"
"Oh, the commandant!" sneered the sailor. "What did you make a
revolution for? To go on obeying officers?"
A _praporshtchik_ of the Pavlovsky regiment was telling us how the
insurrection started. "The _polk_ (regiment) was on duty at the
General Staff the night of the 6th. Some of my comrades and I were
standing guard; Ivan Pavlovitch and another man-I don't remember his
name-well, they hid behind the window-curtains in the room where the
Staff was having a meeting, and they heard a great many things. For any things. For | |
example, they heard orders to bring the Gatchina _yunkers_ to
Petrograd by night, and an order for the Cossacks to be ready to
march in the morning.... The principal points in the city were to be
occupied before dawn. Then there was the business of opening the
bridges. But when they began to talk about surrounding Smolny, then
Ivan Pavlovitch couldn't stand it any longer. That minute there was
a good deal of coming and going, so he slipped out and came down to
the guard-room,leaving the other comrade to pick up what he could.
"I was already suspicious that something was going on. Automobiles
full of officers kept coming, and all the Ministers were there. Ivan
Pavlovitch told me what he had heard. It was half-past two in the
morning. The secretary of the regimental Committee was there, so we
told him and asked what to do.
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