October Revolution Flashcards
When did Lenin start bombarding the Central Committee with letters demanding they prepare for revolution?
From mid-September, when Lenin was still hiding in Finland
What did Lenin say about revolution on the 12th September?
‘History will not forgive us if we do not assume power now’
How did Lenin try to get his way with the Central Committee to incite revolution?
Threatened resignation - did not work
Who argued that Russia was not yet ready for revolution?
Kamenev and Zinoviev - they believed that they should not act before the Constituent Assembly elections
Trotsky - suggested that they should work through the Petrograd Soviet and wait for the Congress of Soviets (due to be convened on the 26th October)
What did Lenin do on the 10th October?
Harangued the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party
He finally succeeded, with a vote of ten to two, in persuading the committee that ‘an armed uprising is the order of the day’
What were the responses to Lenin’s victory in persuading the Central Committee?
Trotsky took Lenin’s side but Zinoviev and Kamenev refused to agree and published their own views in the newspaper Novaia Zhin
How did Trotsky prepare for revolution?
He sent Bolshevik speakers around the factories to gain support and he and Dzerzhinsky set up the Military Revolutionary Committee on the 16th October
Who comprised the Military Revolutionary Committee?
66 - 48 of them were Bolsheviks
Since the Mensheviks and SRs refused to cooperate, it became a Bolshevik force made up of militias from the Bolshevik Red Guard, former soldiers and policemen
What did the MRC do to gain support?
Sent commissars to all of Petrograd’s garrison units and 15 of the 18 declared allegiance to the Soviet, rather than the Provisional Government
How many troops in total did the Committee come to control?
200,000 Red Guards, 60,000 Baltic sailors and 150,000 soldiers
When did the Bolshevik revolution officially start?
25th October
When and how did Kerensky act against the Bolsheviks?
23rd Oct - ordered the printers of two Bolshevik newspapers (Pravda and Izvestia) to cease activities and sent troops to the working class area of Petrograd (the Vyborg district) to raise the bridge linking them to the city centre
What happened on the 24-25th October?
Through the night, 5000 soldiers and Kronstadt sailors moved into the city and Bolshevik Red Guards began to take over key government buildings and communications centres.
Did the Bolshevik Red Guard face opposition?
Encountered some resistance at the main telegraph office, but troops on duty generally gave in quickly.
What happened on 25th October?
Kerensky left Petrograd in an attempt to rally military support.
Red Guard soldiers and sailors surrounded the Winter Palace and were able to easily enter the building.
The Second Congress of Soviets convened - some Mensheviks and SRs made a public declaration of protest ‘against the military conspiracy and seizure of power’
What happened on 26th October?
The Congress adopted a resolution to take power into its own hands.
At 9pm, the Congress reopened and Lenin’s decree on peace, to end the war, was adopted unanimously.
What happened on the 27th October?
At 2am, Lenin’s decree on land (acknowledging peasant seizures) was agreed and the Bolshevik faction put forward their proposals for the reorganisation of government. Despite protests from the Mensheviks and SRs, the Congress adopted these proposals by an overwhelming majority.
How was government reorganised after the revolution?
A ‘Soviet of People’s Commissars’ (Sovnarkom) was created to run the government, with Lenin as its Chairman. It included only Bolsheviks.
What other resolutions were adopted on the 27th October?
Abolition of the death penalty, arrest of Kerensky, freeing of those arrested for political action by the Provisional Government, transfer of power in the provinces to the local soviets