October 1917 in brief. Great October Socialist Revolution

The Great Russian Revolution is the revolutionary events that took place in Russia in 1917, starting with the overthrow of the monarchy during the February Revolution, when power passed to the Provisional Government, which was overthrown as a result of the October Revolution by the Bolsheviks who proclaimed Soviet power.

February Revolution of 1917 - Major revolutionary events in Petrograd

The reason for the revolution: Labor conflict at the Putilov factory between workers and owners; interruptions in the supply of food to Petrograd.

Main events February revolution took place in Petrograd. The leadership of the army, headed by the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General MV Alekseev, and the commanders of the fronts and fleets, considered that they did not have the means to suppress the riots and strikes that had swept Petrograd. Emperor Nicholas II abdicated the throne. After his supposed successor, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, also renounced the throne, the State Duma took control of the country, forming the Provisional Government of Russia.

With the formation of Soviets parallel to the Provisional Government, a period of dual power began. The Bolsheviks form detachments of armed workers (Red Guard), thanks to attractive slogans, they are gaining considerable popularity, primarily in Petrograd, Moscow, in large industrial cities, the Baltic Fleet, and the troops of the Northern and Western Fronts.

	Demonstrations of women demanding bread and the return of men from the front.
	The beginning of a general political strike under the slogans: "Down with tsarism!", "Down with autocracy!", "Down with war!" (300 thousand people). Clashes between demonstrators and police and gendarmerie. Telegram from the tsar to the commander of the Petrograd military district with the demand "tomorrow to stop the riots in the capital!"
	Arrests of leaders of socialist parties and workers' organizations (100 people). Shooting of workers' demonstrations. Proclamation of the Tsar's decree on the dissolution of the State Duma for two months. Troops (4th company of the Pavlovsk regiment) opened fire on the police.
	Mutiny of the reserve battalion of the Volynsky regiment, its transition to the side of the strikers. The beginning of a massive transfer of troops to the side of the revolution. Creation of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma members and the Provisional Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet.
	Creation of an interim government
	Abdication of Tsar Nicholas II from the throne

Results of the revolution and dual power

October Revolution of 1917 major events

During October revolution The Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, established by the Bolsheviks headed by L.D. Trotsky and V.I. Lenin, overthrew the Provisional Government. At the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies, the Bolsheviks withstand a hard struggle with the Mensheviks and Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, and the first Soviet government is being formed. In December 1917, a government coalition of Bolsheviks and Left SRs was formed. In March 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed with Germany.

By the summer of 1918, a one-party government was finally formed, and the active phase of the Civil War and foreign intervention in Russia began, which began with the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps. The end of the Civil War created the conditions for the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

	Main events of the October Revolution
	The Provisional Government suppressed peaceful demonstrations against the government, arrests, the Bolsheviks were outlawed, the death penalty was restored, the end of dual power.
	The 6th Congress of the RSDLP has passed - a course has been taken towards a socialist revolution.
	State meeting in Moscow, L.G. Kornilova wanted to declare a military dictator and at the same time disperse all the Soviets. An active popular performance thwarted the plans. Raising the authority of the Bolsheviks.
	Kerensky A.F. declared Russia a republic.
	Lenin secretly returned to Petrograd.
	Meeting of the Central Committee of the Bolsheviks, delivered by V.I. and stressed that it is necessary to take power10 people - for, against - Kamenev and Zinoviev. The Political Bureau was elected, headed by Lenin.
	The Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet (headed by Trotsky L.D.) adopted a regulation on the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee (Military Revolutionary Committee) - a legal headquarters for preparing an uprising. The VRC was created - a military revolutionary center (Ya.M. Sverdlov, F.E.Dzerzhinsky, A.S.Bubnov, M.S.Uritsky and I.V. Stalin).
	Kamenev in the newspaper "New Life" - with a protest against the uprising.
	Petrograd garrison on the side of the Soviets
	The Provisional Government ordered the cadets to seize the printing house of the Bolshevik newspaper Rabochy Put and arrest the members of the All-Russian Revolutionary Committee who were in Smolny.
	The revolutionary troops occupied the Central Telegraph, the Izmailovsky railway station, controlled the bridges, and blocked all the cadet schools. VRK sent a telegram to Kronstadt and Tsentrobalt to call the ships of the Baltic Fleet. The order was carried out.
	October 25 - meeting of the Petrograd Soviet. Lenin delivered a speech, uttering the famous words: “Comrades! The workers 'and peasants' revolution, the need for which the Bolsheviks had been talking about all the time, has come to pass. ”
	A salvo from the cruiser Aurora was the signal to storm the Winter Palace, and the Provisional Government was arrested.
	2 Congress of Soviets, which proclaimed Soviet power.

Provisional government of Russia in 1917

Heads of the Russian government in 1905-1917

Witte S.Yu.	Chairman of the Council of Ministers
Goremykin I.L.	Chairman of the Council of Ministers
Stolypin P.A.	Chairman of the Council of Ministers
Kokovtsev V.II.	Chairman of the Council of Ministers

Great October Socialist Revolution
	See Prehistory of the October Revolution
The main goal:	Overthrow of the Provisional Government
	Bolshevik Victory Establishment of the Russian Soviet Republic
Organizers:	RSDLP (b) Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets
Driving forces:	Workers Red Guards
Number of participants:	10,000 sailors 20,000 - 30,000 Red Guards
Opponents:
Fatalities:	Unknown
Injured:	5 Red Guards
Those arrested:	Provisional government of Russia

October Revolution(full official name in the USSR -, alternative names: October coup, Bolshevik coup, third Russian revolution) - the stage of the Russian revolution that took place in Russia in October 1917. As a result of the October Revolution, the Provisional Government was overthrown and a government formed by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets came to power, the absolute majority of whose delegates were Bolsheviks - the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks) and their allies, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, also supported by some national organizations, a small part Menshevik internationalists, and some anarchists. In November, the new government was also supported by a majority of the Extraordinary Congress of Peasant Deputies.

The provisional government was overthrown during the armed uprising on October 25-26 (November 7-8 in the new style), the main organizers of which were V. I. Lenin, L. D. Trotsky, Y. M. Sverdlov, and others. The Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, which also included the Left SRs.

There is a wide range of assessments of the October Revolution: for some it is a national catastrophe that led to the Civil War and the establishment of a totalitarian system of government in Russia (or, conversely, to the death of Great Russia as an empire); for others, it was the greatest progressive event in the history of mankind, which had a tremendous impact on the whole world, and which made it possible for Russia to choose a non-capitalist path of development, to eliminate feudal vestiges and, directly in 1917, rather saved it from catastrophe. Between these extreme points of view, there is also a wide range of intermediate ones. Many historical myths are also associated with this event.

Name

The revolution took place on October 25, 1917 according to the Julian calendar adopted at that time in Russia, and although the Gregorian calendar (new style) was introduced in February 1918 and already the first anniversary (like all subsequent ones) was celebrated on November 7 - 8, the revolution was - was still associated with October, which is reflected in its name.

From the very beginning, the Bolsheviks and their allies called the October events "revolution". Thus, at a meeting of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies on October 25 (November 7), 1917, Lenin said his famous: “Comrades! The workers 'and peasants' revolution, the need for which the Bolsheviks have been talking about all the time, has taken place. "

The definition of "the great October revolution" first appeared in the declaration announced by F. Raskolnikov on behalf of the Bolshevik faction in the Constituent Assembly. By the end of the 30s of the XX century, the name was established in the Soviet official historiography Great October Socialist Revolution... In the first decade after the revolution, it was often called October coup, and this name did not carry a negative meaning (at least in the mouths of the Bolsheviks themselves) and seemed more scientific in the concept of a single revolution of 1917. VI Lenin, speaking at a meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on February 24, 1918, said: "Of course, it is pleasant and easy to talk to workers, peasants and soldiers, it was pleasant and easy to observe how after the October Revolution the revolution went forward ..."; such a name can be found among L. D. Trotsky, A. V. Lunacharsky, D. A. Furmanov, N. I. Bukharin, M. A. Sholokhov; and in Stalin's article dedicated to the first anniversary of October (1918), one of the sections was called About the October coup... Subsequently, the word "coup" became associated with a conspiracy and illegal change of power (by analogy with palace coups), the concept of two revolutions was established, and the term was removed from official historiography. But the expression "October coup" began to be actively used, already with a negative connotation, in literature critical of the Soviet regime: in emigre and dissident circles, and, starting with perestroika, in the legal press.

Background

There are various versions of the prerequisites for the October Revolution. The main ones can be considered:

• version of "two revolutions"
• version of the unified revolution of 1917

Within their framework, one can, in turn, distinguish:

• version of the spontaneous growth of the "revolutionary situation"
• version of the targeted action of the German government (See Sealed wagon)

The "two revolutions" version

In the USSR, the beginning of the formation of this version, probably, should be attributed to 1924 - the discussion about "Lessons of October" by L. D. Trotsky. But it finally took shape in Stalin's times and remained official until the end of the Soviet era. What in the first years of Soviet power had a rather propagandistic meaning (for example, the naming of the October Revolution "socialist"), over time turned into a scientific doctrine.

According to this version, in February 1917, the bourgeois-democratic revolution began and in the coming months was completely completed, and what happened in October was originally a socialist revolution. The TSB said so: "The February bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1917, the second Russian revolution, as a result of which the autocracy was overthrown and conditions were created for the transition to the socialist stage of the revolution."

Associated with this concept is the idea that the February Revolution gave the people everything they fought for (first of all, freedom), but the Bolsheviks decided to establish socialism in Russia, the preconditions for which did not exist yet; as a result, the October Revolution turned into a "Bolshevik counter-revolution."

The version of the “purposeful action of the German government” (“German financing”, “German gold”, “sealed carriage”, etc.) is essentially adjacent to it, since it also suggests that in October 1917 something happened that did not directly related to the February Revolution.

One revolution version

While the version of "two revolutions" was taking shape in the USSR, L. D. Trotsky, already abroad, wrote a book about the united revolution of 1917, in which he defended a concept that was once common to party theorists: in the first months after coming to power, they were only the completion of the bourgeois-democratic revolution, the implementation of what the insurgent people fought for in February.

What we fought for

The only unconditional accomplishment of the February Revolution was the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne; it was too early to talk about the overthrow of the monarchy as such, since the question of whether Russia should be a monarchy or a republic was to be decided by the Constituent Assembly. However, the overthrow of Nicholas II was not an end in itself neither for the workers who made the revolution, nor for the soldiers who went over to their side, nor for the peasants who thanked the Petrograd workers in writing and orally. The revolution itself began with an anti-war demonstration of Petrograd workers on February 23 (March 8 according to the European calendar): the city and the countryside were already tired of the war, and most of all the army. But there were still unfulfilled demands of the 1905-1907 revolution: peasants fought for land, workers - for humane labor legislation and a democratic form of government.

What have you got

The war continued. In April 1917, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the leader of the Cadets P. N. Milyukov, in a special note notified the allies that Russia remained true to its obligations. On June 18, the army launched an offensive that ended in disaster; however, even after that, the government refused to start negotiations for peace.

All attempts by the Minister of Agriculture, leader of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, V. M. Chernov, to start an agrarian reform, were blocked by the majority of the Provisional Government.

The attempt of the Minister of Labor of the Social Democrat M.I.Skobelev to introduce civilized labor legislation also ended in nothing. The eight-hour working day had to be established on a prioritized basis, to which the industrialists often responded with lockouts.

Political freedoms (of speech, press, assembly, etc.) were actually won, but they have not yet been enshrined in any constitution, and the July U-turn of the Provisional Government showed how easily they can be taken away. Left-wing newspapers (not only Bolsheviks) were closed by the government; “enthusiasts” could have smashed the printing house and dispersed the rally without government approval.

The people who won in February created their own democratic organs of power - the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers', and later of Peasants' Deputies; only the Soviets, which relied directly on enterprises, barracks and rural communities, had real power in the country. But they, too, were not legalized by any constitution, and therefore any Kaledin could demand the dispersal of the Soviets, and any Kornilov could equip a campaign against Petrograd for this. After the July days, many deputies of the Petrograd Soviet and members of the Central Executive Committee - Bolsheviks, Mezhraiontsy, Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and anarchists - were arrested on dubious, if not simply absurd charges, and nobody was interested in their parliamentary immunity.

The Provisional Government postponed the resolution of all pressing issues either until the end of the war, but the war did not end, or until the Constituent Assembly, the convocation of which was also constantly postponed.

The "revolutionary situation" version

The situation that developed after the formation of the government ("too right for such a country", according to A. V. Krivoshein), Lenin characterized as "dual power", and Trotsky as "dual power": the socialists in the Soviets could rule, but did not want, "progressive bloc ”in the government wanted to rule, but could not, finding itself forced to rely on the Petrograd Soviet, with which they differed in views on all issues of domestic and foreign policy. The revolution developed from crisis to crisis, and the first broke out in April.

April crisis

On March 2 (15), 1917, the Petrograd Soviet allowed the self-proclaimed Provisional Committee of the State Duma to form a cabinet in which there was not a single supporter of Russia's withdrawal from the war; even the only socialist in the government, AF Kerensky, needed a revolution to win the war. On March 6, the Provisional Government published a proclamation, which, according to Milyukov, “its first task was to 'bring the war to a victorious end' and declared at the same time that it would“ sacredly preserve the alliances that bind us with other powers and unswervingly fulfill the agreements concluded with the allies ” ".

In response, the Petrograd Soviet on March 10 adopted a manifesto "To the peoples of the whole world": "In the consciousness of its revolutionary strength, Russian democracy declares that it will by all means oppose the imperialist policy of its ruling classes, and it calls on the peoples of Europe to joint decisive actions in favor of peace." ... On the same day, a Contact Commission was created - partly to strengthen control over the actions of the government, and partly to seek mutual understanding. As a result, a declaration of March 27 was worked out, which satisfied the majority of the Council.

Public controversy over the issue of war and peace ceased for a while. However, on April 18 (May 1), under pressure from the allies who demanded intelligible statements about the government's position, as a commentary on the declaration of March 27, Miliukov drew up a note (published two days later), which spoke of the "nationwide desire to bring the world war to a decisive victory." and that the Provisional Government "will fully comply with the obligations assumed in relation to our allies." The left-wing Menshevik N. N. Sukhanov, the author of the March agreement between the Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, believed that this document was "finally and officially" signed "in the complete falsity of the declaration of March 27, in a disgusting deception of the people by the" revolutionary "government."

Such a statement on behalf of the people was not slow in causing an explosion. On the day of its publication, April 20 (May 3), a non-partisan warrant officer of the reserve battalion of the Guards of the Finland Regiment, a member of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, F. F. Linde, without the Council's knowledge, brought the Finland Regiment out onto the street, which was immediately followed by other military units of Petrograd and the surrounding area.

An armed demonstration in front of the Mariinsky Palace (the seat of the government) under the slogan “Down with Milyukov!”, And then “Down with the Provisional Government!” lasted two days. On April 21 (May 4), the Petrograd workers took an active part in it and the posters “All power to the Soviets!” Appeared. Supporters of the "progressive bloc" responded to this with demonstrations in support of Milyukov. “The note on April 18,” N. Sukhanov reports, “shook more than one capital. Exactly the same thing happened in Moscow. The workers threw their machines, the soldiers threw their barracks. The same meetings, the same slogans for and against Milyukov. The same two camps and the same solidarity of democracy ... ”.

The executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet, unable to stop the demonstrations, demanded explanations from the government, which were given. In the resolution of the Executive Committee, adopted by a majority of votes (40 against 13), it was recognized that the explanation of the government prompted by the "unanimous protest of the workers and soldiers of Petrograd" "puts an end to the possibility of interpreting the April 18 note in a spirit contrary to the interests and demands of revolutionary democracy." The resolution concluded by expressing the confidence that "the peoples of all the belligerent countries will break the resistance of their governments and force them to enter into peace negotiations on the basis of renouncing annexations and indemnities."

But the armed demonstrations in the capital were stopped not by this document, but by the Council's appeal "To all citizens", which also contained a special appeal to the soldiers:

After the proclamation was made public, the commander of the Petrograd Military District, General L.G. Kornilov, who for his part also tried to bring troops to the streets to protect the Provisional Government, resigned, and the Provisional Government had no choice but to accept it.

July days

Sensing its instability during the April crisis, the Provisional Government hastened to get rid of the unpopular Milyukov and once again turned to the Petrograd Soviet for help, inviting the socialist parties to delegate their representatives to the government.

After long and heated discussions in the Petrograd Soviet on May 5, the right-wing socialists accepted the invitation: Kerensky was appointed Minister of War, the leader of the Socialist-Revolutionaries Chernov took the portfolio of Minister of Agriculture, Social Democrat (Menshevik) I. G. Tsereteli became Minister of Posts and Telegraphs (later - Minister of Internal affairs), his party comrade Skobelev headed the Ministry of Labor and, finally, the People's Socialist A.V. Peshekhonov became the Minister of Food.

Thus, the socialist ministers were called upon to solve the most difficult and most acute problems of the revolution, and as a result - to take upon themselves the people's dissatisfaction with the ongoing war, the usual food shortages of any war, the failure to resolve the land issue and the lack of new labor legislation. At the same time, the majority of the government could easily block any initiatives of the socialists. An example of this is the work of the Labor Committee, in which Skobelev tried to resolve the conflict between workers and industrialists.

A number of bills were proposed for consideration by the Committee, including on freedom to strike, on an eight-hour working day, restrictions on child labor, benefits for old age and disability, labor exchanges. V. A. Averbakh, who represented the Industrialists in the Committee, recounted in his memoirs:

As a result of either the eloquence or the sincerity of the industrialists, only two bills were adopted - on stock exchanges and on sickness benefits. "Other projects, subjected to merciless criticism, were sent to the cabinet of the Minister of Labor and never removed from there." Averbakh, not without pride, talks about how the industrialists managed not to yield almost an inch to their "sworn enemies" used by the Soviet government either in their original form, or in the form in which they were proposed by a group of workers of the Labor Committee "...

Ultimately, the right-wing socialists did not add popularity to the government, but lost their own in a matter of months; "Dual power" moved inside the government. At the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which opened in Petrograd on June 3 (16), the left-wing socialists (Bolsheviks, Mezhraiontsy and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries) called on the right majority of the Congress to take power into their own hands: only such a government, they believed, could lead the country out of a permanent crisis.

But the right-wing socialists found many reasons to relinquish power once again; by a majority of votes, the Congress expressed its confidence in the Provisional Government.

The historian N. Sukhanov notes that the mass demonstration that took place on June 18 in Petrograd demonstrated a significant increase in the influence of the Bolsheviks and their closest allies, the Mezhraiontsy, primarily among the Petrograd workers. The demonstration took place under anti-war slogans, but on the same day Kerensky, under pressure from allies and domestic supporters of the continuation of the war, launched an ill-prepared offensive at the front.

According to the testimony of CEC member Sukhanov, since June 19, Petrograd has been "alarmed", "the city felt itself on the eve of some kind of explosion"; newspapers printed rumors about how the 1st Machine Gun Regiment was conspiring with the 1st Grenadier Regiment to jointly attack the government; Trotsky claims that it was not only the regiments that conspired with each other, but also the factories and barracks. The executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet issued appeals, sent agitators to factories and barracks, but the authority of the right-wing socialist majority of the Soviet was undermined by active support for the offensive; “Nothing came of agitation, of going to the masses,” says Sukhanov. More authoritative Bolsheviks and Mezhraiontsy called for patience ... Nevertheless, the explosion took place.

Sukhanov connects the rebellious regiments with the collapse of the coalition: on July 2 (15), four cadet ministers left the government in protest against the agreement concluded by the government delegation (Tereshchenko and Tsereteli) with the Ukrainian Central Rada: concessions to the separatist tendencies of the Rada were "the last straw, overflowing the cup. " Trotsky believes that the conflict over Ukraine was only a pretext:

According to the modern historian, Ph.D. V. Rodionov claims that the demonstrations on July 3 (16) were organized by the Bolsheviks. However, in 1917, the Special Commission of Inquiry could not prove this. On the evening of July 3, many thousands of armed soldiers of the Petrograd garrison and workers in the capital's enterprises with the slogans "All power to the Soviets!" and "Down with the capitalist ministers!" surrounded the Tauride Palace, the headquarters of the CEC elected by the congress, demanding that the CEC finally take power into its own hands. The same thing inside the Tauride Palace, at an emergency meeting, the left-wing socialists asked their right-wing comrades, seeing no other way out. Throughout July 3 and 4, more and more military units and capital enterprises joined the demonstration (many workers went to the demonstration with their families), sailors from the Baltic Fleet arrived from the vicinity.

The accusations of the Bolsheviks in an attempt to overthrow the government and seize power are refuted by a number of facts that were not disputed by an eyewitness-cadet: the demonstrations took place in front of the Tauride Palace, on the Mariinsky, in which the government sat, no one attempted (“The Provisional Government was somehow forgotten,” testifies Milyukov), although it was not difficult to take him by storm and arrest the government; On July 4, it was the 176th regiment, loyal to the Mezhrayons, who guarded the Tavrichesky Palace from possible excesses on the part of the protesters; CEC members Trotsky and Kamenev, Zinoviev, whom, unlike the leaders of the right-wing socialists, the soldiers still agreed to listen to, called on the protesters to disperse after they demonstrated their will .... And gradually they diverged.

But there was only one way to persuade the workers, soldiers and sailors to stop the demonstration: to promise that the Central Executive Committee would resolve the issue of power. The right-wing socialists did not want to take power into their own hands, and, in agreement with the government, the leadership of the CEC called in reliable troops from the front to restore order in the city.

V. Rodionov claims that the clashes were provoked by the Bolsheviks, having seated their riflemen on the rooftops, who began firing machine guns at the demonstrators, while the Bolshevik machine gunners inflicted the greatest damage on both the Cossacks and the demonstrators. However, this opinion is not shared by other historians.

Kornilov's speech

After the introduction of troops, first on the Bolsheviks, then on the Mezhraiontsy and Left SRs, accusations fell upon the attempt to overthrow the existing government and cooperation with Germany; arrests and extrajudicial street massacres began. In no case was the accusation proven, not a single accused was brought to trial, although, with the exception of Lenin and Zinoviev, who were hiding underground (who could at worst be convicted in absentia), all the accused were arrested. Even the moderate socialist, Minister of Agriculture Viktor Chernov, did not escape the accusation of cooperation with Germany; however, the resolute protest of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, which the government still had to reckon with, quickly turned Chernov's case into a "misunderstanding."

On July 7 (20), the head of the government, Prince Lvov, resigned, and Kerensky became the minister-chairman. The new coalition government formed by him took up the disarmament of the workers and the disbandment of the regiments that not only participated in the July demonstrations, but also expressed their sympathies to the left socialists in any other way. Order was restored in Petrograd and its environs; it was more difficult to restore order in the country.

The desertion from the army, which began in 1915 and by 1917, had reached, according to official figures, 1.5 million, did not stop; tens of thousands of armed men roamed the country. The peasants, who did not wait for the decree on land, began to seize land without permission, especially since many of them remained uncultivated; Conflicts in the countryside more and more often took on an armed character, and there was no one to suppress local uprisings: the soldiers sent to pacify, mostly peasants, who were thirsting for land in the same way, more and more often went over to the side of the rebels. If in the first months after the revolution the soviets could still put things in order "with one stroke of the pen" (like the Petrograd soviet in the days of the April crisis), then by the middle of summer their authority was undermined. Anarchy was growing in the country.

The situation at the front also worsened: the German troops successfully continued the offensive, which had begun in July, and on the night of August 21 (September 3), the 12th Army, risking being surrounded, left Riga and Ust-Dvinsk and retreated to Wenden; neither the death penalty at the front and the "military-revolutionary courts" at the divisions, introduced by the government on July 12, helped, nor Kornilov's barrage detachments.

While the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution were accused of overthrowing the "legitimate" government, the Provisional Government itself was well aware of its illegality. It was created by the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, but no provisions on the Duma gave it the right to form a government, did not provide for the creation of temporary committees with exclusive rights, and the term of office of the IV State Duma, elected in 1912, expired in 1917. The government existed by the grace of the Soviets and depended on them. But this dependence became more and more painful: intimidated and subdued after the July days, realizing that after the massacre of the left socialists, it would be the turn of the right, the Soviets were more hostile than ever before. A friend and chief adviser, B. Savinkov, suggested to Kerensky a bizarre way to free himself from this dependence: to rely on the army in the person of General Kornilov, popular in right circles, who, however, according to eyewitnesses, from the very beginning did not understand why he should support Kerensky. and believed that "the only outcome ... is the establishment of a dictatorship and the declaration of the whole country in martial law." Kerensky requested fresh troops from the front, a regular cavalry corps with a liberal general at the head - Kornilov sent Cossack units of the 3rd cavalry corps and the Tuzemnaya ("Wild") division to Petrograd under the command of a completely non-liberal Lieutenant General AM Krymov. Suspecting that something was wrong, Kerensky dismissed Kornilov from the post of commander-in-chief on August 27, ordering him to surrender his powers to the chief of staff; Kornilov refused to acknowledge his resignation; In order no.897 issued on August 28, Kornilov said: “Taking into account that in the current situation, further hesitation is deadly and that it is too late to cancel the previously given orders, I, realizing all my responsibility, decided not to surrender the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief in order to save the Motherland from the inevitable death, and the Russian people from German slavery. " The decision, made, according to Miliukov, “secretly from those who had the immediate right to participate in it,” for many sympathizers, starting with Savinkov, made it impossible to further support Kornilov: “Deciding to 'speak openly' to 'pressure' the government, Kornilov whether he understood how this step is called in the language of the law and under which article of the criminal code his act can be summed up "

Even on the eve of the mutiny, on August 26, another government crisis broke out: the cadet ministers, who sympathized, if not Kornilov himself, then his cause, resigned. There was no one to turn to the government for help, except for the Soviets, which perfectly understood that the “irresponsible organizations” constantly mentioned by the general, against which energetic measures should be taken, are the Soviets.

But the Soviets themselves were only strong with the support of the Petrograd workers and the Baltic Fleet. Trotsky tells how on August 28 the sailors of the cruiser "Aurora", called upon to guard the Winter Palace (where the government moved after the July days), came to him at the "Kresty" to consult: is it worth protecting the government - is it time to arrest him ?. Trotsky thought it was not time, but the Petrograd Soviet, in which the Bolsheviks did not yet have a majority, but had already become a striking force, thanks to their influence among the workers and in Kronstadt, sold dearly his help, demanding the arming of the workers - in case it came to battles in the city - and the release of the arrested comrades. The government satisfied the second demand by half, agreeing to release the arrested on bail. However, with this forced concession, the government actually rehabilitated them: being released on bail meant that if those arrested had committed any crimes, then, in any case, not serious ones.

It did not come to fighting in the city: the troops were stopped at the distant approaches to Petrograd without a single shot.

Subsequently, one of those who had to support Kornilov's speech in Petrograd itself, Colonel Dutov, said about the “armed action of the Bolsheviks”: “Between August 28 and September 2, under the guise of Bolsheviks, I had to speak ... But I ran to the economic club to call go out into the street, but no one followed me. "

The Kornilov revolt, more or less openly supported by a significant part of the officers, could not but exacerbate the already complex relationship between soldiers and officers - which, in turn, did not contribute to the rallying of the army and allowed Germany to successfully develop the offensive).

As a result of the rebellion, the workers disarmed in July were re-armed, and Trotsky, released on bail on September 25, headed the Petrograd Soviet. However, even earlier than the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries received a majority, on August 31 (September 12), the Petrograd Soviet adopted the resolution proposed by the Bolsheviks on the transfer of power to the Soviets: almost all non-party deputies voted for it. Similar resolutions on the same day or the next were adopted by over a hundred local councils, and on September 5 (18), Moscow also spoke out in favor of transferring power to the Soviets.

On September 1 (13), Russia was proclaimed a Republic by a special government act signed by the Minister-Chairman Kerensky and the Minister of Justice A.S. Zarudny. The provisional government did not have the authority to determine the form of government, the act, instead of enthusiasm, caused bewilderment and was perceived - both by the left and the right - as a bone thrown to the socialist parties, who were trying to figure out the role of Kerensky in the Kornilov rebellion at that time.

Democratic Conference and Pre-Parliament

It was not possible to rely on the army; The Soviets leveled to the left, despite any repressions against the left socialists, and partly thanks to them, especially after Kornilov's speech, and became an unreliable support even for the right socialists. The government (more precisely, the Directory that temporarily replaced it) was subjected to harsh criticism both from the left and from the right: the socialists could not forgive Kerensky for an attempt to come to terms with Kornilov, the right could not forgive betrayal.

In search of support, the Directory went to meet the initiative of the right-wing socialists - members of the Central Executive Committee, who convened the so-called Democratic Conference. Representatives of political parties, public organizations and institutions were invited by the initiators at their own choice and, least of all, observing the principle of proportional representation; such a top-down, corporate representation, even less than the Soviets (elected from below by the overwhelming majority of citizens), could serve as a source of legitimate power, but could, as was supposed, squeeze the Soviets on the political stage and save the new government from the need to apply for sanction to the CEC.

The Democratic Conference, which opened on September 14 (27), 1917, at which some of the initiators hoped to form a "homogeneous democratic government", and others - to create a representative body to which the government would be accountable before the Constituent Assembly, did not solve either one or the other problem, only exposed the deepest divisions in the camp of democracy. The composition of the government was ultimately left to be determined by Kerensky, and the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic (Pre-Parliament), in the course of discussions, from a controlling body turned into an advisory one; and in terms of its composition it turned out to be much to the right of the Democratic Conference.

The results of the Conference could not satisfy either the left or the right; the weakness of democracy demonstrated on it only added arguments to both Lenin and Milyukov: both the leader of the Bolsheviks and the leader of the Cadets believed that there was no more room for democracy in the country - both because the growing anarchy objectively the course of the revolution only intensified the polarization in society (which was also shown by the municipal elections held in August-September). The disintegration of industry continued, the food crisis was aggravated; since the beginning of September the strike movement has been growing; serious "riots" arose in one or another region, and more and more often soldiers became the initiators of the riots; the situation at the front became a source of constant alarm. On September 25 (October 8) a new coalition government was formed, and on September 29 (October 12) the Moonsund operation of the German fleet began, which ended on October 6 (19) with the capture of the Moonsund archipelago. Only the heroic resistance of the Baltic Fleet, which had raised red flags on all its ships on September 9, prevented the Germans from advancing further. The half-starved and half-dressed army, according to the commander of the Northern Front, General Cheremisov, selflessly bore hardships, but the approaching autumn cold threatened to put an end to this long-suffering. Fuel was added to the fire by unfounded rumors that the government was going to move to Moscow and surrender Petrograd to the Germans.

In such a situation, on October 7 (20), the Pre-Parliament opened at the Mariinsky Palace. At the very first meeting, the Bolsheviks, having announced their declaration, defiantly left it.

The main issue that the Pre-Parliament had to deal with throughout its short history was the state of the army. The right-wing press asserted that the Bolsheviks were demoralizing the army with their agitation, in the Pre-Parliament they talked about something else: the army was extremely poorly supplied with food, experienced an acute shortage of uniforms and footwear, did not understand and never understood the goals of the war; the program of improving the army, worked out even before the Kornilov speech, the Minister of War A.I. PN Milyukov testifies that Verkhovsky's position was shared even by some leaders of the Constitutional Democratic Party, but - “the only alternative would be a separate peace ... and then no one wanted to go to a separate peace, no matter how clear it was that it was possible to cut the hopelessly entangled knot if only a way out of the war. "

Peace initiatives of the Minister of War ended with his resignation on 23 October. But the main events took place far from the Marinsky Palace, in the Smolny Institute, where the government had evicted the Petrograd Soviet and the Central Executive Committee at the end of July. “The workers,” Trotsky wrote in his History, “went on strike layer after layer, in spite of the warnings of the party, the soviets, and the trade unions. Only those strata of the working class that were already deliberately heading for a coup did not enter into conflicts. Petrograd remained, perhaps, the most calm. "

"German funding" version

Already in 1917, there was an idea that the German government, interested in Russia's withdrawal from the war, purposefully organized the move from Switzerland to Russia of representatives of the radical faction of the RSDLP headed by Lenin in the so-called. "Sealed carriage". In particular, S. P. Melgunov, following Milyukov, argued that the German government through A. L. Parvus financed the activities of the Bolsheviks aimed at undermining the combat capability of the Russian army and disorganizing the defense industry and transport. AF Kerensky, already in exile, reported that as early as April 1917, the French socialist minister A. Thomas conveyed information about the Bolsheviks' ties with the Germans to the Provisional Government; the corresponding charge was brought against the Bolsheviks in July 1917. And at present, many domestic and foreign researchers and writers adhere to this version.

Some confusion in it is introduced by the idea of ​​L.D. 000 either marks or dollars. This view explains the disagreements between Lenin and Trotsky over the Brest Peace (the Bolshevik leaders received money from various sources), but leaves open the question: whose action was the October Revolution, to which Trotsky, as chairman of the Petrograd Soviet and the de facto leader of the Military Revolutionary Committee, had the most direct relationship?

Historians have other questions for this version. Germany needed to close the eastern front, and God himself ordered her to support the opponents of the war in Russia - does it automatically follow that the opponents of the war served Germany and had no other reason to seek an end to the "world massacre"? The Entente states, for their part, were vitally interested in both preserving and activating the eastern front and supported by all means in Russia the supporters of the "war to the bitter end" - following the same logic, why not assume that the opponents of the Bolsheviks were inspired by "gold" other origin, and not the interests of Russia ?. All parties needed money, all self-respecting parties had to spend a lot of money on agitation and propaganda, on election campaigns (there were many elections at various levels in 1917), etc., and so on, and all the countries involved in the First World War had their interests in Russia; but the question of the sources of funding for the defeated parties no longer interests anyone and remains practically unexplored.

In the early 1990s, the American historian S. Lyanders discovered in Russian archives documents confirming that in 1917 members of the Foreign Bureau of the Central Committee received subsidies from the Swiss socialist Karl Moor; it was later revealed that the Swiss was a German agent. However, the subsidies amounted to only 113,926 Swiss crowns (or 32,837 dollars), and even those were used abroad to organize the 3rd Zimmerwald Conference. So far, this is the only documentary evidence that the Bolsheviks received "German money".

As for AL Parvus, it is generally difficult to separate German money from non-German money on his accounts, since by 1915 he himself was already a millionaire; and if his involvement in the financing of the RSDLP (b) had been proven, it would have also been necessary to specifically prove that it was German money that was used, and not Parvus's personal savings.

Serious historians are more interested in another question: what role in the events of 1917 could have been played by financial assistance (or other patronage) from one side or the other?

Cooperation of the Bolsheviks with the German General Staff is intended to prove the "sealed carriage" in which a group of Bolsheviks led by Lenin drove through Germany. But a month later, thanks to the mediation of R. Grimm, which Lenin refused, two more "sealed carriages" followed, with the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries, but not all parties were helped by the supposed patronage of the Kaiser to win.

The intricate financial affairs of the Bolshevik Pravda make it possible to assert or suppose that it was assisted by interested Germans; but despite all the funding, Pravda remained a "small newspaper" (D. Reed tells how on the night of the coup the Bolsheviks seized the printing house of Russkaya Volya and first printed their newspaper in a large format), which after the July days was constantly closed and forced to change title; dozens of large newspapers carried out anti-Bolshevik propaganda - why did the little Pravda prove to be stronger?

The same applies to all the Bolshevik propaganda, which, it is assumed, funded by the Germans: the Bolsheviks (and their internationalist allies) disintegrated the army with their anti-war agitation, but a much larger number of parties, which had incomparably greater opportunities and funds, were campaigning for "War to a victorious end", appealed to patriotic feelings, accused of betraying the workers with their demand for an 8-hour working day - why did the Bolsheviks win such an unequal battle?

AF Kerensky insisted on the Bolsheviks' ties with the German General Staff both in 1917 and decades later; in July 1917, with his participation, a communiqué was drawn up, in which "Lenin and his associates" were accused of creating a special organization "with the aim of supporting hostile actions of the countries at war with Russia"; but on October 24, speaking for the last time in the Pre-Parliament and fully aware of his doom, he polemized in absentia with the Bolsheviks, not as German agents, but as proletarian revolutionaries: “The organizers of the uprising do not assist the proletariat of Germany, but assist the ruling classes of Germany, open the front of the Russian state in front of the armored fist of Wilhelm and his friends ... For the Provisional Government, motives are indifferent, no matter whether it is consciously or unconsciously, but, in any case, in the awareness of my responsibility, from this department, I qualify such actions of the Russian political party as betrayal and treason to the Russian state ... "

Armed uprising in Petrograd

After the July events, the government significantly updated the Petrograd garrison, but by the end of August it already seemed unreliable, which prompted Kerensky to request troops from the front. But the troops sent by Kornilov did not reach the capital, and at the beginning of October Kerensky made a new attempt to replace the "decomposed" units with not yet decomposed ones: he issued an order to send two-thirds of the Petrograd garrison to the front. The order provoked a conflict between the government and the capital's regiments, which did not want to go to the front - from this conflict, Trotsky later argued, in fact, the uprising began. The deputies of the Petrograd Soviet from the garrison appealed to the Soviet, the workers' section of which was just as little interested in "changing the guard." On October 18, a meeting of representatives of the regiments, at Trotsky's proposal, adopted a resolution on the disobedience of the garrison to the Provisional Government; only those orders of the headquarters of the military district that were confirmed by the soldiers' section of the Petrograd Soviet could be executed.

Even earlier, on October 9 (22), 1917, the right-wing socialists submitted to the Petrograd Soviet a proposal to create a Revolutionary Defense Committee to protect the capital from the dangerously approaching Germans; According to the initiators 'plan, the Committee was to attract and organize workers for active participation in the defense of Petrograd - the Bolsheviks saw in this proposal an opportunity to legalize the workers' Red Guard and its equally legal armament and training for the coming uprising. On October 16 (29), the plenum of the Petrograd Soviet approved the creation of this body, but already as a Military Revolutionary Committee.

The "course towards an armed uprising" was adopted by the Bolsheviks at the VI Congress, in early August, but at that time the party driven underground could not even prepare for an uprising: the workers sympathizing with the Bolsheviks were disarmed, their military organizations were defeated, the revolutionary regiments of the Petrograd garrison were disbanded ... The opportunity to re-arm was presented only in the days of the Kornilov revolt, but after its liquidation it seemed that a new page of the peaceful development of the revolution had opened. Only in the 20th of September, after the Bolsheviks headed the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets, and after the failure of the Democratic Conference, Lenin again spoke about the uprising, and only on October 10 (23), the Central Committee adopted a resolution to put the uprising on the agenda. On October 16 (29), an enlarged meeting of the Central Committee, with the participation of representatives of the districts, confirmed the decision.

Having received a majority in the Petrograd Soviet, the left socialists actually restored the pre-July dual power in the city, and for two weeks the two authorities openly measured their strengths: the government ordered the regiments to go to the front, the Soviet appointed a check of the order and, having established that it was dictated not by strategic, but by political motives, ordered the regiments to stay in the city; the commander of the military unit forbade the issuance of weapons to the workers from the arsenals of Petrograd and the environs, - the Soviet issued a warrant, and weapons were issued; in response, the government tried to arm its supporters with rifles from the arsenal of the Peter and Paul Fortress, - a representative of the Council appeared, and the issuance of weapons stopped; On October 21, a meeting of representatives of the regiments in the adopted resolution recognized the Petrograd Soviet as the only power - Kerensky tried to call reliable troops from the front and from remote military districts to the capital, but in October there were even fewer units reliable for the government than in August; representatives of the Petrograd Soviet met them at the distant approaches to the capital, after which some turned back, others hurried to Petrograd to help the Soviet.

The Military Revolutionary Committee appointed its commissars to all strategically important institutions and in fact took them under its control. Finally, on October 24, Kerensky once again closed the renamed Pravda and ordered the arrest of the Committee; but the Soviets easily repulsed the printing house of Pravda, and there was no one to carry out the arrest order.

Opponents of the Bolsheviks - right-wing socialists and cadets - "appointed" the uprising first on the 17th, then on the 20th, then on October 22 (declared the Day of the Petrograd Soviet), the government tirelessly prepared for it, but that occurred on the night of the 24th. On October 25, the coup came as a surprise to everyone, because it was presented in a completely different way: they expected a repetition of the July days, armed demonstrations of the garrison regiments, only this time with the expressed intention to arrest the government and seize power. But there were no demonstrations, and the garrison was hardly involved; detachments of the working red guard and sailors of the Baltic Fleet were simply completing the work long begun by the Petrograd Soviet to transform the dual power into the autocracy of the Soviet: they brought together the bridges raised by Kerensky, disarming the guards set by the government, took control of railway stations, a power plant, a telephone exchange, a telegraph, etc. and so on, and all this without a single shot, calmly and methodically - the members of the Provisional Government, who did not sleep that night, headed by Kerensky, could not understand for a long time what was happening; at one point in the Winter Palace the telephones were turned off, then the lights were turned off ...

An attempt by a small detachment of cadets led by People's Socialist VB Stankevich to recapture the telephone exchange ended in failure, and on the morning of October 25 (November 7), only the Winter Palace remained under the control of the Provisional Government, surrounded by detachments of the Red Guards. The forces of the defenders of the Provisional Government were: 400 bayonets of the 3rd Peterhof school of warrant officers, 500 bayonets of the 2nd Oranienbaum school of warrant officers, 200 bayonets of the female shock battalion ("shock women"), up to 200 Don Cossacks, as well as separate cadet and officer groups from the Nikolaev engineering , artillery and other schools, a detachment of the committee of crippled soldiers and St. George's cavaliers, a detachment of students, a battery of the Mikhailovsky Artillery School - up to 1800 bayonets reinforced with machine guns, 4 armored cars and 6 guns. The scooter company, by order of the battalion committee, was later withdrawn from its positions, however, by this time the garrison of the palace had increased by 300 bayonets at the expense of the battalion of the engineering school of ensigns.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, the Military Revolutionary Committee issued an appeal "To the citizens of Russia!" “State power,” it said, “has passed into the hands of an organ of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies, the Military Revolutionary Committee, which stands at the head of the Petrograd proletariat and garrison. The cause for which the people fought: the immediate proposal of a democratic peace, the abolition of landlord ownership of land, workers' control over production, the creation of the Soviet government — this is a guaranteed cause. "

At 21:45, in fact, already with the approval of the majority, a blank shot from the Aurora's bow gun gave the signal to storm the Winter Palace. At 2 am on October 26 (November 8), armed workers, soldiers of the Petrograd garrison and sailors of the Baltic Fleet led by Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko took the Winter Palace and arrested the Provisional Government (see also Storming the Winter Palace).

At 22:40 on October 25 (November 7), the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies opened in Smolny, at which the Bolsheviks, together with the Left SRs, won a majority. The right-wing socialists left the congress in protest against the coup, but could not break the quorum by their departure.

Based on the victorious uprising, the Congress proclaimed the appeal "To workers, soldiers and peasants!" proclaimed the transfer of power to the Soviets in the center and at the local level.

On the evening of October 26 (November 8), at its second meeting, the Congress adopted the Decree on Peace - all the belligerent countries and peoples were invited to immediately begin negotiations on concluding a general democratic peace without annexations and indemnities, as well as a decree on the abolition of the death penalty and the Decree on land, according to which the landowners' land was subject to confiscation, all lands, mineral resources, forests and waters were nationalized, the peasants received over 150 million hectares of land.

The congress elected the supreme body of Soviet power - the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) (chairman - LB Kamenev, from November 8 (21) - Ya. M. Sverdlov); deciding at the same time that the All-Russian Central Executive Committee should be replenished with representatives of peasant Soviets, army organizations and groups that left the congress on October 25. Finally, the congress formed a government - the Council of People's Commissars (SNK), headed by Lenin. With the formation of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, the construction of the highest bodies of state power in Soviet Russia began.

Formation of government

The government elected by the congress of Soviets - the Council of People's Commissars - initially included only representatives of the RSDLP (b): the left SRs "temporarily and conditionally" rejected the proposal of the Bolsheviks, wishing to become a bridge between the RSDLP (b) and those socialist parties that did not participate in the uprising, qualified it as a criminal adventure and in protest left the Congress - the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries. On October 29 (November 11), the All-Russian Executive Committee of the Railway Trade Union (Vikzhel), threatened by a strike, demanded the creation of a "homogeneous socialist government"; On the same day, the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) at its meeting recognized the desirability of including representatives of other socialist parties in the Council of People's Commissars (in particular, Lenin was ready to offer VM Chernov the portfolio of People's Commissar of Agriculture) and entered into negotiations. However, the demands put forward by the right-wing socialists (among others - the exclusion from the government of Lenin and Trotsky as "personal culprits of the October Revolution", the chairmanship of one of the AKP leaders - V.M. which the right socialists still retained the majority) were recognized as unacceptable not only by the Bolsheviks, but also by the Left SRs: the negotiations on November 2 (15), 1917 were interrupted, and the Left SRs some time later entered the government, including the head of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture.

The Bolsheviks, on the basis of a "homogeneous socialist government", acquired an internal party opposition headed by Kamenev, Zinoviev and Rykov and Nogin, which, in its statement of November 4 (17), 1917, stated: "The Central Committee of the RSDLP (Bolsheviks) adopted a resolution on November 14 (1) , which in fact rejected the agreement with the parties included in the Council of the river. and with. deputies for the formation of a socialist Soviet government. "

Resistance

On the morning of October 25, Kerensky left Petrograd in a car with an American flag and went to the front in search of units loyal to the government.

On the night of October 25-26 (November 8), right-wing socialists, in opposition to the Military Revolutionary Committee, created the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution; The committee, headed by the right-wing Socialist-Revolutionary A.R. Gotz, distributed anti-Bolshevik leaflets, supported the sabotage of officials and the attempt made by Kerensky to overthrow the government created by the Second All-Russian Congress, called for armed resistance from its like-minded people in Moscow.

Finding sympathy with P. N. Krasnov and appointing him commander of all the armed forces of the Petrograd military district, Kerensky and the Cossacks of the 3rd corps at the end of October undertook a campaign against Petrograd (see Kerensky - Krasnov's campaign against Petrograd). In the capital itself, on October 29 (November 11), the Rescue Committee organized an armed uprising of the cadets released from the Winter Palace on parole. The uprising was suppressed on the same day; Kerensky was also defeated on November 1 (14). In Gatchina, in agreement with a detachment of sailors headed by P.E.Dybenko, the Cossacks were ready to hand over the former minister-chairman to them, and Kerensky had no choice but to disguise himself as a sailor and hastily leave both Gatchina and Russia.

Events in Moscow developed differently than in Petrograd. Formed on the evening of October 25 by the Moscow Soviets of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies of the Military Revolutionary Committee, in accordance with the resolution of the Second Congress on the transfer of local power to the Soviets, at night it took control of all strategically important objects (arsenal, telegraph, State Bank, etc.) ... As a counterbalance to the Military Revolutionary Committee, the Public Security Committee was created (aka the Committee for the Salvation of the Revolution), which was headed by the chairman of the city duma, Right Socialist Revolutionary V. V. Rudnev. The committee, supported by cadets and Cossacks, headed by the commander of the Moscow Military District, K. I. Ryabtsev, announced on October 26 that it would recognize the decisions of the Congress. However, on October 27 (November 9), having received a message about the beginning of the Kerensky-Krasnov campaign against Petrograd, according to Sukhanov, on the direct instructions of the Petrograd Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and Revolution, the Moscow Military District headquarters presented an ultimatum to the Soviet (demanding, in particular, the dissolution of the Military Revolutionary Committee) and, since the ultimatum was rejected, on the night of October 28, hostilities began.

On October 27 (November 9), 1917, the Vikzhel, declaring itself a neutral organization, demanded "an end to the civil war and the creation of a homogeneous socialist government from the Bolsheviks to the People's Socialists, inclusive." The most compelling arguments were the refusal to transport troops to Moscow, where the fighting was going on, and the threat of organizing a general strike on transport.

The Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) made a decision to enter into negotiations and seconded the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee LB Kamenev and a member of the Central Committee G. Ya. Sokolnikov. However, the negotiations, which lasted several days, ended in nothing.

Fighting in Moscow continued - with a one-day truce - until November 3 (November 16), when, without waiting for help from the troops from the front, the Public Security Committee agreed to lay down its arms. In the course of these events, several hundred people died, 240 of whom were buried on November 10-17 on Red Square in two mass graves, laying the foundation for the necropolis at the Kremlin wall (see also October Days in Moscow).

After the victory of the left-wing socialists in Moscow and the suppression of resistance in Petrograd, what the Bolsheviks later called "the triumphal march of Soviet power" began: in most cases, a peaceful transfer of power to the Soviets throughout Russia.

The Cadet Party was outlawed, and a number of its leaders were arrested. Even earlier, on October 26 (November 8), by the resolution of the All-Union Revolutionary Committee, some opposition newspapers were closed: the Kadetskaya Rech, the right-wing Menshevik Den, Birzhevye Vedomosti, etc. On October 27 (November 9), a Decree on the Press was issued, which explained the actions of the All-Russian Revolutionary Committee and it was specified that “only press organs should be closed: 1) calling for open resistance or disobedience to the Workers 'and Peasants' governments; 2) sowing confusion by clearly slanderous perversion of facts; 3) calling for actions of a clearly criminal, that is, of a criminally punishable nature. " At the same time, they pointed to the temporary nature of the ban: "this provision ... will be canceled by a special decree upon the onset of normal conditions of public life."

The nationalization of industrial enterprises at that time had not yet been carried out, the Council of People's Commissars limited itself to the introduction of workers' control at enterprises, but the nationalization of private banks was carried out already in December 1917 (the nationalization of the State Bank was in October). The Land Decree gave local Soviets the right to immediately carry out agrarian reform on the principle of "Land for those who cultivate it."

On November 2 (15), 1917, the Soviet government published the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia, which proclaimed the equality and sovereignty of all the peoples of the country, their right to free self-determination, up to the separation and formation of independent states, the abolition of national and religious privileges and restrictions, the free development of national minorities and ethnic groups. On November 20 (December 3), the Council of People's Commissars, in its address "To all working Muslims of Russia and the East," declared the national and cultural institutions, customs and beliefs of Muslims free and inviolable, guaranteeing them complete freedom to organize their lives.

Constituent Assembly: elections and dissolution

Less than 50% of voters took part in the elections to the long-awaited Constituent Assembly on November 12 (24), 1917; the explanation for such disinterest can be found in the fact that the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets had already adopted the most important decrees, had already proclaimed the power of the Soviets - in these conditions, the appointment of the Constituent Assembly was incomprehensible to many. The Bolsheviks received only about a quarter of the votes, losing to the Socialist-Revolutionaries. Subsequently, they argued that the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries (who received only 40 mandates) took away the victory from themselves and from the RSDLP (b), not separating in time into an independent party.

While the influence of the right-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries led by Avksentiev and Gotz and the centrists led by Chernov fell after July, the popularity (and number) of the left, on the contrary, grew. In the Socialist-Revolutionary faction of the Second Congress of Soviets, the majority belonged to the left; later, the PLSR was also supported by the majority of the Extraordinary Congress of Soviets of Peasant Deputies, held on November 10-25 (November 23 - December 8), 1917, which, in fact, allowed the two CECs to unite. How did it happen that in the Constituent Assembly the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries turned out to be only a small group?

For both the Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, the answer was obvious: the single electoral lists were to blame. Far disagreeing with the majority of the AKP already in the spring of 1917, the Left SRs nevertheless did not dare to form their own party for a long time - until October 27 (November 9), 1917, the AKP Central Committee adopted a resolution to expel from the party “all those who took part in the Bolshevik adventure and did not leave the Congress of Soviets. "

But the voting was carried out according to the old lists drawn up long before the October coup, common for the right and left Social Revolutionaries. Immediately after the coup, Lenin proposed postponing the elections to the Constituent Assembly, including so that the Left SRs could draw up separate lists. But the Bolsheviks so many times accused the Provisional Government of deliberately postponing the elections that the majority did not consider it possible to become like their opponents in this matter.

Therefore, no one really knows - and will never know - how many votes were cast in the elections for the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and how many - for the Right and Centrists, whom the voters had in mind who voted for the lists of Socialist-Revolutionaries: who were located in the upper part (since in all the governing bodies of the AKP in the center and in the localities at that time the right and centrists prevailed) Chernov, Avksentyev, Gots, Tchaikovsky and others - or those who closed the lists Spiridonov, Natanson, Kamkov, Karelin, etc. December 13 (December 26) in "Pravda" without a signature were published "Theses on the Constituent Assembly" by V. I. Lenin:

... The proportional election system gives a true expression of the will of the people only when the party lists correspond to the real division of the people into those party groupings that are reflected in these lists. In our country, as you know, the party that had the largest number of supporters among the people and especially among the peasantry from May to October, the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries, issued single lists to the Constituent Assembly in mid-October 1917, but split after the elections to the Constituent Assembly, until its convocation. Due to this, there is not and cannot be even a formal correspondence between the will of the voters in their mass and the composition of those elected to the Constituent Assembly.

On November 12 (28), 1917, 60 elected deputies gathered in Petrograd, mostly Right SRs, who tried to start the work of the Assembly. On the same day, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree "On the arrest of the leaders of the civil war against the revolution", which prohibited the Cadet party as "the party of the enemies of the people." The leaders of the cadets A. Shingarev and F. Kokoshkin were arrested. On November 29, the Council of People's Commissars banned "private conferences" of the delegates to the Constituent Assembly. At the same time, the Right SRs created the "Union for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly."

On December 20, the Council of People's Commissars decided to open the meeting on January 5. On December 22, the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars was approved by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. On December 23, martial law was introduced in Petrograd.

At a meeting of the Central Committee of the AKP, held on January 3, 1918, it was rejected, "As an untimely and unreliable act", an armed action on the day of the opening of the Constituent Assembly, proposed by the military commission of the party.

On January 5 (18), Pravda issued a resolution signed by a member of the Cheka collegium, since March the head of the Petrograd Cheka, MS Uritskiy, who banned any rallies and demonstrations in Petrograd in areas adjacent to the Tauride Palace. It was proclaimed that they would be suppressed by military force. At the same time, Bolshevik agitators at the most important factories (Obukhov, Baltic, etc.) tried to enlist the support of the workers, but were unsuccessful.

Together with the rear units of the Latvian riflemen and the Lithuanian Life Guards Regiment, the Bolsheviks surrounded the approaches to the Tauride Palace. Assembly supporters responded with demonstrations of support; according to various sources, from 10 to 100 thousand people took part in the demonstrations. The supporters of the Assembly did not dare to use weapons in defense of their interests; according to Trotsky's malicious expression, they came to the Tauride Palace with candles in case the Bolsheviks turn off the light, and with sandwiches in case they were deprived of food, but they did not take their rifles with them. On January 5, 1918, as part of the columns of demonstrators, workers, employees, and the intelligentsia moved to Tauride and were shot from machine guns.

The Constituent Assembly opened in Petrograd, in the Tauride Palace, January 5 (18), 1918). Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Ya. M. Sverdlov proposed to the Assembly to approve the decrees adopted by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, adopting the draft "Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People" written by V. I. Lenin. However, VM Chernov, who was elected chairman, proposed to begin with working out an agenda; In the discussion that lasted for many hours on this issue, the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries saw the reluctance of the majority to discuss the Declaration, the unwillingness to recognize the power of the Soviets and the desire to turn the Constituent Assembly into a legislative one - as a counterbalance to the Soviets. Having announced their declarations, the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, together with several small factions, left the conference room.

The remaining deputies continued their work and announced the cancellation of the decisions of the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets. The meeting lasted until the morning, at 5 o'clock the security of the meeting room, led by the anarchist sailor Zheleznyak, informed the deputies that they were unable to protect the meeting room from popular anger, and demanded that the meeting be closed, as “ The guard is tired". In the evening of the same day, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a Decree on the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, which was later confirmed by the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets. The decree, in particular, said:

The Constituent Assembly, which was opened on January 5, gave, due to circumstances known to all, the majority of the party of the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, the parties of Kerensky, Avksentiev and Chernov. Naturally, this party refused to accept for discussion the absolutely precise, clear proposal of the supreme body of Soviet power, the Central Executive Committee of Soviets, which did not allow any misinterpretation, to recognize the program of Soviet power, to recognize the "Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People", to recognize the October Revolution and Soviet power. Thus, the Constituent Assembly severed all ties between itself and the Soviet Republic of Russia. The departure from such a Constituent Assembly of the Bolshevik and Left Socialist-Revolutionary factions, which now constitute an admittedly overwhelming majority in the Soviets and enjoy the confidence of the workers and the majority of peasants, was inevitable.

Effects

The Soviet government, formed at the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, under the leadership of Lenin, led the elimination of the old state apparatus and the construction, relying on the Soviets, of the organs of the Soviet state.

To combat counter-revolution and sabotage, on December 7 (20), 1917, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) was formed under the Council of People's Commissars; chairman F.E.Dzerzhinsky. By the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the Court" of November 22 (December 5), a new court was created; the decree of January 15 (28), 1918 laid the foundation for the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), and the decree of January 29 (February 11) 1918 - the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Fleet.

Free education and medical care were introduced, an 8-hour working day was introduced, and a decree was issued on the insurance of workers and employees; estates, ranks and titles were eliminated, a common name was established - "citizens of the Russian Republic". Freedom of conscience proclaimed; the church is separated from the state, the school from the church. Women received equal rights with men in all areas of public life.

In January 1918, the 3rd All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies and the 3rd All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Peasants' Deputies were convened. On January 13 (26), the congresses merged, which contributed to the widespread unification of the Soviets of Peasants 'Deputies with the Soviets of Workers' Deputies. The Joint Congress of Soviets adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People, which proclaimed Russia a Republic of Soviets and legislatively consolidated the Soviets as a state form of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The congress adopted a resolution "On federal institutions of the Russian Republic" and formalized the creation of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR). The RSFSR was established on the basis of a free union of peoples as a federation of Soviet national republics. In the spring of 1918, the process of formalizing the statehood of the peoples inhabiting the RSFSR began.

The first state formations within the RSFSR are the Terek Soviet Republic (proclaimed in March 1918 at the 2nd Congress of the Terek Peoples' Councils in Pyatigorsk), the Tauride Soviet Socialist Republic (proclaimed by a decree of the Tauride Central Executive Committee on March 21 in Simferopol), the Don Soviet Republic (formed on March 23 by the decree of the regional VRK), the Turkestan ASSR (proclaimed on April 30 at the 5th Congress of Soviets of the Turkestan Territory in Tashkent), the Kuban-Black Sea Soviet Republic (proclaimed by the 3rd Congress of the Kuban and Black Sea Councils on May 27-30 in Yekaterinodar), Stavropol Soviet Republic ( proclaimed on January 1 (14), 1918). At the 1st Congress of the Soviets of the North Caucasus on July 7, the North Caucasian Soviet Republic was formed, which included the Kuban-Black Sea, Terek and Stavropol Soviet republics.

By decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of January 21 (February 3), 1918, foreign and domestic loans of the tsarist and Provisional governments were canceled. The unequal treaties concluded by the tsarist and Provisional governments with other states were annulled. The government of the RSFSR on December 3 (16), 1917 recognized the right of Ukraine to self-determination (the Ukrainian SSR was formed on December 12 (25), 1917); The independence of Finland was recognized on December 18 (31). Later, on August 29, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree annulling the treaties of tsarist Russia at the end of the 18th century. with Austria and Germany on the division of Poland and the right of the Polish people to an independent and independent existence was recognized.

On December 2 (15), 1917, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR signed an agreement on a temporary cessation of hostilities with Germany and on December 9 (22) began negotiations, during which Germany, Turkey, Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary presented very difficult peace conditions to Soviet Russia. After the initial refusal of the Soviet delegation to sign peace, Germany launched an offensive along the entire front and occupied a significant territory. In Soviet Russia, the proclamation "The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger!" Was published. In March, after the military defeat near Pskov and Narva, the SNK was forced to sign a separate Brest peace treaty with Germany, which ensures the rights of a number of nations to self-determination, with which the SNK agreed, but containing extremely difficult conditions for Russia (for example, the transfer of naval forces by Russia to Black Sea Turkey, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Germany). About 1 million square meters were rejected from the country. km. The Entente countries sent troops into the territory of Russia and announced their support for anti-government forces. This led to the transition of the confrontation between the Bolsheviks and the opposition to a new level - a full-scale civil war began in the country.

Contemporaries about the revolution

... Due to a number of conditions, printing and publishing have been almost completely stopped in our country, and at the same time, one after another, the most valuable libraries are being destroyed. Recently peasants have plundered the estates of Khudekov, Obolensky and a number of other estates. The peasants took home everything that was of value in their eyes, and the libraries were burned, the pianos were chopped up with axes, the paintings were tore up ... ... For almost two weeks now, every night crowds of people have been robbing wine cellars, getting drunk, hitting each other on the head with bottles, cutting their hands with shards of glass and like pigs lying in the mud and blood. During these days, wine worth several tens of millions of rubles has been destroyed and, of course, will be destroyed in the amount of hundreds of millions. If we sold this valuable commodity to Sweden, we could get for it in gold or goods necessary for the country - manufactory, medicines, cars. People from Smolny, realizing a little late, threaten severe punishments for drunkenness, but drunkards are not afraid of threats and continue to destroy goods that should have long ago been requisitioned, declared the property of an impoverished nation and sold profitably, for the benefit of all. During wine pogroms, people are shot like mad wolves, gradually accustoming them to calm extermination of their neighbors ... "New Life" No. 195, 7 (20) December 1917 ... Are the banks taken over? It would be good if there were bread in the jars that could feed the children to their fill. But there is no bread in the cans, and children are malnourished every day, exhaustion is growing among them, mortality is growing ... "New Life" No. 205, December 19, 1917 (January 1, 1918) ... Having destroyed the old courts in the name of the proletariat, g. the people's commissars thereby strengthened in the minds of the "street" its right to "lynching," an animal right ... Street "lynching" have become a daily "everyday phenomenon" the brutality of the crowd. Worker Kostin tried to protect those who were being beaten - he was also killed. There is no doubt that anyone who dares to protest against the "lynching" of the street will be beaten. Needless to say that "lynching" does not frighten anyone, that street robberies and theft are becoming more and more impudent? ... "New Life" No. 207, December 21, 1917 (January 3, 1918) Maxim Gorky, "Untimely Thoughts"

I. A. Bunin wrote about the consequences of the revolution:

• October 26 (November 7) - birthday of L. D. Trotsky
• The October Revolution of 1917 is the first political event in the world, information about which (the Appeal of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee "To the Citizens of Russia") was broadcast on the radio.

The October Revolution of 1917 is the armed overthrow of the Provisional Government, the accession of the Bolshevik Party at the head of state, which proclaimed the establishment of Soviet power.

The historical significance of the October Revolution of 1917 is enormous for the country as a whole, in addition to the change of power, there was a change in the direction in which Russia was moving, the transition from capitalism to socialism began.

Causes of the October Revolution

The October Revolution had both subjective and objective reasons. Objective reasons include the economic difficulties experienced by Russia due to participation in the First World War, human losses at the front, the urgent peasant question, difficult living conditions of the workers, the illiteracy of the people and the mediocrity of the country's leadership.

Subjective reasons include the passivity of the population, the ideological rushing of the intelligentsia from anarchism to terrorism, the presence in Russia of a small, but well-organized, disciplined group - the Bolshevik Party and the supremacy in it of the great historical personality - V.I. Lenin, as well as the absence of a person in the country the same scale.

October Revolution of 1917. Brief course, results

This significant event for the country took place on October 25 according to the old style or on November 7 according to the new style. The reason was the slowness and inconsistency of the Provisional Government in resolving the agrarian, workers', national issues after the February events, as well as the continued participation of Russia in the world war. All this aggravated the national crisis and strengthened the positions of the extreme left and nationalist parties.

The beginning of the October Revolution of 1917 was laid back in early September 1917, when the Bolsheviks took the majority in the Soviets of Petrograd and prepared an armed uprising, timed to coincide with the opening of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets.

On the night of October 25 (November 7), armed workers, sailors of the Baltic Fleet and soldiers of the Petrograd garrison, after a shot from the cruiser Aurora, seized the Winter Palace and arrested the Provisional Government. Immediately, the bridges on the Neva, the Central Telegraph, the Nikolaevsky railway station, the State Bank were seized, military schools were blocked, etc.

At the then II All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the overthrow of the Provisional Government, the establishment and formation of a new government - the Council of People's Commissars - was approved. This government body was supposed to work until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. It includes V. Lenin (chairman); I. Teodorovich, A. Lunacharsky, N. Avilov, I. Stalin, V. Antonov. Decrees on Peace and on Land were immediately adopted.

Having suppressed in Petrograd and Moscow the resistance of the forces loyal to the Provisional Government, the Bolsheviks were able to quickly establish dominance in the main industrial cities of Russia.

The main enemy, the Cadet Party, was outlawed.

Participants of the October Revolution of 1917

The initiator, ideologist and protagonist of the revolution was the Bolshevik Party of the RSDLP (b) (Russian Social Democratic Party of the Bolsheviks), led by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (party pseudonym Lenin) and Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Trotsky).

The slogans of the October Revolution of 1917:

"Power to the Soviets"

"Peace to the peoples"

"Land - to the peasants"

"Factories for workers"

October Revolution. Effects. Outcomes

The October Revolution of 1917, the consequences of which completely changed the course of history for Russia, is characterized by the following results:

• Complete change of the elite that ruled the country for 1000 years
• The Russian Empire turned into the Soviet one, which became one of two countries (together with the United States) to lead the world community
• The Tsar was replaced by Stalin, who had more power and authority than any Russian emperor
• The ideology of Orthodoxy was replaced by the communist
• An agrarian country has turned into a powerful industrial power
• Population literacy has become universal
• The Soviet Union achieved the withdrawal of education and medical services from the system of commodity-money relations
• No unemployment, almost complete equality of the population in income and opportunities, no division of people into rich and poor

Chronology

• 1917, September 1 The proclamation of Russia as a republic
• 1917, October 25 Armed uprising in Petrograd
• 1917, October 25 - 26 Activity of the II All-Russian Congress of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies. The decrees on peace and land have been adopted.

During the liquidation of the Kornilov revolt, the mass Bolshevization of the Soviets began. A number of Soviets actually exercised local power. On August 31, the Petrograd Soviet, and on September 5, the joint Plenum of the Moscow Soviets of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies, adopted a resolution "On Power." The Soviets of Kaluga, Bryansk, Samara, Saratov, Syzran, Tsaritsyn, Barnaul, Minsk, Vladikavkaz, Tashkent and many other cities took over the Bolshevik position. In the first half of September, the demand for the transfer of power into the hands of the Soviets was supported by 80 local Soviets of large and industrial cities. At the direction of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), local party organizations launched a campaign to re-elect the Soviets. In September and October 1917, most of the Soviets and soldiers' deputies went over to the side of the Bolsheviks.

The country is ripe nationwide crisis, covering all spheres of political and socio-economic relations. The policy of the bourgeois Provisional Government put the country on the brink of a national catastrophe, the devastation in industry and transport intensified, and food difficulties increased. The gross industrial output decreased in 1917 in comparison with 1916 by 36.4%. Mass unemployment began. At the same time, the cost of living grew.

It was collapse of the policy of the Provisional Government and, accordingly, the collapse of the policies of those parties that were part of this government (the Cadets, Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries). The revolutionary stream in the fall of 1917 turned sharply to the left.

September 1 Kerensky declares Russia a republic, in order, as he explained, "to give moral satisfaction to public opinion", creates Provisional Council of the Republic... All this looks like an attempt to introduce a parliamentary system in Russia. But power cannot be retained even with the help of this measure. The Bolsheviks refused to participate in the Provisional Council, choosing a course of deepening the revolution.

10 october A meeting of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party took place, at which V.I. Lenin, who had recently moved to Petrograd.

He stressed that the political situation was ripe for the transfer of power to the proletariat and the poor peasantry. Lenin considered it necessary for the whole party to place the question of an armed uprising on the order of the day. The Central Committee of the party, by ten votes to two (LB Kamenev, GE Zinoviev), adopted a Leninist resolution recognizing that an uprising was ripe and inevitable. The Central Committee of the party invited all party organizations to be guided by this decision in their practical work. The meeting elected the Political Bureau headed by V.I. Lenin. On October 12, the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet under the leadership of L.D. Trotsky adopted the Regulations on Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee(VRK), which became the legal headquarters for the preparation of an armed uprising. Was also created Military Revolutionary Center(VRTs), which included Ya.M. Sverdlov, F.E. Dzerzhinsky, A.S. Bubnov, M.S. Uritsky and I.V. Stalin.

The main events of the armed uprising unfolded October 24... By order of the Provisional Government, the cadets seized the printing house of the Bolshevik newspaper Rabochy Put. An order was given to arrest members of the All-Russian Revolutionary Committee and seize Smolny, where the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party was located. The cadets tried to open the bridges across the Neva, but the Military Revolutionary Committee sent detachments of the Red Guards and soldiers to the bridges, who took all the bridges under guard. By evening, the soldiers occupied the Central Telegraph, a detachment of sailors seized the Petrograd Telegraph Agency, the soldiers of the Izmailovsky Regiment - the Baltic Station. The revolutionary units blocked Pavlovskoe, Nikolaevskoe, Vladimirskoe, Konstantinovskoe cadet schools. Telegrams were sent from the Central Committee and the Military Revolutionary Committee to Kronstadt and Tsentrobalt with a call for the battleships of the Baltic Fleet with a landing party. The order was carried out.

IN AND. Lenin wrote to the members of the Central Committee of the party on October 24: “I am trying to convince comrades with all my might that now everything hangs in the balance, that the next in turn are questions that are not decided by conferences, not by congresses (even if even by congresses of Soviets), but exclusively by the peoples, by the masses, by the struggle the armed masses ... It is necessary, by all means, tonight, tonight to arrest the government, disarming (defeating, if they resist) the junkers, and so on. You can't wait! You can lose everything! ” And further: “The government hesitates. We must finish him off at all costs! Delay in the performance of death is like”.

In the evening of October 24, V.I. Lenin arrived in Smolny and directly led the leadership of the armed struggle; the revolutionary forces went over to the offensive, the strategic points of Petrograd were seized.

Whirlwind of October. Hood. A. Lopukhov. 1975-1977

At 1 h. 25 min. On the nights of October 24-25 (November 6-7), the Red Guards occupied the Post Office, the railway station, and the central power station. On the morning of October 25 (November 7), the All-Russian Revolutionary Committee accepted the appeal “To the Citizens of Russia!” Written by Lenin.

The address read: “ Provisional government deposed... State power passed into the hands of an organ of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies - the Military Revolutionary Committee, which stands at the head of the Petrograd proletariat and garrison. "

In the afternoon of October 25, revolutionary forces occupied the Mariinsky Palace, where the Pre-Parliament was located, and dissolved it; the Naval Port and the Main Admiralty were occupied by sailors, where the naval headquarters was arrested.

At 14 hours 35 minutes. an emergency meeting of the Petrograd Soviet was opened. V.I. Lenin, declaring: “Comrades! The workers 'and peasants' revolution, the need for which the Bolsheviks had been talking about all the time, has come to pass. ”

However, the Provisional Government was located in the Winter Palace. By 6 pm, revolutionary detachments surrounded the palace. At 21 hours 40 minutes. on a signal from the Peter and Paul Fortress, a shot from the Aurora thundered, and the storming of the Winter Palace began.

Illustration 42. Shot from the film "Lenin in October"

October 25 at 22.40 opened in Smolny Second All-Russian Congress Soviets of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies (by the time of the opening of the congress there were 390 Bolsheviks out of 649 delegates who arrived), which proclaimed the transfer of power to the Soviets.

The event that happened October 25, 1917 in the capital of the then Russian Empire, Petrograd, was simply an uprising of an armed people, which stirred up almost the entire civilized world.

A hundred years have passed, but the results and achievements, the impact on the world history of the October events remain the subject of discussions and disputes among numerous historians, philosophers, political scientists, specialists in various fields of law, both in our time and in the past twentieth century.

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Briefly about the date October 25, 1917

Officially in the Soviet Union today this controversial event was called - the day of the October Revolution of 1917, it was a holiday for the entire vast country and the peoples inhabiting it. She brought a radical change in the socio-political situation, transformation of political and social attitudes on the position of peoples and each individual individually.

Today, many young people do not even know in what year the revolution took place in Russia, but it is necessary to know about it. The situation was quite predictable and was brewing for several years, then significant major events of the October Revolution of 1917 took place, the table is brief:

What is the October Revolution in terms of history? The main armed uprising, led by V. I. Ulyanov - Lenin, L. D. Trotsky, J. M. Sverdlov and other leaders of the communist movement in Russia.

Revolution of 1917 - an armed uprising.

Attention! The uprising was carried out by the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, where, oddly enough, the majority was represented by the Left SR faction.

The following factors ensured the successful implementation of the coup:

1. Significant level of support from the popular masses.
2. The provisional government was inactive and did not solve the problems of Russia's participation in the First World War.
3. Most significant political aspect compared to previously proposed extremist movements.

The Menshevik and Right Socialist Revolutionary factions were unable to organize a more or less realistic version of an alternative movement in relation to the Bolsheviks.

A little about the reasons for the October events of 1917

Today, no one refutes the idea that this fateful event practically turned not only the whole world, but also radically changed the course of history for many decades to come. Far from being a feudal bourgeois country striving for progress, it was practically overturned directly during certain events on the fronts of the First World War.

The historical significance of the October Revolution, which took place in 1917, is largely determined by the cessation. However, as modern historians see it, there were several reasons:

1. The influence of the peasant revolution as a social and political phenomenon as an exacerbation of the confrontation between the peasant masses and the landowners who remained at that time. The reason - the well-known in history "black redistribution", that is distribution of land to the number of needy... Also in this aspect, the negative impact of the procedure for the redistribution of land allotments on the number of dependents affected.
2. The working class experienced significant city ​​pressure on the inhabitants of rural areas, state power has become the main lever of pressure on the productive forces.
3. The deepest decomposition of the army and other power structures, where the majority of the peasants went to the service, who could not comprehend these or those nuances of the protracted hostilities.
4. Revolutionary fermentation of all strata of the working class... The proletariat at that time was a politically active minority, accounting for no more than 3.5% of the active population. The working class was largely concentrated in industrial cities.
5. The national movements of the popular formations of imperial Russia developed and reached their culmination. Then they strove to achieve autonomy, a promising option for them was not just autonomy, but a promising one. independence and independence from the central authorities.

To the greatest extent, it was the national movement that became the provoking factor in the beginning of the revolutionary movement on the territory of the vast Russian Empire, which literally disintegrated into its component parts.

Attention! The combination of all causes and conditions, as well as the interests of all segments of the population, determined the goals of the October Revolution of 1917, which became the driving force behind the future uprising as a turning point in history.

Popular unrest before the start of the October Revolution of 1917.

Ambiguous about the events of October 17

The first stage, which became the basis and the beginning of the worldwide change in historical events, which became a turning point not only on a domestic but also on a global scale. For example, an assessment of the October Revolution, interesting facts of which are in the simultaneous positive and negative impact on the socio-political world situation.

As usual, every significant event has objective and subjective reasons. The overwhelming majority of the population had a hard time going through wartime conditions, hunger and deprivation, the conclusion of peace became necessary. What conditions developed in the second half of 1917:

1. Formed in the period from February 27 to March 03, 1917, the Provisional Government headed by Kerensky didn't have enough tools to solve all problems and questions without exception. The transfer of land and enterprises to the ownership of workers and peasants, as well as the elimination of hunger and the conclusion of peace became an urgent problem, the solution of which was not available to the so-called "temporary workers".
2. The prevalence of socialist ideas among broad strata of the population, a noticeable increase in the popularity of Marxist theory, the implementation by the Soviets of the slogans of universal equality, the prospects for what the people expected.
3. The appearance in the country of the strong opposition movement led by a charismatic leader, which was Ulyanov - Lenin. At the beginning of the last century, this party line became the most promising movement for achieving world communism as a concept for further development.
4. In the conditions of this situation, they have become the most in demand radical ideas and requiring a radical solution of the problem of society - the inability to lead the empire from the thoroughly rotten tsarist administrative apparatus.

The slogan of the October revolution - "peace to the peoples, land to the peasants, factories to the workers" was supported by the population, which made it possible to radically change the political system in Russia.

Briefly about the course of events on October 25

Why did the October Revolution happen in November? The autumn of 1917 brought an even greater increase in social tension, political and socio-economic destruction was rapidly approaching its peak.

In the field of industry, financial sector, transport and communication systems, agriculture a complete collapse was brewing.

Russian multinational empire fell apart into separate nation states, contradictions between representatives of different peoples and intra-tribal disagreements grew.

A significant impact on the acceleration of the overthrow of the Provisional Government had hyperinflation, rising food prices against the backdrop of lower wages, an increase in unemployment, a disastrous situation on the battlefields, the war dragged on artificially. A. Kerensky government did not submit an anti-crisis plan, and the initial February promises were practically abandoned altogether.

These processes in the conditions of their rapid growth only increased influence leftist political movements across the country. These were the reasons for the unprecedented victory of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution. The Bolshevik idea and its support by peasants, workers and soldiers led to the receipt parliamentary majority in the new state system - the Soviets in the First Capital and Petrograd. The plans for the coming to power of the Bolsheviks were in two directions:

1. Peaceful diplomatically conditioned and legally confirmed transfer of power to the majority.
2. The extremist trend in the Soviets demanded armed strategic measures, in their opinion, the plan could only be implemented forceful grip.

The government, created in October 1917, was called the Soviets of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies. The shot of the legendary cruiser "Aurora" on the night of October 25 gave signal to start the assault Winter Palace, which led to the fall of the Provisional Government.

October Revolution

October coup

Consequences of the October Revolution

The consequences of the October Revolution are mixed. This is the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, the adoption by the II Congress of Soviets of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies of the Decree on Peace, Land, the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of the Country. Was created Russian Soviet Republic, later the controversial Peace of Brest was signed. In various countries of the world, pro-Bolshevik governments began to come to power.

The negative aspect of the event is also important - it has begun protracted that brought even greater destruction, crisis, famine, millions of victims... The collapse and chaos in a huge country led to the economic destruction of the world financial system, a crisis that lasted for more than a decade and a half. Its consequences have weighed heavily on the shoulders of the poorest. This situation became the basis for a decrease in demographic indicators, a lack of productive forces in the future, human casualties, and unplanned migration.