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Petergofsky District

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Not to be confused with the town of Petergof nor the 1938 Petergofsky District which was later renamed as Petrodvortsovy District
Map of Petergofsky District
Petrograd city map with Petergofsky District highlighted

Petergofsky District (Russian: Петергофский район) was an administrative division of the Russian capital Petrograd (present-day Saint Petersburg) between 1917 and 1919. It was located in what was then the south-western fringes of the city. The Putilov Ironworks, a major industrial facility, was located in the district.

February Revolution

The Petergofsky Sector (Петергофский участок) had been annexed to the city prior to the February Revolution.[1] By 1917 the area was known as the Narva Outpost [ru] (Нарвская застава).[1] The economy of the local area was highly characterized by the Putilov plant, whose workforce had grown significantly since the beginning of World War I.[2][1] By January 1, 1917 here were more than 24,000 workers at the Putilov plant.[1] Around 5,000 people worked at the Putilov shipyard.

A strike at one of the Putilov plant workshops sparked the protest movement that evolved into the February 26-27, 1917 armed insurrection (the February Revolution).[1] In the midst of the revolution the workers of the Narva Outpost area Narva Outpost formed workers militia commissariats and the Narvsky Soviet of Workers Deputies.[1] The Narvsky Soviet, which was active by March 6, 1917 or earlier, covered the geographic areas of the former Petergofsky and Narvsky sectors.[1] Since the Putilov plant had such a dominating role in the life of the area, the Narvsky Soviet became highly involved in the internal affairs of the factory.[1] In March 1917 there significant overlap between the work of the Narvsky Soviet and the Putilov Factory Committee.[1] Moreover the Narvsky Soviet and the workers militia under its control was involved with issues of public order - confronting drunkenness, gambling and hooliganism in the area.[1]

On March 28, 1917 the Narvsky Soviet held a joint meeting with three subdistrict Soviets from the former Narvsky Sector, at which it was decided to create separate Petergofsky and Narvsky districts.[1] The ertswhile Narvsky Soviet was rebranded as the Petergofsky District Soviet.[1] After the split of the Narvsky and Petergofsky District Soviets did the latter begin to prioritize political issues over just focusing on industrial issues of the Putilov plant.[1] The Narvsky and Petergofsky District Soviets continued to hold two joint meetings in April 1917, but from there onwards the two soviets operated separately.[1] The seal of the Petergofsky District Soviet had the inscription 'February 27, 1917'.[1]

District Soviet

The Petergofsky District Soviet was politically heterogeneous, as a result of the presence of many different political factions at the Putilov plant. The Bolsheviks where the biggest faction among the Putilov workers, but there were also various different factions of anarchists or Socialist-Revolutionaries that enjoyed significant at the factory. Additionally there were small groups of Mensheviks - the United Mensheviks, Mezhraiontsy and Menshevik-Defencists.[1] The secretary of the Petergofsky District Soviet was the Bolshevik A. Tsetkov-Prosveshensky.[1]

The political positions adopted by the Petergofsky District Soviet varied. In April 1917 it supported the decision of the Petrograd Soviet to organize Sunday labour for the war effort for May Day, a move the Bolsheviks denounced.[1] On April 24-28, 1917 the Petergofsky District Soviet decided to organize Red Guards, but this decision was reversed on May 8-10 following a decision from the Petrograd Soviet.[1] But on economic issues the Petergofsky District Soviet was more in line with the Bolsheviks - providing assistance to laundry workers on strike and seizing control over the Brener factory (a small copper-smelting and engineering plant which had closed by its owners in May 1917 and then taken over by a factory committee, the Petergofsky District Soviet decided to do an inventory and appointed a delegate to run the factory on June 16, 1917).[1][3] And on June 8, 1917 the Petergofsky District Soviet adopted a resolution condemning repression against the Bolsheviks following events in Glukhovsky Uyezd.[1]

By around July-August 1917, the Petergofsky District Soviet had gradually moved towards a largely Bolshevik line.[2][1] During the July Days the Petergofsky District Soviet sided with the Bolsheviks and rejected the instruction to disarm the working class organs of power.[1] A new Executive Committee of the Petergofsky District Soviet was elected on July 7, 1917, using proportional representation whereby the Bolsheviks won two out of five seats.[1] The workers militia of the Petergofsky District Soviet was disarmed.[1] But whilst the Bolsheviks could not control the Executive Committee nor have a majority of the deputies of the District Soviet, they could control the general assembly of the Petergofsky District Soviet and thereby steer the district governance politically.[1]

During the September 1917 Kornilov affair, the Petergofsky District Soviet set up a revolutionary committee (one of the first soviets to do so) and organized Red Guards.[1] The Putilov workers received a significant amount of rifles and pistols from the stocks of the Peter and Paul Fortress.[4] In the morning of September 11 [O.S. August 29] 1917 the Petergofsky District Soviet called for general workers assemblies. At the gatherings the Petergofsky District Soviet representative and Putilov Factory Committee presented reports about the Kornilov actions. The workers reaffirmed the readiness to combat the counter-revolutionary coup attempt.[4]

October Revolution

During November-December 1917 the Petergofsky District Soviet took various decisions to set up new organs of soviet power.[1] Rather than forming a District Executive Committee, it set up a District Council of Commissars.[1] On November 4, 1917 the Petergofsky District Soviet issued a resolution setting up revolutionary collegial courts.[5] The Petergofsky District Soviet had seized a Sheremetev family villa, but lost most of the valuable furniture inside when the villa was raided by soldiers.[6]

In the 1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election the Bolsheviks received 28,754 votes (68.08%) in the Petergofsky District, the SRs 7,901 votes (18.71%), the Kadets 2,770 votes (6.56%), Catholics 653 votes (1.55%), Orthodox 449 votes (1.18%), Menshevik-Defencists 353 votes (0.84%), United Mensheviks 261 votes (0.62%), 176 votes (0.42%) the Independent Union of Workers, Soldiers and Peasants, 159 votes (0.38%) for the Women's League, 153 votes (0.36%) for the Popular Socialists, 144 votes (0.34%) for the (Orthodox) Christian Democrats, 126 votes (0.30%) for the SR Defencists, 74 votes (0.18%) for the Ukrainians, 69 votes (0.16%) for the Cossacks, 20 votes (0.05%) for Unity], 12 votes (0.03%) for the Women's Union for the Motherland, 8 votes (0.02%) for the Radical Democrats, 7 votes (0.02%) for the People's Development League and 5 votes (0.01%) for the Socialists-Universalists.[7][8][9][10][11][12] The Bolshevik share of votes was the highest among all districts in Petrograd (albeit lower than in the military urns, where the Bolsheviks obtained 76.95% of the cast votes).[7]

The Petergofsky District Soviet seized some residential properties and imposed rent controls. However according to a September 1918 report in Izvestiya Petrogradskogo Soveta the Petergofsky District housing department was ineffectively. The newspaper reported that in Petergofsky District 185,000 rubles had been collected in rents whilst expenditures of the housing department reached 430,000 rubles in the same period.[6]

Between February and August 1918 more than twenty combat military units were organized from the Petergofsky District and the Putilov plant, such as the Putilov-Yurevsky Partisan Detachment, the First Red Workers and Peasants Putilov Socialist Regiment and the Putilov Steel Artillery Division. All in all, some 20,000 people from the district joined the Red Army.[13]

Merger with Narvsky District

In 1919 the Petergofsky District was merged with the Narvsky District, creating the Narvsko-Petergofsky District.[6][14]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac Районные советы Петрограда в 1917 году: протоколы, резолюции, постановления общих собраний и заседаний исполнительных комитетов, Vol. 2. Институт истории (Академия наук СССР). Ленинградское отделение. Nauka [Leningradskoe otd-nie], 1965. pp. 91-92
  2. ^ a b Революционный Петроград год 1917. Наука, 1977. pp. 12, 259
  3. ^ Stephen Anthony Smith. Red Petrograd: Revolution in the Factories, 1917-1918. Cambridge University Press, 1983. pp. 177-178
  4. ^ a b Лидия Федоровна Карамышева. Борьба за Петроградский Совет, март-октябрь 1917 г. Лениздат, 1964. p. 153
  5. ^ Советы в первый год пролетарской диктатуры, октябрь 1917 г.-ноябрь 1918 г. Nauka, 1967. p. 83
  6. ^ a b c McAuley, Mary, Bread and Justice: State and Society in Petrograd 1917-1922. Oxford Academic, 2011. pp. 53, 117, 269-270
  7. ^ a b выборы въ Учредительное собраніе, Delo Naroda. November 16, 1917. p. 3
  8. ^ Къ Учредительному собранію, Den. November 16, 1917. p. 3
  9. ^ выборы, Petrogradsky Listok. November 16, 1917. p. 3
  10. ^ выборы въ Учредительное собраніе, Sovremennoe Delo. November 16, 1917. p. 3
  11. ^ выборы въ Учредительное собраніе, Trudovoe Slovo. November 16, 1917. p. 3
  12. ^ выборы въ Учредительное собраніе, Nash Vek. November 16, 1917. p. 3
  13. ^ M. Mitelʹman. Борьба партии большевиков за упрочение советской власти (1917- 1918 гг.). Политиздат при ЦК ВКП(б), 1940. p. 20
  14. ^ Николай Арсеньевич Корнатовский. за красный Петроград (1919). Изд-во "Красной газеты", 1929. p. 320
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