Government Uses Troops to Maintain Order
Circular of the Ministry of the Interior. November 3, 1917
Original Source: Krestian'skoe dvizhenie v 1917 godu, p. 427.
To all Guberniia, Regional, and City Commissars:
The uninterrupted growth of anarchy threatening to disrupt the internal life of the country, and the necessity of handling in a decisive and effective manner every disorder that infringes upon the safety of social life makes it imperative for the guberniia commissars, as the local representatives of the Provisional Government, to call for military assistance.
Orders have accordingly been issued by the Minister of War to all army commanders to place cavalry units from reserve cavalry regiments at the disposal of the guberniia commissars.
In bringing the above to the notice of the guberniia commissars the Ministry of the Interior considers it its duty to point out that every precaution must be taken in the exercise of that duty, that local conditions be taken into consideration, and, above all, that the need to act promptly and decisively in the suppression of disorders be kept in mind.
Placing at the disposal of the guberniia commissars this extraordinary measure called forth by the grave internal conditions of the Republic, the Ministry of the Interior expresses its hope that with the co-operation of all healthy elements of the population, especially the organs of local self-government, the guberniia commissars will make every effort in the struggle against anarchy.
A. M. NIKITIN
Minister of the Interior
Source: James Bunyan and H.H. Fisher, ed., Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1918; Documents and Materials (Stanford: Stanford University Press; H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1934), p. 51.