Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-03-18 | Page 4 | History of the Events Which Freed Russia

ram. of. the ! EVENTS WHICH FREEDJ11 Overseas News Agency Describes De-scribes Situation in Petrograd Pet-rograd Just Before Dynasty Dy-nasty Was Overthrown. BERLIN-, via Sayville wireless, March 17. Thft official Overseas News agency tofjay issued a lengthy review of the Russian Rus-sian situation as indicated by reports thus fax received here. A summary follows: fol-lows: News leaking across the Russian frontier fron-tier even now refers exclusively to the days prior to March 11. The time between be-tween that date and March 14, when the provisional . government . issued Its pro-nunclameoto, pro-nunclameoto, is still an absolute blank. The only indication about those fateful days is contained in the pronunciamento, which calls March 14 the "third day. of the revolution." The fierceness of the struggle, which in all probability must have raged during three days and nights in the streets of Petrograd, is, however, indirectly -confirmed by reports about happenings on the v of the revolution, when there prevailed pre-vailed in the Russian capital a -sultry, nervous atmosphere foreshadowing a typhoon. ty-phoon. One report states that Petrograd toward to-ward the end of the last week resembled a battlefield. The populace stormed the shops and were shot down by the military mili-tary like mad dogs. Giant posters urged the people to stay indoors, no one being able to assume responsibility for public aafety. Promised Self-government. Apparentlv the former authorities, who were swept out of office a few days later, tried one last expedient. They promised self-government to the city of Petrograd. Again, it is reported, they tried to influence in-fluence the populace by distributing victuals only to those who were considered consid-ered "safe" by the secret police. Then, on the evening of March 7, crowds gathered gath-ered in the neighborhood of a bread factory. fac-tory. Within a few minutes they numbered num-bered several thousand and continued to increase. It seemed as if people were growing out of the pavement- These throngs looted and destroyed a bread factory. fac-tory. " Violent gunfire from the windows of houses followed. Mounted dragoons called to the assistance of the cossacks refused to charge into the crowds. The latter voiced their appreciation for this by wild cheers. On March 8 the unions of the transportation and metal trades went on a strike. They were promptly joined by numerous other trades. On the night of March 11 no civilians were allowed in the streets. Gas and electric lights were shut off. Bivouac Fires in Streets. Huge bivouac fires, about which were huddled large throngs, gave a ghastly appearance ap-pearance to the lonely houses in the otherwise deserted streets. Wild rumors ware afloat about arrests and executions of popular leaders. This was the situation on the eve of the revolt. Details of what happened later are still lacking. About the last meetings of the duma prior to the fateful March 11, a dispatch from Stockholm gives the following details: de-tails: "On March S the duma applauded vio- lent speeches by the Socialist deputy Skobelew and the member of the labor party Kerenski. The publication of these speeches was prohibited by the censor. "The duma then, with 117 votes against 11 votes, accepted the order of the day moved by Kerenski. What was discussed Is not known, since a report regarding the debate also was suppressed. However, How-ever, it was significant that the Progressive Progres-sive block voted with the Socialists and other parties on the 'left.' "On March 9 the duma continued to arraign ar-raign the government with regard to the food problem. The speeches were suppressed sup-pressed hy the censor. I "Finally the duma almost unanimously accepted the motion pointing to the urgency and hopelessness of condition prevailing in the capital. Seveial members told about food riots, not only in Petrograd, Petro-grad, but in other cities of the empire. The government was asked to explain. On tiie date set for its reply, March 10, it tried to dissolve the duma. The answer an-swer of the parliament was the revolt."