‘A Crude Orgy of Drunken Violence’: A Russian Account of the Brisbane ‘Red Flag Riots’ of 1919

Abstract

In 1919, an illegal Russian-language newspaper published in Brisbane devoted a considerable amount of space to the events surrounding the Red Flag procession of 23 March and the violence and destruction which followed. The newspaper, entitled Nabat (The Tocsin) was largely the work of the two men who led the march, Alexander Zuzenko and Herman Bykoff, both of whom were soon deported to Soviet Russia. The first issue of Nabat, dated 6 August 1919, carried an anonymous report of the demonstration, clearly the work of a participant, identified here as Bykoff. The report continues in the second and last issue, with details of the immediate aftermath of the demonstration. An annotated translation of Bykoff's report is given here, preceded by an extended introduction which places the report in its historical context. No other detailed account of the event by a Russian participant exists. Nabat is itself a bibliographical rarity.