The 1905 Uprising in Sormovo — the revolutionary events of 1905 that grew into battles in the center of Sormovo and Kanavino, the storming of the Moscow Railway Station by government artillery; "incidentally, the police burned down a people's canteen in the center of Sormovo. The employees, who had been freezing all day, got a chance to warm up."
Today's Nizhny Novgorod press claims that the unrest was instigated from across the ocean: by Japan and its "American allies".
Background
1905. Shaken by its humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, the country entered a period of deep crisis. Pogroms, barricades, brawls, and rampant banditry engulfed all the major cities, Nizhny Novgorod included. In 1901–1902 a social-democratic group was organized in Sormovo by the lathe operator Pyotr Zalomov; in 1902 a May Day demonstration with anti-monarchist slogans took place there as well, and by 1905 three RSDLP organizations were operating in Nizhny Novgorod: the city, Kanavino, and Sormovo organizations.[2] In the Soviet era, all of this was called the "bourgeois-democratic revolution."
"The workers are stockpiling weapons in enormous quantities"
In December 1905, as the country's economic situation worsened, a new wave of mass unrest rolled through its cities. On December 7, an armed uprising began in Moscow. The people of Nizhny Novgorod, and above all the Sormovo workers, as usual, did not stay on the sidelines. Carried away by extremist ideas, the workers of the Sormovo Plant had, since the beginning of the month, spent less time working than attending rallies and meetings where they discussed plans for revolts.
In general, the growth of extremist sentiment in society in the early twentieth century, together with the simultaneous helplessness of the authorities, was simply staggering. Earning 12–13 rubles a month, the workmen readily paid 15 rubles for a revolver, and arms trading went on practically in the open at the Sormovo market and even at the plant itself.
Citizens were urged to "donate" for weapons, as leaflets posted everywhere stated unambiguously. The administrations of the Sormovo Plant and of the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate, frightened by the unrest and strikes that had continued all year, looked the other way, afraid of provoking the people.
Beginning on December 8, the workers started making homemade pikes, sabers, daggers, and even bombs right in the workshops, practically in the open! And the lathe operator Parikov went further still: working from drawings prepared in advance, he built a homemade cannon outright. Its shells were cast in the foundry and then assembled in the apartment of a woman from Sormovo.
As a result, several, in the language of the law, illegal armed formations, or simply gangs, were formed, the most combat-capable of which was the so-called militant workers' squad headed by Pavel Mochalov, numbering about 200 people. Another such "detachment" was formed in Kanavino, headed by the rather notorious "freedom fighter" Sergey Akimov.
The authorities suspected the mood among the people, especially since the factory inspector stationed at the plant reported outright: "The workers are stockpiling weapons in enormous quantities, the forges and grindstones are occupied, a great deal of steel is being taken without permission, and files and the like are being reworked." On December 11, Governor Baron von Fredericks reported to the capital: The head of the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate security department at that time was N. V. Treshchenkov.[2] "The situation in Sormovo is extremely dangerous. There may be disorder tomorrow. There are no troops."
The Battle in Sormovo Center
At 10 a.m. on December 12, the factory whistle began to wail piercingly. Many workers knew that this was not the signal for the start of the shift, but the start of the uprising. "Work" was immediately halted, and the whole crowd of thousands rushed into the street. The detachments then began to take control of the surrounding area.
The first serious clash with the mounted police took place in the area of present-day Sormovo Center. Skirmishes and exchanges of fire went on throughout the day, and both sides suffered losses. The people's canteen, a popular gathering place for Sormovo workers, changed hands several times.
Having finally captured it, the policemen vented all their fury there: they smashed the furniture and spat on the revolutionary leaflets hanging on the walls. The "cops" also won rich trophies, namely the three buckets of moonshine and 30 bottles of vodka the workers had stored up. It was freezing outside, and to warm up, the guardians of order drank it all on the spot.
After that, the fighting in Sormovo continued. The storming of Ivan Churygin's house was full of drama. When the policemen burst into the building, the "revolutionary" threw a bomb into the stairwell. The explosion killed two people and wounded two more. The workers then escaped through the back door, while the assault team that had entered the building mistakenly hacked with sabers at a student and an old woman who came to hand, taking them in the smoke for militants.
The situation was becoming critical. On December 13, the chief of gendarmes, Colonel Levitsky, reported to his superiors: "The telegraph and telephone have been forcibly stopped, the railway station is in the hands of a committee headed by Akimov. There are barricades in Sormovo, telephone poles have been sawn down."
However, the militants failed to seize the strategic crossing, namely the bridge at Darino (not far from the present-day "Golden Mile"). The Nizhny Novgorod RSDLP committee acted as the organizing force of the uprising, uniting under its leadership workers of various political views, including Socialist Revolutionaries.[2] Mochalov decided to take up a defensive position, the main hub of which was the school building towering over the whole neighborhood and the barricade built beside it. At the same time, by order of the governor, Cossacks and a company of gendarmes with cannons were rushed to Sormovo.
The Land Mine on Kominterna Street
Early in the morning of December 14, the police began an artillery barrage. The guns were positioned near the "Public Assembly of Employees" building (now a three-story building enclosed by a blue fence in Sormovo Center), from which it was 800 meters to the main barricade. The first three shells flew over the school building; the fourth exploded at the barricade.
After that, Parikov's cannon returned fire. From the windows of the top floor, the militant workers watched the results of the hits through binoculars and adjusted their fire. Still, the police shot far more accurately. One of the shells flew straight through a window, broke through the interior partitions, and exploded in the rear classroom, killing and wounding 6 people.
After the prolonged shelling, the building was seriously damaged and enveloped in smoke, and the barricade was also destroyed in places. Around 2 p.m., the Cossacks moved toward the barricade. But when the obstruction was already close, the worker-terrorists detonated a land mine concealed at the roadside. It was set off with an electric detonator by two workers holed up in a barbershop.
The force of the blast was such that all the windows in houses within a 200-meter radius were blown out. This briefly halted the advancing troops, who took cover behind the houses and continued their fire. They gradually began to outflank the school.
In the end, the militants' leader, Mochalov, decided to end the fight. By nightfall the surviving workers had scattered to their homes and the surrounding forests, and the seriously wounded were carried to the factory hospital. Governor Frederiks telegraphed Interior Minister Bulygin: "Yesterday in Sormovo, through the actions of artillery, Cossacks, and police, all barricades were destroyed." The newspaper Novoye Vremya reported on December 31 (18), 1905: "The open uprising of the Sormovo workers has been suppressed. Artillery was used on both sides. Many wounded and killed. There were also clashes with troops in the city. There are casualties. A state of emergency protection has been declared."[2]
There was also an assault on the Moscow Railway Station. At noon on December 15, artillery opened massive fire on the building and the barricades covering the approaches to it. Some of the shells overshot and exploded in Gordeevka. After several hours of continuous shelling, the remnants of Akimov's squad raised a white flag and laid down their arms.
The barricades, painstakingly built by the workers, were not dismantled, for fear that they might later be rebuilt. They were simply doused with kerosene and set on fire. In passing, the police also burned down the people's canteen in the center of Sormovo. Having frozen all day, the officers got a chance to warm themselves.
Aftermath
Kanavino and Sormovo suffered quite heavily in the fighting — as if a real war had been going on. In the latter, 15 residential buildings were destroyed and 43 residents were killed. Just before the New Year, additional security measures were introduced in Nizhny Novgorod and Sormovo.
The Governorate was declared to be under a "state of emergency protection," a curfew was imposed on the streets, moving in groups of more than two people was forbidden, and access to the surrounding forests was also closed. The newspaper Russkoye Slovo, on January 2 (December 20), 1906, described the situation in Sormovo after the suppression of the uprising: "After four o'clock in the afternoon Sormovo turns into a cemetery: not a soul on the streets, not a sound, only Cossacks riding about. Sometimes shots ring out all night."[2] All legal and illegal workers' organizations were shut down on the governor's orders. Arrests and searches continued right up until Christmas, with about 300 people detained in all.
In the course of this, the worker Shimborsky, who tried to start a fight with the escorts, was shot right in the street, and his colleague Minin was bayoneted to death. However, the chief Sormovo "terrorist," Pavel Mochalov, managed to escape.
The Sormovo Plant, for its part, announced on December 16 a temporary halt to operations and the dismissal of all workers. Only on January 12, 1906, did the enterprise announce a new hiring of labor. Harsh requirements and restrictions were introduced at the same time. Those deemed unreliable, who had been noticed in street disturbances, were turned away under various pretexts, and some were arrested on the spot.
See also
Sources
- dic.academic.ru — In 1901–1902, a Social Democratic group was organized in Sormovo by the turner Pyotr Zalomov; in 1902, a May Day demonstration took place there as well, with anti (archive)
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — One of the main causes of the revolutionary actions of the Sormovo workers was the harsh working conditions at the plant: a six-day workweek lasting no less (archive)