The October Revolution,[a] also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution[b] (in

Soviet historiography), October coup,[5][6] Bolshevik coup,[6] or Bolshevik

revolution,[7][8] was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin
that was a key moment in the larger Russian Revolution of 1917–1923. It was the second
revolutionary change of government in Russia in 1917. It took place through an
insurrection in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) on 7 November 1917 [O.S. 25 October].
It was the precipitating event of the Russian Civil War. The initial stage of the October
Revolution which involved the assault on Petrograd occurred largely without any human
casualties.[9][10][11] The October Revolution followed and capitalized on the February
Revolution earlier that year, which led to the abdication of Nicholas II and the creation
of a provisional government. The provisional government, led by Alexander Kerensky,
had taken power after Grand Duke Michael, the younger brother of Nicholas II, declined
to take power. During this time, urban workers began to organize into councils (soviets)
wherein revolutionaries criticized the provisional government and its actions. The
provisional government remained unpopular, especially because it was continuing to
fight in World War I, and had ruled with an iron fist throughout the summer (including
killing hundreds of protesters in the July Days). Events came to a head in the fall as the
Directorate, led by the left-wing Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries (SRs), controlled the
government. The far-left Bolsheviks were deeply unhappy with the government, and
began spreading calls for a military uprising. On 10 October 1917 (O.S.; 23 October,
N.S.), the Petrograd Soviet, led by Trotsky, voted to back a military uprising. On 24
October (O.S.; 6 November, N.S.) the government shut down numerous newspapers
and closed the city of Petrograd in an attempt to forestall the revolution; minor armed
skirmishes broke out. The next day a full scale uprising erupted as a fleet of Bolshevik
sailors entered the harbor and tens of thousands of soldiers rose up in support of the
Bolsheviks. Bolshevik Red Guards forces under the Military-Revolutionary Committee
began the occupation of government buildings on 25 October (O.S.; 7 November, N.S.),
1917. The following day, the Winter Palace (the seat of the Provisional government
located in Petrograd, then capital of Russia) was captured. As the Revolution was not
universally recognized, the country descended into the Russian Civil War, which would
last until 1923 and ultimately lead to the creation of the Soviet Union in late 1922. The
historiography of the event has varied. The victorious Soviet Union viewed it as a
validation of their ideology, and the triumph of the worker over capitalism. During Soviet
times, revolution day was a national holiday, marking its importance in the country's
founding story. On the other hand, the Western Allies saw it as a totalitarian coup, which
used the democratic Soviet councils only until they were no longer useful. The event
inspired many cultural works, and ignited communist movements across Europe and
globally. Many Marxist–Leninist parties around the world celebrate October Revolution
Day. The February Revolution had toppled Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and replaced his
government with the Russian Provisional Government. However, the provisional
government was weak and riven by internal dissension. It continued to wage World War
I, which became increasingly unpopular. There was a nationwide crisis affecting social,
economic, and political relations. Disorder in industry and transport had intensified,
and difficulties in obtaining provisions had increased. Gross industrial production in
1917 decreased by over 36% of what it had been in 1914. In the autumn, as much as
50% of all enterprises in the Urals, the Donbas, and other industrial centers were closed
down, leading to mass unemployment. At the same time, the cost of living increased
sharply. Real wages fell to about 50% of what they had been in 1913. By October 1917,
Russia's national debt had risen to 50 billion roubles. Of this, debts to foreign
governments constituted more than 11 billion roubles. The country faced the threat of
financial bankruptcy. Vladimir Lenin, who had been living in exile in Switzerland, with
other dissidents organized a plan to negotiate a passage for them through Germany,
with whom Russia was then at war. Recognizing that these dissidents could cause
problems for their Russian enemies, the German government agreed to permit 32
Russian citizens, among them Lenin and his wife, to travel in a sealed train carriage
through their territory. According to Deutsche Welle: On November 7, 1917, a coup
d'état went down in history as the October Revolution. The interim government was
toppled, the Soviets seized power, and Russia later terminated the Triple Entente
military alliance with France and Britain. For Russia, it was effectively the end of the war.
Kaiser Wilhelm II had spent around half a billion euros ($582 million) in today's money
to weaken his wartime enemy.[16] Upon his arrival Lenin gave his April Theses that
called on the Bolsheviks to take over the Provisional Government, usurp power, and end
the war. Throughout June, July, and August 1917, it was common to hear working-class
Russians speak about their lack of confidence in the Provisional Government. Factory
workers around Russia felt unhappy with the growing shortages of food, supplies, and
other materials. They blamed their managers or foremen and would even attack them in
the factories. The workers blamed many rich and influential individuals for the overall
shortage of food and poor living conditions. Workers saw these rich and powerful
individuals as opponents of the Revolution and called them "bourgeois", "capitalist",
and "imperialist".[17] In September and October 1917, there were mass strike actions
by the Moscow and Petrograd workers, miners in the Donbas, metalworkers in the Urals,
oil workers in Baku, textile workers in the Central Industrial Region, and railroad workers
on 44 railway lines. In these months alone, more than a million workers took part in
strikes. Workers established control over production and distribution in many factories
and plants in a social revolution.[18] Workers organized these strikes through factory
committees. The factory committees represented the workers and were able to
negotiate better working conditions, pay, and hours. Even though workplace conditions
may have been increasing in quality, the overall quality of life for workers was not
improving. There were still shortages of food and the increased wages workers had
obtained did little to provide for their families.[17] By October 1917, peasant uprisings
were common. By autumn, the peasant movement against the landowners had spread
to 482 of 624 counties, or 77% of the country. As 1917 progressed, the peasantry
increasingly began to lose faith that the land would be distributed to them by the Social
Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks. Refusing to continue living as before, they
increasingly took measures into their own hands, as can be seen by the increase in the
number and militancy of the peasant's actions. Over 42% of all the cases of destruction
(usually burning down and seizing property from the landlord's estate) recorded
between February and October occurred in October.[19] While the uprisings varied in
severity, complete uprisings and seizures of the land were not uncommon. Less robust
forms of protest included marches on landowner manors and government offices, as
well as withholding and storing grains rather than selling them.[20] When the Provisional
Government sent punitive detachments, it only enraged the peasants. In September,
the garrisons in Petrograd, Moscow, and other cities, the Northern and Western fronts,
and the sailors of the Baltic Fleet 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.[21] Soldiers' wives were key players in the
unrest in the villages. From 1914 to 1917, almost 50% of healthy men were sent to war,
and many were killed on the front, resulting in many females being head of the
household. Often—when government allowances were late and were not sufficient to
match the rising costs of goods—soldiers' wives sent masses of appeals to the
government, which went largely unanswered. Frustration resulted, and these women
were influential in inciting "subsistence riots"—also referred to as "hunger riots",
"pogroms", or "baba riots". In these riots, citizens seized food and resources from shop
owners, who they believed to be charging unfair prices. Upon police intervention,
protesters responded with "rakes, sticks, rocks, and fists."[22] In a diplomatic note of 1
May, the minister of foreign affairs, Pavel Milyukov, expressed the Provisional
Government's desire to continue the war against the Central Powers "to a victorious
conclusion", arousing broad indignation. On 1–4 May, about 100,000 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.[23] 1 July saw more demonstrations, as about 500,000 workers and
soldiers in Petrograd demonstrated, again 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 Central Powers on 1 July, which soon collapsed. The
news of the offensive's failure intensified the struggle of the workers and the soldiers. In
what became known as the Kornilov affair, General Lavr Kornilov, who had been
Commander-in-Chief since 18 July, with Kerensky's agreement directed an army under
Aleksandr Krymov to march toward Petrograd to restore order.[26] According to some
accounts, Kerensky appeared to become frightened by the possibility that the army
would stage a coup, and reversed the order. By contrast, historian Richard Pipes has
argued that the episode was engineered by Kerensky.[27] On 27 August, feeling betrayed
by the government, Kornilov pushed on towards Petrograd. With few troops to spare at
the front, Kerensky turned to the Petrograd Soviet for help. Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, and
Socialist Revolutionaries confronted the army and convinced them to stand down.[28]
The Bolsheviks' influence over railroad and telegraph workers also proved vital in
stopping the movement of troops. The political right felt betrayed, and the left was
resurgent. The first direct consequence of Kornilov's failed coup was the formal
abolition of the monarchy and the proclamation of the Russian Republic on 1
September.[29] With Kornilov defeated, the Bolsheviks' popularity in the soviets grew
significantly, 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
were able to take over in Briansk, Samara, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, Minsk, Kiev, Tashkent, and
other cities.[citation needed] On 10 October 1917 (O.S.; 23 October, N.S.), 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."[30] At the Committee meeting,
Lenin discussed how the people of Russia had waited long enough for "an armed
uprising," and it was the Bolsheviks' time to take power. Lenin expressed his confidence
in the success of the planned insurrection. His confidence stemmed from months of
Bolshevik buildup of power and successful elections to different committees and
councils in major cities such as Petrograd and Moscow.[31] Membership of the
Bolsehevik party had risen from 24,000 members in February 1917 to 200,000 members
by September 1917.[32] The Bolsheviks created a revolutionary military committee
within the Petrograd soviet, led by the Soviet's president, Leon Trotsky. The committee
included armed workers, sailors, and soldiers, and assured the support or neutrality of
the capital's garrison. The committee methodically planned to occupy strategic
locations through the city, almost without concealing their preparations: the Provisional
Government's President Kerensky was himself aware of them; and some details, leaked
by Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev, were published in newspapers.[33][34] In the
early morning of 24 October (O.S.; 6 November N.S.), a group of soldiers loyal to
Kerensky's government marched on the printing house of the Bolshevik newspaper,
Rabochiy put (Worker's Path), seizing and destroying printing equipment and thousands
of newspapers. Shortly thereafter, the government announced the immediate closure of
not only Rabochiy put but also the left-wing Soldat, as well as the far-right newspapers
Zhivoe slovo and Novaia Rus. The editors and contributors of these newspapers were
seen to be calling for insurrection and were to be prosecuted on criminal charges.[35] In
response, at 9 a.m. the Bolshevik Military Revolutionary Committee issued a statement
denouncing the government's actions. At 10 a.m., Bolshevik-aligned soldiers
successfully retook the Rabochiy put printing house. Kerensky responded at
approximately 3 p.m. that afternoon by ordering the raising of all but one of Petrograd's
bridges, a tactic used by the government several months earlier during the July Days.
What followed was a series of sporadic clashes over control of the bridges, between
Red Guard militias aligned with the Military-Revolutionary Committee and military units
still loyal to the government. At approximately 5 p.m. the Military-Revolutionary
Committee seized the Central Telegraph of Petrograd, giving the Bolsheviks control over
communications through the city.[35][36] On 25 October (O.S.; 7 November, N.S.) 1917,
the Bolsheviks led their forces in the uprising in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg, then
capital of Russia) against the Provisional Government. The event coincided with the
arrival of a pro-Bolshevik flotilla—consisting primarily of five destroyers and their crews,
as well as marines—in Petrograd harbor. At Kronstadt, sailors announced their
allegiance to the Bolshevik insurrection. In the early morning, from its heavily guarded
and picketed headquarters in Smolny Palace, the Military-Revolutionary Committee
designated the last of the locations to be assaulted or seized. The Red Guards
systematically captured major government facilities, key communication installations,
and vantage points with little opposition. The Petrograd Garrison and most of the city's
military units joined the insurrection against the Provisional Government.[34] The
insurrection was timed and organized to hand state power to the Second All-Russian
Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, which began on this day.
Kerensky and the Provisional Government were virtually helpless to offer significant
resistance. Railways and railway stations had been controlled by Soviet workers and
soldiers for days, making rail travel to and from Petrograd impossible for Provisional
Government officials. The Provisional Government was also unable to locate any
serviceable vehicles. On the morning of the insurrection, Kerensky desperately
searched for a means of reaching military forces he hoped would be friendly to the
Provisional Government outside the city and ultimately borrowed a Renault car from the
American embassy, which he drove from the Winter Palace, along with a Pierce Arrow.
Kerensky was able to evade the pickets going up around the palace and to drive to meet
approaching soldiers.[35] As Kerensky left Petrograd, Lenin wrote a proclamation To the
Citizens of Russia, stating that the Provisional Government had been overthrown by the
Military-Revolutionary Committee. The proclamation was sent by telegraph throughout
Russia, even as the pro-Soviet soldiers were seizing important control centers
throughout the city. One of Lenin's intentions was to present members of the Soviet
congress, who would assemble that afternoon, with a fait accompli and thus forestall
further debate on the wisdom or legitimacy of taking power.[35] A final assault against
the Winter Palace—against 3,000 cadets, officers, cossacks, and female soldiers—was
not vigorously resisted.[35][38] The Bolsheviks delayed the assault because they could
not find functioning artillery.[39] At 6:15 p.m., a large group of artillery cadets
abandoned the palace, taking their artillery with them. At 8:00 p.m., 200 cossacks left
the palace and returned to their barracks.[35] While the cabinet of the provisional
government within the palace debated what action to take, the Bolsheviks issued an
ultimatum to surrender. Workers and soldiers occupied the last of the telegraph
stations, cutting off the cabinet's communications with loyal military forces outside the
city. As the night progressed, crowds of insurgents surrounded the palace, and many
infiltrated it.[35] At 9:45 p.m, the cruiser Aurora fired a blank shot from the harbor. Some
of the revolutionaries entered the palace at 10:25 p.m. and there was a mass entry 3
hours later. By 2:10 a.m. on 26 October, Bolshevik forces had gained control. The
Cadets and the 140 volunteers of the Women's Battalion surrendered rather than resist
the 40,000 strong attacking force.[40][41] After sporadic gunfire throughout the building,
the cabinet of the Provisional Government surrendered, and were imprisoned in Peter
and Paul Fortress. The only member who was not arrested was Kerensky himself, who
had already left the palace.[35][42] With the Petrograd Soviet now in control of
government, garrison, and proletariat, the Second All Russian Congress of Soviets held
its opening session on the day, while Trotsky dismissed the opposing Mensheviks and
the Socialist Revolutionaries (SR) from Congress. Some sources contend that as the
leader of Tsentrobalt, Pavlo Dybenko played a crucial role in the revolt and that the ten
warships that arrived at the city with ten thousand Baltic Fleet mariners were the force
that took the power in Petrograd and put down the Provisional Government. The same
mariners then dispersed by force the elected parliament of Russia,[43] and used
machine-gun fire against demonstrators in Petrograd,[citation needed] killing about 100
demonstrators and wounding several hundred.[citation needed] Dybenko in his
memoirs mentioned this event as "several shots in the air". These are disputed by
various sources, such as Louise Bryant,[44] who claims that news outlets in the West at
the time reported that the unfortunate loss of life occurred in Moscow, not Petrograd,
and the number was much less than suggested above. As for the "several shots in the
air", there is little evidence suggesting otherwise. While the seizure of the Winter Palace
happened almost without resistance, Soviet historians and officials later tended to
depict the event in dramatic and heroic terms.[34][45][46] The historical reenactment
titled The Storming of the Winter Palace was staged in 1920. This reenactment, watched
by 100,000 spectators, provided the model for official films made later, which showed
fierce fighting during the storming of the Winter Palace,[47] although, in reality, the
Bolshevik insurgents had faced little opposition.[38] Later accounts of the heroic
"storming of the Winter Palace" and "defense of the Winter Palace" were propaganda by
Bolshevik publicists. Grandiose paintings depicting the "Women's Battalion" and photo
stills taken from Sergei Eisenstein's staged film depicting the "politically correct"
version of the October events in Petrograd came to be taken as truth.[48] Historical
falsification of political events such as the October Revolution and the Brest-Litovsk
Treaty became a distinctive element of Stalin's regime. A notable example is the 1938
publication, History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks),[49] in
which the history of the governing party was significantly altered and revised including
the importance of the leading figures during the Bolshevik revolution. Retrospectively,
Lenin's primary associates such as Zinoviev, Trotsky, Radek and Bukharin were
presented as "vacillating", "opportunists" and "foreign spies" whereas Stalin was
depicted as the chief discipline during the revolution. However, in reality, Stalin was
considered a relatively unknown figure with secondary importance at the time of the
event.[50] In his book, The Stalin School of Falsification, Leon Trotsky argued that the
Stalinist faction routinely distorted historical events and the importance of Bolshevik
figures especially during the October Revolution. He cited a range of historical
documents such as private letters, telegrams, party speeches, meeting minutes, and
suppressed texts such as Lenin's Testament.[51] Lenin initially turned down the leading
position of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars when the Bolsheviks
formed a new government, after the October Revolution in 1917, and suggested Trotsky
for the position. However, Trotsky refused the position and other Bolsheviks insisted
that Lenin assume principal responsibility which resulted in Lenin eventually accepting
the role of chairman.[53][54][55] The Second Congress of Soviets consisted of 670
elected delegates: 300 were Bolsheviks and nearly 100 were Left Socialist-
Revolutionaries, who also supported the overthrow of the Alexander Kerensky
government.[56] When the fall of the Winter Palace was announced, the Congress
adopted a decree transferring power to the Soviets 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
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!"[57] The
following day, 26 October, the Congress elected a new cabinet of Bolsheviks, pending
the convocation of a Constituent Assembly. This new Soviet government was known as
the council (Soviet) of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom), with Lenin as a leader. Lenin
allegedly approved of the name, reporting that it "smells of revolution".[58] The cabinet
quickly passed the Decree on Peace and the Decree on Land. This new government was
also officially called "provisional" until the Assembly was dissolved. Anti-Bolshevik
sentiment That same day, posters were pinned on walls and fences by the Socialist
Revolutionaries, describing the takeover as a "crime against the motherland" and
"revolution"; this signaled the next wave of anti-Bolshevik sentiment. The next day, the
Mensheviks seized power in Georgia and declared it an independent republic; the Don
Cossacks also claimed control of their government. The Bolshevik strongholds were in
the cities, particularly Petrograd, with support much more mixed in rural areas. The
peasant-dominated Left SR party was in coalition with the Bolsheviks. There were
reports that the Provisional Government had not conceded defeat and were meeting
with the army at the Front. Anti-Bolshevik sentiment continued to grow as posters and
newspapers started criticizing the actions of the Bolsheviks and repudiated their
authority. The executive committee of Peasants Soviets "[refuted] with indignation all
participation of the organized peasantry in this criminal violation of the will of the
working class".[59] This eventually developed into major counter-revolutionary action,
as on 30 October (O.S., 12 November, N.S.) when Cossacks, welcomed by church bells,
entered Tsarskoye Selo on the outskirts of Petrograd with Kerensky riding on a white
horse. Kerensky gave an ultimatum to the rifle garrison to lay down weapons, which was
promptly refused. They were then fired upon by Kerensky's Cossacks, which resulted in
8 deaths. This turned soldiers in Petrograd against Kerensky as being the Tsarist regime.
Kerensky's failure to assume authority over troops was described by John Reed as a
"fatal blunder" that signaled the final end of his government.[60] Over the following
days, the battle against the anti-Bolsheviks continued. The Red Guard fought against
Cossacks at Tsarskoye Selo, with the Cossacks breaking rank and fleeing, leaving their
artillery behind. On 31 October 1917 (13 November, N.S.), the Bolsheviks gained control
of Moscow after a week of bitter street-fighting. Artillery had been freely used, with an
estimated 700 casualties. However, there was continued support for Kerensky in some
of the provinces. After the fall of Moscow, there was only minor public anti-Bolshevik
sentiment, such as the newspaper Novaya Zhizn, which criticized the Bolsheviks' lack of
manpower and organization in running their party, let alone a government. Lenin
confidently claimed that there is "not a shadow of hesitation in the masses of Petrograd,
Moscow and the rest of Russia" in accepting Bolshevik rule.[61] Governmental reforms
On 10 November 1917 (23 November, N.S.), the government applied the term "citizens
of the Russian Republic" to Russians, whom they sought to make equal in all possible
respects, by the nullification of all "legal designations of civil inequality, such as estates,
titles, and ranks."[62] The long-awaited Constituent Assembly elections were held on 12
November (O.S., 25 November, N.S.) 1917. In contrast to their majority in the Soviets,
the Bolsheviks only won 175 seats in the 715-seat legislative body, coming in second
behind the Socialist Revolutionary Party, which won 370 seats, although the SR Party no
longer existed as a whole party by that time, as the Left SRs had gone into coalition with
the Bolsheviks from October 1917 to March 1918 (a cause of dispute of the legitimacy of
the returned seating of the Constituent Assembly, as the old lists, were drawn up by the
old SR Party leadership, and thus represented mostly Right SRs, whereas the peasant
soviet deputies had returned majorities for the pro-Bolshevik Left SRs). The Constituent
Assembly was to first meet on 28 November (O.S.) 1917, but its convocation was
delayed until 5 January (O.S.; 18 January, N.S.) 1918 by the Bolsheviks. On its first and
only day in session, the Constituent Assembly came into conflict with the Soviets, and it
rejected Soviet decrees on peace and land, resulting in the Constituent Assembly being
dissolved the next day by order of the Congress of Soviets.[63] On 16 December 1917
(29 December, N.S.), the government ventured to eliminate hierarchy in the army,
removing all titles, ranks, and uniform decorations. The tradition of saluting was also
eliminated.[62] On 20 December 1917 (2 January 1918, N.S.), the Cheka was created by
Lenin's decree.[64] These were the beginnings of the Bolsheviks' consolidation of power
over their political opponents. The Red Terror began in September 1918, following a
failed assassination attempt on Lenin. The French Jacobin Terror was an example for the
Soviet Bolsheviks. Trotsky had compared Lenin to Maximilien Robespierre as early as
1904.[65] In his book, Terrorism and Communism: A Reply to Karl Kautsky, Trotsky
argued that the reign of terror began with the White Terror under the White Guard forces
and the Bolsheviks responded with the Red Terror.[66] The Decree on Land ratified the
actions of the peasants who throughout Russia had taken private land and redistributed
it among themselves. The Bolsheviks viewed themselves as representing an alliance of
workers and peasants signified by the Hammer and Sickle on the flag and the coat of
arms of the Soviet Union. Other decrees: All private property was nationalized by the
government. All Russian banks were nationalized. Private bank accounts were
expropriated. The properties of the Russian Orthodox Church (including bank accounts)
were expropriated. All foreign debts were repudiated. Control of the factories was given
to the soviets. Wages were fixed at higher rates than during the war, and a shorter, eight-
hour working day was introduced. Bolshevik-led attempts to gain power in other parts of
the Russian Empire were largely successful in Russia proper—although the fighting in
Moscow 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 Rada, which had declared autonomy on 23 June
1917, created the Ukrainian People's Republic 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.[67] In Estonia, two rival governments emerged: the Estonian
Provincial Assembly, established in April 1917, proclaimed itself the supreme legal
authority of Estonia on 28 November 1917 and issued the Declaration of Independence
on 24 February 1918;[68] but Soviet Russia recognized the executive committee of the
Soviets of Estonia as the legal authority in the province, although the Soviets in Estonia
controlled only the capital and a few other major towns.[69] After the success of the
October Revolution transformed the Russian state into a soviet republic, a coalition of
anti-Bolshevik groups attempted to unseat the new government in the Russian Civil War
from 1918 to 1922. In an attempt to intervene in the civil war after the Bolsheviks'
separate peace with the Central Powers (Germany and the Ottoman Empire), the Allied
Powers (the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the United States, and Japan) occupied parts
of the Soviet Union for over two years before finally withdrawing.[70] By the end of the
violent civil war, Russia's economy and infrastructure were heavily damaged, and as
many as 10 million perished during the war, mostly civilians.[71] Millions became White
émigrés,[72] and the Russian famine of 1921–1922 claimed up to five million
victims.[73] The United States 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 Policy (NEP) was
implemented.[citation needed] There have been few events where the political opinions
of researchers have influenced their historical research as significantly as the October
Revolution.[74] Generally, the historiography of the Revolution generally divides into
three camps: Soviet-Marxist, Western-Totalitarian, and Revisionist.[75] Soviet
historiography Soviet historiography of the October Revolution is intertwined with Soviet
historical development. Many of the initial Soviet interpreters of the Revolution were
themselves Bolshevik revolutionaries.[76] Bolshevik figures such as Anatoly
Lunacharsky, Moisei Uritsky and Dmitry Manuilsky agreed that Lenin’s influence on the
Bolshevik party was decisive but the October insurrection was carried out according to
Trotsky’s, not to Lenin’s plan.[77] After the initial wave of revolutionary narratives, Soviet
historians worked within "narrow guidelines" defined by the Soviet government. The
rigidity of interpretive possibilities reached its height under Stalin.[78] Soviet historians
of the Revolution interpreted the October Revolution as being about establishing the
legitimacy of Marxist ideology and the Bolshevik government. To establish the accuracy
of Marxist ideology, Soviet historians generally described the Revolution as the product
of class struggle and that it was the supreme event in a world history governed by
historical laws. The Bolshevik Party is placed at the center of the Revolution, as it
exposes the errors of both the moderate Provisional Government and the spurious
"socialist" Mensheviks in the Petrograd Soviet. Guided by Lenin's leadership and his firm
grasp of scientific Marxist theory, the Party led the "logically predetermined" events of
the October Revolution from beginning to end. The events were, according to these
historians, logically predetermined because of the socio-economic development of
Russia, where monopolistic industrial capitalism had alienated the masses. In this
view, the Bolshevik party took the leading role in organizing these alienated industrial
workers, and thereby established the construction of the first socialist state.[79]
Although Soviet historiography of the October Revolution stayed relatively constant
until 1991, it did undergo some changes. Following Stalin's death, historians such as E.
N. Burdzhalov and P. V. Volobuev published historical research that deviated
significantly from the party line in refining the doctrine that the Bolshevik victory "was
predetermined by the state of Russia's socio-economic development".[80] These
historians, who constituted the "New Directions Group", posited that the complex
nature of the October Revolution "could only be explained by a multi-causal analysis,
not by recourse to the mono-causality of monopoly capitalism".[81] For them, the
central actor is still the Bolshevik party, but this party triumphed "because it alone
could solve the preponderance of 'general democratic' tasks the country faced" (such
as the struggle for peace and the exploitation of landlords).[82] During the late Soviet
period, the opening of select Soviet archives during glasnost sparked innovative
research that broke away from some aspects of Marxism–Leninism, though the key
features of the orthodox Soviet view remained intact.[78] Following the turn of the 21st
century, some Soviet historians began to implement an "anthropological turn" in their
historiographical analysis of the Russian Revolution. This method of analysis focuses
on the average person's experience of day-to-day life during the revolution, and pulls
the analytical focus away from larger events, notable revolutionaries, and overarching
claims about party views.[83] In 2006, S. V. Iarov employed this methodology when he
focused on citizen adjustment to the new Soviet system. Iarov explored the dwindling
labor protests, evolving forms of debate, and varying forms of politicization as a result of
the new Soviet rule from 1917 to 1920.[84] In 2010, O. S. Nagornaia took interest in the
personal experiences of Russian prisoners-of-war taken by Germany, examining
Russian soldiers and officers' ability to cooperate and implement varying degrees of
autocracy despite being divided by class, political views, and race.[85] Other analyses
following this "anthropological turn" have explored texts from soldiers and how they
used personal war-experiences to further their political goals,[86] as well as how
individual life-structure and psychology may have shaped major decisions in the civil
war that followed the revolution.[87] During the Cold War, Western historiography of the
October Revolution developed in direct response to the assertions of the Soviet view. As
a result, Western historians exposed what they believed were flaws in the Soviet view,
thereby undermining the Bolsheviks' original legitimacy, as well as the precepts of
Marxism.[88] These Western historians described the revolution as the result of a chain
of contingent accidents. Examples of these accidental and contingent factors they say
precipitated the Revolution included World War I's timing, chance, and the poor
leadership of Tsar Nicholas II as well as that of liberal and moderate socialists.[78]
According to Western historians, it was not popular support, but rather a manipulation
of the masses, ruthlessness, and the party discipline of the Bolsheviks that enabled
their triumph. For these historians, the Bolsheviks' defeat in the Constituent Assembly
elections of November–December 1917 demonstrated popular opposition to the
Bolsheviks' revolution, as did the scale and breadth of the Civil War.[89] Western
historians saw the organization of the Bolshevik party as totalitarian. Their interpretation
of the October Revolution as a violent coup organized by a totalitarian party which
aborted Russia's experiment in democracy.[90] Thus, Stalinist totalitarianism developed
as a natural progression from Leninism and the Bolshevik party's tactics and
organization.[91] Effect of the dissolution of the Soviet Union on historical research The
dissolution of the Soviet Union affected historical interpretations of the October
Revolution. Since 1991, increasing access to large amounts of Soviet archival materials
has made it possible to re-examine the October Revolution.[76] Though both Western
and Russian historians now have access to many of these archives, the effect of the
dissolution of the USSR can be seen most clearly in the work of the latter. While the
disintegration essentially helped solidify the Western and Revisionist views, post-USSR
Russian historians largely repudiated the former Soviet historical interpretation of the
Revolution.[92] As Stephen Kotkin argues, 1991 prompted "a return to political history
and the apparent resurrection of totalitarianism, the interpretive view that, in different
ways…revisionists sought to bury".[76] The October Revolution marks the inception of
the first communist government in Russia, and thus the first large-scale and
constitutionally ordained socialist state in world history. After this, the Russian Republic
became the Russian SFSR, which later became part of the Soviet Union. The October
Revolution also made the ideology of communism influential on a global scale in the
20th century. Communist parties would start to form in many countries after 1917. Ten
Days That Shook the World, a book written by American journalist John Reed and first
published in 1919, gives a firsthand exposition of the events. Reed died in 1920, shortly
after the book was finished. Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No. 2 in B major,
Op. 14, and subtitled it To October, for the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution.
The choral finale of the work, "To October", is set to a text by Alexander Bezymensky,
which praises Lenin and the revolution. The Symphony No. 2 was first performed on 5
November 1927 by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academy Capella
Choir under the direction of Nikolai Malko. Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov's
film October: Ten Days That Shook the World, first released on 20 January 1928 in the
USSR and on 2 November 1928 in New York City, describes and glorifies the revolution,
having been commissioned to commemorate the event. The Hollywood film, Reds,
released in 1981 was based on Reed's account of the October Revolution and featured
interviews with historical contemporaries from the period for the film.[93] The term "Red
October" (Красный Октябрь, Krasnyy Oktyabr) has been used to signify the October
Revolution. "Red October" was given to a steel factory that was made notable by the
Battle of Stalingrad,[94] a Moscow sweets factory that is well known in Russia, and a
fictional Soviet submarine in both Tom Clancy's 1984 novel The Hunt for Red October
and the 1990 film adaptation of the same name. The date 7 November, the anniversary
of the October Revolution according to the Gregorian Calendar, was the official national
day of the Soviet Union from 1918 onward and still is a public holiday in Belarus and the
breakaway territory of Transnistria. Communist parties both in and out of power
celebrate November 7 as the date Marxist parties began to take power. The Russian
Revolution was perceived as a rupture with imperialism for various civil rights and
decolonization struggles and providing a space for oppressed groups across the world.
This was given further credence with the Soviet Union supporting many anti-colonial
third world movements with financial funds against European colonial powers.[95]