Russia - oct revolution

• When did Lenin return to Russia?

  10th October 1917
• 24th October 


  Red guard, with soldiers and sailors from Kronstadt, capture key positions in Petrograd
• 25th October 


  Shot from Aurora and Red Guards enter winter palace.

  Second Congress of Soviets meet - some Mensheviks and SRs are against the seizure of power
• 26th October

  • Remaining members of prov govt arrested
  • Congress votes to take power into its own hands
  • Unanimously agree on Lenin’s Decree on Peace
• 27th October

  • Congress agrees to Lenin’s decree on land
  • Central executive committee set up - Bolshevik majority
  • Sovnarkom set up to run government
• The extent of the revolution:

  • Involved around 5% of workers and soldiers in Petrograd
  • Little fighting
  • No more than 5 deaths
• Establishment of Bolshevik authority:

  • 29th October - Red Guard put down army cadet rising
  • 31st October - Bolsheviks take control of Baku and 17 provincial capitals
  • 2nd November - Kerensky’s opposition forces defeated
  • 3rd November - Bolsheviks gain control of Moscow and Kamenev, Zinoviev and Rykov leave the Bolshevik party after Lenin’s ultimatum to end divisions within it
  • 5th November - Lenin announced that revolution had succeeded
• Lenin’s decrees

  • Decree on peace
  • Decree to establish the Cheka
  • Decree on workers rights
  • Decree on Land
  • Social decrees - press, judicial, outlaw sex discrimination and church
• Who led the Cheka?

  Felis Dzerzhinsky