The first revolution of 1905-1907 in the Donbass. Donbass during the years of the Russian bourgeois-democratic revolution and the First World War

"DONETSK NATIONAL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY"

AUTOMOBILE AND ROAD INSTITUTE
ON THE 110th ANNIVERSARY OF THE GORLOVSK ARMED UPRISING
COMPETITION SCIENTIFIC WORK

SUBJECT:

« DONBASS DURING THE FIRST RUSSIAN REVOLUTION1905–1907»
Completed:

students of group MO-15

Stryukova Julia,

Turbaba Marina

Scientific adviser:

Ph.D., Assoc. Shipovich M. A.

Gorlovka - 2015

Introduction 2

Chapter 1 Donbass before the revolution of 1905 3
Pre-revolutionary Gorlovka 3

On January 3, 1905, a long-prepared strike began at the Putilov factory in St. Petersburg. The workers demanded higher wages, the abolition of compulsory overtime work and the establishment of an 8-hour working day. They were supported by other plants and factories in St. Petersburg, and on January 8, the strike already covered 111 thousand workers of the capital, taking on a general character. At this time, in the organization of Georgy Gapon, a plan was ripened to arrange a peaceful procession to the tsar to submit a petition about the needs of the workers. “We, the workers of the city of St. Petersburg,” the petition said, our wives and children and helpless old parents, have come to you, sovereign, to seek truth and protection. We are impoverished, we are oppressed, we are burdened with overwork, we are abused, we are not recognized as people, we are treated like slaves who must endure a bitter fate and remain silent. We endured, but there was a limit to patience. For us, that terrible moment has come when death is better than the continuation of unbearable torment. At the insistence of the Social Democrats (Mensheviks), in addition to economic demands, the petition also included political ones: amnesty for political prisoners, personal immunity, freedom of speech, press, assembly, equality of all before the law, permission to create trade unions, the abolition of redemption payments of peasants for land and its transfer to the property of the whole people, the separation of church and state and the convening of the Constituent Assembly.

With bayonets and bullets the government
prepared to meet the peaceful
demonstration in Petersburg

The authorities were aware of the impending march in advance and took the necessary measures to prevent "riots". The city was divided into 8 military districts, and its garrison was reinforced by troops called from Peterhof, Revel and Pskov. The troops occupied the approaches to the Winter Palace and other government buildings.

Nicholas II at that time was in Tsarskoye Selo. On January 8, a delegation of democratic intelligentsia headed by Maxim Gorky came to the reception of the Minister of the Interior, Prince P.D. Svyatopolk-Mirsky with a petition to prevent possible bloodshed, but the minister did not accept it. Soon the entire composition of the delegation was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

20th anniversary stamps
January Uprising

On the morning of January 9, 1905, a 140,000-strong crowd of men, women, old people and children, led by Gapon, with banners, icons, portraits of the tsar and singing prayers, moved to the Winter Palace to present the petition to the tsar. On Palace Square, they met a barrage of soldiers. The order was given to open fire on the crowd. There were dead and wounded. Executions, horse attacks of the Cossacks on peaceful processions to the Winter Palace took place in other parts of the city.

According to incomplete data, more than 1,000 people were killed and about 5,000 injured. On this day, hundreds of corpses were lying on the streets of St. Petersburg and pavements, and the battles of the tsarist troops with the insurgent workers who had destroyed the weapons stores continued for several more days.

The news of the execution of a peaceful demonstration in St. Petersburg caused an outburst of indignation throughout the country. On the evening of January 9, barricades appeared in St. Petersburg. In January 1905 alone, 440,000 workers went on strike in protest (160,000 of them in St. Petersburg), more than in the entire previous decade. The day of January 9, 1905 (“Bloody Sunday”) was the beginning of the revolution.

Barricades on the Arbat.
Moscow 1905

So on January 17, 1905, a strike of metalworkers began in Yuzovka. And already on January 22, a general strike began. Metallurgists and miners of the Novorossiysk Society did not come to work. Recall that this English joint-stock company, in addition to the city-forming metallurgical plant for Yuzovka, also owned twenty mines of the Vetkovsky and Smolyaninovsky mines and seven mines on the territory of the metallurgical plant itself (one of them, "Central", has survived to this day). The next day, the machine builders of the Bosse plant and the miners of the Rutchenko Mining Society joined the strikers.

On January 24-25, the strike also spread to other industrial centers of Donbass. Along with the workers of Yuzovka, the metallurgists of Mariupol, Enakievo and Kramatorsk, the miners of Gorlovka began to strike. In early February, local railway workers joined them.

The strike in Donbass lasted two months. An initiative group was created to direct the labor movement. In the building along the street, which now bears the name of Chelyuskintsev, leaflets were printed. In the exposition of the regional museum of local lore (its modern building, by the way, is located on the same street), you can see both the leaflets themselves and the press on which they were printed.

Until March, only in the Bakhmut and Mariupol districts, 32 strikes took place at large enterprises with the participation of 53 thousand workers.

Romanov
Nikolai Alexandrovich

The demands of the workers were mostly economic, which was also reflected in the leaflets. The strikers demanded higher wages, the establishment of an eight-hour working day, and the abolition of fines. Although the leaflets ended with the same political appeal - "Down with the autocracy!"

It must be said that American workers, having begun a strike on May 1, 1889, achieved an eight-hour working day as early as the 19th century. Russian workers then worked for 16 (sixteen!) hours. In 1897, the Factory Law was adopted in Russia, according to which the working day was limited to 12 hours (the working week was six days), and fines were also reduced.

But at the British-owned Yuzovsky plant, contrary to Russian law, metallurgists were still subject to heavy fines. And the products in the shops belonging to the "Novorossiysk Society" were sold at inflated prices. Although, in fairness, it must be admitted that the wages of workers in the Donbass were higher than in the Urals, where enterprises were state-owned (state-owned) or owned by domestic capitalists.

The consequences of the uprisings.
Moscow 1905

Unlike their American counterparts, the workers of Donbass, like those of Russia as a whole, did not achieve anything good with their strike. In Yuzovka, the strike was ended on March 10 by a lockout. All eight thousand workers of the Yuzovsky Metallurgical Plant were fired. After that, they began to hire again. But, of course, not all. The most active, including those who printed leaflets, were sent to a prison located in Bakhmut. (They were released after seven years.)

By its nature, the revolution of 1905-1907 in Russia it was bourgeois-democratic, because it set the tasks of the bourgeois-democratic transformation of the country: the overthrow of the autocracy and the establishment of a democratic republic, the elimination of the estate system and landownership, the introduction of basic democratic freedoms - primarily freedom of conscience, speech, press, assembly, equality of all before law, the establishment of an 8-hour working day for employees, the removal of national restrictions.

The main issue of the revolution was the agrarian-peasant. The peasantry accounted for more than 4/5 of the population of Russia, and the agrarian question, in connection with the deepening of peasant land shortages, acquired by the beginning of the 20th century. special poignancy. The national question also occupied an important place in the revolution. 57% of the country's population were non-Russian peoples. However, in essence, the national question was part of the agrarian-peasant one, for the peasantry constituted the overwhelming majority of the non-Russian population in the country. The agrarian-peasant question was at the center of attention of all political parties and groupings.

Revolution of 1905-07.
Tsarist artillery shelling Presnya.
Moscow. December 1905.

In the revolution of 1905-1907. the petty-bourgeois sections of the city and countryside, as well as the political parties representing them, took an active part. It was a popular revolution. Peasants, workers, and the petty bourgeoisie of town and country made up a single revolutionary camp. The camp opposing him was represented by the landlords and the big bourgeoisie associated with the autocratic monarchy, the highest official bureaucracy, the military and clerics from among the top clergy. The liberal opposition camp was represented mainly by the middle bourgeoisie and the bourgeois intelligentsia, who advocated the bourgeois transformation of the country by peaceful means, mainly by the methods of parliamentary struggle.

The world economic crisis of 1900-1903, as well as the defeat of Russia in the war with Japan in 1904-1905. exacerbated economic and political contradictions, increased dissatisfaction with the authorities among the population. All this contributed to mass unrest in the country, which eventually grew into a revolution. The beginning of the revolution in Russia is considered to be the bloody events in St. Petersburg on Sunday, January 9, 1905. On this day, a 150,000-strong demonstration of workers and members of their families was shot.

The news of the death spread throughout the country and aroused the indignation of the whole people. Revolutionary events in Ukraine and Donbass began to unfold very quickly. In the winter and spring of 1905, mass political strikes took place in the cities, and in the summer the army, navy and peasantry joined the revolutionary struggle. In June 1905, an uprising of sailors on the battleship Potemkin took place in Odessa.

The revolutionary movement in the Donbass was started with the strike of Yuzovka metallurgists on January 17, 1905, then, on January 22, the Petrovsky plant in Yenakiyevo stopped. In January-March, strikes took place at all metallurgical plants in Donbass. The bulk of the strikes of this period of the revolution were also of an economic nature.

In October 1905, the All-Russian political strike began with economic and political demands. This strike also engulfed the Yekaterinoslav railway, which passed through the Donbass. In October-December, the first Soviets of Workers' Deputies arose in Yenakiyevo, Mariupol, Yuzovka, and at a number of factories and mines - strike committees, which introduced an 8-hour working day at enterprises without permission, set prices for products in factory shops.

The December 1905 armed uprising in Moscow is considered to be the highest upsurge of the revolution. In the Donbass, one of the largest actions of the workers in 1905 was the December armed uprising at the mashza-voda in Gorlovka. It began with the fact that on December 16, 1905, a meeting of workers took place at the plant demanding higher wages, which escalated into an armed uprising on December 17. Troops were called in to suppress it and opened fire on the protesters, as a result of which 14 people were killed and about 30 wounded. By a court decision, 8 people were sentenced to promotion, more than 80 people were sent to hard labor. In 1965, a memorial obelisk was erected at the site of the battle of the workers' squads.

The consequence of the revolutionary events was the signing by Tsar Nicholas II of a special Manifesto on October 17, 1905, in which he promised the people civil liberties (personal immunity, freedom of conscience, press, assembly, unions), holding elections to the State Duma (Russian parliament). This document had extremely important consequences. First, he contributed to the expansion of legal political and cultural activities in the country. Only in Ukraine in 1905-1907. 24 newspapers and magazines began to appear. In the Yekaterinoslav province, which included the territory of the present Donbass, the newspaper Yuzhnaya Nedelya appeared. The decree of 1876 on the prohibition of Ukrainian writing was canceled. Secondly, the process of development of mass public organizations and political parties has accelerated. In 1907, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party was created in Ukraine, in 1908 - the Association of Ukrainian Progressives (TUP). Thirdly, it became possible for the opposition forces to legally influence the authorities by using the rostrum of the State Duma. In the 1st and 2nd State Dumas (1906-1907), deputies from the Yekaterinoslav province were also represented, including one of the founders of the Union of October 17 party, editor of the newspaper Vestnik of the Yekaterinoslav Zemstvo, M.V. Rodzianko, from March 1911 to February 1917 - Chairman of the 3rd and 4th State Dumas.

On June 3, 1907, the Tsar's Manifesto was published on the dissolution of the oppositional 2nd State Duma and a new law on elections to the Third Duma, which met the interests of the landlords and oligarchs. Under the new law, 80% of the population of the Russian Empire was deprived of voting rights. In fact, a coup d'état was carried out, which opened a period of reaction in the country. In history, this act is called the June 3 coup.

Thus, Bloody Sunday 1905 and the subsequent events of the revolution split society and marked the beginning of the decline of the Romanov dynasty.

The first Russian revolution, despite the defeat, was of great importance. It forced the tsarist government to make serious concessions to the people. However, social tension in the country was not completely resolved: the autocracy was preserved with certain changes, landlordism was not completely eliminated and the agrarian question did not lose its acuteness, the class division of society remained unshakable. Revolution 1905-1907 led to massive and merciless terror in Russia. The individual terror of the Narodnaya Volya was replaced by mass terrorist attacks, the victims of which were about 9 thousand people, of which almost half were civil servants. In 1905 alone, more than 700 high-ranking Russian officials died from terrorist attacks.

TOPIC 2: Russia and Donbass on the eve and the period of the first Russian revolution 1905-1907

1. Causes, driving forces and tasks of the revolution of 1905-1907.

2. Revolutionary events of 1905. Manifesto October 17, 1905 December armed uprising in Moscow.

3. Events of the revolution of 1906-1907. results of the revolution.

4. Revolutionary events in the Donbass. Armed uprising in Gorlovka.

5. The decline of the revolution in the Donetsk region.

1. Causes, driving forces and challenges revolutions of 1905-1907

The revolution of 1905-1907 was determined by socio-economic, political and foreign policy reasons.

TO socio-economic reasons include:

1) the economic crisis of 1900-1903. and as a result, the aggravation of social problems, unemployment, increased exploitation of workers. The situation in factories and factories worsened significantly, where workers were forced to work 12 hours a day with one day off a week, while earning 23 rubles a month.

2) the unresolved agrarian question: the debts of the peasants to the state for land, communal ownership of land becomes a brake on the development of agriculture. The position of the peasants did not actually differ from the status of serfs, they still paid the landowner a huge tax in kind for the opportunity to independently cultivate the land.

Political causes:

1) the preservation of the system of absolutism - the absence of parliamentarism, guaranteed rights and freedoms of citizens;

2) the preservation of the imperial system of power and the strengthening of oppression (Russia is turning into a "prison" of peoples)

foreign policy causes:

The defeat of Russia in the war with Japan (1904-1905): the loss of part of the territories, the international and domestic prestige of the autocracy, significant material losses and the aggravation of socio-economic problems as a result of the defeat in this war. Constant failures at the front hit both the economic condition of the population and its national pride.

driving forces the workers, peasants, intelligentsia, bourgeoisie, military, student youth became revolutions.

Tasks revolutions of 1905-1907:

1) the establishment of a constitutional-democratic system in Russia;

2) the proclamation and legal consolidation of the rights and freedoms of citizens;

3) access to the political power of the bourgeoisie;

4) the liquidation of landownership, the abolition of redemption payments for land and its redistribution;

5) solution of social problems of workers;

6) granting national autonomy to the peoples of the Russian Empire.

2. Revolutionary events of 1905. Manifesto October 17, 1905 December armed uprising in Moscow.

One of the most tragic events that took place in the history of Russia is Bloody Sunday. In short, on January 9, 1905, a demonstration was shot down, in which about 140 thousand representatives of the working class became participants.

Unrest at the Putilov factory spread to other enterprises operating at that time in St. Petersburg. Mass strikes began, leaflets began to circulate with economic and political demands on the government. Inspired by the priest Gapon, he decided to file a petition personally with the autocrat Nicholas II.

The authorities became aware in advance of the impending demonstration, in which about 140,000 people were to take part. On January 6, Emperor Nicholas left with his family for Tsarskoye Selo. The Home Secretary called an emergency meeting the day before the event. During the meeting, it was decided not to allow the participants of the rally to go not only to the Palace Square, but also to the city center.

It is worth mentioning that the bloodshed was not originally planned. Representatives of the authorities had no doubt that the sight of armed soldiers would make the crowd disperse, but these expectations were not justified.

The procession, which moved to the Winter Palace, consisted of men, women and children who did not have weapons with them. Many participants in the procession were holding portraits of Nicholas II, banners. At the Nevsky Gates, the demonstration was attacked by cavalry, then shooting began, five shots were fired. The next shots rang out near the Trinity Bridge from the Petersburg and Vyborg sides. Several volleys were also fired at the Winter Palace when the demonstrators reached the Alexander Garden. The scenes of the events soon became littered with the bodies of the wounded and the dead. Local skirmishes continued until late in the evening, only by 11 p.m. did the authorities manage to disperse the demonstrators.

The report, which was presented to Nicholas II, significantly underestimated the number of people affected on January 9th. Bloody Sunday claimed the lives of 130 people, with another 299 injured, if this report is to be relied upon. In reality, the number of dead and wounded exceeded four thousand people, the exact figure remained a mystery.

Georgy Gapon managed to escape abroad, but in March 1906 the clergyman was killed by the Social Revolutionaries. Mayor Fullon, who was directly involved in the events of Bloody Sunday, was dismissed on January 10, 1905. The Minister of the Interior Svyatopolk-Mirsky also lost his post. The meeting of the emperor with the working delegation took place on January 20, during which Nicholas II expressed regret that so many people had died. However, he nevertheless stated that the demonstrators had committed a crime and condemned the mass procession.

After the disappearance of Gapon, the mass strike stopped, the unrest subsided. However, this turned out to be only the calm before the storm, and soon the state was in for new political upheavals and casualties.

The news of the events in the capital spread with lightning speed by the Empire and caused anger and fury among all segments of the population. On the morning of January 10, as a sign of protest, the workers of factories and plants in St. Petersburg did not go to work. Following the example of the metropolitan working class, strikes were organized in Moscow, Kyiv and Riga.

The peasants also began to arrange spontaneous riots. Outbreaks of disobedience and protests continued until May. At this time, revolutionary organizations became noticeably more active, among which were the followers of K. Marx, the communists.

To stabilize the situation in the country, the emperor was forced to make some concessions, but the workers and peasants finally could not give up the fight against tsarism.

The uprising on the battleship "Potemkin" and its impact on the revolution

In the summer of 1905, the country was shocked by the news of an uprising on one of the battleships of the imperial fleet. The sailors of the ship refused to eat food prepared from rotten meat, for which they were sentenced by officers to death. However, instead of shooting the sailors, the executors of the sentence opened fire on the officers themselves.

After the mutiny, the entire leadership of the battleship was killed, and the sailors decided to independently go to the open sea and surrender to the authorities of neighboring Romania. The uprising on the Potemkin inspired a somewhat subdued people and became an occasion for new disobedience.

The workers, in defiance of the tsar's ban, began to form the first trade unions that would guarantee political and economic protection. The peasants also tried to create their own associations, and they began to defend their rights and freedoms more and more actively.

It was in 1905 that the peasants began to resort to organized robberies of the landlords' possessions, which did not always end in punishment.

The outbreaks of popular protests that swept the empire in the first half of 1905 continued into October. Moscow became the center of the largest revolutionary movement.

The workers of the factories and factories of the city were the first to strike, and a few days later the railway workers joined them. On October 5, the strikes of the working class assumed a nationwide character. Mass uprisings covered more than 120 cities of the Russian Empire, about 3 million employees and workers took part in them.

During this period, all educational institutions of the state did not work. Cultural figures, in order to support the disadvantaged class, canceled all planned theater performances and concerts. The economic and cultural life of the state has completely stopped.

Speeches in October 1905 forced the emperor to make concessions. On October 17, 1905, Tsar Nicholas II issued a Manifesto, which proclaimed:

1) civil liberties;

2) personal integrity;

3) freedom of speech, press, confession, assembly and trade unions.

The manifesto of October 17, 1905 was perceived by the population in different ways. Part rejoiced, hoping that a new constitution would appear and a new milestone in the history of the Russian Empire would begin. The revolutionary groups believed that this manifesto was only an obstacle in the fight against the government, and they perceived it with hostility.

On October 17, the State Duma was established, which performed legislative functions. In November, a decree was signed that significantly reduced the size of the redemption payments of peasants for land plots. From January 1907, such payments were abolished completely.

December Uprising

Liberal concessions to power in the eyes of the revolutionaries looked like the first manifestation of the weakness of the monarchical regime. At the end of 1905, the left forces undertook the armed overthrow of the autocracy. When the second wave of mass strikes swept over St. Petersburg and Moscow, the authorities sent troops against the workers.

However, this scenario was by no means sudden for the strikers, many representatives of the working class were armed. By mid-December, the strikes in Moscow developed into a bloody armed confrontation between the people and the tsarist army.

More than 8 thousand residents of Moscow took part in the hostilities, who managed to hold back the army regiments of the emperor for a week. On December 15, by order of Nicholas II, the Semyonovsky regiment was sent to Moscow, whose soldiers immediately began shelling workers' quarters and barricades.

Due to the fact that the forces were unequal, already at the end of December, the workers were forced to withdraw from the confrontation.

The inhabitants of the outskirts of the Russian Empire also waged an open revolutionary struggle. Along with economic infringements, representatives of the peoples were also outraged by the peculiarities of the conduct of national policy by Nicholas II, in particular, open anti-Semitism.

The active conduct of strikes and uprisings on the national outskirts forced the Russian emperor to radically change the course of national policy and abandon universal Russification.

3. Events of the revolution of 1906-1907. The results of the revolution

The revolutionary events of 1905 served as an impetus for the formation of three camps of political forces (monarchist, liberal-democratic, revolutionary-democratic), which spoke primarily of the emerging crisis of autocracy.

Monarchical The (government) camp was represented by political parties defending the interests of the emperor. These are the Monarchist Party of Russia (leaders V. Gringmut, Prince D. Dolgoruky), the Union of the Russian People - the Black Hundreds (leaders A. Dubrovin, V. Purishkevich), the Union of October 17 (Octobrists) (leaders M. Rodzianko, Guchkovs, N. Khomyakov)

The leaders of these organizations put pressure, first of all, on the national consciousness of the working class, propagating the ideas of the unity of the Russian people, the indivisibility of the Russian Empire, trying to distract the population from existing economic problems.

Liberal Democratic the camp was represented by the Constitutional Democratic Party (cadets) (leaders P. Milyukov, I. Petrunkevich, S. Muromtsev). The social base of the Cadets consisted of the bourgeois intelligentsia, liberal landowners, and the middle and petty bourgeoisie. The Cadets rejected the course of revolution and countered it with the path of Russia's peaceful constitutional development.

Revolutionary Democratic the camp was represented by the parties of the Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs) (leaders V. Chernov, A. Gots, D. Donskoy), the Russian Social Democratic Party (Bolsheviks) (leader V.I. Lenin), the Russian Social Democratic Party (Mensheviks) (leaders P. Axelrod, F. Dan, Yu. Martov). These parties stood for the further development and victory of the bourgeois-democratic revolution.

Legislative acts of 1906

After the outbreak of armed uprisings in Moscow in December 1905, the tsar was forced to issue a number of bills that could regulate the internal situation in the state.

The first step towards the introduction of political reform was the ratification of the law on elections to the State Duma. All persons who had the right to participate in elections (men over 25 years old) were divided into four electoral curia: city, peasant, workers and landowners.

The elections were not democratic: many representatives of national minorities were deprived of the right to vote, the vote of one landowner was equal to the votes of 45 workers. Members of the State Duma, according to the results of the elections, were elected for 5 years.

In order to create a counterbalance to the Duma, the emperor resumed the activities of the State Council, which was also endowed with legislative initiative. The composition of the State Council was determined by the tsar himself, as well as members of some privileged institutions by the Synod, the assembly of the nobility.

According to the new electoral law, all supreme power in the state was still concentrated in the hands of the monarch. The leadership of the army, the navy, the conduct of foreign policy were those areas that were within the competence of the king and the government, whose members were exclusively subordinate to him.

The emperor reserved the right to cancel or suspend certain laws adopted by members of the State Duma. Also, the tsar could dissolve the Duma ahead of schedule, without waiting for the expiration of its term.

I State Duma

At the end of April 1906, the first State Duma began to function in the Russian Empire, which consisted of 499 deputies. Most of the newly elected deputies belonged to the peasantry and the intelligentsia. Members of the State Duma immediately divided into factions, one of the largest was the Cadet faction, which consisted of more than 180 deputies.

About 100 deputies declared themselves non-partisan and did not join any existing parliamentary faction. Representatives of right-wing political forces did not get into parliament, as they boycotted the elections. On April 27, 1906, Nicholas II solemnly opened the work of the new Duma.

Initially, during the course of political reforms regarding elections, the government pursued the desire to provide the peasantry with a number of political rights and freedoms in order to somewhat calm popular unrest. However, in fact, the peasantry did not need the ability to manage the state, it still demanded land.

It was for this purpose that the peasants came to the Duma in order to take away the land allotments from the landlords on their own. From the first day of the work of the State Duma, consideration of various bills began, in particular, the “draft 33”.

The deputies initiated the abolition of private property in the state, declaring the land and subsoil wealth to be the common property of the people. This position was not accepted by the tsar, who was forced on July 8, 1906 to dissolve the State Duma in order to avoid a possible blow to the autocracy.

The situation was repeated in the work of the II State Duma, which lasted from February 20 to June 3, 1907. and was also dissolved by Nicholas II. A new electoral law was issued, which provided the landowners and representatives of the bourgeoisie with advantages in the new composition of the Duma. This step of the emperor can be described as a coup d'état or the third of June monarchy and is considered the end of the revolution. For members of the government, this was additional time to transform the economic system of the state and prevent such large-scale unrest of the people in the future.

The revolution remained unfinished, its tasks were partially solved, although an important step was taken towards the transformation of the Russian Empire into a constitutional monarchy, the establishment of legislative representation, moderate civil and political freedoms, the emergence of legal parties and trade unions.

4. Revolutionary events in the Donbass. Armed uprising in Gorlovka.

The mass revolutionary movement in January 1905 was initiated by a strike by metallurgists from the Novorossiysk Society plant in Yuzovka. It was they who on January 17 were the first to actively join the revolutionary movement.

On January 22, the Petrovsky plant in Yenakiyevo froze. The strike involved more than 4,000 people. Soon it was picked up by the workers of the Verovsky and Sofiysky mines. In January-March, strikes also took place at the metallurgical and metal-working plants of Makeevka, Mariupol, Gorlovka, Debaltseve, Druzhkovka, Khartsyzsk, Kramatorsk, Konstantinovka. 91.4% of the total number of metalworkers took part in the strike movement, while only 53.6% of the miners took part.

The bulk of the strikes of this period were of an economic nature. In less than half of the cases, the miners made partial concessions to the workers.

The second strike wave of workers began on the eve of the May 1 holiday and lasted more than three months.

The All-Russian political strike that began on October 6 engulfed the Yekaterininsky and Kursk-Kharkovo-Sevastopol railways, which have a dense network of tracks in the Donets basin. The movement of trains stopped, communication did not work. The strike was joined by workers of the Khartsyzsk machine-building, Makeevka metallurgical plants and Bakhmut salt works, miners of Rutchenkovo, Lidievka, Makeevka.

In October - December, Soviets of Workers' Deputies arose in Enakievo, Mariupol, Yuzovka, at railway stations - administrative committees that performed the functions of Soviets, and at a number of factories and mines - strike committees. These bodies implicitly introduced an 8-hour working day at enterprises, set prices for products in mine and factory shops, and organized the protection of the population from rioters and hooligans. Elections in them were made on the basis of direct open voting of all participants, there were representatives of the main revolutionary parties.

Armed uprising in Gorlovka

pockets of armed struggle in December 1905 became railway stations and adjacent workers' settlements with metallurgical and machine-building plants. At the stations of Yasinovataya, Avdeevka, Yenakiyevo, Debaltsevo, Grishino and others, administrative committees were created to direct the strike struggle, and combat squads opposed the tsarist troops.

The culmination of the speeches was the armed uprising of the workers of Donbass, Gorlovka became the center of events, where on December 16 the police and troops opened fire on the striking workers of the machine-building plant. 18 people were killed and 50 wounded. This massacre caused an explosion of indignation among the workers. The Gorlovsky administrative committee addressed the workers of neighboring mines and stations with a telegram: "...We demand immediate help..." ), Khartsyzsk (two), Yasinovataya (one), Avdeevka and Grishino (one). In total, about 4 thousand people gathered, most of them were armed with home-made edged weapons. From the representatives of the Gorlovsky strike committee and the arrived leaders of the fighting squads, the headquarters of the uprising was organized, which formed three detachments and appointed their commanders - the Bolshevik A.S. Grechnev, foreman P.A. Gurtovoy and the teacher of the Grishinsky railway school, the Socialist-Revolutionary P.S. Deinega. On the morning of December 17, having taken advantageous positions, the combatants began shelling the troops, forcing them to retreat to the steppe.

The rebels refused to pursue. As a result, the troops united with a detachment of Cossacks, returned to Gorlovka and, despite the stubborn resistance of the combatants, occupied the station and the workers' settlement. The result of the six-hour battle was the loss of about 300 warriors. Only with the help of significant reinforcements did the military command manage to cope with the workers. On December 20-24, 1905, the troops occupied all the junction stations of the Catherine and Kursk-Kharkov-Sevastopol railways. Martial law was declared in Bakhmut, Mariupol and Slavyanoserbsky districts, and a state of emergency protection was introduced on the Catherine's railway, and strikes were strictly prohibited.

The government sent punitive expeditions to the areas of armed clashes. There were mass arrests and layoffs. All 58 prisons of Yekaterinoslav province were overcrowded. At the end of 1908, 131 participants in the armed uprising were tried in Yekaterinoslav. According to the verdict of the military district court, on the night of September 4, 1909, eight organizers of this uprising were hanged in Yekaterinoslav: A.I. Kuznetsov-Zubarev, G.V. Tkachenko-Petrenko, V.I. Vashchaev, A.F. Shcherbakov, V.P. Grigorashchenko, P.L. Babich, V.V. Shmuilovich and I.D. Mitusov. The remaining participants in the uprising were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, hard labor, exile.

The significance of the armed uprising was that, despite the defeat, it marked the beginning of the development and consolidation of the traditions of the workers in their struggle for social justice.

5. The decline of the revolution in the Donetsk region

Despite the decline of the revolutionary wave, the revolutionary actions of the workers continued in 1906-1907. May 1906 marked the beginning of a new upsurge in the strike movement. During this period, at the enterprises located along the railway from Nikitovka to Kramatorsk, mass rallies were held almost daily, often turning into demonstrations. The workers of the soda, ceramic and salt works of Slavyansk were on strike.

In the summer of 1906 the workers of the Yuzovsky, Makeevsky, Konstantinovo-Druzhkovsky and Gorlovsko-Nikitovsky mining regions, Kramatorsk, Slavyansk, Yenakievo were engulfed in strikes. There were repeated armed clashes between workers and the police and troops.

1906 was the period of the emergence of trade unions. They were created at the Lidievsky, Karpovsky, Makeevsky, Rykovsky, Sofievsky mines, as well as at the Donetsk-Yurievsky, Druzhkovsky and Petrovsky plants. Six trade unions were registered in Mariupol. The trade unions acted in defense of the economic and legal interests of the workers.

On December 10, 1906, the first conference of trade unions of the Donets Basin took place in Druzhkovka. The conference elected the central bureau of trade unions of Donbass.

In the first half of 1907 the labor movement developed unevenly. The most active participants in the struggle were the miners - 71.6% of the total number of strikes fell on their share, among the metalworkers - 14.9%. There were 22 strikes in Bakhmut district, and 1 in Mariupol.

May Day became the pinnacle of the strike struggle in 1907. All May Day strikes were political, no economic demands were put forward. The workers went on strike for one day, in an organized manner and in entire industrial districts. In the Bakhmut district, two districts Yuzovsky and the city of Bakhmut (with five salt mines) stood out, in the Taganrog district - Makeevsky.

The peasants did not stop fighting for land either. In the spring of 1907 they came out not only against the landowners, but also against the miners. So, in early April 1907, the peasants of Bolgarovka, Slavyansk volost, began to divide and plow the land belonging to the South Russian Society. The Izyum police officer with a detachment of mounted guards went out to "pacify" them.

Very interesting material from 1936 about the uprising of workers in the Donbass in 1905, with battles for Gorlovka, Debaltseve, Yasinovataya, Avdeevka and other places well known from recent events.

The rebellious Donbass of 1905

From destroying taverns and shops, the workers are moving on to more organized methods of struggle. In the mines of Donbass, as early as 1898, the first social-democratic leaflet "A Letter to the Miners" appeared. In the Shcherbinovsky and Nelepovsky mines, since 1901, the first revolutionary circles appeared, in which G. I. Petrovsky worked. Two years later Comrade Artyom organizes social democratic cells at the Berestovsky and Bogodukhovsky mines, in Yuzovka. Small groups of Social Democratic workers, 5 to 10 each, are also organized at other mines. It was to these years that the emergence and rapid flourishing of the Social Democratic Union of Mining Workers, which in 1903 alone managed to distribute tens of thousands of revolutionary leaflets among miners and metalworkers, belong. The leaders of the movement are the most advanced sections of the Donetsk workers: metalworkers, workers of the metallurgical and machine-building plants of Donbass, and workers of the railway workshops of the Catherine's railway.
It is here that the first party Bolshevik organizations of Donbass arise. Bolshevik groups were in Lugansk, Grishin, Enakievo, Popasnaya. In the course of 1904, for the most part, they carried out extensive agitational and organizational work.
The proletarian Ekaterinoslav had a huge influence on the nature and scope of the movement in the Donbass. (now Dnepropetrovsk) with its huge metallurgical plants and the oldest and largest Bolshevik organization.
Even before 1905, she organized a number of revolutionary mass actions of workers, strikes, demonstrations, rallies, sometimes accompanied by real battles with detachments of gendarmes and regular troops.

In response to "Bloody Sunday," a wave of strikes, demonstrations, and rallies swept across the Donbass, attracting even the most backward layers of miners.
The workers of Donbass unanimously responded to the call for the first general political strike in October 1905.
Already on October 7, as soon as the telegram of the Yekaterinoslav strike committee, which had been sent all over the line, was received, a railroad strike began in the Donbass. On the same day, the Yasinovataya, Grishino, and Yuzovo stations went on strike, and traffic along the Ekaterininskaya road came to a halt.
The first general political railway strike in the Donbass lasted two weeks; here she was even more stubborn than in the center. The mass movement gushed over the heads of the Socialist-Revolutionary Menshevik leaders from the All-Russian Railway Bureau. Despite the order given by them - on October 18 to stop the strike - on the Ekaterininsky road, this main highway of Donbass, the strike continued until October 20, and partly until October 23-24, until the administration satisfied the demands of the workers.
Although this first all-Russian railway strike was formally led by the semi-bourgeois Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik All-Russian Railway Bureau, on the ground, in Yekaterinoslav and Donbass, the strike was led by Bolshevik committees, which, during the strike, were able to secretly carry out such revolutionary measures as the introduction of an 8-hour working day in many railway workshops, depots and other enterprises.

The workers of Donbass are increasingly taking the path of the most acute political struggle, preparing for an armed uprising as the only way that can radically change their situation.
In contrast to the Mensheviks, who view the political strike mainly as a means of putting pressure on the existing authorities and their bodies, the Bolshevik organizations of Donbass were able to lead the workers on the path of immediate preparation for an armed uprising.
From the south, from revolutionary Sevastopol, news of a new uprising of revolutionary Black Sea sailors further accelerated the process of preparing for an armed uprising.
In November, at the congress of workers of the Catherine's railway (about 700 people attended), convened to hear the report of the delegates to the congress of the All-Russian Railway Union, representatives of the Bolsheviks made a special report - on the revolutionary events in Sevastopol, on the heroic battles of the sailors with the autocracy. This message had a revolutionary effect on the audience. As a result, a decision was made: “To recognize the participation of railway workers in the transportation of troops for the intended purpose (i.e., suppression of an uprising. - M.K.) is tantamount to participation in the murder, and the railway employees, participating in it in one way or another, are accomplices in these crimes deserving the most severe public condemnation.

The delegates of this congress went to the stations of Donbass with instructions to local organizations - to take all measures to prevent the transport of troops to suppress the revolutionary movement. The congress delegates carried Bolshevik slogans and Bolshevik exercises to their places, and this circumstance even more accelerated the course of events brewing in the Donbass.
The workers stopped passing military trains and demanded that the soldiers hand over their weapons. The soldiers, mostly returning from the Manchurian front, having endured from there a deep hatred for the tsarist system, unquestioningly handed over their weapons to the workers. In this way, the workers acquired the first rifles.
Back in November, under the influence of disturbing rumors about a pogrom being prepared by the Black Hundreds, in Grishin, where there was the strongest Bolshevik organization in the Donbass, the first detachment of workers' self-defense was created. Grishino becomes the de facto center for the preparation of an armed uprising throughout the Donbass.
The leaders of the Bolshevik committees all the time, at the request of the workers of various towns and stations, go out to speak at meetings and to lead the revolutionary movement of the workers.
In December 1905, the miners of Gorlovka, Sofievsky and Verovsky mines, which were then the most active and advanced in the Donbass, marched in step with the metalworkers and railway workers. Here they openly prepare for an armed uprising, collect weapons, and at the Verovsky mines, workers seize 150 pounds of steel from the owners for making pikes, which are armed with workers' squads.

In the course of the general strike in the Donbass, the first soviets of workers' deputies are organized. They are being created in Lugansk, Yuzovka, Yenakievo, at the Voznesensky mines, etc. The influence and power of these first mine soviets of workers' deputies in the Donbass were so great that even before the armed uprising and the military seizure of power by workers in individual mines, tsarist power actually ceased to exist. Here, for example, is what the semi-liberal newspaper Vestnik Yuga wrote in November 1905:
“At the Petrovsky mines (Station Yenakiyevo) and its district, at the Verovsky and Sofievsky mines, order is exemplary and is maintained by the workers themselves. Workers come to their elected deputies not only for advice on purely working issues, but even resort to court in family troubles. More Not so long ago, the name "Social Democrat" frightened the workers, but now every worker wants to call himself this honorary name. The district council of the local Social Democratic organization was to meet the other day, the workers came in masses...
Solidarity here is complete. When 6 deputies were fired at the Sofievsky mine, all the workers went on strike and the delegates were received again...
All the mines and factories of this region have elected their deputies, and now there is a council of workers' deputies here.

In a few months of the revolution, the class self-consciousness of the Donetsk workers stepped as far forward as a decade of ordinary life could not have done: “... look,” wrote Ilyich in 1905, “how quickly yesterday’s slave straightens up, how the flame of freedom sparkles even in half-extinguished eyes."
The arming of the workers takes place openly, before the eyes of the authorities. Powerless to prevent and prevent this, the authorities decide to use the weapons of the workers in the service of the counter-revolution and the Black Hundred. A tried-and-tested provocative method is used: agitators of the Black Hundreds travel around the mines, urging them to "beat the Jews", revolutionaries, etc. In some places, among the declassed elements and tramps, this agitation was successful. However, pogroms are quickly prevented by organized workers' self-defense detachments. The workers now know "whom to beat": the Bolshevik organizations have succeeded in opening their eyes to reality.

A new, even more powerful impetus was given to the militant movement of the Donetsk workers by the announcement of the December general political strike. On December 7, in Yekaterinoslav, a telegram was received from the center announcing a general political strike. And immediately, by telegraph, a telegram was sent to all the stations and settlements of the Donbass, along the Ekaterininsky road, with the following content: "Today, from 10 o'clock in the morning, a general strike of all roads and workers has been declared. Comrades."
To lead the general strike in Yekaterinoslav on December 8, a militant strike committee was created, in which the Yekaterinoslav Bolsheviks played a decisive role.

The Combat Strike Committee played a huge role in preparing an armed uprising not only in Yekaterinoslav itself, but throughout the entire Donets Basin: it issued its bulletins and orders daily, which were carried out by all organizations. The Combat Strike Committee instructed representatives of the grass-roots workers' organizations of the Donbass, sent out a huge amount of literature to the localities, and directed the largest demonstrations of the workers. In order to prevent the transportation of troops to suppress the revolution, the combat strike committee issued an order on December 8 to stop movement along the Catherine's railway. The order was firmly implemented by all local committees in the Donbass. An exception was made only for delegate trains and those military echelons in which demobilized soldiers were returning from the Manchurian front. Representatives of the committee met the soldiers and set the condition for their further advancement by rail to the indispensable surrender of weapons. The soldiers responded to these ultimatum demands of the workers' power with unquestioning obedience. In this way, the workers at their disposal received weapons. Work detachments are organized at the stations, which at first bear the name of "self-defense detachments", at first pursuing the goal of preventing Black Hundred pogroms, but in the next few days they become fighting proletarian squads.
At all stations, the power of the old railway administration was eliminated, its orders were not carried out by anyone. Catherine's road thus passed into the hands of the workers. By resolutions of the combat strike committee, the head of the road and the heads of individual services were removed from their posts. In their places were nominated elected from the workers.

The following telegram from police chief Mashevsky to the Governor of Yekaterinoslav shows how broad and friendly the militant revolutionary activity of the insurgent Donetsk workers assumed:
"I report to Your Excellency the workers of the Yuryevsky plant, the employees of the Alchevsk Debaltsevo station, formed an armed police and a strike committee chaired by engineer Kharchenko, supporting the anti-government strike, all passing by cheap trains, individual soldiers, police officers are being disarmed."
Then, on December 14, the police officer from Bakhmut telegraphed that “all junction stations, cash desks, traffic were seized by the committee and they are trying to take money from post offices, state-owned wine shops. , the issuance of confiscated weapons, the telephone in Grishin is in the hands of the committee. Almost all factories cease their activities, workers everywhere are arming. Stations Nikitovka, Gorlovka are guarded by companies, the bailiff Avdeevka is expected to be defeated, agrarian riots have begun in Bantysh's economy ... ".

The armed uprising grew by leaps and bounds, literally by the hour. As early as December 8, the workers of Grishin, Avdeevka, Yasinovataya, Debaltsevo, Gorlovka and other settlements and stations went on strike. On the same day, working fighting squads are organized, attacks on the police and troops begin, and weapons are taken from them. "The Debaltsevo police have been disarmed and dispersed" - such telegrams followed not only that Debaltsevo, but also from dozens of other points. All power is seized by the workers. Where the Bolshevik organizations were still weak, comrades from the stronger party committees, Grishin and Yenakiyev, were called in to help, from where the fiery and courageous Bolshevik worker comrade often came. Tkachenko-Petrenko, hanged in 1908 for participating in the uprising. So it was, for example, in Nikitovka, where the workers, having decided to start a strike, first contacted the Gorlovka Bolshevik Committee, and on December 13 Gorlovka Bolsheviks arrived in Nikitovka to help. The Bolsheviks from Gorlovka provided the same assistance to the workers in Debaltseve. There was also a strong connection between the Nikitovsky workers and peasants. The rallies on December 9 and 10 dedicated to the general strike were invited and attended by the peasants of the surrounding villages.

In the days of December 8-14, the workers actively create militant workers' squads. Organized in October and November, as we wrote above, to combat pogroms, in December the detachments of workers' self-defense turn into fighting workers' squads, intensively stocking up on weapons. The squads grew every day: they arose in Grishin, in Avdeevka, Yenakievo, Yuzovka, Debaltsevo, Yasinovataya, Druzhkovka, Verovka, etc., hundreds of workers joined them. In connection with the growth of the detachments, despite the fact that the weapons necessary for the detachments were taken by the workers from the soldiers and the police, they were still not enough. For weapons, the Grishins sent a representative of the workers to Rostov, who brought a box of revolvers for the first time. More than once, Donetsk warriors sent their comrades for weapons to other cities.

Weapons were obtained by all means. For example, the Debaltsevo squad was entirely armed with weapons taken from the gendarmes and police.
From the very beginning, a close relationship was established between the working combat squads of various settlements: they actively helped each other and shared the captured weapons. The seizure of weapons belonging to the authorities assumed more and more wide scope. So, the workers of Avdiivka managed to seize a whole carload of cartridges and dynamite, and the Avdiivka comradely shared with the vigilantes of other stations.
Many explosives were seized for the upcoming battles by the workers of Debaltsev. "During the uprising, 146 pounds of dynamite and 8 pounds of gunpowder were plundered at the Debaltsevo station. Checkers and revolvers were taken from all Debaltsevo gendarmes. They tried to arrest and disarm me," Lieutenant Colonel Pakhalovich reported.

Finally, the workers even got ... artillery. Back in 1896, for firing on parade days, by order of the authorities, a home-made cannon was made from wagon axles in the railway workshops in Grishin. In the December days, the working squad in Grishin adapted this cannon for fighting with the troops. In the absence of shells, the workers fired lead from this cannon. In addition, dozens of bombs, gunpowder, dynamite, etc. were seized by the workers.
To provide themselves with the means for the uprising, the workers seized the station cash desks. As police officer Fedorenko telegraphed, "Debaltseve station employees detained the artel worker with 20,000 rubles, forced the money to be returned to the station cash desk in order to spend their needs during a further strike. Guards were assigned to the cash desk" (from the workers. - M.K.).
Thus was the preparation of the Donetsk workers for an armed uprising and for a grand offensive against the tsarist troops, which broke out in mid-December 1905.

By the beginning of the uprising, the workers’ fighting squads completely ousted and expelled the police, gendarmerie and authorities, not only along the Ekaterininsky road, which was captured even earlier, but also in many villages and stations, becoming the undivided masters of the situation in them. A brief telegram from police chief Fedorenko quite clearly depicts the situation in a number of districts by mid-December:
"Debaltseve, Yasinovataya, Avdeevka, Grishino, combat squads settled down, which were joined by the peasants of neighboring villages. The troops could not unite in any way to take the squads. The telephone was cut off. Many police officers were disarmed."
The first battle of the workers' squads with the tsarist troops took place in Yasinovataya. It was provoked by the military authorities themselves, who decided to start the defeat of the combat squads from this station, as the weakest and least prepared.

The Yasinovatsky workers were indeed armed and organized worse than others. The local workers had almost no weapons, and the commander of the 12th company of the Balaklava regiment stationed here, staff captain Karamyshev, decided to take advantage of this. On the morning of December 13, having gathered the workers, he announced to them that the station and the entire region were henceforth under increased security and that they were "forbidden" to "any gatherings." A huge crowd of excited workers gathered around him. ordered the soldiers to disperse her with rifle butts.

An hour later, the strike committee and the fighting squad of Yasinovataya sent a telegram to the nearest squads with a call for help. (The armed work squads of neighboring stations responded with lightning speed. And on the same day, combat squads from Grishin and Avdiivka, headed by Comrade Deinega, arrived in Yasinovataya in special trains. Commander Karamyshev. The officer brazenly ordered the soldiers to open fire on the workers, for which he was immediately shot by combatants. The soldiers, in the majority, went over to the side of the workers, giving them their 54 rifles.

This was the first and, moreover, a really major military victory for the workers' squads. It unusually raised the morale of the workers, strengthened the organization and the influx of workers into the fighting squads. The vigilantes returned to Grishino in triumph and were solemnly greeted by all the working people as heroes.

The first military victory of the workers' squads inspired them to further attack the tsarist troops. In Avdiivka, on December 14, after friendship, the elite units of the tsarist army galloped away from Avdiivka in disgrace.

Fighting squads from the first day began violently. The Bakhmut police officer after the battle in Yasinovataya in a panic telegram to the governor demanded that troops be sent from the Don region: "I ask you to withdraw 5 companies of the Don region, the situation of the county is the most critical."

And reinforced Cossack and dragoon units were moved to Yasinovataya and Grishino. In response, the Grishins began to erect barricades. In the shortest possible time, literally in a few hours, wire fences and embankments appeared. They were made not only by workers, but by all residents of the village of Grishina. The strike committee developed a plan of fighting with the Cossacks in order to prevent the armed force from occupying the station.

Meanwhile, the authorities were preparing a blow to another revolutionary point in the Donbass - Gorlovka. Here the situation was especially dangerous for the government. A Bolshevik organization was working in Gorlovka, to which Comrade was sent from Enakievo by the Bolshevik organization there. Tkachenko-Petrenko. Thanks to the work of the Bolshevik organization in Gorlovka, to a greater extent than in other places, it was possible to unite the forces of workers - both metalworkers and railway workers, and miners. There was a political strike, they declared it jointly, they also prepared for battles together.

This was well known to the authorities who sent the largest number of troops here.

But despite the strong workers' organization in Gorlovka, a large workers' district, power continued to remain almost entirely in the hands of the old administration. For the same reason, there were not enough armed workers' squads here. Even before the start of the strike, a team of 100 dragoons was stationed in Gorlovka, and with the start of the strike, another company of infantry was sent here. The police are looking for an opportunity to decapitate the workers' movement by arresting their leaders. For one of them, Kuznetsov, a real police hunt is organized. The workers guard him all the time from police raids by a specially assigned detachment, and wherever Kuznetsov goes, he is constantly guarded by 15 to 20 armed guards.
At the same time as all the workers, the metalworkers of the Gorlovsky Machine-Building Plant also went on strike. And when, on their behalf, Kuznetsov went to make demands on the director of the plant, Loest, the police ambushed him. Kuznetsov with a group of workers is negotiating with. Loest; the latter, contrary to the tactics of "concessions" of other masters, was adamant. Then the workers announced to him that he was under arrest and stood guard at his door. But Loest had already warned the police in advance. The building is instantly cordoned off by the police, the courtyard is occupied by Cossacks and dragoons. In this situation, Kuznetsov, together with the delegation, went out to the striking workers who had gathered at the gates of the factory. The dragoons stop the workers who are trying to break into the factory yard, and the bailiff Nemirovsky offers them to extradite Kuznetsov, tries to break into the crowd, in which, surrounded and protected by a human wall, is Kuznetsov. But the bailiff is immediately thrown back by the workers.

Then the execution of workers by dragoons begins. Kuznetsov is wounded in the hand and, under the cover of a loyal worker's guard, manages to leave the factory. The police nevertheless found Kuznetsov bleeding in the hospital, where his comrades had brought him. Almost before the eyes of the police, Kuznetsov's hand was taken away, after which he was immediately arrested and taken to prison.
After the execution of the workers and the arrest of the leader, fury and anger seized the working masses. It was unanimously decided to give battle to the troops, the police and to expel the troops from the Donbass. But Gorlovka is still poorly armed. And that same evening, like the Yasinovatists, the workers of Gorlovka sent a call from the Gorlovka strike committee by telegraph along the entire line.
Each village, each station received the following telegram: "Combat squad. We are all without weapons, we demand immediate help from all sides. Committee."
All the workers' committees and fighting squads responded decisively to the appeal of the Gorlovtsy. In Enakievo, Grishin, Yuzov, Avdeevka, Verovka, Druzhkovka, and in dozens of other places, combat squads hastily loaded into specially formed trains. Where there was not yet a combat squad, the workers hastily armed themselves with anything: iron rods, sticks, axes, knives, daggers - and also boarded the trains. Echelons of vigilantes passed station after station, and at each station more and more detachments and groups of armed workers landed.

In total, three trains were sent to Gorlovka, chock-full of variously armed workers. Two trains arrived, the third got stuck on the way. It was a train with armed workers from that same Verovsko mine, the combat work of which we spoke about above. As soon as they received a telegram, they went to Yenakiyevo, and from there - by train to Gorlovka, but the path turned out to be already taken apart by the Cossacks. But the Druzhkovka miners managed to slip through and bring with them a whole carload of various weapons, which were immediately distributed to the workers.

With revolutionary songs and red flags, combatants raced in trains to Gorlovka to help their comrades. Two trains, crowded with vigilante workers from all over the Donbass, arrived on the night of December 17 in Gorlovka.
This was the first All-Donetsk "gathering" of fighting squads, but the "gathering" was not for conferences, but for a battle with the hated autocracy. Many arrived unarmed, but they were rescued by the Druzhkovites, and besides, on the same night, representatives sent a second time for weapons returned from Taganrog, who also brought rifles and revolvers. All these weapons were immediately distributed to the assembled warriors. In one of the station rooms, an operational meeting of the commanders of the gathered squads took place. The plan of attack on the barracks of the troops stationed in Gorlovka was discussed. The squads were divided into separate detachments, detachment commanders, general command, communications, etc. were allocated. They tried to foresee every little thing.
By 8 o'clock in the morning on December 17, the squads completed the grouping and alignment of their forces. It is difficult to establish exactly how many warriors arrived in Gorlovka and whether the Group of arrested participants took part in the uprising in Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye) in 1905, in the famous attack on the tsarist troops. According to official police reports, up to 4,000 vigilante workers attacked the troops - this was a whole army, the first revolutionary workers' army. But of these, only about 300 people were armed with rifles and hunting rifles, and a small part of the combatants had revolvers, while the rest had the so-called "cold weapons", which meant not so much sabers and daggers as home-made pikes, iron rods, axes, knives etc.

Immediately after the end of the operational meeting of the commanders of combat squads, at 8 o'clock in the morning, three detachments went on the offensive against the barracks. One of them, best supplied with rifles, guns and revolvers, occupied the minefield structures, overpasses and rock heaps. The other two detachments were deployed in the courtyards, opposite the barracks, behind the fences, and were the first to open fire, concentrating the enemy's attention and fire on themselves in order to enable the first, most heavily armed detachment to attack the troops.
The commander of the Gorlovsky garrison, Captain Ugrinovich, had already been warned by someone. The troops met the combatants also in full combat readiness. They occupied all the windows and exits.
It was a frosty December morning. The weather was clearly unfavorable for the workers: there was frequent light snow, which soon turned into a blizzard. When the combatants opened fire on the windows of the barracks, it was still dark. From three sides, they stubbornly fired at the troops who had taken refuge there, who fired back through the windows and fences of the barracks.

The battle lasted about two hours, after which the troops retreated, unable to withstand the fire of the fighting squads. Their imperceptible departure from the barracks was facilitated by a blizzard. The troops hastily left Gorlovka and fled to Yenakiyevo. When the workers noticed the flight of the dragoons and soldiers, it was already too late, they rushed to pursue the retreating, but because of the snowstorm they could not see anything.
A new victory, moreover, a huge one, incomparably greater than it was in Yasinovataya and Avdiivka, was won by the worker combatants. True, this victory was very short-lived: the forces of the workers, even with such a huge number of vigilantes, were still too insufficient and poorly armed.
The retreating troops united with a hundred Cossacks coming from Enakievo, who had been called earlier to help the military authorities. Dismounting, the Cossacks went around through the Ksenievka farm to the Gorlovka station, in the building of which, under the command of Deinega, at that time there were about 300 - 400 warriors from among the most poorly armed (the most armed detachments went on the offensive against the barracks). Part of the detachments still continued shelling the barracks, in which a group of soldiers with the bailiff Nemirovsky at the head remained who did not have time to retreat, others advanced far into the steppe, pursuing the retreating troops. Because of the blizzard and the great dispersion of the workers' squads, they could no longer unite again. The most armed detachments could not unite with the Cossacks who remained at the station for a joint rebuff, they could not even help their comrades who were in the station building.

In the meantime, the Cossacks and the returning dragoons and soldiers, having surrounded the station, opened the fiercest fire on the warriors who had settled there.
Now the warriors were locked up, and the Cossacks and soldiers besieged them. But while the soldiers "besieged in the barracks were well armed, the combatants locked up by them did not even have this. The combatants fearlessly defended themselves, but soon the commander of the Deynega detachment was seriously wounded and died of a hemorrhage. The Cossacks came close to the walls of the station.
The workers from the detachments besieging the barracks, hearing the shots, rushed to the station to help their besieged comrades, but they could not help, because because of the snowstorm they fired mostly at random. Because of the snowstorm, the vigilantes of another detachment, who were in the field, could not approach the station in any way. Thus, the workers were isolated from each other. The lack of military experience and knowledge ruined them. Noticing the confusion among the combatants who had settled at the station, Captain Ugrinovich suggested that they surrender on "special conditions": lay down their arms and go through the line of soldiers. The guards refused. They also rejected more "soft" terms of surrender. Then Captain Ugrinovich began to threaten with the total execution of all combatants. In response to the threats, the combatants decided, with weapons in their hands, to break through to the train that was standing not far from the mines, completely ready for departure.
The sortie of the combatants was so unexpected that the troops could not prevent them from boarding the train. Under the bullets of the Cossacks, jumping into the cars on the move, the combatants left Gorlovka.
At five o'clock in the evening Gorlovka surrendered. About 300 vigilante workers were killed in these heroic battles, about the same number were taken prisoner. The remaining combatants managed to leave Gorlovka and go home.
Despite the "victory", the troops hurried to leave Gorlovka as soon as possible, where, in their words, "every stone shoots": they feared a new attack.
The defeat of the workers in the Battle of Gorlovka decided the fate of the entire uprising in the Donbass. The combatants returned home, partly in trains, partly on foot, and most of them were already without weapons. Grishinsky and Avdeevites, who returned home in an organized manner, with weapons in their hands, hid him in safe places until the "next battle" with the tsarist-capitalist system.
Until December 21, the Gorlovka station was still in the hands of the workers. The troops did not shoal back to Gorlovka. And only after making sure that the uprising was over, that Gorlovka was deserted, an influx of troops and punitive detachments began to enter it and other areas of the Donbass, carrying out bloody trials and reprisals against the temporarily defeated workers.

Three years later, in December 1908, the participants in the uprising and the seizure of the Catherine's railway were tried. A grandiose process took place, the peculiarity of which was that almost all the participants in the uprising, who were free during these years, were, at the insistence of Stolypin, arrested and put on trial. People began to be arrested wherever they could, they were taken straight from work to prison. 179 people were judged at once. The verdict then shocked all of Russia: 32 people were sentenced to death, 12 to indefinite, life hard labor, about 50 people were also sentenced to hard labor for various terms.
Unforgettable are those lofty examples of proletarian heroism shown by the advanced workers, participants in the Gorlovka battle. Eight of the Donbass proletarian revolutionaries sentenced to hanging, led by the Bolshevik Tkachenko-Petrenko, refused to sign a request to the tsar for pardon. For more than a month, the authorities delayed the execution of the sentence, seeking "repentance" of the convicts. “We are 28 people (including 8 suicide bombers. - M.K.) did not join the undertaking (to sign a request to the tsar. - M.K.) and remained in our opinion ... We prefer to be tortured or be shot, than to become traitors and traitors to our workers' cause. Oh no! Our enemies will not wait for this," Tkachenko wrote in his suicide letter.
Thus ended the uprising of the Donetsk workers. Although it took place in a more organized and amicable way than the uprisings in other areas of Russia, nevertheless, it suffered the same fate. Isolated from other centers of the uprising, weakly connected with the peasant movement, poorly armed, the workers' army could not win the battle. But in the lessons of the uprising in the Donbass, as well as other uprisings of 1905-1907, the revolution learned to win. And after 13 - 14 years, the Donetsk workers, under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party, showed in the civil war that they had learned not only to fight and attack, but also to win.

https://prometej.info/blog/istoriya/vosstavshij-donbass/ - full link

PS. It is quite natural that such a prehistory led to the fact that after the October Revolution, a workers' Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic arose in the Donbass, headed by Stalin's friend, comrade Artem. The DKR played a big role in the defeat of Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism in Ukraine and the preservation of Ukraine as part of Soviet Russia.
Therefore, the hatred of Ukrainian nationalists for the Donbass is historically conditioned not only by their recent defeats, but by the events of a century ago, when workers and miners, who started with local uprisings, created their own republic, which torpedoed the attempts of Ukrainian nationalists to create a full-fledged "Anti-Russia" on the territory of the former territories of the Russian Empire.