Red October Approaches

 

One hundred years ago this week, plus three, the pace of events leading up to the October Revolution picked up, so much so that I will post weekly instead of day-by-day during this time.

October 25 – October 12, 1917: Regulations for Insurrection. Draft regulations from the newly formed Military Revolutionary Committee, useful for an insurrection but with ample precedents since the February Revolution, were approved by the Petrograd Soviet. Read  about it here.

October 28 – October 15, 1917: Reed’s Interviews at Smolny. The American journalist John Reed, author of Ten Days That Shook the World, interviewed Kamenev and Volodarsky, members of the Bolshevik Central Committee, among other things about the coming Congress of Soviets. They did discuss the transfer of state power to the soviets, but not, of course, the manner in which it actually was to come about. Read about it here.

October 29 – October 16, 1917: Why the Delay? Lenin, in exile and therefore not fully informed about the state of things in the capital, called a meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee and ventured into the suburbs of Petrograd to attend it. Having received assurances that things were moving with such speed and force that the insurrection could hardly be stopped, he moved a resolution of “vigorous preparations.” It prevailed, again, with only Kamenev and Zinoviev dissenting. Read about it here.

October 30 – October 17, 1917: Congress Postponed. Right-socialists on the Central Executive Committee of the soviets put off the planned national Congress of Soviets by five days, hoping to increase their share of the vote during the interim. The tactic backfired: the Bolsheviks were the gainers by it. Read about it here.

October 31 – October 18, 1917: The Garrison Conference. In a development that would prove to be decisive, the units of the Petrograd garrison nearly unanimously adopted the policy that orders not countersigned by the Petrograd Soviet would not be obeyed. This of course left the right-socialists of the Central Executive Committee of the soviets out of the loop. For the Petrograd Soviet was dominated by the Bolsheviks. Read about it here.

You can read the whole chapter on the Correlation of Forces here, and the chapter on the Day of the Petrograd Soviet here. Or read the whole story from the beginning by following this link.

Zinoviev and Kamenev Dissent

 

One hundred years ago today, plus three, Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, the two members who opposed the Bolshevik Central Committee vote for insurrection, published a pamphlet stating their views of the matter – though of course remaining silent on the actual  Bolshevik vote. Lenin called them “deserters,” but they recovered his good graces and were made members of the Politburo after the revolution.

 

Read about it here. Or read the whole chapter on Lenin’s Insurrection here. Or read the whole story from the beginning by following this link. 

  

Vote for Insurrection

 

One hundred years ago today, plus three, and a day after the Petrograd Soviet had proposed to create a Military Revolutionary Committee for the defense of the capital and thus of the revolution itself, the Bolshevik Central Committee met in a suburban apartment. Lenin, who attended in disguise, moved a vote for armed insurrection, which prevailed 10 votes to 2.

We’ll see about the dissenting votes in another post. Meanwhile, read about the Military Revolutionary Committee here, and the vote for insurrection here. Or read the whole chapter on Lenin’s Insurrection here. Or read the whole story from the beginning by following this link.

Council of the Republic

 

One hundred years ago today, plus three, Prime Minister Kerensky addressed the Council of the Republic, or Pre-Parliament, projected some two weeks before by the Democratic Conference of the soviets. Kerensky made it clear that the Pre-Parliament would have no authority of any kind, elective, legislative, or executive, over the Coalition Government he had in the meanwhile assembled.

On the same day, Lenin published “The Crisis Is Ripe” in Rabochy Put, making some of the same arguments for insurrection he would soon be making to the Bolshevik Central Committee.

Read about the Pre-Parliament here, and Lenin’s article here. Or read the whole chapter on Lenin’s Insurrection here. Or read the whole story from the beginning by following this link.

 

Lenin “posts” from exile

 

One hundred years ago today, plus three, responding to claims in the bourgeois and right-socialist press that the Bolsheviks would fail if they were given the chance to govern, Lenin caused his pamphlet “Can the Bolsheviks Retain State Power?” to be published while he was in exile. A fuller treatment of this subject may be found in his work The State and Revolution, which can still easily be found in print.

 

Read about it here. Or read the whole chapter on Lenin’s Insurrection here. Or read the whole story from the beginning by following this link.

Last Coalition vs. September Theses

 

One hundred years ago today, plus three, on the day after Kerensky announced another coalition government, destined to be his last, Lenin published the “Tasks of the Revolution,“ a kind of September version of the April Theses, in Rabochy Put. So while Kerensky was assigning ministries to bourgeois-liberal Cadets and right-socialists, that is, moving to the right, Lenin was reassessing Bolshevik strategy and tactics in light of recent developments, especially in the Petrograd Soviet, of which Trotsky had just been named president, and moving the revolution to the left.

 

Read about it here and here. Or read the whole chapter on Lenin’s Insurrection here. Or read the whole story from the beginning by following this link.

Result of the Democratic Conference

One hundred years ago today, plus three, the right-socialist dominated Democratic Conference adjourned, but not without leaving doors open, if not making outright concessions, to Kerensky and the bourgeois liberal Cadets. The conference’s final act, the creation of a Council of the Republic, “Pre-Parliament” for short, did nothing to forestall Kerensky’s next move.

 

Read about it here. Or read the whole chapter on the Democratic Conference here. Or read the whole story from the beginning by following this link.