BOLSHEVIKS SEIZE POWER IN RUSSIA
October Revolution led to creation of U.S.S.R.
On Nov. 7, 1917, Bolshevik revolutionaries seized power in Russia.
“New Government Will Seek Immediate Peace and Hand Land Over to Peasants,” read the banner headline in the Nov. 8 Vancouver World. “Petrograd Garrison Assists in Epoch-Making Coup d’Etat Which was Carried Out Without Bloodshed — Some of the Ministers Arrested and Preliminary Parliament Dissolved.”
It was the second stage of the Russian Revolution, which marks its 100th anniversary this year. The February Revolution (Feb. 23-27) occurred when revolutionaries in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) overthrew Czar Nicholas II and installed a provisional government made up of various factions.
The October Revolution (Oct. 25-26) installed a Communist government and led to the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.).
Russia was still using the oldstyle Julian calendar in 1917, so the October Revolution occurred on Nov. 7-8 in Canada, which used the Gregorian calendar.
Moderate socialist Alexandr Kerensky had become prime minister of the provisional government in the summer. But his decision to keep Russia in the First World War was deeply unpopular, and the Bolsheviks decided to seize power by force.
Initially the Bolsheviks were described as the “Maximalists” by the Canadian press, a term that dated to Russia’s unsuccessful 1905 revolution.
“The Maximalist or Bolsheviki element comprises the most extreme class of the Russian revolutionary Socialists,” the World noted in a front-page story.
“It first sprang into prominence in the early days of the revolution under the leadership of Nikolai Lenine (Vladimir Lenin), the radical agitator, who later was put under the ban of the provisional government because of his ultraradical preachments and his suspected pro-German leanings.
“The Maximalists (have been) under the leadership of his chief lieutenant, Leon Trotzky.”
The provisional government met in the czar’s former Winter Palace on Nov. 7. When a Bolshevik force arrived to take it over, the politicians hid, and a small force loyal to the government held out for several hours before being overwhelmed. Among the defenders was the Women’s Battalion of Death, an army unit that had been formed in the early days of the revolution to inspire demoralized Russian soldiers.
“The Women’s Battalion of Death, charged by the old government with defence of the Winter Palace, held out to the last and only surrendered when literally overwhelmed by the Bolsheviki troops and menaced by enough guns to blow up the whole palace,” the Province reported.
“For four hours the women, assisted by a few other troops loyal to Kerensky, bitterly fought off all advances. Then the (naval) cruiser Aurora was brought up the Neva (river) and her great guns trained on the defenders, (and) they were forced to give up their struggle.”
The Aurora fired a blank shell that signalled the Bolshevik forces to storm the Winter Palace. It became one of the great symbols of Communist Russia; on the third anniversary of the revolution they re-staged it for a celebration that was watched by 100,000 people.
Kerensky escaped the Winter Palace and fled to the front, where he rallied a force to try to retake the Russian capital.
There was deep suspicion of Lenin and the Bolsheviks in the west, partly because he wanted to take Russia out of the war in Europe. Canadian Forces were fighting in the Battle of Passchendaele at the time.
Ironically, that week the Colonial Theatre was showing the film The Fall of The Romanoffs, based on Rasputin’s role in the demise of Russia’s royal family.