The shooting of workers at the Izhora plant in 1918

The shooting of workers at the Izhora plant in Kolpin (southeast of Petrograd ) on May 9, 1918 is the first time that the Bolsheviks shot unarmed workers.

The conflict began when on May 9, women standing in line for bread were announced that all stocks were sold out and there would be no new income in the next two days. Women went to the fire station to give an alarm, but were met with resistance from the Red Guards. The people began to gather in the city square, the Red Guards tried to disperse the crowd with rifle butts, but this only led to an aggravation of the conflict.

One of the teenagers rushed to the horn at the fire station and managed to give a signal. In response, the assistant commandant of the Red Guard Toropilov shot and wounded the teenager. The Red Guards fired several volleys, and the crowd rushed in all directions. The workers of the Izhora plant began to run out to the sounds of a beep and firing, but the Red Guards pushed them back behind the entrance.

There is another version of the start of the shooting. According to the testimony of the worker of the Izhora plant M.V. Kostromitin, given to him by the commission of inquiry, G. Trofimov, member of the commission of inquiry at the Revolutionary Tribunal, started firing. When the beep rang, women surrounded him. Trofimov shouted: “Go away, I’ll shoot!” One of the women waved her bag at Trofimov and called him a parasite. A volley followed, and they shouted from the crowd: "You are giving bullets to the place of bread, which even the tsarist autocracy did not." Then a second salvo was heard. Both the Red Army and Trofimov fired. In the testimony of Kostromitin, Toropilov is not mentioned.

A rally began at the factory, which was attended by about two thousand people. The meeting decided to immediately re-elect the local council and demanded the arrest of those responsible for the execution of women and children. Upon leaving the factory, the workers themselves fell under the fire of the Red Guards: they were killed and wounded. Searches and arrests took place in Kolpino in the evening, and martial law was introduced in the city the next day.

Early in the morning of May 10, workers tried to get into the factory to hold a meeting, but were met by fire: as a result, at least six workers were seriously injured. In the afternoon, armored cars arrived in Kolpino, and machine guns appeared at all intersections.

The workers of the Izhora plant sent a delegation to Petrograd to inform the enterprises about the events in Kolpino. On the same day, rallies sharply condemning the actions of the authorities were held at the Obukhov and Putilov factories. On May 11, rallies were held at the Russian-Baltic Plant, at the Simmens-Shukkert Plant, at the Arsenal , at the Rechkin Plant and other enterprises of Petrograd and other industrial cities.

The funeral of the victims of the shooting, which took place on May 14, turned into a mass political rally in which at least a thousand people took part. Representatives of many Petrograd factories came from Petrograd to Kolpino: Arsenal, Patronny, Putilovsky, Obukhov, Russian-Baltic, Siemens-Shukkert, Neva paper station , Carriage building and others. Many came with factory banners and sang revolutionary songs. Wreaths were placed on the grave of the dead: "Victims of arbitrariness - the defenders of the hungry", "Victims of the hungry - dead from the well-fed power."

The day after the funeral, the Petrosoviet issued a note “For all to note,” which stated that the riots provoked the Right Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks . It was further argued that "the Soviet government will consider all processions and performances as direct assistance to an external enemy and will mercilessly suppress them."