1917: the year of revolutions (2) October

Poster for Sergei Eisenstein's film, October.

This post is indebted to a number of books, most especially Orlando Figes, A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924 (Pimlico, 1997).

Key places 

1. The Smolny Institute, a former secondary school belonging to the ‘Society for the upbringing of Well-Born Girls’, founded by Catherine II. It had been the headquarters of the Soviet Executive since the July Days. The Bolshevik Central Committee was in Room 36. The Military Revolutionary Committee met on the 3rd floor. 
2. The Winter Palace where Kerensky had transferred his headquarters in July. 
3. The Petrograd garrison. 
4. The cruiser Aurora moored opposite the Winter Palace.
5. The Mariinsky Palace: home of the Pre-Parliament, a recently appointed body, giving a facade of democratic government until the Constituent Assembly met. 

Key organisations 

1. The All-Russian Congress of Soviets (not yet dominated by the Bolsheviks, though they were rapidly gaining influence). 
2. The Military Revolutionary Committee. This had been formed on 12 October and held its first organisational meeting on 20 October. It was a Bolshevik organisation, though it included Left Socialist Revolutionaries. Its real leader was Trotsky. 

After the resolution of 10 October, the Bolsheviks had decided on a revolution, but still did not agree on the date. Against fierce opposition from Zinoviev and Kamenev, Lenin continued to argue for a pre-emptive seizure of power before the meeting of the All Russian Congress of Soviets. 

The Winter Palace, now the Hermitage Museum and Art Gallery.

On 23 October, Kerensky ordered the closure of two Bolshevik newspapers, closed down the bridges over the Neva River and ordered troops to defend the Winter Palace. The cruiser, Aurora, whose sailors were heavily Bolshevik, was put out to sea. Within a few hours, however, it had returned to its base.

On 24 October, Trotsky, from his headquarters in the Smolny, set in motion the counter-measures to coordinate the revolution. On the night of 24-5 October the Red Guards secured the armoury at the Peter and Paul Fortress, and seized control of railway stations, post and telegraph offices, the state bank, and the electricity station. By dawn, they were in control of most of the city with the exception of the central zone around the Winter Palace. Kerensky fled the capital in the US ambassador’s car in search of troops. Members of his Cabinet remained in the Winter Palace.

On the morning of 25 October Bolshevik soldiers and sailors dispersed the Preparliament deputies in the Mariinsky Palace.  By this time about 5,000 sailors had arrived from the Kronstadt base, and this was sufficient to ensure the success of the uprising. Lenin made his way in disguise to the Smolny where Trotsky announced to an emergency meeting of the Petrograd Soviet that ‘Kerensky’s power has been overthrown’. Lenin then harangued the meeting on the need for a Soviet government ‘without any participation whatever by the bourgeoisie’. This was the moment when he took over the revolution and his party. Power could now be presented as a fait accompli and Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries were to be excluded. 

At 6 pm the assault on the Winter Palace began. This so-called ‘storming’ was more like a house arrest since most of the defending forces had left for home before the assault began. (More people were killed during the filming of Eisenstein’s October than in the actual storming.) Technical factors had prevented an earlier assault: the Baltic sailors arrived late, field guns discovered at the last moment were found to be inoperable, no red lantern could be found to start the assault. From Lenin's point of view, these delays were infuriating – it was vital to him to have the seizure of power completed before the opening of the Soviet Congress. But in fact, the Winter Palace could have been taken at any time. The building was defended by two companies of Cossacks, some young cadets from the military school, and 200 women from the Shock Battalion of Death - about 3000 soldiers in all. Morale was very low and they were short of food and ammunition. By the evening only 300 were left. 


At 9.40 a blank round was fired by the Aurora. The women from the Battalion of Death promptly became panic-stricken, and the cadets abandoned their post. When the real firing began, most of the shells fell in the Neva. 

The cruiser, Aurora, now
permanently anchored in the Neva

At 10.40 pm on the same evening, the Soviet Congress of 673 delegates finally opened in the great hall of the Smolny. The Bolsheviks did not have an absolute majority (300), though with the support of the Left SRs (nearly 100) they could push through any motions they liked. The mandates of the delegates showed a majority in favour of a Soviet (but not necessarily Bolshevik) government. But some Mensheviks and SRs began a bitter denunciation of the violent assault on the Provisional Government, and walked out of the room in protest. This split the opposition and left the floor clear for the Bolsheviks. Trotsky seized the initiative and famously denounced Martov and the Mensheviks as the 'dustbin of history'. 

At 2 am the Bolshevik troops entered the Winter Palace. Ministers were arrested and taken to the Peter and Paul Fortress. Six people died in the taking of the Palace, which was then looted by the mob.

When the news reached the Smolny, Soviet power was officially proclaimed and Lenin's manifesto promising 'land, bread and peace' was read out. The Congress of Soviets ratified the proclamation at 5 am.  Lenin said to Trotsky: ‘It makes one’s head spin.’

The October Revolution was unnoticed by the majority of Petrograd residents. It took 21 hours to accomplish, but need only have taken six.

Interpretations of the Revolution 

1. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, some historians have described the October Revolution as a military coup and have downplayed Lenin’s role. More recently his key importance has again been recognized; the Revolution was his creation. Overriding the objections of other party members, he demanded the violent overthrow of the Provisional Government, and he refused to share power with Mensheviks and Right Socialist Revolutionaries.
2.  The Bolshevik agenda (though not necessarily the party itself) was fundamentally popular. However, only a few thousand people actually took part in the Revolution. Many of those who did acted opportunistically, and used it as an opportunity to loot or to drink the Tsar's wine supply. This opened the way for a period of general lawlessness. 
3. The October Revolution was socially divisive in a way that the February Revolution was not. Bolshevism was rejected by the propertied classes and the bulk of the intelligentsia. 

The first decrees 

At 2.30 am on 26 October the Congress reconvened. It announced the formation of a new government, the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom), with Lenin as its Chairman, to hold power until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. Trotsky was to be Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Joseph Stalin Commissar for Nationalities. In the early months Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin formed a virtual triumvirate.

Lenin laid the 'Decree on Peace' and the 'Decree on Land' before the Congress. 

The Decree on Peace called for a speedy and omnilateral end to the fighting. Military victory by any nation, territorial annexations and post-war financial indemnities were repudiated. The decree ended with an appeal to British, French and German workers to bring about a peace that would emancipate all 'the labouring and exploited masses of the population'. This is the nearest Lenin came to a call for world revolution.

In practice the first result of the Decree was to encourage desertions. It made it more difficult to negotiate a favourable treaty with the Germans. 

The Decree on Land reflected Bolshevik nervousness - they had brought about a revolution in a country overwhelmingly composed of peasants. Land owned by the gentry, the crown and the monasteries would pass, without compensation to 'the disposal of peasant committees'. Land to be, not private property, but the legacy of all the people, distributed on an egalitarian basis. In practice, this sanctioned what was already happening. 

The Decree on the Press was issued on 27 October. This allowed for the closure of hostile newspapers.The decree was enforced immediately by the searching of houses and printing enterprises by the Military Revolutionary Committee. The Kadets were quickly declared 'enemies of the people' and arrested. 

The Decree on Workers' Control: On 14 November factory committees were given the right to control all aspects of production, including finance, and their decisions were to be binding on managers. This was open to a range of interpretations. Left-wingers interpreted it as meaningful workers' management, trade unionists as trade union control. Workers never got full control of the factory floor.  

In December the banks were nationalised. 

At midnight on 31 January 1918 the government switched to the New Style calendar. The next day was declared to be 14 February. On 11 March the capital was transferred from Petrograd to Moscow.

The Cheka

On 7 December 1917 the Cheka All·Russian Extraordinary Commission for Struggle against Counter. Revolution and Sabotage) later the KGB, was established under Felix Dzerzhinsky, taking over the functions of the disbanded MRC. 

Felix Dzerzhinsky, head of the Cheka.
RIA Novosti Archive.

Lenin’s handwritten notes demanded the shooting, killing, hanging of ‘bloodsuckers…spiders…leeches’. Trotsky said, 

‘We must put an end once and for all to the Papist-Quaker babble about the sanctity of human life.’

The Bolsheviks had started as they meant to go on.