October Revolution Flashcards
What did Trotsky do before the Revolution?
He made and organised the Military Revolutionary Committee, which had 66 members, 48 of whom were Bolshevik. He gave the Bolsheviks an army of 200,000 Red Guard, 150,000 Baltic sailors and 60,000 of the remaining Garrison units.
What did Lenin do before the Revolution?
Lenin came back to Russia in disguise to convince the 12-man central committee of the Bolshevik party to start a Revolution, suggesting that ‘History will never forgive us if we do not assume power now’ on the 12th of September. It was rejected 3 days later. 2 members, Kaminev and Zinoviev both wanted to wait for the Constituent Assembly elections and work through the Petrograd Soviet and win the support of all socialist parties without violence.
Lenin was furious and came back on the 10th of October and talked to the central committee all through the night till they were convinced and he won 10 - 2
What did Kerensky do before the Revolution?
Kerensky tried to order 2 Bolshevik newspapers, Izvestia and Pravda, to stop working in an attempt to stop the MRC’s power, and also sent men to take up the bridges connecting the centre and the workers district to stop them from coming to the inner city.
What the reaction to what Kerensky did?
This was seen as a betrayal of the Soviet and him abandoning his principles of the Feb/March revolution, so the Bolsheviks were given an excuse to act.
What happened on the 24th of October?
- 5,000 sailors from Kronstadt went into the city and Bolshevik Red Guards went and took over main political buildings in Petrograd, such as the telephone exchange, post offices, railway stations, news agents, state banks, bridges, power stations.
- They had little to no resistance.
- Lenin was still out of the country at this point, and only came back in the evening
What happened on the 25th of October?
- Kerensky fled disguised as a nurse, so the Bolsheviks didn’t do one of their main tasks
- Red Guard soldiers and sailors surrounded and went into the Winter Palace, and they had little resistance.
- The Aurora, the Bolshevik warship, shot off a blank shot to symbolises the start of the Revolution, and the Red Guard entered the Palace, and some of the government members went out through the back.
- There were 25,000 - 30,000 people, but some were bystanders to watch the storming of the Winter Palace, so the number was even less, more like 15-20,000 storming the palace.
- In the late evening the Second Congress of Soviets met, but without Lenin of other prominent members, who were still fighting on the streets, they couldn’t do anything.
What happened on the 26th of October?
- The Congress agreed to the transfer of power in the early hours of the morning and the remaining PG members were arrested.
- Lenin made a vote for the Decree fo Peace which was unanimously agreed upon
Who was opposed to the Revolution?
- Some Mensheviks and right-wing Social Revolutionaries were publicly opposed to the Revolution and the military conspiracy and seizure of power.
- The Soviet of People’s Commissars was only Bolsheviks because the left-wing Social Revolutionaries didn’t agree with Lenin
What was the new Congress made up of?
- It had a new All Russian Central Elective Committee of 101 members. 62 were Bolsheviks and 29 left-wing Social Revolutionaries
- A ‘Soviet of People’s Commissars’ or Sovnarkom was made to run the government, but was all Bolsheviks because the left-wing Social Revolutionaries disagreed with Lenin’s ideas.
- Lenin was made the chairman of the Soviet of People’s Commissars
What laws did the new Congress pass?
- They passed the Decree on Land, which acknowledged the peasants seizures of land.
- They passed the Decree on Peace, ending the war
- They abolished the death penalty
- They freed the Provisional Government’s political prisoners
- They transferred the power in the provinces to the local Soviets
- They appealed to the Cossacks - who remained loyal to the Provisional Government - to switch sides
Was this a popular revolution and why?
It was not a popular revolution because it was only 5,000 sailors, which was only 5% of the workers population in Petrograd
In the storming of the Winter Palace, around half of the 25-30,000 that went were only bystanders
In Petrograd the civilians lived were uninterrupted, they didn’t even know about the revolution. Restaurants, theatres, trains all worked normally, so it wasn’t a full scale revolution
There were only 5 deaths, so it wasn’t a violent or bloody uprising. It didn’t take much force to do any of the important things
