The
October Revolution , also known as the
Soviet Revolution or
Bolshevik Revolution, was a political
revolutionA revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
and a part of the Russian Revolution. It began with an armed insurrection in Petrograd traditionally dated to 25 October 1917
Julian calendarThe Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, and came into force in 45 BC . It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year, known at least since Hipparchus...
(7 November 1917
Gregorian calendarThe Gregorian calendar is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was first proposed by the Calabrian doctor Aloysius Lilius, and decreed by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, on 24 February 1582 by the papal bull Inter gravissimas...
). It was the second phase of the
Russian Revolution of 1917The Russian Revolution is the collective term for the series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. In the first revolution of February 1917 the Czar was deposed and replaced by a Provisional government...
, after the
February RevolutionThe February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It occurred March 8–12 and its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the collapse of Imperial Russia and the end of the Romanov dynasty. The non-Communist Russian Provisional Government under...
of the same year. The October Revolution overthrew the
Russian Provisional GovernmentThe Russian Provisional Government was the short-lived administrative body which sought to govern Russia immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in February 1917. In September 14, the State Duma of the Russian Empire officially dissolved the newly created Directorate, and the...
and gave the power to the
SovietA soviet originally was a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia. According to the official historiography of the Soviet Union, the first Soviet was organized during the 1905 Russian Revolution in Ivanovo in May 1905...
s dominated by Bolsheviks. It was followed by the
Russian Civil WarThe Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Soviets under the domination of the Bolshevik party assumed power, first in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a multi-party war that...
(1917–1922) and the creation of the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
in 1922.
The revolution was led by the
BolshevikThe Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903...
s, who used their influence in the
Petrograd SovietThe Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies , usually called the Petrograd Soviet , was the soviet in Petrograd , Russia, established in March 1917 after the February Revolution as the representative body of the city's workers.The Petrograd Soviet became important during the Russian...
to organize the armed forces. Bolshevik
Red GuardsIn the context of the history of Russia and Soviet Union, Red Guards were armed groups of workers formed in the time frame of the Russian Revolution of 1917. They were the main strike force of the Bolsheviks...
forces under the
Military Revolutionary CommitteeMilitary Revolutionary Committee also known as the Milrevcom was the name for military organs under the soviets during the period of the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War. The most notable ones were those of the Petrograd Soviet, the Moscow Soviet, and at Stavka.These committees were in...
began the takeover of government buildings on 24 October. On 25 October (
JCThe Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, and came into force in 45 BC . It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year, known at least since Hipparchus...
) the
Winter PalaceThe Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, was, from 1732 to 1917, the official residence of the Russian Tsars. Situated between the Palace Embankment and the Palace Square, adjacent to the site of Peter the Great's original Winter Palace, the present and fourth Winter Palace was built and...
(the seat of the Provisional government located in Petrograd, then capital of
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
), was captured.
Etymology
Initially, the event was referred to as the
October coup (Октябрьский переворот) or the
Uprising of 25th, as seen in contemporary documents (for example, in the first editions of
LeninVladimir Ilyich Lenin , born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov , was the Bolshevik Leader of the 1917 October Revolution, and the first Head of State of the Soviet Union; in the course of his political career, he used the pseudonyms Lenin, V. I. Lenin, Nikolai Lenin, and N. Lenin...
's complete works). With time, the term October Revolution came into use – it is also known as the "November Revolution," having occurred in November according to the Gregorian Calendar – and the event became seen as an event of major importance.
The
Great October Socialist Revolution (
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
: Великая Октябрьская Социалистическая Революция,
Velikaya Oktyabr'skaya sotsialisticheskaya revolyutsiya) was the official name for the October Revolution in the Soviet Union [Советский Союз] after the 10th anniversary of the Revolution in 1927.
Background
A nationwide crisis had developed in Russia affecting social, economic, and political relations. The policies of the Provisional Government had brought the country to the brink of catastrophe. Disorder in industry and transport had intensified, and difficulties in obtaining provisions had increased. Gross industrial production in 1917 had decreased by over 36 percent from what it had been in 1916. In the autumn, as much as 50 percent of all enterprises were closed down in the Urals, the Donbas, and other industrial centers, leading to mass unemployment. At the same time, the cost of living increased sharply. The real wages of the workers fell about 50 percent from what they had been in 1913. Russia’s national debt in October 1917 had risen to 50 billion rubles. Of this, debts to foreign governments constituted more than 11 billion rubles. The country faced the threat of financial
bankruptcyBankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay its creditors. Creditors may file a bankruptcy petition against a debtor in an effort to recoup a portion of what they are owed or initiate a restructuring...
.
In September and October 1917, there were strikes by the Moscow and Petrograd workers, the miners of the Donbas, the metalworkers of the Urals, the oil workers of Baku, the textile workers of the Central Industrial Region, and the railroad workers on 44 different railway lines. In these months alone more than a million workers took part in mass strikes. Workers established control over production and distribution in many factories and plants.
By October 1917 there had been over four thousand peasant uprisings against landowners. When the Provisional Government sent out punitive detachments it only enraged the peasants. The garrisons in Petrograd, Moscow, and other cities, the Northern and Western fronts, and the sailors of the Baltic Fleet in September openly declared through their elected representative body Tsentrobalt that they did not recognize the authority of the Provisional Government and would not carry out any of its commands.
In a diplomatic note of 1 May, the minister of foreign affairs, P.Miliukov, expressed the Provisional Government’s desire to carry the war through “to a victorious conclusion,” arousing broad indignation. On 1-4 May about 100 thousand workers and soldiers of Petrograd, and after them the workers and soldiers of other cities, led by the Bolsheviks, demonstrated under banners reading “Down with the war!” and “all power to the soviets!” The mass demonstrations resulted in a crisis for the Provisional Government.
On 1 July about 500,000 workers and soldiers in Petrograd demonstrated, demanding “all power to the soviets,” “down with the war,” and “down with the ten capitalist ministers.” The Provisional Government opened an offensive against the Germans on 1 July but it soon collapsed. The news of the offensive and its collapse intensified the struggle of the workers and the soldiers. A new crisis in the Provisional Government began on 15 July. On 16 July spontaneous demonstrations of workers and soldiers began in Petrograd, demanding that power be turned over to the soviets. The Central Committee of the RSDLP provided leadership to the spontaneous movements. A peaceful demonstration of 500,0000 was held in Petrograd. The Provisional Government, with the knowledge of the SR-Menshevik leaders of the All-Russian Executive Committee of the Soviets, ordered an armed attack by military officers against the demonstrators. Fifty-six people were killed and 650 wounded.
A period of repression followed. On 5-6 July attacks were made on the editorial offices and printing presses of Pravda and on the Palace of Kshesinskaia, where the Central Committee and the Petrograd Committee of the Bolsheviks were located. On 7 July a government decree ordering the arrest and trial of Lenin was published. He was forced to go underground, just as he had been under the tsarist regime. Bolsheviks began to be arrested, workers were disarmed, and revolutionary military units in Petrograd were disbanded or sent off to the front. On 12 July the Provisional Government published a law introducing the death penalty at the front. The formation of the second coalition government, with Kerensky as chairman, was completed on 24 July.
A conspiracy against the government began, headed by General
Lavr KornilovLavr Georgiyevich Kornilov was a senior Russian army general during World War I and the ensuing Russian Civil War...
, who had been Commander-in-Chief since 18 July. In response to a Bolshevik appeal, Moscow’s working class began a protest strike of 400,000 workers. The Moscow workers were supported by strikes and protest rallies by workers in Koev, Kharkov, Nizhny Novgorod, Ekaterinburg, and other cities. On 25 August General Kornilov began a military revolt and started troops moving toward Petrograd. The Central Committee of the RSDLP appealed on 27 August to the workers, soldiers, and sailors of Petrograd to come to the defense of the revolution. The Bolshevik Party mobilized and organized the people to defeat the Kornilov revolt. The Red Guard in the capital, which by then numbered about 25,000 fighters, was supported by the garrison of the city, the Baltic sailors, the railroad workers, the workers of Moscow, the Donbas, the Urals, and the soldiers at the front and in the rear. The defeat of Kornilov’s revolt disorganized and weakened the counterrevolutionary group, demonstrated the strength of the revolutionary forces, increased the authority of the Bolsheviks, and proved to be one of the decisive stages in the struggle for the victory of the socialist revolution.
With Kornilov’s failed putsch, the Bolsheviks' popularity with the soviets significantly increased. During and after the defeat of Kornilov a mass turn of the soviets toward the Bolsheviks began, both in the central and local areas. On 31 August the Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldiers Deputies and on 5 September the Moscow Soviet Workers Deputies adopted the Bolshevik resolutions on the question of power. The Bolsheviks won a majority in the soviets of Briansk, Samara, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, Minsk, Kiev, Tashkent, and other cities. In one day alone, 1 September, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets received demands from 126 local soviets urging it to take power into its own hands.
Events
On 10 October
JCThe Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, and came into force in 45 BC . It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year, known at least since Hipparchus...
(all dates hereafter are from the Julian calendar unless otherwise noted), the Bolsheviks' Central Committee voted 10-2 for a resolution saying that "an armed uprising is inevitable, and that the time for it is fully ripe".
On 23 October 1917 (November 5 by the
Gregorian calendarThe Gregorian calendar is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was first proposed by the Calabrian doctor Aloysius Lilius, and decreed by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, on 24 February 1582 by the papal bull Inter gravissimas...
(GC)),
BolshevikThe Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903...
leader
Jaan AnveltJaan Anvelt Jaan Anvelt Jaan Anvelt (in Russian Ян Анвельт, also known by the pseudonyms Eessaare Aadu, Jaan Holm, Jaan Hulmu, Kaarel Maatamees, Onkel Kaak or Н...
led his leftist revolutionaries in an uprising in
TallinnTallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies a surface of in which 405,867 inhabitants live. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki.-Historical names:...
, the capital of the
Autonomous Governorate of EstoniaThe local autonomy in Estonia was established as a result of the Russian Revolution of 1917. For the duration of control by Imperial Russia, Estonia was divided between two governorates . The Governorate of Estonia in the north corresponded roughly to the area of Danish Estonia and the northern...
. On 25 October (7 November GC) 1917, Bolsheviks led their forces in the uprising in
Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd and Leningrad...
(then known as Petrograd), the capital of
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, against the ineffective Kerensky Provisional Government. For the most part, the revolt in Petrograd was bloodless, with the
Red GuardsIn the context of the history of Russia and Soviet Union, Red Guards were armed groups of workers formed in the time frame of the Russian Revolution of 1917. They were the main strike force of the Bolsheviks...
led by Bolsheviks taking over major government facilities with little opposition before finally launching an assault on the
Winter PalaceThe Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, was, from 1732 to 1917, the official residence of the Russian Tsars. Situated between the Palace Embankment and the Palace Square, adjacent to the site of Peter the Great's original Winter Palace, the present and fourth Winter Palace was built and...
on the night of 25/26 October. The assault led by
Vladimir Antonov-OvseenkoVladimir Alexandrovich Antonov-Ovseyenko , real surname Ovseyenko, was a prominent Soviet Bolshevik leader and diplomat. Ethnically he was a Ukrainian, born in Chernigov into an officer's family....
was launched at 9:45 p.m. signaled by a blank shot from the cruiser
Aurora. (The
Aurora was placed in Petrograd (modern Saint Petersburg) and still stands there now.) The Winter Palace was guarded by
CossackCossacks were originally members of military communities in the uninhabited borderland areas in the steppe that lies North of Black Sea...
s,
cadetA cadet is a trainee officer in the military, a junior branch of an important family, or simply a person who is a junior trainee.- Etymology :...
s (military students), and a
Women's BattalionWomen's Battalions were segregated all-female combat units formed after the February Revolution by the Russian Provisional Government in a last ditch effort to inspire the mass of war-weary soldiers to continue fighting in World War I until victory could be achieved...
. It was taken at about 2 a.m. The earlier date was made the official date of the Revolution, when all offices except the Winter Palace had been taken.
Later official accounts of the revolution from the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
would depict the events in October as being far more dramatic than they actually had been. (See firsthand account by British General
KnoxMajor-General Sir Alfred William Fortescue Knox was a career British military officer and later a Conservative Party politician.Born in Ulster, he joined the British Army and was posted to India....
). This was helped by the
historical reenactmentHistorical reenactment is a type of roleplay in which participants attempt to recreate some aspects of a historical event or period. This may be as narrow as a specific moment from a battle, such as the reenactment of Pickett's Charge at the Great Reunion of 1913, or as broad as an entire...
, entitled
The Storming of the Winter PalaceThe Storming of the Winter Palace was a 1920 mass spectacle, based on historical events that took place in Petrograd during the 1917 October Revolution....
staged in 1920. This reenactment, watched by 100,000 spectators, provided the model for subsequent official films which made much later showed a huge storming of the Winter Palace and fierce fighting (See
Sergei EisensteinSergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein was a revolutionary Soviet Russian film director and film theorist noted in particular for his silent films Strike, Battleship Potemkin and October, as well as historical epics Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible...
's
October: Ten Days That Shook the WorldOctober: Ten Days That Shook the World is a Soviet silent film made in by Sergei Eisenstein, sometimes referred to simply as October in English...
). In reality the Bolshevik insurgents faced little or no opposition. The insurrection was timed and organized to hand state power to the Second All-Russian
Congress of SovietsThe Congress of Soviets was the supreme governing body of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union in two periods, from 1917 to 1936 and from 1989 to 1991...
of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, which began on 25 October. After a single day of revolution eighteen people had been arrested and two had been killed.
Outcomes
The Second Congress of
SovietsA soviet originally was a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia. According to the official historiography of the Soviet Union, the first Soviet was organized during the 1905 Russian Revolution in Ivanovo in May 1905...
consisted of 670 elected delegates; 300 were Bolshevik and nearly a hundred were Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, who also supported the overthrow of the
KerenskyAlexander Fyodorovich Kerensky was a Russian politician. He served as the second Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government until Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, known commonly as Lenin, was elected by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets following the October Revolution.- Early life and...
Government. When the fall of the Winter Palace was announced, the Congress adopted a decree transferring power to the
SovietA soviet originally was a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia. According to the official historiography of the Soviet Union, the first Soviet was organized during the 1905 Russian Revolution in Ivanovo in May 1905...
s of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, thus ratifying the Revolution. The transfer of power was not without disagreement. The center and Right wings of the Socialist Revolutionaries as well as the Mensheviks believed that Lenin and the Bolsheviks had illegally seized power and they walked out before the resolution was passed. As they exited, they were taunted by Leon Trotsky who told them "You are pitiful isolated individuals; you are bankrupts; your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on — into the dustbin of history!" The following day, the Congress elected a Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) as the basis of a new Soviet Government, pending the convocation of a
Constituent AssemblyThe All Russian Constituent Assembly was a democratically elected constitutional body convened in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917. It met for 13 hours, from 4 PM to 5 AM 5 January–6 January 1918 . It was elected by popular vote and dissolved by the Bolshevik government...
, and passed the
Decree on PeaceThe Decree On Peace, written by Vladimir Lenin, was passed by the Second Congress of the Soviet of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies on the 26 October, 1917, following the success of the October Revolution. It was published in the Izvestiya newspaper, #208, October 27 1917...
and the
Decree on LandThe Decree on Land, written by Vladimir Lenin, was passed by the Second Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies on 26 October, 1917, following the success of the October Revolution. It decreed an abolition of private property, and the redistribution of the landed estates...
. This new government was also officially called "provisional" until the Assembly was dissolved.
The Council of People's Commissars now began to arrest the leaders of opposition parties. Dozens of Kadet leaders and members of the
Russian Constituent AssemblyA constituent assembly is a body composed for the purpose of drafting or adopting a constitution...
were imprisoned in The
Peter and Paul FortressThe Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706 to 1740.- History :...
. These were to be followed by the arrests of
Socialist-Revolutionary PartySR as an acronym may refer to:- Geography and politics :* The Slovak Republic, now known as Slovakia* Socialist Republic or socialist state* Socialist-Revolutionary, as in Socialist-Revolutionary Party- Non-political organizations :...
and
MenshevikThe Mensheviks were a faction of the Russian revolutionary movement that emerged in 1903 after a dispute between Vladimir Lenin and Julius Martov, both members of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party. The dispute originated at the Second Congress of that party, ostensibly over minor issues...
leaders. On 20 December 1917 the
ChekaThe Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by an aristocrat turned communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
was created by the decree of Lenin. These were the beginnings of the Bolshevik's consolidation of power over their political opponents.
The Decree on Land ratified the actions of the
peasantA peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists by working a small plot of ground. The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district A peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists...
s who throughout Russia seized private land and redistributed it among themselves. The Bolsheviks viewed themselves as representing an alliance of workers and peasants and memorialized that understanding with the
Hammer and SickleThe hammer and sickle is a part of communist symbolism and its usage indicates an association with Communism, a Communist party, or a Communist state. It features a hammer and a sickle overlapping each other. The two tools are symbols of the industrial proletariat and the peasantry; placing them...
on the flag and coat of arms of the Soviet Union.
Other decrees:
- All Russian banks were nationalized.
- Control of the factories was given to the soviets.
- Private bank accounts were confiscated.
- The Church's properties (including bank accounts) were seized.
- Wages were fixed at higher rates than during the war, and a shorter, eight-hour working day was introduced.
- All foreign debts were repudiated.
Bolshevik-led attempts to seize power in other parts of the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
were largely successful in Russia proper — although the fighting in
MoscowMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
lasted for two weeks — but they were less successful in ethnically non-Russian parts of the Empire, which had been clamoring for independence since the February Revolution. For example, the Ukrainian
RadaRada is the term for "council" or "assembly"borrowed by Polish from the Low Franconian "Rad" and later passed into the Czech, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages.Normally it is translated as "council"...
, which had declared autonomy on 23 June 1917, created the
Ukrainian People's RepublicThe Ukrainian People's Republic was a republic in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura.-Tsentralna Rada:The socialist-dominated Tsentralna Rada was established on...
on 20 November, which was supported by the Ukrainian Congress of Soviets. This led to an armed conflict with the Bolshevik government in Petrograd and, eventually, a Ukrainian declaration of independence from Russia on 25 January 1918. In
EstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by the Russian Federation...
, two rival governments emerged: the Estonian Provincial Assembly proclaimed itself the supreme legal authority of Estonia on 28 November 1917 and issued the
Declaration of IndependenceThe Estonian Declaration of Independence, also known as the Manifesto to the Peoples of Estonia , is the founding act of the Republic of Estonia from 1918. It is celebrated on 24 February, the National Day or Estonian Independence Day....
on 24 February 1918, while an Estonian Bolshevik sympathizer,
Jaan AnveltJaan Anvelt Jaan Anvelt Jaan Anvelt (in Russian Ян Анвельт, also known by the pseudonyms Eessaare Aadu, Jaan Holm, Jaan Hulmu, Kaarel Maatamees, Onkel Kaak or Н...
, was recognized by Lenin's government as Estonia's leader on 8 December, although forces loyal to Anvelt controlled only the capital.
The success of the October Revolution transformed the Russian state from parliamentarian to socialist in character. A coalition of anti-Bolshevik groups including invading armies from the victorious Allies attempted to unseat the new government in the
Russian Civil WarThe Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Soviets under the domination of the Bolshevik party assumed power, first in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a multi-party war that...
from 1918 to 1922.
The
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
did not recognize the new Russian government until 1933. The European powers recognized the Soviet Union in the early 1920s and began to engage in business with it after the
New Economic PolicyThe New Economic Policy was an economic policy proposed by Vladimir Lenin to prevent the Russian economy from collapsing...
(NEP) was implemented.
Soviet in memoriam of the event
The term
Red October (Красный Октябрь, Krasney Oktyabr) has also been used to describe the events of the month. This name has in turn been lent to a steel factory made notable by the
Battle of StalingradThe Battle of Stalingrad was a battle of World War II between Nazi Germany and its allies and the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 17 July 1942 and 2 February 1943....
, a
Moscow sweets factoryMoskovskaya Konditerskaya Fabrika Krasny Oktyabr Open Joint-Stock Company is a Russian confectionery manufacturer and a member of Obyedinyonnye Kontserny holding company. Krasny Oktyabr was founded by Theodor Ferdinand von Einem.- Alyonka :...
that is well-known in Russia, and a
fictional Soviet submarineThe Hunt for Red October is a 1984 novel by Tom Clancy. The story follows the intertwined adventures of Soviet submarine captain Marko Aleksandrovich Ramius and CIA analyst Jack Patrick Ryan.The novel was originally published by the U.S...
.
Sergei Eisenstein's film October describes and glorifies the revolution and was commissioned to commemorate the event.
7 November, the anniversary of the October Revolution, was an
official holiday in the Soviet UnionThere were eight major Public holidays in the Soviet Union. There were over 30 holidays total....
and still is in
BelarusBelarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
.
The October revolution of 1917 also marks the inception of the first Communist government in Russia. After this Russia became the USSR, which existed up until its dissolution in 1991.
See also
- February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It occurred March 8–12 and its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the collapse of Imperial Russia and the end of the Romanov dynasty. The non-Communist Russian Provisional Government under...
- Russian Revolution (1917)
- Arthur Ransome
Arthur Mitchell Ransome was an English author and journalist, best known for writing the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. These tell of school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads. Many of the books involve sailing; other common...
- John Reed
- Ten Days that Shook the World
Ten Days that Shook the World is a book by American journalist and socialist John Reed about the October Revolution in Russia in 1917 which Reed experienced firsthand...
- Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Soviets under the domination of the Bolshevik party assumed power, first in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a multi-party war that...
- Revolutions of 1917-23
The Revolutions of 1917–23 formed a revolutionary wave precipitated by the end of World War I in general and the Russian Revolutions of 1917 in particular. Some authorities date the wave as ending in 1919 or 1921....
External links
- The October Revolution Archive
- From Liberty to Brest-Litovsk -- Eye-witness to the first year of the bolshevik revolution
- Let History Judge Russia’s Revolutions, commentary by Roy Medvedev
Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev is a Russian historian renowned as the author of the dissident history of Stalinism, Let History Judge, first published in English in 1972...
, Project SyndicateProject Syndicate is an international not-for-profit newspaper syndicate and association of newspapers. It distributes commentaries and analysis by experts, activists, Nobel laureates, statesman, economists, political thinkers, business leaders and academics to its member publications, and...
, 2007