The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 12, 1925, Page 14

In the Flames of Revolt Twenty Years Ago | ,of the hospital, There all the prelimi- (Reminiscences of the Revolutionary naries were gone over again and final Days of 1905, by an old Rebel). EDITOR'S NOTE:—In connection . with the 20th anniversary of the revolution of 1905 we publish this series of word pictures of the revo- lution as told by a comrade who participated in the events of that time; This‘is the fourth story. * * 7 By M. A. SKROMNY. IV. The Demonstration on Skulianskaya Rogatka. gyro attacks by the patriotic hooli- gaus against peaceful workers, students and Jews became bolder and bolder, and finally culminated in the autumn of 1904 in the murder of an old innocent woman. She was the owner of a small tobacco store. A group of hooligans came into the stofe and asked for cigarettes. After servitig them she requested payment for*the cigarettes. Instead of paying her they began to beat her, finally killing her. About a week before that happened, a worker, a party member, was badly beaten up in the city park. Many similiar incidents occured before. This murder was the last straw that broke our patience. We decided to arrange a political demonstration of protest. A special meeting of the Boyevoy Otriad (military organization) was called and plans made for a de- monstration. It was decide to turn the funeral of the victim into a polit- ical demonstration. By order of the united conference of all the revolutionary organizations of the city all party members quit work on that day and came down to the hospital from which the funeral procession was to start. About nine o’clock in the morning the big court- yard of-the hospital was crowded to capacity. The court-yard was circled by a tall stone wall and had a big gate thru which two ambulances could Dass... |, The “B, O.” (as the military organ- ization was called) took up positions at the gates, which were at once locked, and jn the office of the hospital near the telephones. The administra- tion was informed that the Russian social-democratic labor party was now in charge of the hospital, and that we will not interfere with the regular work of the hospital, but would see to it that no messages shall be sent to the police. Nobody was allowed to leave the place without the per- mission of the “B, O.” and au tele- phone conversation was listened in to by the members of the “B. 0.” About ten p’clock while the autopsy was being made in the hospital, we opened up in the court-yard the first open-air meeting in the city. Speakers representing .we Russian social-demo- cratic labor party, the social-revolu- tionary party (S.-R.) and the Jewish social-democratic organization (Bund), made fiery speeches exposing the murderous policy of the bloody czar- istic government. They pointed out that the real murderers are not in this city but in Petersburg (now Leningrad, than the capital of the ezar)..They spoke about“the bloody persecutions of the workers in the shops. and factories, the miserable sufferings of the landless peasants, the lack of all freedom to fight their. ex- ploiters which workers abroad have, no unions, no possibility to meet, no possibility to organize legally, ete. “The only way left to us is the revolutionary struggle for the over- throw of czarism!” said one speaker “Let’s then fight this bloody mon- ster that is killing us in the shops and factories, by long working hours and unbearable working conditions, let’s fight the government that is using the murder of innocent people as ithe shield for its defence! Free- dom for the workers! Land for the peasants! Down with czariem!” The meeting™lasted for over an hour. While the meeting was going on, the “B, O.” held a meeting of its own. Every member of the “B, 0.” who was not stationed at strategic points was called into the park which formed a part of the great court-yard <item eimai: ‘peice AeA eanesereneett tet esstannnsittttatpanninlaltatansnatelieetisnias asia as ceutainseamemmaitiietcatiaeianeia inane t Se eeeneeeneestfisstsnnere teense spnnessapasein msn asbinaeman instructions were given. Cartridges were passed out to those who were short and everybody warned again not to fire until we will be fired on, or attacked. When the meeting was over and everything ready, the “B. 0.” began to line up the crowd eight abreast before the gate.. The bier was brought up to the front and the gate swung wide open. ‘ The hospital is, located near the city limits. The cemetery is a few miles away from the ¢ity.. It was the general custom to carry the caskets to the cemetery on tne shoulders. The strongest group of the “B,.0.” was toncentrated in front of the pro- cession, the rest were scattered in the center and on the flanks. We expected to be met by police at the cemetery. About a mile away from the hospi- tal, when we reached the highway Skulianskaya Rogatka, a scarlet ban- ner went up in the center of the pro- cession. It was in the form of a pillow slip and about the same size. The breeze filled it up with air making the White letters on the red back- ground plainly visible. As we read the words: “Down with absolutism! Long live the Revolution!” hearts began to beat faster. Up till now we had been talking of fighting czarism un- der the red flag of the revolution, but this was the first time we actually marched under the red banner openly defying our enemies. The thrill passed all over the ranks. The members of the “B. O.” clasped tighter the guns in the pockets. All eyes were on the red flag. About a block farther we encoun- tered a mounted policeman. He was standing on a side street watching the procession pass. He saw the red flag but did not stir, As soon as we passed he rode off at full speed in the direction where we came from. We understood that something was up and an attempt was made. to get in touch Withcthe leadér of: the “B. “U2 ,° but. before we had time to do it, a cry went up: “Dragoons!” We had been attacked from the rear! Our main forces were concen- trated in front and in the around the red flag. As the panic began only a few members of the “B. O.” succeeded in making their way to the rear in face of the rushing mob. In the middle of the unuak a com- pany of dragoons was galloping at us with drawn sabers, on both sides the gendarms and police were running with drawn revolvers. As they came nearer they began to fire. The fire was immediately returned by the few members of the ‘B. 0.” who had fought their way to the rear in order to hold back the attack as long as possible to give the crowd a chance to disperse. | A captain of the police fell wounded. The police and gendarms stopped hesitatingly. The dragoons could not stop. By this time they were madly rushing at us. They cut into the crowd trampling it under the hoofs of the horses. The sabers began to fall right and left, sparkling in the sun. The police and gendarms recovered their wits and began to fire again. As they reached the crowd after it wag already disorganized by the attack of the dragoons, they also drew.their sabers and began to stab and eut right and left. | The crowd fought back with tare fists, stones picked from the street, boards from the broken fences, ete. The members of the “B. O.” used their guns as long as they could, but most of them were wounded at the first onslaught of the dragoons. One com- rade who put up a stubborn-fight was cut up almost to ribbons, He died on the spot. Phe air was filled with shrieks and groans of the wounded, the cries and swearing of the police. One police captain was especially fierce, crying madly: “Shoot them! Stab ‘em! Kill ‘em!” The battle did not last very long. The forces of the government won a big victory. There were about two center | ,, hundred revolutionists wounded, lying in the street and only a few policemen injured. A couple of hundreds were rounded up, The street was littered with battered hats, broken boards, walking sticks, etc., when the friendly nurses who were warned by the com- rades arrived from the hospital with firstaid supplies. By that time some of the patriotic hooligans arrived and began to beat up the arrested and wounded, The nurses and doctors who came up began to protest to the head of the government forces and it was stopped. \ Gendarms were stationed at the hospital to round up everybody who will apply for aid for gunshot wounds or saber cuts. But they did not catch many in this way, because the friendly nurses would lead the wounded out thru a side door. One leading com- rade for whom the police was looking and who was slightly wounded, was lead out of the hospital dressed in womens’ clothes and wrapped up in a big shawl. Thus ended our first open fight against the czarist government under the red flag of the revolution. A few months: after this affair the fierce police captain was ‘shot. and killed in the center of the’, city, ‘Hew had a mounted policemen as a: body} guard, but the -latter ran away | as soon as the firing began. ~ “BANISHED FROM PARADISE”—Our Own Version of a Bible &.. 3 “Gudok,” published in Moscow.) “The New Negro, An Interpretation,” Edited by Alain Locke, New York, Albert and Charles Boni, | 1925. Price $5.00. HIS volume,” begins the editor in Research Department Book Reviews THE NEW NEGRO: A NOTICE OF ALAIN LOGKE’S BOOK... |... 5° 558555" By EARL R. BROWDER. ~ o. 2 who are familiar to readers-of the Liberator and the Workers Monthly); drama (from three Negro writers, in- cluding a play by Willis Richardson) ; music (four contributors). Five es- says on “The Negro Digs Up His his forword, “aims to document) past” complete Part I of the book the New Negro culturally and socially —to register the tranformation of the inner and outer life of the Negro in America, that have so significantly taken place in the last few years.” And no matter how many reservations may be made, as to the adequacy of a book which almost completely ig- nores the economic basis of its sub- ject, the book stands out as a ringing challenge to American society. The Negro has become conscious of him- self. He feels the powers of all hu- manity within his own spirit. He brings these powers to expression and finds them equal to the best of the “superior- races.” A revolution takes place in the minds of the Negro masses! A review of this important book, which summarizes the cultural pro- cesses that have been going on among the Negroes for some years, partic- ularly since the war, can be written only after a careful study of it. The book is just off the press. It’s table of contents immediately marks it as a noteworthy work, which must be brought to the attention of everyone who realizes that the awakening of the Negroes to consciousness is one f the most important and interesting facts of American life. This notice, preliminary to a later review, is in- tended to serve only to arouse interest in an important ‘book, not to pass judgment upon it except as to its im- portance. Tide . The book opens with essays: “The New Negro” by Alain Locke, “Negro Art and America” by Albert C. Barnes, “The Negro in American Lit- erature” by William Stanley Braith- waite, and “Negro Youth Speaks” by Alain Locke. Then there follows the work of Negro artists, in fiction (se- lections from six Negro writers); poetry (from nine poets, including Claude McKay, James Weldon Jobn- son, and Georgia Douglas Johnson, © dtariatttencs its sebceeieketiebin’ Negro.” which bears the general title of “The Negro Renaissance.” Part II is entitled “The New Negro in a New World.” It lacks-the color, the energy, the self-confidence of the first part, and shows the “New Negro” groping thru the devious paths of bourgeois culture and bourgeois insti- tutions, quite evidently not himself, not at home, but as yet unable to sound a clear note of protest against the distortions of established middle class social forms. As one of the con- tributors says: “When I visit the Business Men’s Association, the dif- ference between this gathering and that of any Rotary Club is impercept- ible’ And Part II of “The New Ne- gro” reeks thruout of the atmosphere of the Rotary Club. This is, of course, inevitable. Only thru bitter disillusionment will the New Negro find his way out of the marshes of the middle-class “culture” of America and shake the last fetters from his mind. Only when the Negro finds his intellectual home with the revolutionary working class, abandons his dreams of a bourgeois paradise, will he reach his full stature. As yet we find but faint echoes of such de- velopment in books such as “The Néw To hear ‘the réal note 6f the future on the problems. of “The New Negro in a New World” one must turn toward the American Negro Labor Congress. The book closes its 445 pages with a rich bibliography which is of great value, And the book itself, as a pro- duct of the printer’s and binder’s art, is a thing of -beauty of which the pulishers may be proud; not the least pleasing feature being the splendid portraits and decorations ‘by Winold Reiss. A serious review of the book must be undertaken after more pro- longed study than has yet been pos- sible—and perhaps by more compe tent hands, my epee ama iese sae E EEO OT ge a IN EN RL RR APTI SETTLE TIO eee Pe — { a 4 a ? $ a eee