The Arkhangelsk Garrison in 1917

Abstract

This article presents the historical material that supplements and extends our knowledge about the role of the rear garrisons in the growing revolutionary activity during the period “from February to October”. Further, it indicates the specifcs of the units located in the Arkhangelsk military district, which explains the unique character of the processes that were taking place there. Due to the special location of Arkhangelsk, during the First World War a great number of generally small military units of different attachments were positioned there and performed various functions. Some military units under particularly diffcult service conditions had preferential food and fnancial supplies, which created tension not so much between privates and commanding offcers as between the military units representing various branches of the armed forces. It is concluded here that at the frst stage of the Revolution, the creation of military “democratic organizations” was largely initiated by the high command, who were forced to obey orders from the capital. Military units’ involvement in the political life was uneven, depending on the soldiers’ and navy men’s understanding of the importance of their service for the beneft of the state. The most active were the “labour battalions”, which included a large number of people of urban professions who saw this type of service as an alternative to going to the front, as well as those mobilized from the Empire’s outlying national regions. These categories of servicemen were especially interested in ending the war by any means and being demobilized as soon as possible. The most disciplined were the navy men. The transformation of the Arkhangelsk garrison soldiers and navy men into an anarchist mass occurred later than in most of the rear garrisons and at the front.