22 - 28 October 1917
Students and soldiers firing across the Moika River at police who are resisting the revolutionaries, 24 October 1917 (© IWM Q69411)
The remarkable thing about the
Bolshevik insurrection is that hardly any of the Bolshevik leaders had wanted
it to happen until a few hours before it began … Trotsky, who in Lenin’s
absence had effectively assumed the leadership of the party, repeatedly
stressed the need for discipline and patience … ‘This is defence,
comrades. This is defence.’
(Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy, London 1996)
22 October
The Minister of War has gone to the Caucasus on a fortnight’s leave, and
during his absence the Assistant Minister of War, General Tumanoff, will act.
In political circles it is considered that General Verkhovsky will not return
to the War Office.
(Report in The Times)
23 October
Report headed ‘American Aid for Russia’
The Administration, which two days ago granted large credits to Italy, has
replied to M. Kerensky’s utterances by transferring to Russia’s account over
£6,000,000. Washington is willing to encourage and assist Russia by every means
in its power.
(‘News in Brief’, The Times)
Memoir by the Menshevik Nikolai
Sukhanov
‘Yes’, said [Trotsky], ‘an insurrection is going on, and the Bolsheviks, in
the form of the Congress majority, will take the power into their own hands.
The steps taken by the Military Revolutionary Committee are steps for the
seizure of power.’ Had everybody heard? Or was it still not clear enough?
(N.N. Sukhanov, The Russian Revolution 1917: a Personal Record, Oxford
1955)
At 8pm … the soldiers finally,
dramatically, voted. Everyone for the MRC moved to the left: those opposed, to
the right. There was a protracted shuffling and shoving. When it was done,
there rose a huge and sustained cheer. On the right were only a few officers,
and some intellectuals from one of those strange bicycle regiments. The
majority, by far, stood for the MRC … Most of Petrograd’s weapon stores
were now in MRC hands. And the cannon of the fortress looked out over the
Winter Palace itself.
(China Miéville, October: The Story of the Russian Revolution, London 2017)
24 October
At 2.30am a strange army came through the cold night. It was cobbled from
whatever forces were to hand, on which the right could count. Two or three
detachments of Junkers; some cadets from officers’ training schools; a few
warriors from a Women’s Death Battalion; a battery of horse artillery from
Pavlovsk; various Cossacks; a bicycle unit with their thick-wheeled machines;
and a rifle regiment of war-wounded veterans. They headed through the quiet
city to defend the Winter Palace.
(China Miéville, October: The Story of the Russian Revolution, London 2017)
Sir George Buchanan, British Ambassador
to Russia
At three o’clock this morning the printing presses of several Bolshevik
papers, which the Government had decided to suppress, were seized, and
Tereschenko expects that this will provoke a Bolshevik uprising. He is urging
Kerensky to arrest the members of the revolutionary military committee, and
will not in any case leave for London till the situation has been cleared up.
(Sir George Buchanan, My Mission to Russia, London 1923)
By the morning of 24 October the
Smolny was the unofficial ‘General Staff’ of the Bolsheviks … For John
Reed, Smonly was the place to be, the heartbeat of revolution: it was dynamic,
visceral, exciting, invigorating and ‘hummed like a gigantic hive’. Albert Rhys
Williams … saw it as a haven, the bastion of a brave new world: ‘By night,
glowing with a hundred lamp-lit windows, it looms up like a great temple — a
temple of Revolution.’
(Helen Rappaport, Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd 1917, London 2017)
Memoir by the Menshevik Nikolai
Sukhanov
Orders were given [by the General Staff] to raise all the bridges, except
the Palace Bridge, in order to hinder marchers … The raising of the
bridges at once produced in the city the circumstances of a coup d’etat
accomplished and disorders begun. The whole capital, hitherto quite tranquil,
became agitated. Crowds began gathering in the streets.
(N.N. Sukhanov, The Russian Revolution 1917: a Personal Record, Oxford 1955)
‘I
remembered the July Days’, Ilin-Zhenevsky of the Bolshevik MO later wrote. ‘The
drawing of the bridges appeared to me as the first step in another attempt to
destroy us. Was it possible the Provisional Government would triumph over us
again?’ … Unbidden, Ilin-Zhenevsky directed garrison soldiers to secure
the Grenadiers and Samsonovsky bridges. One group returned dragging heavy
machinery behind them, and were followed by a shouting mechanic. ‘We have
lowered the bridge,’ they told a curious Ilin-Zhenevsky, ‘and to make sure it
stays down, we’ve brought part of the mechanism.’
(China Miéville, October: The Story of the Russian Revolution, London 2017)
By 10 p.m. Lenin could hold back no
longer. He donned his wig and a worker’s cap, wrapped a bandage around his head
and set off for the Smolny … Near the Tauride Palace a government patrol
stopped them, but … mistook Lenin … for a harmless drunk and let them
proceed. One can only wonder how different history would have been if Lenin had
been arrested.
(Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy, London 1996)
Lenin addressing the Bolshevik CC
To delay the uprising would be fatal … With all my might I urge
comrades to realise that everything now hangs by a thread … We must at all
costs, this very evening, this very night, arrest the government … We must
not wait! We may lose everything! … The government is tottering. It must
be given the death blow at all costs.
(V.I. Lenin and Joseph Stalin, The Russian Revolution: Writings and
Speeches from the February Revolution to the October Revolution, 1917, London
1938)
25 October
The Great October Socialist Revolution, as it came to be called in Soviet
mythology, was in reality such a small-scale event, being in effect no more
than a military coup, that it passed unnoticed by the vast majority of the
inhabitants of Petrograd.
(Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy, London 1996)
At 3.30 in the morning of the 25th,
the naval cruiser, Avrora, accompanied by three destroyers, steamed in from
Kronstadt and dropped anchor broadside-on to the Winter Palace. It was clear
that the endgame had come for this, the last symbolic bastion of old imperial
Russia.
(Helen Rappaport, Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd 1917, London 2017)
Leighton Rogers, bank employee
They’ve begun it; they’re at it now as I write. Machine-guns and rifles are
snarling and barking all over the city. Sounds like a huge corn-popper.
(Helen Rappaport, Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd 1917, London 2017)
Diary entry of Louis de Robien,
attaché at the French Embassy
Yesterday’s quiet was deceptive. In fact, during the night the Bolsheviks
pulled off the surprise attack which they have been planning for a long
time … They are now in possession of the telegraph office, the stations,
and the department of state: in short, they are masters of the capital. The
government collapsed like a house of cards without the least resistance, and
the apparent order has not been disturbed. Tereschenko has disappeared since
this morning; and Kerensky has fled in a car belonging to one of the
secretaries of the United States Embassy … He is said to have gone to the
front to bring back some troops.
(Louis de Robien, The Diary of a Diplomat in Russia 1917–1918, London 1969)
Diary entry of Joshua Butler Wright,
Counselor of the American Embassy, Petrograd
Sheldon Whitehouse was asked by an aide of Kerensky’s to allow Kerensky the
use of the car of the embassy, went to see Kerensky at the staff, found him
very much perturbed and admitting that the Bolsheviks control everything and
that he desired the car to make a get-away to form junction with the loyal
troops sent from the front. We presume that he got away
— also that the
rest of the ministry are hiding or arrested! The Mariinsky Palace and Winter
Palace are surrounded; the majority at the garrison have gone over to the
Bolsheviks, the warship Aurora is in the Neva with guns trained on the city.
(Witness to Revolution: The Russian Revolution Diary and Letters of J. Butler
Wright, London 2002)
Press release issued by Lenin at 10.00
a.m.
To the Citizens of Russia! The Provisional Government has been overthrown. The
power of state has passed into the hands of the organ of the Petrograd Soviet
of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, the Revolutionary Military Committee, which
stands at the head of the Petrograd proletariat and garrison. The cause for
which the people have fought — the immediate proposal of a democratic peace,
the abolition of landed proprietorship, workers’ control over production and
the creation of a Soviet government — is assured.
(V.I. Lenin and Joseph Stalin, The Russian Revolution: Writings and Speeches
from the February Revolution to the October Revolution, 1917, London 1938)
Lenin to a meeting of the Petrograd
Soviet
One of our next tasks is to put an immediate end to the war. But in order to
end this war, which is closely bound up with the present capitalist system, it
is clear to everybody that capital itself must be overcome. We shall be helped
in this by the world working class movement, which is already beginning to
develop in Italy, England and Germany.
(V.I. Lenin and Joseph Stalin, The Russian Revolution: Writings and Speeches
from the February Revolution to the October Revolution, 1917, London 1938)
… at 9.40 p.m. the signal was finally
given and one blank round was fired by the Aurora. The huge sound of the blast,
much louder than a live shot, caused the frightened ministers to drop at once
to the floor. The women from the Battalion of Death became hysterical and had
to be taken away to a room at the back of the palace, while most of the
remaining cadets abandoned their posts. After a short break to allow those who
wished to do so to leave the palace, [the order was given] for the real firing
to begin from the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Aurora and the Palace Square.
Most of the shells from the fortress landed harmlessly in the Neva.
(Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy, London 1996)
26 October
Meanwhile, the final assault on the Winter Palace was nearing completion.
The loyalist forces had virtually all abandoned the defence of the palace and
Bolshevik troops could enter it at will. The minsters, who were now stretched
out on sofas, or slouched on chairs, awaiting the end, could hear the sound of
running soldiers, shouts and gun shots from the floor below. Finally, some time
after 2 a.m., these sounds grew louder: the Bolshevik attackers were climbing
the stairs and approaching the door. It was clear that the moment for surrender
had arrived.
(Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy, London 1996)
The night was yet heavy and chill.
There was only a faint unearthly pallor stealing over the silent streets,
dimming the watchfires, the shadow of a terrible dawn rising over Russia.
(John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World, New York 1919)
Resolution published in Izvestia
The Soviet is convinced that the proletariat of the West European countries
will help us to achieve a complete and lasting victory for the cause of
socialism.
(V.I. Lenin and Joseph Stalin, The Russian Revolution: Writings and
Speeches from the February Revolution to the October Revolution, 1917, London
1938)
27 October
Report in The Times
For the moment the Allies of Russia can do little but look on at this agony,
getting what comfort they can from the reflection that the voice which
struggles up from it is assuredly not the authentic voice of Russia. They may
remember, too, that revolution works in the blood of nations like a fever, which
must come to its crisis, but, if historical analogy is worth anything, is apt
to leave the patient stronger than before. Whether this is the crisis of the
Russian Revolution or not, certain it is that the tragic events of the last few
months have trampled in the mud the banner of revolutionary idealism. Russia,
free for an instant, has found herself bound afresh.
(‘Russia’s Critical Hour’, The Times)
The Moscow Bolsheviks were reluctant
fighters — they were much more inclined to resolve the power question through
negotiation … Nor were they very good at fighting: the Kremlin was soon
lost in the opening battle on the 27th … Without victory in Moscow, even
Lenin recognized that the Bolsheviks could not retain power on their own.
(Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy, London 1996)
Report in The Times
Sir George Buchanan is remaining at Petrograd. The latest telegrams from the
British Ambassador, dated Thursday evening, throw no fresh light on the
situation.
(‘Sir George Buchanan’, The Times)
28 October
For a couple of days there had been no news of Kerensky. ‘No one had the
remotest idea’ what was going to happen next, recalled Bessie Beatty. ‘Where is
Korniloff? … Where are the Cossacks?’ Last and worst of all, ‘Where are
the Germans? Rumour was riding a mad steed.’
(Helen Rappaport, Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd 1917, London 2017)
28 October 2017
Steve Rosenberg, BBC Moscow correspondent, is doing a week of reports on the
revolution, talking to people about their attitude to the centenary and the
consequences of 1917. Already, in the first one, it’s thrown up some
interesting comments. ‘Communism painted the October revolution as an uprising
of the oppressed but in reality it was a coup’; ‘the development of the welfare
state in the West was a reaction to the revolution in Russia, i.e. let’s make
the life of the workers better [to prevent the same thing happening here]’; ‘we
do social experiments, we show how things shouldn’t be done’ (Hermitage
director Mikhail Piotrovsky); ‘the authorities’ response to the centenary is
radio silence, after all, the idea of taking up arms against an oppressive
ruling class and abolishing private property is anathema to the current
regime’; ‘now, in the 21st century, you don’t have to kill anyone to make significant
changes’. As Rosenberg points out, food prices are rising and incomes falling,
but there seems little appetite for a major political upheaval in the near
future. Or will this be one of those hubristic predictions so enjoyed by
readers of history: horizon clear, no icebergs in sight..?
