October Revolution Day 1917 Year in Russia
For over 70 years, the anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution was the main holiday of the Soviet Union. 7 November throughout the Soviet era was the “red day of the calendar,” that is, a public holiday celebrated with mandatory holiday events held in every Soviet city. It was so until the 1991 year, when the USSR was collapsed, and the communist ideology was almost criminalized. In the Russian Federation, this day was first renamed the Day of Accord and Reconciliation, hinting at the need to end the civil war in the information field of the country and reconciliation of supporters of different ideological views, and then canceled completely. November 7 ceased to be a holiday, but was included in the list of memorable dates. The law was passed in 2010 year. In 2005, in connection with the establishment of a new national holiday (National Unity Day), 7 November ceased to be a day off.
This day can not be deleted from stories Russia, since the uprising in Petrograd 25 — October 26 (7 — 8 November in a new style) led not only to the overthrow of the bourgeois Provisional Government, but also predetermined all further development of both Russia and many other states of the planet.
Brief chronicle of events
By the fall of 1917, the policy of the Provisional Government brought the Russian state to the brink of disaster. Not only suburbs split off from Russia, but Cossack autonomies were also formed. In Kiev, the separatists claimed power. Even Siberia has its own autonomous government. The armed forces decayed and could not continue military operations, the soldiers deserted tens of thousands. The front was falling apart. Russia could no longer resist the coalition of central powers. Finance and economics were disorganized. Problems began with the supply of food to the cities, the government began to conduct surplus. The peasants carried out self-seizure of land, the manor houses burned in hundreds. Russia was in a “suspended state,” since the Provisional Government postponed the decision of fundamental issues until the Constituent Assembly was convened.
The country was covered with a wave of chaos. Autocracy, which was the core of the whole empire, was destroyed. But in return he was given nothing. People felt free from all taxes, duties and laws. The Provisional Government, whose policies were determined by leaders of the liberal and left-wing sense, could not establish a viable order; moreover, it aggravated the situation by its actions. Suffice it to recall the "democratization" of the army during the war. Petrograd de facto lost control of the country.
This and decided to take advantage of the Bolsheviks. Until the summer of 1917, they were not considered a serious political force, yielding in popularity and strength to the cadets and the Social Revolutionaries. But by the fall of 1917, their popularity had grown. Their program was clear and understandable to the masses. The power in this period could take virtually any force that showed political will. This force became the Bolsheviks.
In August, 1917, they headed for an armed uprising and a socialist revolution. This happened at the VI Congress of the RSDLP (b). However, then the Bolshevik party was actually in the underground. The most revolutionary regiments of the Petrograd garrison were disbanded, and workers sympathizing with the Bolsheviks were disarmed. The opportunity to recreate armed structures appeared only during the Kornilov revolt. The idea had to be postponed. Only 10 (23) of October, the Central Committee adopted a resolution on the preparation of an uprising. The 16 (29) of October, an enlarged meeting of the Central Committee, in which representatives of the districts took part, confirmed the earlier decision.
On October 12 (25), 1917, the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee was established to protect the revolution from an “openly prepared attack by the military and civilian Kornilovites” on the initiative of the chairman of the Petrosoviet, Leon Trotsky. The VRK included not only the Bolsheviks, but also some left-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries and anarchists. In fact, this body also coordinated the preparation of the armed uprising. The composition of the Military Revolutionary Committee included representatives of the Central Committee, Petrograd and military party organizations of the Bolshevik and Left Social Revolutionary parties, delegates to the Presidium and the soldiers section of the Petrosoviet, representatives of the Red Guard headquarters, the Central Committee of the Baltic fleet and the Centroflot, factory and factory committees, and so on. Operational work was carried out by the Bureau of the Military Revolutionary Committee. It was formally led by the Left Social Revolutionary Pavel Lazimir, but almost all decisions were made by the Bolsheviks Leo Trotsky, Nikolai Podvoisky and Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko.
With the help of the WRC, the Bolsheviks established close ties with the soldiers' committees of the Petrograd garrison formations. In fact, the left forces not only restored the pre-July diarchy in the city, but also began to establish their control over the military forces. When the Provisional Government decided to send the revolutionary regiments to the front, the Petrograd Soviet appointed an order check and decided that the order was dictated not by strategic, but by political motives. The regiments were ordered to remain in Petrograd. The commander of the military district banned the issue of workers weapon from the arsenals of the city and suburbs, but the Council wrote out warrants and issued weapons. The Petrograd Soviet also stopped the Provisional Government’s attempt to arm its supporters with the help of the Peter and Paul Fortress arsenal.
Parts of the Petrograd garrison declared disobedience to the Provisional Government. October 21 held a meeting of representatives of the regiments of the garrison, who recognized the Petrograd Soviet as the sole legitimate authority in the city. From that moment on, the Military Revolutionary Committee began to appoint its commissars to military units, replacing commissars of the Provisional Government. On the night of October 22, the Military Revolutionary Committee demanded that the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District recognize the authority of their commissars, and 22 declared its subordination to the garrison. October 23 The WRC obtained the right to create an advisory body at the headquarters of the Petrograd district. On the same day, Trotsky personally conducted an agitation in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where they still doubted which side to take. By October 24, the WRC appointed his commissars to the 51 part, as well as to arsenals, armories, railway stations and factories. In fact, by the beginning of the uprising, the left forces established military control over the capital. The Provisional Government was incapacitated and could not respond decisively. As Trotsky himself later acknowledged, “the armed uprising took place in Petrograd in two ways: in the first half of October, when the Petrograd regiments, obeying the Council’s decree, which fully responded to their own moods, refused to execute the command order with impunity, and October 25, when only a small one was needed additional uprising, dissecting the umbilical cord of the February statehood ".
Therefore, there were no significant clashes and much blood, the Bolsheviks simply took power. The guards of the Provisional Government and the units loyal to them surrendered without a fight or went home. Shed their blood for the "temporary" no one wanted. So, the Cossacks were ready to support the Provisional Government, but with the strengthening of their regiments with machine guns, armored cars and infantry. In connection with the non-fulfillment of the conditions proposed by the Cossack regiments, the Council of Cossack troops decided not to take any part in suppressing the Bolshevik uprising and withdrew hundreds of Cossacks already sent by 2 and the machine gun command of the 14 regiment.
From October 24, the units of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee occupied all the key points of the city: bridges, railway stations, telegraphs, printing houses, power stations and banks. When the head of the Provisional Government, Kerensky ordered the arrest of members of the WRC, there was no one to execute the order of arrest. It should be noted that in August-September 1917, the Provisional Government had every opportunity to prevent an uprising and physically liquidate the Bolshevik party. But the “Februaryists” did not do this, being confident that the Bolshevik action would be guaranteed a defeat. The right-wing socialists and cadets knew about the preparation of the uprising, but believed that it would develop according to the July scenario — demonstrations demanding the resignation of the government. At this time, planned to pull the faithful troops and units from the front. But there were no rallies, armed people just occupied the key objects of the capital, and all this was done without a single shot, calmly and methodically. The members of the Provisional Government headed by Kerensky for some time could not even understand what was happening, since they were cut off from the outside world. One could only learn about the actions of the revolutionaries by indirect signs: at some point, the telephone connection in the Winter Palace was gone, then electricity. The government sat in the Winter Palace, where they held meetings, awaited the troops that had been summoned from the front, and belatedly sent out appeals to the population and to the garrison. Apparently, the members of the government hoped to sit out in the palace before the arrival of the troops from the front. The lack of talent of its members is visible even in the fact that the officials did nothing to protect their last stronghold - the Winter Palace: neither ammunition nor food was prepared. Junkers could not even feed dinner.
By the morning of October 25 (November 7) the Interim Government in Petrograd had only the Winter Palace. By the end of the day, he was “defended” around 200 women from the women's shock battalion, 2-3 companies of bezusyh junkers and several dozen disabled people - St. George's knights. Protection began to disperse even before the assault. The Cossacks were the first to leave, embarrassed by the fact that the largest infantry unit was "women with guns." Then they left on the orders of their chief cadet at the Mikhailovsky Artillery School. So the defense of the Winter Palace lost its artillery. A part of the cadets of the Oranienbaum school is also gone. General Bagratuni refused to bear the duties of commander and left the Winter Palace. The shots of the famous storming of the Winter Palace are a beautiful myth. The guards mostly went home. The whole assault consisted in a flaccid exchange of fire. Its scale can be understood by casualties: six soldiers and one drummer were killed. At 2 in the morning of October 26 (November 8), members of the Provisional Government were arrested. Kerensky himself escaped in advance, drove away accompanied by a car of the American ambassador under the American flag.
It should be noted that the operation of the WRC was brilliant only with the complete passivity and lack of talent of the Provisional Government. If a Napoleonic (Suvorov) type with several combat-ready units had come out against the Bolsheviks, the uprising would have been easily suppressed. Garrison soldiers and workers of the Red Guard who succumbed to propaganda could not resist the battle-hardened warriors. Moreover, they didn’t want to fight too much. Thus, neither the workers of the city, nor the garrison of Petrograd in their mass participated in the uprising. And during the shelling of the Winter Palace from the guns of the Peter and Paul Fortress, only 2 shells slightly touched the eaves of the Winter Palace. Later, Trotsky admitted that even the most faithful of gunners deliberately shot past the palace. The attempt to use the guns of the Aurora cruiser failed as well: because of its location, the warship could not shoot at the Winter Palace. Limited to a single salvo. And the Winter Palace itself, if it were well organized, could hold out for a long time, especially given the low combat capability of the forces surrounding it. Thus, Antonov-Ovseenko described the picture of the "assault" as follows: "Disorderly crowds of sailors, soldiers, Red Guards, then float to the gates of the palace, then they vylylyvayut".
Simultaneously with the uprising in Petrograd, the Moscow Council Revolutionary Committee took key points of the city under its control. It didn't go so smoothly here. The Public Security Committee under the chairman of the city duma Vadim Rudnev, with the support of the junkers and Cossacks, began military actions against the Council. The fighting continued until November 3, when the Public Security Committee capitulated.
In general, the Soviet government was established in the country easily and without much bloodshed. The revolution was immediately supported in the Central Industrial District, where local Soviets of Workers' Deputies were actually in control of the situation. In the Baltics and Byelorussia, Soviet power was established in October - November 1917 of the year, and in the Central Chernozem region, the Volga region and Siberia - until the end of January 1918 of the year. This process was called the "triumphal march of Soviet power." The process of the predominantly peaceful establishment of Soviet power throughout Russia became another proof of the complete degradation of the Provisional Government and the need for the Bolsheviks to seize power.
In the evening of October 25, the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets opened in Smolny, which proclaimed the transfer of all power to the Soviets. October 26 The Council adopted a Decree on Peace. All belligerent countries were asked to begin negotiations on the conclusion of a universal democratic peace. The decree on the land passed landowner land to the peasants. All bowels, forests and waters nationalized. At the same time, a government was formed - the Council of People's Commissars headed by Vladimir Lenin.
Subsequent events confirmed the correctness of the Bolsheviks. Russia was on the verge of death. The old project was destroyed, and only a new project could save Russia. He was given and the Bolsheviks.
Bolsheviks are often blamed for the fact that it was they who destroyed “old Russia”, but this is not true. The Russian empire was killed by the Februarylists. The "fifth column" included: part of the generals, top dignitaries, bankers, industrialists, representatives of the liberal-democratic parties, many of whom were members of Masonic lodges, most of the intelligentsia who hated the "prison of nations." In general, most of the "elite" of Russia with their own hands and destroyed the empire. It was these people who killed the “old Russia”. The Bolsheviks in this period were marginal, in fact, were on the sidelines of political life. But they were able to offer Russia and its peoples a common project, program and goal. The Bolsheviks showed political will and took power, while their competitors were debating about the future of Russia.
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