November 7 – October 25, 1917: The Winter Palace Encircled

The Military Revolutionary Committee launches its plan to encircle the Winter Palace and trap the ministers of the Provisional Government inside. Lashevich at Smolny, Podvoisky and Antonov in the front lines, and Chudnowsky, lately arrived from the front, were in charge. The plan involved joint operations between naval and ground forces. Moreover, the ground forces included marines, garrison infantry, and detachments of the Red Guards. So the field headquarters were in the Peter and Paul, with subordinate commands on the cruiser Aurora, in the Pavlovsky Regiment, and in the barracks of the marines.

By its very nature, encirclement is a difficult maneuver, even for competent generals with experienced staffs – not to mention practiced coordination between the different branches of the service. Needless to say the politicians on the Military Committee encountered difficulties and delays.

At first the committee promised it to take the palace by 10:00 a.m. This would have made the announcement at that hour true without qualification. As it was, Petrograd had been taken, but not the Provisional Government – even though the government was, as the War Ministry wired the front, “in the capital of a hostile state.”

Trotsky thinks a coup de main would have worked late that morning or even that afternoon – just rush the main entrance with the troops on hand. Two considerations, I believe, must have militated against this tactic. The first was political: the insurrection had been bloodless up until then; an assault would have drawn blood. This consideration was apparently later dropped. The second consideration was strategic: the object was to capture the Provisional Government alive and whole; in the confusion of an assault, some of them, maybe someone brave or clever enough to continue the resistance, might have got away. Moreover it would have been a very bad thing for the insurrection to kill a socialist minister by mistake.

At any rate, the Military Committee went ahead with its plan. Different kinds of detachments, under differing chains of command, had to take their places in the line. Though this complicated movements still further, the committee assembled the encirclement out of sight of the palace. Action was planned for 10:00 a.m., but a naval force of ships and marines from Kronstadt failed to arrive in time. 

The committee decided to wait on the Kronstadters. It took time: noon passed; 3:00 p.m. passed. All afternoon, Podvoisky and Antonov were under pressure from Smolny. The Bolshevik’s political plan called for the liquidation of the Provisional Government before the Congress of Soviets was convened. That would clear the way for the Congress to assume the state power on behalf of the soviets. But the delegates had been summoned for the 25^th (November 7, new style). So Smolny was under pressure too. After 6:00 p.m., even though the Kronstadters had arrived and were at their posts, Podvoisky and Antonov stopped making promises about when the palace would be taken.