Russian Revolution Of 1917 Essay

October Revolution, 1917. The Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia. After the July Days the Bolsheviks were half-heartedly persecuted. Trotsky and Kamenev were arrested, Lenin went into hiding in Finland. They recovered quickly owing to the Kornilov affair, when General Kornilov failed in his attempt to set up a military dictatorship. By September the Bolsheviks had a majority in the Petrograd Soviet and soon afterwards in the Moscow Soviet. Lenin now prepared to seize power and on 12 September called from Finland for an immediate rising but the Bolshevik Central Committee feared another failure, like that of the July Days, and agreed reluctantly only on 10 October. A day earlier the Petrograd Soviet had set up a Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC) to organize the defence of the capital against a possible military coup. This committee was under the control of Trotsky, who had earlier joined the Bolsheviks, and provided the military force for the rising. The Bolsheviks knew that if they rose in the name of their party they would get only limited support, so they used the slogan ‘All power to the Soviets’, as this would be more popular. There were rumours that the Provisional Government was going to leave Petrograd to the advancing Germans and move to Moscow and so the MRC took over the garrison from its commander and effectively took control of the capital a week before the rising on 24 October. The Prime Minister, Kerensky, was aware of Bolshevik plans but failed to act decisively. On the night of 24-25 October the MRC took over key points in the city and by the time the Congress of Soviets met on the evening of the 25th only the Winter Palace was holding out, guarded solely by a women's battalion and some officer cadets. It fell that night. Contrary to popular myth, the October Revolution was not a mass rising like that in February and there was little bloodshed. Five soldiers, one sailor and no defenders were killed.
February Revolution (1917). The origins of...