Actions of the Bolsheviks before the revolution

Question 1

What happened to the Bolsheviks after the Kornilov coup?

Answer 1

• They led the red guards helping to establish a more effective paramilitary unit out of the various militia groups attached to factories that had previously defended workers interests
• They used propaganda to criticise Kerensky’s government

Question 2

What did Lenin order?

Answer 2

He urged his followers to keep up the pressure and committees to establish revolution

Question 3

How many Bolshevik members were there by October?

Answer 3

200,000

Question 4

How many newspapers were there?

Answer 4

41

Question 5

How many red guard forces were there before the revolution?

Answer 5

10,000

Question 6

Where did Bolsheviks win a majority?

Answer 6

In the Moscow and Petrograd soviet in September

Question 7

What happened on the 26th of September?

Answer 7

Trotsky became chairman of the executive committee of the Petrograd soviet

Question 8

What happened to Kerensky from the 5th of October?

Answer 8

• On the 5th of October, Kerensky sent more radical army units out of Petrograd to prepare for front - line service but it was done in fear of a Bolshevik uprising in an increasing political atmosphere
• Claiming that Kerensky was abandoning the capital to allow it to fall to Germans on the 9th of October, the soviet adopted a resolution written by Trotsky to create a ,military revolutionary center to protect Petrograd from the attacks prepared by civil Kornilovites

Question 9

What was Lenin doing from mid - September?

Answer 9

• He bombarded the 12 - man committee through letters about seizing power through a revolution as on the 12th of September he declared, “history will not forgive us if we do not assume power now,”
• 3 days later, the committee voted against the coup
• Lenin threatened to resign which further didn’t convince them

Question 10

What did Kamenev and Zinoviev believe?

Answer 10

Russia was not economically ready pushing them to burn some of Lenin’s letters and they believed they should wait for the constituent assembly elections

Question 11

What did Trotsky believe?

Answer 11

They should work through the Petrograd soviet and wait for the congress of soviets which was due to be convened on the 26th of October as he believed they could win support from all socialist parties

Question 12

What did Lenin do when he returned to Russia on the 10th of October?

Answer 12

He pushed the committee to vote for the revolution 10 to 2 in which Zinoviev and Kamenev refused to agree to pushing them to publish their views in the Novaia Zhin (new life) newspaper

Question 13

What did Trotsky do to organise the revolution?

Answer 13

• He sent Bolshevik speakers around factories for support
• On the 16th of October, a military revolutionary committee was sent up with Dzerzhinsky in accordance to the Soviet with 66 members and 48 were Bolsheviks
• Massed troops at the Bolshevik headquarters in the Smolny institute and since Mensheviks and SRs rejected to cooperate, it was made up of Bolshevik red guards, former soldiers and policemen
• 15 of the 18 Petrograd garrison units declared allegiance to soviets through commissars who also ensured loyalty, issued orders and organsised weapon supplies
• They also controlled 200,000 red guards, 60,000 Baltic sailors and 150,000 from the remaining Garrisons
• The go - ahead for the revolution was eventually given on the 25h of October