The Bolsheviks Take Control of Key Points in Petrograd

Russia in the Autumn of 1917

After the February Revolution of 1917 ended the rule of Tsar Nicholas II, Russia was governed by a Provisional Government, headed from July by Alexander Kerensky. Russia remained in the First World War, and the army suffered from shortages and desertions. At the same time, councils called soviets of workers' and soldiers' deputies existed in the cities. The Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin, had gained influence in the Petrograd and Moscow soviets, and Leon Trotsky was chairman of the Petrograd Soviet.

The Seizure of Power

Russia then used the Julian calendar, which was thirteen days behind the Gregorian one, so the events fall on October 24 and 25 in Russian dating and on November 6 and 7 elsewhere. The Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet directed armed workers, soldiers and sailors to occupy bridges, railway stations, the telegraph office and other buildings. Lenin, who had been in hiding, came to the Smolny Institute, where the Bolsheviks had their headquarters. Kerensky left the city to find loyal troops.

The Winter Palace

The ministers of the Provisional Government remained in the Winter Palace, defended by a small number of cadets and other troops. The cruiser Aurora, anchored on the Neva, fired a blank shot as a signal. Late on the night of November 7 to 8 the palace was entered, and the ministers were arrested. Accounts differ on how much fighting took place. Historians note that Sergei Eisenstein's 1928 film October showed a larger assault than contemporary descriptions record.

The Congress of Soviets and After

The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets was meeting in the Smolny that night. On November 8 it approved decrees on peace and on land and set up a government called the Council of People's Commissars, with Lenin as chairman. Fighting continued in Moscow for several days. Elections to a Constituent Assembly in November gave the Bolsheviks about a quarter of the votes, and the Assembly was dissolved by the Bolsheviks in January 1918. A civil war began in 1918. Russia changed to the Gregorian calendar in February 1918, and the Soviet Union marked the anniversary on November 7 as a public holiday until 1991.

Terms and Names

The word Bolshevik comes from the Russian word for majority. It came into use after a vote at the 1903 congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, when Lenin's supporters won a majority on a disputed issue and the faction led by Julius Martov was called the Mensheviks, or minority. Lenin had returned to Russia in April 1917 by train through Germany, which was at war with Russia. In Russia the events of November 1917 have been called the October Revolution because they happened in October by the old calendar.