Left SR uprising

, one of the leaders of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. The revolt was led by the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in Moscow. Previously, the Socialist Revolutionary Party had supported the continuation of the war by the Provisional Government after the February Revolution of 1917. The Bolshevik Party came to power in November 1917 through the simultaneous election in the soviets and an organized uprising supported by military mutiny. Several of the main reasons the population supported the Bolsheviks were to end the war and have a social revolution, exemplified by the slogan "Peace, Land, Bread". The Bolsheviks invited left SRs and Martov's Menshevik Internationalists to join the government. Left SRs split from the main SR party and joined the Bolshevik coalition government, supporting the immediate enactment of the Socialist Revolutionary Party's land redistribution program. The Left SRs were given four Commissar positions and high posts within the Cheka, and their leader Maria Spiridonova was appointed head of the Peasant Section of the Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Soviet of Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Deputies (VTsIK), making her nominally a chief official over peasant affairs. The Left SRs still diverged with the Bolsheviks on the issue of the war and were dismayed that the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk gave up large amounts of territory in Eastern Europe to the Central Powers. With the treaty, the Left SRs considered that the opportunity to spread the revolution throughout Europe had been lost. They left the Council of People's Commissars in protest in March 1918 and at the 4th Congress of Soviets they voted against the treaty. Although they continued to work in the Cheka, which played a decisive role in rebellion. Left Social Revolutionaries remained on the boards of the People's Commissars, the military department, various committees, commissions, and councils. In Finland, where the soviet government had pledged by the treaty not to intervene, the landing of German troops significantly helped the "white" (counter-revolutionary) forces to crush the Finnish Revolution. The Left SRs strongly objected to the invasion and opposed Trotsky's insistence that nobody was allowed to attack German troops in Ukraine. Sergey Mstislavsky coined the slogan "It's not a war, it's an uprising!", calling on the "masses" to "rebel" against the German-Austrian occupation forces, accusing the Bolsheviks of creating a "state that obstructs the working class", moving away from the position of revolutionary socialism onto the path of opportunistic service to the state." A new surge of tension was associated with an increase in the activity of the Bolsheviks in rural villages, when the Bolshevik-controlled government announced, by decree, the enforcement of a state bread monopoly and the organization of "food detachments" for the compulsory collection of bread. By this same decree, all Soviets of workers, soldiers, peasants, and Cossack deputies were also invited to remove representatives of these parties from their midst. Vladimir Karelin, a member of the Central Committee of the Left SRs, called this decree illegal, since only the All-Russian Congress of Soviets could change the composition of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. In early July, the Third Congress of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party was held, in its resolution to the present moment sharply condemned the policy of the Bolsheviks: According to Richard Pipes, ==Fifth Congress of Soviets==

In this situation of internal tension, on 4 July, the 5th All-Russian Congress of Soviets began to decide the country's policy. The confrontation between the SRs and Bolsheviks was harsh. Left SR speakers fiercely attacked the policy of the Bolsheviks, from the requisitioning of grain and suppression of opposition parties, to the institution of the death penalty. They argued especially against the Bolshevik peace with imperialist Germany and the lack of defense of the revolution in Ukraine and Finland. However, the Bolsheviks had sent a large number of delegates who were suspected of not being legitimately elected, simply to achieve a large majority in Congress. The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries had 352 delegates compared to 745 Bolsheviks out of 1132 total. The vast Bolshevik majority thwarted the socialist-revolutionary plans to change government policy in Congress, which was now firmly in the hands of Lenin's party. This disillusionment felt by the Left SRs, the sense of danger in the face of the Bolshevik threats – embodied in Trotsky's resolution that allowed the execution of those who opposed the German occupation of Ukraine – and the conviction that a terrorist action could force the start of new hostilities with Germany led the socialist-revolutionary leadership to plot the murder of the German ambassador in Moscow. == Assassination of Mirbach ==

On 25 June 1918, Count Mirbach informed his boss, State Secretary of the German Foreign Ministry Richard von Kühlmann about the deep political crisis of the Bolshevik government: "Today, after more than 2 months of careful observation, I don't think I can make a more favorable diagnosis of Bolshevism: we, no doubt, are at the bedside of a seriously ill patient; and although moments of apparent improvement are possible, ultimately it is doomed." In May, he sent a telegraph to Berlin saying "the Entente allegedly spends huge sums to bring the right wing of the Socialist Revolutionary Party to power and resume the war... Sailors on ships... are probably bribed, like the former Preobrazhensky regiment. Weapons stocks... from weapons factories in the hands of the Socialist Revolutionaries." German diplomat Carl von Botmer also testified that the German embassy, beginning in mid-June 1918, repeatedly received threats that the Bolshevik security service had investigated, but to no avail. Yakov Blumkin, a Left SR in charge of the Cheka counter-espionage section dedicated to monitoring the activity of the Germans, and Nikolai Andreyev, a photographer the same section, received an order from Maria Spiridonova on 4 July, to carry out the assassination of the German ambassador in two days time. The day of the uprising was chosen, among other reasons, because it was the Latvian national holiday Ivanov Day (Jāņi), which was supposed to neutralize the Latvian units most loyal to the Bolsheviks. The Leadership of the Left SRs believed this assassination would lead to a widespread popular uprising in support of their aims. They claimed to be leading a revolt against the peace with Germany and not necessarily against the Bolsheviks and soviet power. On 6 July 1918, at about 1:00 PM, a member of the Left SR central committee, probably Maria Spiridonova, handed over weapons and instructions to the assassins. Blumkin and Andreyev hid the pistols and grenades in briefcases and drove in a Cheka car to the German embassy, where they arrived at 2:15 PM. They showed a letter of introduction, supposedly signed by the head of Cheka Felix Dzerzhinsky and asked to see the German envoy. Mirbach believed that the Chekists were coming to inform him of a plan to assassinate him, a plan he had been warned about earlier. During their conversation - at about 2:50 PM, Blumkin drew up a revolver and shot at Count Mirbach, Dr. Kurt Riezler, and the interpreter, Lt. Mueller, but failed to injure any of them. Riezler and Mueller took shelter under a large table, whereas Mirbach, who tried to escape, was then shot by Andreyev. The assassins jumped out of a window while throwing grenades to create confusion; Blumkin fractured a leg in the jump and was injured by one of the embassy sentinels. The pair fled and disappeared in a car that was waiting for them in front of the embassy, heading straight for a Cheka HQ (under the command of Dmitry Popov) where the Left SR central committee was waiting. They made many mistakes during the assassination: they left a briefcase at the scene containing certificates in the name of Blumkin and Andreyev; Riezler and Mueller, witnesses to the murder, also survived. In the turmoil, Blumkin and Andreyev even left their caps at the embassy. That same afternoon, Lenin had sent some of the few remaining forces in the city to the northeast, to try to quell the Yaroslavl uprising, which had just broken out. Only a few Latvian marksmen units, Cheka forces and some Red Guard and Army units (still in training), remained in Moscow. Lenin received the news shortly after, not knowing who had perpetrated the attack, and immediately went to the embassy to apologize for the murder and try to calm the Germans. Later that night, when going to give condolences to the embassy, Dzerzhinski indicated that the authors were socialist-revolutionary members of the Cheka. At the same time, the Foreign Commissioner, Georgy Chicherin, communicated to him the German demand to station troops in Moscow. A few weeks later, on 30 July, the commander of German occupation forces Hermann von Eichhorn was assassinated in Kiev, by the Left SR Boris Donskoy. == First skirmishes ==

Dzerzhinsky personally appeared at the headquarters of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Cheka detachment and demanded the extradition of Mirbach's killers. However, Popov's detachment did not take action, and the defense of the occupied positions was reduced to sitting out in two buildings of Trekhsvyatitelsky Lane. Subsequently, in 1921, during interrogation at the Cheka, Popov claimed that: "I didn't take part in the preparation of the alleged uprising against the state, the armed clash in Trekhsvyatitelsky Lane was an act of self-defense." In total, during the mutiny, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries took 27 Bolshevik functionaries hostage, including the deputy chairman of the Cheka Martin Latsis and the chairman of the Moscow City Council Pyotr Smidovich. In addition, they captured several cars, and a congress delegate Nikolai Abelman was killed. They also captured the General Post Office and began to send out anti-Bolshevik appeals. One of these appeals, declaring the Bolshevik government deposed and ordering "not to execute orders of Lenin and Sverdlov", according to the command of the Kremlin Bolshevik Pavel Dmitrievich Malkov, fell into the hands of Lenin. Another appeal stated that "... the executioner Mirbach was killed ... German spies and armed provocateurs have invaded Moscow, demanding the death of the left-wing socialist revolutionaries. Frightened by possible consequences, as before, the ruling party of the Bolsheviks are following the orders of the German executioners ... Forward, workers, workers and Red Army soldiers, to defend the working people, against all executioners, against all spies and provocative imperialism. " By this time, the leader of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, Maria Spiridonova, who had come to the Congress of Soviets, had already been arrested by the Bolsheviks herself and also taken hostage. Lenin thought that the whole Cheka had rebelled. According to the testimony of Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich, Lenin "did not even turn pale, but turned white" when he heard the news. Of all the units of the Moscow garrison, the Bolsheviks were able to rely only on the Latvian Riflemen — all the other units either sided with the rebels or declared their neutrality. Trotsky's order to units of the Moscow garrison to speak out against the rebels was carried out only by the Commandant Regiment and the School of Military Cadets, and the Commandant Regiment soon fled. On the same topic American historian Alexander Rabinowitch argues as follows. == Clashes ==

Fighting in Moscow Shortly after the assassination, Lenin ordered Yakov Peters to put under guard the whole Left SR faction of the Fifth Congress of Soviets (approximately 450 people). The Bolshoi Theatre, where the session of Congress took place, was surrounded by chekists and Latvian riflemen. Bolshevik delegates of Congress were allowed to leave the theater, while Left SRs were arrested inside the theater. Despite sympathy on the part of the Moscow garrison for the SRs, the Bolsheviks mustered enough forces on the morning of 7 July to storm their positions, thanks especially to the support of the Latvian Riflemen, who remained loyal to the Bolsheviks. The press only picked up two lines about the murder of the German ambassador in Moscow, sent before communications with the capital were cut off. They decided to disarm the main Left SR armed detachment in the city, close down their main newspaper and try to arrest the local Left SR committee. He relieved Prosh Proshian from the regional Commissariat of Interior and accelerated the release of the Administration's socialist-revolutionary positions. The only confrontation in the city took place at the School of Pages, where the scarce garrison, just 350–380 mercenary soldiers, most of them teenagers and without sympathy for the Left SRs, attracted to the building's guard by the better conditions than the front, defended the place. The military committee tried unsuccessfully to achieve the surrender of the besieged. After a surrender agreement guaranteeing the safety of the defenders, about 150 of them surrendered to the troops, who entered the building a little later. == Repression of the SRs ==

The Bolsheviks immediately executed thirteen SRs that were in the Cheka, without trial, while keeping the SR Congressional delegation in prison Little by little they released the bulk of the delegates. by having some form two separate new parties. Spiridonova remained in prison in the Kremlin until the end of November. Mirbach's assassination was attempted, in vain, to force the Bolsheviks to resume the fight against Germany, once the impossibility of having a majority in Congress that allowed them to change the government's policy in a peaceful way was clear. Despite the government's accusation of the Left SR's attempted overthrow of the Soviet government, the Cheka's own investigation in Petrograd ended without any evidence being found and with the release of those arrested. Much the same conclusions have also been reached by British historian Orlando Figes, who generally holds up to ridicule the Left SRs' naive tendency 'to play at revolution'. {{Blockquote == Consequences ==

The assassination of the ambassador led to a serious but short-lived crisis between the Lenin government and the German Empire. However, they became part of the persecuted opposition, even groups that distanced themselves or broke relations with their central committee did not retain their previous power in the institutions. Yuri Felshtinsky claimed the revolt was staged by the Bolsheviks as a pretext to discredit the Left SRs. However, this was disputed by L. M. Ovrutskii and Anatolii Izrailevich Razgon. == See also ==