Nick
November 7th marks the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution and the Great October Socialist Revolution.
The economic crisis, which was worse since the summer, the people’s dislike of continuing with the First World War and the disappointment with the lack of government reforms meant that the provisional government led by Kerensky was weakening. This fact favored the Bolsheviks, who were gaining more and more followers, and developed an intense propaganda campaign, focusing their efforts on getting the Second Congress of the Soviets to hand over the government power to them.
After the failed coup from the conservative Kornilov, the Bolsheviks tried to overthrow the provisional government for the second time (after having failed a few months earlier), and the night of October 24th (date corresponding to the current Julian calendar in Czarist Russia, while in the rest of the world, where the Gregorian calendar already ran, it was on November 6th), they took strategic points of the capital. The next day, took place the Second Congress of the Soviets and some firing assault was heard at the Winter Palace. The moderate socialists left the congress in protest of these Bolshevik actions, a fact that facilitated the formation of a government (the Sovnarkom) exclusively of this party, and the capital came under the control of the Soviet.
The power of the new Government spread through the country in various phases, but Lenin’s government did not have the support of the masses that had supported him at the beginning, and there were clashes in some areas. This made both sides facing each other in a civil war that did not end until June 1923.
An article by Denix guest blogger: Daniel Ortega del Pozooriginal post published on DENIX website on 12/07/2018
