"Increase your salary! Reduced working hours! Restore fù weekly single rest! ”

In front of the stamping workshop of the Putilov factory, which crawled quietly like a giant beast, hundreds of workers let out a volcanic roar; There was no longer the usual tiredness and pain on their unkempt faces, but instead of the furious anger that had been released after a long period of repression. A tall man walked out of the team, who was the core leader of the trade union of this branch, Barbosa; Every time he took the lead in saying a word, the crowd around him shouted like a landslide and tsunami.

In the bleak and cold morning breeze, Kolev raised his arms like the surrounding workers to vent to the fullest, and the hoarse and majestic male voice spread out in this vertical and horizontal open world, showing even more desolation, sadness, anger and indignation. Thinking of the enslavement he was driven by in his daily life, thinking of the intense oppression he suffered between meager salaries and high prices, thinking of the high-ranking magnates and secret police who did whatever they wanted and pushed themselves to the brink of death, the powder keg in Kolev's heart, which had been buried for many years, finally exploded completely under the input of a spark.

Faced with this scene, the leader of the overseer couldn't help but tremble in his heart, the number of the other party was more than 20 times that of himself, once it became a determined and unified collective of action, these dozens of hooligans and idlers under his own hands were not enough to see! He pointed his halberd finger in his right hand, and said loudly and inwardly, "Barbossa! What do you want to do, encourage everyone to strike? Not to mention that the people of the Ministry of Security of the Capital will not tolerate your treason, which destroys the war, and does not pay for your work, what are you people going to live in St. Petersburg? Listen to my kind words and persuade me to re-enter the factory immediately. I can act as if today's events never happened; Otherwise, the people from the Ministry of Security will come. You don't even know how you died! ”

The tall man called Barbossa sneered. "We've had enough of being enslaved like cows and horses, and now we can't bear it anymore!" Do you ask these workers behind me if they are willing to stand up like a warrior and fight for their fate, or will they continue to be trampled in the face like a slave and told to work until you die? Hearing these words, Kolev's blood boiled, and he suddenly took the lead in shouting: "It is better to fight and die than to be a slave to cattle and horses!" The surrounding workers who were infected echoed loudly, and the sound of the explosion was several times louder than before.

"Well done. Little Kolev, you are such a brave fighter. In a crowd chanting slogans, Boris, who had a mustache, patted him on the shoulder, his eyes full of relief, "We have no choice, only to unite and fight is the only way out." If the evil feudal imperial class wants us to live, we don't have to be patient, so let's carry on the strike struggle to the end! ”

At the same time as the sky was boiling in front of the door of the stamping workshop, the workers of other branches of Putilov were also clamoring in groups; The new round of taxation orders undoubtedly greatly stimulated the toiling workers, who were already struggling with the starvation line, and a fierce conflict broke out between them and the overseers who ordered them to work. Whenever this time. Trade union leaders, like Barbossa, will always take the lead in mobilizing the revolt. And the feelings of the workers, which had been suppressed and brewed on weekdays, also became a torrent of noise and rush under the encouragement of their words.

In the office building of the Putilov factory, the officials sent by the government to control and supervise production were trembling with fright at the sound of angry roars coming from afar; The consequences of a new tax decree were far beyond what he had anticipated. If the disgruntled revolt was confined to a single group of workers, he would have dealt with it with ease: he would have to send in an overseer, take out a few thorns in the principals, deduct their wages, or expel them from the factory, and the rest of the people would inevitably return to work in the factory in fear of being an example. This time, however, the mood of the strike riot spread throughout the factory; As one of the top three large enterprises in St. Petersburg, Russia, the number of workers in the Putilov factory exceeds 30,000, which is by no means the number that these hooligans can handle!

But what could he do? It was simply impossible to comply with the demands of the workers for a raise or a reduction in wages, and without the nod of the Home Secretary, no one would dare to give these two-legged sheep this guarantee that was directly related to money. In view of the current material and financial constraints of the Imperial Government, there is no corresponding material basis for complying with the will of the workers. To put it bluntly, the current Russian government is counting on more flesh and blood from these workers to deal with the ever-expanding black hole created by the war, and it is obviously impossible to do the opposite. What's more, he himself got a piece of the pie! His only hope now is that the government will use force to quell the wave of strikes.

"The comrades of the Putilov plant have already taken action, and it is time for us to turn over all the pieces and cooperate." Upon learning that a large number of workers had left his factory in droves, Trotsky, who was in charge of the affairs of St. Petersburg, quickly began to make his own arrangements. Letters were sent to the Bolshevik-controlled trade unions, and the hot-blooded radical latent party members began to go down to the grassroots and call on the workers of the production line to strike and protest.

These workers were already overwhelmed by the cruel and arduous life and work, and their hearts were full of hatred and anger against reality and those in power; The Bolsheviks, who were often given help and taught with great earnestness, became a staunch supporter of the Red Revolution in which it was his duty to oppose the current government. Now, in the face of the invitation of these benefactors to join and the promise of a bright future, they are almost instantly embraced, and they are rushing to encourage their workers to fight for the betterment of their own lives. The Bolshevik Party made a contagious call for an eight-hour day and a social security system for workers, as in Germany; This is the temptation that the Russian workers, who currently work more than 14 hours a day in exchange for a small living salary, and who have to wait for death if they get sick or injured, cannot resist at all!

In just one day on January 30, nearly 80,000 workers across St. Petersburg went on strike, a number that even ordinary military and secret police could not touch. Seeing that the strike crowd had become so prestigious, a large number of workers, who had been still apprehensive of the Tsarist power, were persuaded by the Bolsheviks to abandon their work in droves, demanding that the authorities immediately and decisively change the miserable life in which they were present. The total number of strikers exceeded the 140,000 mark by noon the next day.

Countless people poured into the streets of St. Petersburg and began to carry out demonstrations throughout the city. In the face of the military and police's efforts to stop and separate, the Russian workers, who had been surging and condensing like a flood, began to break into pieces under the leadership of the Bolsheviks, and scattered like mercury to other streets and alleys to continue their operations, and they were always driven away. For the first time, the Bolsheviks, who led the campaign, unfurled slogans against the war in the crowd, constantly boosted the morale of the marchers, and distributed revolutionary leaflets to the citizens along the way, trying to expound their core program, which was very different from that of the current Romanov regime.

"Down with the war, against hunger, raise salaries, reduce working hours!"

In the café with the door closed, listening to the tsunami of marches and protests outside the door, Kuzov, who had been sent to assist the Russian Revolutionary Party, had a normal face, but his heart was churning with unbelievable waves. Although he had gained some knowledge of the infiltration of this organization within the Russian working class from the first-hand information provided by the Bolsheviks, he did not expect that in less than two days the gang would gather a flood of nearly 150,000 workers to roar and roar through the city. Even if the Russian workers themselves hate the current government because of their miserable life, such a appeal and execution is definitely an amazing achievement!

"Mr. Kuzov, you should be satisfied with the current situation, right?" A thin Trotsky stepped out from behind him, still with the same flat smile on his face. Kuzov took a deep look at the scribe in front of him and said, "The energy that your party possesses is astonishing. What are your plans now, are you preparing to turn this strike into a prelude to the overthrow of the Romanovs? ”

Trotsky lifted his eyes on the bridge of his nose and smiled: "Of course. The tsarist regime's perverse actions have aroused the strong resentment and unanimous opposition of all the poor strata of Russia, and now that the tide of revolution has been set off, how can we allow this evil bloodsucker to continue to lie on the body of the working people and suck the blood and knock the marrow? As early as the revolution of 1905, we were always eager to overthrow the Romanov autocracy and establish the ideal regime that truly belonged to the proletariat, and now we are only continuing what was left unfinished in those years! Comrade Frunze has already organized men to receive the equipment provided to us by your country, the first armed force of the workers is about to be formed, and the princely magnates located near the Winter Palace will be the first objects of our control. Speaking of which, this historic change of regime in Russia is also the result that your country most wants to see, right? ”

Kuzov nodded slightly and said, "Then I will first wish your party's revolution victory." (To be continued......)

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