As we have already seen, the correspondent reports speak most frequently of barricades on Vasilievsky Island, and in part on the Nevsky. The government communiqué issued on 10 (23) January, on Monday, stated: "Crowds were erecting barricades with wire entanglements, with red flags on the Schlüsselburg tract, then at the Narva Gate, on the Trinity Bridge, at the Alexander Garden, at the squares on the Nevsky. From the windows of neighboring houses stones were thrown and shots were fired at the troops. The crowd was seizing weapons from the police. The Shoff arms factory was ransacked. In the first and second districts of Vasilievsky Island the crowd was cutting telegraph wires and felling telegraph poles. A police station was demolished."

A French correspondent telegraphed on Sunday at 2:50 p.m.: "Firing continues. The troops apparently have completely lost their heads. While crossing the Neva, I saw several signal fires and heard the thunder of rifle volleys. On Vasilievsky Island barricades are illuminated by bonfires lit by the strikers. I am unable to proceed further. An ominous sound of the bugle signifies the order to fire. A battalion of soldiers, bayonets fixed, is storming a barricade made of felled sledges. A veritable massacre is taking place. About a hundred workers remain lying on the field of battle. Some fifty wounded prisoners are being led past me. An officer points a pistol at me and orders me to clear off."

The correspondents provide very few detailed descriptions of the barricade battles. This is understandable, because the correspondents endeavored to keep themselves more or less at a distance from dangerous places. And of course, only very few of the participants in the barricade battles survived. There was even a report that artillery fired on the barricades, but it appears not to be confirmed.

Printed from the manuscript