A narrative from the Caspian Sea.

This article, anonymous as far as authorship is concerned, is adapted from The Naval Review Vol. VII, No. 4, November 1919; very minor changes have been made, e.g "double single quotes" have become "double quotes", the footnotes have been numbered, ships names italicized; the layout has been adapted to web standard for the images (both charts can be enlarged, see the captions.) Note that Fort Alexandrovsk is now known as Баутин (transliterated with a final 'o' as Bautino) and that the author refers to the Emile Nobel in shortened form as the Nobel. He also uses '*' as an abbreviation for yards in gunnery ranges. Ed.

Jump directly to Part (b), Specimens of Bolshevist propaganda from the Caspian.

Reconnaissance of Fort Alexandrovsk, May 21st, 1919.

AT 6.40 a.m. we got a bearing of the lighthouse on top of the high hill to the north of Fort A. The outline of the land was barely seen, while Kulaly Island, very low-lying, could just be seen from crows nest.

0927. A/c. S. 66 E., speed five knots.

Two T.Bs. or M.Ls. were sighted clear of cape N.E. of Fort A. One T.B.D. and two small vessels were seen under the land, next a large A.M.C. and Kaspy (ice-breaker) appeared apparently coming out in support.

1100. The T.B.D. opened fire, shot falling about four miles short. These five ships then made for the harbour, the T.B.D. again firing with no better result. The enemy were against the land and very hard to see.

1106. A/c, South to prevent enemy escaping West.

1148. A/c, N. 40 E. and increased to nine knots (maximum for squadron) to cut off M.Ls. now astern. They crossed our bows and at 1203, a/c, N. 55 E., M.Ls. opened fire with 3-in. guns, shot falling 400* short. Kruger returned their fire, shot falling short M.Ls. then turned away. Two or three M.Ls. joined them from direction of harbour. Near them on horizon were two T.B.Ds., Finn class, who took no part in the action.

1211. Venture was straddled, think by large A.M.C. We opened fire by signal and general action commenced.

1220. A/c, N.E. Kruger’s shot fell short, but Nobel’s 6-in. did good work, setting A.M.C. (? Delo) on fire. She put a salvo of three 6-in. into an enormous Volga barge armed with two 6-in. or 8-in. guns. ‘The barge was set on fire and deserted.

1225. A/c, N.N.E. 1230. A/c, E., across mouth of harbour.

Hits by Nobel’s 6-in. and Venture’s long range 4-in. Kaspy on fire aft. Unluckily Venture shifted target and fire later got under.

1242. A/c, E. by N. to give wide berth to end of shoal; mark beacons having been removed.

The two small vessels appeared to run ashore. Kaspy turned round, closed them, then went up harbour, heavy smoke coming from her aft, getting behind barges at head of harbour. Kruger well straddled. All ships under heavy fire. Nobel, hit in E.R., hauled out of line, still firing.

1303. A/c, S. by E. Commodore made general signal, "We are going up to Ramoth Gilead" (1308).

.

Nobel rejoined line when we were all steering down the harbour. The situation now was five A.M.Cs. in line ahead going up a harbour containing an unknown and partially hidden enemy squadron and unlocated battery reported to be somewhere,

The only guns the squadron had with bow fire were the two 4-in. mark IV. semi-auto guns, one each side of Kruger’s F’c’le, range about 9,000* at extreme elevation. These were controlled by the Commodore’s secretary, surely a unique incident in any naval action.

During the approach we fired 100 or more 4-in. H.E. and Common. The gunner’s mate roped in some of the Russian crew to help feed these guns.

Soon after the turn a battery of two 12-pdr. or 18-pdr, guns opened fire on us from the top of the hill, N. of the lighthouse, all shot fell short, many ricochetting on their side like a chucky-stone, curving towards us, one nearly reaching our side. Battery was silenced by our port 4-in. and Asia’s broadside. The quaint antics of these shell, all dud, caused great amusement. All of us on Monkey’s Island did nothing except watch them for quite half a minute.

1320. A/c, West. Signal to stop engines was hoisted but negatived on report of damage to ships of squadron. On this leg Kruger was hit by a 4.8-in. A.P. on port side, upper deck, amidships. Only serious damage was to E.R. telegraph wires, all being cut. 1325. A/c ,N.W.

Helmsman reported steering gear carried away, but it was found to be O.K.; ship was answering helm though compass was not altering. This was due to compass being unshipped; spare one was shipped. Only casualty: was the rangefinder operator, who got a shell splinter in his elbow, after wound was dressed he came up again. Visual range dial was hit by three splinters, probably saving some of us behind it. Water pipe was burst, so saving the fire party much trouble. Some cabins, etc., were damaged. Several small bits of shell were picked up in my cabin and I have now one complete sash, one square sash, and both jalousies are na-poo.

All this time we had a sort of general post with our guns' crew s — we have three, for five guns. The after gun’s ^{[Note 1]}crew came forward during approach and fired at the deserted barge, and later with the port 4-in. at the comic battery. When we turned away the after gun was again manned.

In view of narrowness of harbour, our cut communications, and Nobel’s steaming with one engine Commodore decided to leave the harbour and not go in baldheaded to finish them off. Venture reported crews were deserting their ships and fleeing up the hill. The enemy’s fire was slackened and now only three or four guns were being fired at us.

1335. A/c, N.N.W. to clear shoal.

1345. A/c, N.W. Nobel at rear of line fired her after (and only) 4.4-in. on the way out. She reported six killed and six wounded. About half these were Russians. Kruger straddled last time on this leg.

1415. A/c, W. Reduced to five knots. This course took us well clear of the shoal.

1456. Increased to eight knots. Nobel going strong.

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1500. A.M.C. (? Delo) blew up. (The wish is father to the thought as she is their largest ship.) Other ships. or barges heavily on fire. Masses of light, and in two cases dense black smoke came from the head of the harbour. One large and one small black column of smoke coming from direction of small vessels thought to be aground. It appeared as if enemy were burning or destroying their supply ships, oil and other stores on shore. 1512. A/c, S.W.

1515. Fairly large explosion.

1543. Another nearly as large.

Several small explosions occurred between 1600 and 1605, and again about 1615. Two large fires still going strong at head of harbour, probably on shore.

1638. Seaplane appeared over squadron having dropped her bombs. All we were able to get from her was that we had got a direct hit on barge. Later report said same shipping was in harbour as on previous day a.m.

1703. Stopped to transfer surgeons to Nobel. Russian susceptibilities re burial at sea got over by the tact of our Russian Captain who went over to Nobel.

1850. Proceeded N.N.W., five knots, to patrol between Fort A. and Astrahan, where we knew they had more torpedo craft and one or more A.M.Cs.

2015. Nobel had to stop. Squadron a/c to S. by E., and stopped on her beam.

By 9.0 p.m. our telegraphs were repaired, but only one reply.

May 22nd. — Just after midnight (i.e., 21st-22nd) squadron was able to proceed. Commodore shaped S. 37 W. for Petrovsk. Squadron keeping station on Nobel. Boomed off at four knots. Nobel began overhauling us at 3.0 a.m., and was going seven knots by 7.30 a.m.

I tried to get Commodore to rest at midnight, but he wouldn’t give in till 2.0 a.m., when I relieved him on deck. I was relieved by first-lieutenant at 4.0. At 5.15 and 6.15 two large clouds of smoke appeared from Fort A. direction. At 1000 we stopped. Nobel buried the men killed, all ships firing volleys.

That’s about the end of the story of the best stunt I’ve been in. I did not enjoy Jutland where time hung on my hands. Yesterday I was far too busy to think of possible regrettable incidents, and the enemy fired no torpedoes.

It’s difficult to say what we were up against, probably three T.B.Ds., two large A.M.Cs., one armed barge, some small A.M.Cs., M.Ls., one shore battery; two T.B.Ds. ratted and did not fire.

NOTE: — All guns outranged us, but Nobel’s 6-in. Were nearly as long-ranged.

A seaplane carried out five raids on 22nd. She reported all vessels able to get underweigh had left the harbour by the end of the fifth raid. She claimed to have hit a T.B.D. and damaged an A.M.C. and another vessel by bombs.

From various reports, photos and what we saw, the number of vessels in the harbour was constantly changing.

The net result is that between the ships and seaplane we have cleared the Bolsheviks out of the harbour and claim to have sunk; one large A.M.C., one large ship (? Depôt ship), one small A.M.C. or transport, one T.B.D. And probably some barges also damaged; one powerful A.M.C. (Kaspy), one barge armed with 6-in. or 8-in. guns, besides destroying or causing the enemy to destroy much oil and stores.

On our side Kruger got hit once, Nobel got hit once; seven killed and seven wounded during whole day.

Visit to Fort A., May 28th, I919.

While Windsor Castle and Venture with four C.M.B.’s went up harbour, Slava and Bibi-Eibat patrolled outside; seaplanes co-operated. Result of action and bombardment, destroyed; one large barge with two 6-in., one large T.B.D., one armed minelayer, one submarine depot ship, one ammunition carrier, four smaller craft; and on 28th, three barges torpedoed.

Damaged on 21st, Kaspy, boiler hit.

There were two submarines in Fort A. harbour. White flag was hoisted on shore. Condition of inhabitants very bad. Eleven of crew of s.s. Leylia captured in Fort A. were rescued by Windsor Castle.

Four hundred Armenians, refugees from Astrahan, are stranded till we get a ship sent for them.

Captain Washington in W. Castle, reports that the ships sunk on May 21st are settling down under water. Local information states that another T.B.D., presumably damaged by gunfire, sank N. of Kulaly Island on the night of May 21st, and that her four funnels can be seen above water, also that a submarine sank N. of Tub Karagan Point. This may be the submarine previously reported as "sitting on the bottom" during the attack of May 21st. It is also stated that a regiment of Ural Cossacks left G.H.Q. for Ast three weeks ago, and that ten days ago they were at Krasnyar.

A fisherman at Chechen on June 11th stated that there had been fighting near Ast, and that all the ships there had either gone up the river or been abandoned.

Also, that three "very bad Bolsheviks" had gone from Fort A. to Pet. just before May 21st, with the intention of destroying the British battery and a bridge near Temir-Khan-Shura.^{[Note 2]} The names of two are Charumoian, brother of the Baku commissaire, dealt with by President Kuhn of Krasnorodosk and Charbaldaeff. Name of third not known. They had forged passes. The first man, Charumoian, is reported to walk lame.

Sachs was arrested and 27 sailors were shot at Ast. Twenty-five Italians were at Fort A. Washington left them there as he did not like the look of them, thought them Bolsheviks.

On the return of the Bolshevik ships to the mouth of the Volga, Sachs, the C.-in-C., was relieved by Sub-Lieutenant Roscalnikov, Madame Roscalnikov was given command of the motor launches.

[ Back ] Note 1: Secretary’s clerk is in charge of this gun.

[ Back ] Note 2: The capital of Daghestan.

Return to Part (a), Reconnaissance of Fort Alexandrovsk, May 21st, 1919.

Specimens of Bolshevist propaganda from the Caspian.

Translation of a proclamation dated April 30th, 1919, issued by the Bolsheviks on arrival at Fort Alexandrovsk.

CITIZENS !

We, seamen of the Russian Republic’s Red Fleet, are coming to you, not as an enemy, but as to our brothers who are found in servitude, hateful to all, of the bourgeoisie.

We are coming to liberate you from the yoke of bloody tyrants!

We bring to you the light of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity!

Partners! We shall not cause you trouble—not with the workmen and peasants, but only with those who are also persecutors, with those who wish to put on you again the yoke of bloody Tsarism.

Therefore, partners, we are assured that you will not hinder us, but on the contrary will help us to our great act of liberation of the nation from the yoke of International Capitalism.

If you have heard our sincere call and wish to extend to us your brotherly hand, send in then your authorities, and they may have complete confidence in their unconditional security and kindhearted reception by our side.

SABUROFF,
Commander of Detachment.
N. KASHKOFF,
Political Commissar.

I inform the citizens that, on the occasion of their refusal to send their delegates, their town will be bombarded and the inhabitants will be declared as the enemies of the Soviet Authority. :

N. KASHKOFF,
Commissar.

Why don’t you return home?

To the American and British Soldiers.

COMRADES.

The war is over, why are you not returning home? The people in England and America went nearly mad with joy when the long hoped for peace at last arrived. But why is there no peace for you, and for us? President Wilson and his colleagues are in Europe, the other Allied governments have also appointed their delegates, and soon the Peace Conference will assemble. But in the meantime you are still condemned to fight and die, and war with all its horrors is raging in Russia.

For many long, weary, agonising months, perhaps years, your old folks, your wives, your little ones, have been overwhelmed with anxiety about you. Now in their innocence their anxiety has been turned into joyful expectation of your return. Can you not picture them; — every knock, every footstep they hear makes their hearts leap in the belief that it is someone bringing tidings of your homecoming? But your dear ones will wait in vain; your masters continue to drive you through the valley of death, and you do not know but that your bodies may rot in the mud and blood of the battlefield. Don’t you want to mingle with your loved ones again?

The war is over. Why don’t you go home?

For over four years your governments have kept you at war, and have condemned millions of your fellow citizens to death, and millions more to a fate worse than death. You made these fearful sacrifices for what you were led to believe to be the defence of Europe against the domination of the Kaiser, and once and for all to relieve the world from the crushing burden of armaments; from the menace of Prussian militarism.

Well, this menace is now removed. Prussian militarism is crushed. The Kaiser is a fugitive. The German workers have risen in revolt and have delivered a death blow to the power of the reactionary Junker class.

Why then are you still fighting? Above all, why are you in Russia?

The help of the Allied Governments against Germany was never desired by Russia. It is now quite unnecessary. It was never intended that the Allied troops in Russia were to fight Germans. This is perfectly obvious now since the war with Germany is apparently over, and yet the war against the Russian people still continues. Why? The reason is not far to seek.

The workers and peasants in Russia have done what your rulers fear you will do, they have swept the whole class of parasites, courtiers, landlords and capitalists out of power, and have taken possession of the land and the means of production for the use of the whole people. The Russian people refuse to be the slaves of an idle class any longer. They are constructing a new order of society in which the products of labour will go to those who work. The spirit which animates the Russian people has spread westward, and now the Austrian, Hungarian, and German people have overthrown their rulers, and are rapidly travelling along the same lines as the workers of Russia. It is the awakening of the real democracy that we are witnessing to-day; the common workers in field, factory, and mine are asserting their right and power to rule, and be masters of their own destiny.

Your masters see that the spirit of revolt is spreading to your countries. In both England and America the ideas of Bolshevism is making rapid headway. Great Labour demonstrations frequently take place at which the workers demand that the means of wealth production shall be taken over by the workers. At these meetings strong protests are expressed against the invasion of Russia. Your masters know that the source and centre of the revolutionary world movement is Russia, and they are determined therefore to crush it out, and remove the menace to their power. That is why you are here. That is why your masters will not permit you to rejoin your loved ones who are eagerly looking forward to your return.

You see that the war has now been converted into a gigantic conflict between Labour and Capital. It is a conflict between Progress and Reaction. A conflict between those who are inaugurating a new era of social and economic liberty for the toiling masses, and those who desire to retain the present sordid commercial system, with its sweating, poverty, and war. And you who obey the orders of your governments are fighting to maintain the old order, you are fighting on the side of Reaction against the forces of Labour and Progress.

Is this worth dying for? Do you really desire to bleed and die in order that capitalism may continue? Say no!

Form Soldiers’ Councils in each regiment, and demand of your governments, demand of your officers to be sent home. Refuse to shoot your fellow workers in Russia. Refuse to crush our Workers Revolution.

The Group of English speaking Communists.

PARLIAMENT OR SOVIET.

To American and British Soldiers.

You are told that you are fighting for democracy. But what kind of democracy are you fighting for? On one side is the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic, on the other side the capitalist "democracies" of England, France and the United States.

The fact is clear, and you have to choose between two existing systems of management of public life—by the workers for the workers; or by the workers and the capitalists for the capitalists. The political system under which you live appears to give the right to control public affairs to the people. But who actually controls affairs in your countries? Is it not the Morgans and Rocheffelors [sic], the Devenports, Rhondas or men like these; big business men, capitalists and financiers. At elections they make fine promises, but when they are returned do nothing, and when some petty reform is demanded they wonder "where the money is to come from." If the workers get more insistent in their demands, these so-called representatives of the people will call out troops to shoot the people down, as they did at Ludlow, Colorado, Tonypandy, Wales, and Dublin.

In our democracy only the workers have a voice, only those that produce the useful things decide how to enjoy the results. of their common efforts. We are a commonwealth of fellow workers, and we don’t want parasites and their supporters to interfere with our affairs.

This kind of democracy is not to the liking of those who wish to live upon the labour of others. Being a minority they want a democracy that secures the rule of the few over the many and you are made to fight for this kind of "democracy."

You may argue: Since we have general suffrage it is our own stupidity if we elect the wrong representatives to Parliament and we are going to change this gradually.

But even if it was possible to secure a majority of the right people in Parliament, this would not help you out since Parliament is only one of the institutions of capitalist power and not the most important either. There is the Government with its bureaucratic machinery, the police, the judges, the army. In the Parliaments the representatives are allowed to talk, but it is the executive power, the Government that acts. And this Government in all countries is becoming more and more powerful, whereas the influence of the Parliament is on the decline. It would be absurd to believe that it will be possible to vote the capitalists out of power, out of their privileges, Parliament is a capitalist Institution to further capitalist interests, and if it ceases to further those interests, it will be simply reorganised or abolished altogether.

More than that, political control is useless if it does not carry with it control of the means of life. In you country Parliament has only a very limited control of industry. The means of production are owned and controled almost exclusively by capitalists. Those who own the means of life, own everything. In Russia the means of life are owned by the whole nation, and the control is vested in the local and National Soviets. The Soviets are elected from the workers in the factories, mines or railroads, as the case may be. We have thus direct and exclusive labour representation. Ours is a real Labour Republic, and when you come against us to overthrow the Soviets and establish the kind of democracy that exists in your countries, you are attempting to overthrow the rule the workers and re-establish the rule of kings and Capitalists.

Fellow working men refuse to be the suppressors of your own class. Strive rather to establish your rule in your countries. Form Soldiers’ Councils in your regiments. Send your representative to your officers and demand to be sent home; and when you get home, remove the sham capitalist democracy reigning there, and establish true Republics of Labour as we have done in Russia.

Group of English speaking Communists.

Say! What are you?

We are living to-day in one of the most interesting, most crucial periods in the world history. We are standing on the threshold of a new age. We are entering into the period of the emancipation of labour from the thraldom of wage slavery. It is the time of which poets have dreamed. The time for which in every country men and women have striven for long years, have gone to prison, have sacrificed their lives.

For over a century the working people have slaved in factory and mine, in poverty, in misery and dirt. Slaving that their masters may grow rich. Living in hovels, or teeming block tenements, while their masters lived in palaces. Feeding on cheap and coarse food, while their masters fed on the finest that Nature and the art of man produced. Their clothes were of the slop and shoddy kind, while their masters could command all the art and skill to clothe them. The lives of the workers were a narrow round of work, sleep, with not infrequent intervals of unemployment. Unemployment; that grim spectre that haunted the workers day in day out. The constant fear of that dread order "the sack." The while the masters were living lives of riotous luxury that outrivaled the debauchery of the ancient empires.

The more he toiled and moiled, and added to the wealth of the world, the richer his master became; the poorer and less secure became his own life, and that of his wife and little ones.

Say! American and British soldiers, what are you? Are you not workmen? Does this not apply to you?

Four years ago the capitalists of the world plunged into this war for fresh territories to dominate, for new wage slaves to exploit. They deluded their peoples into believing they were fighting for freedom, for humanity. Millions have been crushed under the Juggernaut of the war.

But the war proved to be the last mad act of the greedy, plundering class. Four years of intense agony has at last aroused the world’s wage slaves. At last they realise their subjection, and in doing so realise their strength. Like Samson in the hall of the Philistines, Labour grasps, the pillars of capitalist society and the whole structure is shaking to its foundations. Thrones are tumbling like skittles. Revolution like a cleansing gale sweeps through Europe and stirs the workers into action. Russia led the way. The rule of Tsarism is ended for ever. Capitalism too has received its death blow. Henceforth in Russia the produce of labour will go to those who work.

Bulgaria has followed. Ferdinand has flown; the rank and file of the army have overthrown the authority of their officers, and maintain a revolutionary discipline through Soldiers’ Councils.

The ruling class of Turkey has collapsed.

The Austrian Empire has fallen to pieces like an old cask, and the workers are gradually securing the mastery.

Finally, in Germany the end of the Hohenzollerns and the Junker clique has come. The workers and soldiers of Germany have overthrown the Kaiser and are now preparing for the final struggle to completely overthrow the capitalist class and establish a Soviet Republic as in Russia.

East and central Europe is aflame with the revolt. The exploiting class has in some countries fallen, and in others are on the point of falling. The dawn of the day of Labours’ emancipation has come!

Say! American and British soldiers, what are you?

Do you not feel stirred by the throb of new life that is pulsating through the veins of your fellow workers? Are you just dull clods? Or are you living humans with hopes and desires for the future?

Are you for ever going to allow yourselves to be rolled in mud and blood for the sake of your exploiters? Are you satisfied to resume the life of endless toil, of dull monotony and a pauper’s end? Do you wish to condemn your children to the same stunted purposeless existence? Or does not the future hold out something better both for you and them?

Then what are you waiting for? Do you think some deliverer from on high will come to your relief? If so you will wait in vain. Those who would be free, themselves must strike the blow.

But we ask you a much more serious question. Are you going to act as the gunmen, the hired bullies for international capitalist in the criminal task of crushing the attempt of your own class to free itself? The capitalist class of the Allied countries see quite clearly that the tide of revolution threatens to overwhelm them too. They are straining every nerve to stem it and they use you for the task. They feed you with lies to poison your minds against your fellow workers, so that you will be the more willing to drown the workers revolution in a sea of blood.

You have started on this criminal job already. What do you think you are doing here in Russia? In spite of all the lies you have been told, you are being used for the purpose of crushing the Russian Revolution, and restoring the land to the landlords, and the factories and mines to the capitalist. Your capitalists know that if they can crush the Russian Revolution they will take the heart out of the revolutionary movement in other countries.

Just think, you who consider yourselves the citizens of "free" countries, have come to put us back into wage slavery.

Comrades, refuse to do the shameful thing. Rid your minds of the poison instilled by the capitalists. Listen to the voice of freedom calling to you.

In your home countries, too, the Spirit of the Times is awakening. There are strikes and demonstrations, the workers are demanding your recall. Their cry is "Hands off Russia." You must respond to the call of your folks at home. Take the matter in your own hands. and pitch it. You take the lead and the people at home will soon follow and sweep the gang of capitalists and landlords out of power.

You have arms. You know how to use them. Will you like slaves use them in defence of your masters, or will you use them to help your class be free? If the former, then know that you will meet with the determined resistance of the united revolutionary people of East and Central Europe, and History will be your judge. If the latter, then here’s a hearty welcome into the ranks of international labour.

Is it war then? Would ye perish like drywood in the fire?
Is it peace? Then be ye of us, let your hopes be our desire.
Come and live, for life awaketh and the world shall never tire.
For the host goes marching on.

On we march then, we - the workers, and the rumour that you hear.
Is the sound of blended battle, and deliverance drawing near.
For the hope of every creature is the banner that we bear.
And the world goes marching on.

Signed N. LENIN,
President of the Council of People’s Commisary.
G. TCHICHERIN,
People’s Commissary for Foreign Affairs.

Published by the Department of Joviet Propaganda.