The October Revolution and the Bolshevik Seizure of Power

The October Revolution of 1917 was the Bolshevik seizure of power that established Soviet rule in Russia and set the stage for the creation of the Soviet Union. The revolution, which took place in November 1917 by the Western calendar, was the second revolution of that year, following the February Revolution that had toppled the Romanov dynasty. The October Revolution was led by the Bolshevik Party under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, and it marked the beginning of the Soviet period in Russian history.

The October Revolution was one of the most important events of the twentieth century. It established the first communist state in the world, and it shaped the development of the Cold War, the international communist movement, and the global political order for the rest of the century. The revolution also had a profound impact on Russia itself, leading to the Russian Civil War, the establishment of the Soviet state, and the radical transformation of Russian society.

The background of the revolution

The October Revolution was the result of a complex interplay of long-term and short-term factors. The long-term factors included the deep social, economic, and political tensions of the late imperial period, the failure of the autocratic system to adapt to the challenges of the modern world, and the development of a revolutionary movement that sought a radical transformation of Russian society. The short-term factors included the disasters of the First World War, the collapse of the imperial system in February 1917, and the inability of the Provisional Government to address the fundamental problems facing Russia.

The Bolshevik Party, which had been a relatively small revolutionary organization before 1917, grew rapidly in the period after the February Revolution. The Bolsheviks benefited from the failures of the Provisional Government, particularly its decision to continue the war, and they gained increasing support among the workers and soldiers with their slogans of “Peace, Land, and Bread” and “All Power to the Soviets.”

Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik Party, returned to Russia in April 1917 from his exile in Switzerland, traveling through Germany in the famous “sealed train” that the German government allowed to pass through its territory in the hope that the Bolsheviks would destabilize the Russian war effort. Lenin’s return marked a turning point in the revolution, and his famous April Theses called for the Bolsheviks to oppose the Provisional Government, to support the soviets, and to prepare for a socialist revolution.

The crisis of the Provisional Government

The Provisional Government, which had been established after the February Revolution, faced a series of crises in the spring and summer of 1917. The most important was the question of the war. The Provisional Government, which was dominated by moderate politicians, was committed to continuing the war in the name of defending Russia and fulfilling the obligations of the alliance with the other Entente powers. The decision to continue the war was deeply unpopular among the soldiers and workers, who had hoped that the revolution would bring peace.

The April Crisis of April 1917 was triggered by a note from the Foreign Minister Pavel Milyukov to the Allied governments, reaffirming Russia’s commitment to the war aims of the Entente, including the annexation of the Ottoman Straits and the recognition of Russian claims to Constantinople. The note was leaked to the press, and it triggered a wave of demonstrations in Petrograd. Milyukov was forced to resign, and the government was reorganized, with the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks joining the cabinet. The new government, however, was even less able to address the fundamental problems facing Russia.

The July Days of July 1917 were another crisis. The Bolsheviks, who had grown in strength in the soviets, called for demonstrations in Petrograd, and the soldiers and workers of the capital came out in support of the Bolshevik slogans of “All Power to the Soviets.” The demonstrations were suppressed by government forces, and the Bolshevik leaders were forced to flee or go into hiding. Lenin fled to Finland, and the Bolshevik Party was subjected to persecution.

The Kornilov Affair of August 1917 was the most serious crisis of the period. General Lavr Kornilov, the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, attempted a military coup against the Provisional Government, with the apparent support of some conservative politicians. The coup failed, partly because the railway workers and the soviets refused to cooperate with Kornilov’s forces, and partly because the soldiers at the front did not support the coup. The failure of the Kornilov Affair, however, strengthened the Bolsheviks, who had helped to organize the resistance to the coup and who had gained new credibility as defenders of the revolution.

The Bolshevik rise to power

The Bolsheviks grew rapidly in strength in the period between the Kornilov Affair and the October Revolution. The Bolsheviks won majorities in the soviets of the cities, including the Petrograd Soviet and the Moscow Soviet, and they were able to build a strong base of support among the workers and soldiers. The Bolshevik slogan of “Peace, Land, and Bread” appealed to the war-weary soldiers, the land-hungry peasants, and the bread-hungry urban population.

The Bolshevik strategy was developed by Lenin in his writings of the period, including State and Revolution, which laid out the Bolshevik vision of the proletarian revolution. Lenin argued that the Bolsheviks should seize power in the name of the soviets, and that the revolution should be carried out by a disciplined revolutionary party. The strategy was opposed by some Bolsheviks, including Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev, who argued that the time was not yet ripe for the revolution. Lenin, however, prevailed, and the Bolshevik Central Committee voted in October to organize an armed insurrection.

The October insurrection

The actual seizure of power was almost bloodless. On the night of 25-26 October 1917 (7-8 November by the Western calendar), the Bolsheviks occupied key points in Petrograd, including the railway stations, the post office, the State Bank, and the central telegraph office. The cruiser Aurora fired a blank shot as a signal, and the Bolsheviks entered the Smolny Institute, headquarters of the Petrograd Soviet, where they declared that the Provisional Government had been overthrown. The members of the Provisional Government were arrested at the Winter Palace, and the only significant resistance was at a few points in the city.

The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which had been scheduled to open on 25 October 1917, opened on the evening of 25 October and continued into the following day. The Congress, which was dominated by the Bolsheviks, passed a series of decrees that fulfilled the Bolshevik promises: a decree on peace called for an end to the war, and a decree on land transferred the land to the peasants. The Congress also established a new government, the Council of People’s Commissars, with Lenin as the chairman. A few weeks later, on 14 (27) November 1917, the Central Executive Committee issued the Decree on Workers’ Control, which placed the factories under the supervision of the workers.

The Bolshevik seizure of power was almost bloodless in Petrograd, but it was followed by a series of armed struggles in other parts of Russia. The most important of these was in Moscow, where the Bolsheviks fought a brief but bloody battle against the loyalist forces. The Bolsheviks eventually prevailed in Moscow, and the Soviet government was established in most of the cities by the end of 1917.

The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly

The Bolshevik seizure of power was followed by the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, which had been elected in November 1917. The Constituent Assembly, which had been a central demand of the revolution, met for the first time on 18 January 1918 (5 January by the old-style calendar). The Bolsheviks, who had won only about a quarter of the seats in the election, were outvoted by the combined opposition of the Socialist Revolutionaries, the Mensheviks, and the Constitutional Democrats.

The Constituent Assembly held only a single session. In the early hours of 6 January 1918 (old style), the Bolshevik guard ended the sitting, and the Assembly was formally dissolved by a decree of the Central Executive Committee, with armed guards preventing the deputies from reconvening. The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly marked the end of the brief period of democratic government in Russia and the establishment of one-party rule by the Bolsheviks. The action was widely criticized at the time, and it has remained a point of contention in Russian and Soviet history.

The establishment of Soviet rule

The establishment of Soviet rule was accompanied by a series of radical measures that transformed Russian society. The Bolsheviks nationalized the banks, the industries, and the land, and they established a system of workers’ control over the factories. The Bolsheviks also established a new system of government, with the soviets as the basic unit of political organization, and they created a new security apparatus, the Cheka, to suppress opposition.

The Bolsheviks also pursued a radical policy of social transformation. They established a system of free education, they recognized the right of divorce and abortion, they nationalized the property of the Orthodox Church, and they promoted the rights of the national minorities. The Bolshevik policy was supported by many workers, soldiers, and peasants, but it was also resisted by many others, including the middle class, the nobility, the clergy, and the various political opponents of the Bolsheviks.

The establishment of Soviet rule set the stage for the Russian Civil War, which would begin in earnest in 1918 and would last until 1922. The civil war was fought between the Red Army, organized by the Bolsheviks and led by Leon Trotsky, and a loose coalition of anti-Bolshevik forces known as the White Movement. The war would be one of the most brutal conflicts of the twentieth century, and it would result in the deaths of millions of people.

The legacy of the October Revolution

The consequences of the October Revolution reached far beyond Russia. As the founding act of the world’s first communist state, it reshaped the international order, inspiring communist movements around the globe and laying the groundwork for the ideological confrontation of the Cold War. Within Russia, it precipitated the Civil War and the radical reconstruction of society under Soviet rule.

Historians have long argued over whether October was a popular revolution or a minority coup. Alexander Rabinowitch’s The Bolsheviks Come to Power (1976) demonstrated the depth of Bolshevik organisation in the Petrograd garrison; post-1991 archival research confirmed that Lenin personally overrode Bolshevik doubts to force the timing. Orlando Figes’s A People’s Tragedy (1996) placed the seizure in the longer context of Russian popular unrest and argued that the Bolsheviks succeeded less because of their own strength than because of the exhaustion of every alternative.