Units 3 & 4 History: Revolutions · The Bolshevik Revolution . Link to the Videos ... until the Constituent Assembly elections scheduled for 12 th November •Trotsky – felt they

Edrolo.com.au History Revolutions notes by Ms L. Perfect

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Units 3 & 4 History: Revolutions

Lecture 9

The Bolshevik Revolution Link to the Videos

https://edrolo.com.au/vce/subjects/history/vce-history-revolutions/russian-revolution/bolshevik-revolution/bolshevik-majority-in-soviets/


















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Bolshevik Majority in Soviets

• Kornilov Affair shifted the focus onto the Bolsheviks, as the ‘saviours’

• September – held a majority in the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets

• Not solely due to rising popularity, but because less deputies were attending Soviet meetings

• Bolsheviks attended every meeting, while other members attended irregularly


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Bolshevik Majority in Soviets - Moscow

June

SRs

Bolsheviks

Mensheviks

Kadets


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Bolshevik Majority in Soviets - Moscow

September

SRs

Bolsheviks

Mensheviks

Kadets


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Bolsheviks in the Soviets

• Trotsky now a Bolshevik (former Menshevik) became Chairman of Petrograd Soviet

• Numbers in the Soviet down significantly when compared to February, but strong Bolshevik influence


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Provisional Government Failure

• Class tensions

• Economic challenges

• Loss of law and order

• Provisional Government loss of authority

• Peasant uprisings

• Lenin’s “All Power to the Soviets” revived


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Bolshevik Opportunity

• Lenin, exiled in Finland, claimed that the Provisional Government was incapable of solving the war and land issues, and that they should be immediately overthrown by the Soviet


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Lenin’s Argument

Lenin sought to expedite the revolution for three reasons:

1. Firstly, he saw the Provisional Government haemorrhaging.

2. Secondly, the All-Russian Congress of Soviets was due to be held in late October. He argued that if the Bolsheviks had seized power by then, the soviets would have no choice but to accept their authority.

3. Thirdly, Constituent Assembly elections were due in November, and he was unsure how the Bolsheviks would perform. If another party was elected in November, it would be difficult to challenge their moral authority.


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Lenin Returns

7th October – Lenin returns to Petrograd

10th October – meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee

“History will not forgive us if we do not take power now.”

Feared the elections would lead to a coalition

Believed the mood for revolution was ripe


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Counter Arguments

• Not all Bolshevik’s agreed

• Kamenev and Zinoviev – felt they should wait until the Constituent Assembly elections scheduled for 12th November

• Trotsky – felt they should wait for the All-Russian Congress of Soviets scheduled for late October

• 10th October – decision for armed insurrection made, not decisive plan


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Military Revolutionary Committee

• Mid-October – Kerensky ordered soldiers from Petrograd Garrison to Northern Front (protect city from Germans)

• Wanted to rid Petrograd of trouble and encourage early Bolshevik uprising

• Plan backfired

• Military Revolutionary Committee formed to protect city and defend counter-revolution


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Military Revolutionary Committee

• Milrevcom or MRC

• Five man leadership committee (Trotsky and two other Bolsheviks) – control of garrison

• Sent message of protection to workers and soldiers


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Kerensky’s Actions

Zinoviev and Kamenev – article in Novaia Zhizn (New Life) stating they thought it would be a mistake to try to overthrow the government

Lenin was furious

Kerensky believed that it was a ploy and that the date for insurrection had been set

23rd-24th October, Kerensky’s pre-emptive attack – bridges raised, closed Bolshevik newspapers and organised troops to arrest leading Bolsheviks

Trotsky sets Milrevcom into action


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Bolshevik’s seize power

• 24th-26th October – Trotsky orders Red Guard to seize major vantage points around Petrograd

• Lenin had given the order, Trotsky organised the insurrection

• Little fighting • Provisional Government without military support -

Petrograd garrison mass desertion, only a small group of Cossacks and women soldiers

• The Aurora (anchored on River Nev) sounded its guns in support of the Bolsheviks – persuaded most of the Provisional Government to hide, flee or surrender

• Little resistance when Red Guards entered the Winter Palace – most fled


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All-Russian Congress of Soviets

• 25th October, 10:40pm opens • Martov proposed a socialist coalition

government • The right SRs and Mensheviks denounced the

actions of the Bolsheviks, claiming that power had not been seized in the name of the Soviets, but in the name of the Bolsheviks

• Trotsky – “go back to where you ought to go: into the dustbin of history!”

• Left SRs remain • Bolshevik control


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• 26th October , 8:40pm reopens • Lenin announced that power had been seized

by the Bolshevik led Petrograd Soviet in their name

• Lenin – “we shall now proceed to build, on the space cleared of historical rubbish, the airy, towering edifice of socialist society”.

• Peace and Land decrees


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• 27th October

• New government named – Council of People’s Commissars (Sovnarkom) announced

• Lenin named himself chairman

• New Soviet CEC elected

• Decree on Press


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Historical Interpretations

• Lynch: “In October 1917 the Bolsheviks were pushing against an already open door.”

• Service: “If Lenin had never existed, a socialist government would probably have ruled Russia by the end of [1917].”


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• Pipes: “October was a classic coup d’etat, the capture of governmental authority by a small band, carried out, in deference to the democratic professions of the age, with a show of mass participation, but with hardly any mass involvement”.



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G.D. Obichkin: “In his guidance of the uprising, Lenin’s genius as a leader of the masses, a wise and fearless strategist, who clearly saw what direction the revolution would take, was strikingly revealed”.



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• Wood: “There was clearly much more behindthe Bolsheviks’ victory than ideological ororganizational superiority over other politicalforces. The Bolsheviks were simply much morein tune with popular feeling than either theconstitutionally-minded liberal politicians orthe moderate socialists”.



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• Figes: “The October insurrection was a coup d’etat, actively supported by a small minority of the population…but it took place amidst a social revolution, which was centered on the popular realization of Soviet power”.



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• Reed: “[Lenin was a] strange popular leader- a leader purely by virtue of intellect; colourless, humourless, uncompromising and detached, without picturesque idiosyncrasies- but with the power of explaining profound ideas in simple terms, of analysing a concrete situation. And combined with shrewdness, the greatest intellectual audacity.” Ten Days That Shook the World


Units 3 & 4 History: Revolutions · The Bolshevik Revolution . Link to the Videos ... until the Constituent Assembly elections scheduled for 12 th November •Trotsky – felt they

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