Makers of the Russian Revolution by Haupt Georges; Marie Jean-Jacques; & Jean-Jacques Marie

Author:Haupt, Georges; Marie, Jean-Jacques; & Jean-Jacques Marie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

IVAN TENISOVICH SMILGA

(autobiography)

I was born in 1892 in Livonia into an enlightened family of land-owning farmers. My parents were both highly intellectual. I can remember my father’s endless tales from Greek mythology, which he greatly admired. In his political convictions, he can be classed as a democrat.

My revolutionary consciousness was awakened in 1901 by Karpovich’s shot at the Minister of Education, Bogolepov. The years 1901–3 were a watershed in my development. However strange it may seem, despite the extremely liberal and free-thinking atmosphere at home, I held strong religious and monarchist views until the age of nine or ten. I remember that after Bogolepov’s assassination, it was like a holiday in our family, to which I alone was impervious. The murder of a minister by students seemed to me quite insane. But as I had been an extremely rational being from birth, and was subject to the influence of social democratic students at the time, I soon discarded the beliefs inculcated in me by a few booklets I had read. By 1904–5 I was already a convinced atheist and a supporter of revolution. Events in our area and our family considerably hastened my further evolution. My father moved further to the left at the same time as the rest of society and played an extremely prominent role in the revolutionary events. At the end of 1905, during the abolition of the rural administrative boards, he was elected Chairman of the Revolutionary Administrative Committee for our district. In 1906 he was executed by a punitive expedition of the Tsarist government. In January 1907, whilst a ‘modern’ school pupil, I joined the Social Democratic Party. It was during my student years (ending in 1909) that my Marxist outlook was finally formed.

My first clash with the police came in 1907 when I was searched and detained for a few hours in connection with the celebration of May Day. I was arrested for the second time in 1910 on Theatre Square in Moscow at a student demonstration against the death penalty on the occasion of the death of Leo Tolstoy. After one month in custody, I was released. In spring 1911 I conducted underground Party work in the Lefortovo district. In July of the same year I was rearrested, and after three months in custody I was deported to Vologda province for three years. Returning from there in 1914, after the outbreak of war, I immediately joined the Petrograd RSDRP(b) Committee and was active until May 1915 when I was again arrested and exiled to the district of Yeniseysk for three years. I returned from there only after the February Revolution.

Almost five years of exile were for me a real university. While in exile, besides studying the history and tactics of our Party, I mainly applied myself to political economy and philosophy. At that time I conceived of my future Party work in terms of propaganda. In fact, things turned out completely differently. At the Party Conference in April 1917 I was elected to the CC, where I remained until 1920.

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