"A lie told often enough becomes the truth"
� Vladimir Lenin
What is it to you almost 100 years after the fact? Is itimportant? Yes, it is. The day was a beginning of the November Bolshevik Revoltin Russia, which threw the biggest country in the World in the Communist Chaosfor 70 years, and significantly influenced the fate of other geographicalregions.
Let's take a brief peek…
The confusion starts from the very beginning. The revolutionis called October Revolution, but it started exactly 94 years ago, November 6,1917 by the Julian calendar used in Russia at the time (count back 13 days toget the date by the modern calendar, later accepted in Russia as well).
There are many historical points, where we can start thejourney, explaining this turnaround point in the history, and the closest onein time is so-called February Revolution 1917. Yes, Russians were happy enoughto get two revolutions in one year.
February 1917Revolution
On 23rd February 1917 the International Women's Day Festivalin St. Petersburg turned into a city-wide demonstration, as exasperated womenworkers left factories to protest against food shortages. Men soon joined them,and on the following day - encouraged by political and social activists - thecrowds had swelled and virtually every industry, shop and enterprise had ceasedto function as almost the entire populace went on strike.
Nicholas ordered the police and military to intervene, however the military wasno longer loyal to the Tsar and many mutinied or joined the people indemonstrations. Fights broke out and the whole city was in chaos. On February28th over 80,000 troops mutinied from the army and looting and rioting waswidespread.
Faced with this untenable situation Tsar Nicholas abdicated his throne, handingpower to his brother Michael. However Michael would not accept leadershipunless he was elected by the Duma. He resigned the following day, leavingRussia without a head of state.
Nicholas ordered the police and military to intervene, however the military wasno longer loyal to the Tsar and many mutinied or joined the people indemonstrations. Fights broke out and the whole city was in chaos. On February28th over 80,000 troops mutinied from the army and looting and rioting waswidespread.
Faced with this untenable situation Tsar Nicholas abdicated his throne, handingpower to his brother Michael. However Michael would not accept leadershipunless he was elected by the Duma. He resigned the following day, leavingRussia without a head of state.
After the abdication of the Romanovs a ProvisionalGovernment was quickly formed by leading members of the Duma and recognizedinternationally as Russia's legal government. It was to rule Russia untilelections could be held. However its power was by no means absolute or stable.The more radical Petrograd Soviet organization was a trade union of workers andsoldiers that wielded enormous influence. It favored full-scale Socialism overmore moderate democratic reforms generally favored by members of theProvisional Government.
After centuries of Imperial rule Russia was consumed with political fervor, butthe many different factions, all touting different ideas, meant that politicalstability was still a long way off directly after February Revolution.
After centuries of Imperial rule Russia was consumed with political fervor, butthe many different factions, all touting different ideas, meant that politicalstability was still a long way off directly after February Revolution.
Between Revolutions
One person keen to take advantage of the chaotic state of affairs in St.Petersburg was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov - aka Lenin. Lenin had spent most of the20th Century travelling and working and campaigning in Europe - partly out offear for his own safety, as he was known Socialist and enemy of the Tsaristregime. However with the Tsar under arrest and Russian politics in chaos, Leninsaw the opportunity to lead his party, the Bolsheviks, to power. From his homein Switzerland he negotiated a return to Russia with the help of Germanauthorities. (As a proponent of withdrawing Russia from the Great War, theGermans were willing to facilitate Lenin's passage back via a 'sealed train'.)
Lenin's return in April of 1917 was greeted by the Russian populace, as well asby many leading political figures, with great rapture and applause. However,far from uniting the fractious parties, he immediately condemned the policiesand ideologies of both the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet. Inhis April Theses, published in the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda, he advocatednon-co-operation with the liberals (ie. non-hardline Communists) and animmediate end to the war.
At first his uncompromising stance served to isolate Lenin and the Bolsheviks,however with powerful slogans like 'Peace, land and bread,' Lenin begin to winthe hearts of the Russian people - who were increasingly unable to stomach warand poverty.
During the summer of 1917 Lenin made several attempts to invoke anotherrevolution the likes of which had taken place in February, with the aim ofoverthrowing the Provisional Government. When the Machine Gun Regiment refusedto leave Petrograd (as St. Petersburg was then known) for the frontline Leninsought to maneuver them instead into making a putsch. However Kerensky,arguably the most important figure of the time - a member of both theProvisional Government and Petrograd Soviet - adeptly thwarted the coup.Experienced troops arrived in the city to quell any dissidents and theBolsheviks were accused of being in collusion with the Germans. Many werearrested whilst Lenin escaped to Finland.
Despite this PR disaster Lenin continued plotting and scheming. MeanwhileKerensky suffered his own political setbacks and even had to appeal to theBolsheviks for military aid when he feared his Minister of War, Kornilov, wasaiming for a military dictatorship. By autumn the Bolsheviks were climbing intothe ascendency, winning majority votes within the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets.Leon Trotsky was elected as president of the former.
The October Revolution
With Russian politics still in a state of constant flux Lenin realized that nowwas the time to capitalize on his party's popularity. He planned a coup thatwould overthrow the increasingly ineffective Provisional Government and replacethem with the Bolsheviks. On October 10th he held a famous meeting with twelveparty leaders, and tried to persuade them that a revolution was required.Despite receiving the backing of only 10 of them plotting went ahead.
November 6th, the Petrograd Soviet was meeting inthe Smolny Institute - a former girls school. Speeches were made by Trotsky asto why people should support the communists. While he was giving these speeches,he knew that the Red Guards and armed workers were actually taking over keypoints in the city. By the time that the speeches had finished most of the citywas in the hands of the Bolsheviks (communists led by Lenin) - as Trotsky hadplanned. The telephone and telegraph buildings were taken over, as were thepower stations. Bridges were captured. So were the railway stations.
There was very little bloodshed and it is probable that manypeople in Petrograd were unaware of what had happened when they woke up in themorning. In fact, while the communists were taking power, theatres and cinemaswere still open!!
Throughout the 7th the Red Guards kept on occupyingimportant buildings. By mid-afternoon, the only building not held by theBolsheviks was the Winter Palace, the old home of the tsar. It was here thatthe Provisional Government met. In fact, the troops who were meant to bedefending the building had gone home and only the Women's Battalion remained.
The sign for the Red Guards to attack the Winter Palace wasa shell fired by the naval ship the "Aurora". The attack was shortlived and any opposition was easily overcome. The Provisional Governmentsurrendered to the Red Guards. The attack took longer than it might have donebecause there were 1000 rooms in the Palace that they had to search.
In the Smolny Institute, those politicians who did not agreewith what had happened and did not want the Bolsheviks in power walked out ofthe building. Trotsky said that they were going to where they belonged - thewaste-paper basket of history.
At 1 a.m. on November 8th, a shabbily dressed man got to hisfeet and rose to speak. He took away a handkerchief from his face and wasinstantly recognized as Lenin. He told those in the Smolny Institute that hewas forming a government of Bolsheviks and that it would contain no middleclass people. The government would work to help the workers and peasants.
By the end of the day the members of the ProvisionalGovernment were under arrest. Lenin's statement that he would overturn thegovernment of Russia - made after his brother had been executed - wasfulfilled.
Why did the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917 succeed?
The investigation of the reasons, underground sources andmotivations of the different parties, groups, and individual people is quite acomplicated task. Multiple studies are published in Russia and other parts ofthe World on the topic, and the outcomes are so different and controversial,depending on the authors' political views and used sources, that the topicdeserves a big scientific monograph. We will provide in brief several moments,which contributed to the miracle � a small group of extremists was able to getto the power in huge multi-cultural, multi-national country with traditionalbelieves in higher authority and G-d.
1. FebruaryRevolution. The first revolution opened the door to the revolutionaryprocess in the country. People saw that the Tsar was out of the picture fastand easily. Hey, that was just beginning. Nice slogans, feeling of freedom andfor the bright future for everyone. People were ready for change.
2. Provisional Government problems. TheBolsheviks succeeded because the Provisional Government was weak andunpopular. Some of the people in theProvisional Government were smart and wished good, but they did not understandthe psychology and simple desires of the masses: bread and entertainment. While being inpower, provisional government was not able to secure solid support amongdifferent groups, and create loyal military. When it was attacked, nobody wasprepared to defend it. On 25th October, only Women's Battalion attempted todefend the Winter Palace against Bolshevik forces. John Reed, an Americanjournalist in Petrograd during the revolution wrote 'What happened to thewomen?' we asked a soldier. He laughed. 'We found them hiding in aback room … crying. We did not know what to do with them; in the end wejust sent them home. Other sources offered a different account on theconsequences, claiming that some of the girl-soldiers had been thrown from thewindows into the street, most of the rest had been violated, and many hadcommitted suicide as a result of the horrors they had gone through.
3. Slogans. The Bolsheviks had attractive,easy to say and easy to understand, slogans such as 'Peace, Bread, Land' and'All Power to the Soviets'. Otherparties claimed they could never deliver their promises, but their argumentswere too complicated for people to understand. This meant that they got the public's support.
4. Pravda. The party ran its ownpropaganda machine, including the newspaper Pravda('Truth'), which got their ideas across.
5. German money. Germany was graduallylosing the war, so they were looking for the ways to turn things around, otherthan on the battlefield. The Germans financed the Bolsheviks because they Leninpromised them to take Russia out of the war. This gave Bolsheviks the money tomount their publicity campaigns, and some other support in information andplanning.
6. Lenin. A brilliant leader � aprofessional revolutionary with an iron will, ruthless, brilliant speaker, agood planner with ONE aim � to overthrow the government.
7. Army.While Provisional Governmentwas playing its intellectual games, Bolsheviks was secretly working onbuilding their private army (the Red Guards), dedicated to the revolution, whichwas set up and trained under outstanding military organizer Leon Trotsky andfunded not exclusively by German money but by donation of the rich revolution-orientedcitizens, who has not imagine in their worst dreams, where their money willlead Russia. Well-organized Red Guards groups gave the Bolsheviks the militarypower to win.
8. Organization.The Bolsheviks had solid well-built organization, sharpened by years of theillegal political activity underground. A central committee (controlled by Lenin andother leading Bolsheviks) sent orders to the soviets, who gave orders to thefactories. The difference with most of the other liberal parties at the timewas that Bolsheviks in practice embraced freedom for the people only in case,when it is aligned with the ideas and tasks of the Global Revolution. Unlikethe Provisional Government, the Bolsheviks demanded total obedience from theirmembers, so they were well-disciplined. From a tiny group, the membership grew upto 2 million in 3 months.
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