Chapter I - The Great Expropriation of 1907
Chapter I - The Great Expropriation of 1907
“This is not peace. This is an armistice for twenty years.”
- Ferdinand Foch
The Great War: The Long Shadow of 1914, David Reynolds
The Death of a Revolutionary Expropriator
June 30th, 1907. Tiflis, Tiflis Governorate, Caucasus Viceroyalty.
Mukhtarov, officer of the Department for Protecting the Public Security and Order[4], looked down at the corpse splayed out on the floor of the apartment; He had, along with his fellow officers, forced the now-dead man into the apartment. The man had been on their payroll for some time and had given Mukhtarov notification of a planned robbery in Erivansky Square, organized by the Bolsheviks. He’d promised more information at a later time, and seeing no reason not to believe him, Mukhtarov had let him go about his business. Evidently, he’d been lying, as there were now hundreds of thousands of rubles missing, rubles stolen by that very same gang of Bolshevik terrorists. Worse still were the casualties from the robbery, with forty confirmed deaths and at least fifty injured.June 30th, 1907. Tiflis, Tiflis Governorate, Caucasus Viceroyalty.
The authorities, led by Mukhtarov and his comrades, had sprung into action at once. They’d mobilized the army in order to close roads and surround Erivansky Square, in the hope that they’d secure the money and capture the bandits. Unfortunately, the witness accounts proved to be scattered and unreliable, and they left the authorities uncertain who was responsible for the robbery. It was then that they began to hear rumors of the Georgian being the architect of the Bolshevik plan. It made sense that the architect of such an audacious plan would be cunning enough to try and deceive their Department handlers; After all, what better way existed to draw attention away from themselves?
With that in mind, Mukhtarov and his fellow officers had whisked the Georgian away for interrogation. What had started as a routine questioning, however, would soon escalate unexpectedly. When Mukhtarov demanded to know why the Georgian hadn’t informed them of the plot, the informant stated that he’d given them more than enough information to prevent the robbery. One thing led to another and a heated argument broke out between the two men. To the utter shock of his fellow officers, Mukhtarov pulled out his service revolver and fired a single shot in a fit of rage.[5]
In an instant, time slowed to a halt, as Mukhtarov and his fellow officers were rendered silent by what had happened. Gingerly, his fellows managed to coax Mukhtarov to hand over the revolver. Now they had a body on their hands, and had to decide how to deal with it. Ultimately, they chose to display the corpse to the world as the sole mastermind of the robbery, in order to send a clear message to any of the Georgian’s compatriots. As Mukhtarov took one last look at the Georgian’s body lying on the floor, he had a single thought in mind: Who would miss this man? Who would mourn for Ioseb Djugashvili?
Kamo: From Robber to Revolutionary, Simon Sebag Montefiore
While the Great War has cast a long shadow over the 20th century, there is another pivotal event that must be mentioned when discussing the turmoil of the decades following the Great War. When it occurred, it was dismissed as the death of yet another revolutionary terrorist in the Russian Empire. A regrettable death caused by an impassioned argument between one Officer Mukhtarov of the Okhrana and his Georgian informant, yes, but otherwise it was nothing out of the ordinary to the Tsar’s secret police. In fact, the death of Ioseb Djugashvili, otherwise known as Koba, in an Okhrana apartment in Tiflis would play a key role in the rise of another man. This man, a politically illiterate bandit who lacked fluency in the Russian language, became galvanized by the death of his closest compatriot, and was determined to live up to his legacy. Eventually, he would rise to the heights of power and leave an indelible mark on the history of the 20th Century. To the Ohkrana, he was Simon Ter-Petrosian, but to his friends and family, he was known as Kamo.
Erivansky Square, scene of the robbery, taken in the 1870s
Kamo: A Critical Survey of Petrosianism, Boris Souvarine
In 1907, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) was split into two camps, the Mensheviks led by Julius Martov on one side, and the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin on the other. By the time of the Great Expropriation, the Fifth Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party had not yet convened[6]. One of the points of contention between the two factions of the party was the use of militant action in support of the revolution, in particular the use of “expropriations”, a euphemism for robberies committed against government or private funds in order to finance revolutionary activities. The Mensheviks opposed the continued use of violence and sought a more peaceful and gradual approach to revolution, while the much more militant Bolsheviks strongly advocated for it. When the Congress finally opened in mid-July, the delegations were abuzz with news of the Great Expropriation, and some Mensheviks noted that the Bolshevik camp seemed invigorated by their success.
Lenin was, in fact, emboldened by the success of the Great Expropriation, and he was especially impressed with Kamo, who he referred to as his “Caucasian bandit”. While saddened by the death of Djugashvili, Lenin was delighted by Kamo, who would go on to spend two months, from July to August, with Lenin and Krupskaya. Later in life, Kamo would proclaim that those two months spent in Finland with Lenin and Krupskaya were “The happiest two months of my life”, and it is here where he first charmed Krupskaya, who would go on to play a key role in his rise to power following Lenin’s death. It was this triumphant attitude that Lenin brought with him to the 5th Congress, which proved to be a rousing success for the Bolsheviks, who proposed a resolution commending the use of militant action in the support of the revolution. The resolution (which also called for the continued maintenance of party militias, something that would prove invaluable during the Civil War) was passed with sixty-five percent supporting and a measly six percent opposing[7]. The resolution was supported by the entirety of the Bolsheviks, with even some Mensheviks supporting it, impressed by the success of the Great Expropriation.
Kamo, meanwhile, would be arrested in Berlin in the autumn of that year, having been directed by Lenin to receive treatment for his eye, which had been injured in an accident only weeks before the robbery[8]. Unbeknownst to Lenin, the man who he had sent Kamo to, Dr. Yakov Zhitomirsky, was a secret agent of the Okhrana under the aliases Andre and Daudet[9]. After informing his Okhrana handlers of Kamo’s arrival, Zhitomirsky alerted the Berlin police, who arrested Kamo and found a forged Austrian passport and a case filled with 200 detonators. Evidently, he was planning yet another robbery, this time in Berlin. He would spend the following years in prison, feigning insanity and only barely escaping execution on numerous occasions, before being freed as a result of the 1917 Revolution. This time spent in prison would shape him a great deal, ultimately contributing to his transition from illiterate bandit to consummate revolutionary.
Footnotes
[1] The Great War ITTL is the only global war of its kind, with the 1930s and 40s being plagued by regional conflicts between various countries and ideologies rather than an all-encompassing global war.
[2] Carnarism, also known by the original Italian name of Carnarismo or even the D’Annunzian System, is TTL’s version of Fascism. More on that later.
[3] TTL’s analogue to the combined Warlord Era and the subsequent Chinese Civil War
[4] Otherwise known as the Okhrana, the Tsarist secret police.
[5] IOTL, Mukhtarov only struck Djugashvili in the face before being restrained by his fellow Okhrana officers. He would later be suspended for his actions. Here, he loses his cool and ends up killing Djugashvili on the spot.
[6] IOTL, the 5th Congress took place between May and July in London, with the Tiflis expropriation taking place a few weeks after the Congress ended.
[7] IOTL, the resolution was instead put forward by the Mensheviks, calling for a condemnation of militant actions, especially expropriation. Here, the success of the Tiflis expropriation gives the Bolsheviks an opportunity to push forward their own resolution. The sixty-five percent support for the OTL resolution was all of the Mensheviks and some of the Bolsheviks.
[8] As in OTL, Kamo sustained an injury to his eye, leaving a permanent scar and confining him to his bed for a month, and wasn’t even fully recovered by the time of the robbery.
[9] As in OTL, Zhitomirsky was a prominent Bolshevik physician who operated as an Okhrana spy under those aliases. Later, he would go on to serve in the Russian Expeditionary Force in France during the Great War and report on revolutionary propaganda among Russian troops.
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