Editing October Revolution (section)

===Assault on the Winter Palace===
A final assault against the [[Winter Palace]]—against 3,000 cadets, officers, cossacks, and female soldiers—was not vigorously resisted.<ref name="rabinowitch">{{harvnb|Rabinowitch|2004|pages=273–305}}</ref><ref name="beckett528">{{harvnb|Beckett|2007|p=528}}</ref> The Bolsheviks delayed the assault because they could not find functioning artillery.<ref>{{harvnb|Rabinowitch|2004}}</ref> At 6:15{{nbsp}}p.m., a large group of artillery cadets abandoned the palace, taking their artillery with them. At 8:00{{nbsp}}p.m., 200 cossacks left the palace and returned to their barracks.<ref name=rabinowitch/>
[[File:Ivan Vladimirov the-pogrom-of-the-winter-palace.jpg!HD.jpg|thumb|300px|"Pogrom in the Winter Palace" by [[Ivan Vladimirov]]]]
While the cabinet of the provisional government within the palace debated what action to take, the Bolsheviks issued an ultimatum to surrender. Workers and soldiers occupied the last of the telegraph stations, cutting off the cabinet's communications with loyal military forces outside the city. As the night progressed, crowds of insurgents surrounded the palace, and many infiltrated it.<ref name=rabinowitch/> At 9:45{{nbsp}}p.m, the cruiser [[Russian cruiser Aurora|''Aurora'']] fired a blank shot from the harbor. Some of the revolutionaries entered the palace at 10:25{{nbsp}}p.m. and there was a mass entry 3 hours later.

By 2:10{{nbsp}}a.m. on 26 October, Bolshevik forces had gained control. The Cadets and the 140 volunteers of the [[Women's Battalion]] surrendered rather than resist the 40,000 strong attacking force.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lynch |first=Michael |title=Reaction and revolution : Russia 1894–1924 |publisher=Hodder Education |date=2015 |isbn=978-1-4718-3856-9 |edition=4th |location=London |oclc=908064756}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Raul Edward Chao |title=Damn the Revolution! |date=2016 |publisher=Dupont Circle Editions |location=Washington DC, London, Sydney |page=191}}</ref> After sporadic gunfire throughout the building, the cabinet of the Provisional Government surrendered, and were imprisoned in [[Peter and Paul Fortress]]. The only member who was not arrested was Kerensky himself, who had already left the palace.<ref name=rabinowitch/><ref>{{Cite web |title=1917 Free History |url=http://www.project1917.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108180902/https://project1917.com |archive-date=8 November 2017 |access-date=8 November 2017 |website=Yandex Publishing}}</ref>

With the Petrograd Soviet now in control of government, garrison, and proletariat, the Second All Russian Congress of Soviets held its opening session on the day, while Trotsky dismissed the opposing [[Mensheviks]] and the [[Socialist Revolutionaries]] (SR) from Congress.