The seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in the country, scheduled for October 20, had to be postponed for several days - not everything was ready yet. In the meantime, both sides, the Provisional Government and the Bolshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, feverishly prepared for a clash. The provisional government with great difficulty managed to neutralize two attempts at a coup d'etat: the Bolshevik uprising in July and the attempt to establish a military dictatorship (Kornilov revolt) in August 1917.
Provisional government
The Provisional Government was created by the State Duma on March 2, 1917 to avoid the collapse of the state. The Duma was simply forced to do this - the tsar abdicated, the entire vertical of autocratic power in a few March days was swept away by a violent popular revolt. The State Duma was able to turn a wild and merciless rebellion into a revolution. To do this, she had to lead a completely spontaneous explosion of popular passions.
In fact, the State Duma gradually, since 1915, has been preparing to create a government, realizing that the autocracy is about to collapse. One of the options under consideration for coming to power was just a spontaneous popular revolt. At the end of 1916, the composition of the Provisional Government was agreed in detail.
The Duma turned out to be much more far-sighted than the Russian aristocracy, which was preparing a palace coup to eliminate Nicholas II and his incompetent government. The conspiracy was led by the grand dukes, i.e. representatives of the House of Romanov. Roughly the change of the king was planned for April. We were late.
Be that as it may, the State Duma was by that time the only all-Russian legally elected body and represented various segments of the population. It should be noted that in the fourth convocation of the Duma there were a lot of people with an excellent education, who knew their job well. The Duma began its activity in 1906 as a concession of tsarism to Russian society after the revolution of 1905. Under the tsar, the Duma had an advisory voice and resembled parliament only outwardly.
The main task set by the Duma to the Provisional Government was the preparation of elections to the Constituent Assembly, which was to determine how the country would live on - as a monarchy or as a republic. The first composition of the Provisional Government was dominated by bourgeois parties - the Cadets and Octobrists. In September 1917, the Provisional Government became completely socialist, the bourgeois parties withdrew from it. The Socialist-Revolutionary Kerensky, who led a faction in the Duma and one of the inspirers of the February Revolution, became the head of government.
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The goal is to take power
On October 10, a meeting of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party was held, at which the question of an armed uprising against the Provisional Government was discussed. Only two people voted for the uprising - Lenin and Trotsky. Others, including Stalin, were against it. Of course, you can understand them. Start an armed uprising against the socialist government? Against the people with whom they fought together against tsarism? With whom were they in prison and lived in exile? Together with whom have you just managed to repel the threat of a military dictatorship? Even if there were any disagreements with representatives of other socialist parties and trends, it was psychologically simply impossible for very many members of the Central Committee to go to war with their recent comrades!
However, Lenin, a very tough and purposeful politician, a principled opponent of parliamentarism ("talking shops" - as he liked to say), was an unsurpassed master of political struggle. He always achieved his goal using the most unexpected means. So at this historic meeting of the Central Committee, knowing the mood of the party elite, Lenin, using his authority, invited representatives of factory workers and soldiers from reliable regiments as observers.
What happened next was well described by the American writer John Reid in his famous book Ten Days That Shook the World. After the results of the vote were announced, a certain worker suddenly jumped up and, in wild rage, with a twisted face, began to shout about the desire of the St. Petersburg proletarians to throw out the capitalist ministers with the "Kornilovite" Kerensky and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat. The worker was energetically supported by the soldiers of the St. Petersburg garrison present. For these people, any person in a tie and glasses was a "bourgeois". Masterly managing the course of the meeting, Lenin, after the invitees had shouted to their hearts content, again put the question of an armed uprising to a vote. This time, more than half of the members of the Central Committee voted for a coup d'etat.
Capture tactics and strategy
The October Revolution was the work of one man, Lenin. If Lenin had not made it to Petersburg from Switzerland (accident, assassination attempt, sudden death), then the October Revolution would not have happened. And we would live now in a completely different world. But Lenin arrived. We met him well, but no one was going to give up power. The revolution took place, it was accepted both at home and abroad. Party comrades were also happy with everything. Lenin, who had been preparing for the revolution all his life, came, as it were, for everything ready. So - life has passed by? It was not in Lenin's nature to accept and criticize the actions of successful competitors. And he began to act energetically, organize, persuade, convince, prove, recruit supporters.
What had to be done so that the power possessed by the Provisional Government fell into his, Lenin's hands? The power parallel to the Provisional Government was the Soviets of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies, which were led by other socialist parties. Having overthrown the government, the Bolsheviks would have placed power in the hands of all the same Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. Therefore, an indispensable condition was the preliminary seizure of power in the Soviets. An all-Russian congress of Soviets was needed, at which Lenin was going to remove his competitors from the leadership. And the Bolsheviks began to persistently carry out the idea of convening a Congress of Soviets.
But why was such a congress needed by the parties that already have control over the Soviets? They delayed the convocation of the congress as best they could. But soon they saw that they were losing to Lenin. Delegates from all over the country were sent to St. Petersburg by Bolshevik organizations. They were denied registration due to mandates of dubious origin. However, the Bolshevik leadership was not at all embarrassed by this. At the right moment, these people crammed Smolny and provided Lenin with the desired result.
On October 21 the leaders of the Bolsheviks gathered in a closed conference. Lenin said there: - October 24 will be too early to act. An all-Russian basis is needed for an uprising. And on the 24th, not all delegates will arrive at the congress. On the other hand, the 26th will be too late. By this time, the convention is being organized, and it is difficult for a large, organized assembly to take quick and decisive action. We must act on October 25, the opening day of the congress. So that we can tell him: here is the power! What will you do with her?
Petrograd life in October 1917
Not everyone was involved in the revolution. Most of the people led their normal lives. Theaters were open daily. A new ballet with Karsavina was on the stage of the Mariinsky, and all balletomanes were in a hurry to enjoy the art of the renowned ballerina. Chaliapin sang. In Alexandria Meyerhold resumed the production of Alexei Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan the Terrible. The Crooked Mirror Theater presented a production of Schnitzler's Round Dance.
Writer and journalist John Reed was able to see and tell in his book, which Lenin liked very much, by the way, about the life of a huge city, adapting to revolutionary upheavals, which most of the townspeople perceived as temporary difficulties. The cultural life in the city was in full swing. In Petrograd, art exhibitions were opened every week. Many women from the intelligentsia attended lectures on art, literature and popular philosophy with enthusiasm.
Reed marveled at the ability of the inhabitants of Petrograd, if possible, not to notice the revolution. “Poets wrote poetry, but not about the revolution. Realist artists painted pictures on the themes of ancient Russian life - about anything, but not about the revolution. Provincial young ladies came to Petrograd to study French and singing. At noon, ladies from a second-rate bureaucratic circle would go to each other for a cup of tea, bringing with them a small silver or gold jewelry-made sugar bowl, half a loaf in a muff, and at the same time they dreamed aloud about how good it would be if the king returned or if the Germans would come …"
And life was getting harder. Electricity was supplied only in the evening, from 6:00 to 12:00. The city was shaken by robberies and robberies. The men took turns carrying the night guard, armed with hunting rifles. The neighbors also wanted to involve John Reed in "self-defense". But he refused, citing the embassy's ban. The food was getting smaller. I had to queue for hours for milk, bread, sugar and tobacco in the cold rain. Reed listened intently to the conversations in the queues. He was struck by the "amazing good nature of the Russian crowd." Although from time to time "bitter, bilious notes of discontent" broke through. People did not yet know that queues, an unprecedented, unthinkable thing for pre-revolutionary Russia, would soon become the most common, everyday occurrence for their new, Soviet life.
Anatoly PONOMARENKO