When the military authorities sent out
another regiment to suppress the rebel Guards' Regiment they saw the new
force go over to the Revolution in a body. Other regiments deserted in the
same manner. The flower of the Russian army had joined the people in
revolting against the Czar and the system of Czarism.
On the side of the revolutionists were now many thousands of well-trained
soldiers, fully armed. Soon they took possession of the Arsenal, after
killing the commander. The soldiers made organized and systematic warfare
upon the police. Every policeman seen was shot down, police stations were
set on fire, and prisons were broken open and the prisoners released. The
numerous political prisoners were triumphantly liberated and took their
places in the revolutionary ranks. In rapid succession the great bastiles
fell! Peter and Paul Fortress, scene of infinite martyrdom, fell into the
hands of the revolutionary forces, and the prisoners, many of them heroes
and martyrs of other uprisings, were set free amid frenzied cheering. The
great Schluesselburg Fortress was likewise seized and emptied. With
twenty-five thousand armed troops on their side, the revolutionists were
practically masters of the capital.
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