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Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918
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Historical SummaryOne of the important elements in the weakening of the military resistance of Russia to the Central Powers was "Order Number One" of the Petrograd Soviet (Council) of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies which had invited all factory and army units to send delegates to its meetings. Observance of the order meant disregard of essential military discipline.
World History CHAPTER 10
The Soviet Union
219.
ORDER NO. 1 OF THE PETROGRAD SOVIET, MARCH 14, 19171
ORDER NUMBER ONE
March 1 (14), 1917.
To the garrison of the Petrograd District. To all the soldiers of the Guard, army, artillery and fleet for immediate and precise execution, and to the workers of Petrograd for information.
The Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies has decided:
1. In all companies, battalions, regiments, depots, batteries, squadrons and separate branches of military service of every kind and on warships immediately choose committees from the elected representatives of the soldiers and sailors of the above mentioned military units.
2. In all military units which have still not elected their representatives in the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies elect one representative to a company, who should appear with written credentials in the building of the State Duma at ten o’clock on the morning of March 2.
3. In all its political demonstrations a military unit is subordinated to the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies and its committees.
4. The orders of the military commission of the State Duma are to be fulfilled only in those cases which do not contradict the orders and decisions of the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.
5. Arms of all kinds, as rifles, machine-guns, armored automobiles and others must be at the disposition and under the control of the company and battalion committees and are not in any case to be given out to officers, even upon their command.
6. In the ranks and in fulfilling service duties soldiers must observe the strictest military discipline; but outside of service, in their political, civil and private life soldiers cannot be discriminated against as regards those rights which all citizens enjoy.
Standing at attention and compulsory saluting outside of service are especially abolished.
7. In the same way the addressing of officers with titles: Your Excellency, Your Honor, etc., is abolished and is replaced by the forms of address: Mr. General, Mr. Colonel, etc.
Rude treatment of soldiers of all ranks, and especially addressing them as "thou," is forbidden; and soldiers are bound to bring to the attention of the company committees any violation of this rule and any misunderstandings between officers and soldiers.
This order is to be read in all companies, battalions, regiments, marine units, batteries and other front and rear military units.
PETROGRAD SOVIET OF WORKERs’ AND SOLDIERs’ DEPUTIES.
1 Translated from Revolutsia 1917 goda. Khronika sobytii (The Revolution of 1917. Chronicle of Events), 6 vols., Moscow, 1923–1930, vol. I, pp. 186–187, in W. H. Chamberlin, The Russian Revolution 1917–1921, 2 vols., New York, 1935, vol. I, pp. 429–430. Reprinted by permission of The Macmillan Company, publishers.
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Chicago: "The Soviet Union," Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918 in Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, ed. Walter Consuelo Langsam and James Michael Egan (Chicage: Lippincott, 1951), 739–740. Original Sources, accessed January 15, 2025, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=E5ZVH4XE6QQ9XVZ.
MLA: . "The Soviet Union." Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, in Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, edited by Walter Consuelo Langsam and James Michael Egan, Chicage, Lippincott, 1951, pp. 739–740. Original Sources. 15 Jan. 2025. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=E5ZVH4XE6QQ9XVZ.
Harvard: , 'The Soviet Union' in Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918. cited in 1951, Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, ed. , Lippincott, Chicage, pp.739–740. Original Sources, retrieved 15 January 2025, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=E5ZVH4XE6QQ9XVZ.
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