Fedor Linde

Linde was killed trying to convince a group of soldiers to return to combat near Lutsk in 1917, and was hailed as a "fallen fighter of the people's cause", receiving a hero's funeral.

[5] During the Revolution, Linde took up command of the guard post at the gate of the Tauride Palace, having been elected by the Finland regiment to represent it in the Soviet council.

[6] Soldiers and officers like Linde were displayed with portraits in shop windows in the wake of the Revolution for their part in the events, but, according to Figes, have since "remained hidden from history books".

The Executive, however, passed a resolution in which they condemned Linde's actions, saying that the Soviet was not ready to assume power but should rather help the Provisional Government reassert its authority.

[8] Linde was denounced in the right-wing press as a "Bolshevik" in the wake of the events, depicting his demonstration as a bloody coup attempt – even though it had dissolved peacefully after having been ordered to do so by the Soviet.

[9] As a punishment for his role in the demonstration against Milyukov, the Soviet sent Linde into "exile" as a commissar to the Special Army on the front, where his leadership skills were to be used for the coming offensive;[10] he was satisfied with his new task.

One of the bands of deserters, the 443rd, 444th of the 3rd Infantry Division, had been terrorising the area surrounding Lutsk, and it was believed that the 500 Cossacks brought by General Pyotr Krasnov should be employed to crack down on their camp.

Linde, noticing two groups (one large, and one small, compact), addressed the smaller one which he realised contained the most "Bolshevized" troops, on the basis of their hardened looks.

He jumped onto a pile of logs and began speaking: "I, who brought the soldiers out to overthrow the tsarist government and to give you freedom, a freedom which is equalled by no other people in the world, demand that you now give me those who have been telling you not to obey the orders of the commanders",[This quote needs a citation] calling on the soldiers to defend the "Fatherland", pointing in the direction of the sounds of the enemy artillery.

[14] The agitated soldiers from the smaller Bolshevik group began heckling Linde, calling him a German spy and saying his methods were "worthy of the old regime".

The free, democratic press labelled him a "fallen fighter of the people's cause", and lauded him as a brilliant example of the "patriotic revolutionary" which the Russian army sorely needed.

Linde during the April Crisis of 1917