Essay, Research Paper: Ten Days That Shook The World

During the Russian revolution there has been a period called "The Ten Days That Shook the World". This period didn t really last ten days but in the period of the second half of the month of October 1917 (Russian calendar). The Bolsheviks seized to power in that period which meant the end of the Provisional Government.
The provisional government s next mistake was to continue the war. Under pressure from Britain and France, the government agreed to make another military effort. The July offensive, however, was a complete disaster. When the news of the military disaster reached the civilian population, there were huge demonstrations, often led by Bolsheviks. Troops of the provisional government opened fire against the rioters. The government claimed that this July Revolution was a Bolshevik plot to seize power and that the Bolsheviks were paid by the Germans. Kerensky, the new premier, seemed to have triumphed.
The Bolshevik party choose very carefully the date in which they would overthrow the provisional Government as Lenin said in his speech:
November sixth will be too early. We must have an all-Russian basis for the rising,; and on the sixth all the delegates to the Congress will not have arrived....On the otherhand, November eighth will be too late. By any that time the Congress will be organized, and it is difficult for a large organized body of people to take swift, decisive action. We must act on the seventh, the day the Congress meets, so that we may say to it, "Here is the power! What are we going to do with it?"
This decision was taken on the night of the tenth of October 1917 which was confirmed six days later at a larger meeting. A military revolutionary committee was set up by the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet to supervise the defense of the capital, in case the government should proceed with any plans for abandoning it to the Germans. By 21 October the regimental committees of the Petrograd military force had accepted the military revolutionary committee as their supreme authority. By now the Red Guards were being armed and on October 23 the troops in the Peter-Paul fortress whose allegiance had until then been unknown quantity were won over by a visit from Trotsky, a move which put a further 100,000 rifles at the Bolsheviks disposal.
"All power to Soviets" had a totally different meaning now. So Trotsky's efforts are aimed at a new revolution hidden in the slogan. Lenin wanted to make revolution Now. Trotsky wanted to couple it with the meeting of the All Russian Soviet. Under the lawful cloak of a broadly elected, popular-representative body, the Soviets, the conspiracy could be planned and prepared with a degree of carefulness which made Lenin's plan for a spontaneous coup by the Party appear to be an irresponsible adventure.
Thus Trotsky became the chief of the general staff of the Bolshevik insurrection. All threads of the conspiracy were now in Trotsky's hand. The Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party still debated fundamental questions endlessly while Trotsky took concrete action. Lenin tried to persuade Kamenev and Zenoviev who wanted to wait until the meeting of the Constituent Assembly took place. Ominously, on October 20 Trotsky and the Bolsheviks left Kerensky's Preliminary Parliament. The new Bolshevik slogans were "Petrograd is in danger", "Revolution is in danger", "People are in danger"! On October 21 Lenin returned secretly to the city to participate in the Central Committee meeting of October 23. This was a historic meeting of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. Only 12 people were present and accounted for. Ten of them voted for immediate revolution, thus completely isolating the two democratic holdouts, Kamenev and Zenoviev. A new Politburo is elected, including Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Sokolnikov, Bubnov, Kamenev, Zenoviev. (Kamenev and Zenoviev resign a few days later).
The All Russian Soviet Congress was supposed to meet on November 2, but the Menshevik majority decided to postpone to November 7, which enormously helped the Bolsheviks. They had a week to prepare the insurrection. The Insurrection proper took place on the evening of November 6. St. Petersburg regiments voted to take orders only from Trotsky as the representative of the Military Revolutionary Committee (November 3). This is the first step in the mutiny. On November 5 the Military Revolutionary Committee appointed commissars for all military units around St. Petersburg. The government delivered a counter-stroke on November 6 by occupying the newspaper offices of the Bolsheviks, but this merely gave Trotsky a pretext to strike the first blow. The revolution began without a shot. Insurgent troops occupied all bridges, railroad stations, post offices and other public buildings. The Winter Palace, seat of the Provisional Government, was taken without much trouble. The cruiser Aurora in Neva river simply bombarded the Winter Palace, as the insurgents fought against a few ensigns and a battalion of women. This was all the government could get to defend itself. During the night of November 7-8 the government capitulated.
Late in the evening of November 6 the Soviet Congress met as planned. Though the Bolsheviks did not have a absolute majority, they could rely on the support of the left wing Social Revolutionaries. The sessions had hardly begun when the right wing Social Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks declared that the Congress could not continue to meet under the threat of arms which the bombardment of the Winter Palace had just signaled. As a protest against the insurrection they left the hall. In so doing they surrendered the field to the Bolsheviks.
With triumphant scorn Trotsky could now reject all cooperation with the moderate Socialists; "Your role is played out," he shouted. "Go where you belong from now on--into the rubbish-can of history." At this point the left wing Mensheviks under Martov had no choice but to leave the Congress too. The Bolsheviks now had an absolute majority and could sanction what had happened. The rising in St. Petersburg had succeeded. The Bolsheviks were in power.
The provisional government failed from the start to appreciate need for immediate reform. Although the council was reorganized to include Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, little was done to satisfy the people s needs. No move was made to grant the peasants land. The industrial worker s wages still lagged behind prices. When Alexander Kerensky became premier in July, Lenin said The Kerensky government is revolutionary in name only. They promise bread, but the speculators still hold it.