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.
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she lost every single swing state lmao. maybe im ODing on hopium but im choosing to interpret this as a substantial portion of americans saying “we don’t want any more genocide and austerity” in the only way available to them
Death to America
I was finally able to get a keffiyeh from Hirbawi the other day! I was hoping for a standard black and white one but that was sold out. But they did have one that was basically the same except some of the designs were red and green instead of black (like the Palestinian flag) which was pretty cool
voteball got the general tenor of today’s mega a lil spicy and prickly it seems…
voteball delenda est
because of stagflation we have really big stags
wordlessly bounced from the writing meetup early yesterday cuz i was in such a bad mood and hate the venue they choose for the thing so much (one of those apple store aesthetic sterile looking coffee shops with fluorescent lighting) and i didn’t eat enough that day. a snag in Operation Commune With the Other, to be sure.
Researching new phones by searching “does it run the GTA V companion app”
What’s a good small gift for someone you barely know?
A giftcard for like clothes or coffee
winter hat/gloves, if you’re in that kind of climate
A nice pastry.
Monday Morning Quarterbacking, but it’s nice to see more people are starting to say that Obama won his election by lying about being progressive and that worked.
this is something i legitimately do not get. oh course he lied. politicians lie. so why didn’t they? i don’t think the electorate got any wiser, but this campaign refused to make the specific promises—for no discernible reason? they couldn’t seriously be worried about getting called out on a promises factsheet or whatever, their pet media just lies on those too. do they think donors will take them seriously and they can’t wink at them at a fundraiser? it’s a baffling unforced error for which i have no explanation
Furthermore, was their commitment to trying to win “moderate Republican” votes so much that they didn’t want to make promises that Trump could have called communist? Because its not as if he wasn’t already doing it.
Job interview via zoom in 40 minutes. Time to put on the “not-hostile-to-capitalist non-leftist bookkeeper” persona.
Could someone please accomplish world socialist revolution in the next 40 minutes or so? I’d rather not do this.
Oh shit. Got to this comment too late. Hope you made it through comrade.
It actually went pretty well, thanks! The guy interviewing me was decidedly non-chuddish and plain spoken. I’ve got a good feeling about this. I mean death to capitalism of course. But until the revolution comes I gotta pay rent and groceries.
I got something on my white shoelaces that looks like blood but I wouldve noticed if someone spilt some on me and can’t think of what else it could be
if you hate kids with all your soul become a teacher
nothing is more of a loser move than becoming a teacher
Teachers are libs and ivory tower socialists, real ones would have stopped buying things for their students as a collective action.
The most damning thing about Harris campaign is that less republicans voted for Kamala than they did for Biden in 2020. Fucking infuriates me that appealing to republicans was even a talking point.
I was arguing with a chucklefuck claiming it didnt hurt that she did this. It literally didnt help and wasted resources.
But you see even more Republicans would have voted for Teump if she didn’t give the ones who wouldn’t vote for her everything they wanted.
wish i was trans or queer or gay or anything instead of just being a loser white cishet male who cant find a job and cant afford his rent and deserves anything that happened to him
As a cis white male, that’s an incredibly terrible thing to say and reeks of ignorance. Do some self-crit, you are not in the same danger as queer comrades are and do not go through nearly the same struggles. I am not trying to say your struggles aren’t real, they absolutely are, but it’s best not to minimize the struggles of others in voicing your own. Not trying to dog on you.
As for getting a job, there are great resources that can help you find employment, and c/Mutual_Aid is fantastic if you need help. Your struggles are valid, but not the way you framed them.
oh i know its not a very nice thing to say but im a miserable fuck so what can i do
nothing truly bad ever happened to me booo hoooo another male suicide or homeless drug addict for the statistics
Depression is valid, your feelings are valid, you don’t need to take this “reverse-racism” stance. You can get the help you need. Do you want someone to talk to? You can feel free to DM me if you want to talk in private, but you need to redirect your thinking. Help is there for you, we have your back.
My struggles are valid too, my life is not perfect. However, we must analyze our struggles correctly to know how to overcome them.
I am being fully sincere, I am sorry you are going through struggle. We can help, and we are here for you.
I won’t bother linking the article, but it was darkly amusing to see, literally the morning after Harris’s loss, the NYTimes put out an article about how, actually, inflation was a pretty big problem after all, and maybe the administration could’ve done more to assuage people’s frustration about price increases.
OOOOOPS
Before: But about everything
After:
i do not want to move back in with my parents jesus christ everything fucking sucks fuck
the problem with my parents is that they were too good at being parents. they didn’t instill me with their ideology or hopes and dreams so i could make my own, which makes capitalisms never-ending never-ceasing attempts to kill my soul and heart even more damning. my parents were weird failed hippies who built their sad little lifes themselves and managed to gain whatever stability they could, but you can’t do that anymore in 2024 because we live in a complete late-stage capitalist hellworld
i should have just become a car mechanic and played soccer all my life instead of my half assed attempts at an alternate lifestyle at least i wouldn’t have known how miserable i am
everything my parents did for me and for themselves they could do because their landlords have not raised their rent in thirty years and my mother somehow got her job right before they stopped giving new nurses any of the benefits. they were very lucky people so we could pretend to be kinda middle class