October 29 – October 16, 1917: Why the Delay?

Lenin, alarmed at the delay in launching the insurrection and, in isolation, not fully aware of the steps that were being taken, insists on a new meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee. The meeting, held in a suburb of Petrograd, included leaders of other organizations involved in preparations. Trotsky could not be present, as he was engaged in the business described in the previous entry.

Doubts and hesitation, to Lenin’s dismay, having been expressed, Ensign Krylenko took the lead in explaining the situation. He said, “the water is boiling hard enough,” so hard in fact that in essence the insurrection had already begun; there was no need to set a date for it.

Lenin did not respond. Kamenev claimed, “We have no machine of insurrection.” To this Lenin replied that the political decision had been made; the party must continue to build the operational basis for it. Only then could the people, led by the party, take the reins. Joffe, who sat on the Military Revolutionary Committee, emphasized that, for the last step, political work still remained to be done.

Lenin’s new resolution called for “an all-sided and vigorous preparation of armed insurrection.” It passed 20 to 2, with 3 abstentions and only Kamenev and Zinoviev against. But the real balance of opinion on the committee was revealed by the vote on Zinoviev’s resolution ruling out any action until the Congress of Soviets convened and the committee could meet with the Bolshevik caucus. It failed 15 votes to 6, with 3 abstentions. So even though the committee was moving to the left, Lenin’s line could only command some two-thirds of the votes.

The committee also received a report, on the whole favorable, on the attitude of the garrisons surrounding Petrograd.

Meanwhile, the American journalist Reed heard Foreign Minister Tereshechenko’s speech to the Pre-Parliament in the Mariinsky Palace. Apparently the instructions the Pre-Parliament gave Skobelev for presentation to the allied conference in Paris had caused some embarrassment. Reed says “Nobody was satisfied” with the speech, not even the Cadets.