Editing October Revolution (section)

==Revolution ==

===Planning===
[[File:CruiserAurora061609.jpg|thumb|Cruiser [[Russian cruiser Aurora|''Aurora'']]]]
[[File:GunAurora061609.jpg|thumb|Forward gun of ''Aurora'' that fired the signal shot]]

On 10 October 1917 (O.S.; 23 October, N.S.), the Bolsheviks' [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]] voted 10–2 for a resolution saying that "an armed uprising is inevitable, and that the time for it is fully ripe."<ref name="RevoltApproved">{{Cite web |date=10 October 1917 |title=Central Committee Meeting |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/oct/10a.htm |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref> At the Committee meeting, Lenin discussed how the people of Russia had waited long enough for "an armed uprising," and it was the Bolsheviks' time to take power. Lenin expressed his confidence in the success of the planned insurrection. His confidence stemmed from months of Bolshevik buildup of power and successful elections to different committees and councils in major cities such as [[Petrograd]] and Moscow.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steinberg |first=Mark |title=Voices of the Revolution, 1917 |date=2001 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-3001-0169-0 |location=Binghamton, New York |pages=170 |ol=9360660M}}</ref><!-- Beckett notes the CC had explicitly *not* approved armed revolution. --> Membership of the Bolshevik party had risen from 24,000 members in February 1917 to 200,000 members by September 1917.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cohen |first=Stephen |title=Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution: A Political Biography 1888–1938 |date=1980 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=London |page=46}}</ref>

The Bolsheviks created a revolutionary military committee within the Petrograd soviet, led by the Soviet's president, [[Leon Trotsky]]. The committee included armed workers, sailors, and soldiers, and assured the support or neutrality of the capital's garrison. The committee methodically planned to occupy strategic locations through the city, almost without concealing their preparations: the Provisional Government's President Kerensky was himself aware of them; and some details, leaked by [[Lev Kamenev]] and [[Grigory Zinoviev]], were published in newspapers.<ref name="arte">{{Cite news |date=16 September 2007 |title=1917 – La Revolution Russe |url=http://www.arte.tv/guide/fr/037647-000/1917-la-revolution-russe |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160201134229/http://www.arte.tv/guide/fr/037647-000/1917-la-revolution-russe |archive-date=1 February 2016 |access-date=25 January 2016 |publisher=Arte TV}}</ref><ref name="suny2011">{{Cite book |last=Suny |first=Ronald Grigor |author-link=Ronald Grigor Suny |title=The Soviet Experiment |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=63–67}}</ref>

===Onset===

{{multiple image
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 | image1 = Lenin in 1920 (cropped).jpg
 | caption1 = [[Vladimir Lenin]], founder of the [[Soviet Union]] and the leader of the [[Bolshevik party]].
 | image2 = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R15068, Leo Dawidowitsch Trotzki.jpg
 | caption2 = [[Leon Trotsky]], founder of the [[Red Army]] and a key figure in the October Revolution.
}}

In the early morning of 24 October (O.S.; 6 November N.S.), a group of soldiers loyal to [[Directorate (Russia)|Kerensky's government]] marched on the printing house of the Bolshevik newspaper, ''Rabochiy put'' (''Worker's Path''), seizing and destroying printing equipment and thousands of newspapers. Shortly thereafter, the government announced the immediate closure of not only ''Rabochiy put'' but also the left-wing ''Soldat'', as well as the far-right newspapers ''Zhivoe slovo'' and ''Novaia Rus''. The editors and contributors of these newspapers were seen to be calling for insurrection and were to be prosecuted on criminal charges.<ref name=rabinowitch/>

In response, at 9{{nbsp}}a.m. the Bolshevik [[Military Revolutionary Committee]] issued a statement denouncing the government's actions. At 10{{nbsp}}a.m., Bolshevik-aligned soldiers successfully retook the ''Rabochiy put'' printing house. Kerensky responded at approximately 3{{nbsp}}p.m. that afternoon by ordering the raising of all but one of Petrograd's bridges, a tactic used by the government several months earlier during the [[July Days]]. What followed was a series of sporadic clashes over control of the bridges, between [[Red Guards (Russia)|Red Guard]] militias aligned with the Military-Revolutionary Committee and military units still loyal to the government. At approximately 5{{nbsp}}p.m. the Military-Revolutionary Committee seized the Central Telegraph of Petrograd, giving the Bolsheviks control over communications through the city.<ref name=rabinowitch/><ref name="bard">{{Cite web |last=Bard College: Experimental Humanities and Eurasian Studies |title=From Empire To Republic: October 24 – November 1, 1917 |url=https://projects.eh.bard.edu/1917/oct-maps.html |access-date=24 February 2018}}</ref>

On 25 October (O.S.; 7 November, N.S.) 1917, the Bolsheviks led their forces in the uprising in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg, then capital of Russia) against the Provisional Government. The event coincided with the arrival of a pro-Bolshevik flotilla—consisting primarily of five destroyers and their crews, as well as marines—in Petrograd harbor. At [[Kronstadt]], sailors announced their allegiance to the Bolshevik insurrection. In the early morning, from its heavily guarded and picketed headquarters in Smolny Palace, the Military-Revolutionary Committee designated the last of the locations to be assaulted or seized. The Red Guards systematically captured major government facilities, key communication installations, and vantage points with little opposition. The [[Petrograd Soviet|Petrograd Garrison]] and most of the city's military units joined the insurrection against the Provisional Government.<ref name=suny2011/> The insurrection was timed and organized to hand state power to the [[Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies]], which began on this day.

{{Quote box|width=25em|align=left|bgcolor=|quote=After the majority of the petrograd Soviet passed into the hands of the Bolsheviks, [Trotsky] was elected its chairman and in that position organized and led the insurrection of October 25.|source=Lenin on the organization of the October Revolution, Vol.XIV of the ''Collected Works''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Trotsky |first=Leon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rv9oAAAAMAAJ&q=%E2%80%9CAfter+the+majority+of+the+petrograd+Soviet+passed+into+the+hands+of+the+Bolsheviks,+%5BTrotsky%5D+was+elected+its+chairman+and+in+that+position+organized+and+led+the+insurrection+of+October+25 |title=The Stalin School of Falsification |date=1962 |publisher=Pioneer Publishers |page=12 |language=en}}</ref>}}

Kerensky and the Provisional Government were virtually helpless to offer significant resistance. Railways and railway stations had been controlled by Soviet workers and soldiers for days, making rail travel to and from Petrograd impossible for Provisional Government officials. The Provisional Government was also unable to locate any serviceable vehicles. On the morning of the insurrection, Kerensky desperately searched for a means of reaching military forces he hoped would be friendly to the Provisional Government outside the city and ultimately borrowed a [[Renault]] car from the American embassy, which he drove from the Winter Palace, along with a [[Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company|Pierce Arrow]]. Kerensky was able to evade the pickets going up around the palace and to drive to meet approaching soldiers.<ref name=rabinowitch/>

As Kerensky left Petrograd, Lenin wrote a proclamation ''To the Citizens of Russia'', stating that the Provisional Government had been overthrown by the Military-Revolutionary Committee. The proclamation was sent by telegraph throughout Russia, even as the pro-Soviet soldiers were seizing important control centers throughout the city. One of Lenin's intentions was to present members of the Soviet congress, who would assemble that afternoon, with a ''fait accompli'' and thus forestall further debate on the wisdom or legitimacy of taking power.<ref name=rabinowitch/>

===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.

===Dybenko's disputed role===
Some sources contend that as the leader of [[Tsentrobalt]], [[Pavlo Dybenko]] played a crucial role in the revolt and that the ten warships that arrived at the city with ten thousand [[Baltic Fleet]] mariners were the force that took the power in Petrograd and put down the Provisional Government. The same mariners then dispersed by force the [[State Duma (Russian Empire)|elected parliament]] of Russia,<ref>{{Cite web |title=ВОЕННАЯ ЛИТЕРАТУРА – [ Мемуары ] – Дыбенко П.Е. Из недр царского флота к Великому Октябрю |url=http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/dybenko/index.html |website=militera.lib.ru |language=ru}}</ref> and used machine-gun fire against demonstrators in Petrograd,{{Citation needed|reason=This is a strong claim that needs proper sourcing to remain in this article|date=February 2018}} killing about 100 demonstrators and wounding several hundred.{{Citation needed|reason=These claims are disputed below and are unsourced|date=February 2018}} Dybenko in his memoirs mentioned this event as "several shots in the air". These are disputed by various sources, such as [[Louise Bryant]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bryant |first=Louise |url=https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bryant/russia/russia.html |title=Six Red Months in Russia: An Observer's Account of Russia Before and During the Proletarian Dictatorship |date=1918 |publisher=George H. Doran Company |location=New York |pages=60–61 |access-date=5 December 2021}}</ref> who claims that news outlets in the West at the time reported that the unfortunate loss of life occurred in Moscow, not Petrograd, and the number was much less than suggested above. As for the "several shots in the air", there is little evidence suggesting otherwise.

===Later Soviet portrayal===
While the seizure of the Winter Palace happened almost without resistance, Soviet historians and officials later tended to depict the event in dramatic and heroic terms.<ref name=suny2011/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Schell |first=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Schell |title=[[The Unconquerable World|The Unconquerable World. Power, nonviolence and the will of the people]] |date=2003 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=9780805044577 |location=London |pages=167–185 |chapter=The Mass Minority in Action: France and Russia' |ol=36779W |chapter-url=http://www.chrisknight.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/The-Mass-Minority-in-Action.pdf}}</ref><ref>(See a first-hand account by British General [[Alfred Knox]].)</ref> The [[historical reenactment]] titled ''[[The Storming of the Winter Palace]]'' was staged in 1920. This reenactment, watched by 100,000 spectators, provided the model for official films made later, which showed fierce fighting during the storming of the Winter Palace,<ref>{{Cite AV media |title=[[October: Ten Days That Shook the World]] |date=1928 |last=Eisenstein |first=Sergei M. |author-link=Sergei Eisenstein |last2=Aleksandrov |first2=Grigori |author-link2=Grigori Aleksandrov |type=Motion picture |publisher=First National Pictures}}</ref> although, in reality, the Bolshevik insurgents had faced little opposition.<ref name="beckett528"/>

Later accounts of the heroic "storming of the Winter Palace" and "defense of the Winter Palace" were propaganda by Bolshevik publicists. Grandiose paintings depicting the "Women's Battalion" and photo stills taken from [[Sergei Eisenstein]]'s staged film depicting the "politically correct" version of the October events in Petrograd came to be taken as truth.<ref>''[[Argumenty I Fakty]]'' newspaper</ref>

[[Historical negationism|Historical falsification]] of political events such as the October Revolution and the Brest-Litovsk Treaty became a distinctive element of Stalin's regime. A notable example is the 1938 publication, ''[[History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Suny |first=Ronald Grigor |author-link=Ronald Grigor Suny |date=2 January 2022 |title=Stalin, Falsifier in Chief: E. H. Carr and the Perils of Historical Research Introduction |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546545.2022.2065740 |journal=Revolutionary Russia |language=en |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=11–14 |doi=10.1080/09546545.2022.2065740 |issn=0954-6545}}</ref> in which the history of the governing party was significantly altered and revised including the importance of the leading figures during the Bolshevik revolution. Retrospectively, Lenin's primary associates such as Zinoviev, Trotsky, [[Radek]] and Bukharin were presented as "vacillating", "opportunists" and "foreign spies" whereas Stalin was depicted as the chief discipline during the revolution. However, in reality, Stalin was considered a relatively unknown figure with secondary importance at the time of the event.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bailey |first=Sydney D. |date=1955 |title=Stalin's Falsification of History: The Case of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/126074 |journal=The Russian Review |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=24–35 |doi=10.2307/126074 |issn=0036-0341 |jstor=126074}}</ref>

In his book, ''[[The Stalin School of Falsification]]'', Leon Trotsky argued that the Stalinist faction routinely distorted historical events and the importance of Bolshevik figures especially during the October Revolution. He cited a range of historical documents such as private letters, telegrams, party speeches, meeting [[minutes]], and suppressed texts such as [[Lenin's Testament]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Trotsky |first=Leon |author-link=Leon Trotsky |title=The Stalin School of Falsification |date=13 January 2019 |publisher=Pickle Partners Publishing |isbn=978-1-7891-2348-7 |editor-last=Shachtman |editor-first=Max |pages=vii-89 |language=en |orig-date=1932}}</ref>