November 10, 1917 October Revolution: chronology of events

1917 was a year of upheaval and revolution in Russia, and its finale came on the night of October 25, when all power passed to the Soviets. What are the causes, course, results of the Great October Socialist Revolution - these and other questions of history are in the center of our attention today.

Reasons

Many historians argue that the events that occurred in October 1917 were inevitable and at the same time unexpected. Why? Inevitable, because by this time in Russian Empire a certain situation arose that predetermined the further course of history. This was due to a number of reasons:

• Results February Revolution : she was greeted with unprecedented delight and enthusiasm, which soon turned into the opposite - bitter disappointment. Indeed, the performance of the revolutionary-minded “lower classes” - soldiers, workers and peasants - led to a serious shift - the overthrow of the monarchy. But this is where the achievements of the revolution ended. The expected reforms were “hanging in the air”: the longer the Provisional Government postponed consideration of pressing problems, the faster discontent in society grew;
• Overthrow of the monarchy : March 2 (15), 1917, Russian Emperor Nicholas II signed the abdication of the throne. However, the question of the form of government in Russia - a monarchy or a republic - remained open. The Provisional Government decided to consider it during the next convocation of the Constituent Assembly. Such uncertainty could only lead to one thing - anarchy, which is what happened.
• The mediocre policy of the Provisional Government : the slogans under which the February Revolution took place, its aspirations and achievements were actually buried by the actions of the Provisional Government: Russia’s participation in the First World War continued; a majority vote in the government blocked land reform and the reduction of the working day to 8 hours; autocracy was not abolished;
• Russian participation in the First World War: any war is an extremely costly undertaking. It literally “sucks” all the juice out of the country: people, production, money - everything goes to support it. First world war was no exception, and Russia's participation in it undermined the country's economy. After the February Revolution, the Provisional Government did not retreat from its obligations to the allies. But discipline in the army had already been undermined, and widespread desertion began in the army.
• Anarchy: already in the name of the government of that period - the Provisional Government, the spirit of the times can be traced - order and stability were destroyed, and they were replaced by anarchy - anarchy, lawlessness, confusion, spontaneity. This was manifested in all spheres of the country’s life: an autonomous government was formed in Siberia, which was not subordinate to the capital; Finland and Poland declared independence; in the villages, peasants were engaged in unauthorized redistribution of land, burning landowners' estates; the government was mainly engaged in the struggle with the Soviets for power; the disintegration of the army and many other events;
• The rapid growth of influence of the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies : During the February Revolution, the Bolshevik party was not one of the most popular. But over time, this organization becomes the main political player. Their populist slogans about an immediate end to the war and reforms found great support among embittered workers, peasants, soldiers and police. Not the least was the role of Lenin as the creator and leader of the Bolshevik Party, which carried out the October Revolution of 1917.

Rice. 1. Mass strikes in 1917

Stages of the uprising

Before speaking briefly about the 1917 revolution in Russia, it is necessary to answer the question about the suddenness of the uprising itself. The fact is that the actual dual power in the country - the Provisional Government and the Bolsheviks - should have ended with some kind of explosion and subsequent victory for one of the parties. Therefore, the Soviets began preparing to seize power back in August, and at that time the government was preparing and taking measures to prevent it. But the events that happened on the night of October 25, 1917 came as a complete surprise to the latter. The consequences of the establishment of Soviet power also became unpredictable.

Back on October 16, 1917, the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party made a fateful decision - to prepare for an armed uprising.

On October 18, the Petrograd garrison refused to submit to the Provisional Government, and already on October 21, representatives of the garrison declared their subordination to the Petrograd Soviet, as the only representative of legitimate power in the country. Starting from October 24, key points in Petrograd - bridges, train stations, telegraphs, banks, power plants and printing houses - were captured by the Military Revolutionary Committee. On the morning of October 25, the Provisional Government held only one object - the Winter Palace. Despite this, at 10 o'clock in the morning of the same day, an appeal was issued, which announced that from now on the Petrograd Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies was the only body of state power in Russia.

In the evening at 9 o'clock, a blank shot from the cruiser Aurora signaled the start of the assault on the Winter Palace and on the night of October 26, members of the Provisional Government were arrested.

Rice. 2. The streets of Petrograd on the eve of the uprising

Results

As you know, history does not like the subjunctive mood. It is impossible to say what would have happened if this or that event had not occurred and vice versa. Everything that happens happens as a result of not one reason, but many, which at one moment intersected at one point and showed the world an event with all its positive and negative aspects: civil war, a huge number of dead, millions who left the country forever, terror, the construction of an industrial power , eliminating illiteracy, free education, medical care, building the world's first socialist state and much more. But, speaking about the main significance of the October Revolution of 1917, one thing should be said - it was a profound revolution in the ideology, economy and structure of the state as a whole, which influenced not only the course of the history of Russia, but also the whole world.

Appeals from V.I. Lenin in response to numerous requests from peasants to the population in connection with the victory of the October Revolution and a telegram about V.I. Lenin’s consent to remain a deputy to the Constituent Assembly from the Baltic Fleet.

V. I. Lenin’s appeal “To the Population” in connection with the victory of the October Revolution, the resolution of the Council of People’s Commissars on the formation of the office of the Constituent Assembly, V. I. Lenin’s theses on the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and an appeal on the organization of the service

COUNCIL OF PEOPLE'S COMMISSARS OF THE RSFSR (SNK RSFSR).
V. I. Lenin’s appeal “To the Population” in connection with the victory of the October Revolution, the resolution of the Council of People’s Commissars on the formation of the office of the Constituent Assembly, V. I. Lenin’s theses on the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and an appeal on the organization of employees of central government institutions.

Speech by Comrade V.I. Lenin at the Second All-Russian Congress of Peasant Deputies on December 15 (2), 1917. (Typewritten copy and clipping from the newspaper "Pravda" dated December 18 (5), 1917)

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN COUNCIL OF PEASANTS' DEPUTIES.
Speech by Comrade V.I. Lenin at the Second All-Russian Congress of Peasant Deputies on December 15 (2), 1917. (Typewritten copy and clipping from the newspaper "Pravda" dated December 18 (5), 1917).

November 7, 1917 (October 25 to Julian calendar) an event occurred, the consequences of which we are still seeing today. The Great October Socialist Revolution, as it was commonly called in Soviet historiography, changed Russia beyond recognition, but did not stop there. She shocked the whole world, reshaped political map and for many years became the worst nightmare of capitalist countries. Even in remote corners their own communist parties appeared. The ideas of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, with certain changes, are still alive in some countries today. Needless to say, the October Revolution was of enormous importance for our country. It would seem that such a grandiose event in the history of Russia should be known to everyone. But, nevertheless, statistics say the opposite. According to VTsIOM, only 11% of Russians know that the Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government. According to the majority of respondents (65%), the Bolsheviks overthrew the Tsar. Why do we know so little about these events?

History, as we know, is written by the winners. The October Revolution became the main propaganda weapon of the Bolsheviks. The events of those days were carefully censored by the Soviet government. In the USSR, disgraced political figures were mercilessly deleted from the list of creators of the October Revolution (Trotsky, Bukharin, Zinoviev, etc.), and the role of Stalin during his reign, on the contrary, was deliberately exaggerated. It got to the point that Soviet historians turned the revolution into a real phantasmagoria. Today we have all the data for a detailed study of this period and everything that preceded it. On the eve of the centennial anniversary of the October Revolution, it's time to refresh your memory or learn something new. To understand how everything really happened, we will restore the chronology of the events of 1917.

How 1917 began

The First World War (1914-1918) became main reason the spread of revolutionary sentiment throughout Europe. By the end of the war, 4 empires fell at once: Austro-Hungarian, German, Russian and a little later Ottoman.

In Russia, neither the people nor the army understood the war. And even the government could not clearly communicate its goals to its subjects. The initial patriotic impulse quickly faded away amid the spread of anti-German sentiment. Constant defeats at the front, retreat of troops, huge casualties and a growing food crisis caused popular discontent, which led to an increase in the number of strikes

By the beginning of 1917, the state of affairs in the state had become catastrophic. All layers of society, from ministers and members of the imperial family to workers and peasants, were dissatisfied with the policies of Nicholas II. The decline in the king's authority was accompanied by political and military miscalculations on his part. Nicholas II completely lost touch with reality, relying on the unshakable faith of the Russian people in the good Tsar-Father. But the people no longer believed. Even in remote provinces, everyone knew about the harmful influence of Rasputin on the imperial couple. In the State Duma, the tsar was directly accused of treason, and the autocrat's relatives seriously thought about eliminating Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who constantly interfered in state affairs. In such conditions, radical left parties launched their propaganda activities everywhere. They called for the overthrow of the autocracy, the end of hostilities and fraternization with the enemy.

February Revolution

In January 1917, a wave of strikes swept across the country. More than 200 thousand people went on strike in Petrograd (St. Petersburg in 1914-1924). The government's response to everything was sluggish. On February 22, Nikolai generally left for the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief in Mogilev.

On February 17, in response to interruptions in food supplies, a strike began at the Petrograd Putilov plant. The workers spoke out with slogans: “Down with war!”, “Down with autocracy!”, “Bread!” Popular unrest intensified, strikes became larger and larger. Already on February 25, not a single enterprise was operating in the capital. The reaction of the authorities was slow, measures were taken very late. It looked as if the officials were deliberately inactive. In this situation, the words of Nicholas, who wrote from Headquarters, are sincerely surprising: “I command you to stop the riots in the capital tomorrow.” Either the tsar was really so poorly informed and naive, or the government underestimated the situation, or we are dealing with treason.

Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks (RSDLP (b)) actively agitated the Petrograd garrison, and these actions were successful. On February 26, soldiers began to go over to the side of the rebels, and this meant only one thing - the government lost its main defense. We should not forget that the February Revolution was carried out by all segments of the population. The parties that were members of the State Duma, the aristocrats, officers, and industrialists did their best here. The February revolution was general or bourgeois, as the Bolsheviks would later call it.

On February 28, the revolution achieved complete victory. The tsarist government was removed from power. The Provisional Committee took over the leadership of the country State Duma led by Mikhail Rodzianko.

March. Abdication of Nicholas II

First of all, the new government was concerned with the problem of removing Nicholas from power. No one had any doubt that the emperor must certainly be persuaded to abdicate. On February 28, having learned about the events that had taken place, Nikolai went to the capital. The revolution, which quickly spread throughout the country, met the monarch on the way - the rebel soldiers did not allow the royal train to Petrograd. Nicholas did not take any decisive steps to save the autocracy. He only dreamed of being reunited with his family, who were in Tsarskoe Selo.

The Duma deputies went to Pskov, where the Tsar’s train was forced to turn. On March 2, Nicholas II signed a manifesto of his abdication. Initially, the Provisional Committee intended to preserve autocracy by transferring the throne to the young Tsarevich Alexei under the regency of his younger brother Nicholas, but this could have caused another explosion of discontent and the idea had to be abandoned.

Thus fell one of the most powerful dynasties. Nikolai went to Tsarskoye Selo to his wife and children. Recent years The lives of the imperial family were spent in captivity.

At the end of February, simultaneously with the creation of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, the Petrograd Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies was formed - a body of democracy. The creation of the Petrograd Soviet was initiated by the Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries. Soon such Councils began to appear throughout the country. They were engaged in improving the situation of workers, regulating food supplies, arresting officials and police officers, and repealing tsarist decrees. The Bolsheviks continued to remain in the shadows. In the newly formed Soviets they were inferior in number to representatives of other parties.

On March 2, the Provisional Government began its work, formed by the Provisional Committee of the State Duma and the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. Dual power was established in the country.

April. Lenin in Petrograd

Dual power prevented the ministers of the Provisional Government from establishing order in the country. The arbitrariness of the Soviets in the army and in enterprises undermined discipline and led to lawlessness and rampant crime. The question of Russia's further political development remained unresolved. This problem was approached with reluctance. Convening of the Constituent Assembly, which was to decide future fate country, was appointed only on November 28, 1917.

The situation at the front became catastrophic. The soldiers, supporting the decision of the Soviets, withdrew from the subordination of the officers. There was no discipline or motivation among the troops. However, the Provisional Government was in no hurry to end the ruinous war, apparently hoping for a miracle.

The arrival of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in Russia in April 1917 was a radical change in the course of the events of 1917. It was from this moment that the rapid increase in the number of the Bolshevik Party began. Lenin's ideas quickly spread among the people and, most importantly, were close and understandable to everyone.

On April 4, 1917, Lenin announced the program of action of the RSDLP (b). The main goal of the Bolsheviks was the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the transfer of full power to the Soviets. Otherwise, this program was called “April Theses”. On April 7, the theses were published in the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda. Lenin outlined his program simply and clearly. He demanded to end the war, not to provide support to the Provisional Government, to confiscate and nationalize the landowners' lands, and to fight for the socialist revolution. In short: lands to the peasants, factories to the workers, peace to the soldiers, power to the Bolsheviks.

The position of the Provisional Government weakened further after Foreign Minister Pavel Milyukov announced on April 18 that Russia was ready to wage war to a victorious end. Anti-war demonstrations of many thousands took place in Petrograd. Miliukov was forced to resign.

June-July. No support for the Provisional Government!

With the arrival of Lenin, the Bolsheviks began active activities aimed at seizing power. To achieve their political goals, members of the RSDLP (b) willingly took advantage of the government’s mistakes and miscalculations

On June 18, 1917, the Provisional Government launched a large-scale offensive at the front, which was initially successful. It soon became clear, however, that the operation had failed. The army began to retreat, suffering huge losses. Large-scale anti-war protests began again in the capital. The Bolsheviks took an active part in inciting anti-government sentiments.

Trying to restore order, the Provisional Government persecuted the RSDLP (b). The Bolsheviks were forced to go underground again. The attempt to eliminate his main political opponent, however, did not bring the desired effect. Power was slipping from the hands of the ministers, and confidence in the Bolshevik Party, on the contrary, was strengthening.

August. Kornilov mutiny

In order to stabilize the situation in the country, the new chairman of the Provisional Government, Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky, was vested with emergency powers. To strengthen discipline, the death penalty was reintroduced at the front. Kerensky also took measures to improve the economy. All his efforts, however, did not bear fruit. The situation continued to remain explosive, and Alexander Fedorovich himself understood this very well.

To strengthen the position of his government, Kerensky decided to enter into an alliance with the military. At the end of July, Lavr Georgievich Kornilov, popular in the army, was appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

Determined to fight left-wing radical elements (mainly the Bolsheviks), Kerensky and Kornilov initially planned to join forces to save the Fatherland. But this never happened - the chairman of the government and the commander-in-chief did not share power. Everyone wanted to lead the country alone.

On August 26, Kornilov called on troops loyal to him to move to the capital. Kerensky was simply cowardly and turned for help to the Bolsheviks, who had already firmly captured the minds of the soldiers of the Petrograd garrison. There was no clash - Kornilov’s troops never reached the capital.

The situation with Kornilov once again proved the inability of the Provisional Government to lead the state and the mediocrity of Kerensky as a politician. For the Bolsheviks, on the contrary, everything turned out as well as possible. The August events showed that only the RSDLP (b) was capable of leading the country out of chaos.

October. Bolshevik triumph

In September 1917, the moribund Provisional Government entered its last phase of life. Kerensky continued to frantically change ministers and convened a Democratic Conference to determine the future composition of the government. In reality, it again turned out to be stupid demagoguery and a waste of time. The Kerensky government, in reality, cared only about its own position and personal gain. Lenin expressed himself very precisely about those events: “Power was lying under your feet, you just had to take it.”

The Provisional Government failed to solve a single problem. The economy was on the verge of complete collapse, prices were rising, and food shortages were felt everywhere. Strikes of workers and peasants in the country grew into mass protests, accompanied by pogroms and reprisals against representatives of the wealthy strata. Councils of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies throughout the country began to go over to the Bolshevik side. Lenin and Trotsky advocated an immediate seizure of power. On October 12, 1917, the Military Revolutionary Committee was created under the Petrograd Soviet - the main body for preparing a revolutionary uprising. Through the efforts of the Bolsheviks in short terms About 30 thousand people were put under arms.

On October 25, the rebels occupied strategically important sites in Petrograd: the post office, telegraph office and train stations. On the night of October 25-26, the Provisional Government was arrested in the Winter Palace. According to one of Soviet legends, Kerensky, dressed in women's dress, fled the capital. Immediately after seizing power, the Bolsheviks held a Congress of Soviets, at which they adopted the main documents - the “Decree on Peace” and the “Decree on Land”. All local power was transferred to the hands of the Soviets of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies. Kerensky's attempts to seize power with the help of troops were unsuccessful.

The events of October 25, 1917 were the natural end of a period of virtual anarchy in the country. The Bolsheviks proved by deeds that only they were capable of taking control of the state. And even if you do not sympathize with the communists, it is worth recognizing that their superiority in 1917 was obvious.

We all know very well what happened next. The Soviet state lasted a full 68 years. It lived the life of an average person: it was born in pain, matured and hardened in constant struggle, and eventually, having grown old, fell into childhood and died at the dawn of the new millennium. But even after his defeat in Russia, Lenin’s cause still lives on in some places. And so far we have not gone that far, continuing to live on the ruins of Vladimir Ilyich’s major experiment.

October Revolution(full official name in the USSR - Great October Socialist Revolution, alternative names: October Revolution, Bolshevik coup, third Russian revolution listen)) - a stage of the Russian revolution that occurred in Russia in October of the year. As a result of the October Revolution, the Provisional Government was overthrown, and the government formed by the Second Congress of Soviets came to power, the majority in which, shortly before the revolution, was received by the Bolshevik party - the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks), in alliance with part of the Mensheviks, national groups, peasants organizations, some anarchists and a number of groups in the Socialist Revolutionary Party.

The main organizers of the uprising were V. I. Lenin, L. D. Trotsky, Ya. M. Sverdlov and others.

The government elected by the Congress of Soviets included representatives of only two parties: the RSDLP (b) and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries; other organizations refused to participate in the revolution. Later, they demanded the inclusion of their representatives in the Council of People's Commissars under the slogan of a “homogeneous socialist government,” but the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries already had a majority at the Congress of Soviets, allowing them not to rely on other parties. In addition, relations were spoiled by the support of the “compromising parties” of the persecution of the RSDLP (b) as a party and its individual members by the Provisional Government on charges of treason and armed rebellion in the summer of 1917, the arrest of L. D. Trotsky and L. B. Kamenev and leaders of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, wanted notices for V.I. Lenin and G.E. Zinoviev.

There is a wide range of assessments of the October Revolution: for some, it was 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 Great Russia like empires); for others - the greatest progressive event in the history of mankind, which made it possible to abandon capitalism and save Russia from feudal remnants; Between these extremes there are a number of intermediate points of view. Many historical myths are also associated with this event.

Name

S. Lukin. It's finished!

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

The name “October Revolution” has been found since the first years of Soviet power. Name Great October Socialist Revolution established itself in Soviet official historiography by the end of the 1930s. In the first decade after the revolution, it was often called, in particular, October Revolution, while this name did not carry a negative meaning (at least in the mouths of the Bolsheviks themselves), but, on the contrary, emphasized the grandeur and irreversibility of the “social revolution”; this name is used by N. N. Sukhanov, A. V. Lunacharsky, D. A. Furmanov, N. I. Bukharin, M. A. Sholokhov. In particular, the section of Stalin’s article dedicated to the first anniversary of October () was called About the October Revolution. Subsequently, the word “coup” became associated with conspiracy and illegal change of power (by analogy with palace coups), and the term was removed from official propaganda (although Stalin used it until his last works, written in the early 1950s). But the expression “October revolution” began to be actively used, already with a negative meaning, in literature critical of Soviet power: in emigrant and dissident circles, and, starting with perestroika, in the legal press.

Background

There are several versions of the reasons for the October Revolution:

• version of the spontaneous growth of the “revolutionary situation”
• version of a targeted action by the German government (See Sealed Car)

Version of the “revolutionary situation”

The main prerequisites for the October Revolution were the weakness and indecisiveness of the Provisional Government, its refusal to implement the principles it proclaimed (for example, the Minister of Agriculture V. Chernov, the author of the Socialist Revolutionary program of land reform, pointedly refused to carry it out after he was told by his government colleagues that expropriation landowners' lands damages the banking system, which lent to landowners against the security of land), dual power after the February Revolution. During the year, the leaders of radical forces led by Chernov, Spiridonova, Tsereteli, Lenin, Chkheidze, Martov, Zinoviev, Stalin, Trotsky, Sverdlov, Kamenev and other leaders returned from hard labor, exile and emigration to Russia and launched extensive agitation. All this led to the strengthening of extreme leftist sentiments in society.

The policy of the Provisional Government, especially after the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets declared the Provisional Government a “government of salvation”, recognizing for it “unlimited powers and unlimited power,” led the country to the brink of disaster. The production of iron and steel fell sharply, and the production of coal and oil decreased significantly. Railway transport came to almost complete disarray. There was a sharp shortage of fuel. Temporary interruptions in the supply of flour occurred in Petrograd. Gross industrial output in 1917 decreased by 30.8% compared to 1916. In the fall, up to 50% of enterprises were closed in the Urals, Donbass and other industrial centers; 50 factories were stopped in Petrograd. Mass unemployment arose. Food prices rose steadily. Real wages workers fell by 40-50% compared to 1913. Daily war expenses exceeded 66 million rubles.

All practical measures taken by the Provisional Government worked exclusively for the benefit of the financial sector. The provisional government resorted to money emission and new loans. In 8 months it released paper money in the amount of 9.5 billion rubles, that is, more than the tsarist government during 32 months of war. The main burden of taxes fell on workers. The actual value of the ruble compared to June 1914 was 32.6%. Russia's national debt in October 1917 amounted to almost 50 billion rubles, of which the debt to foreign powers amounted to over 11.2 billion rubles. The country was facing the threat of financial bankruptcy.

The provisional government, which did not have any confirmation of its powers from any expression of the people's will, nevertheless declared in a voluntaristic way that Russia would “continue the war until the victorious end.” Moreover, he failed to get his Entente allies to write off Russia’s war debts, which had reached astronomical amounts. Explanations to the allies that Russia is not able to service this public debt, and the experience of state bankruptcy of a number of countries (Khedive Egypt, etc.) were not taken into account by the allies. Meanwhile, L. D. Trotsky officially declared that revolutionary Russia should not pay the bills of the old regime, and was immediately imprisoned.

The provisional government simply ignored the problem because the grace period for loans lasted until the end of the war. They turned a blind eye to the inevitable post-war default, not knowing what to hope for and wanting to delay the inevitable. Wanting to delay state bankruptcy by continuing an extremely unpopular war, they attempted an offensive on the fronts, but their failure, emphasized by the “treacherous”, according to Kerensky, surrender of Riga, caused extreme bitterness among the people. Land reform was also not carried out for financial reasons - the expropriation of landowners' lands would have caused a massive bankruptcy of financial institutions that lent to landowners against the security of land. The Bolsheviks, historically supported by the majority of the workers of Petrograd and Moscow, won the support of the peasantry and soldiers (“peasants dressed in greatcoats”) through the consistent implementation of the policy of agrarian reform and the immediate end of the war. In August-October 1917 alone, over 2 thousand peasant uprisings took place (690 peasant uprisings were registered in August, 630 in September, 747 in October). The Bolsheviks and their allies actually remained the only force that did not agree to abandon their principles in practice to protect the interests of Russia's financial capital.

Revolutionary sailors with the flag "Death to the Bourgeois"

Four days later, on October 29 (November 11), there was an armed revolt of the cadets, who also captured artillery pieces, which was also suppressed using artillery and armored cars.

On the side of the Bolsheviks were the workers of Petrograd, Moscow and other industrial centers, land-poor peasants of the densely populated Black Earth Region and Central Russia. An important factor in the victory of the Bolsheviks was the appearance on their side of a considerable part of the officers of the former tsarist army. In particular, the officers of the General Staff were distributed almost equally between the warring parties, with a slight advantage among the opponents of the Bolsheviks (at the same time, on the side of the Bolsheviks there were a larger number of graduates of the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff). Some of them were subjected to repression in 1937.

Immigration

At the same time, a number of workers, engineers, inventors, scientists, writers, architects, peasants, and politicians from all over the world who shared Marxist ideas moved to Soviet Russia to participate in the program of building communism. They took some part in the technological breakthrough of backward Russia and the social transformation of the country. According to some estimates, the number of Chinese and Manchus alone who immigrated to Tsarist Russia due to the favorable socio-economic conditions created in Russia by the autocratic regime, and then took part in building the new world, exceeded 500 thousand people. , and for the most part these were workers creating material assets and transforming nature with their own hands. Some of them quickly returned to their homeland, most of the rest were subjected to repression in the year

A number of specialists from Western countries also came to Russia. .

During Civil War Tens of thousands of internationalist fighters (Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, Serbs, etc.) who voluntarily joined its ranks fought in the Red Army.

The Soviet government was forced to use the skills of some immigrants in administrative, military and other positions. Among them are the writer Bruno Yasensky (shot in the city), administrator Belo Kun (shot in the city), economists Varga and Rudzutak (shot in the year), special services employees Dzerzhinsky, Latsis (shot in the city), Kingisepp, Eichmans (shot in the year), military leaders Joakim Vatsetis (shot in the year), Lajos Gavro (shot in the year), Ivan Strod (shot in the year), August Kork (shot in the year), the head of the Soviet justice Smilga (shot in the year), Inessa Armand and many others. Can be named financier and intelligence officer Ganetsky (shot in the city), aircraft designers Bartini (repressed in the city, spent 10 years in prison), Paul Richard (worked in the USSR for 3 years and returned to France), teacher Janouszek (shot in the year), Romanian, Moldavian and Jewish poet Yakov Yakir (who ended up in the USSR against his will with the annexation of Bessarabia, was arrested there, went to Israel), socialist Heinrich Ehrlich (sentenced to death and committed suicide in the Kuibyshev prison), Robert Eiche ( executed in the year), journalist Radek (executed in the year), Polish poet Naftali Kohn (twice repressed, upon release he went to Poland, from there to Israel), and many others.

Holiday

Main article: Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution

Contemporaries about the revolution

Our children and grandchildren will not be able to even imagine the Russia in which we once lived, which we did not appreciate, did not understand - all this power, complexity, wealth, happiness...

• October 26 (November 7) is L.D.’s birthday. Trotsky

Notes

1. MINUTES of August 1920, 11-12 days, judicial investigator for particularly important cases at the Omsk District Court N.A. Sokolov in Paris (in France), in accordance with Art. 315-324. Art. mouth corner. court., inspected three issues of the newspaper “Obshchee Delo”, submitted to the investigation by Vladimir Lvovich Burtsev.
2. National Corpus of the Russian Language
3. National Corpus of the Russian Language
4. J.V. Stalin. The logic of things
5. J.V. Stalin. Marxism and issues of linguistics
6. For example, the expression “October revolution” is often used in the anti-Soviet magazine Posev:
7. S. P. Melgunov. Golden German Bolshevik key
8. L. G. Sobolev. Russian Revolution and German gold
9. Ganin A.V. On the role of General Staff officers in the Civil War.
10. S. V. Kudryavtsev Elimination of “counter-revolutionary organizations” in the region (Author: Candidate of Historical Sciences)
11. Erlikhman V.V. “Population losses in the 20th century.” Directory - M.: Publishing house "Russian Panorama", 2004 ISBN 5-93165-107-1
12. Cultural Revolution Article on the website rin.ru
13. Soviet-Chinese relations. 1917-1957. Collection of documents, Moscow, 1959; Ding Shou He, Yin Xu Yi, Zhang Bo Zhao, The Impact of the October Revolution on China, translation from Chinese, Moscow, 1959; Peng Ming, History of Sino-Soviet Friendship, translated from Chinese. Moscow, 1959; Russian-Chinese relations. 1689-1916, Official documents, Moscow, 1958
14. Border sweeps and other forced migrations in 1934-1939.
15. "Great Terror": 1937-1938. Brief chronicle Compiled by N. G. Okhotin, A. B. Roginsky
16. From among the descendants of immigrants, as well as local residents, who originally lived on their historical lands, as of 1977, 379 thousand Poles lived in the USSR; 9 thousand Czechs; 6 thousand Slovaks; 257 thousand Bulgarians; 1.2 million Germans; 76 thousand Romanians; 2 thousand French; 132 thousand Greeks; 2 thousand Albanians; 161 thousand Hungarians, 43 thousand Finns; 5 thousand Khalkha Mongols; 245 thousand Koreans and others. For the most part, these are descendants of the colonists of tsarist times, who have not forgotten native language, and residents of border, ethnically mixed areas of the USSR; some of them (Germans, Koreans, Greeks, Finns) were subsequently subjected to

The October Revolution of 1917 in Russia was the armed overthrow of the Provisional Government and the coming to power of the Bolshevik Party, which proclaimed the establishment of Soviet power, the beginning of the elimination of capitalism and the transition to socialism. The slowness and inconsistency of the actions of the Provisional Government after the February bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1917 in resolving labor, agrarian, and national issues, the continued participation of Russia in the First World War led to a deepening of the national crisis and created the preconditions for the strengthening of far-left parties in the center and nationalist parties in the outskirts countries. The Bolsheviks acted most energetically, proclaiming a course towards a socialist revolution in Russia, which they considered the beginning of the world revolution. They put forward popular slogans: “Peace to the peoples,” “Land to the peasants,” “Factories to the workers.”

In the USSR official version The October Revolution was a version of "two revolutions". According to this version, the bourgeois-democratic revolution began in February 1917 and was completely completed in the coming months, and the October Revolution was the second, socialist revolution.

The second version was put forward by Leon Trotsky. While already abroad, he wrote a book about the unified revolution of 1917, in which he defended the concept that the October Revolution and the decrees adopted by the Bolsheviks in the first months after coming to power were only the completion of the bourgeois-democratic revolution, the implementation of what the insurgent people fought for in February.

The Bolsheviks put forward a version of the spontaneous growth of the “revolutionary situation.” The very concept of a “revolutionary situation” and its main features was first scientifically defined and introduced into Russian historiography by Vladimir Lenin. He named the following three objective factors as its main features: the crisis of the “tops,” the crisis of the “bottoms,” and the extraordinary activity of the masses.

The situation that arose after the formation of the Provisional Government was characterized by Lenin as “dual power”, and by Trotsky as “dual anarchy”: the socialists in the Soviets could rule, but did not want to, the “progressive bloc” in the government wanted to rule, but could not, finding themselves forced to rely on Petrograd a council with which it disagreed on all issues of domestic and foreign policy.

Some domestic and foreign researchers adhere to the version of “German financing” of the October Revolution. It lies in the fact that the German government, interested in Russia’s exit from the war, purposefully organized the move from Switzerland to Russia of representatives of the radical faction of the RSDLP led by Lenin in the so-called “sealed carriage” and financed the activities of the Bolsheviks aimed at undermining the combat effectiveness of the Russian army and disorganization of the defense industry and transport.

To lead the armed uprising, a Politburo was created, which included Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, Andrei Bubnov, Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev (the latter two denied the need for an uprising). The direct leadership of the uprising was carried out by the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, which also included the Left Social Revolutionaries.

Chronicle of the events of the October Revolution

On the afternoon of October 24 (November 6), the cadets tried to open bridges across the Neva in order to cut off the working areas from the center. The Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC) sent detachments of the Red Guard and soldiers to the bridges, who took almost all the bridges under guard. By evening, soldiers of the Kexholm Regiment occupied the Central Telegraph, a detachment of sailors took possession of the Petrograd Telegraph Agency, and soldiers of the Izmailovsky Regiment took control of the Baltic Station. Revolutionary units blocked the Pavlovsk, Nikolaev, Vladimir, and Konstantinovsky cadet schools.

On the evening of October 24, Lenin arrived in Smolny and directly took charge of the leadership of the armed struggle.

At 1:25 a.m. on the nights of October 24 to 25 (November 6 to 7), the Red Guards of the Vyborg region, soldiers of the Kexholm regiment and revolutionary sailors occupied the Main Post Office.

At 2 a.m. the first company of the 6th reserve engineer battalion captured the Nikolaevsky (now Moskovsky) station. At the same time, a detachment of the Red Guard occupied the Central Power Plant.

On October 25 (November 7) at about 6 o'clock in the morning, sailors of the Guards naval crew took possession of the State Bank.

At 7 a.m., soldiers of the Kexholm Regiment occupied the Central Telephone Station. At 8 o'clock. Red Guards of the Moscow and Narva regions captured the Warsaw station.

At 2:35 p.m. An emergency meeting of the Petrograd Soviet opened. The Council heard a message that the Provisional Government had been overthrown and state power had passed into the hands of the body of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies.

In the afternoon of October 25 (November 7) revolutionary forces occupied the Mariinsky Palace, where the Pre-Parliament was located, and dissolved it; sailors occupied the Military Port and the Main Admiralty, where the Naval Headquarters was arrested.

By 18:00 the revolutionary detachments began to move towards the Winter Palace.

On October 25 (November 7) at 21:45, following a signal from the Peter and Paul Fortress, a gun shot rang out from the cruiser Aurora, and the assault on the Winter Palace began.

At 2 a.m. on October 26 (November 8), armed workers, soldiers of the Petrograd garrison and sailors of the Baltic Fleet, led by Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, occupied the Winter Palace and arrested the Provisional Government.

On October 25 (November 7), following the victory of the uprising in Petrograd, which was almost bloodless, armed struggle began in Moscow. In Moscow, the revolutionary forces met extremely fierce resistance, and stubborn battles took place on the streets of the city. At the cost of great sacrifices (about 1,000 people were killed during the uprising), Soviet power was established in Moscow on November 2 (15).

On the evening of October 25 (November 7), 1917, the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies opened. The congress heard and adopted the appeal “To Workers, Soldiers and Peasants” written by Lenin, which announced the transfer of power to the Second Congress of Soviets, and locally - to the Councils of Workers, Soldiers and Peasants' Deputies.

On October 26 (November 8), 1917, the Decree on Peace and the Decree on Land were adopted. The Congress formed the first Soviet government - the Council people's commissars composed of: Chairman Lenin; People's Commissars: for foreign affairs Leon Trotsky, for nationalities Joseph Stalin and others. Lev Kamenev was elected Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and after his resignation Yakov Sverdlov.

The Bolsheviks established control over the main industrial centers of Russia. The leaders of the Cadet Party were arrested, and the opposition press was banned. In January 1918, the Constituent Assembly was dispersed, and by March of the same year, Soviet power was established over a large territory of Russia. All banks and enterprises were nationalized, and a separate truce was concluded with Germany. In July 1918, the first Soviet Constitution was adopted.