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The October Revolution, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was the second phase of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the first having been instigated by the events around the February Revolution. The October Revolution was led by Bolsheviks under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin and marked the first officially Communist revolution of the twentieth century, based upon the ideas of Karl Marx. The crucial revolutionary activities in Petrograd were under the command of the Petrograd Soviet headed by Leon Trotsky and the Military Revolutionary Committee headed by Adolph Joffe.

The revolution overthrew the Russian provisional government, which led to the Russian Civil War in 1918-1920 and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922.

Initially, the event was referred to as the October uprising or the Uprising of 25th, as seen in contemporary documents, for example, in the first editions of Lenin's complete works. With time, the October Revolution was seen as a hugely important global event, the first in a series of events that lay the groundwork for an epic Cold War struggle between the Soviet Union and Western capitalist countries, including the United States.

The Great October Socialist Revolution was the official name for the October Revolution in the Soviet Union since the 10th anniversary celebration of the Revolution in 1927. Today this name is used mainly by Russian Communists. The term Red October has also been ascribed to the events of the month; this name has in turn been lent to both a tractor factory made notable by the Battle of Stalingrad and a fictional Soviet submarine.

Events

On October 25 (Julian calendar, November 7 according to the current Gregorian calendar which Russia didn't switch to until February 1918), 1917, Vladimir Lenin led his forces in the uprising in Petrograd, the capital of Russia, against the ineffective Provisional Government headed by Alexander Kerensky. For the most part, the revolt in Petrograd was bloodless, with the Red Guards led by Bolsheviks taking over major government facilities with little opposition before finally launching an assault on the Winter Palace on the night from November 7 to November 8. The assault led by Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko was launched at 9:45pm signalled by a blank shot from the cruiser Aurora. The Winter Palace was guarded by Cossacks, Women's Batallion, and cadets (military students) corps. It was taken at about 2am. The latter date was made the official date of the Revolution. Later official accounts of the revolution from the Soviet Union would depict the events in October as being far more dramatic than they actually had been. Official films made much later showed a huge storming of the Winter Palace and fierce fighting, but in reality the Bolshevik insurgents faced little or no opposition and were practically able to just walk into the building and take it over. The insurrection was timed and organised by Leon Trotsky to hand state power to the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies which began on November 7.

Consequences

The Second Congress of Soviets consisted of 649 elected delegates; 390 were Bolshevik and nearly a hundred were Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, who also supported the overthrow of the Kerensky Government. 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 illegally seized power and they walked out before the resolution was passed. As they exited they were taunted by Leon 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!" The following day, the Soviet elected a Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) as the basis of a new Soviet Government, pending the convocation of a Constituent Assembly, and passed the Decree on Peace and the Decree on Land.

The Decree on Land ratified the actions of the peasants who throughout Russia had seized the lands of the aristocracy and of the kulaks and redistributed it. The Bolsheviks viewed themselves as representing an alliance of workers and peasants and memorialized that understanding with the Hammer and Sickle on the flag and coat of arms of the Soviet Union.

Bolshevik-led attempts to seize power in other parts of the Russian Empire were largely successful in Russia proper - although the fighting in Moscow lasted for two weeks -- but they were less successful in ethnically non-Russian parts of the empire which had been clamoring for independence since the February Revolution. For example, The Ukrainian Rada, which had declared autonomy on June 23, 1917, created the Ukrainian National Republic on November 20, which was supported by the Ukrainian Congress of Soviets. This led to an armed conflict with the Bolshevik government in Petrograd and, eventually, a Ukranian declaration of independence from Russia on January 25, 1918 . In Estonia, two rival governments emerged: the Estonian Diet declared independence on November 28, 1917, while an Estonian Bolshevik, Jaan Anvelt, was recognized by Lenin's government as Estonia's leader on December 8, although forces loyal to Anvelt only controlled the capital .

The success of the October uprising ended the phase of the revolution started in February and transformed the Russian Revolution from liberal to socialist in character. A coalition of anti-Bolshevik groups attempted to unseat the new government in the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1920. The devastating effects of the civil war have been partly attributed to the decline of Soviet democracy and the emergence of the bureaucratic dictatorship which characterised the USSR until 1991.

The United States did not recognize the new Russian government until 1933, and later would send 10,000 troops to assist a Japanese invasion of Siberia to protest the Bolshevisk takeover of Russia. It received a similarly unwelcoming reception in the United Kingdom and other Western countries.

Notes

• See Encyclopedia of Ukraine online
• See the article on Estonian independence in the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia online

See Also

• Russian Revolution of 1917
• February Revolution
• Russian Provisional Government, 1917
• Vladimir Lenin
• Leon Trotsky
• Adolph Joffe
• Alexander Kerensky
• Ten Days that Shook the World

• Communist Revolutions
• History of Russia