The Russian Revolution The October Revolution Summary & Analysis

October 24

In truth, little happened on October 24, the first day of the Russian Revolution. Late that evening, Bolshevik troops made their way to preassigned positions and systematically occupied crucial points in the capital, including the main telephone and telegraph offices, banks, railroad stations, post offices, and most major bridges. Not a single shot was fired, as the junkers assigned to guard these sites either fled or were disarmed without incident. Even the headquarters of the General Staff—the army headquarters—was taken without resistance.

The Siege of the Winter Palace

By the morning of October 25, the Winter Palace was the only government building that had not yet been taken. By that afternoon, the palace was completely surrounded by Bolshevik forces and defended only by the junker guards inside. The provisional government ministers hid inside without Kerensky, who had fled the city that earlier that morning.

Although the palace was defended weakly by the junker cadets, most of the Bolshevik soldiers were unwilling to fire on fellow Russians or on the buildings of the Russian capital. Instead, small groups broke through the palace windows and negotiated with the junkers, eventually convincing many of them to give up. The ministers were finally arrested shortly after 2:00 a.m. on October 26 and escorted to prison cells in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Kerensky never returned and eventually escaped abroad, living out his life first in continental Europe and then as a history professor in the United States.

The Second Congress of Soviets

Although Lenin had hoped that the revolution would be over in time to make a spectacular announcement at the start of the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets in the late afternoon of October 25, the Congress delegates were instead forced to wait for several hours as Bolshevik forces tried to remove the provisional government from the Winter Palace. Only half of these 650 delegates were actually dedicated Bolsheviks, and as a result, when the Congress was declared open later in the evening, there was debate and disagreement both about the Bolshevik-led coup and about who should now lead Russia.

In a second session the next day, The Congress first approved Lenin’s Decree on Peace, which declared Russia’s wish for World War I to end, but did not go so far as to declare a cease-fire. Next, they passed the Decree on Land, which officially socialized all land in the country for redistribution to peasant communes. Finally, a new provisional government, called the Soviet of the People’s Commissars (SPC), was formed to replace the old one until the Constituent Assembly met in November as scheduled. Lenin was its chairman, and all of its members were Bolsheviks. As defined by the Congress, the SPC had to answer to a newly elected Executive Committee, which in turn would answer to the Constituent Assembly.

Life After the Revolution

Life in Russia after October 25, 1917, changed very little at first. There was no widespread panic among the upper classes, and the people of Petrograd were generally indifferent. In Moscow, there was a power struggle that lasted for nearly a week. In other regions, local politicians simply took power for themselves. In the countryside, anarchy ruled for a time, with peasants seizing land as they pleased. However, few expected the new government to last for long, as it had no long-term plan or structure, and even fewer understood what it would mean if it did.

Although the Soviet government would later go to great lengths to make the “Great October Socialist Revolution” appear colorful and heroic, it was in many ways a mundane and anticlimactic event. There was little if any bloodshed, the provisional government barely tried to resist, and afterwards, few Russians seemed to care about or even notice the change in governments. However, this very indifference enabled the new leadership to extend its power quite far, and the October Revolution would soon prove to be a cataclysmic event for Russia. However bloodless the Russian Revolution initially may have been, it would ultimately cost tens of millions of Russian lives.

Events Timeline

October 24
Bolshevik troops begin to take over government buildings in Petrograd

October 25
Kerensky escapes Petrograd; Bolsheviks struggle all day long to capture Winter Palace Second Congress of Soviets convenes

October 26
Provisional government is arrested early in the morning; Lenin issues Decree on Peace and Decree on Land; Congress approves Soviet of the People’s Commissars, with all-Bolshevik membership, as new provisional government