Describe main events of October revolution in russia
Answers
On 16 October 1917, Lenin persuaded the Petrograd Soviet and
the Bolshevik Party to agree to a socialist seizure of power. A
Military Revolutionary Committee was appointed by the Soviet
under Leon Trotsky to organise the seizure. The date of the event
was kept a secret.
The uprising began on 24 October. Sensing trouble, Prime Minister
Kerensky had left the city to summon troops. At dawn, military
men loyal to the government seized the buildings of two Bolshevik
newspapers. Pro-government troops were sent to take over telephone
and telegraph offices and protect the Winter Palace. In a swift
response, the Military Revolutionary Committee ordered its
supporters to seize government offices and arrest ministers. Late in
the day, the ship Aurora shelled the Winter Palace. Other vessels
sailed down the Neva and took over various military points. By
nightfall, the city was under the committee’s control and the
ministers had surrendered. At a meeting of the All Russian Congress
of Soviets in Petrograd, the majority approved the Bolshevik action.
Uprisings took place in other cities. There was heavy fighting –
especially in Moscow – but by December, the Bolsheviks controlled
the Moscow-Petrograd area.
Trotsky was later exiled from the Soviet Union once Stalin took power and was eventually executed.