On this day November 7th in 1917, the October Revolution began in Russia when the Bolsheviks initiated an armed insurrection in Petrograd, seizing the Winter Palace and dissolving the Provisional Government in a coup with minimal violence. The name “October Revolution” comes from the fact that the revolution began on October 25th in the dating convention of the time.
The October Revolution was the culmination of popular sentiment directed against the provisional government which was achieving little for the majority of people to change Russia from its Tsarist past. In particular, the unelected body continued to participate in the very unpopular First World War opting in July for participation in further military campaigns which provoked outrage amongst soldiers and workers alike.
After the February Revolution which established the Provisional Government, during the period of the Dual Power (February-October 1917), the Bolsheviks gradually gained in strength and influence especially in the soviets and in the army after July. The Bolshevik slogan ‘Peace, Bread and Land’ summarised their programme and was increasingly popular. They established their headquarters in the Smolny Institute. This was a former girls’ convent school which also housed the Petrograd Soviet. The Provisional Government now headed by Kerensky, was still officially in power and under pressure from the nobility and industrialists, Kerensky was persuaded to take decisive action against the Bolsheviks. Thus, on 22nd October he ordered the arrest of the Bolshevik Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC). The government was aware of the unstated purpose of the MRC, established on 12th October and led by Trotsky. The purpose of this committee, created by the Bolsheviks within the Petrograd soviet, was to prepare for armed insurrection against the government. The next day, 23rd October, the government attempted to close down the Bolshevik newspapers and cut off the telephones to the Smolny Institute. However, soldiers and Red Guards ultimately thwarted all Kerensky’s plans.
Following this, a long debate took place at a secret meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee. At this meeting the main issue centred around Lenin’s proposal that the Bolsheviks should take action before the elections for the Constituent Assembly; in other words, the socialist revolution should proceed without delay. Zinoviev and Kamenev dissented, hence the importance of the MRC which had already deployed commissars to all garrison units. In essence this was both a measure of defence and, at the same time, a preparation for attack
Thus, orders were given for the Bolsheviks to occupy the railway stations, the telephone exchange and the State Bank. In the early morning of October 25th, armed workers started occupying key points of Petrograd, in conjunction with pro-Bolshevik sailors pulling into the city’s harbour. Power stations were seized and strategic bridges were held. These instances produced very little resistance and were not met with violence.
A blank shot from the Cruiser Aurora in the evening signalled the siege of the Winter Palace, which was to be the final offensive of the revolution. Crowds of Red Guards and insurgents surrounded the palace and secured entry, leading to the surrender of the remaining government officials in the early hours of the morning. Members of the Provisional Government that had not already fled the capital were imprisoned. Kerensky had managed to escape from the city.
Crowds of Red Guards and insurgents surrounded the palace and secured entry, leading to the surrender of the remaining government officials.
The revolution itself was brief, being almost entirely peaceful in its execution. Posters were distributed across the city declaring that “the Provisional Government is overthrown” and “Long live the Revolution of Workers, Soldiers and Peasants!” Lenin emerged from the revolution as one of its most notable strategists and a potential leader in the new era.
On 26th October 1917, the second All-Russian Congress of Soviets met and handed over power to the Soviet Council of People’s Commissars. Lenin was elected chairman and other appointments included Trotsky (Foreign Affairs). Two decrees were adopted at the first session: the Decree on Peace, which moved to start negotiations to withdraw from the war in order to bring about “a just and democratic peace,” and the Decree on Land, which moved to transfer land away from landowners and the church to peasant committees. ‘Peace, Bread and Land’ was thus transformed from a slogan into a living reality. In addition, the Council of People’s Commissars nationalised the banks and workers control of factory production was introduced. The army was demobilised and in December and the Soviet Government announced that it planned to seek an armistice with Germany. In December 1917, Trotsky led the Russian delegation at Brest-Litovsk to negotiate peace terms with representatives from Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Thus it was that the full Bolshevik programme, as outlined in Lenin’s ‘April Theses’ was implemented within three months of the successful socialist revolution.
Megathreads and spaces to hang out:
- 📀 Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube
- 🔥 Read and talk about a current topics in the News Megathread
- ⚔ Come talk in the New Weekly PoC thread
- ✨ Talk with fellow Trans comrades in the New Weekly Trans thread
- 👊 Share your gains and goals with your comrades in the New Weekly Improvement thread
- 🧡 Disabled comm megathread
reminders:
- 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
- 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears
- 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
- 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can reserve a spot here nerd
- 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog
Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):
Aid:
Theory:
My coworker is going to Florida and is gonna try to get me the regionals in pokemon go while he’s there
I understand that UT left, but was it the election result that prompted his departure?
I hope to see them in another incarnation in a year or so, but respect his decision to derive perspective and connection with the verdant flora of reality.
having a “fuck everything, I’m taking a nap” kind of day
Talking with a girl I have a bit of a crush on at work
Me: “…Technically it’s due on Friday but I’m getting you to it literally the day before, so if it takes till next week I’m not gonna break down your door or anything.”
Her: “Shame, I was looking forward to that.”
Apparently you can cop a hate ban on Reddit for calling Zionists “losers” and saying “Isn’treal” in the subreddit /r/afl/
This subreddit is for AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL. These fucking jokers look for any mention of Israel anywhere
kick the bloody ball from the river to the sea wankers
🚬
struth
was told my book was “very successful at accomplishing…whatever it’s trying to accomplish!” by an industry guy
I hope that’s not this reader just being conciliatory because it’s firmly in the realm of the Weird and this would mean it’s both good and weird
this cold is kicking my ass much harder than previous colds, for which I blame covid
✨ FUCK YOU, COVID ✨
listened to latest TrueAnon. basically what we already know
but now i have this stupid itch. it’s true, basically all financial crimes are about to become legal. so here comes a new round of pump and dumps.
meme stocks. crypto. all the cringe shit but now a part of my brain is just like “fuck i should get in on this again”
Good. The crimes will hasten capitalism’s downfall. If only we had some sort of countervailing force to take advantage of that. Hmmm.
The only silver lining to any of that is that the old-money types who want nothing more than stability are also losing their minds at Trump’s economic incoming stewardship.
Millennials are getting too cocky on twitter
since im almost certainly going to switch jobs i let myself have a little tirade about how “u know what the american identity is built on? treats! you know who makes all of our fucking treats???” re: trump wanting to do more trade war with china. they got a kick out of it but it fell off when i started to pivot to “and escalating to a war with china is a bipartisan thing” but it was fun to yell about treats at work. im certain i did not get through to anyone at all but i had a good time.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Wonder how repubs will blame their recession on dems
The Brownback excuse
“We didn’t rip enough of the copper wire out of the walls!”
I saw Elon say that there will have to be suffering before things get better. Basically Milei. I’ve even seen chuds say yes things will get more expensive, but it will get better since things will be made in America
Go to dog park, dumb rich lady tells me “stop throwing the ball so I can take mine home” I comply like a dickhead, dog still doesn’t go to her. Old perv enters park walks slowly over to me, I walk away. He keeps looking around all sussy baka, I feel uncomfortable after a while and go home. Old man conveniently leaves same time I do and says something to me. I tell him to “shut up” and leave. Being unemployed is badass
We are so back (my paychecks havent been arriving to my mailbox and rent’s past due)
Something just clicked for me. Liberals doing absolutely nothing about Palestine was already baked in when they did absolutely nothing about the Uighurs, even though they 100% believed that Uighurs were being ethnically cleansed. All they know is getting a hashtag going. No action.
just a thing I found
Love it. Needs to be on a shirt
Would buy one