In the turmoil and confusion which followed the
February Revolution, groups of militant Anarchist-Communists
expropriated a number of private residences in
Petrograd,
Moscow, and other cities. The most important case involved the villa of
P. P. Durnovo, which the anarchists considered a particularly suitable target, since Durnovo had been the Governor-General of Moscow during the
Revolution of 1905. Durnovo's dacha was located in the radical
Vyborg () district, Petrograd's "
Faubourg St. Antoine," as
John Reed dubbed it, lying on the north side of the
Neva, just beyond the
Finland Station. It was here that the anarchists had their staunchest following among the workers of the capital. Anarchists and other left-wing workmen seized the Durnovo villa and converted it into a "house of rest," with rooms for reading, discussion, and recreation; the garden served as a playground for their children. The new occupants included a bakers' union and a unit of people's militia. The expropriators were left undisturbed until 5 June 1917, when a band of anarchists quartered in the dacha attempted to "requisition" the printing plant of a "bourgeois" newspaper,
Russkaia Volia (Russian Liberty)
(). After occupying the premises for a few hours, the attackers were dislodged by troops sent by the Provisional Government. The First
Congress of Soviets, then in session, denounced the raiders as criminals "who call themselves anarchists." On 7 June 1917,
P. N. Pereverzev, the Minister of Justice, gave the anarchists 24 hours to evacuate Durnovo's house. The following day, 50 sailors came from
Kronstadt to defend the dacha, and workers in the Vyborg district left their factories and staged demonstrations against the eviction order. The Congress of Soviets responded with a proclamation calling on the workers to return to their jobs. Condemning the seizure of private dwellings "without the agreement of their owners," the proclamation demanded the liberation of Durnovo's dacha and suggested that the workers content themselves with the free use of the garden. During the crisis, the dacha was draped in red and black flags, and armed workers came and went. Numerous meetings were held in the garden. Anarchist speakers urged that all orders and decrees, whether from the Provisional Government or the Soviet, be ignored. The anarchists remained entrenched in the dacha, in defiance of both the
Provisional Government and the
Petrograd Soviet. ==Soviet Era ownership==