November 6-7, 1917:
Russia Falls to the Bolsheviks
In July 1917 (only some four months since the Russian Revolution had toppled the tsar), Aleksandr Kerensky had organized a new government for Russia, but it was a government with little or no power. Russia was in chaos. The Russian army was disintegrating. The German army was moving closer to Petrograd. Peasants were seizing land in the countryside, while food riots rocked the cities. Toward the end of August, the provisional government's military commander in chief, General Lavr Kornilov, ordered his troops to march on Petrograd and called on Kerensky to dissolve the government. Railroad workers, however, stopped Kornilov by tearing up the tracks leading into the capital. On September 1, Kornilov surrendered to Kerensky and was imprisoned.
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| Vladimir Ilyich Lenin |
The Kornilov revolt gave the Bolsheviks an opportunity to seize control of the revolution. Kornilov and Kerensky had plotted to overthrow the revolution, the Bolsheviks cried! They claimed Kerensky was not interested in democratic government -- his postponing of elections from September 30 to November 25 proved it. "Down with the Kornilovists!" cried the Bolsheviks. "Peace to the army! Land to the peasants! Control of factories to the workers!"
The Bolsheviks were capturing the people's imagination. More workers joined the Bolshevik party. The Bolsheviks gained control of the Petrograd Soviet. In mid September, Lev Trotsky was released from prison and in early October became chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. In late October, Vladimir Lenin, disguised as a railroad worker, arrived in Petrograd. Three days later, Lenin and the Bolshevik leaders held a secret meeting to discuss their next move.
Lenin was convinced that the time was ripe to overthrow the provisional government, but not all the Bolshevik leaders agreed. Lenin, however, was persuasive, and Trotsky joined him in urging an armed uprising. In the end, only two of the Bolsheviks opposed Lenin. The next question was, when to stage an uprising? Lenin wanted no delay, but Trotsky argued that it should wait for the meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets in Petrograd on November 7. The Bolsheviks approved Trotsky's plan.
Despite their secrecy, the Bolsheviks' plan to overthrow the provisional government became known days before it was scheduled to occur. Still, no one attempted to stop the activities of Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, or other Bolshevik leaders. On November 6, the day before the meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the Bolsheviks published a proclamation
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| Lev Davidovich Trotsky |
that Kerensky's government was planning "to annihilate" the congress and the future constituent assembly. But the government did not respond. That night, while the wealthy of Petrograd threw parties or went to the theater and the opera, Trotsky, with the Bolshevik Red Guards and armed workers, captured the bridges spanning the Neva River. Other Bolshevik troops seized railroad stations, telegraph and telephone offices, power plants, and the Bank of Russia. The next morning, the Bolsheviks distributed pamphlets proclaiming, "Long live the revolution of the workers, soldiers, and peasants!"
The Bolshevik uprising, such as it was, was the work of only a few men. There was no mass uprising of workers and peasants, as had happened in February. The Bolsheviks did not even form a majority of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, most of whose delegates were Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. Still, throughout the following day, the Bolsheviks captured the Winter Palace, arrested the members of the provisional government (though Kerensky escaped), and proclaimed a new government, called the Soviet of the People's Commissars, with Lenin as its "chairman" and Trotsky its "commissar for foreign affairs."
The foregoing is taken from CTP textbook, Light to the Nations II: The Making of the Modern World.
Additional Resources
1917: Red Banners, White Mantle by Warren Carroll
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