Fedor Linde
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Fedor Fedorovich Linde (; ; 9 February 1881 – 21 August 1917) was a Russian revolutionary and political commissar. He played an "unsung but crucial role" in turning the tide of the
February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...
, in the words of historian
Orlando Figes Orlando Guy Figes (; born 20 November 1959) is a British and German historian and writer. He was a professor of history at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he was made Emeritus Professor on his retirement in 2022. Figes is known f ...
. He was a sergeant in the Finland Regiment. For his role in leading a demonstration against
Pavel Milyukov Pavel Nikolayevich Milyukov ( rus, Па́вел Никола́евич Милюко́в, p=mʲɪlʲʊˈkof; 31 March 1943) was a Russian historian and liberal politician. Milyukov was the founder, leader, and the most prominent member of the C ...
to demand his resignation, he was sent as a commissar to the
Russian Army The Russian Ground Forces (), also known as the Russian Army in English, are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces are the protection of the state borders, combat on land, ...
on the front by the
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. Here he became well known for convincing revolutionary units to continue fighting. Linde was killed trying to convince a group of soldiers to return to combat near
Lutsk Lutsk (, ; see #Names and etymology, below for other names) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Volyn Oblast and the administrative center of Lutsk Raion within the oblast. Lutsk has a populati ...
in 1917, and was hailed as a "fallen fighter of the people's cause", receiving a hero's funeral.


Biography


Early life

Fedor Linde was the son of a German chemist and a Polish peasant woman. His mother grew up in a small farm near
St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...
, and was an innkeeper; the inn was popular among the Russian revolutionaries of the capital when they tried to avoid the police. In socialising with the guests, the "tall, blonde and handsome", described as a "romantic idealist", became involved in the revolutionary underground. He enrolled in the Mathematics Faculty of
St. Petersburg University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU; ) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the university from the be ...
in 1899, and immediately became a leading figure in the student protest movement.


Political involvement

During the
1905 revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, t ...
, Linde worked with the
Social Democrats Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...
and joined the Bolsheviks the same year in St. Petersburg, organising the students into an "academic legion" to spread revolutionary propaganda to the
working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
. For this he was arrested and imprisoned in
Kresty Prison Kresty (, literally ''Crosses'') prison, officially Investigative Isolator No. 1 of the Administration of the Federal Service for the Execution of Punishments for the city of Saint Petersburg (Следственный изолятор № 1 УФ ...
, before he was forced to go into exile in Europe. Linde was allowed to return during the
Romanov Tercentenary The Romanov Tercentenary () was a country-wide celebration, marked in the Russian Empire from February 1913, in celebration of the ruling House of Romanov The House of Romanov (also transliterated as Romanoff; , ) was the reigning dynasty ...
in 1913, as part of the political amnesties given. At the eruption of hostilities in 1914, Linde was mobilised by the Finland Regiment. He was soon promoted to rank of sergeant on the basis of his courageous leadership. During the 1917
February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...
, several army unit mutinies took place in
Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...
. In all of these mutinies, junior officers, mostly hailing from the lower-class or wielding democratic sympathies, played the "decisive role". Figes notes that Linde was "typical in this regard". In a letter written in the spring of 1917, to
Socialist Revolutionary Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revolut ...
Boris Sokolov explained how he managed to convince the 5,000 soldiers of the
Preobrazhensky Regiment The Preobrazhensky Lifeguard (military), Life-Guards Regiment (, ''Preobrazhensky leyb-gvardii polk'') was a regiment of the Russian Imperial Guard, Imperial Guard of the Imperial Russian Army from 1683 to 1917. The Preobrazhensky Regiment was ...
to join the mutiny: Lying on the couch of the barracks of the Preobrazhensky Regiment near the
Tauride Palace Tauride Palace () is one of the largest and most historically important palaces in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Construction and early use Prince Grigory Potemkin of Tauride commissioned his favourite architect, Ivan Starov, to design his city resi ...
reading a book by Haldane, he was alerted to the events going on outside when a stray bullet shot through the window. Absorbed by the book, he did not notice the shooting and yelling in the streets, but now quickly noticed how Cossack troops were attacking unarmed citizens. When he saw a young girl try to evade a Cossack horse, the girl being too slow, and subsequently being struck down and landed under the horse's feet, her "penetrating inhuman scream" made something in him "snap". He now rallied his fellow soldiers standing on a table. Following him, not knowing to where or for what cause they followed him, they joined him in an attack on the police and Cossacks. Linde and his regiment killed some, with the rest retreating. He led a group of soldiers from the Preobrazhensky and
Lithuanian Regiment Lithuanian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Lithuania, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe ** Lithuanian language ** Lithuanians, a Baltic ethnic group, native to Lithuania and the immediate geographical region ** L ...
s, to the Finland Regiment to bring out his own soldiers. Officers and soldiers like Linde provided what Figes calls "the first signs of real organisation" to the revolution. Linde with his men commanded a lorry, which bore a large banner reading "The First Revolutionary Flying Squad". During the Revolution, Linde took up command of the guard post at the gate of the Tauride Palace, having been elected by the Finland regiment to represent it in the Soviet council. Soldiers and officers like Linde were displayed with portraits in shop windows in the wake of the Revolution for their part in the events, but, according to Figes, have since "remained hidden from history books".


Milyukov note

An outraged Linde saw the
Milyukov note The Milyukov note was a telegram, drafted by Foreign Minister Pavel Milyukov on behalf of the Russian Provisional Government in April 1917, important in the April Crisis period between the February Revolution and later October Revolution in Russ ...
as a betrayal to the
February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...
's promise to end the
Great War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and
Tsarist autocracy Tsarist autocracy (), also called Tsarism, was an autocracy, a form of absolute monarchy in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire. In it, the Tsar possessed in principle authority an ...
. He led a battalion of the Finland Regiment in April in an armed demonstration to the
Marinsky Palace Mariinsky Palace (), also known as Marie Palace, was the last neoclassical Imperial residence to be constructed in Saint Petersburg. It was built between 1839 and 1844, designed by the court architect Andrei Stackenschneider. It houses the c ...
, in the expectation that the Soviet would take over the
Russian Provisional Government The Russian Provisional Government was a provisional government of the Russian Empire and Russian Republic, announced two days before and established immediately after the abdication of Nicholas II on 2 March, O.S. New_Style.html" ;"title="5 ...
and establish Soviet power and demand the arrest of the government. By the time they had arrived at Marinsky, his regimental detachment had been accompanied by angry soldiers from Moscow and Pavlov regiments, swelling to 25,000 men. Linde's "show of power" was improvised, but he was convinced that the Soviet Executive would approve of his actions in light of the
April Theses The April Theses (, transliteration: ') were a series of ten directives issued by the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin upon his April 1917 return to Petrograd from his exile in Switzerland via Germany and Finland. The theses were mostly aimed at ...
. The Executive, however, passed a resolution in which they condemned Linde's actions, saying that the Soviet was not ready to assume power but should rather help the Provisional Government reassert its authority. Linde was denounced in the right-wing press as a "
Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
" in the wake of the events, depicting his demonstration as a bloody coup attempt – even though it had dissolved peacefully after having been ordered to do so by the Soviet.


Great War and death

As a punishment for his role in the demonstration against Milyukov, the Soviet sent Linde into "exile" as a
commissar Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English transliteration of the Russian (''komissar''), which means ' commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the political commissars of Soviet and ...
to the
Special Army The Russian Special Army was a World War I Russian field army that fought on the Eastern Front. Field management was established in August 1916. The Army was named ''Special'' because it was thought that the name ''13th Army'' would bring bad lu ...
on the front, where his leadership skills were to be used for the coming offensive; he was satisfied with his new task. He became "something of a legend" for his trips to the most Bolshevized parts of the front, where he managed to convince them to continue to fight, and was something of a "model commissar". At the time, it was generally believed that "Linde's own naive idealism" was "to blame for his brutal murder." On his arrival to the front, the commissar had been warned of the large danger that groups of deserters could pose. One of the bands of deserters, the 443rd, 444th of the 3rd Infantry Division, had been terrorising the area surrounding
Lutsk Lutsk (, ; see #Names and etymology, below for other names) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Volyn Oblast and the administrative center of Lutsk Raion within the oblast. Lutsk has a populati ...
, and it was believed that the 500
Cossack The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borders of Ukraine and Rus ...
s brought by General
Pyotr Krasnov Pyotr Nikolayevich Krasnov (; – 17 January 1947), also known as Peter Krasnov, was a Russian military leader, writer and later Nazi collaborator. Krasnov served as a lieutenant general in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and la ...
should be employed to crack down on their camp. Linde, however, believed in the power of the "revolutionary word", insisting that the old ally of the
Tsarist regime The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
should not be deployed against the "freest army in the world". He insisted that he was going to make them listen to sense, emphasising it was "all a question of psychology". Unswayed by the others' arguments, he was allowed to attempt to convince the soldiers. Linde approached the camp, consisting of approximately 5,000 deserters, alone, with a group of officers following him some distance behind, and with mounted Cossacks riding to surround the camp. The soldiers, seeing the Commissar approach, arose from the ground and prepared their rifles. Linde, noticing two groups (one large, and one small, compact), addressed the smaller one which he realised contained the most "Bolshevized" troops, on the basis of their hardened looks. He jumped onto a pile of logs and began speaking: "I, who brought the soldiers out to overthrow the tsarist government and to give you freedom, a freedom which is equalled by no other people in the world, demand that you now give me those who have been telling you not to obey the orders of the commanders", calling on the soldiers to defend the "Fatherland", pointing in the direction of the sounds of the enemy artillery. Linde, noticing his words had no effect, began to harangue the soldiers, dubbing them "bastards" and "lazy swine", undeserving of freedom. The agitated soldiers from the smaller Bolshevik group began heckling Linde, calling him a German spy and saying his methods were "worthy of the old regime". Krasnov, spectating from a distance, realised the severity of the situation and came in a car to rescue Linde. Linde however refused to leave. Only when the soldiers began moving towards him did he attempt to escape. Before he could escape however, he was struck down by a large soldier who struck the butt of his rifle into Linde's temple, with a second one "shooting him to the ground". A large crowd of soldiers "shrieking" threw themselves onto the incapacitated Linde, stabbing him with their bayonets. Krasnov and the others attempted to escape, but the soldiers gave chase, while the Cossack troops struggled to gain control. Colonel Konstantin Girshfeld was stripped naked and tortured before he was killed, and two other officers were also killed before the convoy managed to escape. Linde's body was brought back to
Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...
and received a hero's funeral. The free, democratic press labelled him a "fallen fighter of the people's cause", and lauded him as a brilliant example of the "patriotic revolutionary" which the Russian army sorely needed.


References


Footnotes


Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Linde, Fedor 1881 births 1917 deaths Revolutionaries of the Russian Revolution Inmates of Kresty Prison Russian military personnel of World War I Russian Provisional Government military personnel People from the Russian Empire of German descent People from the Russian Empire of Polish descent People of the February Revolution