October. October Revolution: chronology of events Armed coup October 25-26, 1917
Reasons for the October Revolution of 1917:
- war fatigue;
- the country's industry and agriculture were on the verge of complete collapse;
- catastrophic financial crisis;
- the unresolved agrarian question and the impoverishment of peasants;
- delaying socio-economic reforms;
- the contradictions of dual power became a prerequisite for a change of power.
On July 3, 1917, unrest began in Petrograd demanding the overthrow of the Provisional Government. Counter-revolutionary units, by order of the government, used weapons to suppress the peaceful demonstration. Arrests began and the death penalty was reinstated.
The dual power ended in the victory of the bourgeoisie. The events of July 3-5 showed that the bourgeois Provisional Government did not intend to fulfill the demands of the working people, and it became clear to the Bolsheviks that it was no longer possible to take power peacefully.
At the VI Congress of the RSDLP(b), which took place from July 26 to August 3, 1917, the party set its sights on a socialist revolution through an armed uprising.
At the August State Conference in Moscow, the bourgeoisie intended to declare L.G. Kornilov as a military dictator and to coincide with this event the dispersal of the Soviets. But active revolutionary action thwarted the plans of the bourgeoisie. Then Kornilov moved troops to Petrograd on August 23.
The Bolsheviks, carrying out extensive agitation work among the working masses and soldiers, explained the meaning of the conspiracy and created revolutionary centers to fight the Kornilov revolt. The rebellion was suppressed, and the people finally realized that the Bolshevik Party is the only party that defends the interests of the working people.
In mid-September V.I. Lenin developed a plan for an armed uprising and ways to implement it. The main goal of the October Revolution was the conquest of power by the Soviets.
On October 12, the Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC) was created - a center for preparing an armed uprising. Zinoviev and Kamenev, opponents of the socialist revolution, gave the terms of the uprising to the Provisional Government.
The uprising began on the night of October 24, the opening day of the Second Congress of Soviets. The government was immediately isolated from the armed units loyal to it.
October 25 V.I. Lenin arrived in Smolny and personally led the uprising in Petrograd. During the October Revolution, important objects such as bridges, telegraphs, and government offices were captured.
On the morning of October 25, 1917, the Military Revolutionary Committee announced the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the transfer of power to the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. On October 26, the Winter Palace was captured and members of the Provisional Government were arrested.
The October Revolution in Russia took place with the full support of the people. The alliance of the working class and the peasantry, the transition of the armed army to the side of the revolution, and the weakness of the bourgeoisie determined the results of the October Revolution of 1917.
On October 25 and 26, 1917, the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets was held, at which the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) was elected and the first Soviet government was formed - the Council of People's Commissars (SNK). V.I. was elected Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. Lenin. He put forward two Decrees: the “Decree on Peace,” which called on the warring countries to stop hostilities, and the “Decree on Land,” which expressed the interests of the peasants.
The adopted Decrees contributed to the victory of Soviet power in the regions of the country.
On November 3, 1917, with the capture of the Kremlin, Soviet power won in Moscow. Further, Soviet power was proclaimed in Belarus, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Crimea, the North Caucasus, and Central Asia. The revolutionary struggle in Transcaucasia dragged on until the end of the civil war (1920-1921), which was a consequence of the October Revolution of 1917.
The Great October Socialist Revolution divided the world into two camps - capitalist and socialist.
Chronology
- 1917, September 1 Proclamation of Russia as a republic
- 1917, October 25 Armed uprising in Petrograd
- 1917, October 25 - 26 Activities of the II All-Russian Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. Decrees on peace and land were adopted.
During the liquidation of the Kornilov rebellion, the mass Bolshevisation of the Soviets began. A number of Soviets actually exercised local power. On August 31, the Petrograd Soviet, and on September 5, the joint Plenum of the Moscow Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies adopted a resolution “On Power.” The Soviets of Kaluga, Bryansk, Samara, Saratov, Syzran, Tsaritsyn, Barnaul, Minsk, Vladikavkaz, Tashkent and many other cities switched to the Bolshevik position. In the first half of September, the demand for the transfer of power into the hands of the Soviets was supported by 80 local Soviets of large and industrial cities. At the direction of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b), local party organizations launched a campaign for re-election of the Soviets. In September and October 1917, the majority of Soviets and soldiers' deputies went over to the side of the Bolsheviks
It's overdue in the country national crisis, covering all spheres of political and socio-economic relations. The policies of the bourgeois Provisional Government brought the country to the brink of a national catastrophe, the devastation in industry and transport intensified, and food difficulties increased. Gross industrial output decreased in 1917 compared to 1916 by 36.4%. Mass unemployment began. At the same time, prices increased.
It was collapse of the Provisional Government's policies and, accordingly, the collapse of the policies of those parties that were part of this government (Cadets, Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries). The revolutionary flow in the fall of 1917 turned sharply to the left.
September 1 Kerensky proclaims Russia a republic, in order, as he explained, “to give moral satisfaction to public opinion,” creates Provisional Council of the Republic. All this looks like an attempt to introduce a parliamentary system in Russia. But power cannot be maintained even with the help of this measure. The Bolsheviks refused to participate in the Provisional Council, choosing a course to deepen the revolution.
October 10 A meeting of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party took place, at which V.I. made a report on the current situation. Lenin, who had recently moved to Petrograd.
He emphasized that the political situation was fully ripe for the transfer of power to the proletariat and the peasant poor. Lenin considered it necessary for the entire party to put the question of an armed uprising on the order of the day. The party's Central Committee, by ten votes to two (L.B. Kamenev, G.E. Zinoviev), adopted Lenin's resolution, which recognized that the uprising was ripe and inevitable. The Party Central Committee invited all party organizations to be guided by this decision in their practical work. At the meeting, a Political Bureau headed by V.I. was elected. Lenin. On October 12, the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet under the leadership of L.D. Trotsky adopted the Regulations on Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee(VRK), which became the legal headquarters for the preparation of an armed uprising. Was also created Military Revolutionary Center(VRTs), which included Ya.M. Sverdlov, F.E. Dzerzhinsky, A.S. Bubnov, M.S. Uritsky and I.V. Stalin.
The main events of the armed uprising unfolded October 24. By order of the Provisional Government, the cadets seized the printing house of the Bolshevik newspaper “Rabochy Put”. An order was given to arrest members of the Military Revolutionary Committee and seize Smolny, where the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party was located. The cadets tried to open bridges across the Neva, but the Military Revolutionary Committee sent detachments of the Red Guard and soldiers to the bridges, who took all the bridges under guard. By evening, soldiers occupied the Central Telegraph, a detachment of sailors took possession of the Petrograd Telegraph Agency, and soldiers of the Izmailovsky Regiment took control of the Baltic Station. Revolutionary units blocked the Pavlovsk, Nikolaev, Vladimir, and Konstantinovsky cadet schools. Telegrams were sent from the Central Committee and the Military Revolutionary Committee to Kronstadt and Tsentrobalt calling for warships of the Baltic Fleet with landing forces. The order was carried out.
IN AND. On October 24, Lenin wrote to members of the Central Committee of the Party: “I try my best to convince my comrades that now everything is hanging by a thread, that there are questions on the agenda that are not decided by meetings, not by congresses (even by congresses of Soviets), but exclusively by the people, the masses, the struggle armed masses... It is necessary, at all costs, this evening, tonight to arrest the government, disarming (defeating, if they resist) the cadets, etc. You can't wait! You can lose everything!” And further: “The government is wavering. We must finish him off at all costs! Delay in speaking is like death”.
On the evening of October 24, V.I. Lenin arrived in Smolny and directly took charge of the leadership of the armed struggle; The revolutionary forces went on the offensive, and strategic points in Petrograd were captured.
Whirlwind of October. Hood. A. Lopukhov. 1975-1977
At 1:25 a.m. On the nights of October 24-25 (November 6-7), the Red Guards occupied the Post Office, the train station, and the central power plant. On the morning of October 25 (November 7), the Military Revolutionary Committee adopted the appeal “To the Citizens of Russia!”, written by Lenin.
The address said: “ Provisional government overthrown. State power passed into the hands of the organ of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies - the Military Revolutionary Committee, which stands at the head of the Petrograd proletariat and the garrison."
On the afternoon of October 25, revolutionary forces occupied the Mariinsky Palace, where the Pre-Parliament was located, and dissolved it; The military port and the Main Admiralty were occupied by sailors, where the naval headquarters was arrested.
At 14:35 An emergency meeting of the Petrograd Soviet opened. V.I. made a report on the victory of the revolution at this meeting. Lenin, declaring: “Comrades! The workers’ and peasants’ revolution, the need for which the Bolsheviks were always talking about, has come true.”
However, the Provisional Government was located in the Winter Palace. By 6 p.m., revolutionary troops surrounded the palace. At 21:40 On a signal from the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Aurora shot rang out, and the assault on the Winter Palace began.
Illustration 42. Still from the film "Lenin in October"
October 25 at 22:40 opened in Smolny Second All-Russian Congress The Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies (at the opening of the congress, out of 649 delegates who arrived, there were 390 Bolsheviks), which proclaimed the transfer of power to the Soviets.
The content of the article
OCTOBER REVOLUTION (1917). The revolution, as a result of which the Soviet government led by V.I. Lenin came to power in Russia, occurred on October 25 (November 7), 1917. In September 1917, Lenin, taking into account the facts indicating that a national economic and political The crisis, which caused general discontent with the Provisional Government and the readiness of the soldiers and workers of Petrograd to overthrow it, decided that there were objective and subjective conditions for the Bolshevik Party to come to power. The party he led in Petrograd and Moscow began direct preparations for the uprising; the Red Guard was organized from workers ready to fight for the Bolsheviks. The headquarters of the uprising was created, the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee - the Military Revolutionary Committee. Lenin developed a plan for the uprising, which included the capture of key points in the capital by soldiers and workers and the arrest of the government. Not all members of the party leadership agreed with the decision to revolt. Members of the Central Committee of the party L.B. Kamenev and G.E. Zinoviev hesitated, but after lengthy negotiations they also joined Lenin. The superiority of the Bolshevik forces was decisive. All they needed was a reason to start hostilities, and they found one. On October 24, the head of government A.F. Kerensky gave the order to close Bolshevik newspapers. On the same day, in the evening, the forces of the Military Revolutionary Committee, encountering almost no resistance from the defenders of the Provisional Government, began to go on the offensive; on the night of the 25th they occupied bridges, a state bank, a telegraph and other designated strategic objects. In the evening of the same day, the encirclement of the Winter Palace, where the Provisional Government was located, began. The uprising developed almost bloodlessly. Only during the siege of the Winter Palace was gunfire heard and volleys of artillery thundered. Members of the Provisional Government were arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. The head of government, Kerensky, disappeared.
The Bolsheviks went to seize power with the support of the workers and some soldiers. This support was determined by their dissatisfaction with the Provisional Government and its inaction in solving the democratic tasks unfinished by the February Revolution. The monarchy was abolished, but other vital problems - about war and peace, about land, labor, national issues - all this was only promised, postponed “until better times,” which caused discontent among the broad masses. The Bolsheviks planned to seize power in order to begin to implement their plans for the reconstruction of Russia and the construction of a socialist state.
The victory of the uprising did not yet guarantee the victors from the fate of the bourgeois government they had overthrown. It was necessary to consolidate the victory by resolving the issues that worried the people, which would convince them that the Bolsheviks were keeping their promises - to finally give the country peace, the peasants landowners' land, and the workers an eight-hour working day. This, according to Lenin’s plan, was to be accomplished by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, which opened in Petrograd at the height of the uprising. At the congress, the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries constituted a minority of delegates; the Bolsheviks, having a majority behind them, approved the uprising that took place and the arrest of the Provisional Government. The congress decided to take power into its own hands, which in practice meant transferring it to the Bolsheviks, who declared that they would immediately end the war and hand over the land of the landowners to the peasants. This was confirmed by the first legislative acts adopted by the congress - the Decrees “on war”, “peace” and “on land”. Thus, the Bolsheviks received the support they needed from the masses at first.
The congress proclaimed the creation of the Soviet government - the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) consisting only of Bolsheviks, headed by V.I. Lenin.
Efim Gimpelson
APPLICATION
Appeal of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee “To the citizens of Russia!”
The provisional government has been overthrown. State power passed into the hands of the body of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, the Military Revolutionary Committee, which stood at the head of the Petrograd proletariat and garrison.
The cause for which the people fought: the immediate proposal of a democratic peace, the abolition of landlord ownership of land, workers' control over production, the creation of a Soviet Government - this cause is guaranteed.
Long live the revolution of workers, soldiers and peasants!
Military Revolutionary Committee under the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies
Decree of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets on the formation of the Workers' and Peasants' Government
The All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies resolves:
To govern the country, until the convening of the Constituent Assembly, to form a temporary workers' and peasants' government, which will be called the Council of People's Commissars. The management of individual branches of state life is entrusted to commissions, the composition of which must ensure the implementation of the program proclaimed by the congress, in close unity with the mass organizations of workers, workers, sailors, soldiers, peasants and office employees. Government power belongs to the board of chairmen of these commissions, i.e. Council of People's Commissars.
Control over the activities of people's commissars and the right to remove them belongs to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies and its Central Executive Committee.
At the moment, the Council of People's Commissars is composed of the following persons:
Chairman of the Council - Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin);
People's Commissar for Internal Affairs - A. I. Rykov;
Agriculture - V. P. Milyutin;
Labor - A. G. Shlyapnikov;
For military and naval affairs - a committee consisting of: V. A. Ovseenko (Antonov), N. V. Krylenko and P. E. Dybenko;
For trade and industry affairs - V. P. Nogin;
Public Education - A. V. Lunacharsky;
Finance - I. I. Skvortsov (Stepanov);
For foreign affairs - L. D. Bronstein (Trotsky);
Justice - G.I. Oppokov (Lomov);
For food matters - I. A. Teodorovich;
Posts and telegraphs - N. P. Avilov (Glebov);
Chairman for Nationalities Affairs – I.V. Dzhugashvili (Stalin).
The post of People's Commissar for Railway Affairs remains temporarily unfilled.
Peace Decree
adopted unanimously at a meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies on October 26, 1917.
The Workers' and Peasants' Government, created by the revolution of October 24-25 and based on the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, invites all warring peoples and their governments to immediately begin negotiations on a just democratic peace.
The just or democratic peace that the overwhelming majority of the exhausted, exhausted and war-torn workers and laboring classes of all belligerent countries yearn for - the peace that the Russian workers and peasants most definitely and persistently demanded after the overthrow of the tsarist monarchy - is such a peace that the Government considers immediate peace without annexations (i.e. without the seizure of foreign lands, without the forced annexation of foreign nationalities) and without indemnities.
The Government of Russia proposes to conclude such a peace to all warring peoples immediately, expressing its readiness to immediately take, without the slightest delay, all decisive steps until the final approval of all the conditions of such a peace by authorized assemblies of people's representatives of all countries and all nations.
By annexation or seizure of foreign lands, the Government understands, in accordance with the legal consciousness of democracy in general and the working classes in particular, any accession to a large or strong state of a small or weak nationality without the precisely, clearly and voluntarily expressed consent and desire of this nationality, regardless of when this is a forcible accession committed, regardless of how developed or backward the nation being forcibly annexed or forcibly retained within the borders of a given state is. Finally, regardless of whether this nation lives in Europe or in distant overseas countries.
If any nation is kept within the borders of a given state by force, if, contrary to its expressed desire - it does not matter whether this desire is expressed in the press, in popular assemblies, in party decisions or indignations and uprisings against national oppression - it is not is given the right, by free vote, upon the complete withdrawal of the troops of the annexing or generally stronger nation, to decide without the slightest coercion the question of the forms of state existence of this nation, then its annexation is annexation, i.e. capture and violence.
The Government considers it a greatest crime against humanity to continue this war over how to divide between strong and rich nations the weak nationalities they have captured and solemnly declares its determination to immediately sign peace terms ending this war on the specified conditions, equally fair for all nationalities without exception. .
At the same time, the Government declares that it does not at all consider the above peace conditions to be ultimatum, i.e. agrees to consider all other peace conditions, insisting only on their proposal as quickly as possible by any belligerent country and on complete clarity, on the unconditional exclusion of any ambiguity and any mystery when proposing peace conditions.
The Government cancels secret diplomacy, for its part expressing its firm intention to conduct all negotiations completely openly before all the people, immediately proceeding to the full publication of secret agreements confirmed or concluded by the government of landowners and capitalists from February to October 25, 1917. The entire content of these secret agreements, since it is aimed, as in most cases it happened, at delivering benefits and privileges to Russian landowners and capitalists, at maintaining or increasing the annexations of the Great Russians, the Government declares it unconditionally and immediately cancelled.
Addressing the proposal to the governments and peoples of all countries to begin immediately open negotiations on concluding peace, the Government expresses its readiness to conduct these negotiations both through written communications, by telegraph, and through negotiations between representatives of different countries or at a conference of such representatives. To facilitate such negotiations, the Government appoints its plenipotentiary representative to neutral countries.
The government invites all governments and peoples of all warring countries to immediately conclude a truce, and for its part considers it desirable that this truce be concluded for no less than three months, i.e. for such a period during which it is quite possible both to complete negotiations on peace with the participation of representatives of all, without exception, nationalities or nations drawn into the war or forced to participate in it, as well as to convene authorized meetings of people's representatives of all countries for the final approval of the terms of peace.
Addressing this peace proposal to the governments and peoples of all the warring countries, the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of Russia also addresses in particular the class-conscious workers of the three most advanced nations of mankind and the largest states participating in the present war, England, France and Germany. The workers of these countries rendered the greatest services to the cause of progress and socialism, and the great examples of the Chartist movement in England, a number of revolutions of world-historical significance carried out by the French proletariat, and finally, in the heroic struggle against the exclusive law in Germany and long-term exemplary for the workers of the whole world, the persistent, disciplined work of creating mass proletarian organizations in Germany - all these examples of proletarian heroism and historical creativity serve as our guarantee that the workers of the named countries will understand the tasks that now lie upon them to liberate humanity from the horrors of war and its consequences, that these workers are comprehensively determined and selflessly energetic by their activities they will help us successfully complete the cause of peace and at the same time the cause of liberation of the working and exploited masses of the population from all slavery and all exploitation.
Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin
Decree on land
1) Landownership of land is canceled immediately without any redemption.
2) Landowners' estates, as well as all appanage lands, monastic lands, church lands, with all their living and dead implements, manor buildings and all accessories are transferred to the disposal of volost land committees and district Soviets of peasant deputies, until the Constituent Assembly.
3) Any damage to confiscated property, which henceforth belongs to the entire people, is declared a serious crime, punishable by a revolutionary court. The district Soviets of Peasant Deputies are taking all necessary measures to maintain the strictest order during the confiscation of landowners' estates, to determine the size of the plots and which ones are subject to confiscation, to draw up an accurate inventory of all confiscated property and for the strictest revolutionary protection of all land economy transferred to the people with all buildings, tools, livestock, food supplies, etc.
4) To guide the implementation of great land reforms, pending their final decision by the Constituent Assembly, the following peasant mandate, compiled on the basis of 242 local peasant mandates by the editors of the Izvestia of the All-Russian Council of Peasant Deputies and published in issue 88 of these Izvestia, should serve everywhere. Petrograd, number 88, August 19, 1917).
The question of land, in its entirety, can only be resolved by a national Constituent Assembly.
The fairest solution to the land issue should be this:
1) The right of private ownership of land is abolished forever; land cannot be sold, purchased, leased, pledged, or alienated in any other way. All land: state, appanage, cabinet, monastery, church, possession, primordial, privately owned, public and peasant, etc., is alienated free of charge, converted into national property and transferred to the use of all workers on it.
Those affected by the property revolution are recognized only as having the right to public support for the time necessary to adapt to new conditions of existence.
2) All subsoil of the earth: ore, oil, coal, salt, etc., as well as forests and waters of national importance, become the exclusive use of the state. All small rivers, lakes, forests, etc. transferred to the use of communities, subject to their management by local authorities.
3) Land plots with highly cultural farms: gardens, plantations, nurseries, nurseries, greenhouses, etc. are not subject to division, but are turned into demonstrative ones and transferred to the exclusive use of the state or communities, depending on their size and significance.
Estate, city and rural land, with home gardens and vegetable gardens, remains in the use of the real owners, and the size of the plots themselves and the level of tax for their use is determined by law.
4) Horse breeding farms, state-owned and private breeding cattle and poultry farms, etc. are confiscated, turned into national property and transferred either to the exclusive use of the state or the community, depending on their size and significance.
The issue of redemption is subject to consideration by the Constituent Assembly.
5) All economic inventory of confiscated lands, living and dead, passes into the exclusive use of the state or community, depending on their size and significance, without redemption.
Confiscation of inventory does not apply to peasants with little land.
6) The right to use land is granted to all citizens (without distinction of gender) of the Russian state who wish to cultivate it with their own labor, with the help of their family, or in partnership, and only as long as they are able to cultivate it. Hired labor is not permitted.
In case of accidental powerlessness of any member of a rural society for a period of 2 years, the rural society undertakes, until his ability to work is restored, for this period to come to his aid through public cultivation of the land.
Farmers who, due to old age or disability, have forever lost the opportunity to personally cultivate the land, lose the right to use it, but in return receive pension provision from the state.
7) Land use must be equal, i.e. land is distributed among workers, depending on local conditions, labor or consumption standards.
Forms of land use should be completely free, household, farm, communal, artel, as decided in individual villages and towns.
8) All land, upon its alienation, goes to the national land fund. Its distribution among workers is managed by local and central self-governments, ranging from democratically organized non-estate rural and urban communities to central regional institutions.
The land fund is subject to periodic redistribution depending on population growth and an increase in agricultural productivity and culture.
When changing the boundaries of the plots, the original core of the plot must remain intact.
The land of the retiring members goes back to the land fund, and the priority right to receive the plots of the retiring members is given to their immediate relatives and persons at the direction of the retired members.
The cost of fertilizer and reclamation (radical improvements) invested in the land, since they are not used when handing over the plot back to the land fund, must be paid.
If in some areas the available land fund turns out to be insufficient to satisfy the entire local population, then the excess population must be resettled.
The organization of resettlement, as well as the costs of resettlement and supply of equipment, etc., should be borne by the state.
Resettlement is carried out in the following order: willing landless peasants, then vicious members of the community, deserters, etc. and, finally, by lot or by agreement.
Everything contained in this order, as an expression of the unconditional will of the vast majority of conscious peasants throughout Russia, is declared a temporary law, which, until the Constituent Assembly, is carried out as immediately as possible, and in certain parts with that necessary gradualism, which should be determined by the district Soviets of Peasant Deputies .
The lands of ordinary peasants and ordinary Cossacks are not confiscated.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin
Decree on printing
In the difficult, decisive hour of the coup and the days immediately following it, the Provisional Revolutionary Committee was forced to take a number of measures against the counter-revolutionary press of various shades.
Immediately cries arose from all sides that the new socialist government had thus violated the basic principle of its program by encroaching on freedom of the press.
The Workers' and Peasants' Government draws the attention of the population to the fact that in our society, behind this liberal screen, freedom is actually hidden for the propertied classes, having seized the lion's share of the entire press into their hands, it is not forbidden to poison the minds and bring confusion into the consciousness of the masses.
Everyone knows that the bourgeois press is one of the most powerful weapons of the bourgeoisie. Especially at a critical moment, when the new power, the power of the workers and peasants, was only being strengthened, it was impossible to completely leave these weapons in the hands of the enemy at a time when they are no less dangerous at such moments than bombs and machine guns. That is why temporary and emergency measures were taken to stop the flow of dirt and slander, in which the yellow and green press would willingly drown the young victory of the people.
As soon as the new order is consolidated, all administrative influences on the press will be stopped, complete freedom will be established for it within the limits of responsibility before the court, in accordance with the broadest and most progressive law in this regard.
Considering, however, that restriction of the press, even at critical moments, is permissible only to the extent absolutely necessary, the Council of People's Commissars decides:
General regulations on the press
1) Only press organs are subject to closure: 1) calling for open resistance or disobedience to the Workers' and Peasants' Government; 2) sowing confusion through clearly slanderous distortion of facts; 3) calling for acts that are clearly criminal, i.e. of a criminal nature.
2) Prohibitions of press organs, temporary or permanent, are carried out only by resolution of the Council of People's Commissars.
3) This provision is temporary and will be canceled by a special decree upon the onset of normal conditions of public life.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin
Resolution on the organization of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee
Project for the organization of the Central Executive Committee
I. Meeting of the Central Executive Committee
1) Meetings of the Central Executive Committee of the Councils take place in a narrow and expanded format.
Meetings of narrow membership are legal if at least 1/4 of all members of the Central Executive Committee are present. If there is no quorum, the next meeting is scheduled for another day, and it is valid for any number of members of the Central Executive Committee who appear.
Enlarged meetings are legal if at least half of all members of the Central Executive Committee are present.
2) The extended meeting of the Central Executive Committee is the directing and directing body for all activities of the Central Executive Committee; The plenum meets at least once every two weeks.
Regular sessions of extended meetings of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets are convened on the 1st and 15th of each month.
3) A meeting of the Central Executive Committee of the Councils is convened as needed by the Presidium. At the request of the factions included in the composition, or at the request of 10 members of the Central Executive Committee, the Presidium is obliged to convene the appropriate meeting of the Central Executive Committee of the Councils in its narrow composition.
4) Factions must monitor the accuracy of attendance at meetings of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee. The factions are invited to all members of the Central Executive Committee who, without good reason, miss two consecutive meetings of the Central Executive Committee or Presidium, give appropriate warnings, and the third time they miss meetings, recall these members and replace them with appropriate candidates for members of the Central Executive Committee.
II. Presidium
5) The Presidium is both a representative body and an executive one.
The Presidium prepares the necessary materials for meetings of the Central Executive Committee, implements the decisions of the Central Executive Committee, monitors the current work of the departments of the Central Executive Committee, and also makes decisions in cases where convening the Central Executive Committee is impossible and an urgent decision is required. The number of members of the Presidium is equal to 1/10 of all members of the Central Executive Committee.
Meetings of the Presidium take place daily and are legal if at least half of the members of the Presidium are present.
The Presidium presents current reports on its activities daily to a meeting of the Central Executive Committee in its narrow composition.
III. Departments of the Central Executive Committee
6) The Central Executive Committee, in order to organize and conduct all its work, organizes departments, which are the working bodies of the Central Executive Committee. Departments under the leadership of the Presidium conduct all current work of the Central Executive Committee, prepare materials for decisions of the Presidium and meetings of the Central Executive Committee and give their conclusions on issues arising in the process of the work of the Presidium and the Central Executive Committee.
7) At the head of the department, as governing bodies that direct and unite all the work of the departments, are commissions.
Members of the commissions are nominated by the Presidium and approved by the Central Executive Committee. The commission is given the right to co-opt within no more than one-third of the number of members recruited by the commission. Heads of departments are elected by commissions. Members of the commissions, when discussing issues related to their departments in the Presidium, have the right to participate in meetings of the Presidium with the right of an advisory vote.
8) Within the limits of their activities, the departments of the Central Executive Committee are autonomous. Once a week, departments are required to submit reports on their work to the Presidium. The Presidium has the right to veto all decisions of departments. In case of disagreements between the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee and departments, controversial issues are transferred to the consideration of the Central Executive Committee in its narrow composition.
9) First of all, the following departments are organized under the Central Executive Committee: 1) secretariat, 2) for the fight against counter-revolution, 3) for preparation for the Constituent Assembly, 4) for local self-government, 5) literary publishing, 6) propaganda, 7) out-of-town, 8) automobile, 9) financial, 10) editorial, 11) printing house, 12) international.
10) Departments draw up their estimates and must submit them for approval by the Central Executive Committee in its narrow composition.
IV. Financial situation
members of the Central Executive Committee
11) All members receive maintenance in the amount of the subsistence minimum, which, according to the resolutions of the Central Executive Committee of the first composition, is determined at 400 rubles. per month. When traveling on business, members of the Central Executive Committee receive a daily allowance of ten rubles per day.
1) Members of the Central Executive Committee who have a permanent salary, are in the state, public, private service or receive a salary from workers' organizations do not receive a salary from the Central Executive Committee. If the earnings of a member of the Central Executive Committee are lower than the established salary, then he receives the difference between the minimum subsistence level he receives and that established by the Central Executive Committee.
2) Payment of 400 rubles. considered as a subsistence minimum and set temporarily for 1 month.
1) Each member of the Central Executive Committee who leaves for a while is replaced until his return by a candidate presented by the faction on the candidate list.
2) Each candidate only enjoys a casting vote at meetings of the Central Executive Committee if a statement from the faction bureau is made to the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee about substitution, indicating who exactly is replacing whom, and is approved at a meeting of the Central Executive Committee.
3) Candidates have the right to an advisory vote at meetings of the Central Executive Committee.
4) The number of candidates may not be more than half the number of faction members.
Decree on the abolition of estates and civil ranks
Art. 1. All estates and class divisions of citizens that existed in Russia until now, class privileges and restrictions, class organizations and institutions, as well as all civil ranks are abolished.
Art. 2. All ranks (nobleman, merchant, tradesman, peasant, etc.), titles (princely, count, etc.) and names of civil ranks (secret, state, etc. councilors) are destroyed and one common name for the entire population of Russia is established: citizens Russian Republic.
Art. 3. The property of noble class institutions is immediately transferred to the corresponding zemstvo self-governments.
Art. 4. The property of merchant and petty bourgeois societies shall immediately be placed at the disposal of the relevant city governments.
Art. 5. All class institutions, affairs, productions and archives are immediately transferred to the jurisdiction of the corresponding city and zemstvo self-governments.
Art. 6. All relevant articles of laws hitherto in force are repealed.
Art. 7. This decree comes into force on the day of its publication and is immediately carried out by local Councils of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies.
This decree was approved by the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies at a meeting on November 10, 1917.
Signed:
Manager of the Council of People's Commissars V. Bonch-Bruevich.
Secretary of the Council N. Gorbunov.
Decree on trial
The Council of People's Commissars decides:
1) Abolish the existing general judicial institutions, such as: district courts, judicial chambers and the Governing Senate with all departments, military and maritime courts of all types, as well as commercial courts, replacing all these institutions with courts formed on the basis of democratic elections.
A special decree will be issued on the procedure for further direction and movement of unfinished cases.
2) Suspend the existing institution of justices of the peace, replacing justices of the peace, who have hitherto been elected by indirect elections, with local courts represented by a permanent local judge and two regular assessors, invited to each session according to special lists of regular judges. Local judges are henceforth elected on the basis of direct democratic elections, and until such elections are called, temporarily - by district and volost, and where there are none, by district, city and provincial Councils of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies.
These same Councils compile lists of regular assessors and determine the order of their appearance at the session.
Former justices of the peace are not deprived of the right, if they express their consent, to be elected to local judges, both temporarily by the Soviets and finally in democratic elections.
Local courts decide all civil cases worth up to 3,000 rubles, and criminal cases if the accused faces a punishment of no more than 2 years in prison and if the civil claim does not exceed 3,000 rubles. Sentences and decisions of local courts are final and are not subject to appeal. In cases in which a monetary penalty of more than 100 rubles was awarded. or imprisonment for more than 7 days, a request for cassation is allowed. The cassation instance is the district, and in the capitals - the capital congress of local judges.
To resolve criminal cases at the fronts, local courts are elected in the same manner by regimental councils, and where they do not exist, by regimental committees.
A special decree will be issued regarding legal proceedings in other court cases.
3) Abolish the hitherto existing institutions of judicial investigators, prosecutorial supervision, as well as the institutions of the jury and private legal profession.
Pending the transformation of the entire judicial procedure, the preliminary investigation in criminal cases is entrusted to local judges alone, and their decisions on personal detention and on trial must be confirmed by a decision of the entire local court.
All undiscredited citizens of both sexes who enjoy civil rights are allowed to play the role of prosecutors and defenders, both at the stage of preliminary investigation, and in civil cases - as attorneys.
4) For the acceptance and further direction of cases and proceedings, both judicial rulings and the ranks of preliminary investigation and prosecutorial supervision, as well as councils of sworn attorneys, the relevant local Councils of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies elect special commissars who take charge of both archives and property of these institutions.
All lower and clerical ranks of the abolished institutions are ordered to remain in their places and, under the general guidance of the commissars, carry out all the necessary work in the direction of unfinished cases, as well as provide information to interested parties on the state of their affairs on appointed days.
5) Local courts decide cases in the name of the Russian Republic and are guided in their decisions and sentences by the laws of the overthrown governments only insofar as they have not been abolished by the revolution and do not contradict the revolutionary conscience and revolutionary sense of justice.
Note. All laws that contradict the decrees of the Central Executive Committee of the Councils of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies and the Workers' and Peasants' Government, as well as the minimum programs of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party and the Socialist Revolutionary Party are recognized as repealed.
6) In all controversial civil, as well as private criminal cases, the parties can apply to arbitration. The procedure for the arbitration court will be determined by a special decree.
7) The right to pardon and restore the rights of persons convicted in criminal cases henceforth belongs to the judiciary.
8) To fight against counter-revolutionary forces in the form of taking measures to protect the revolution and its gains from them, as well as to resolve cases of combating looting and predation, sabotage and other abuses of traders, industrialists, officials and other persons, workers' and peasants' revolutionary tribunals are established consisting of one chairman and six regular assessors elected by provincial or city Councils of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies.
To conduct preliminary investigations in these cases, special investigative commissions are formed under the same Councils.
All investigative commissions that previously existed are abolished, with the transfer of their cases and proceedings to newly organized investigative commissions under the Soviets.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. Ulyanov (Lenin).
Commissioners: A. Schlikhter. A. Shlyapnikov. I. Dzhugashvili (Stalin). N. Avilov (N. Glebov). P. Stuchka.
1) The Supreme Council of the National Economy is established under the Council of People's Commissars.
2) The task of the Supreme Council of the National Economy is to organize the national economy and public finances. To this end, the Supreme Council of the National Economy develops general norms and a plan for regulating the economic life of the country, coordinates and unites the activities of central and local regulatory institutions (meetings on fuel, metal, transport, central food committee, etc.), relevant people's commissariats (trade and industry) , food, agriculture, finance, naval, etc.), the All-Russian Council of Workers' Control, as well as the corresponding activities of factory and professional organizations of the working class.
3) The Supreme Council of the National Economy is given the right to confiscate, requisition, sequester, forced syndication of various industries and trade and other activities in the field of production, distribution and public finance.
4) All existing institutions for regulating the economy are subordinate to the Supreme Council of the National Economy, which is given the right to reform them.
5) The Supreme Council of the National Economy is formed: a) from the All-Russian Council of Workers' Control, the composition of which was determined by decree of November 14, 1917; b) from representatives from all people's commissariats; c) from knowledgeable persons invited with an advisory voice.
6) The Supreme Council of the National Economy is divided into sections and departments (fuel, metal, demobilization, finance, etc.), and the number and scope of activity of these departments and sections is determined by the general meeting of the Supreme Council of the National Economy.
7) The departments of the Supreme Council of the National Economy carry out work to regulate certain areas of national economic life, and also prepare the activities of the corresponding people's commissariats.
8) The Supreme Council of the National Economy allocates from among itself a bureau of 15 people to coordinate the current work of sections and departments and carry out tasks that require immediate resolution.
9) All bills and major measures related to the regulation of the national economy as a whole are submitted to the Council of People's Commissars through the Supreme Council of the National Economy.
10) The Supreme Council of the National Economy unites and directs the work of local economic departments of the Councils of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, which include local bodies of workers' control, as well as local commissars of labor, trade and industry, food, etc.
In the absence of appropriate economic departments, the Supreme Council of the National Economy forms its own local bodies.
For the economic departments of local Councils, which are local bodies of the Supreme Council of the National Economy, all resolutions of the Supreme Council of the National Economy are binding.
Chairman of the Central Executive Committee Ya. Sverdlov.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Vl. Ulyanov (Lenin).
People's Commissars: I. Stalin. N. Avilov (N. Glebov).
Manager of the Council of People's Commissars Vl. Bonch-Bruevich.
Secretary N. Gorbunov
Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the nationalization of banks
In the interests of the correct organization of the national economy, in the interests of the decisive eradication of banking speculation and the complete liberation of workers, peasants and the entire working population from exploitation by bank capital and in order to form a unified people's bank of the Russian Republic that truly serves the interests of the people and the poorest classes, the Central Executive Committee decides:
1) Banking is declared a state monopoly.
2) All currently existing private joint-stock banks and banking offices are merged with the State Bank.
3) The assets and liabilities of liquidated enterprises are taken over by the State Bank.
4) The procedure for merging private banks with the State Bank is determined by a special decree.
5) Temporary management of the affairs of private banks is transferred to the board of the State Bank.
6) The interests of small investors will be fully ensured.
Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly
The Russian Revolution, from its very beginning, put forward the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies as a mass organization of all working and exploited classes, the only one capable of leading the struggle of these classes for their complete political and economic liberation.
During the entire first period of the Russian revolution, the Soviets multiplied, grew and became stronger, experiencing through their own experience the illusion of compromise with the bourgeoisie, the deceitfulness of the forms of bourgeois-democratic parliamentarism, coming practically to the conclusion that it was impossible to liberate the oppressed classes without breaking with these forms and with any compromise. Such a break was the October Revolution, the transfer of all power into the hands of the Soviets.
The Constituent Assembly, elected from lists drawn up before the October Revolution, was an expression of the old balance of political forces, when the Compromisers and Cadets were in power.
The people could not then, when voting for candidates of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, make a choice between the right Socialist Revolutionaries, supporters of the bourgeoisie, and the left, supporters of socialism. Thus, this Constituent Assembly, which was supposed to be the crown of the bourgeois-parliamentary republic, could not help but stand across the path of the October Revolution and Soviet power. The October Revolution, having given power to the Soviets and through the Soviets to the working and exploited classes, aroused desperate resistance from the exploiters and in the suppression of this resistance fully revealed itself as the beginning of the socialist revolution.
The working classes had to learn from experience that the old bourgeois parliamentarism had outlived itself, that it was completely incompatible with the tasks of implementing socialism, that not national, but only class institutions (such as the Soviets) were able to defeat the resistance of the propertied classes and lay the foundations of a socialist society.
Any rejection of the full power of the Soviets, of the Soviet Republic won by the people in favor of bourgeois parliamentarism and the Constituent Assembly would now be a step back and collapse
The Constituent Assembly, opened on January 5, gave, due to circumstances known to everyone, a majority to the party of the Right Socialist Revolutionaries, the party of Kerensky, Avksentiev and Chernov. Naturally, this party refused to accept for discussion the absolutely precise, clear, and not allowing for any misinterpretation proposal of the supreme body of Soviet power, the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets, to recognize the program of Soviet power, to recognize the “Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People,” to recognize the October Revolution and Soviet power. Thus, the Constituent Assembly severed all connections between itself and the Soviet Republic of Russia. The departure from such a Constituent Assembly of the Bolshevik and Left Socialist-Revolutionary factions, which now constitute obviously a huge majority in the Soviets and enjoy the confidence of the workers and the majority of peasants, was inevitable.
And outside the walls of the Constituent Assembly, the majority parties of the Constituent Assembly, the right Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, are waging an open struggle against Soviet power, calling in their bodies for its overthrow, thereby objectively supporting the resistance of the exploiters to the transfer of land and factories into the hands of the working people.
It is clear that the remainder of the Constituent Assembly can therefore only play the role of covering the struggle of the bourgeois counter-revolution to overthrow the power of the Soviets.
Therefore, the Central Executive Committee decides:
The Constituent Assembly is dissolved.
Decree of the Council of People's Commissars on the organization of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army
The old army served as an instrument of class oppression of the working people by the bourgeoisie. With the transfer of power to the working and exploited classes, the need arose to create a new army, which would be the stronghold of Soviet power in the present, the foundation for replacing the standing army with all-people's weapons in the near future and would serve as support for the coming socialist revolution in Europe.
In view of this, the Council of People's Commissars decides: to organize a new army called the "Workers' and Peasants' Red Army", on the following grounds:
1) The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army is created from the most conscious and organized elements of the working masses.
2) Access to its ranks is open to all citizens of the Russian Republic at least 18 years of age. Anyone who is ready to give his strength, his life to defend the gains of the October Revolution, the power of the Soviets and socialism, joins the Red Army. To join the Red Army, recommendations are required: from military committees or public democratic organizations standing on the platform of Soviet power, party or professional organizations, or at least two members of these organizations. When joining in whole parts, mutual responsibility of everyone and a roll-call vote are required.
1) Warriors of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army are on full state pay and on top of this receive 50 rubles. per month.
2) Disabled members of the families of Red Army soldiers, who were previously their dependents, are provided with everything necessary according to local consumer standards, in accordance with the decrees of local bodies of Soviet power.
The supreme governing body of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army is the Council of People's Commissars. Direct leadership and management of the army is concentrated in the Commissariat for Military Affairs, in the special All-Russian Collegium created under it.
Supreme Commander-in-Chief N. Krylenko People's Commissars for Military and Naval Affairs: Dybenko and Podvoisky
People's Commissars: Proshyan, Zatonsky and Steinberg
Manager of the Council of People's Commissars Vl. Bonch-Bruevich
Secretary of the Council of People's Commissars N. Gorbunov
Decree of the Council of People's Commissars on freedom of conscience, church and religious societies
1. The church is separated from the state.
2. Within the Republic, it is prohibited to enact any local laws or regulations that would restrict or restrict freedom of conscience, or establish any advantages or privileges on the basis of the religious affiliation of citizens.
3. Every citizen can profess any religion or not at all. All legal deprivations associated with the confession of any faith or non-profession of any faith are abolished.
Note. From all official acts, any indication of religious affiliation or non-religious affiliation of citizens is eliminated.
4. The actions of state and other public legal social institutions are not accompanied by any religious rites or ceremonies.
5. The free performance of religious rites is ensured insofar as they do not violate public order and are not accompanied by an encroachment on the rights of citizens of the Soviet Republic.
Local authorities have the right to take all necessary measures to ensure public order and security in these cases.
6. No one can, citing their religious views, avoid fulfilling their civil duties.
Exceptions from this provision, subject to the condition of replacing one civil duty with another, are allowed in each individual case by decision of the people's court.
7. The religious oath or oath is canceled. In necessary cases, only a solemn promise is given.
8. Civil status records are maintained exclusively by civil authorities: departments for registering marriages and births.
9. The school is separated from the church.
Teaching religious doctrines in all state and public, as well as private educational institutions where general education subjects are taught, is not permitted.
Citizens may teach and study religion privately.
10. All church and religious societies are subject to the general provisions on private societies and unions and do not use any
we receive neither benefits nor subsidies from the state nor from its local autonomous and self-governing institutions.
11. Forced collection of fees and taxes in favor of church or religious societies, as well as measures of coercion or punishment on the part of these societies over their fellow members, are not allowed.
12. No church or religious societies have the right to own property. They do not have the rights of a legal entity.
13. All property of church and religious societies existing in Russia is declared national property.
Buildings and objects intended specifically for liturgical purposes are given, according to special regulations of local or central government authorities, for the free use of the respective religious societies.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. Ulyanov (Lenin)
People's Commissars: N. Podvoisky, V. Algasov, V. Trutovsky, A. Shlikhter, P. Proshyan, V. Menzhinsky, A. Shlyapnikov, G. Petrovsky
Business Manager Vl. Bonch-Bruevich
Secretary N. Gorbunov
Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars on the Red Terror
The Council of People's Commissars, having heard the report of the chairman of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, Profiteering and Crime in Office on the activities of this commission, finds that in this situation, ensuring the rear through terror is a direct necessity; that in order to strengthen the activities of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for the fight against counter-revolution, profiteering and crime in office and to introduce greater planning into it, it is necessary to send there as many responsible party comrades as possible; that it is necessary to secure the Soviet Republic from class enemies by isolating them in concentration camps; that all persons connected with White Guard organizations, conspiracies and rebellions are subject to execution; that it is necessary to publish the names of all those executed, as well as the reasons for applying this measure to them.
People's Commissar of Justice D. Kursky
People's Commissar of Internal Affairs G. Petrovsky
Administrator of the Council of People's Commissars
Vl. Bonch-Bruevich Secretary L. Fotieva
Literature:
Milyukov P.N. Memories, in 2 vols. M., 1990
October Revolution: Memoirs. (Revolution and civil war in the description of the White Guards). M., 1991
Sukhanov N.N. Notes on the Revolution, in 3 vols. M., 1991
Kerensky A.F. Russia at a historical turning point. Memoirs. M., 1993
Goals of the October Revolution of 1917
- Building a more just society than capitalism
- Eliminating the exploitation of man by man
- Equality of people in rights and responsibilities
The main motto of the socialist revolution of 1917 is “To each according to his needs, from each according to his work”
- Fight against wars
- World socialist revolution
Slogans of the revolution
- "Power to the Soviets"
- "Peace to the Nations"
- "Land to the peasants"
- "Factory to workers"
Objective reasons for the October Revolution of 1917
- Economic difficulties experienced by Russia due to participation in the First World War
- Huge human losses from the same
- Things going wrong at the front
- The incompetent leadership of the country, first by the tsarist, then by the bourgeois (Provisional) government
- The unresolved peasant question (the issue of allocating land to peasants)
- Difficult living conditions for workers
- Almost complete illiteracy of the people
- Unfair national policies
Subjective reasons for the October Revolution of 1917
- The presence in Russia of a small but well-organized, disciplined group - the Bolshevik Party
- The primacy in it of the great historical Personality - V. I. Lenin
- The absence of a person of the same caliber in the camp of her opponents
- Ideological vacillations of the intelligentsia: from Orthodoxy and nationalism to anarchism and support for terrorism
- The activities of German intelligence and diplomacy, which had the goal of weakening Russia as one of Germany’s opponents in the war
- Passivity of the population
Interesting: the causes of the Russian revolution according to writer Nikolai Starikov
Methods for building a new society
- Nationalization and transfer to state ownership of means of production and land
- Eradication of private property
- Physical elimination of political opposition
- Concentration of power in the hands of one party
- Atheism instead of religiosity
- Marxism-Leninism instead of Orthodoxy
Trotsky led the immediate seizure of power by the Bolsheviks
“By the night of the 24th, members of the Revolutionary Committee dispersed to different areas. I was left alone. Later Kamenev came. He was opposed to the uprising. But he came to spend this decisive night with me, and we remained alone in a small corner room on the third floor, which resembled the captain’s bridge on the decisive night of the revolution. In the next large and deserted room there was a telephone booth. They called continuously, about important things and about trifles. The bells emphasized the guarded silence even more sharply... Detachments of workers, sailors, and soldiers were awake in the areas. Young proletarians have rifles and machine gun belts over their shoulders. Street pickets warm themselves by the fires. The spiritual life of the capital, which on an autumn night squeezes its head from one era to another, is concentrated around two dozen telephones.
In the room on the third floor, news from all districts, suburbs and approaches to the capital converge. It’s as if everything is provided for, leaders are in place, connections are secured, it seems that nothing is forgotten. Let's check it mentally again. This night decides.
... I give the commissars the order to set up reliable military barriers on the roads to Petrograd and send agitators to meet the units called by the government...” If words cannot restrain you, use your weapons. You are responsible for this with your head." I repeat this phrase several times... The Smolny outer guard has been reinforced with a new machine gun team. Communication with all parts of the garrison remains uninterrupted. Duty companies are kept awake in all regiments. The commissioners are in place. Armed detachments move through the streets from the districts, ring the bell at the gates or open them without ringing, and occupy one institution after another.
...In the morning I attack the bourgeois and conciliatory press. Not a word about the outbreak of the uprising.
The government still met in the Winter Palace, but it had already become only a shadow of its former self. Politically it no longer existed. During October 25, the Winter Palace was gradually cordoned off by our troops from all sides. At one o'clock in the afternoon I reported to the Petrograd Soviet on the state of affairs. Here's how the newspaper report portrays it:
“On behalf of the Military Revolutionary Committee, I declare that the Provisional Government no longer exists. (Applause.) Individual ministers have been arrested. (“Bravo!”) Others will be arrested in the coming days or hours. (Applause.) The revolutionary garrison, at the disposal of the Military Revolutionary Committee, dissolved the meeting of the Pre-Parliament. (Noisy applause.) We stayed awake here at night and watched through the telephone wire as detachments of revolutionary soldiers and workers' guards silently carried out their work. The average person slept peacefully and did not know that at this time one power was being replaced by another. Stations, post office, telegraph, Petrograd Telegraph Agency, State Bank are busy. (Noisy applause.) The Winter Palace has not yet been taken, but its fate will be decided in the next few minutes. (Applause.)"
This bare report is likely to give a wrong impression of the mood of the meeting. This is what my memory tells me. When I reported on the change of power that had taken place that night, tense silence reigned for several seconds. Then came the applause, but not stormy, but thoughtful... “Can we handle it?” — many people asked themselves mentally. Hence a moment of anxious thought. We'll handle it, everyone answered. New dangers loomed in the distant future. And now there was a feeling of great victory, and this feeling sang in the blood. It found its outlet in a stormy meeting arranged for Lenin, who appeared at this meeting for the first time after an absence of almost four months.”(Trotsky “My Life”).
Results of the October Revolution of 1917
- The elite in Russia has completely changed. The one that ruled the state for 1000 years, set the tone in politics, economics, public life, was an example to follow and an object of envy and hatred, gave way to others who before that really “were nothing”
- The Russian Empire fell, but its place was taken by the Soviet Empire, which for several decades became one of the two countries (together with the USA) that led the world community
- The Tsar was replaced by Stalin, who acquired significantly greater powers than any Russian emperor.
- The ideology of Orthodoxy was replaced by communist
- Russia (more precisely, the Soviet Union) within a few years transformed from an agricultural to a powerful industrial power
- Literacy has become universal
- The Soviet Union achieved the withdrawal of education and medical care from the system of commodity-money relations
- There was no unemployment in the USSR
- In recent decades, the leadership of the USSR has achieved almost complete equality of the population in income and opportunities.
- In the Soviet Union there was no division of people into poor and rich
- In the numerous wars that Russia waged during the years of Soviet power, as a result of terror, from various economic experiments, tens of millions of people died, the fates of probably the same number of people were broken, distorted, millions left the country, becoming emigrants
- The country's gene pool has changed catastrophically
- The lack of incentives to work, the absolute centralization of the economy, and huge military expenditures have led Russia (USSR) to a significant technological lag behind the developed countries of the world.
- In Russia (USSR), in practice, democratic freedoms were completely absent - speech, conscience, demonstrations, rallies, press (although they were declared in the Constitution).
- The Russian proletariat lived materially much worse than the workers of Europe and America
October Revolution of 1917. Chronicle of events
Editor's responseOn the night of October 25, 1917, an armed uprising began in Petrograd, during which the current government was overthrown and power was transferred to the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. The most important objects were captured - bridges, telegraphs, government offices, and at 2 a.m. on October 26, the Winter Palace was taken and the Provisional Government was arrested.
V. I. Lenin. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Prerequisites for the October Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917, which was greeted with enthusiasm, although it put an end to the absolute monarchy in Russia, very soon disappointed the revolutionary-minded “lower strata” - the army, workers and peasants, who expected it to end the war, transfer land to the peasants, ease working conditions for workers and democratic power devices. Instead, the Provisional Government continued the war, assuring the Western allies of their fidelity to their obligations; in the summer of 1917, on his orders, a large-scale offensive began, which ended in disaster due to the collapse of discipline in the army. Attempts to carry out land reform and introduce an 8-hour working day in factories were blocked by the majority in the Provisional Government. Autocracy was not completely abolished - the question of whether Russia should be a monarchy or a republic was postponed by the Provisional Government until the convening of the Constituent Assembly. The situation was also aggravated by the growing anarchy in the country: desertion from the army assumed gigantic proportions, unauthorized “redistributions” of land began in villages, and thousands of landowners’ estates were burned. Poland and Finland declared independence, nationally minded separatists claimed power in Kyiv, and their own autonomous government was created in Siberia.
Counter-revolutionary armored car "Austin" surrounded by cadets at the Winter Palace. 1917 Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
At the same time, a powerful system of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies emerged in the country, which became an alternative to the bodies of the Provisional Government. Soviets began to form during the 1905 revolution. They were supported by numerous factory and peasant committees, police and soldiers' councils. Unlike the Provisional Government, they demanded an immediate end to the war and reforms, which found increasing support among the embittered masses. The dual power in the country becomes obvious - the generals in the person of Alexei Kaledin and Lavr Kornilov demand the dispersal of the Soviets, and the Provisional Government in July 1917 carried out mass arrests of deputies of the Petrograd Soviet, and at the same time demonstrations took place in Petrograd under the slogan “All power to the Soviets!”
Armed uprising in Petrograd
The Bolsheviks headed for an armed uprising in August 1917. On October 16, the Bolshevik Central Committee decided to prepare an uprising; two days after this, the Petrograd garrison declared disobedience to the Provisional Government, and on October 21, a meeting of representatives of the regiments recognized the Petrograd Soviet as the only legitimate authority. From October 24, troops of the Military Revolutionary Committee occupied key points in Petrograd: train stations, bridges, banks, telegraphs, printing houses and power plants.
The Provisional Government was preparing for this station, but the coup that took place on the night of October 25 came as a complete surprise to him. Instead of the expected mass demonstrations of the garrison regiments, detachments of the working Red Guard and sailors of the Baltic Fleet simply took control of key objects - without firing a single shot, putting an end to dual power in Russia. On the morning of October 25, only the Winter Palace, surrounded by Red Guard detachments, remained under the control of the Provisional Government.
At 10 a.m. on October 25, the Military Revolutionary Committee issued an appeal in which it announced that all “state power had passed into the hands of the body of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.” At 21:00, a blank shot from the Baltic Fleet cruiser Aurora signaled the start of the assault on the Winter Palace, and at 2 a.m. on October 26, the Provisional Government was arrested.
Cruiser Aurora". Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
On the evening of October 25, the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets opened in Smolny, proclaiming the transfer of all power to the Soviets.
On October 26, the congress adopted the Decree on Peace, which invited all warring countries to begin negotiations on the conclusion of a general democratic peace, and the Decree on Land, according to which the land of the landowners was to be transferred to the peasants, and all mineral resources, forests and waters were nationalized.
The congress also formed a government, the Council of People's Commissars, headed by Vladimir Lenin - the first highest body of state power in Soviet Russia.
On October 29, the Council of People's Commissars adopted the Decree on the eight-hour working day, and on November 2, the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia, which proclaimed the equality and sovereignty of all peoples of the country, the abolition of national and religious privileges and restrictions.
On November 23, a decree “On the abolition of estates and civil ranks” was issued, proclaiming the legal equality of all citizens of Russia.
Simultaneously with the uprising in Petrograd on October 25, the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Moscow Council also took control of all important strategic objects of Moscow: the arsenal, telegraph, State Bank, etc. However, on October 28, the Committee of Public Safety, headed by the Chairman of the City Duma Vadim Rudnev, under with the support of the cadets and Cossacks, he began military operations against the Soviet.
Fighting in Moscow continued until November 3, when the Committee of Public Security agreed to lay down arms. The October Revolution was immediately supported in the Central Industrial Region, where local Soviets of Workers' Deputies had already effectively established their power; in the Baltics and Belarus, Soviet power was established in October - November 1917, and in the Central Black Earth Region, the Volga region and Siberia, the process of recognition of Soviet power dragged on until the end of January 1918.
Name and celebration of the October Revolution
Since Soviet Russia switched to the new Gregorian calendar in 1918, the anniversary of the Petrograd uprising fell on November 7. But the revolution was already associated with October, which was reflected in its name. This day became an official holiday in 1918, and starting from 1927, two days became holidays - November 7 and 8. Every year on this day, demonstrations and military parades took place on Red Square in Moscow and in all cities of the USSR. The last military parade on Moscow's Red Square to commemorate the anniversary of the October Revolution took place in 1990. Since 1992, November 8 became a working day in Russia, and in 2005, November 7 was also abolished as a day off. Until now, the Day of the October Revolution is celebrated in Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Transnistria.
