Khabarovsk
By that time construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway connecting the Far East and Eastern Siberia to European part of Russia was in full swing. Ussuriysk (Khabarovsk – Vladivostok) and Transbaikalye Railways had already been built, and construction of the Amur Railway had begun. The final section of the Trans-Siberian Railway was a railroad bridge across the Amur in Khabarovsk, of which can be said a lot. This grandiose for those times construction was designed by professor Lavr Dmitrievich Proskuryakov. This project along with the Eifel Tower received the golden medal at the World-wide exhibition in Paris in 1908. In 1916 construction of this three-kilometer giant was finished, and it became the concluding part of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Until this day this bridge is an integral part Khabarovsk.
So, before the revolution Khabarovsk was a dynamically developing city. It was the time of establishing and developing of capitalism in the city. But further events turned the life of Russia, and that means Khabarovsk too, into an absolutely different direction.
1917. The year of overthrow of monarchy in Russia. The provisional government seized power. This news spread throughout the entire Russia and reached Khabarovsk. In honor of this event in February a meeting was held in the city, where the Committee of Public Security (CPS) was elected. Just like in the entire Russia the majority of the members of the Committee of Public Security which took over power in the city were Mencheviks and Social Revolutionaries. The CPS of Khabarovsk was headed up by A.I. Malyshev. In March of 1917 the Commissioner of the Provisional Government in the Region came to Khabarovsk – A Social Revolutionary А.М. Rusanov. At the same time the Bolsheviks, unhappy with their little representation in the bodies of government, formed their own system of authority – Councils of Workers’ and Soldiers’ deputies. On March 4th in Khabarovsk a Council was elected for the first time. At that time trade unions were also being formed, most of which supported slogans of the Bolsheviks. In this way diarchy was formed in Khabarovsk which lasted until November of 1917.
In November the Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional government. In Khabarovsk a telegram by V. I. Lenin was sent “to all the councils of the Far East,” in which it was proposed to the councils to take power into their hands. On November 11 the Khabarovsk Bolshevik organization welcomed the overthrowing of the Provisional government and the seizure of power by the Councils. And several days later a meeting of the soldiers of Khabarovsk’s garrison made a decision to immediately give power to the city’s Council and abolish commissioners of the Provisional government. On December 12 the III regional convention of the Councils proclaimed the power of the Councils (Soviets) throughout the entire territory of the Region. At the same time at a plenum instead of the Menchevik’s and Social Revolutionary’s executive committee was elected a new one, and Bolshevik L. Gerasimov was elected chairman of the Council. On December 27 the first issue of the government agency – the Far Eastern regional Council of the workers’ and soldiers’ – “The news of the Far East” newspaper was released. In this way the power in the city was finally seized by the Bolsheviks. But the fight for the power of the Soviets did not stop at that. A period of the Civil war and foreign intervention had begun.