Background During the
Russian Revolution of 1905 a pioneering effort was made to organize Russian railway workers into an All-Russian Union of Railwaymen. This forerunner of the 1917 labor organization by the same name conducted a
strike in October 1905 which had escalated into a
general strike in
St. Petersburg and
Moscow, paving the way for formation of the short-lived
St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Delegates. The revolt against
Tsarism soon collapsed, however, and the government of
Tsar Nicholas II pushed back with a December 14 (O.S.) decree allowing railway lines to be placed under
martial law. The lengthy decree provided for the summary arrest of workers failing to following the orders of railway authorities, backed by jail terms of up to three months and fines of up to 500 rubles without trial. More than 59,000 railway workers were ultimately terminated from their jobs as a result of the repression in 1906 and 1907, although many of these ultimately regained employment elsewhere in the Russian railroad industry following defeat of the revolution. The Russian railway union was thus effectively crushed.
Kornilov Affair One of the most historically significant episodes involving Vikzhel occurred during the
Kornilov affair of August 1917. The spontaneous street riots known as the
July Days had fizzled and been suppressed, leading to a public discrediting of the Bolshevik Party that had belatedly supported such
direct action and a turn in public opinion towards firm central government. A sense of despair filled the country, marked by daily reports of peasant lawlessness in the countryside, worker strikes in the cities, moves toward national separation in
Finland and
Ukraine, collapse of military discipline at the war front, chaos and violence in the streets, and a collapse of the economic system. A broad array of conservative forces, including business leaders and their
All-Russian Union of Trade and Industry, gentry representatives organized in the
Union of Landowners, and military officers of the
Union of Officers and
Union of Cossack Troops rapidly lost faith in the Kerensky government to find its way out of the crisis. The monarchist tradition instilled by centuries of Tsarist rule loomed strong, and a drumbeat grew among the right for an overthrow of the stumbling young republic in favor of military leadership over the nation and its economy. A consensus emerged among these rightist elements to tap General
Lavr Kornilov, commander-in-chief of the Russian army for the role of plenipotentiary leader of the Russian nation. Moreover, Kornilov's public status among middle class society was momentarily high, enhanced by the short-lived military successes of the army's June offensive, with which he was credited. Kornilov was dismissive of the February revolution and its move towards increased civilian control of the military and the creeping of political activity into army ranks. He sought instead a purge of the officer corps and the expansion of special courts and
capital punishment as a mechanism to restore military discipline and saw the continued existence of the moderate socialist Kerensky government as a fetter upon the implementation of this agenda. In August Kornilov prepared the ground for a political offensive, visiting Petrograd and putting forward a plan to put the Petrograd Military District — previously controlled by Kerensky's Ministry of War — under his own personal authority. He also visited Moscow, upstaging the tepid reception given to the arrival of government ministers to a formal state conference with a carefully orchestrated railway ceremony featuring a military honor guard, saber-wielding
Turkmen guards, and a military band. An uneasy political dance followed between Kerensky and Kornilov, in which each attempted to use the other to bolster his own claim as supreme leader of a future Russian government. Late in August (Old Style calendar) a concrete plot for a military
coup was hatched for Kornilov by the Main Committee of the Union of Officers and the Republican Center and Military League, timed to coincide with the August 27 official celebration of the 6-month anniversary of the revolution. The festivities would be accompanied by street disorder, the plotters assumed, making plausible a declaration of
martial law to restore order, under cloak of which a change in government could be made. Kerensky proved unable to by himself to divert the movement of Kornilov's troops to the capital, however, his telegraphic advice that "Petrograd is completely calm and no insurrections are expected" falling upon deaf ears. On August 27, troops personally loyal to Kornilov boarded trains heading for the capital city. Although the 6-month celebration of the revolution came and went, Kornilov's plan for a military takeover moved forward, with stock prices on the Petrograd stock exchange rocketing upwards on August 28 in anticipation of a rapid victory. That same day Vikzhel established a special committee dedicated to the military emergency created by Kornilov. Vikzhel sent telegrams up and down the railway network, demanding the stoppage of "suspicious telegrams" and the rapid transmission of information about the size and destination of any troop movements by rail. Delayed troops riding the rails were isolated and surrounded, the situation explained and illegal orders repudiated, and new vows of loyalty sworn to the revolutionary government.
October Revolution With
V.I. Ul'ianov (Lenin) and the Bolsheviks seized power in
Petrograd and Moscow on October 25 (O.S.) (November 7), 1917, Vikzhel asserted itself as a rival nexus of power. As historian
E. H. Carr observed: "From the moment of the October revolution Vikzhel took over the administration of the railways on its own account and acted as an independent power. In short, it played the role of a mammoth
factory committee exercising 'workers' control.' It recognized no political authority, and no interest other than the professional interest of the railwayman." Moreover, Vikzhel threatened that it and it alone would assume control of the country's railways and threatened to cut off supplies to the city of Petrograd should efforts at repression be made by the new government. The Bolshevik authorities, struggling to maintain control of the city of Petrograd and still engaged in a fight to win control in Moscow, stood powerless to contest Vikzhel's ultimatum.
Post-revolutionary discord The October 28 (O.S.) general strike threat which put Bolshevik leaders into
negotiations with other political parties did not generate an immediate agreement, however. Lenin and the Bolshevik Party stalled for two days as discord grew in the streets of Petrograd. Finally the decision was made by the Bolsheviks to enter discussions with the representatives of other parties and three days of nearly continuous negotiations at Vikzhel headquarters ensued. Opponents of this hard line were threatened with expulsion for violation of party discipline if their resistance did not cease.
Negotiations slowly slogged forward for more than two weeks, finally ending on November 15 (O.S.) (28), 1917 with the granting of three seats on Sovnarkom to members of the Left SR party. The All-Russian Union of Railwaymen was at that time holding another national congress and it narrowly passed a vote of confidence in the Bolshevik government — a move taken by the Bolsheviks as an assertion of continued independent authority. These bolters established a parallel organization, headed by a new executive body known as Vikzhedor.
Dissolution Vikzhel was dissolved by a decree issued by the '''Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom)
in March
26 1918'''. The Decree on the End of Workers' Control over the Railroads ended the independence of railway unions by centralizing authority under the People's Commissar of Ways and Communications. == See also ==