Modern World History: Pages 114-116

Lenin, Trotsky and the Bolshevik Revolution

The Bolsheviks got more and more support during 1917.At the end of October, Lenin was sure that it was the right time for the Bolsheviks to seize power and rule the country. Lenin told the other Bolsheviks that they needed to do take power quickly. Some of them didn't agree with him. One of those men was Bukharin. He felt that Russia wasn't ready for them to take power yet. However, Lenin was very good at persuading people to do what he wanted and the Bolsheviks decided to go ahead.

During the night of 6th November, the Red Guards, led by Leon Trotsky, took control of all the post offices, bridges and the State Bank. On 7th November, Kerensky woke up to discover that the Bolsheviks were in control of most of the city of Petrograd. All through that day, the red Guards continued to take control of railway stations and other important places in the city. Almost no-one tried to stop them. On the evening of 7th November, they marched into the Winter Palace and arrested the ministers of the Provisional Government. Again, almost no-one tried to stop them. Kerensky managers to escape and tried to get some soldiers to help him and support him against the Bolsheviks. This didn't work and so he ran away into Soviet.

On 8th November the Petrograd soviet made an announcement to the Russian people. They said that the Provisional Government had no power any more. They said there Russia would get out of the First World War, that there would be no more landowners' rights. They said that the workers would control the production in the factories and that there would be a Soviet government. The announcement ended: 'Long the revolution of workers, soldiers and peasants!'

An analysis of the Bolshevik Revolution

The Bolsheviks said that most Russian people supported them but this was not true. So – how did they manage to take over the government in November 1917? One reason is that the Provisional Government was very unpopular. Nobody went on the streets demanding that Kerensky should be allowed back into power!

Another reason was that the Bolsheviks were a party who really wanted one thing – revolution - (not all Bolsheviks, however, thought this was the right way to change Russia.) The Bolsheviks had about 800,000 members and they had supporters in important placers. At least half of the army supported them and so did the sailors at the important navy base at Kronstadt near Petrograd. (The Bolsheviks were still the only party who said that Russia should get out of the war.) The big industrial centres and the Moscow and Petrograd soviets were also supporters of the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks also had some people with very strong personalities in their party, especially Trotsky and their leader, Lenin.