schools and the Engineering Castle, where considerable arms and
ammunition were stored, and from where attacks were made upon the
revolutionary government's headquarters. Detachments of Red Guards and
sailors had surrounded the cadet schools and were sending in messengers
demanding the surrender of all arms. Some scattering shots came in
reply. The besiegers were trampled upon. Crowds of people gathered
around them, and not infrequently stray shots fired from the windows
would wound passers-by.

The skirmishes were assuming an indefinitely prolonged character, and
this threatened the revolutionary detachments with demoralization. It
was necessary, therefore, to adopt the most determined measures. The
task of disarming the cadets was assigned to the commandant of
Petropavlovsk fortress, Ensign B. He closely surrounded the cadet
schools, brought up some armored cars and artillery, and gave the cadets
ten minutes' time to surrender. Renewed firing from the windows was the
answer at first. At the expiration of the ten minutes, B. ordered an
artillery charge. The very first shots made yawning breaches in the
walls of the schoolhouse. The cadets surrendered, though many of them
tried to save themselves by flight, firing as they fled.

Considerable rancor was created, such as always accompanies civil war.
The sailors undoubtedly committed many outrages upon individual cadets.
The bourgeois press later accused the sailors and the Soviet government
of inhumanity and brutality. It never mentioned, however, the fact that
the revolt of October 25th-26th had been brought about with hardly any
firing or sacrifice, and that only the counter-revolutionary conspiracy
which was organized by the bourgeoisie and which threw the young
generation into the flame of civil war against the workers, soldiers and
sailors, led to unavoidable severities and sacrifices.