For
translation see Appendix 3. (See App. X, Sect. 3)
Across the hall came a man in a ragged soldier-coat and _shapka,_
whose face was familiar; I recognised Melnichansky, whom I had known
as the watch-maker George Melcher in Bayonne, New Jersey, during the
great Standard Oil strike. Now, he told me, he was secretary of the
Moscow Metal-Workers' Union, and a Commissar of the Military
Revolutionary Committee during the fighting....
"You see me!" he cried, showing his decrepit clothing. "I was with
the boys in the Kremlin when the _yunkers_ came the first time. They
shut me up in the cellar and swiped my overcoat, my money, watch and
even the ring on my finger. This is all I've got to wear!"
From him I learned many details of the bloody six-day battle which
had rent Moscow in two. Unlike in Petrograd, in Moscow the City Duma
had taken command of the _yunkers_ and White Guards. Rudnev, the
Mayor, and Minor, president of the Duma, had directed the activities
of the Committee of Public Safety and the troops. Riabtsev,
Commandant of the city, a man of democratic instincts, had hesitated
about opposing the Military Revolutionary Committee; but the Duma had
forced him.... It was the Mayor who had urged the occupation of the
Kremlin; "They will never dare fire on you there," he said....
One garrison regiment, badly demoralised by long inactivity, had been
approached by both sides.
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