Why did the Bolsheviks win the civil war briefly? Why did the Bolsheviks win? Creation of the Soviet government

To answer this question, you need to know how the Bolsheviks came to power. Power was legally transferred to the Bolsheviks by the provisional government. Therefore tsarist generals and the officers went to serve the Bolsheviks as the legitimate government. The transfer of power to the Bolsheviks was arranged by US bankers and the heads of the US Jewish diaspora. They were not happy with the fact that the Provisional Government was completely subordinate to England. American troops landing in France saved the troops of England and France from defeat, who surrendered their positions one after another under the pressure of German troops. England was forced to agree to share power over Russia and its territory with the United States. Trotsky, Kerensky, a protege of the US Jewish diaspora, was in the Provisional Government. , after the transfer of power to the Bolsheviks, he went to live in the USA. After the transfer of power to the Bolsheviks, Trotsky joined the Bolshevik government. The USA planned that Trotsky would become the head of the Bolshevik government. But the British insisted on Lenin's candidacy. The fact is that Lenin’s party was mainly financed by English Jewish bankers subordinate to the Rothschilds. To strengthen Trotsky’s power, US bankers gave him 300 thousand dollars to create the Red Army. US funding of the Bolsheviks led Lenin to lean towards a pro-American course. To the Americans the financial system of Soviet Russia was given over, the largest deposits of raw materials and gold were given in concession for 20 years, the Bolsheviks promised to give Crimea to the Jewish diaspora in the United States. The British, dissatisfied with this state of affairs, created the White movement and began to finance the White Army and unleashed a civil war in Russia. But the White the movement was not sufficiently financed by the British, and generous funding of the Red Army from the United States led to the fact that the Red Army began to win the civil war. Then the British organized an assassination attempt on Lenin. They involved the Jew Sverdlov in organizing the assassination attempt on Lenin. Lenin survived the assassination attempt. He quickly figured out who organized the attempt on his life and Sverdlov was killed on his orders. The civil war continued while Lenin was alive. There was a possibility that he would remain alive and therefore the British continued to finance White Army. But Lenin died of a stroke; the disease had been developing for a long time. Lenin was diagnosed back in 1905-1910, he would have died anyway, the assassination attempt was only slightly hastened by death. Lenin died. The British managed to remove Trotsky from power and transfer power to their protege. This protege was Stalin. He provided services to the Rothschilds in the Caucasus. After this, there was no point in financing the White movement and the White Army. The Whites began to suffer defeat in the civil war. Stalin quickly finished off the remnants of the White Army, which was left without financial support from England. Stalin began to annul concessions and agreements on Crimea. He took away the Ministry of Finance of the Soviet Republic from the Americans. In response, the United States refused to recognize the USSR. The division of Russia between England and the United States ended when the United States recognized the USSR. Over time, the position of the USA in the USSR strengthened and England already declared the Soviet regime its enemy. Using the confrontation between England and the USA, Stalin stopped the robbery of Russia by England and the USA. After this, the United States declared the Soviet government a fiend. This real story revolution and civil war in Russia in the period from 1916-1924. The myth of the 1917 revolution was completely invented by the Bolsheviks. In their myth, the Bolsheviks used Orthodox dogma christian church; THIS IS "CHARITY, BROTHERHOOD, EQUALITY, JUSTICE, HUMANISM" and the dogma of "HEAVEN", but they transferred heaven to earth. The Christian Church promotes that "PARADISE" is possible only in heaven. I hope I answered the question why the Reds won. Real facts were analyzed by a group of Soviet analysts and were classified. Why they were classified, I hope this is clear from the text above.

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The year 1919 was decisive for the Bolsheviks. They created a reliable and constantly growing army. Their opponents, actively supported by their former allies, united among themselves. The mutiny of Admiral Kolchak (November 18, 1918) put an end to the chaotic actions of the anti-Bolshevik coalition, which no longer included the Socialist Revolutionaries. The former allies decided to clarify the goals of the intervention: “to isolate Bolshevism - a new and monstrous phenomenon of imperialism - with the help of a cordon sanitaire, which ... would force it to die from exhaustion; to create centers of allied forces around which healthy elements of Russia could unite under the auspices of the Entente in order to renew their country.”

During 1919, the White Guards launched three enormous but poorly coordinated offensives against the Bolsheviks, who controlled the center of Russia. In March, Admiral Kolchak began to advance on a broad front from the Urals to the Volga. After the first successful operations, instead of advancing to join Denikin's armies approaching Saratov and coordinating his actions with the southern armies, he decided to advance east and be the first to enter Moscow. This gave the Bolsheviks the opportunity to send their shock forces against his troops, and then turn them against the White army moving from the south. Kolchak, defeated by the troops of S. Kamenev, was forced to retreat under difficult conditions, as the Siberian peasants rebelled against their government, which signed an order to return the land to the former owners. Pursued by partisans, Kolchak was captured and executed in Irkutsk in February 1920.

Beginning his advance from Kuban, General Denikin, as a result of stubborn fighting (late 1918 - summer 1919), eventually established control over most of Ukraine. He broke the resistance of Petliura, the leader of the Ukrainian Duma, which seized power after the Germans left, and defeated the Bolsheviks, who were at that moment supported by supporters of the anarchist Makhno. In June 1919, having gathered an army of 150 thousand people, Denikin launched an attack on Moscow along the entire 700-kilometer front from Kyiv to Tsaritsyn. In September, his troops reached Voronezh, Kursk, and Orel. There were less than 4,00 km left to the capital. At this time, General Yudenich's troops advanced from the Baltic side. This offensive, supported by Latvian and Estonian units, as well as British tanks, was stopped at the end of October less than 100 kilometers from Petrograd, when Lenin had already lost hope of saving the capital. Denikin's troops were forced to leave Orel and Voronezh. The Red Army went on the offensive. The Whites retreated to the Crimea, where Denikin handed over command of the remaining army (less than 40 thousand people) to Baron Wrangel, who resisted until November 1920.


At the end of 1919, the victory of the Bolsheviks was no longer in doubt. Foreign troops were returning home: after the uprising that broke out in their units on April 6, the French began evacuating Odessa. On September 27, the British left Arkhangelsk. In the fall of 1919, the interventionists were forced to leave the territory of the Caucasus (they remained in Batum until March 1921) and Siberia. Only the Japanese, who hoped to maintain their positions on Far East, did not withdraw their troops from there. Within a few months, the Bolsheviks managed to improve their seriously shaken position. This unexpected success (the great powers were confident that the Bolshevik regime would last no more than a few months) was explained not so much by the ability of the Bolsheviks to mobilize their forces and create a sufficiently reliable army, but by the incessant political mistakes of their opponents.

In 1919, despite a large number of deserters, the Red Army, consisting of several hundred thousand combat-ready people, became a real force. It was commanded by famous military leaders (Tukhachevsky, Budyonny, Kamenev), it enjoyed all the economic privileges (the country primarily fed and clothed the army) and its strategic location in the center of the country, that is, the only part of it where a fairly dense network of railways and other roads allowed move troops to any part of the front in order to achieve a temporary but decisive advantage.

The political miscalculations of the white forces turned out to be fatal for them. Kolchak and Denikin canceled the October Decree on Land, turning the peasants against themselves precisely at the moment when they were dissatisfied with the Bolshevik regime and the surplus appropriation policy. But of two evils - one that seemed temporary to them and the other that seemed like a final return to the past - they chose the lesser. A guerrilla war began in the rear of the Kolchak and Denikin armies, which seriously complicated their retreat. In addition, the White Guards were unable to negotiate with the democratic opposition and moderate socialists. Trade unions and pro-socialist parties were banned. The arbitrariness of the Whites, under whose rule many punitive operations were carried out, especially pogroms (in July 1919 alone, about 50 pogroms were organized in Ukraine, directed mainly against Jews and Bolsheviks), deprived them of the support of wide sections of the urban population, who did not at all want to join to the Bolsheviks. Denikin’s slogan “Russia will be great, united, indivisible” did not leave any hope for foreigners striving for autonomy and independence. The Allies proposed that the White Guards grant independence to the Finns and Poles, and autonomy to the Baltic states and the Caucasus. The Whites refused such “deals” that threatened the unity of “Great Russia”. Therefore, in the fall of 1919, at the decisive moment of the joint offensive of Denikin and Yudenich, they lost the support of Estonia, Finland and Poland. Pilsudski, who knew full well that Polish national claims would certainly not be satisfied by the white generals, to whom he could provide great assistance, preferred to wait for their defeat before launching an attack on the Soviet state. The Whites also lost the favor of the Caucasian peoples, who were ready to be content with the status of a federation. The stubbornness of Denikin and then Wrangel in relation to the demands of the Cossacks deprived the Whites of trust and their most loyal allies.

The white army was led by professional soldiers, but useless politicians. Divided by personal ambitions, they limited themselves to a single unpopular program - the restoration of the old order.

The Bolsheviks, on the contrary, mastered the art of propaganda in a wide variety of forms with extraordinary dexterity. Political literacy courses were opened, cinema was used where possible, propaganda trains ran around the country, revolutionary posters, leaflets, brochures, and newspapers disseminating Lenin’s ideas were produced in millions of copies. Foreign intervention in support of the Whites allowed the Bolsheviks to present themselves as defenders of the Motherland: they protected the lands of Russia from foreign invaders, whose accomplices within the country could only be considered “enemies of the people.”

In addition, the Bolsheviks were strong in that those who joined them were given the opportunity to enter the new, newly created state apparatus and a tempting career opened up in the future society. During the years of the Civil War, the size of the party increased significantly (from 200 thousand at the end of 1917 to 750 thousand in March 1921). Of course, all new party members, half workers and peasant soldiers, and otherwise “various” elements (mostly minor employees), could not immediately receive promotion. However, in parallel with dramatic changes in social structure Party (the Bolshevik “old guard”, consisting of the “petty bourgeoisie” and the intelligentsia, was supplanted by popular and lumpen-proletarian elements of the most diverse political shades), a new, special system of nomination was born. During the years of the Civil War, for former members of soldiers' committees, delegates of the Soviets, activists of district and factory committees, Red Guards, trade unionists, workers who were in the “food army”, “red officers” (the overwhelming majority of young people who joined the party), many vacancies became available in the party apparatus, political police, army, public organizations (trade unions), political and administrative institutions (Soviets) . Two examples illustrate this trend. The first concerns one group of Petrograd workers (2 thousand people) - party members who were drafted into “food detachments” in the summer of 1918. What happened to them three years later? Only 22% returned to enterprises, only 8% returned to villages, some (9%) resumed their studies, and all the rest found “administrative” work. A second example of such movement-promotion: according to the partial census of communists in October 1919, there was a surprising disproportion between their social origin and professional activities. 52% came from working families, 18% from peasants, 30% from other social backgrounds; while 11% remained workers, 3% remained peasants, 25% served in the Red Army, and 6% were in “administrative” work.

At the beginning of 1920, only Wrangel continued to hopelessly fight in the Crimea. The Supreme Council of the Allied Countries decided to lift the economic blockade, which, however, did not mean the restoration of trade exchanges with the Soviet Union. By this time, Finland, Poland and the Baltic states had gained independence, and Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan wanted to secede. By signing a peace treaty with Estonia in 1920, the Soviet government tried to normalize its relations with Poland. It offered Warsaw a solution to the border issue that was more favorable than even Lord Curzon’s version of the eastern borders after the Treaty of Versailles, which actually sanctioned the revival of the Polish state. However, these proposals were rejected. The head of the Polish state, J. Pilsudski, hoped to restore “Greater Poland” to its former borders (before the divisions of Poland), so that it would lead a union of countries that would include Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and the areas inhabited by the Cossacks. In April 1920, having concluded an alliance with Petliura, who was hiding in Galicia, the Polish army occupied Ukraine. This operation was supported by France, which dreamed of as strong a Poland as possible, opposing Russia and Germany. The Poles advanced rapidly: Kyiv was surrendered on May 8. However, the Red Army managed to take control of the situation, rousing the peasants to fight against the eternal “feudal oppressors” and giving the war a patriotic overtones. On June 13, the Poles left Kyiv. In July, the Red Army advanced 20 km per day and reached the Curzon Line by the end of the month. The question of whether to pursue the enemy on Polish territory was discussed by the party leadership. In contrast to his position on Brest-Litovsk, this time Lenin advocated the continuation of the revolutionary war. Trotsky was against it, believing that if the war became a liberation war for Poland, it would only strengthen Pilsudski’s authority. Lenin hoped that the victorious entry of the Red Army into Poland would entail an uprising of the Polish working class.

In reality, Lenin was counting on more: a revolution in Poland could cause revolutionary uprisings in Germany. The long-awaited and so important German revolution could be helped by the forces of the Red Army. At the end of July 1920 Soviet troops entered Poland. In Bialystok, the Red Army supported the creation of a Provisional Revolutionary Committee, consisting of the Pole Marchlewski and the chairman of the Cheka, Dzerzhinsky. The committee addressed the workers with the slogan: “Land to the peasants, power to the Soviets!” The revolutionary optimism of the Bolsheviks was fueled by promising facts. The German workers of Danzig, the main port from which Western aid to Poland came, went on strike, no longer wanting to deliver weapons to the Polish army, and they were supported by English dockers. This proletarian internationalism, however, sharply declined when in mid-August the Red Army under the command of Tukhachevsky and Budyonny crossed the Vistula and approached the gates of Warsaw. The patriotic sentiments of the Warsaw working class allowed Pilsudski to mobilize an 80,000-strong army at the last moment. France sent General Weygand to Poland as a military adviser. Now the Red Army was no longer perceived as a “proletarian army”, but as the aggressive troops of a sworn enemy. The weight of history and nationalism weighed heavily on the Bolsheviks. The situation in the theater of operations changed dramatically again: the Red Army was driven out of Poland in a few weeks. This time as a result of a truce eastern border Poland ran along the Curzon line, which was less profitable for it than Moscow’s proposal in 1920. A few months later, this border was legalized by a peace treaty signed in Riga on March 18, 1921. The end of the war with Poland allowed the Red Army to finally deal with the last white the army of Baron Wrangel, who, while the Bolsheviks were busy spreading the revolution in the West, achieved temporary success in the Crimea. The revolution in the West failed, and the defeat of Wrangel in November 1920 marked the end of foreign intervention and then the civil war.

Why did the Bolsheviks win? Because they gave Russian civilization and people new project development. They created a new reality, which was in the interests of the majority of the worker and peasant population of Russia. “Old Russia” represented by the nobles, liberal intelligentsia, bourgeoisie and capitalists committed suicide - thinking that it was destroying the Russian autocracy.

The Bolsheviks did not intend to revive the old project: both the state and society. On the contrary, they offered people a new reality, a completely different world (civilization), which was fundamentally different from the old world that died before their eyes. The Bolsheviks made excellent use of the brief moment in which “old Russia” died (it was killed by the Westernizers-Februaryists), and the temporary Februaryists were unable to offer the people anything except the power of capitalists, bourgeois owners and increased dependence on the West. Moreover, without the sacred royal power, which for a long time hid the flaws of the old world. A conceptual, ideological void was formed. Russia had to perish, torn apart by Western and Eastern “predators” into spheres of influence, semi-colonies and “independent” bantustans, or make a leap into the future.

Moreover, the Bolsheviks themselves did not expect that there would be a revolution in Russia, and even in a country, in their opinion, not ready for socialist revolution. Lenin wrote: “The endless template for them (traditional Marxists. - Author) is the one that they learned by heart during the development of Western European social democracy and which is that we have not matured to socialism, that we do not have, how Various learned gentlemen of them express the objective economic prerequisites for socialism. And it does not occur to anyone to ask themselves: could the people, having encountered a revolutionary situation such as it developed in the first imperialist war, under the influence of the hopelessness of their situation, rush into such a struggle, which at least opened up for them any chances of conquest for themselves not in completely normal conditions for the further growth of civilization"?

That is, the Bolsheviks used the historical chance to try to create a new, better world on the ruins of the old. Wherein old world collapsed both under the weight of objective reasons that had been sharpening the Romanov empire for centuries, and the subversive activities of a heterogeneous “fifth column”, where main role played by Western liberals, the bourgeoisie and capitalists led by the Freemasons (the support of the West also played a role). It is clear that the Bolsheviks also sought to destroy the old world, but before February they were such a weak, small and marginal force that they themselves noted that there would be no revolution in Russia. Their leaders and activists were hiding abroad, or in prison, or in exile. Their structures were destroyed or went deep underground, having virtually no influence on society, compared to such powerful parties as the Cadets or Socialist Revolutionaries. Only February opened a “window of opportunity” for the Bolsheviks. The February Westernizers, in an effort to seize the desired power, themselves killed the “old Russia”, destroyed all the foundations of statehood, started the great Russian Troubles and paved a loophole for the Bolsheviks.

And the Bolsheviks found everything that Russian civilization and the Russian superethnos needed to create a new project and reality, where the majority would “live well”, and not just small layers of the “chosen few”. The Bolsheviks had a bright image of a possible and desirable world. They had an idea, an iron will, energy and faith in their victory. That's why the people supported them and they won.

Main milestones of the Great October Socialist Revolution

It is worth noting that Lenin’s ideas about the need to take power, expressed by him in the “April Theses,” caused misunderstanding among the Bolsheviks. His demands to deepen the revolution, to move towards the dictatorship of the proletariat were then incomprehensible to his comrades-in-arms and frightened them. Lenin found himself in the minority. However, he turned out to be the most far-sighted. Within a few months, the situation in the country changed in the most dramatic way; the Februaryists undermined all the foundations of power and the state, and unleashed unrest in the country. Now the majority was for the uprising. The VI Congress of the RSDLP (late July - early August 1917) headed for an armed uprising.

On October 23, a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) (Bolshevik Party) was held in Petrograd in a secret atmosphere. Party leader Vladimir Lenin achieved the adoption of a resolution on the need for an early armed uprising in order to seize power in the country with 10 votes in favor and 2 against (Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev). Kamenev and Zinoviev hoped that in these conditions the Bolsheviks could gain power by mines, from Constituent Assembly. On October 25, on the initiative of the Chairman of the Petrograd Council Leon Trotsky, the Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC) was created, which became one of the centers for preparing the uprising. The committee was controlled by the Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. It was established quite legally, under the pretext of protecting Petrograd from the advancing Germans and Kornilov rebels. The Council appealed to the soldiers of the capital's garrison, the Red Guards and the Kronstadt sailors to join it.

Meanwhile the country continued to fall apart and decay. Thus, on October 23, the so-called “Chechen Committee for the Conquest of the Revolution” was formed in Grozny. He proclaimed himself the main authority in the Grozny and Vedeno districts, formed his own Chechen bank, food committees and introduced a mandatory Sharia court. The criminal situation in Russia, where liberal-bourgeois “democracy” won, was extremely difficult. On October 28, the newspaper “Russian Vedomosti” (No. 236) reported on the atrocities committed by soldiers on railways, and complaints about them from railway workers. In Kremenchug, Voronezh and Lipetsk, soldiers robbed freight trains and passengers' luggage, and attacked the passengers themselves. In Voronezh and Bologoye they also destroyed the carriages themselves, knocking out windows and breaking roofs. “It’s impossible to work,” the railway workers complained. In Belgorod, the pogrom spread to the city, where deserters and local residents who joined them destroyed grocery stores and rich houses.

Deserters fleeing from the front with their hands in their hands not only went home, but also replenished and created gangs (sometimes entire “armies”), which became one of the threats to the existence of Russia. Only the Bolsheviks will eventually be able to suppress this “green” danger and anarchy in general. They will have to solve the problem of suppressing the criminal revolution, which began in Russia with the “light” hand of the Februaryist revolutionaries.

On October 31, a garrison meeting (representatives of the regiments stationed in the city) was held in Petrograd, the majority of the participants in which spoke out in favor of supporting an armed uprising against the Provisional Government if it occurred under the leadership of the Petrograd Soviet. On November 3, representatives of the regiments recognized the Petrograd Soviet as the only legitimate authority. At the same time, the Military Revolutionary Committee began to appoint its own commissars to military units, replacing the commissars of the Provisional Government with them. On the night of November 4, representatives of the Military Revolutionary Committee announced to the commander of the Petrograd Military District, Georgy Polkovnikov, the appointment of their commissars to the district headquarters. Polkovnikov initially refused to cooperate with them, and only on November 5 agreed to a compromise - the creation of an advisory body at headquarters to coordinate actions with the Military Revolutionary Committee, which never worked in practice.

On November 5, the Military Revolutionary Committee issued an order granting its commissars the right to veto orders from commanders of military units. Also on this day, the garrison went over to the side of the Bolsheviks Peter and Paul Fortress, which was “propagated” personally by one of the Bolshevik leaders and the de facto leader of the Revolutionary Committee, Leon Trotsky (formally, the Revolutionary Revolutionary Committee was headed by the left Socialist Revolutionary Pavel Lazimir). The fortress garrison immediately captured the nearby Kronverk Arsenal and began distributing weapons to Red Guard units.

On the night of November 5, the head of the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, ordered the chief of staff of the Petrograd Military District, General Yakov Bagratuni, to send an ultimatum to the Petrograd Soviet: either the Council recalls its commissars, or the military authorities will use force. On the same day, Bagratuni ordered the cadets of military schools in Petrograd, students of ensign schools and other units to arrive at Palace Square.

On November 6 (October 24), open armed struggle began between the Military Revolutionary Committee and the Provisional Government. The Provisional Government issued an order to arrest the circulation of the Bolshevik newspaper Rabochiy Put (formerly closed Pravda), printed in the Trud printing house. Policemen and cadets went there and began to arrest the circulation. Having learned about this, the leaders of the Military Revolutionary Committee contacted the Red Guard detachments and committees of military units. “The Petrograd Soviet is in direct danger,” said the Military Revolutionary Committee’s appeal, “at night the counter-revolutionary conspirators tried to summon cadets and shock battalions from the surrounding area to Petrograd. The newspapers “Soldier” and “Rabochy Put” are closed. The regiment is hereby ordered to be placed on combat readiness. Wait for further orders. Any delay and confusion will be considered a betrayal of the revolution." By order of the Revolutionary Committee, a company of soldiers under its control arrived at the Trud printing house and ousted the cadets. Printing of "The Work Path" was resumed.

The Provisional Government decided to strengthen its own security, but to protect the Winter Palace within 24 hours it was possible to attract only about 100 war invalids from among the St. George Knights (many, including the detachment commander, on prosthetics), artillery cadets and a company of the women's shock battalion. It is worth noting that the Provisional Government and Kerensky themselves did everything to prevent the Bolsheviks from encountering serious armed resistance. They were afraid like fire of the “right” - the cadets, the Kornilovites, the generals, the Cossacks - those forces that could overthrow them and establish a military dictatorship. Therefore, by October, all forces that could provide real resistance to the Bolsheviks were suppressed. Kerensky was afraid to create officer units and bring Cossack regiments into the capital. And the generals, army officers and Cossacks hated Kerensky, who destroyed the army and led to the failure of Kornilov’s speech. On the other hand, Kerensky’s half-hearted attempts to get rid of the most unreliable parts of the Petrograd garrison only led to them drifting “to the left” and going over to the side of the Bolsheviks. At the same time, temporary workers became interested in the formation of national units - Czechoslovak, Polish, Ukrainian, which would later play a crucial role in unleashing the Civil War.


Head of the Provisional Government Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky

By this time, a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) had already taken place, at which a decision was made to begin an armed uprising. Kerensky went for support to the meeting of the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic (Pre-Parliament, an advisory body under the Provisional Government) that was taking place on the same day, asking for support. But the Pre-Parliament refused to grant Kerensky emergency powers to suppress the incipient uprising, adopting a resolution criticizing the actions of the Provisional Government.

The Revolutionary Committee then addressed an appeal “To the population of Petrograd,” which stated that the Petrograd Soviet took upon itself “the protection of the revolutionary order from the attacks of counter-revolutionary pogromists.” An open confrontation began. The Provisional Government ordered the construction of bridges across the Neva to cut off the Red Guards in the northern half of the city from the Winter Palace. But the cadets sent to carry out the order managed to open only the Nikolaevsky Bridge (to Vasilyevsky Island) and hold the Palace Bridge (next to the Winter Palace) for some time. Already on the Liteiny Bridge they were met and disarmed by the Red Guards. Also late in the evening, detachments of Red Guards began to take control of the stations. The last one, Varshavsky, was occupied by 8 am on November 7th.

Around midnight, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin left the safe house and arrived in Smolny. He did not yet know that the enemy was not ready for resistance at all, so he changed his appearance, shaving his mustache and beard so that he would not be recognized. On November 7 (October 25) at 2 a.m., a detachment of armed soldiers and sailors, on behalf of the Military Revolutionary Committee, occupied the telegraph office and the Petrograd Telegraph Agency. Telegrams were immediately sent to Kronstadt and Helsingfors (Helsinki) demanding that warships with detachments of sailors be brought to Petrograd. Detachments of Red Guards, meanwhile, occupied all the new main points of the city and by the morning controlled the printing house of the Birzhevye Vedomosti newspaper, the Astoria Hotel, a power plant and a telephone exchange. The cadets guarding them were disarmed. At 9:30 a.m. a detachment of sailors occupied the State Bank. Soon the police department received a message that the Winter Palace was isolated and its telephone network was turned off. An attempt by a small detachment of cadets led by Provisional Government Commissioner Vladimir Stankevich to recapture the telephone exchange ended in failure, and the cadets of the ensign school (about 2,000 bayonets) called by Kerensky to Petrograd could not reach the outskirts of the capital, since the Baltic Station was already occupied by the rebels. The cruiser "Aurora" approached the Nikolaevsky Bridge, the bridge itself was recaptured from the cadets and closed again. Already early in the morning, sailors from Kronstadt began arriving in the city on transports and landed on Vasilyevsky Island. They were covered by the cruiser Aurora, the battleship Zarya Svobody and two destroyers.


Armored cruiser "Aurora"

On the night of November 7, Kerensky moved between the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District, trying to bring up new units from there, and the Winter Palace, where a meeting of the Provisional Government was taking place. The commander of the military district, Georgy Polkovnikov, read a report to Kerensky, in which he assessed the situation as “critical” and informed that “the government does not have any troops at its disposal.” Then Kerensky removed Polkovnikov from office for indecisiveness and personally appealed to the 1st, 4th and 14th Cossack regiments to take part in the defense of “revolutionary democracy.” But most of the Cossacks showed “unconsciousness” and did not leave the barracks, and only about 200 Cossacks arrived at the Winter Palace.

By 11 a.m. on November 7, Kerensky, in a car of the American embassy and under the American flag, accompanied by several officers, left Petrograd for Pskov, where the headquarters was located Northern Front. Later, a legend would appear that Kerensky fled from the Winter Palace dressed in a woman’s dress, which was a complete fabrication. Kerensky left Minister of Trade and Industry Alexander Konovalov to act as head of government.

The day of November 7 was spent by the rebels to disperse the Pre-Parliament, which was meeting in the Mariinsky Palace not far from the already occupied Astoria. By noon, the building was cordoned off by revolutionary soldiers. From 12:30 p.m. soldiers began to enter, demanding that the delegates disperse. A prominent politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the first composition of the Provisional Government, Pavel Milyukov, later described the inglorious end of this institution: “No attempt was made to stop the group of members from reacting to events. This reflected the general awareness of the impotence of this ephemeral institution and the impossibility for it, after the resolution adopted the day before, to take any kind of joint action.”

The capture of the Winter Palace itself began at about 9 pm with a blank shot from the Peter and Paul Fortress, followed by a blank shot from the cruiser Aurora. Detachments of revolutionary sailors and Red Guards actually simply entered the Winter Palace from the Hermitage. By two o'clock in the morning the Provisional Government was arrested, the cadets, women and disabled people defending the palace partly fled before the assault, and partly laid down their arms. Already in the USSR, artists created a beautiful myth about the storming of the Winter Palace. But there was no need to storm the Winter Palace; the temporary workers from the Provisional Government were so tired of everyone that practically no one defended them.

Creation of the Soviet government

The uprising coincided with the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which opened on November 7 at 22:40. in the building of the Smolny Institute. Deputies from among the right Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and Bundists, having learned about the beginning of the coup, left the congress in protest. But by leaving they could not disrupt the quorum, and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, some of the Mensheviks and anarchists and delegates from national groups supported the actions of the Bolsheviks. As a result, Martov’s position on the need to create a government in which there would be representatives of all socialist parties and democratic groups was not supported. The words of the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin - “The revolution, the need for which the Bolsheviks have been talking about for so long, has come true!” - caused an ovation at the congress. Based on the victorious uprising, the Congress issued the appeal “To workers, soldiers and peasants!” proclaimed the transfer of power to the Soviets.

The victorious Bolsheviks immediately began legislative activity. The first laws were the so-called “Decree on Peace” - a call to all warring countries and peoples to immediately begin negotiations on the conclusion of universal peace without annexations and indemnities, to abolish secret diplomacy, to publish secret treaties of the tsarist and Provisional governments; and the “Decree on Land” - landowners’ land was subject to confiscation and transfer for cultivation to peasants, but at the same time all lands, forests, waters and mineral resources were nationalized. Private ownership of land was abolished free of charge. These decrees were approved by the Congress of Soviets on November 8 (October 26).

The Congress of Soviets formed the first so-called “workers' and peasants' government” - the Council of People's Commissars, headed by Vladimir Lenin. The government included Bolsheviks and Left Socialist Revolutionaries. L. D. Trotsky became the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, A. I. Rykov became the Commissioner of Internal Affairs, Lunacharsky became the Commissioner of Education, Skvortsov-Stepanov became the Commissioner of Finance, Stalin became the Commissioner of Nationalities, etc. The Committee on Naval Affairs included Antonov-Ovseenko, Krylenko and Dybenko. The highest body of Soviet power became the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK), headed by Chairman Lev Kamenev (in two weeks he will be replaced by Yakov Sverdlov).

Already on November 8, the resolution of the Military Revolutionary Committee also closed the first “counter-revolutionary and bourgeois” newspapers - “Birzhevye Vedomosti”, the cadet “Rech”, the Menshevik “Den” and some others. The “Decree on the Press,” published on November 9, stated that only press organs that “call for open resistance or disobedience to the Workers’ and Peasants’ Government” and “sowing confusion through clearly slanderous distortion of facts” are subject to closure. It was pointed out that the closure of newspapers was temporary until the situation normalized. On November 10, a new, so-called “workers’” militia was formed. On November 11, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree on an 8-hour working day and the regulation “On Workers' Control,” which was introduced at all enterprises that had hired workers (enterprise owners were obliged to comply with the requirements of “workers' control bodies”).

Illustration: OpenClipart-Vectors / pixabay

The Bolsheviks did not make either the revolution of 1905 or the February revolution of 1917.

The 1905 revolution began with an event known as Bloody Sunday, when troops opened fire on a procession of workers led by the priest Gapon. The procession itself was organized by the “Meeting of Russian Factory Workers of St. Petersburg” - the largest legal labor organization, headed by the same Gapon. The Bolsheviks not only did not participate in the activities of this organization, but even tried to oppose it, believing that it harmed the true revolutionary movement.

Only on the eve of the march, on January 7-8, the Bolsheviks, realizing the full scale of the goals and appreciating the revolutionary nature of the petition prepared by Gapon, decided to participate in the event, but their group was quite small (like the groups of the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries).

Subsequently, members of the RSDLP (b) recalled that the January strike and march came as a complete surprise to the Bolsheviks; they were not prepared for the events, either organizationally or technically.

Thus, Gapon and other leaders of the “Assembly” were involved in the revolution of 1905, as well as the authorities themselves, who created the preconditions for the procession and then dispersed it with the use of weapons. But not the Bolsheviks.

In the February Revolution of 1917, the participation of the Bolsheviks was a little more noticeable - their agitators acted among the soldiers of the Petrograd garrison and sailors of the Baltic Fleet, and worked on the streets of Petrograd. However, their influence on events was still small.

The main motive in the actions of the soldiers of the Petrograd garrison was the reluctance to participate in the dispersal of demonstrations, much less shoot at workers. Also, the soldiers, many of whom were reservists, were motivated by a reluctance to go to the front (one could even consider this as the basic motive for the uprising).

The sailors of the Baltic Fleet were driven by hatred of the officers, accumulated during a two-year stay on inactive battleships, which actually turned into disciplinary colonies. Moreover, according to their political views, most of the sailors were anarchists.

There were no Bolsheviks at all in the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet (council of workers' and soldiers' deputies), which, along with the Duma, became the “parliament of the revolution.”

The Bolsheviks have nothing to do with the abdication of Nicholas II. Rodzianko (the leader of the Octobrists) and a group of generals (Ruzsky, Alekseev and those who joined them) encouraged the emperor to abdicate. The railway communication, interruptions of which disrupted the emperor's plans, was taken under control by deputy Bublikov (a progressive).

Lenin about February revolution, Nicholas’ abdication and the uprising in Kronstadt I learned after the fact, while in Switzerland. The events came as a complete surprise to him and the decision to return to Russia was not made immediately. Lenin hesitated for some time, assessing the situation, and only on March 31 (a month after the start of the revolution) finally decided to go.

Lenin arrived in Petrograd on April 3, a month after Nicholas’s abdication - this in itself clearly shows the degree of Bolshevik readiness for the February Revolution of 1917 and participation in the events.

The Bolsheviks made their first attempt to seize power on July 3-4, 1917. However, there are also different versions regarding the role of the Bolsheviks in these events. But be that as it may, the attempt to seize power was unsuccessful in any case and the Provisional Government issued a decree arresting its organizers.

On July 5-9, Lenin hid in Petrograd, after which he moved to Razliv and settled first with the worker Emelyanov, and then in a hut that became legendary.

At the beginning of August, due to worsening weather and the approach of autumn, it was decided to transport Lenin to Finland. On August 8, Lenin left the hut, reached St. Petersburg and from there left for the Principality of Finland, where he remained until the beginning of October.

So how did the Bolsheviks ultimately manage to come to power if, figuratively speaking, they slept through two revolutions in a row - first in 1905, and then in February 1917?

How did the Bolsheviks manage to come to power if Lenin, the undisputed leader of the Bolsheviks, was in Switzerland during the February and March events and learned about the revolution after the fact, returned to Russia only a month later, and then was forced to hide again, went to Finland and finally only returned in October?

Why did the Bolsheviks come to power?

Kerensky and... General Kornilov helped the Bolsheviks come to power.

During July-August the situation in the Provisional Government became extremely complicated. On July 7, Prince Lvov, who headed the government, resigned and Kerensky became chairman.

It should be noted here that the Provisional Government was not at all a legal authority in the full sense of the word. It was formed by the Duma "committee", which arose at the end of February as a private meeting of deputies of the Duma, dissolved by decree of the emperor.

The Provisional Government was created by the Committee, which in turn was created not by law, but by situation, by a narrow group of people who formally had no powers at all, because the Duma at that time had already been formally dissolved. But even if the Duma had not been dissolved, the creation of the Committee would still not have been formalized by law. And no one gave this Committee the authority to form a government, and no one could have. The Deputy Committee could not form a government according to the laws that existed at that time.

In fact, starting from March 5, when Mikhail signed his manifesto on the elections of the Constituent Assembly, and until the elections themselves, which were to take place 6 months later, there was no legal power in Russia.

The provisional government worked only because someone had to govern the country and other authorities simply did not exist.

The provisional government was a kind of power in a situation of anarchy and uncertainty - uncertainty not only in the composition of the new permanent government, but even in the form of government.

And now in this Provisional Government, which already existed on a par with birds, new changes began.

The provisional government was not only illegal, but also failed to make the necessary decisions on the merits - it was not possible to carry out reforms, disagreements between different groups in the government were growing.

After the July events, contradictions also arose between the Provisional Government and the Soviets (Petrosoviet).

To get rid of the Soviets, behind whom stood armed soldiers and sailors, Kerensky decided to rely on General Kornilov and the army. However, Kornilov did not consider it necessary to serve the “temporary workers” and was inclined to establish a military dictatorship. Realizing this, Kerensky removed Kornilov from the post of commander-in-chief, but the general himself did not agree with this.

Due to the removal of Kornilov and the general’s insubordination, a new split arose both within the government and outside it. The attitude towards Kornilov also became twofold - some supported him, others, on the contrary, considered that the general had put himself “outside the law” (although the Provisional Government itself was essentially outside the law, starting from the first day).

An episode that vividly illustrates what was happening in those days was the visit on August 28 of the sailors of the cruiser Aurora to Trotsky in Kresty, where he was under arrest. The sailors guarding the Winter Palace, where the Provisional Government met, came to the arrested Trotsky to consult whether it was time to arrest the Provisional Government.

I think this fully demonstrates the paradoxical and confusing situation of those days.

However, the Kornilov mutiny led not only to a new split in the government and army, but also to very important practical consequences:

The Provisional Government, concerned about the actions and intentions of General Kornilov, turned to the Petrograd Soviet for help (which it had recently wanted to get rid of with the help of the general). The Petrograd Soviet demanded that the Bolsheviks be released from arrest and that the workers be armed.

As a result, Trotsky and other Bolsheviks were released on bail, and the workers received weapons.

On August 31, the Petrograd Soviet adopted the resolution proposed by the Bolsheviks on the transfer of power to the Soviets.

Following this, on September 1, Kerensky signed a government act proclaiming the Republic (which was again illegal, because the Provisional Government was not authorized to determine the form of government).

Thus, Kerensky, who first tried to enlist the support of General Kornilov and the army, and then tried to enlist the support of the Petrograd Soviet and the workers for protection from Kornilov, contributed to the establishment of the power of the soviets.

However, the Bolsheviks at that time did not fully control the Soviets, although they already had significant influence in them.

The growth of the Bolsheviks' influence in the Soviets was facilitated by the simple fact that the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, who attempted to work in the Provisional Government, discredited themselves, began to rapidly lose popularity and positions, and demonstrated their incapacity.

The fact that the Bolsheviks “slept through” the February revolution and did not take part either in the first executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet or in the work of the Provisional Government began to quickly turn from a disadvantage into an advantage.

The Provisional Government, which demonstrated its mediocrity and incapacity, illegality and inconsistency, not least through the efforts of Kerensky, was rapidly sinking and dragging to the bottom everyone who was in one way or another connected with it. That is, practically everyone except the Bolsheviks.

The last attempt to form a “democratic government” was made in mid-September and failed again - contradictions intensified, anarchy grew. Events have shown that in the current situation democracy does not work and any government in which all political forces are represented will turn out to be like the swan, the crayfish and the pike from the famous fable.

On October 18, at the instigation of Trotsky, at a meeting of representatives of the regiments of the Petrograd garrison, a decision was made to disobey the Provisional Government. In fact, this was the beginning of the October armed uprising in Petrograd.

In contrast to the events of July, when demonstrations took place, on the night of October 24-25, small detachments of the Red Guard and sailors of the Baltic Fleet disarmed the guards posted by the government, took control of the train stations, power plant, telephone, telegraph and other key facilities. Everything happened quietly, with virtually no shots fired. The government learned about the coup after the fact, when the telephones in the Winter Palace turned off and the lights went out.

At 21:00, a blank shot from the Peter and Paul Fortress became the signal for the storming of the Winter Palace. In fact, by that time everything had already been decided, the Provisional Government had lost all means of control and communication last night, Zimny ​​was guarded by a relatively small women's battalion(more like a company) and 2-3 companies of cadets.

The assault on Winter Palace was quite chaotic. The guns of the Peter and Paul Fortress fired on top of the building; Aurora generally fired blanks. How serious the assault was can be judged by the losses - only 6 soldiers and one shock worker from the female garrison are known for certain. This was such a severe assault.

On October 25, the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies took place in Smolny - and only then did the Bolsheviks, together with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, receive most votes.

As a result of the Congress, a homogeneous socialist government was formed, which put an end to the actual dual power that had lasted for six months between the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet, with complete legal anarchy.

So why did the Bolsheviks win?

Why not the right-wing democrats, not the Cadets, not the Mensheviks, not the anarchists, not the Provisional Government or someone else?

Simply because the Bolsheviks turned out to be almost the only political force that did not take part in the work of the Provisional Government, which was a team of swans, crayfish and pikes, unable not only to pull the cart of problems, but even to move it from its place due to the fact that that the team members constantly opposed each other.

The Octobrists, Cadets, Mensheviks, Right Socialist-Revolutionaries and some others who tried to form a “government hodgepodge” only interfered with each other and, as a result, drowned all together.

Soldiers and workers are simply tired of waiting for the “swan, crayfish and pike” in the person of the Provisional Government to finally “pull”.

In a situation of absolute legal anarchy (legal power did not exist in principle) and actual dual power between the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet, the Petrograd Soviet won, because it turned out to be more united ideologically, less fragmented, and less contradictory.

In the Provisional Government, different forces were pulling in different directions, and Kerensky rushed either to Kornilov, or vice versa to the Petrograd Soviet for protection from Kornilov - as a result, the “cart of problems” stood still.

In the struggle between the incompetent and contradictory Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet, the Petrograd Soviet won, which turned out to be capable and was able to choose its own direction of movement - correct or not, but the direction.

And inside the Petrosoviet, the Bolsheviks won, because the Mensheviks and right-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries discredited themselves by attempting to work as part of the Provisional Government and showed the same incapacity.

The anarchists, despite their popularity among sailors, did not have any clear ideas about what to do in the current situation - they had neither a program nor leaders capable of making decisions and developing any programs. And it couldn’t be, because the main thing among the anarchists was the denial of the monarchy, and what kind of power there should be and what to do - there was no clear answer to this question.

It can be said that in October 1917, the Bolsheviks simply got their turn to rule the country after everyone who stood in front of them consistently admitted their inability.

The Romanovs were the first to sign, back in early March 1917.

Following the Romanovs, Prince Lvov signed.

After this, the Provisional Government signed up and along with it the Mensheviks and Right Socialist Revolutionaries.

The Bolsheviks remained.

The Bolsheviks won precisely because they “slept through” February 1917 and did not take part in the work of the Provisional Government - this gave them the opportunity to maintain internal unity, trust from soldiers and sailors (soviets), as well as the opportunity to take into account the mistakes of other political forces and not attack on the same rake that the rest jumped on, trying to create a “combined” government.

The Bolsheviks won because in October everyone who was tired of the situation of complete legal anarchy and actual dual power began to unite around them. There was no other political force around which to unite; all the others practically trampled each other and lost all trust.

The Bolsheviks won because no one could stop them in October - consciously or not, but the Bolsheviks simply waited for the moment when everyone else had chewed each other out, wasted their energy and exhausted their political possibilities.

The Bolsheviks were the last or one of the last political forces in line to power.

The principle of “he who finds a way out is trampled first” worked - everyone climbed into the window of opportunity that opened after Nikolai’s abdication, trampling, pushing and throwing each other out. But the Bolsheviks simply waited for the moment and calmly walked through the open door, or rather, even the door torn from its hinges.

The Bolsheviks won not because they were so popular among the people - they were not so well known, ordinary workers and soldiers did not read the works of Marx and Lenin very much.

The Bolsheviks won not because their program was so brilliant or because they had some great forces, money, or armed people behind them. Armed people stood behind the Petrograd Soviet, and in it even on the eve of the October Revolution the Bolsheviks had a minority.

The Bolsheviks won because in a situation of anarchy they were almost the only ones who were able to offer power, and unified, integral power, and not piecemeal, intermittent and internally contradictory, which was the power of the Provisional Government.

Soldiers, sailors, workers and everyone else were simply tired of living without power and certainty in the future, without control, without understanding the future, without prospects, in a situation of chaos and crisis - that’s why they accepted the Bolsheviks.

Then, when the Soviet government strengthens and begins to write its history, everything will be presented in such a way that the Bolsheviks have been marching to power with a firm step since time immemorial, the people have been waiting for them for many years, read Iskra and Pravda in cities and villages, almost overthrew the king to establish Soviet power under the leadership of Lenin.

The result of many years of spreading this myth is that many still think that the Tsar was driven out by the Bolsheviks and they made all three revolutions - 1905, February 1917, and then the October.

No, the Bolsheviks did not carry out either the 1905 revolution or the February 1917 revolution. And even October revolution What was done was not so much the Bolsheviks as Kerensky, Kornilov and the Petrosovet as a collective body of workers' and soldiers' deputies (most of whom were not Bolsheviks). And the sailors, who were mostly anarchists.

The Bolsheviks completed the revolution, put an end to anarchy in Russia, an end to anarchy and chaos, and restored order.

The Bolsheviks won because no one else could offer order in Russia in 1917.

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