Burevestnik (Petrograd, 1917)

Burevestnik
Type Daily
Founded November 1917
Political alignment Anarchist
Language Russian
Ceased publication May 1918
Headquarters Petrograd
Circulation ~25,000

Burevestnik (Russian: Буревестник, 'Petrel') was a newspaper published daily from Petrograd, Russia. Burevestnik was the organ of the Petrograd Federation of Anarchist Groups.[1] The newspaper was founded in November 1917 (seven months after the founding of the Petrograd Federation).[1] Burevestnik was primarily distributed in Vyborg district, Kronstadt, Kolpino and Obukhovo.[1] It had a readership of around 25,000.[1][2] This newspaper was one of several publications with the name Burevestnik, a name originating in Maxim Gorky's poem Song of the Stormy Petrel.[3]

Burevestnik was edited by Apollon Karelin, Bleikhman, Abba Gordin and V. L. Gordin.[4][5] Amongst the writers of Burevestnik there were two distinct tendencies; the moderate tendency of Karelin and the radical tendency of the Gordin brothers. The former represented the line of Peter Kropotkin, the latter group being adherents of Mikhail Bakunin.[6] As the capital of Russia was shifted from Petrograd to Moscow, the Moscow newspaper Anarkhiia replaced Burevestnik as the most important anarchist communist publication in the country.[7]

In the midst of the ongoing revolution, Burevestnik called for immediate expropriation of private property. It advocated that the homeless and the poor should appropriate homes themselves.[1] In an February 1918 article (which was cited in The New York Times), Burevestnik appealed to hall guards to stop protecting the rich and allow the poor to take control over the latter's residences and palaces.[8]

It pleaded to the Petrograd workers to reject the leadership of the Bolsheviks.[1] For example, in an April 1918 article it compared the Bolsheviks to the Black Hundreds.[9][10] The article, published on the front page, carried the title "We have come to the limit!". It denounced attacks on the anarchist movement.[10] However, the newspaper also rejected the parliamentary factions (Mensheviks, Cadets, SRs, etc.). The newspaper applauded the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly in January 1918.[1]

Burevestnik was closed down in May 1918.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Paul Avrich (2005). The Russian Anarchists. AK Press. pp. 173–174. ISBN 978-1-904859-48-2.
  2. Harold Joel Goldberg (1970). Anarchists in Petrograd, 1917. University of Wisconsin-Madison. p. 57.
  3. Margaret Ziolkowski (1 January 1998). Literary Exorcisms of Stalinism: Russian Writers and the Soviet Past. Camden House. p. 111. ISBN 978-1-57113-179-9.
  4. Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique. Mouton. 1996. p. 258.
  5. Rudolf Naef (2005). Russische Revolution und Bolschewismus 1917/18 in anarchistischer Sicht. Edition AV. p. 28. ISBN 978-3-936049-54-1.
  6. Avrich (2005), pp. 174-176.
  7. Avrich (2005), p. 179.
  8. Current History and Forum ... C-H Publishing Corporation. 1918. p. 72.
  9. Soma Marik (2008). Reinterrogating the Classical Marxist Discourses of Revolutionary Democracy. Aakar Books. p. 433. ISBN 978-81-89833-34-3.
  10. 1 2 Hoover Institution Publication. Hoover Institution, Stanford University. 1934. p. 584.
  11. Avrich (2005), p. 185.
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