For more than 70 years, the anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution was the main holiday of the Soviet Union. Throughout the Soviet era, November 7 was the "red day of the calendar", that is, a public holiday marked by the obligatory festive events that took place in every Soviet city. This was the case until 1991, when the USSR collapsed, and the communist ideology was nearly recognized as criminal. 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 country's information field and reconciliation of supporters of different ideological views, and then canceled altogether. November 7 ceased to be a holiday, but was included in the list of memorable dates. The corresponding law was adopted in 2010. In 2005, in connection with the establishment of a new public holiday (National Unity Day), November 7 ceased to be a day off.
This day cannot be deleted from the history of Russia, since the uprising in Petrograd on October 25-26 (November 7-8 according to the new style) led not only to the overthrow of the bourgeois Provisional Government, but also predetermined the entire further development of both Russia and many other states of the planet. …
Brief chronicle of events
By the fall of 1917, the policies of the Provisional Government had brought the Russian state to the brink of disaster. Not only the outskirts broke away from Russia, but also Cossack autonomies were formed. In Kiev, separatists claimed power. Even Siberia has its own autonomous government. The armed forces disintegrated and could not continue military operations, the soldiers deserted by tens of thousands. The front was falling apart. Russia could no longer resist the coalition of the central powers. Finance and economics were disorganized. Problems began with the supply of food to the cities, the government began to carry out food appropriation. Peasants carried out self-seizure of land, landlord estates burned in hundreds. Russia was in a "suspended state" as the Provisional Government postponed the solution of fundamental issues until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly.
The country was covered with a wave of chaos. The autocracy, which was the core of the entire empire, was destroyed. But they didn’t give him anything in return. People felt free from all taxes, duties and laws. The provisional government, whose policy was determined by figures of the liberal and leftist persuasion, could not establish an effective order, moreover, by its actions it aggravated the situation. Suffice it to recall the “democratization” of the army during the war. Petrograd has de facto lost control of the country.
The Bolsheviks decided to take advantage of this. Until the summer of 1917, they were not considered a serious political force, inferior in popularity and number to the Cadets and Socialist-Revolutionaries. But by the fall of 1917, their popularity had grown. Their program was clear and understandable to the masses. Power during this period could be taken by virtually any force that would show political will. The Bolsheviks became this force.
In August 1917, they set a course 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 underground. The most revolutionary regiments of the Petrograd garrison were disbanded, and the workers who sympathized with the Bolsheviks were disarmed. The ability to recreate armed structures appeared only during the Kornilov revolt. The idea had to be postponed. Only on October 10 (23) the Central Committee adopted a resolution on the preparation of an uprising. On October 16 (29), an enlarged meeting of the Central Committee, which was attended by representatives of the districts, confirmed the earlier decision.
On October 12 (25), 1917, the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee was established on the initiative of Leon Trotsky, chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, to defend the revolution from "an openly preparing attack by military and civilian Kornilovites". The VRK included not only the Bolsheviks, but also some Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and anarchists. In fact, this body coordinated the preparation of an armed uprising. The Military Revolutionary Committee included representatives of the Central Committee, Petrograd and military party organizations of the Bolshevik and Left SR parties, delegates of 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, etc. subordinate detachments of the Red Guard, soldiers of the Petrograd garrison and sailors of the Baltic Fleet, soldiers of the Petrograd garrison and sailors of the Baltic Fleet. Operational work was carried out by the Bureau of the VRK. It was formally headed by the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Pavel Lazimir, but almost all decisions were made by the Bolsheviks Leon Trotsky, Nikolai Podvoisky and Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko.
With the help of the Military Revolutionary Committee, the Bolsheviks established close ties with the soldiers' committees of the formations of the Petrograd garrison. In fact, the left forces not only restored the pre-July dual power in the city, but also began to establish their control over the military forces. When the Provisional Government decided to send revolutionary regiments to the front, the Petrosovet appointed a check on the order 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 forbade the issuance of weapons to workers from the arsenals of the city and the suburbs, but the Council issued warrants and the weapons were issued. The Petrograd Soviet also thwarted the attempt of the Provisional Government to arm its supporters with the help of the arsenal of the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Parts of the Petrograd garrison declared their disobedience to the Provisional Government. On October 21, a meeting of representatives of the garrison regiments was held, which recognized the Petrograd Soviet as the only legal authority in the city. From that moment on, the Military Revolutionary Committee began to appoint its commissars to military units, replacing the 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 powers of its commissars, and on the 22nd announced the subordination of the garrison. On October 23, the Military Revolutionary Committee won the right to create an advisory body at the headquarters of the Petrograd district. On the same day, Trotsky personally campaigned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where they still doubted which side to take. By October 24, the VRK had appointed its commissars to 51 units, as well as to arsenals, weapons depots, railway stations and factories. In fact, by the beginning of the uprising, left-wing forces had established military control over the capital. The provisional government was incapacitated and could not decisively answer. As Trotsky himself later admitted, “the armed uprising took place in Petrograd in two stages: in the first half of October, when the Petrograd regiments, obeying a resolution of the Soviet, which fully corresponded to their own moods, refused with impunity to carry out the order of the high command, and on October 25, when only a small an additional uprising that cut the umbilical cord of February statehood."
Therefore, there were no significant clashes and much bloodshed, the Bolsheviks simply took power. The guards of the Provisional Government and the units loyal to them surrendered without a fight or went home. Nobody wanted to shed their blood for the "temporary workers". So, the Cossacks were ready to support the Provisional Government, but with the reinforcement of their regiments with machine guns, armored cars and infantry. In connection with the failure to fulfill the conditions proposed by the Cossack regiments, the Council of Cossack Troops decided not to take any part in suppressing the uprising of the Bolsheviks and withdrew the already sent 2 hundred Cossacks and the machine-gun command of the 14th regiment.
From October 24, detachments of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee occupied all the key points of the city: bridges, train stations, telegraphs, printing houses, power plants and banks. When the head of the Provisional Government, Kerensky, ordered the arrest of the members of the All-Russian Revolutionary Committee, there was no one to carry out the arrest order. It must be said 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 action of the Bolsheviks was guaranteed to be defeated. Right-wing socialists and cadets knew about the preparations for the uprising, but believed that it would develop according to the July scenario - demonstrations demanding the resignation of the government. At this time, they planned to bring up loyal troops and units from the front. But there were no rallies, armed people simply occupied key facilities in the capital, and all this was done without a single shot, calmly and methodically. For some time, the members of the Provisional Government, headed by Kerensky, could not even understand what was happening, since they were cut off from the outside world. It was possible to learn about the actions of the revolutionaries only by indirect signs: at some point in the Winter Palace the telephone connection disappeared, then electricity. The government sat in the Winter Palace, where it held meetings, waited for the troops who 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 until the arrival of troops from the front. The mediocrity of its members is visible even in the fact that the officials did nothing to protect their last citadel - the Winter Palace: neither ammunition nor food was prepared. The cadets could not even be fed lunch.
By the morning of October 25 (November 7), only the Winter Palace remained with the Provisional Government in Petrograd. By the end of the day, he was "defended" by about 200 women from the women's shock battalion, 2-3 companies of beardless cadets and several dozen invalids - the Cavaliers of St. George. The guards began to disperse even before the assault. The first to leave were the Cossacks, embarrassed by the fact that the largest infantry unit was "women with guns." Then they left on the orders of their chief, the cadet of the Mikhailovsky artillery school. Thus, the defense of the Winter Palace lost its artillery. Some of the cadets of the Oranienbaum school also left. General Bagratuni refused to take on the duties of a commander and left the Winter Palace. The footage of the famous storming of the Winter Palace is a beautiful myth. Most of the guards went home. The whole assault consisted of a sluggish firefight. Its scale can be understood from the losses: six soldiers and one drummer were killed. At 2 am on October 26 (November 8), members of the Provisional Government were arrested. Kerensky himself escaped in advance, leaving accompanied by the car of the American ambassador under the American flag.
It should be noted that the operation of the Military Revolutionary Committee turned out to be brilliant only with the complete passivity and mediocrity of the Provisional Government. If a general of the Napoleonic (Suvorov) type with several combat-ready units had come out against the Bolsheviks, the uprising would have been easily suppressed. The soldiers of the garrison and the workers of the Red Guard, who succumbed to propaganda, could not resist the battle-hardened soldiers. In addition, they did not want to fight especially. Thus, neither the workers of the city, nor the garrison of Petrograd, in their mass, took part 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 cornice of the Winter Palace. Trotsky later admitted that even the most loyal of the gunners deliberately fired past the palace. An attempt to use the guns of the cruiser "Aurora" also failed: due to its location, the battleship could not shoot at the Winter Palace. We limited ourselves to an empty salvo. And the Winter Palace itself, if its defense was well organized, could hold out for a long time, especially given the low combat effectiveness of the forces surrounding it. So, Antonov-Ovseenko described the picture of the "assault" as follows: "Disorderly crowds of sailors, soldiers, Red Guards float to the gates of the palace, then rush away."
Simultaneously with the uprising in Petrograd, the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Moscow Soviet took control of key points of the city. Things didn't go so smoothly here. The Public Security Committee under the leadership of the chairman of the city duma Vadim Rudnev, with the support of cadets and Cossacks, began hostilities against the Soviet. Fighting continued until November 3, when the Public Security Committee surrendered.
On the whole, Soviet power was established in the country easily and without much bloodshed. The revolution was immediately supported in the Central Industrial Region, where the local Soviets of Workers' Deputies were already in fact in control of the situation. In the Baltics and Belarus, Soviet power was established in October - November 1917, and in the Central Black Earth Region, the Volga region and Siberia - until the end of January 1918. This process was called "the triumphal march of Soviet power." The process of the predominantly peaceful establishment of Soviet power throughout the territory of Russia became another proof of the complete degradation of the Provisional Government and the need for the Bolsheviks to seize power.
On the evening of October 25, the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets opened in Smolny, which proclaimed the transfer of all power to the Soviets. On October 26, the Council adopted the Peace Decree. All the belligerent countries were invited to start negotiations on the conclusion of a universal democratic peace. The land decree transferred the landowners' lands to the peasants. All mineral resources, forests and waters were 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 brink of death. The old project was destroyed, and only a new project could save Russia. It was given by the Bolsheviks.
The Bolsheviks are often accused of destroying “old Russia,” but this is not true. The Russian Empire was killed by the Februaryists. The "fifth column" included: part of the generals, top dignitaries, bankers, industrialists, representatives of liberal-democratic parties, many of which were members of Masonic lodges, most of the intelligentsia, who hated the "prison of peoples". In general, most of the "elite" of Russia with their own hands and destroyed the empire. It was these people who killed “old Russia”. The Bolsheviks during this period were marginalized, 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 rivals debated the future of Russia.
