Question by Bianca: How has Lenin been able to seize control? How were the Bolsheviks able to seize power?
How has Lenin been able to seize control? How were the Bolsheviks able to seize power?
What happened on the day of the October Revolution?
Add different points of view.
I need this right now, so thanks to everybody helping <3 Answers and Views:
Answer by Spellbound
I take it that you mean the October 1917 revolution, not the 1905 or the February 1917 Revolutions.
The February Revolution was swamped by the the October Revolution because it lacked democratic legitimacy. The Provisional Government was the re-constituted last State Duma. It refused an election to a promised interim government – the Constituent Assembly – saying that Russia would hold elections after the war.
The Petrograd Soviet was seen by many as a genuinely democratic institution, as it’s members were elected to it from the garrisons and factories of the capital.
The Bolshevik slogans “Bread, Land and Peace” and “All Power to the Soviets” sum up the other major factors: The cities were starving as the peasants were now in uniform fighting in the war – they could not plough, sow or harvest the crops. And the food delivery infrastructure had broken down. The peasants wanted the Provisional Government to give them the land they worked on – it didn’t, and the most of the land was still owned by the aristocracy. And Russia was doing badly in the war and most people wanted Russia to withdraw from it.
Soviets were seen as genuinely democratic bodies – they were mostly formed spontaneously and ran everything from factories to city blocks. By demanding All Power to the Soviets the Bolsheviks were tapping into popular democratic demands.
Other factors:
Lenin was a dedicated, determined and capable leader. He motivated his party and, through agitation & propaganda, the Bolsheviks became very popular in the army and in the factories.
Trotsky was an extremely gifted administrator. He was the chairman of the Milrevkom – the Military Revolutionary Committee – this was the organisation that orchestrated the events of October 1917.
The leadership of the party was loyal to Lenin, and they followed his orders with conviction.
The party had a competent propaganda machine, producing newspapers, banners, posters and setting up recruitment drives in the army and factories.
As for the events of the October Revolution:
The main events leading up to he seizure of power by the Bolsheviks:
The April these – Lenin outlines his aims and a programme for the Bolsheviks to take power.
The July Days – 3rd – 7th July. Strikes in Petrograd cripple the city. The Bolsheviks try to impose their leadership on the strikes. The strikes are brutally put down – Lenin goes into hiding, many Bolsheviks arrested.
The Kornilov Affair Late August early September – General Lavr Kornilov, the commander-in-chief of the army attempts to march an army to Petrograd. The Provisional Government release the Bolsheviks and ask Lenin and the Bolshevik Red Guards to help prevent the attempted coup; the Red Guard were given arms by the government. Kornilov is seen off as his cossacks desert him.
September & October – strikes in much of the country, especially in the important industrial areas: Petrograd, the Donbas, Moscow, Baku and the Urals. Peasant uprisings increasing, and becoming increasingly violent, with manor houses burnt and their occupants lynched.
Bolshevik agitation increases – they are leading the strikes, taking over the key posts on many soviets, and, in the army and navy, their influence is getting stronger – especially in the island fortress of Kronshstadt. By October, many garrisons issue proclamations saying that they do not recognise the authority of the Provisional Government.
October 25th 9:45pm – the Battleship Aurora, stationed in Petrograd, fires a single blank shot. This is the signal that Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko has been waiting for – he leads his men to the Winter Palace – the home of the Provisional Government. The palace is guarded by a women’s’ battalion, some cadets and some cossacks. By 2am, with very little bloodshed they had secured the building – the Provisional Government fled – and the next day Lenin took office as the Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, the new, Bolshevik, head of government.
See:
The Bolsheviks in Russian Society – Vladimir Brovkin
The Russian Revolution – Sheila Fitzpatrick
The October Revolution – Roy Medvedev
http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1917october&Year=1917
http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/events/revolution/index.htmfi
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