Vyborg Bolshevik organizer who turned the Women's Day protest into the February Revolution
On 28 February, hearing of the Provisional Government's formation, Kayurov shouted to the soldiers: "Comrades! Has the workers' blood been flowing in the streets of Petrograd for three days merely to exchange one landlord for another?"
A metalworker who joined the RSDLP in 1898, Kayurov was a Bolshevik organizer in Petrograd's Vyborg district who, on 23 February 1917, defied the party committee's caution and transformed the women textile workers' International Women's Day strike into a revolutionary general strike. On 27 February he led an armed detachment that raided arsenals for rifles, freed revolutionaries from prisons, and attacked police stations: the moment the street protest became an armed uprising. After heading the 5th Army's political department in the Civil War, he worked in economic administration until 1932, when he and his son founded the Union of Marxist-Leninists with Ryutin's platform, an open challenge to Stalin; he died in Kazakh exile in 1936.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1898Joined the RSDLP, Bolshevik faction
- 1905Took part in Sormovo December armed uprising
- 1912–17Underground party work, Vyborg district, Petrograd
- 1917.02Led February Revolution actions; chairman, Vyborg District Soviet
- 1917.07Hid Lenin in his apartment
- 1918–20Head of Political Dept, 5th Army (Eastern Front)
- 1921–22Special commissioner, Sibrevkom; chair, Siberian Party Purge Commission
- 1932Founded Union of Marxist-Leninists; arrested, 3 years exile
- 1935–36Re-arrested, 3 years Kazakh exile; died in exile
Related historical events
- 1905–1907The Revolution of 1905Sormovo uprising participantHe took part in the Sormovo armed uprising in December 1905.
- 1917.02–07The February RevolutionVyborg Bolshevik leaderAs the Vyborg Bolshevik organizer, he led the Women's Day demonstration and commanded the armed detachment that raided the arsenals on 27 February.
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionHead of the 5th Army Political DepartmentDuring the Civil War, he headed the 5th Army's Political Department on the Eastern Front.
The February Revolution of 1917: Worker Organization amid Strike and Uprising
Kayurov’s memoir shows that the February Revolution of 1917 did not simply follow a prior party plan. In the early hours of 23 February, on the eve of International Women’s Day, he addressed a meeting of women in Lesnoy and urged them to avoid partial actions and follow the party committee’s instructions. Yet textile workers went on strike that day, and workers at other factories declared their support. Kayurov initially regarded this as defiance of the district party committee’s decision, while acknowledging that the longer bread queues had in fact helped precipitate the strike. Rather than maintain his earlier caution, he proposed bringing all workers into the streets and organizing a wider protest, and he and other socialists acted on that proposal. His account thus presents workers’ action as moving ahead of party direction, with organizers trying to respond to and shape the movement.
Kayurov and his comrades subsequently agitated among workers and soldiers and sought to communicate with troops confronting demonstrators. He recalled trying to persuade soldiers not to fire on the demonstration on 25 February, but recorded that gunfire left people dead and wounded. On 26 February, he remembered, demonstrators faced armed repression and shooting, and the uprising seemed close to defeat. These episodes portray the revolution as a process in which workers’ own initiative, repression, and changes in soldiers’ conduct interacted. The account is Kayurov’s retrospective testimony as a participant, so his observations and interpretations should be read as such.