"But this sort of chaotic mistreatment was not reserved only for prisoners. At crucial moments of the civil war , the emergency needs of the Red Army and the Soviet state overrode every thing else, from re-education to revenge to considerations of justice. In October 1918, the commander of the northern front sent a request to the Petrograd military commission for 800 workers, urgently needed for road construction and trench digging. As a result , “a number of citizens from the former merchant classes were invited to appear at Soviet headquarters, allegedly for the purpose of registration for possible labor duty at some future date. When these citizens appeared for registration , they were placed under arrest and sent to the Semenovsky barracks to await their dispatch to the front . ” When even this did not produce enough workers, the local Soviet—the local ruling council —simply surrounded a part of Nevsky Prospekt , Petrograd’s main shopping street , arrested every one without a Party card or a certificate proving they worked for a government institution , and marched them off to a nearby barracks. Later , the women were released, but the men were packed off to the north : “not one of the thus strangely mobilized men was allowed to settle his family affairs, to say goodbye to his relatives, or to obtain suitable clothing and footwear. ”"
Monday, November 18, 2013
How the need for workers were met
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