Strike of State Employees
Spread of the Strike of State Employees. November 10, 1917
Original Source: Delo Naroda, No. 191, 10 November 1917, p. 3.
Yesterday the new "minister," Trotsky, came to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After calling together all the officials, he said, "I am the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trotsky." He was greeted with ironic laughter. To this he paid no attention and told them to go back to their work. They went ... but to their homes with the intention of not returning to the office as long as Trotsky was at the head of the ministry ...
The Central Committee of the All-Russian Union of Railroad workers has decided not to take orders from the Military Revolutionary Committee. The question was raised of declaring a railroad strike as a means of fighting the Bolshevik usurpers, but in view of the fact that such a strike would affect the food supply, it was given up.
In all the ministries the employees have passed resolutions of protest against the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks and their "people's commissars." The employees of the Ministry of Agriculture after pointing out that the Bolsheviks have already done away with a number of conquests of the revolution, such as freedom of the press, assembly, and speech, have resolved not to recognize the organs of government set up by the Bolsheviks but to rally around the Committee to Save the Country and the Revolution and to work only under the direction of members of the Provisional Government ...
The employees of the Ministry of Education, being unable to work under the threat of a club, have resolved to quit work and not to resume it until a legal government is formed.
The employees of the Ministry of Food have refused to acknowledge the authority of the commissar and have declared that they recognize no government but the Provisional Government.
In the Ministry of Finance, the employees have declined to have anything to do with the power snatchers and have decided to go on strike until the organization of a national government.
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. 226.