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Unlock This CourseAfter the Kornilov Revolt the Bolsheviks were stronger than ever. They won majorities in the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets, and Trotsky became chairman of the Petrograd Soviet in late September. Lenin was still in hiding in Finland, but he sent letters demanding an armed uprising. (Dates are in the Russian calendar, 13 days behind Western Europe, so the 'October Revolution' fell in November in the West.)
Key terms:
Lenin returned secretly to Petrograd in early October. On 10 October the Bolshevik Central Committee voted ten to two for an armed uprising. Zinoviev and Kamenev opposed it. They said the party should wait and win seats in the Constituent Assembly.
Kerensky ordered Bolshevik newspapers closed. The Military Revolutionary Committee answered by sending soldiers and Red Guards to guard the printing works. Over the next day they took the bridges, railway stations, telegraph and post offices and the State Bank. That evening Lenin wrote that delay was fatal and went to the Smolny.
Kerensky left the city to find loyal troops. The Winter Palace, where the ministers sat, was surrounded. The cruiser Aurora fired a blank shot as a signal, and during the night cadets and other defenders gave way. The ministers were arrested. Very few people died.
On the evening of 25 October the Second Congress of Soviets opened at the Smolny with the Bolsheviks as the largest party. The Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries walked out in protest, and the Congress backed the new Soviet power. What the new rulers did next is in the lesson Holding On to Power: Decrees, the Constituent Assembly and Brest-Litovsk.
He pushed his party to act. He argued the Bolsheviks had a majority and a moment that would not return, and he overcame the doubts of Zinoviev and Kamenev. The party might otherwise have waited.
As chairman of the Petrograd Soviet he organised the rising. The Military Revolutionary Committee won over the garrison, and he presented the rising as a defence of the Congress of Soviets, so soldiers were willing to obey.
This is a Paper 2 Section A (c) question. You must use Extract C, Sources A and B and your own knowledge. Give evidence that supports the view and evidence that challenges it, then reach a judgement.
Source A: From a letter by Lenin to the Bolshevik Central Committee and the Petrograd and Moscow Committees, written in hiding, September 1917.
The Bolsheviks, having obtained a majority in the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies of both capitals, can and must take state power into their own hands. ... The majority of the people are on our side. ... The present task must be an armed uprising in Petrograd and Moscow (with its region), the seizing of power and the overthrow of the government.
Source B: From a message by Alexander Konovalov, Acting Prime Minister of the Provisional Government, sent by direct wire to army headquarters (the Stavka), 7 pm, 25 October 1917 (translated).
The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies has declared the Provisional Government deposed and demands the transfer of power under the threat of bombarding the Winter Palace from the Peter and Paul Fortress and the cruiser "Aurora." ... [The Government] has decided not to yield and appeals to the nation and the army for protection. Rush the dispatch of troops.
Extract C (a practice extract written for this lesson, in the style of a modern history book)
The Bolshevik victory in October 1917 owed almost everything to Lenin. Other leaders wavered, but he demanded action from hiding and refused to accept delay. Without his pressure the party would have waited for the Congress of Soviets, and the chance would have gone. The Provisional Government was weak, but it might have survived.
Study Extract C. Extract C suggests that the Bolshevik takeover in October 1917 succeeded mainly because of Lenin. How far do you agree with this interpretation? Use Extract C, Sources A and B and your own knowledge to explain your answer. [16 marks]
Extract C says the takeover 'owed almost everything to Lenin', and there is good evidence for this. Source A shows him urging action from hiding, saying the Bolsheviks 'can and must take state power into their own hands' and that 'the present task must be an armed uprising'. My own knowledge supports the extract's claim that others 'wavered'. On 10 October the Central Committee voted ten to two for an uprising only after Lenin had returned in secret, and Zinoviev and Kamenev opposed it. Without his pressure the party may well have waited for the Congress of Soviets, as Extract C argues.
However, 'almost everything' goes too far. Source A itself says 'The majority of the people are on our side', which suggests the Bolsheviks had support that did not depend on Lenin alone. That support grew after the Kornilov Revolt, when they won majorities in the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets, and from promises of peace, bread and land.
Trotsky was also vital. As chairman of the Petrograd Soviet he used the Military Revolutionary Committee to win over the garrison, and he presented the rising as a defence of the Congress of Soviets. Source B backs this up. Konovalov says 'The Petrograd Soviet ... has declared the Provisional Government deposed', naming the Soviet, not Lenin, and the threat comes from the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Aurora.
Source B also shows the Government's weakness. It can only appeal 'to the nation and the army for protection' and ask for troops to be rushed, and almost none arrived in time. Kerensky had left the city to find them. The Government had been ruined by the war, hunger, the Kornilov crisis and its own delays, so a well-organised party could take power with very little fighting. Extract C admits this but plays it down.
Overall, I only partly agree. Lenin was the decisive push that made the Bolsheviks act when they did, but the takeover also needed Trotsky's organisation, mass support and a Government nobody would defend. The last of these was the most important, because without it the rising could not have been won so easily.
What lifts this to the top level: it uses Extract C and both sources with short quotations, adds precise own knowledge, weighs the support against the challenge, and reaches a judgement based on which factor mattered most.
Plan three paragraphs before you write: support from the extract, a source and your own knowledge; then the challenge from the other source and your own knowledge; then a judgement that says which factor mattered most and why.