Original report on the International Women’s Day demonstrations that began the 1917 Revolutions from the first issue of the Bolshevik’s “Pravda” to appear after the February revolution. Reprinted here on occasion of the tenth anniversary.

‘The Demonstrations on International Women’s Day’ (1917) from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 7 No. 17. March 3, 1927.

In the Streets of Petrograd between March 8th & 10th.

On February 23rd (March 8th), “International Women’s Day”, a strike was declared in the majority of the factories and works. The women were in a determined fighting mood; not only the women workers, but also the masses of women who had had to stand in the queues for bread and petroleum. They held meetings, they dominated the street, marched in the direction of the Duma building, and demanded bread, they held up the tramway traffic. “Come out, comrades!” was their energetic cry. They entered the workshops and factories and fetched out the workers. Altogether this “women’s day” was exemplary, and the revolutionary spirit began to rise from that day onwards.

The fighting mood of the people found expression in demonstrations, meetings, and collisions with the police.

In the King sugar factory the police attempted to intervene, but was received with a hail of stones and forced to retire. There were also collisions in other quarters of the town and the tramway traffic over the Samsoniewski Bridge was interrupted.

On the Petrograd side of the river perfect quiet reigned in the morning. There was no indication whatever of a strike. At three in the afternoon, however, the entire district woke up. Apparently the movement commenced on the Bolshoy Prospect in front of the Filippov bakery, which was wrecked by the women who had been standing in line before it for several hours. These women then proceeded to the “Pekar” bakery in the Kamennoostrovski street. When here again they were told that there was no bread available they grew excited. It was only the iron rails which prevented this bakery from also being demolished. The police refrained from interfering; they said: “We value our lives too much”. At the same time the factories stopped work and a crowd of workers marched through the Bolshaya-Dvoryanskaya street to the Troitzky bridge. The crank of the foremost tramcar was removed and the entire tramway traffic thus impeded.

From all parts of the town the workers flocked to the Nevski. About four o’clock the tramway traffic on the Insheffernoyo, Sadovaya, and Nevski avenues (The main thoroughfares of Leningrad. Ed.) was likewise suspended. A group of juvenile workers approached, removed the starting lever of the engine, and brought a whole series of cars to a standstill. The streets were full of police, on foot and mounted, and these drove a wedge into the crowd and struck at the people with their knouts. Along the Nevski Prospect, cossacks armed with lances paraded. It was only towards ten at night that all became quiet and the streets were deserted.

On the following day, February 24th (March 9th), the strike spread to yet more works. Many thousands collected on the Nevski. At the Liteini bridge, the masses approaching from the Vyborg side of the river, encountered a wall of cossacks, whose colonel brandished his drawn sword. A workman was wounded, and the colonel’s sword was wrenched from his hand and flung over the railing into the Neva. The cossacks said: “Press harder, and we shall let you pass.”

On Saturday, February 25th (March 10th), the remaining factories, the printing works, and the tramways joined the movement, and the strike became general. In tens of thousands, the crowd flocked towards midday to the Square in front of the Kasan cathedral and the streets surrounding it. The attempt was made to hold meetings and demonstrations, and in several instances collisions occurred between the crowd and the police. The crowd gradually grew. It included many resolute adult workers, who marched in serried ranks behind the red banner across the Nevski Prospect to the Snamenski square. The number of demonstrators amounted to tens of thousands. A meeting of several hours’ duration was interrupted by the intervention of the mounted police. A number of orators addressed the crowd in front of the Alexander monument. The police began to shoot, and one of the speakers fell wounded. Some were also killed. At this critical moment, something happened which aroused great enthusiasm among the crowd. The cossacks fired a volley at the mounted police, who retired in full gallop to the Gentcharnaya street. The commander of the police forces fell dead, his head split by a swordcut. The cossacks were greeted with loud cheers, the people acclaiming them with waving of caps and handkerchiefs. The crowd rejoiced. On all sides confidence grew that the soldiers would refrain from firing. When the soldiers took aim, some individuals ran forward with cheers towards their ranks and called upon them not to fire but to join the people. From the Snamenski square the crowd of demonstrators marched along the Nevski Prospect.

The ECCI published the magazine ‘Communist International’ edited by Zinoviev and Karl Radek from 1919 until 1926 irregularly in German, French, Russian, and English. Restarting in 1927 until 1934. Unlike, Inprecorr, CI contained long-form articles by the leading figures of the International as well as proceedings, statements, and notices of the Comintern. No complete run of Communist International is available in English. Both were largely published outside of Soviet territory, with Communist International printed in London, to facilitate distribution and both were major contributors to the Communist press in the U.S. Communist International and Inprecorr are an invaluable English-language source on the history of the Communist International and its sections.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1927/v07n17-mar-03-1927-inprecor-op.pdf