able to attend a meeting of the Executive Meeting of the Soviets. Again, this flies in the face of those modern-day “historians” who are keen to play up the so-called dictatorship of the Bolsheviks. “We had no difficulty in seeing the various Commissars”, relates Lockhart. “We were even allowed to be present at certain meetings of the Central Executive Committee. On one occasion we went to hear the debate on the new army. In those early days the Bolshevik Parliament held its meetings in the main restaurant of the Metropole Hotel, which had been renamed the ‘First House of Soviets.’”
At the debate he met Lenin, Trotsky (who spoke) and Radek. He says he also shook hands with another man. “I paid little attention to him. He himself said nothing. He did not seem of sufficient importance to include in my gallery of Bolshevik portraits. If he had been announced then to the assembled Party as the successor of Lenin, the delegates would have roared with laughter. The man was the Georgian Djugashvilli, known today to the whole world as Stalin, the man of steel.”
This again confirms the position of Stalin as a “grey blob” of the revolution, only brought to power with the victory of the bureaucracy.
Imperialism, counter-revolution, and civil war
Lockhart reveals the actions of the German occupation, which supported the counter-revolution. “They had set up a bourgeois Russian Government in the Ukraine, whose first action was to restore the land to its former owners. This naturally provoked a peasant revolt which was suppressed with great cruelty.”
“Moreover, the military support which the Germans had afforded to the White Finns in the Finnish civil war, was another factor to our advantage. Germany seemed to be taking the side of reaction.”
The Allied armies also sided with the Whites. The British intervention did not take place until 4th August. Lockhart relates that “as a result of the increased danger which now threatened them, the Bolsheviks tightened up their discipline.”
“The Whites were led to believe that Allied military support would be forthcoming in decisive strength. The figure generally mentioned was two Allied divisions for Archangel and several Japanese divisions for Siberia. Encouraged by these hopes, the anti-Bolshevik forces began to increase their activities. On 21st June, Volodarsky, the Bolshevik Commissar for Press Affairs in St. Petersburg, was assassinated on his return from a meeting at the Obuchoff Works. The Bolshevik reply was swift. In his speech to the St. Petersburg Soviet, Uritski, the head of the local Cheka, made a violent attack on England in which he accused the English of organising the dead Commissar's murder. The next day Schastny, the Commander-in-Chief of the Baltic Fleet, who had been a prisoner in the Kremlin, was condemned to death and shot. At the trial, Trotsky distinguished himself by the violence of his language. The Terror was beginning.”
Clearly, the Bolsheviks were involved in a defence of the revolution, attacked by both the Whites and the Allied Powers. Lockhart conspired with the counter-revolutionaries. “...I increased my contact with the anti-Bolshevik forces”, states Lockhart. “As far as we were concerned, they were represented in Moscow by an organisation called the ‘Centre,’ which was subdivided into two wings of Left and Right, and by the League of the Regeneration of Russia founded by Savinkoff. [...] The White generals regarded Savinkoff with suspicion. Indeed, about this period I received a letter from General Alexeieff in which he stated that he would sooner co-operate with Lenin and Trotsky than with Savinkoff or Kerensky. Both organisations were agreed on one point only. They wanted Allied aid and Allied money.”
The Bolsheviks faced a new threat. This time from the Left Social-Revolutionaries, who were part of the government, but who resigned in protest at the Brest Litovsk treaty. “Secretly, the Left Social-Revolutionaries began to prepare fantastic plans for the overthrow of the Bolshevik Government and for a renewal of the war with Germany.”
The foreign intervention added to the alarm. According to Lockhart, “It raised hopes which could not be fulfilled. It intensified the civil war and sent thousands of Russians to their death. Indirectly, it was responsible for the Terror.”
Lockhart’s book is very revealing. The fact that it is written by an opponent of Bolshevism is even more remarkable. It is certainly far more honest than the books churned out today about the Russian revolution.
R.H. Bruce Lockhart alikuwa wakala wa serikali ya Uingereza nchini Urusi kabla na baada ya Mapinduzi ya Bolshevik ya 1917. Aliwakutana na viongozi wakuu wa utawala wa Tsar, Serikali ya Muda na vilevile viongozi wa Sovieti, Lenin na Trotsky. "Mambo mengi ya kipekee aliyojionea na kuyatambua yalichapishwa katika kitabu chake cha ajabu kilichoitwa ""Memoirs of a British Agent"" mwaka wa 1932." Kitabu hicho kiliuzwa sana huko Uingereza na Marekani. Ingawa kitabu hicho kinatoa mambo kutoka kwa mtazamo wa msaidizi mwenye bidii wa utawala wa Uingereza, bado ni simulizi lenye kuvutia. Akiwa anatoka katika familia ya hali ya juu, Lockhart alipata kazi katika cheo cha juu cha Ofisi ya Mambo ya Nje ya Uingereza. Mwaka 1912 aliongoza ujumbe wa Bunge la Urusi na baadaye akawekwa kuwa Makonsuli wa Uingereza huko Moscow. Akiwa katika cheo hicho, alikutana na watu wengi mashuhuri waliokuwa na uhusiano na jamii ya juu ya Urusi. Mfalme na Vita Vita ya Ulimwengu ya Kwanza ilithibitika kuwa hatua ya msingi ya kubadilisha. Utawala wa kifalme uliingia vitani kwa uhakika mkubwa na ushindi wake wa mapema ulitia nguvu azimio lake. Hata hivyo, wimbi la uzalendo ambalo lilipita katika nchi hiyo halikuendelea. Urusi ilitawaliwa na Tsar Nicholas mwenye utawala wa kimabavu na hasa mke wake, Tsarina. Ukosefu wake wa msimamo wa kipofu ulisababisha ugomvi mara nyingi ndani ya utawala. "Moscow, daima zaidi ya kupambana na Ujerumani kuliko St Petersburg, ilikuwa cesspool kamili ya uvumi wa njama pro-Kijerumani katika maeneo ya juu", anaandika Lockhart. "Katika kitabu chake cha kumbukumbu cha Februari 1915, alisema: ""Leo afisa mmoja alipiga simu kuuliza ni lini Uingereza ingeondoa ""mwanamke wa Ujerumani"" kutoka Urusi, ambayo ilikuwa ni kumbukumbu ya Malkia." "Hii ni mara ya tatu kwamba aina hii ya kitu kimetokea wiki hii. "Ilikuwa kutokea bado mara nyingi zaidi kama miezi ilipita. Mambo yalianza kuwa mabaya kwenye mstari wa mbele wa Ujerumani. Maendeleo ya Warusi kuelekea Austria yalikuwa yamekoma. Lockhart aliripoti hali ya kuongezeka ya kupinga serikali, na kuongezeka kwa upinzani wa kisoshalisti dhidi ya serikali na upinzani wa vita unafanyika kati ya wafanyakazi. Kulikuwa na uadui unaozidi kuongezeka kati ya watu wengi na utawala, hasa dhidi ya Malkia. Ghasia zilianza huko Moscow. "Kwa mara ya kwanza tangu mwaka 1905,"" Lockhart aliandika, ""watu walikuwa wameona nguvu zao." "Lockhart alimheshimu sana balozi wa Uingereza, Sir George Buchanan, ambaye alikuwa ameona kimbele msiba uliokuwa ukikaribia na alijaribu kuonya utawala wa Urusi wa kiutawala.""" Lakini haikufaulu. Siku moja, Buchanan alienda kumwona Tsar kibinafsi. Aliniambia kwamba kama Maliki angempokea ameketi kila kitu kingekuwa vizuri. Tsar alimpokea akiwa amesimama. <unk> Kama ilivyo kwa Ofisi ya Mambo ya Nje, Buchanan alitendewa kama mbuzi wa sadaka kwa ajili ya mapinduzi yaliyokuwa yanakuja. "Kwa aristocracy", anasema Lockhart, "utawala kamili wa Tsar ulikuwa kitu zaidi ya dini. Ilikuwa mwamba ambao uhai wake mwenyewe uliokolewa ulijengwa juu yake. <unk> Mambo yakawa mabaya zaidi na zaidi kwenye mstari wa Urusi. Walishindwa na kuhamia Galicia na Carpathians, na Warusi walipiga vita Warsaw, ambayo hatimaye ilianguka katika majira ya joto ya 1915. Uvumi ulienea upesi kwamba askari-jeshi Warusi walikuwa katika mapango bila bunduki wala risasi. Lakini kulikuwa na mambo mabaya zaidi yaliyokuwa yakija. Wanasiasa wa Liberal kwa adabu walitaka marekebisho na serikali yenye uwakilishi zaidi. Lakini wenye mamlaka walipinga, wakiowa na hofu kwamba marekebisho yangefungua njia ya mapinduzi. <unk>Jibu la Tsar lilikuwa kufutilia mbali Duma na kuwafukuza mawaziri maarufu zaidi. Kisha akajiita "Kamanda Mkuu", anasema Lockhart. "Hiyo ilikuwa ni kosa kubwa zaidi kati ya makosa mengi ya Nicholas II, kwa kuwa kama Kamanda Mkuu, alikuwa na jukumu la kibinafsi machoni pa watu kwa mfululizo mrefu wa kushindwa, ambayo kwa sababu ya matatizo ya kiufundi ya Urusi sasa ilikuwa haiwezekani. "" "" Katika akili yangu mwenyewe, hisia ya msiba usioepukika ikawa nguvu na nguvu zaidi. """ """Mkono usio na huruma wa hatima tayari ulikuwa umefungwa juu ya tabaka linalotawala la Urusi, Rasputin, mtawa wazimu, alikuwa na ushawishi mkubwa juu ya Tsarina na Tsar, kwamba ilitoa kanzu ya ushirikina juu ya utawala wote." "Chini ya mkazo wa wazimu mwingi sana, nguzo za mwisho za utawala wa Tsar zilikuwa zikianguka". Kulikuwa na kutoridhika kuongezeka si tu katika vijiji bali pia katika mapango. Mfalme alikataa jambo hilo. "Ni nini hii yote kuzungumza kuhusu watu wangu" kujiamini?" Yeye barked. "Hata hivyo, haishangazi kwamba Tsar na Tsarina walikuwa mashabiki wakubwa wa mafashisti wa Black Hundred na mauaji yao dhidi ya Wayahudi.""" Mapinduzi yanaanza Lockhart anafunua kwamba hali ya hewa katika St Petersburg ilikuwa depressing zaidi kuliko hapo awali. "Champagne ilitiririka kama maji", akaandika, akifafanua ukosefu wa uzito wa tabaka la juu. "Na katika barabara kulikuwa na foleni ndefu za wanaume waliovalia vibaya na wanawake wenye kelele, wakingojea mkate ambao haukuja kamwe". Katika viwanda, propaganda ya mapinduzi ilikuwa na athari kubwa. Ukosefu wa mkate ulisababisha ghasia nyingi. Kisha, tarehe 12 Machi (kalenda mpya) ghasia ya mkate iligeuka kuwa "mapinduzi", kwa kutumia maneno ya Lockhart. Katika muda wa siku tano, utawala wa zamani ulikuwa umeporomoka na Tsar alikuwa amekimbia. <unk>Hakuna umwagaji damu huko Moscow. Hakukuwa na mtu aliyebaki kutetea utawala wa zamani, anasema Lockhart. "Kumbukumbu yangu ya wazi zaidi ya alasiri hiyo ilikuwa joto la umati wa watu uliokuwa ukiongezeka mbele ya Duma ya Jiji. ""Kile muhimu kutambua ni kwamba tangu mwanzo mapinduzi yalikuwa mapinduzi ya watu,"" alielezea Lockhart." "Akielezea kuenea kwa mapinduzi hayo, anasema: ""Mafunguo ya miaka mia tatu yalikuwa yameondolewa.""Washirika walishangazwa na mapinduzi hayo, ambayo walilazimika kuyakubali ""kwa shauku ya kujifanya na kisha kwa kuogopa zaidi na zaidi.""" Utawala wa zamani ulikuwa umeporomoka na mamlaka ilikuwa mikononi mwao. Hata hivyo, chini ya ushawishi wa Mensheviks na Social Revolutionaries, walitoa mamlaka kwa Serikali ya Muda, iliyoongozwa na Prince Lvov. "Angekuwa mwenyekiti mzuri wa Halmashauri ya Kaunti ya London", anaandika Lockhart. Serikali ya Muda ilijumuisha wawakilishi wa bourgeois, ambao walitupa kamba zao za tsarist kwa sifa za "demokrasia". Mataifa ya Muungano yalikuwa na tamaa sana ya kumfanya serikali mpya ya Muda iendelee na vita. Hata hivyo, watu walitaka mkate, ardhi na juu ya yote amani. Serikali mpya ilipinga madai hayo, na kwa hiyo ikawa isiyojulikana sana. Hata wakati <unk>socialist<unk> Kerensky alichukua uongozi wa waziri mkuu, hakukuwa na mabadiliko ya sera. "Alipigwa kati ya moto wa kuvuka wa Bolshevik Left, ""Lockhart anaelezea, ""ambayo ilikuwa ikipiga kelele amani katika kila kona ya barabara na katika kila shimo, na Haki na Waungano ambao walikuwa wakidai kurudishwa kwa nidhamu kwa njia za Tsarist, yeye [Kerensky] hakuwa na nafasi. """ Na alianguka, kwa sababu yeyote ambaye alikuwa amejaribu kufanya kile alichofanya alikuwa na hatia ya kushindwa. <unk> Soviets chini ya shinikizo kutoka kwa watu wengi walizungumza juu ya <unk> amani bila annexations <unk>. "Lakini kama Lockhart anavyosema, ""Ilikuwa ni formula ambayo ilisababisha uchungu mkubwa na hata wasiwasi kwa serikali za Uingereza na Ufaransa, ambazo tayari zilikuwa zimesambaza nyara za ushindi ambazo hazikuwa zimeshindwa, kwa namna ya kuunganisha na michango, Bolsheviks katika mamlaka. ""Mwishowe, mnamo Septemba, Bolsheviks walifanikiwa kushinda wengi katika Soviets kwa msingi wa mkate, ardhi na amani na nguvu zote kwa Soviets." Baada ya mwezi mmoja, Wabolshevik walikuwa madarakani. "Nilikuwa nimeona kimbele kwa muda mrefu kutoepukika kwa Mapinduzi ya Bolshevik", anasema Lockhart. "Hakuna mtu yeyote aliyeshirikiana na maoni ya wataalamu wa Urusi huko London kwamba utawala wa Lenin haungeweza kudumu zaidi ya wiki chache na kwamba Urusi ingerudi kwenye utawala wa Tsar au utawala wa kijeshi,"" alisema, akiongeza, ""Kwa bure nilijaribu kupambana na imani ya kuwa Lenin na Trotsky walikuwa maafisa wa kijeshi wa Ujerumani waliovalia mavazi au angalau wakala wa kijeshi wa sera ya Ujerumani." Hata hivyo, mbinu yake ya kidiplomasia ilishindwa wakati nguvu za utawala wa kifalme zilipopiga hatua ya kuingilia kati kwa kijeshi. Mapinduzi ya Oktoba yalipokelewa vizuri na wafanyakazi kila mahali. Hata hivyo, wakuu wa uchumi wa kimataifa waliona hilo kuwa tisho kubwa. Waburjagi wa Urusi walikuwa na tamaa ya kuangusha mapinduzi kwa njia yoyote waliyoweza na kupata nyuma mali yao. "Lockhart alieleza kuwa ""lengo moja la kila raia wa Urusi (na asilimia 99 ya wanaodai kuwa waaminifu wa Urusi walikuwa raia wa Urusi) lilikuwa kupata uingiliaji wa majeshi ya Uingereza (na, ikiwa Uingereza ilishindwa, majeshi ya Ujerumani) ili kuanzisha upya utaratibu nchini Urusi, kukandamiza Bolshevism na kurudisha mali ya raia.""" bourgeoisie walikuwa wazi furaha katika matarajio ya Ujerumani mbele, ambayo alikuwa emboldened upinzani Bolshevik vyombo vya habari kushambulia Bolsheviks na hasira frenzied. Lenin na Trotsky: Lockhart alirudi Moscow na kukutana na Trotsky katika Ofisi ya Mambo ya Nje ya Urusi. "Alinishangaza kuwa mnyoofu kabisa na mnyoofu katika uchungu wake dhidi ya Wajerumani", anasema. <unk>Ana akili ya haraka sana na sauti yenye nguvu na yenye kina kirefu. Kwa kifua chake kikubwa, paji la uso wake kubwa, juu ya nywele zake nyeusi, macho yake yenye nguvu, na midomo yake mizito, yeye ni mfano halisi wa mapinduzi ya katuni za bourgeois. Alinikaribisha katika chumba kidogo kwenye orofa ileile ya Trotskij. Ilikuwa isiyo na utaratibu na isiyo na vitu vyote isipokuwa dawati la kuandika na viti vichache vya kawaida. Huo haukuwa tu mahojiano yangu ya kwanza na Lenin. "Hiyo ilikuwa mara yangu ya kwanza kumtazama, lakini katika macho hayo ya chuma kulikuwa na kitu kilichovutia, kitu katika mtazamo huo wa kuhoji, nusu ya kudharau, nusu ya tabasamu, ambayo ilizungumza juu ya kujiamini bila kikomo na ubora wa ufahamu. ""Baadaye nilipata heshima kubwa kwa uwezo wake wa akili, lakini wakati huo nilivutiwa zaidi na nguvu yake kubwa ya mapenzi, azimio lake lisilo na mwisho, na ukosefu wake wa hisia. """ "Bolsheviks walikuwa bado hawajafanikiwa kuanzisha nidhamu ya chuma ambayo leo (1932) inaonyesha utawala wao", anasema. <unk>Kwa kweli, walikuwa wamejaribu sana kufanya hivyo. Hakukuwa na hofu, wala watu hawakuogopa hasa mabwana wao wapya. Magazeti ya kupinga Bolshevik yaliendelea kuonekana na kushambulia sera ya Bolshevik kwa unyanyasaji mkali... bourgeoisie, bado na uhakika kwamba Wajerumani hivi karibuni kutuma Bolshevik mob juu ya biashara yake, ilikuwa furaha zaidi kuliko mtu angeweza kutarajia katika hali kama kusumbua. Watu walikuwa wakifa njaa, lakini matajiri bado walikuwa na pesa. Migahawa na cabarets bado walikuwa wazi, na cabarets kwa kiwango chochote walikuwa msongamano. <unk> Lockhart kweli pins lawama kwa ajili ya vurugu si juu ya Bolsheviks lakini juu ya imperialists. Hii ni kinyume kabisa na "wanahistoria" wa leo, ambao hufanya kila kitu ili kuchafua jina la Bolsheviks. <unk>Ninataja uvumilivu huu wa kulinganisha wa Bolsheviks, kwa sababu ukatili uliofuata baadaye ulikuwa matokeo ya kuongezeka kwa vita vya wenyewe kwa wenyewe. "Kwa kuongezeka kwa mapambano hayo ya damu, uingiliaji wa Muungano, na matumaini bandia aliyoyainua, ulikuwa na jukumu kubwa... Ninaonyesha kwamba uingiliaji wetu uliongeza ugaidi na kuongezeka kwa umwagaji damu. ""Lockhart anafunua kwamba hali ilikuwa rahisi sana, kwamba Bolsheviks walimpa mikono huru." Hata aliweza kuhudhuria mkutano wa Mkutano Mtendaji wa Sovieti. Kwa mara nyingine tena, hii inapingana na wale "waandishi wa historia" wa kisasa ambao wanapenda sana kucheza kile kinachoitwa udikteta wa Bolshevik. "Hatukuwa na ugumu wowote wa kuwaona Kamishna mbalimbali", anasema Lockhart. <unk>Tuliruhusiwa hata kuhudhuria mikutano fulani ya Kamati Kuu ya Utekelezaji. Pindi moja tulikwenda kusikiliza mjadala juu ya jeshi jipya. "Katika siku hizo za mapema, Bunge la Bolshevik lilifanya mikutano yake katika mkahawa mkuu wa Hoteli ya Metropolis, ambayo ilikuwa imebadilishwa jina kuwa ""Nyumba ya Kwanza ya Soviets"" katika mjadala alikutana na Lenin, Trotsky (ambaye alizungumza) na Radek." Anasema pia alishikana mkono na mwanamume mwingine. <unk>Sikumjali sana. Yeye mwenyewe hakusema lolote. Yeye hakuonekana kuwa wa umuhimu wa kutosha kujumuisha katika nyumba yangu ya sanaa ya picha za Bolshevik. Kama angetangazwa wakati huo kwa chama kilichokusanyika kuwa mrithi wa Lenin, wajumbe wangekuwa wakipiga kelele kwa kicheko. "Mtu huyo alikuwa Mgeorgia Djugashevilli, anayejulikana leo ulimwenguni kote kama Stalin, ""mtu wa chuma"" - jambo ambalo linathibitisha tena msimamo wa Stalin kama ""blob ya kijivu"" ya mapinduzi, ambayo ililetwa madarakani tu kwa ushindi wa uburukraia." Umiliki, mapinduzi ya kinyume, na vita vya wenyewe kwa wenyewe Lockhart anafunua vitendo vya uvamizi wa Ujerumani, ambao uliunga mkono mapinduzi ya kinyume. <unk>Walikuwa wameanzisha serikali ya Urusi ya bourgeois nchini Ukraine, ambayo hatua yake ya kwanza ilikuwa kurudisha ardhi kwa wamiliki wake wa zamani. Hii kwa kawaida ilisababisha uasi wa wakulima ambao ulikandamizwa kwa ukatili mkubwa. <unk> <unk>Kwa kuongezea, msaada wa kijeshi ambao Wajerumani walikuwa wamewapa Finns Nyeupe katika vita vya wenyewe kwa wenyewe vya Finland, ilikuwa sababu nyingine kwa faida yetu. Ujerumani ilionekana kuwa upande wa mwitikio. <unk> Majeshi ya Muungano pia yaliunga mkono Wazungu. Uingiliaji wa Uingereza haukufanyika hadi Agosti 4. "Lockhart anasema kwamba ""kwa sababu ya hatari iliyokuwa ikiongezeka, Bolshevik waliimarisha nidhamu yao"" na ""Wazungu waliamini kwamba msaada wa kijeshi wa Muungano ungekuja kwa nguvu kubwa.""" Kwa kawaida idadi hiyo ilitajwa kuwa vikosi viwili vya Muungano kwa ajili ya Archangel na vikosi kadhaa vya Kijapani kwa ajili ya Siberia. Wakiwa wamechochewa na matumaini hayo, vikosi vilivyopinga Bolshevik vilianza kuongeza utendaji wao. Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volodymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Volymyr Jibu la Wabolshevik lilikuwa la haraka. Katika hotuba yake kwa Soviet ya St. Petersburg, Uritsky, mkuu wa Cheka ya eneo hilo, alishambulia kwa ukali Uingereza, ambapo aliwashtaki Waingereza kwa kuandaa mauaji ya Kamishna aliyekufa. Siku iliyofuata, Shostny, kamanda mkuu wa meli za Baltic, ambaye alikuwa mfungwa katika Kremlin, alihukumiwa kifo na kupigwa risasi. Katika kesi hiyo, Trotsky alijitambulisha kwa kutumia lugha yake kwa jeuri. "Uchokozi ulikuwa unaanza. ""Ni wazi kwamba Bolsheviks walikuwa wakihusika katika ulinzi wa mapinduzi, wakishambuliwa na Waingereza na nguvu za Muungano." Lockhart alishirikiana na wapinzani wa mapinduzi. "Niliongeza mawasiliano yangu na vikosi vya kupinga Bolshevik", anasema Lockhart. "Kwa upande wetu, waliwakilishwa huko Moscow na shirika lililoitwa ""Kituo,"" ambalo liligawanywa katika mrengo wa kushoto na wa kulia, na na Chama cha Urekebishaji wa Urusi kilichoanzishwa na Savinkoff." [...] Majenerali weupe walimtazama Savinkoff kwa kutilia shaka. "Kwa kweli, karibu na kipindi hiki nilipokea barua kutoka kwa Jenerali Alexeyev, ambayo ilisema kwamba angependa kushirikiana na Lenin na Trotsky kuliko Savinkov au Kerensky. """ Mashirika yote mawili yalikubaliana juu ya jambo moja tu. Walitaka msaada wa Muungano na pesa za Muungano. <unk> Wabolshevik walikabili tisho jipya. Wakati huu kutoka kwa Social-Revolutionaries ya kushoto, ambao walikuwa sehemu ya serikali, lakini ambao walijiuzulu kwa kupinga mkataba wa Brest Litovsk. "Kwa siri, Social-Revolutionaries ya kushoto ilianza kuandaa mipango ya ajabu ya kuangusha Serikali ya Bolshevik na kwa ajili ya upya wa vita na Ujerumani. " Uingiliaji wa kigeni aliongeza kwa tahadhari. Kulingana na Lockhart, <unk>Ilichanganya matumaini ambayo hayangeweza kutimizwa. Iliimarisha vita vya wenyewe kwa wenyewe na kutuma maelfu ya Warusi kwenye kifo chao. Kwa njia isiyo ya moja kwa moja, ilikuwa na jukumu la Ugaidi. Kitabu cha Lockhart ni cha kufunua sana. Jambo la kushangaza hata zaidi ni kwamba imeandikwa na mpinzani wa Bolshevism. Kwa hakika ni ya uaminifu zaidi kuliko vitabu vinavyotokezwa leo kuhusu mapinduzi ya Urusi.