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November 7. Armed Bolsheviks storm the Winter Palace and dissolve the Provisional Government. The Petrograd Soviet takes complete control. Emergence.

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The October Revolution, officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution under the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Coup, the Bolshevik Revolution, the October Uprising, the October Coup or Red October, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was instrumental in the larger Russian Revolution of 1917-1923. It was the second revolutionary change of government in Russia in 1917. It took place through an armed insurrection in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) on 7 November 1917 [ O.S. 25 October]. It was the precipitating event of the Russian Civil War.

The October Revolution followed and capitalized on the February Revolution earlier in the year. The February Revolution had overthrown the Tsarist autocracy, resulting in a provisional government. The provisional government had taken power after being proclaimed by Grand Duke Michael, Tsar Nicholas II's younger brother, who declined to take power after the Tsar stepped down. During this time, urban workers began to organize into councils ( soviets) wherein revolutionaries criticized the provisional government and its actions. The provisional government's popularity imploded largely due to their decision to remain in World War I. To prevent further insurrections the Provisional Government began ruling with an iron fist throughout the summer which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of protesters in the July Days.

The July Days coupled with widespread anti-war sentiment contributed to the Bolshevik's rising popularity. Using this popularity, the Bolsheviks pressured the Directorate, led by the left-wing Socialist Revolutionary Party, to give into their demands. When this approach failed, the Bolsheviks began spreading calls for a military uprising. On 10 October 1917 (O.S.; 23 October, N.S.), the Petrograd Soviet, led by Trotsky, voted to back a military uprising. On 24 October (O.S.; 6 November, N.S.) the government shut down numerous newspapers and closed the city of Petrograd in an attempt to forestall the revolution; minor armed skirmishes broke out. The next day a full scale uprising erupted, as a fleet of Bolshevik sailors entered the harbor and tens of thousands of soldiers rose up in support of the Bolsheviks. Bolshevik Red Guards forces under the Military-Revolutionary Committee began the occupation of government buildings on 25 October (O.S.; 7 November, N.S.), 1917. The following day, the Winter Palace (the seat of the Provisional government located in Petrograd, then capital of Russia) was captured.

As the Revolution was not universally recognized, the country descended into civil war, which would last until 1923. The Bolsheviks having won the civil war, reconstituted the former Russian Empire into the Soviet Union in late 1922. Historiographical descriptions of the event have been widely varied since 1917. The victorious Bolsheviks viewed it as a validation of their ideology, and the triumph of the worker over capitalism. On the other hand, the Western powers saw it as a coup, where the Bolsheviks replaced the democratically controlled workers' Soviets with a totalitarian dictatorship.

During Soviet times, revolution day was made a national holiday, marking its importance in the country's founding story. The event inspired many cultural works, and ignited communist movements across Europe and globally. Many Marxist-Leninist parties around the world still celebrate revolution day. Contemporary Russia distanced itself from its Soviet past by removing the October Revolution as a national holiday.

Despite occurring in November of the Gregorian calendar, the event is most commonly known as the "October Revolution" (Октябрьская революция ) because at the time Russia still used the Julian calendar. The event is sometimes known as the "November Revolution", after the Soviet Union modernized its calendar. To avoid confusion, both O.S and N.S. dates have been given for events. For more details see Old Style and New Style dates.

At first, the event was referred to as the "October Coup" (Октябрьский переворот ) or the "Uprising of the 3rd," as seen in contemporary documents (for example, in the first editions of Lenin's complete works).

The February Revolution had toppled Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and replaced his government with the Russian Provisional Government. However, the provisional government was weak and riven by internal dissension. It continued to wage World War I, which became increasingly unpopular. There was a nationwide crisis affecting social, economic, and political relations. Disorder in industry and transport had intensified, and difficulties in obtaining provisions had increased. Gross industrial production in 1917 decreased by over 36% of what it had been in 1914. In the autumn, as much as 50% of all enterprises in the Urals, the Donbas, and other industrial centers were closed down, leading to mass unemployment. At the same time, the cost of living increased sharply. Real wages fell to about 50% of what they had been in 1913. By October 1917, Russia's national debt had risen to 50 billion rubles. Of this, debts to foreign governments constituted more than 11 billion rubles. The country faced the threat of financial bankruptcy.

Unrest by workers, peasants, and soldiers

Throughout June, July, and August 1917, it was common to hear working-class Russians speak about their lack of confidence in the Provisional Government. Factory workers around Russia felt unhappy with the growing shortages of food, supplies, and other materials. They blamed their managers or foremen and would even attack them in the factories. The workers blamed many rich and influential individuals for the overall shortage of food and poor living conditions. Workers saw these rich and powerful individuals as opponents of the Revolution, and called them "bourgeois", "capitalist", and "imperialist".

In September and October 1917, there were mass strike actions by the Moscow and Petrograd workers, miners in the Donbas, metalworkers in the Urals, oil workers in Baku, textile workers in the Central Industrial Region, and railroad workers on 44 railway lines. In these months alone, more than a million workers took part in strikes. Workers established control over production and distribution in many factories and plants in a social revolution. Workers organized these strikes through factory committees. The factory committees represented the workers and were able to negotiate better working conditions, pay, and hours. Even though workplace conditions may have been increasing in quality, the overall quality of life for workers was not improving. There were still shortages of food and the increased wages workers had obtained did little to provide for their families.

By October 1917, peasant uprisings were common. By autumn, the peasant movement against the landowners had spread to 482 of 624 counties, or 77% of the country. As 1917 progressed, the peasantry increasingly began to lose faith that the land would be distributed to them by the Social Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks. Refusing to continue living as before, they increasingly took measures into their own hands, as can be seen by the increase in the number and militancy of the peasant's actions. From the beginning of September to the October Revolution there were over a third as many peasant actions than since March. Over 42% of all the cases of destruction (usually burning down and seizing property from the landlord's estate) recorded between February and October occurred in October. While the uprisings varied in severity, complete uprisings and seizures of the land were not uncommon. Less robust forms of protest included marches on landowner manors and government offices, as well as withholding and storing grains rather than selling them. When the Provisional Government sent punitive detachments, it only enraged the peasants. In September, the garrisons in Petrograd, Moscow, and other cities, the Northern and Western fronts, and the sailors of the Baltic Fleet declared through their elected representative body Tsentrobalt that they did not recognize the authority of the Provisional Government and would not carry out any of its commands.

Soldiers' wives were key players in the unrest in the villages. From 1914 to 1917, almost 50% of healthy men were sent to war, and many were killed on the front, resulting in many females being head of the household. Often-when government allowances were late and were not sufficient to match the rising costs of goods-soldiers' wives sent masses of appeals to the government, which went largely unanswered. Frustration resulted, and these women were influential in inciting "subsistence riots"-also referred to as "hunger riots," " pogroms," or "baba riots." In these riots, citizens seized food and resources from shop owners, who they believed to be charging unfair prices. Upon police intervention, protesters responded with "rakes, sticks, rocks, and fists."

In a diplomatic note of 1 May, the minister of foreign affairs, Pavel Milyukov, expressed the Provisional Government's desire to continue the war against the Central Powers "to a victorious conclusion", arousing broad indignation. On 1-4 May, about 100,000 workers and soldiers of Petrograd, and, after them, the workers and soldiers of other cities, led by the Bolsheviks, demonstrated under banners reading "Down with the war!" and "All power to the soviets!" The mass demonstrations resulted in a crisis for the Provisional Government. 1 July saw more demonstrations, as about 500,000 workers and soldiers in Petrograd demonstrated, again demanding "all power to the soviets," "down with the war," and "down with the ten capitalist ministers." The Provisional Government opened an offensive against the Central Powers on 1 July, which soon collapsed. The news of the offensive's failure intensified the struggle of the workers and the soldiers. A new crisis in the Provisional Government began on 15 July.[citation needed ]

On 16 July, spontaneous demonstrations of workers and soldiers began in Petrograd, demanding that power be turned over to the soviets. The Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party provided leadership to the spontaneous movements. On 17 July, over 500,000 people participated in what was intended to be a peaceful demonstration in Petrograd, the so-called July Days. The Provisional Government, with the support of Socialist-Revolutionary Party- Menshevik leaders of the All-Russian Executive Committee of the Soviets, ordered an armed attack against the demonstrators, killing hundreds.

A period of repression followed. On 5-6 July, attacks were made on the editorial offices and printing presses of and on the Palace of Kshesinskaya, where the Central Committee and the Petrograd Committee of the Bolsheviks were located. On 7 July, the government ordered the arrest and trial of Vladimir Lenin, who was forced to go underground, as he had done under the Tsarist regime. Bolsheviks were arrested, workers were disarmed, and revolutionary military units in Petrograd were disbanded or sent to the war front. On 12 July, the Provisional Government published a law introducing the death penalty at the front. The second coalition government was formed on 24 July, chaired by Alexander Kerensky.

In response to a Bolshevik appeal, Moscow's working class began a protest strike of 400,000 workers. They were supported by strikes and protest rallies by workers in Kiev, Kharkov, Nizhny Novgorod, Ekaterinburg, and other cities.

In what became known as the Kornilov affair, General Lavr Kornilov, who had been Commander-in-Chief since 18 July, with Kerensky's agreement directed an army under Aleksandr Krymov to march toward Petrograd to restore order. Details remain sketchy, but Kerensky appeared to become frightened by the possibility that the army would stage a coup, and reversed the order. By contrast, historian Richard Pipes has argued that the episode was engineered by Kerensky. On 27 August, feeling betrayed by the government, Kornilov pushed on towards Petrograd. With few troops to spare at the front, Kerensky turned to the Petrograd Soviet for help. Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, and Socialist Revolutionaries confronted the army and convinced them to stand down. The Bolsheviks' influence over railroad and telegraph workers also proved vital in stopping the movement of troops. Right-wingers felt betrayed, and the left-wing was resurgent. The first direct consequence of Kornilov's failed coup was the formal abolition of the monarchy and the proclamation of the Russian Republic on 1 September.

With Kornilov defeated, the Bolsheviks' popularity in the soviets grew significantly, both in the central and local areas. On 31 August, the Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldiers Deputies-and, on 5 September, the Moscow Soviet Workers Deputies-adopted the Bolshevik resolutions on the question of power. The Bolsheviks won a majority in the soviets of Briansk, Samara, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, Minsk, Kiev, Tashkent, and other cities.

Vladimir Lenin, who had been living in exile in Switzerland, with other dissidents organized a plan to negotiate a passage for them through Germany, with whom Russia was then at war. Recognizing that these dissidents could cause problems for their Russian enemies, the German government agreed to permit 32 Russian citizens, among them Lenin and his wife, to travel in a sealed train carriage through their territory. According to Deutsche Welle:

On November 7, 1917, a coup d'état went down in history as the October Revolution. The interim government was toppled, the Soviets seized power, and Russia later terminated the Triple Entente military alliance with France and Britain. For Russia, it was effectively the end of the war. Kaiser Wilhelm II had spent around half a billion euros ($582 million) in today's money to weaken his wartime enemy.

On 10 October 1917 (O.S.; 23 October, N.S.), the Bolsheviks' Central Committee voted 10-2 for a resolution saying that "an armed uprising is inevitable, and that the time for it is fully ripe." At the Committee meeting, Lenin discussed how the people of Russia had waited long enough for "an armed uprising," and it was the Bolsheviks' time to take power. Lenin expressed his confidence in the success of the planned insurrection. His confidence stemmed from months of Bolshevik buildup of power and successful elections to different committees and councils in major cities such as Petrograd and Moscow.

The Bolsheviks created a revolutionary military committee within the Petrograd soviet, led by the soviet's president, Trotsky. The committee included armed workers, sailors, and soldiers, and assured the support or neutrality of the capital's garrison. The committee methodically planned to occupy strategic locations through the city, almost without concealing their preparations: the Provisional Government's president Kerensky was himself aware of them; and some details, leaked by Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev, were published in newspapers.

In the early morning of 24 October (O.S.; 6 November N.S.), a group of soldiers loyal to Kerensky's government marched on the printing house of the Bolshevik newspaper, Rabochiy put ( Worker's Path), seizing and destroying printing equipment and thousands of newspapers. Shortly thereafter, the government announced the immediate closure of not only Rabochiy put but also the left-wing Soldat, as well as the far-right newspapers Zhivoe slovo and Novaia Rus. The editors and contributors of these newspapers were seen to be calling for insurrection and were to be prosecuted on criminal charges.

In response, at 9a.m. the Bolshevik Military-Revolutionary Committee issued a statement denouncing the government's actions. At 10a.m., Bolshevik-aligned soldiers successfully retook the Rabochiy put printing house. Kerensky responded at approximately 3p.m. that afternoon by ordering the raising of all but one of Petrograd's bridges, a tactic used by the government several months earlier during the July Days. What followed was a series of sporadic clashes over control of the bridges, between Red Guard militias aligned with the Military-Revolutionary Committee and military units still loyal to the government. At approximately 5p.m. the Military-Revolutionary Committee seized the Central Telegraph of Petrograd, giving the Bolsheviks control over communications through the city.

On 25 October (O.S.; 7 November, N.S.) 1917, the Bolsheviks led their forces in the uprising in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg, then capital of Russia) against the Provisional Government. The event coincided with the arrival of a pro-Bolshevik flotilla-consisting primarily of five destroyers and their crews, as well as marines-in Petrograd harbor. At Kronstadt, sailors announced their allegiance to the Bolshevik insurrection. In the early morning, from its heavily guarded and picketed headquarters in Smolny Palace, the Military-Revolutionary Committee designated the last of the locations to be assaulted or seized. The Red Guards systematically captured major government facilities, key communication installations, and vantage points with little opposition. The Petrograd Garrison and most of the city's military units joined the insurrection against the Provisional Government. The insurrection was timed and organized to hand state power to the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, which began on this day.

Kerensky and the Provisional Government were virtually helpless to offer significant resistance. Railways and railway stations had been controlled by Soviet workers and soldiers for days, making rail travel to and from Petrograd impossible for Provisional Government officials. The Provisional Government was also unable to locate any serviceable vehicles. On the morning of the insurrection, Kerensky desperately searched for a means of reaching military forces he hoped would be friendly to the Provisional Government outside the city and ultimately borrowed a Renault car from the American embassy, which he drove from the Winter Palace, along with a Pierce Arrow. Kerensky was able to evade the pickets going up around the palace and to drive to meet approaching soldiers.

As Kerensky left Petrograd, Lenin wrote a proclamation To the Citizens of Russia, stating that the Provisional Government had been overthrown by the Military-Revolutionary Committee. The proclamation was sent by telegraph throughout Russia, even as the pro-Soviet soldiers were seizing important control centers throughout the city. One of Lenin's intentions was to present members of the Soviet congress, who would assemble that afternoon, with a fait accompli and thus forestall further debate on the wisdom or legitimacy of taking power.

A final assault against the Winter Palace -against 3,000 cadets, officers, cossacks, and female soldiers-was not vigorously resisted. The Bolsheviks delayed the assault because they could not find functioning artillery At 6:15p.m., a large group of artillery cadets abandoned the palace, taking their artillery with them. At 8:00p.m., 200 cossacks left the palace and returned to their barracks.

While the cabinet of the provisional government within the palace debated what action to take, the Bolsheviks issued an ultimatum to surrender. Workers and soldiers occupied the last of the telegraph stations, cutting off the cabinet's communications with loyal military forces outside the city. As the night progressed, crowds of insurgents surrounded the palace, and many infiltrated it. At 9:45p.m, the cruiser Aurora fired a blank shot from the harbor. Some of the revolutionaries entered the palace at 10:25p.m. and there was a mass entry 3 hours later.

By 2:10a.m. on 26 October, Bolshevik forces had gained control. The Cadets and the 140 volunteers of the Women's Battalion surrendered rather than resist the 40,000 strong attacking force. After sporadic gunfire throughout the building, the cabinet of the Provisional Government surrendered, and were imprisoned in Peter and Paul Fortress. The only member who was not arrested was Kerensky himself, who had already left the palace.

With the Petrograd Soviet now in control of government, garrison, and proletariat, the Second All Russian Congress of Soviets held its opening session on the day, while Trotsky dismissed the opposing Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries (SR) from Congress.

Dybenko's disputed role

Some sources contend that as the leader of Tsentrobalt, Pavlo Dybenko played a crucial role in the revolt and that the ten warships that arrived at the city with ten thousand Baltic Fleet mariners were the force that took the power in Petrograd and put down the Provisional Government. The same mariners then dispersed by force the elected parliament of Russia, and used machine-gun fire against demonstrators in Petrograd,[citation needed ] killing about 100 demonstrators and wounding several hundred.[citation needed ] Dybenko in his memoirs mentioned this event as "several shots in the air". These are disputed by various sources, such as Louise Bryant, who claims that news outlets in the West at the time reported that the unfortunate loss of life occurred in Moscow, not Petrograd, and the number was much less than suggested above. As for the "several shots in the air", there is little evidence suggesting otherwise.

While the seizure of the Winter Palace happened almost without resistance, Soviet historians and officials later tended to depict the event in dramatic and heroic terms. The historical reenactment titled The Storming of the Winter Palace was staged in 1920. This reenactment, watched by 100,000 spectators, provided the model for official films made later, which showed fierce fighting during the storming of the Winter Palace, although, in reality, the Bolshevik insurgents had faced little opposition.

Later accounts of the heroic "storming of the Winter Palace" and "defense of the Winter Palace" were propaganda by Bolshevik publicists. Grandiose paintings depicting the "Women's Battalion" and photo stills taken from Sergei Eisenstein's staged film depicting the "politically correct" version of the October events in Petrograd came to be taken as truth.

The Second Congress of Soviets consisted of 670 elected delegates: 300 were Bolshevik and nearly 100 were Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, who also supported the overthrow of the Alexander Kerensky government. When the fall of the Winter Palace was announced, the Congress adopted a decree transferring power to the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, thus ratifying the Revolution.

The transfer of power was not without disagreement. The center and right wings of the Socialist Revolutionaries, as well as the Mensheviks, believed that Lenin and the Bolsheviks had illegally seized power and they walked out before the resolution was passed. As they exited, they were taunted by Trotsky who told them "You are pitiful isolated individuals; you are bankrupts; your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on-into the dustbin of history!"

The following day, 26 October, the Congress elected a new cabinet of Bolsheviks, pending the convocation of a Constituent Assembly. This new Soviet government was known as the Council (Soviet) of People's Commissars ( Sovnarkom), with Lenin as a leader. Lenin allegedly approved of the name, reporting that it "smells of revolution". The cabinet quickly passed the Decree on Peace and the Decree on Land. This new government was also officially called "provisional" until the Assembly was dissolved.

That same day, posters were pinned on walls and fences by the right-wing Socialist Revolutionaries, describing the takeover as a "crime against the motherland" and "revolution"; this signaled the next wave of anti-Bolshevik sentiment. The next day, the Mensheviks seized power in Georgia and declared it an independent republic; the Don Cossacks also claimed control of their government. The Bolshevik strongholds were in the cities, particularly Petrograd, with support much more mixed in rural areas. The peasant-dominated Left SR party was in coalition with the Bolsheviks. There were reports that the Provisional Government had not conceded defeat and were meeting with the army at the Front.

Anti-Bolshevik sentiment continued to grow as posters and newspapers started criticizing the actions of the Bolsheviks and refuted their authority. The Executive Committee of Peasants Soviets "[refuted] with indignation all participation of the organized peasantry in this criminal violation of the will of the working class". This eventually developed into major counter-revolutionary action, as on 30 October (O.S., 12 November, N.S.) when Cossacks, welcomed by church bells, entered Tsarskoye Selo on the outskirts of Petrograd with Kerensky riding on a white horse. Kerensky gave an ultimatum to the rifle garrison to lay down weapons, which was promptly refused. They were then fired upon by Kerensky's cossacks, which resulted in 8 deaths. This turned soldiers in Petrograd against Kerensky as being the Tsarist regime. Kerensky's failure to assume authority over troops was described by John Reed as a "fatal blunder" that signaled the final end of his government. Over the following days, the battle against the anti-Bolsheviks continued. The Red Guard fought against cossacks at Tsarskoye Selo, with the cossacks breaking rank and fleeing, leaving their artillery behind. On 31 October 1917 (13 November, N.S), the Bolsheviks gained control of Moscow after a week of bitter street-fighting. Artillery had been freely used, with an estimated 700 casualties. However, there was continued support for Kerensky in some of the provinces.

After the fall of Moscow, there was only minor public anti-Bolshevik sentiment, such as the newspaper Novaya Zhizn, which criticized the Bolsheviks' lack of manpower and organization in running their party, let alone a government. Lenin confidently claimed that there is "not a shadow of hesitation in the masses of Petrograd, Moscow and the rest of Russia" in accepting Bolshevik rule.

On 10 November 1917 (23 November, N.S.), the government applied the term "citizens of the Russian Republic" to Russians, whom they sought to make equal in all possible respects, by the nullification of all "legal designations of civil inequality, such as estates, titles, and ranks."

The long-awaited Constituent Assembly elections were held on 12 November (O.S., 25 November, N.S.) 1917. In contrast to their majority in the Soviets, the Bolsheviks only won 175 seats in the 715-seat legislative body, coming in second behind the Socialist Revolutionary Party, which won 370 seats, although the SR Party no longer existed as a whole party by that time, as the Left SRs had gone into coalition with the Bolsheviks from October 1917 to March 1918 (a cause of dispute of the legitimacy of the returned seating of the Constituent Assembly, as the old lists, were drawn up by the old SR Party leadership, and thus represented mostly Right SRs, whereas the peasant soviet deputies had returned majorities for the pro-Bolshevik Left SRs). The Constituent Assembly was to first meet on 28 November (O.S.) 1917, but its convocation was delayed until 5 January (O.S.; 18 January, N.S.) 1918 by the Bolsheviks. On its first and only day in session, the Constituent Assembly came into conflict with the Soviets, and it rejected Soviet decrees on peace and land, resulting in the Constituent Assembly being dissolved the next day by order of the Congress of Soviets.

On 16 December 1917 (29 December, N.S.), the government ventured to eliminate hierarchy in the army, removing all titles, ranks, and uniform decorations. The tradition of saluting was also eliminated.

On 20 December 1917 (2 January 1918, N.S.), the Cheka was created by Lenin's decree. These were the beginnings of the Bolsheviks' consolidation of power over their political opponents. The Red Terror began in September 1918, following a failed assassination attempt on Lenin. The French Jacobin Terror was an example for the Soviet Bolsheviks. Trotsky had compared Lenin to Maximilien Robespierre as early as 1904.

The Decree on Land ratified the actions of the peasants who throughout Russia had taken private land and redistributed it among themselves. The Bolsheviks viewed themselves as representing an alliance of workers and peasants signified by the Hammer and Sickle on the flag and the coat of arms of the Soviet Union. Other decrees:

5 November 1917: Tallinn.

7 November 1917: Petrograd, Minsk, Novgorod, Ivanovo-Voznesensk and Tartu

8 November 1917: Ufa, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, and Narva; (failed in Kiev)

9 November 1917: Vitebsk, Yaroslavl, Saratov, Samara, and Izhevsk

10 November 1917: Rostov, Tver, and Nizhny Novgorod

12 November 1917: Voronezh, Smolensk, and Gomel

13 November 1917: Tambov

14 November 1917: Orel and Perm

15 November 1917: Pskov, Moscow, and Baku

27 November 1917: Tsaritsyn

1 December 1917: Mogilev

8 December 1917: Vyatka

10 December 1917: Kishinev

11 December 1917: Kaluga

14 December 1917: Novorossisk

15 December 1917: Kostroma

20 December 1917: Tula

24 December 1917: Kharkov (invasion of Ukraine by the Muravyov Red Guard forces, the establishment of Soviet Ukraine and hostilities in the region)

29 December 1917: Sevastopol (invasion of Crimea by the Red Guard forces, the establishment of the Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic)

4 January 1918: Penza

11 January 1918: Yekaterinoslav

17 January 1918: Petrozavodsk

19 January 1918: Poltava

22 January 1918: Zhitomir

26 January 1918: Simferopol

27 January 1918: Nikolayev

29 January 1918: (failed again in Kiev)

31 January 1918: Odessa and Orenburg (establishment of the Odessa Soviet Republic)

7 February 1918: Astrakhan

8 February 1918: Kiev and Vologda (defeat of the Ukrainian government)

17 February 1918: Arkhangelsk

25 February 1918: Novocherkassk

Bolshevik-led attempts to gain power in other parts of the Russian Empire were largely successful in Russia proper-although the fighting in Moscow lasted for two weeks-but they were less successful in ethnically non-Russian parts of the Empire, which had been clamoring for independence since the February Revolution. For example, the Ukrainian Rada, which had declared autonomy on 23 June 1917, created the Ukrainian People's Republic on 20 November, which was supported by the Ukrainian Congress of Soviets. This led to an armed conflict with the Bolshevik government in Petrograd and, eventually, a Ukrainian declaration of independence from Russia on 25 January 1918. In Estonia, two rival governments emerged: the Estonian Provincial Assembly, established in April 1917, proclaimed itself the supreme legal authority of Estonia on 28 November 1917 and issued the Declaration of Independence on 24 February 1918; but Soviet Russia recognized the Executive Committee of the Soviets of Estonia as the legal authority in the province, although the Soviets in Estonia controlled only the capital and a few other major towns.

After the success of the October Revolution transformed the Russian state into a soviet republic, a coalition of anti-Bolshevik groups attempted to unseat the new government in the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1922. In an attempt to intervene in the civil war after the Bolsheviks' separate peace with the Central Powers, the Allied Powers (the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the United States, and Japan) occupied parts of the Soviet Union for over two years before finally withdrawing. The United States did not recognize the new Russian government until 1933. The European powers recognized the Soviet Union in the early 1920s and began to engage in business with it after the New Economic Policy (NEP) was implemented.[citation needed ]

Historical research into few events has been as influenced by the researcher's political outlook as that of the October Revolution. The historiography of the Revolution generally divides into three camps: Soviet-Marxist, Western-Totalitarian, and Revisionist.

Soviet historiography of the October Revolution is intertwined with Soviet historical development. Many of the initial Soviet interpreters of the Revolution were themselves Bolshevik revolutionaries. After the initial wave of revolutionary narratives, Soviet historians worked within "narrow guidelines" defined by the Soviet government. The rigidity of interpretive possibilities reached its height under Stalin.

Soviet historians of the Revolution interpreted the October Revolution as being about establishing the legitimacy of Marxist ideology and the Bolshevik government. To establish the accuracy of Marxist ideology, Soviet historians generally described the Revolution as the product of class struggle and that it was the supreme event in a world history governed by historical laws. The Bolshevik Party is placed at the center of the Revolution, as it exposes the errors of both the moderate Provisional Government and the spurious "socialist" Mensheviks in the Petrograd Soviet. Guided by Lenin's leadership and his firm grasp of scientific Marxist theory, the Party led the "logically predetermined" events of the October Revolution from beginning to end. The events were, according to these historians, logically predetermined because of the socio-economic development of Russia, where monopolistic industrial capitalism had alienated the masses. In this view, the Bolshevik party took the leading role in organizing these alienated industrial workers, and thereby established the construction of the first socialist state.

Although Soviet historiography of the October Revolution stayed relatively constant until 1991, it did undergo some changes. Following Stalin's death, historians such as E. N. Burdzhalov and P. V. Volobuev published historical research that deviated significantly from the party line in refining the doctrine that the Bolshevik victory "was predetermined by the state of Russia's socio-economic development". These historians, who constituted the "New Directions Group", posited that the complex nature of the October Revolution "could only be explained by a multi-causal analysis, not by recourse to the mono-causality of monopoly capitalism". For them, the central actor is still the Bolshevik party, but this party triumphed "because it alone could solve the preponderance of 'general democratic' tasks the country faced" (such as the struggle for peace and the exploitation of landlords).

During the late Soviet period, the opening of select Soviet archives during glasnost sparked innovative research that broke away from some aspects of Marxism-Leninism, though the key features of the orthodox Soviet view remained intact.

Following the turn of the 21st century, some Soviet historians began to implement an "anthropological turn" in their historiographical analysis of the Russian Revolution. This method of analysis focuses on the average person's experience of day-to-day life during the revolution, and pulls the analytical focus away from larger events, notable revolutionaries, and overarching claims about party views. In 2006, S. V. Iarov employed this methodology when he focused on citizen adjustment to the new Soviet system. Iarov explored the dwindling labor protests, evolving forms of debate, and varying forms of politicization as a result of the new Soviet rule from 1917 to 1920. In 2010, O. S. Nagornaia took interest in the personal experiences of Russian prisoners-of-war taken by Germany, examining Russian soldiers and officers' ability to cooperate and implement varying degrees of autocracy despite being divided by class, political views, and race. Other analyses following this "anthropological turn" have explored texts from soldiers and how they used personal war-experiences to further their political goals, as well as how individual life-structure and psychology may have shaped major decisions in the civil war that followed the revolution.

During the Cold War, Western historiography of the October Revolution developed in direct response to the assertions of the Soviet view. As a result, Western historians exposed what they believed were flaws in the Soviet view, thereby undermining the Bolsheviks' original legitimacy, as well as the precepts of Marxism.

These Western historians described the revolution as the result of a chain of contingent accidents. Examples of these accidental and contingent factors they say precipitated the Revolution included World War I's timing, chance, and the poor leadership of Tsar Nicholas II as well as that of liberal and moderate socialists. According to Western historians, it was not popular support, but rather a manipulation of the masses, ruthlessness, and the party discipline of the Bolsheviks that enabled their triumph. For these historians, the Bolsheviks' defeat in the Constituent Assembly elections of November-December 1917 demonstrated popular opposition to the Bolsheviks' revolution, as did the scale and breadth of the Civil War.

Western historians saw the organization of the Bolshevik party as proto-totalitarian. Their interpretation of the October Revolution as a violent coup organized by a proto-totalitarian party reinforced for them the idea that totalitarianism was an inherent part of Soviet history. The democratic promise of the February Revolution came to an end with the forced dissolution of the Constituent Assembly. Thus, Stalinist totalitarianism developed as a natural progression from Leninism and the Bolshevik party's tactics and organization.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union affected historical interpretations of the October Revolution. Since 1991, increasing access to large amounts of Soviet archival materials has made it possible to re‑examine the October Revolution. Though both Western and Russian historians now have access to many of these archives, the effect of the dissolution of the USSR can be seen most clearly in the work of the latter. While the disintegration essentially helped solidify the Western and Revisionist views, post-USSR Russian historians largely repudiated the former Soviet historical interpretation of the Revolution. As Stephen Kotkin argues, 1991 prompted "a return to political history and the apparent resurrection of totalitarianism, the interpretive view that, in different ways...revisionists sought to bury".

The October Revolution marks the inception of the first communist government in Russia, and thus the first large-scale and constitutionally ordained socialist state in world history. After this, the Russian Republic became the Russian SFSR, which later became part of the Soviet Union.

The October Revolution also made the ideology of communism influential on a global scale in the 20th century. Communist parties would start to form in many countries after 1917.

Ten Days That Shook the World, a book written by American journalist John Reed and first published in 1919, gives a firsthand exposition of the events. Reed died in 1920, shortly after the book was finished.

Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No. 2 in B major, Op. 14, and subtitled it To October, for the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. The choral finale of the work, "To October", is set to a text by Alexander Bezymensky, which praises Lenin and the revolution. The Symphony No. 2 was first performed on 5 November 1927 by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academy Capella Choir under the direction of Nikolai Malko.

Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov's film October: Ten Days That Shook the World, first released on 20 January 1928 in the USSR and on 2 November 1928 in New York City, describes and glorifies the revolution, having been commissioned to commemorate the event.

The term "Red October" (Красный Октябрь, Krasnyy Oktyabr) has been used to signify the October Revolution. "Red October" was given to a steel factory that was made notable by the Battle of Stalingrad, a Moscow sweets factory that is well known in Russia, and a fictional Soviet submarine in both Tom Clancy's 1984 novel The Hunt for Red October and the 1990 film adaptation of the same name.

7 November, the anniversary of the October Revolution according to the Gregorian Calendar, was the official national day of the Soviet Union from 1918 onward and still is a public holiday in Belarus and the breakaway territory of Transnistria. Communist parties both in and out of power celebrate November 7 as the date Marxist parties began to take power.

Acton, Edward (1997). Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution.

Ascher, Abraham (2014). The Russian Revolution: A Beginner's Guide. Oneworld Publications.

Bone, Ann (trans.) (1974). The Bolsheviks and the October Revolution: Central Committee Minutes of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) August 1917-February 1918. Pluto Press. ISBN 0-902818546.

Bunyan, James; Fisher, Harold Henry (1934). The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1918: Documents and Materials. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press. OCLC 253483096.

Chamberlin, William Henry (1935). The Russian Revolution. Vol. I: 1917-1918: From the Overthrow of the Tsar to the Assumption of Power by the Bolsheviks. online vol 1; also online vol 2

online free to borrow

Guerman, Mikhail (1979). Art of the October Revolution.

Kollontai, Alexandra (1971). "The Years of Revolution". The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman. New York: Herder and Herder. OCLC 577690073.

Krupskaya, Nadezhda (1930). "The October Days". Reminiscences of Lenin. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House. OCLC 847091253.

Luxemburg, Rosa (1940) [1918]. The Russian Revolution. Translated by Bertram Wolfe. New York City: Workers Age. OCLC 579589928.

Mandel, David (1984). The Petrograd Workers and the Soviet seizure of power. London: MacMillan. ISBN 9780312603953.

Radek, Karl (1995) [First published 1922 as "Wege der Russischen Revolution"]. "The Paths of the Russian Revolution". In Bukharin, Nikolai; Richardson, Al (eds.). In Defence of the Russian Revolution: A Selection of Bolshevik Writings, 1917-1923. London: Porcupine Press. pp. 35-75. ISBN 1899438017. OCLC 33294798.

Read, Christopher (1996). From Tsars to Soviets.

Reed, John (1997) [1919]. Ten Days that Shook the World. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Serge, Victor (1972) [1930]. Year One of the Russian Revolution. London: Penguin Press. OCLC 15612072.

Service, Robert (1998). A history of twentieth-century Russia. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-40347-9.

Shukman, Harold, ed. (1998). The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Russian Revolution. articles by over 40 specialists

Swain, Geoffrey (2014). Trotsky and the Russian Revolution. Routledge.

Trotsky, Leon (1930). "XXVI: From July to October". My Life. London: Thornton Butterworth. OCLC 181719733.

Trotsky, Leon (1932). The History of the Russian Revolution. Vol. III. Translated by Max Eastman. London: Gollancz. OCLC 605191028.

Wade, Rex A. "The Revolution at One Hundred: Issues and Trends in the English Language Historiography of the Russian Revolution of 1917." Journal of Modern Russian History and Historiography 9.1 (2016): 9-38. doi:10.1163/22102388-00900003

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The October Revolution, officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution under the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Coup, the Bolshevik Revolution, the October Uprising, the October Coup or Red October, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was instrumental in the larger Russian Revolution of 1917-1923.

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`To counter Kornilov's advance, Kerensky releases political prisoners, led by Trotsky, to form the Red Guard. This is emergence and it gives some power to the Bolsheviks,

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Leon Trotsky, byname of Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, (born November 7 [October 26, Old Style], 1879, Yanovka, Ukraine, Russian Empire-died August 21, 1940, Coyoacán, Mexico), communist theorist and agitator, a leader in Russia's October Revolution in 1917, and later commissar of foreign affairs and of war in the Soviet Union (1917-24). In the struggle for power following Vladimir Ilich Lenin's death, however, Joseph Stalin emerged as victor, while Trotsky was removed from all positions of power and later exiled (1929). He remained the leader of an anti-Stalinist opposition abroad until his assassination by a Stalinist agent.

Who was Leon Trotsky?

What was Leon Trotsky's role in the October Revolution?

What did Leon Trotsky believe?

What was the relationship between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin?

How did Leon Trotsky die?

Early life, education, and revolutionary career

Trotsky's father, David Bronshtein, was a farmer of Russified Jewish background who had settled as a colonist in the steppe region, and his mother, Anna, was of the educated middle class. He had an older brother and sister; two other siblings died in infancy. At the age of eight, he was sent to school in Odessa, where he spent eight years with the family of his mother's nephew, a liberal intellectual. When he moved to Nikolayev in 1896 to complete his schooling, he was drawn into an underground socialist circle and introduced to Marxism. After briefly attending the University of Odessa, he returned to Nikolayev to help organize the underground South Russian Workers' Union.

Arrested in January 1898 for revolutionary activity, Bronshtein spent four and a half years in prison and in exile in Siberia, during which time he married his coconspirator Aleksandra Sokolovskaya and fathered two daughters. He escaped in 1902 with a forged passport bearing the name Trotsky, which he adopted as his revolutionary pseudonym. His wife remained behind, and the separation became permanent. Trotsky made his way to London, where he joined the group of Russian Social-Democrats working with Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) on the revolutionary newspaper ("The Spark").

At the Second Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party, held in Brussels and London in July 1903, Trotsky sided with the Menshevik faction-advocating a democratic approach to socialism-against Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Shortly before this, in Paris, Trotsky had met and married Natalya Sedova, by whom he subsequently had two sons, Lev and Sergey.

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Upon the outbreak of revolutionary disturbances in 1905, Trotsky returned to Russia. He became a leading spokesman of the St. Petersburg Soviet (council) of Workers' Deputies when it organized a revolutionary strike movement and other measures of defiance against the tsarist government. In the aftermath, Trotsky was jailed and brought to trial in 1906. While incarcerated, Trotsky wrote one of his major works, "Results and Prospects," setting forth his theory of permanent revolution.

In 1907, after a second exile to Siberia, Trotsky once again escaped. He settled in Vienna and supported himself as a correspondent in the Balkan Wars of 1912-13. At the outbreak of World War I, Trotsky joined the majority of Russian Social-Democrats who condemned the war and refused to support the war effort of the tsarist regime. He moved to Switzerland and then to Paris. His antiwar stance led to his expulsion from both France and Spain. He reached New York City in January 1917, where he joined the Bolshevik theoretician Nikolay Bukharin in editing the Russian-language paper Novy Mir ("The New World").

Trotsky hailed the outbreak of revolution in Russia in February (March, New Style) as the opening of the permanent revolution he had predicted. He reached Petrograd in mid-May and assumed the leadership of a left-wing Menshevik faction. Following the abortive July Days uprising, Trotsky was arrested in the crackdown on the Bolshevik leadership carried out by Aleksandr Kerensky's liberal government. In August, while still in jail, Trotsky was formally admitted to the Bolshevik Party and was also elected to membership on the Bolshevik Central Committee. He was released from prison in September and shortly afterward was elected chairman of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies.

When fighting was precipitated by an ineffectual government raid early on November 6 (October 24, Old Style), Trotsky took a leading role in directing countermeasures for the soviet, while reassuring the public that his Military Revolutionary Committee meant only to defend the Congress of Soviets. Governmental authority crumbled quickly, and Petrograd was largely in Bolshevik hands by the time Lenin reappeared from the underground on November 7 to take direct charge of the Revolution and present the Congress of Soviets with an accomplished fact when it convened next day.

Trotsky continued to function as the military leader of the Revolution when Kerensky vainly attempted to retake Petrograd with loyal troops. He organized and supervised the forces that broke Kerensky's efforts at the Battle of Pulkovo on November 13. Immediately afterward he joined Lenin in defeating proposals for a coalition government including Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries.

born

November 7, 1879
Yanovka, Ukraine

died

August 21, 1940 (aged 60)
Coyoacan, Mexico

title / office

political affiliation

role in

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Leon Trotsky | Biography, Books, Assassination, & Facts

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Leon Trotsky, byname of Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, (born November 7 [October 26, Old Style], 1879, Yanovka, Ukraine, Russian Empire-died August 21, 1940, Coyoacán, Mexico), communist theorist and agitator, a leader in Russia's October Revolution in 1917, and later commissar of foreign affairs and of war in the Soviet Union (1917-24).

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September 10-13. Royalist General Lavr Kornilov Marches on Petrograd to depose the Provisional Government. The army is defeated by Trotsky's Red Guard and Kornilov is imprisoned.

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Lavr Georgiyevich Kornilov ( Russian: Лавр Гео́ргиевич Корни́лов, IPA: [ˈɫavr kɐrˈnʲiɫəf]; 18 August 1870 - 13 April 1918) was a military intelligence officer, explorer, and general in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and the ensuing Russian Civil War.

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July 16-20. Spontaneous protest of the provisional government break out. Soldiers and workers take to the streets. Lenin flees and Trotsky is arrested. A setback in the emergence.

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July Days

Part of the Russian Revolution

Rioters on the Nevsky Prospect come
under machine gun fire, 17 July

Date

16-20 July [ O.S. 3-7 July] 1917

Location

Result

Government victory, dispersion of demonstrations and strikes, arrest of Bolshevik leaders

Belligerents

Bolsheviks
Anarchists

Provisional Government
Supported by:
Mensheviks
Socialist Revolutionaries

Commanders and leaders

Vladimir Lenin
Leon Trotsky
Grigory Zinoviev
Lev Kamenev
Fyodor Raskolnikov

Georgy Lvov
Alexander Kerensky
Lavr Kornilov

Strength

500,000 demonstrators,[1] 4,000-5,000 Red Guard soldiers, few hundred anarchist sailors, and 12,000 soldiers

Several thousand police and soldiers

The July Days ( Russian: Июльские дни) were a period of unrest in Petrograd, Russia, between 16-20 July [ O.S. 3-7 July] 1917. It was characterised by spontaneous armed demonstrations by soldiers, sailors, and industrial workers engaged against the Russian Provisional Government. The demonstrations were angrier and more violent than those during the February Revolution months earlier.

The Provisional Government blamed the Bolsheviks for the violence brought about by the July Days and in a subsequent crackdown on the Bolshevik Party, the party was dispersed, many of the leadership arrested. Vladimir Lenin fled to Finland, while Leon Trotsky was among those arrested.

The outcome of the July Days represented a temporary decline in the growth of Bolshevik power and influence in the period before the October Revolution.

Note: Dates given in this article reference the Julian Calendar, which was used in Russia until 14 February [O.S. 1 February] 1918.

In April 1917, Lenin gave his April Theses, declaring that the proletariat should overthrow the bourgeoisie, oust the Provisional Government, and take power. Though initially received with outrage, Lenin's idea of an armed, proletarian insurrection became increasingly popular. By July, rank-and-file Bolsheviks in particular spoke of overthrowing the Provisional Government, whom they considered bourgeois.

Shortly after Lenin's address, on April 18, 1917 it was revealed by a diplomatic note sent by Pavel Milyukov that the Provisional Government supported continuing with the war, even though they publicly claimed otherwise. As a result, there were mass popular demonstrations of discontent. In the aftermath of these demonstrations, the Provisional Government, at that time composed primarily of liberals, was reshuffled to include Socialist-Revolutionaries, creating a coalition government. Refusing to take part in the coalition, the Bolsheviks were the only socialist faction to emerge from these events, known as the April Crisis, without negative association with the continuation of the Russian involvement in the war. As a result, the Bolsheviks gained much support from soldiers, who were increasingly frustrated with the Provisional Government.

Following the events of April, the Bolshevik Party gained support primarily among soldiers and workers, as the Bolsheviks were vocally critical of the Provisional Government. Peasants were more likely to support the Socialist-Revolutionaries, who focused more on the question of land reform and distribution.

Also in the Kronstadt naval base which was mostly under the influence of the Bolsheviks and Anarchists, caused strong concerns for the Provisional Government. As early as May 1917, the Kronstadt Soviet became the main authority in the city. An important role in the transition of Kronstadt sailors to the side of the Bolsheviks was played, at the time, by deputy chairman of the Kronstadt Council Fyodor Raskolnikov.

A common conspiracy claim to explain the problems Russia faced was sabotage from "counterrevolutionaries", a label whose definition changed depending on the accuser. The Bolsheviks took the socialist anti-capitalist sentiments and extended the suspicion to the British and French allies as one way to explain why the "bourgeois" government was continuing Russian involvement in the unpopular war. Growing unhappiness with the Provisional Government's inaction regarding land reform, industrial reform, ceasing the war, and food shortages led to a growing demand for an all-socialist government. Demands using the popular slogan from April, "All Power to the Soviets", increased, supported by the Bolshevik Party and Lenin's April Theses.

In late June 1917, in an effort to bolster support for the war effort through triumph in battle, then-War Minister Aleksandr Kerensky authorized a military offensive on the Eastern front.

The offensive began 18 June 1917 and continued to 6 July 1917, coinciding with the July Days. The Russian soldiers initially saw victory over the Austro-Hungarian forces, whom they managed to take by surprise, but German troops soon began a counteroffensive that devastated the Russian army. The offensive was met at home with extreme disfavor and discontent, creating an opposite effect of what the government intended. Rather than creating support for the Provisional Government, disorder on the front continued and dissatisfaction with the government and its disastrous policies grew.

Because of the coalition situation created by the events of April, the only political faction that opposed the offensive was the Bolsheviks.

Leading up to the July Days, the Provisional Government faced a crisis that resulted in a later reshuffling of the government makeup.

The liberal Kadet party, in the face of the failures of the government, criticised its ineffective policies and failures to take action. On 2 July, four Kadet ministers walked out of the coalition government in protest, leaving the Provisional Government composed primarily of moderate left socialists. Furthermore, Prime Minister Georgy Lvov announced to the government that he planned to resign on 7 July as well.

The morning of July 3, 1917, the First Machine Gun Regiment planned out demonstrations to carry out later that day. With the help of Bolshevik activists, they elected a committee to help delegate resources and to gather support. On the evening of July 3 demonstrations broke out in Petrograd. Led by the First Machine Gun Regiment, armed soldiers marched through the streets, with workers and other divisions of soldiers quickly joining as they marched to the Tauride Palace. These demonstrators marched under the slogan "All Power to the Soviets", wanting the group to not only seize but use their power. Throughout the day, soldiers fired their rifles into the air and commandeered vehicles.

The following day, July 4, the protests continued, with more soldiers and workers joining in, including a division from a nearby naval base. The protestors also grew more violent, breaking and shooting into apartments and attacking wealthy passersby. The crowds outside of the Tauride Palace demanded to see a government official, and the Soviet Leaders sent out Viktor Chernov. When he tried to calm the crowd, they instead seized him, with one protestor famously shouting, "Take power, you son of a bitch, when it is handed to you!" The crowd continued to hold Chernov hostage until Trotsky made his way through the crowd, urging the crowd to release the man, which they did.

The protesters, most of them Bolshevik supporters, attempted to gain support from the Bolshevik party. But when they gathered near the Bolshevik headquarters, Lenin initially refused to see them. In the end, he simply gave them a brief speech, yet refused to give them his support, with the Bolshevik party pulling their support soon after. Without any leadership to support them, the protesters soon dispersed.

At midnight on July 3, the Soviet leaders called a closed meeting, and the consensus was that they would not be forced to take power. They also proceeded to blame the Bolsheviks for the demonstrations, though it is unclear whether the Bolshevik party actually orchestrated the entire event, or if it was simply a spontaneous demonstration that happened to include Bolshevik supporters. In either case, the Bolshevik party refused to openly support the demonstrations.

The military authorities sent troops against the demonstrators, leading to many arrests and possibly several hundred deaths due to the violence in the streets. The Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks supported punitive measures against the insurgents. They began to disarm workers, disband revolutionary military units, and carry out arrests. On July 5-6 the offices and printing plant of and the headquarters of the Bolshevik Central Committee were destroyed. On July 7 the Provisional Government issued an order for the arrest of Lenin, who was forced to go underground. On July 8 troops loyal to the regime arrived in Petrograd from the front.

The leaders of the Bolshevik during the July Days included Vladimir Lenin, in large part, along with Leon Trotsky, Grigory Zinoviev, and Lev Kamenev. The leadership responsibility in the events of July Days is still debated, and the Bolsheviks and Soviets both had periods of uncertainty in their involvement. The protesters, made up largely of soldiers, sailors, and factory workers, on the streets during July Days, were many in number but weak in leadership from the Bolsheviks and the Soviets. "All Power to the Soviets" and other slogans were put forth by the Bolsheviks, but July Days was not a gathering of power to Lenin. Despite his political skill and cry for "Land, Bread, Peace," Bolshevik support was not strong enough for him to be a powerful leader immediately following July Days, especially with the Provisional government trying to lessen the trust of his followers by charges of German spying. Though there was controversy of Bolshevik's intentions during July Days, the seemingly inadequate leadership did not assume power, whether they desired it or not.

Some Bolsheviks saw the July Days demonstrations as dangerous and feared that the actions would provoke retaliation from opposing political party members trying to counter the acts. That made the Central Committee try to prevent that by restraining support for the demonstrations. Opposing the declarations of the Central Committee, when they spoke and acted in support of the demonstrations, were the Bolshevik Military Organization and the Petersburg Committee. The Bolshevik newspaper Pravda did not seem to side with the Central Committee but instead published feelings of unrest. These feelings were matched by Lenin, the Bolshevik Military Organization, and the Petersburg Committee; the Central Committee seemed to eventually display mixed feelings about the demonstrations at the height of the movement. The decision to call off demonstrations in the streets of Petrograd was made when a 2 or 3 a.m. meeting took place involving Lenin and the Bolshevik Central Committee on July 5 with Pravda publishing the news the same day.

From the perspective of Trotsky, Bolshevik and Provisional leadership tensions heightened when an incident with Bolshevik leaders, Lunacharsky and Trotsky, showed apparent support of a final group of demonstrators being sent to the front during a House of People farewell meeting. Trotsky portrayed a back and forth of each party, Bolshevik and Provisional, trying to bring the other party into a negative light. The Provisional government was active in trying to shut down the Bolshevik actions and lessen their power, not only making arrests of their leaders but also stopping their publicity avenue by disallowing the Pravda to run. The Provisional government took advantage of popular condemnation of the Bolshevik involvement in the violence of July Days to take action in weakening the Bolshevik Party.

The Provisional Government faced a crisis with several recent resignations, including that of Prime Minister Lvov. On 8 July, Alexander Kerensky, the former Minister of War of the Provisional Government, became prime minister.

In general, the violent nature of the July demonstrations and the ambiguous involvement of the Bolsheviks turned public opinion against them. As the new head of the Provisional Government, Kerensky desired to re-establish the central government as a strong authority, so in response to the July Days, he began enacting measures to discipline civil disorder. This included the order to arrest Bolshevik leaders for their (assumed) responsibility of the violent July Days.

Lenin successfully went into hiding, staying first in the apartment of Benyamin Kayurov, before fleeing to Finland. Many other Bolshevik leaders were arrested, including Trotsky, Kamenev, and Lunacharsky. During the summer of 1917, Trotsky became a major proponent of Bolshevik ideals after these uprisings, even writing for the Bolshevik Press. The Bolshevik leaders remained in prison until Kerensky released them in response to the Kornilov Affair.

For the sake of restoring civil order, the government also restricted civil order more broadly. Street processions in Petrograd were momentarily banned and the government authorized the closure of any publication that advocated military disorder. On 12 July, Kerensky reinstated the death penalty for rebelling, deserting, and disorderly soldiers on the Eastern Front, a move that conservatives approved of, even though Kerensky himself had long been affiliated with the Socialist Revolutionaries.

A public funeral was held by the government on 15 July for Cossack soldiers who were killed by July Day participants.

On 18 July, Kerensky moved the new government ministers into the Winter Palace, and moved the Soviet from the Tauride Palace to the Smolny Institute.

Bolshevik power was dispersed for the time being. The suppression of the demonstrations and the restructuring of the government marked the end of dual power. The new Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik government under Kerensky's leadership shifted in response to the July Days toward a more conservative path.

Steinberg, Mark (2001). Voices of Revolution, 1917. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09016-1.

Wade, Rex A. (2017). The Russian Revolution, 1917. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-316-41789-8.

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July Days Part of the Russian Revolution Rioters on the Nevsky Prospect comeunder machine gun fire, 17 July Date 16-20 July [ O.S.

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June 4- September 20. The most successful Entente victory of WWI. 1,440,000 casualties mostly remove Russia from the war and continue revolutionary unrest.

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1917. The First All Russian Congress of Soviets 

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1917. The First All Russian Congress of Soviets 

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June 16- July 7. 1090 delegates, Plurality Social Revolutionaries.

Agenda:

1. Revolutionary democracy and government power;

2. Attitude towards war: issues of defense and struggle for peace;

3. Preparation for the Constituent Assembly;

4. National question;

5. The land question and questions of peasants', workers' and soldiers' life;

6. Organization of production, distribution, transport and control over it;

7. Food issue;

8. Financial policy issues;

9. Local government;

10. Organizational issues and elections.

Bolsheviks only have 13.5%, Still Emergence.

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The All-Union Congress of Soviets ( Russian: Всесоюзный съезд Советов) was formally the supreme governing body of the Soviet Union from its formation (30 December 1922) until the adoption of its second constitution in 1936. The Congress of Soviets determined the general direction of all public bodies and elected the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union: a body which was accountable to, and held the powers of the Congress when the Congress was not in session. Despite its nominal authority, in practice the Congress served as a rubber-stamp for the Communist Party. With the 1936 Constitution, the All-Union Congress was replaced by the Supreme Soviet.

Prior to the creation of the All-Union Congress of Soviets in 1922, the individual republics had grown closer towards each other and various republics had signed multiple treaties and well on their way to combining their strength. By the early 1920s, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Ukrainian, Byelorussian, and Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republics had taken steps to combine their economic and military strength, which led to a closer political relationship. When the All-Union Congress was formed, the republics that comprised the new Union were the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic (R.S.F.S.R), the Ukrainian and Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republics, and the Transcaucasian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic, which was formed by Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia. During its tenure, more Soviet republics joined the Congress of Soviets. The Uzbek and Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republics were admitted in 1924, followed by the Tadzhik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a Union Republic in 1929.

The Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union was composed of representatives from the councils of all the Soviet republics on the following basis: from the City Council - 1 member per 25 thousand voters, from provincial (regional, territorial) and republic-level congresses - 1 member per 125 thousand residents. Delegates to the All-Union Congress were elected at the provincial (regional, territorial) autonomous republican congresses of the Soviets, or (if republic did not have provincial (and then provincial, regional) congresses) - directly at the Congress of Soviets of the union republic.

The exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress of Soviets consists of:

Rights to conclude treaties, conduct diplomatic relations, and declare war

Establish a union citizenship

Settle disputes between republics

Coin money, establish postal services, and establish standard weights and measures

Power to develop a general plan for the entire national economy

Establish general principles for the development and use of soil, mineral deposits, forests, and bodies of water

Power to direct transport, telegraph services, and foreign trade

Responsibility of the establishment of new Republics to the Congress

Amending of the Constitution of the USSR

The only chairman of the Presidium of the Congress was Mikhail Kalinin.

The first congress was held on 30 December 1922 in Moscow with delegates from Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Congress approved the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, the basis of the 1924 Soviet Constitution, and thus formally created the Soviet Union with the four as founding Union Republics.

The Second Congress of the Soviets of the USSR was held in January 1924 to ratify the 1924 Constitution of the Soviet Union. The Constitution was submitted to the All-Union Congress of Soviets on 6 July 1923 for ratification upon the body's next meeting. This meeting included a speech from Stalin. Stalin departed from orthodox Marxist rhetoric and drew on his own theological training. He said "Leaving us, comrade Lenin bequeathed to us the duty of holding high and keeping pure the great calling member of the party. We swear to thee, comrade Lenin, that we shall fulfil this thy commandment with honour." Many oaths and honours were proclaimed to Lenin, who had just died a few days before the Second Congress began its session.

The Third Congress of Soviets was held in 1925.

The Fourth Congress of Soviets was held in 1927.

The Seventh Congress of Soviets of the USSR was held in February 1935, when Stalin introduced the proposal for constitutional reform. The proposal was initially discussed in the meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party held before the Seventh Congress. The Congress voted "that the new constitution should incorporate some of the best features of parliamentary democracy, that the representation of urban and rural voters should be equalized, that voting should be secret and direct, and that the All-Union Central Executive Committee should appoint a constitutional commission to draft the new organic law."

The Extraordinary Eighth Congress of Soviets of the USSR was held from November 1936 to December 1936 to ratify the 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union, thereby dissolving itself permanently and transferring its powers to the newly established Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. The All-Union Congress approved the Constitution, and also approved plans for the publication of copies of the Constitution and invited citizens to discuss the new changes to the Constitution.

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Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union - Wikipedia

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The All-Union Congress of Soviets ( Russian: Всесоюзный съезд Советов) was formally the supreme governing body of the Soviet Union from its formation (30 December 1922) until the adoption of its second constitution in 1936.

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Lenin writes 10 directives on his return from exile. The Thesis argues for the Soviets to seize power and denounces all other political parties.

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Manifestation of war veterans and invalids in Petrograd on 17 April 1917 against Lenin's arrival

The April Theses ( Russian: апрельские тезисы, transliteration: ) were a series of ten directives issued by the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin upon his April 1917 return to Petrograd from his exile in Switzerland via Germany and Finland. The theses were mostly aimed at fellow Bolsheviks in Russia and returning to Russia from exile. He called for soviets (workers' councils) to seize state power (as seen in the slogan "all power to the soviets"), denounced liberals and social revolutionaries in the Provisional Government, called for Bolsheviks not to cooperate with the government, and called for new communist policies. The April Theses influenced the July Days and October Revolution in the next months and are identified with Leninism.

The February Revolution had resulted in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the collapse of Imperial Russia, and the establishment of the liberal Provisional Government under Georgy Lvov and later Alexander Kerensky. The Provisional Government was dominated mainly by liberals and moderate socialists who wanted to instigate political reform, creating a democracy with elections for an executive and a constituent assembly.

After the February Revolution, Lenin sought to return to Russia as soon as possible. This was problematic because he was isolated in neutral Switzerland as World War I continued to be fought in neighbouring states. The Swiss communist Fritz Platten managed to negotiate with the German government for the safe passage of Lenin and his company through Germany by rail on the so-called " sealed train". The German government clearly hoped Lenin's return would create political unrest in Russia, which would lead to the capitulation of Russia and the end of Russian participation of the war on the Entente side, ending the war on the Eastern Front and allowing German forces to concentrate their fight against France, Britain, and allied forces on the Western Front. (Indeed, after the October Revolution resulted in the Bolshevik rise to power, this did occur with the Decree on Peace and Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.)

Once through Germany, Lenin continued by ferry to Sweden, and the remainder of the journey through Scandinavia was subsequently arranged by Swedish communists Otto Grimlund and Ture Nerman. On 16 April (3 April according to the old Russian Calendar) 1917, Lenin arrived by train to a tumultuous reception at Finland Station in Petrograd.

The April Theses were first announced in a speech in two meetings on 17 April 1917 (4 April according to the old Russian Calendar). Some believe he based this on Leon Trotsky's Theory of Permanent Revolution. They were subsequently published in the Bolshevik newspaper . In the Theses, Lenin:

1. Condemns the Provisional Government as bourgeois and urges "no support" for it, as "the utter falsity of all its promises should be made clear". He condemns World War I as a "predatory imperialist war" and the "revolutionary defensism" of foreign social democrat parties, calling for revolutionary defeatism.

2. Asserts that Russia is "passing from the first stage of the revolution-which, owing to the insufficient class consciousness and organization of the proletariat, placed power in the hands of the bourgeoisie-to its second stage, which must place power in the hands of the proletariat and the poorest sections of the peasants".

3. Recognises that the Bolsheviks are a minority in most of the soviets against a "block of all the petty-bourgeois opportunist elements, from the Social-Cadets and the Socialist Revolutionaries down to the Organising Committee (Chkheidze, Tsereteli, etc.), Steklov, etc., etc., who have yielded to the influence of the bourgeoisie and spread that influence among the proletariat".

4. Calls for a parliamentary republic not to be established and calls this a "retrograde step". He calls for "a republic of Soviets of Workers', Agricultural Labourers' and Peasants' Deputies throughout the country, from top to bottom".

5. Calls for "abolition of the police, the army, and the bureaucracy" and for "the salaries of all officials, all of whom are elective and displaceable at any time, not to exceed the average wage of a competent worker".

6. Calls for "The weight of emphasis in the agrarian programme to be shifted to the Soviets of Agricultural Labourers' Deputies", "confiscation of all landed estates", and "nationalisation of all lands in the country, the land to be disposed of by the local Soviets of Agricultural Labourers' and Peasants' Deputies. The organisation of separate Soviets of Deputies of Poor Peasants. The setting up of a model farm on each of the large estates (ranging in size from 100 to 300 dessiatines, according to local and other conditions, and to the decisions of the local bodies) under the control of the Soviets of Agricultural Labourers' Deputies and for the public account."

7. Calls for "the immediate union of all banks in the country into a single national bank, and the institution of control over it by the Soviet of Workers' Deputies".

8. States that "it is not our immediate task to 'introduce' socialism, but only to bring social production and the distribution of products at once under the control of the Soviets of Workers' Deputies".

9. Lists "party tasks" as "Immediate convocation of a party congress", "alteration of the party programme, mainly: (1) On the question of imperialism and the imperialist war, (2) On our attitude towards the state and our demand for a 'commune state', amendment of our out-of-date minimum programme, and change of the Party's name". Lenin notes that "instead of 'Social Democracy', whose official leaders throughout the world have betrayed socialism and deserted to the bourgeoisie (the 'defencists' and the vacillating 'Kautskyites'), we must call ourselves the Communist Party". The name change would dissociate the Bolsheviks from the social democratic parties of Europe supporting participation of their nation in World War I. Lenin first developed this point in his 1915 pamphlet "Socialism and War", when he first called the pro-war social-democrats "social chauvinists".

10. Calls for a new "revolutionary International, an International against the social-chauvinists and against the 'Center'". This later became the Communist International (Third International) which was formed in 1919.

After the February Revolution, Bolshevik leaders returning from exile (such as Lev Kamenev) were arguing a much more moderate line, that Russian involvement in the war could be justified and that there should be cooperation with the liberals in the Provisional Government. However, Lenin's arguments reflected those made by the leading Bolsheviks in Petrograd at the time of the February Revolution, such as Alexander Shlyapnikov. Joseph Stalin who had initially supported co operation with the Provisional Government changed his position upon reading the April Theses and spoke in favour of the programme at the Bolshevik city meeting in Petrograd.

After a heated discussion at the VII All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP(b) (April 24-29), with the participation of 133 delegates, the April Theses received the support of the majority of delegates from the field and formed the basis of the policy of the entire party.

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The April Theses ( Russian: апрельские тезисы, transliteration: ) were a series of ten directives issued by the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin upon his April 1917 return to Petrograd from his exile in Switzerland via Germany and Finland. The theses were mostly aimed at fellow Bolsheviks in Russia and returning to Russia from exile.

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Why: Brain Hemorrhage

Age: 54

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By the end (1991) the USSR was made up of;

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan

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1921, March 21; Ending of Wartime Communism 

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The leaders take everything that the people make and they put it towards the war.

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1919: Ukraine Brought under Soviet Control 

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Results:

Increased Ukraine peasantry & introduced war communism in Ukraine

Hryhorivshchyna & Makhnovshchyna rebel against Soviet command

Monarchists with the help from Allies win the battle for the Donbas, successfully capture Kyiv and advance on Moscow

Poland occupies Volhynian and Galicia

Ukraine front disbanded and integrated into the western & southern fronts

Soviets lost power over Ukraine

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(Russians were mad that the 'Holy' city that is important to them was taken so easily)

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1915: Czar Nicholas II take sole control of military operations

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The October Manifesto:

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