October revolution

• Bolshevik popularity

  • saviour
  • radicalise workers after kornilov - witnessing failures of dual power system - economy spiral
  • See soviet at lenient and neglectful
  • Want radical change
• Figures for Moscow

  • July 11% - 51% - expense of socialist revolutionaries
  • Membership October 1917 - 250k from 10k in tsarism
  • 9th September - Bolsheviks control Petrograd Soviet
  • left support to Bolsheviks at expensive of pg involvement
• Lenin :

  September- height of popularity - all parties discredited - 12 septemebr writes letter - makies his wat back 10 October

  • spends night battering with arguementrs
  • Eventually cc agree - zinoviev and kamenev don’t agree and aremt as radical
  • publish opinions in Gorky
  • Trotsky says wait till Soviet congress - 25 october
• Korenskys response

  • selfish and plays into olsheviks hands
  • allows soviet to set up mic - gives Bolsheviks access to soldiers, weaponry etc takeover is open secret
  • Raises bridges to cut off working class districts from centre of town - aginst revolution so he leaves
• Bolsheviks seize control

  • 24th going into 25th
  • red guard - bridges telephones railways and power
  • tortsky and Sverdlovsk plan it
  • red guard go to winter palace and soldiers disarm and leave - majority women
  • arrest pg
  • lack of resistance imply people wanted it
  • soviet congress denounce Bolsheviks - soviet votes in favour of it though - 10 day fighting truce
• Oct 1917 - creates Sovnarkhom - defunct body - Lenin wants one party rule
• Sovnarkhom

  • every member Bolshevik
  • 30-40 commissioners
• Cheka

  • December 1916 - mini militis of loyal supporters - above the law - employ Lenin’s orders
• The Soviet 


  • Represnt all of Russia - workers, peasantry + soldiers
  • October 1917 - Bolsheviks took power in soviet name ( facade ) - included mensheviks and socialist revolutionaries
  • Lenin intends to run Russia as a one party state
  • Sovnarkhom should’ve consulted soviet but werent even advisory board - therefore coup
• the Sovnarkhom

  hierarchical structure - new government of Russia

  • every member was exclusively Bolshevik
  • 30 - 40 komissars - less influential as Bolsheviks take over
  • Trotsky - Lenin - Alexandra and Stalin
• Checkha

  lenins secret police to subdue opposition

  • December 1916 setup
  • Above the law to implment Lenin’s orders
• When does Leinn return from exile and why?

  • 10th of October to spend the night battering arguement and overturning Bolshevik leaders refusals
• What was Lenin’s slogan

  Peace, Land, Bread
• What was his famous line

  If we do not act now, History will never forgive us
• How did Lenin politicise the people?

  Understood their needs and resentment for war
• what does Bolshevik membership turn to under Lenin

  10 thousand to 100 thousand
• The Bolsheviks targeted mass vulnerability where the government was weakened
• Lenin’s adamancy to isolate themselves and not work with other parties allowed for people to see the Bolsheviks as a viable solution
• Who tells Lenin to wait?

  Trotsky

  Wait till congress of Soviets
• What was the role of mass desertations?

  The army was losing support for the tsar which led to his abdication

  • Without the lack of military support - lenin would have no playing field
• The october coup was purely circumstantial as Lenin came out of exile exclusively for this

  • Down To peoples apathy
  • Little scuffle with the red guard who stood down anD the telephone station and power workers who handed power over
• The people were not politicised by the Bolsheviks but rather radical circumstances allow for radical reactions and there was no alternative
• Provisional government failures

  • Anti war sentiment was rife in Petrograd - demonstrations as kerenski carries out war - 1917 July days
  • War caused economic strain and alongside lockouts and strikes patience was dwindling - 600 factories and 100 thousand jobs lost - blamed everyone associated with provisional government
  • Condition didn’t improve so people didnt see change from tsar
  • Prince Lvovs and korenskys bad judgement allowed for July days and korensky incident
  • Gave Bolsheviks support to leave prison with ammunition for attacks
• the undermining of authority by the Petrograd sovist without Lenin led to collapse of provisional government
• After the country had so violently thrown up its monarch and was now the freest in the world

  • disappointment would surely arrives
• The war was the tsars machination and ultimately destined the provisional governments end as they had to please the kadets and Soviet whilst Lenin pleased people with the promise of its end
• the tsars role in the October Revolution :

  • Social change instigated by economic development led to creation of working class he was out of touch with
  • witte used railways as economic springboard tp create jobs in sectors but prioritised industry over welfare of workers
  • No houses, schools, disease - social policy suicide
  • Stolypin blamed the peasantry for lack of agricultural development but it was lack of investment
  • Modernisation led to university and literacy rates - critical thinking
  • Militisation of work force - 1905 strike - unpolitical just exhaustion
• how many people strike in 1905

  • one hundred thousand to four hundred thousand by January end
• Bloody sunday also sparked political discontent as resent for tsar rises
• Tsar calls democracy - senseless dreams - autocracy will induce democracy
• Whilst the tsar attempts reforms it is too little too late
• the tsar fails to acknowledge dichotomy between himself and people which Bolsheviks revolutionise
• War had also led to pressure on peasants and shortages of grain as transport for army and shortages of workers