Editing October Revolution (section)

==Outcome==
{{See also|Russian Revolution|Kerensky–Krasnov uprising|Moscow Bolshevik Uprising|Kiev Bolshevik Uprising}}
[[File:Milrevkom proclamation.jpg|thumb|right|Petrograd [[Milrevcom]] proclamation about the deposing of the [[Russian Provisional Government]]]]
[[File:Russian Constituent Assembly Election 1917.svg|thumb|upright=1.76|The elections to the [[1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election|Constituent Assembly]] took place in November 1917. The Bolsheviks won 24% of the vote.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Constituent Assembly |url=http://www.jewhistory.ort.spb.ru/eng/main/sprav.php?id=1374 |website=jewhistory.ort.spb.ru}}</ref>]]
[[File:Protección del Palacio Tauride durante el Segundo Congreso Regional de los Soviets.jpg|thumb|The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly on 6 January 1918. The [[Tauride Palace]] is locked and guarded by [[Leon Trotsky|Trotsky]], [[Yakov Sverdlov|Sverdlov]], [[Grigory Zinoviev|Zinoviev]], and [[Mikhail Lashevich|Lashevich]].]]

===New government established===

Lenin initially turned down the leading position of [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars]] when the Bolsheviks formed a new government, after the October Revolution in 1917, and suggested Trotsky for the position. However, Trotsky refused the position and other Bolsheviks insisted that Lenin assume principal responsibility which resulted in Lenin eventually accepting the role of chairman.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pipes |first=Richard |url=https://archive.org/details/russianrevolutio00pipe/page/498/mode/2up?view=theater |title=The Russian Revolution |date=1990 |publisher=New York : Knopf |isbn=978-0-3945-0241-0 |page=499}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Deutscher |first=Isaac |url=https://archive.org/details/prophetarmedtrot01deut/page/324/mode/2up |title=The prophet armed: Trotsky, 1879-1921 |date=1954 |publisher=New York, Oxford University Press |page=325}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sukhanov |first=Nikolai Nikolaevich |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6-D_AwAAQBAJ |title=The Russian Revolution 1917: A Personal Record by N.N. Sukhanov |date=14 July 2014 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-5710-4 |page=266 |language=en}}</ref>

The Second Congress of Soviets consisted of 670 elected delegates: 300 were Bolsheviks and nearly 100 were Left [[Socialist Revolutionary Party|Socialist-Revolutionaries]], who also supported the overthrow of the [[Alexander Kerensky]] government.<ref>Service, Robert (1998). A history of twentieth-century Russia. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|0-6744-0347-9}} p. 65</ref> When the fall of the Winter Palace was announced, the Congress adopted a decree transferring power to the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, thus ratifying the Revolution.

The transfer of power was not without disagreement. The center and right wings of the Socialist Revolutionaries, as well as the Mensheviks, believed that Lenin and the Bolsheviks had [[Coup d'état|illegally seized power]] and they walked out before the resolution was passed. As they exited, they were taunted by Trotsky who told them "You are pitiful isolated individuals; you are bankrupts; your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on—into the dustbin of history!"<ref>{{harvnb|Reed|1997|p=217}}</ref>

The following day, 26 October, the Congress elected a new cabinet of Bolsheviks, pending the convocation of a [[Russian Constituent Assembly|Constituent Assembly]]. This new Soviet government was known as the council (Soviet) of People's Commissars ([[Sovnarkom]]), with Lenin as a leader. Lenin allegedly approved of the name, reporting that it "smells of revolution".{{Sfn|Steinberg|2001|pages=251}} The cabinet quickly passed the [[Decree on Peace]] and the [[Decree on Land]]. This new government was also officially called "provisional" until the Assembly was dissolved.

===Anti-Bolshevik sentiment===
That same day, posters were pinned on walls and fences by the Socialist Revolutionaries, describing the takeover as a "crime against the motherland" and "revolution"; this signaled the next wave of anti-Bolshevik sentiment. The next day, the Mensheviks seized power in [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] and declared it an independent republic; the [[Don Cossacks]] also claimed control of their government. The Bolshevik strongholds were in the cities, particularly Petrograd, with support much more mixed in rural areas. The peasant-dominated Left SR party was in coalition with the Bolsheviks. There were reports that the Provisional Government had not conceded defeat and were meeting with the army at the Front.

Anti-Bolshevik sentiment continued to grow as posters and newspapers started criticizing the actions of the Bolsheviks and repudiated their authority. The executive committee of Peasants Soviets "[refuted] with indignation all participation of the organized peasantry in this criminal violation of the will of the working class".<ref>{{harvnb|Reed|1997|p=369}}</ref> This eventually developed into major counter-revolutionary action, as on 30 October (O.S., 12 November, N.S.) when [[Cossacks]], welcomed by church bells, entered [[Tsarskoye Selo]] on the outskirts of Petrograd with Kerensky riding on a white horse. Kerensky gave an ultimatum to the rifle garrison to lay down weapons, which was promptly refused. They were then fired upon by Kerensky's Cossacks, which resulted in 8 deaths. This turned soldiers in Petrograd against Kerensky as being the Tsarist regime. Kerensky's failure to assume authority over troops was described by [[John Reed (journalist)|John Reed]] as a "fatal blunder" that signaled the final end of his government.<ref>{{harvnb|Reed|1997|p=410}}</ref> Over the following days, the battle against the anti-Bolsheviks continued. The Red Guard fought against Cossacks at Tsarskoye Selo, with the Cossacks breaking rank and fleeing, leaving their artillery behind. On 31 October 1917 (13 November, N.S.), the Bolsheviks gained control of Moscow after a week of bitter street-fighting. Artillery had been freely used, with an estimated 700 casualties. However, there was continued support for Kerensky in some of the provinces.

After the fall of Moscow, there was only minor public anti-Bolshevik sentiment, such as the newspaper ''[[Novaya Zhizn]]'', which criticized the Bolsheviks' lack of manpower and organization in running their party, let alone a government. Lenin confidently claimed that there is "not a shadow of hesitation in the masses of Petrograd, Moscow and the rest of Russia" in accepting Bolshevik rule.<ref>{{harvnb|Reed|1997|p=565}}</ref>

===Governmental reforms===
On 10 November 1917 (23 November, N.S.), the government applied the term "citizens of the Russian Republic" to Russians, whom they sought to make equal in all possible respects, by the nullification of all "legal designations of civil inequality, such as estates, titles, and ranks."<ref name="Steinberg 2001 257">{{Harvnb|Steinberg|2001|page=257}}</ref>

The long-awaited [[Russian Constituent Assembly|Constituent Assembly]] [[1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election|elections]] were held on 12 November (O.S., 25 November, N.S.) 1917. In contrast to their majority in the Soviets, the Bolsheviks only won 175 seats in the 715-seat legislative body, coming in second behind the [[Socialist Revolutionary Party]], which won 370 seats, although the SR Party no longer existed as a whole party by that time, as the Left SRs had gone into coalition with the Bolsheviks from October 1917 to March 1918 (a cause of dispute of the legitimacy of the returned seating of the Constituent Assembly, as the old lists, were drawn up by the old SR Party leadership, and thus represented mostly Right SRs, whereas the peasant soviet deputies had returned majorities for the pro-Bolshevik Left SRs). The Constituent Assembly was to first meet on 28 November (O.S.) 1917, but its convocation was delayed until 5 January (O.S.; 18 January, N.S.) 1918 by the Bolsheviks. On its first and only day in session, the Constituent Assembly came into conflict with the Soviets, and it rejected Soviet decrees on peace and land, resulting in the Constituent Assembly being dissolved the next day by order of the Congress of Soviets.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Llewellyn |first=Jennifer |last2=Rae |first2=John |last3=Thompson |first3=Steve |date=2014 |title=The Constituent Assembly |url=http://alphahistory.com/russianrevolution/constituent-assembly |access-date=7 March 2022 |publisher=Alpha History}}</ref>

On 16 December 1917 (29 December, N.S.), the government ventured to eliminate hierarchy in the army, removing all titles, ranks, and uniform decorations. The tradition of saluting was also eliminated.<ref name="Steinberg 2001 257"/>

On 20 December 1917 (2 January 1918, N.S.), the [[Cheka]] was created by Lenin's decree.{{Sfn|Figes|1996}} These were the beginnings of the Bolsheviks' consolidation of power over their political opponents. The [[Red Terror]] began in September 1918, following a failed assassination attempt on Lenin. The French [[Reign of Terror|Jacobin Terror]] was an example for the Soviet Bolsheviks. Trotsky had compared Lenin to [[Maximilien Robespierre]] as early as 1904, when Trotsky was a critic of Lenin and his political opponent within the Marxist movement.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pipes |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Pipes |title=The Russian Revolution |date=2011 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday |isbn=978-0-3077-8857-3 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=XtE54LuhFzEC&pg=PA789 789]}}</ref> In his book, ''[[Terrorism and Communism: A Reply to Karl Kautsky]],'' Trotsky argued that the reign of terror began with the [[White Terror (Russia)|White Terror]] under the [[White movement|White Guard]] forces and the Bolsheviks responded with the [[Red Terror]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kline |first=George L. |title=The Trotsky reappraisal |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |editor-last=Brotherstone |editor-first=Terence |page=158 |translator-last=Drummond |translator-first=Andrew |chapter=In Defence of Terrorism |editor-last2=Dukes |editor-first2=Paul |translator-last2=Pearce |translator-first2=Brian |translator-last3=Brine |translator-first3=J. J.}}</ref>

The Decree on Land ratified the actions of the peasants who throughout Russia had taken private land and redistributed it among themselves. The Bolsheviks viewed themselves as representing an alliance of workers and peasants signified by the [[Hammer and Sickle]] on the [[Flag of the Soviet Union|flag]] and the [[Coat of Arms of the Soviet Union|coat of arms of the Soviet Union]].
Other decrees:
*All [[private property]] was [[nationalized]] by the government.
*All [[Banking in Russia|Russian banks]] were nationalized.
*Private [[bank account]]s were expropriated.
*The properties of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] (including bank accounts) were expropriated.
*All [[External debt|foreign debts]] were repudiated.
*Control of the factories was given to the soviets.
*Wages were fixed at higher rates than during the war, and a shorter, [[Eight-hour day|eight-hour working day]] was introduced.