Some authoritative historians regard the armed uprising in Petrograd as the beginning of the Civil War in Russia, which created exceptionally favorable ideological, political, social and geopolitical conditions for the further formation and strengthening of the Bolshevik regime. It was then that the communist ideology and the dictatorship of the proletariat finally won, the main trends that had previously led Russia along the Western path of development changed.
The situation on the eve
Formally, the Soviets have already established power throughout the country and carried out practical management in some (rather important) issues. The Soviets of Workers 'Deputies and Soldiers' Deputies were created, and "democratic" elections to the Moscow Duma took place. Elections were also planned for local self-government bodies and the Constituent Assembly, but the permanent postponement of the deadlines was caused, firstly, by the difficult domestic political situation in the country, and secondly, regular delays in approving the legal framework at all levels.
In preparation for the election, the capital was allocated in a separate district. In Moscow, seventeen districts were formed instead of four that existed before. In the September 24 elections, the majority of the seats in the district councils were won by the Bolsheviks, part of the deputies passed on the lists of the cadet party, and part of the Socialist Revolutionary Party.
By the middle of autumn 1917, local governments were finally formed in the capital and provinces. Elections to the meeting were held in late October. Earlier, representatives of the Bolsheviks won elections in the city and district councils. The difference between Moscow and Petrograd at that time was that in the Northern capital the Soviet of Workers' Deputies merged with the Soviet of Soldiers, where the Socialist Revolutionaries held strong positions. The Petrograd Soviet was divided into workers and soldiers.
The Moscow authorities made attempts to unite the two Soviets, as happened in Petrograd. However, here the leadership acted more carefully than the Central Committee. A few days before the start of the armed uprising in Petrograd, it opposed the seizure of power using weapons.
Preparation for the rebellion
Different sources of historical data provide different information about the plan of the uprising. In the twenties of the last century, some fairly well-known memoirists and historical scholars asserted with full confidence that the October armed uprising in Petrograd was carefully planned and prepared in advance. Other (no less authoritative) records said that a specific plan of action did not exist at all. Practically all of the later sources have finally settled on the fact that there really was no plan, and the historical events in Petrograd developed absolutely spontaneously.
The beginning of the uprising
On the night of October 25, 1917, historically significant events began to develop in Petrograd, aimed at eliminating the Provisional Government, the highest organ of state power in Russia between the February and October revolutions, and transferring all power to the Soviets. So, the main reason for the armed uprising in Petrograd was the incompetent government of the country, first the tsarist, then the Provisional Government. Of course, there were concomitant reasons: the unresolved issue of land ownership, the difficult living and working conditions of workers, the complete ignorance of the common people, and also the First World War with its losses and an unfavorable situation on the fronts.
The beginning of the armed uprising in Petrograd in Moscow was learned at noon on October 25 from the delegates V. Nogin and V. Milyutin, who sent a telegram. The Petrograd Soviet then already became the main stage of events.
Almost immediately, a meeting of the Bolshevik leadership centers took place, where an organ for leading the uprising, the so-called Combat Center, was formed. First, the combat center patrols took over the local post office. The regiment remained to guard the Kremlin, the State Bank and the Treasury, savings banks, arsenals of small arms and hand weapons. At first, the regiment refused to give the soldiers to the Combat Center without the order of the district headquarters and the Council of Soldiers' Deputies, but later the two companies nevertheless went on assignments from the center.
A special meeting of the Duma, which discussed how the city authorities should respond to the aggressive policy of the Soviets of soldiers and workers' deputies, was held on the evening of November 25. The Bolsheviks also attended the meeting, but during the discussion they left the Duma building. At the meeting, it was decided to create a BER (Public Security Committee) to protect against the Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries, Cadets and other unfavorable parties and groups of people.
The KOB included representatives of the postal and telegraph union (which, incidentally, was led by the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries), city and zemstvo self-government, the organization of railway workers, Soviets of soldiers and peasants' deputies. The Duma, led by the Socialist-Revolutionaries, became the center of resistance of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. They came out from the position of defending the Provisional Government, but when solving the issue by force, they could rely only on a part of the cadets and officers.
On the evening of the same day, a plenary session of both metropolitan Soviets took place. WRC (Military Revolutionary Center) was elected to support an armed uprising in Petrograd. The center consisted of seven people: four Bolsheviks and representatives of the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries. In the Moscow Revolutionary Military Committee (unlike the Petrograd), the Mensheviks were widely involved in the work, and indeed in the capital the split into the Bolshevik and Menshevik parties was less acute. The less decisive than in Petrograd nature of the actions of the All-Russian Revolutionary Committee in Moscow was also affected by the fact that Lenin was absent in the capital at that time.
By order of the Revolutionary Military Committee, parts of the Moscow garrison were put on alert and were now obliged to execute only the orders of the Military Revolutionary Center and no one else. Almost immediately, there was a decree to stop issuing newspapers of the Provisional Government, which was successful - in the morning of October 26, only Izvestia and Social Democrat came out.
Subsequently, the regional commanders of the Revolutionary Committee created regional support centers for the October uprising in Petrograd, put the military on alert, who took the side of the Bolsheviks and their allies, elected an interim governing body to monitor the actions of regimental and other military committees, and measures were taken to arm 10 12 thousand people - workers of the Red Guards. An unfavorable factor was the fact that considerable forces of anti-Bolshevik-minded junkers concentrated in the capital.
So, without preparation, an armed uprising in Petrograd began. Further events developed no less actively.
Combat readiness
On the night of October 26, the Moscow Committee put all parts of the garrison on full alert. All those who were on the lists of the spare regiment were called to the Kremlin, and the workers were given over one and a half thousand rifles with cartridges.
Konstantin Ryabtsev - the commander of the Moscow Military District - contacted the General Headquarters and asked to send troops loyal to the Provisional Government from the front to the capital. At the same time, he began negotiations with the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee.
The day after the date of the armed uprising in Petrograd (October 25, 1917), Moscow was still recovering from the events and no active measures were taken.
Martial law
Officers who were ready to resist the Bolsheviks gathered on October 27 at the Alexander Military School under the command of the head of staff of the Moscow District. Supporters of the interim government were about three hundred people. At the same time, the term “White Guard” was first spoken - this was the name given to a volunteer detachment of students. In the evening of the same day, the only representative of the Provisional Government S. Prokopovich arrived in Moscow.
At the same time, the BER received confirmation from Stalin about the withdrawal of regiments from the front line and the direction of troops to Petrograd. Martial law was declared in the city. VRK was issued an ultimatum, the committee was required to dissolve, surrender the Kremlin and dissolve the revolutionary units, but the committee representatives took away only a few companies. According to other sources, the military-industrial complex answered the ultimatum with a categorical refusal.
Also on October 27, the cadets went on the attack on a detachment of Dvints, who tried to break the blockade to the city council. Of the 150 people, 45 were killed or wounded. The junkers made a raid on one of the district military commissariats, and then stopped at the Garden Ring, seizing a telephone station, mail and telegraph.
The capture of the Kremlin
The next morning, Ryabtsev demanded that the Kremlin surrender to VRK, saying that the city was wholly controlled. The head of the All-Russian Revolutionary Committee, not knowing what the situation was in reality, and having no connection with the allies, decided to make concessions and surrender the Kremlin. When the soldiers began to disarm, two companies of junkers entered the Kremlin. The soldiers, having seen the insignificant forces of the opponents, made an attempt to take up arms again, but this did not succeed. Moreover, many were then killed.
According to other sources, recorded from the words of the direct participants in the events, when the prisoners surrendered their weapons, they were shot, and those who tried to flee were bayoneted. According to various estimates, from fifty to three hundred soldiers were considered killed.
After that, the position of the committee became very difficult. VRK was cut off from the allies, which were pushed to the outskirts of the city, telephone communication was impossible, and KOB officers gained free access to small arms and hand weapons, which were stored in the arsenal in the Kremlin.
At the call of the WRC, a general strike began. The brigade, company, command, regimental committees that met at the Polytechnical Museum, proposed to dissolve the Council and hold elections again, as well as support the WRC. For contacts with committees, the Council of Ten was created. Toward the end of the day, revolutionary forces occupied the city center. The armed uprising in Petrograd was gaining momentum.
Armistice Attempt
In the last days of October, a struggle began for the center of the capital. Trenches were dug, barricades were erected, battles were fought over the Kamenny and Krymsky bridges. Workers (armed Red Guards), a number of infantry units and artillery took part in the battles during the armed uprising in Petrograd in 1917. By the way, anti-Bolshevik forces did not have artillery.
In the morning of October 29, the Bolsheviks began to attack in the main directions: Tverskaya Boulevard, Tverskaya Square, Leontyevsky Lane, Krymskaya Square, the powder warehouse, Alexandrovsky and Kursk-Nizhny Novgorod stations, the main telegraph and post office.
By evening, Taganskaya Square and the three buildings of the Alekseevsky School were occupied. The revolutionary troops began shelling the Metropol Hotel and occupied the central telephone exchange. Fire was also fired at the Nicholas Palace and the Spassky Gate.
Both sides dragged on time, but a ceasefire was concluded on October 29. The Public Security Committee and the Military Revolutionary Committee began negotiations, as a result of which an agreement was reached on a ceasefire from 12 noon on October 29 for a day on the following conditions:
- dissolution of both VRK and BER;
- submission of all troops to the commander of the district;
- organization of a democratic authority;
- holding perpetrators accountable;
- complete disarmament of both the “white” and the “red”.
Subsequently, the conditions were not met, the truce was violated.
Artillery shelling
In the following days, both sides increased their strength, several more attempts were made to conclude a truce, but they were a failure. VRK demanded from KOB to hand over separate buildings, KOB in response also put forward its requirements. The shelling began on November 1, intensified the next day. On the night of November 2, the junkers themselves left the Kremlin.
Later, the bishop, who was examining the Kremlin, discovered a series of damages to several cathedrals (Uspensky, Nikolo-Gostunsky, Blagoveshchensky), Ivan the Great's bell tower, some Kremlin towers, and the famous clock on Spasskaya stopped. Among the soldiers of the Petrograd garrison then there were rumors that greatly exaggerated the scale of the destruction in Moscow. It was alleged that the Assumption and St. Basil’s Cathedral were allegedly damaged, and the Kremlin was completely burned down.
Having learned about the shelling, the head of the Petrograd Council Lunacharsky resigned. He said that he could not put up with the "thousands of victims" and the bitterness of "animal malice." Then Lenin turned to Lunacharsky, after which he corrected his speech, published in the newspaper New Life.
In early November, the KOB delegation headed for negotiations with the WRC. The committee agreed to surrender the prisoners, provided that they surrender their weapons. After that, resistance ceased in Moscow. At seventeen hours on November 2, the counter-revolution signed a surrender, and four hours later the revolutionary committee ordered a ceasefire.
Resistance
The order of the Military Revolutionary Committee was addressed, however, not to all citizens, but only to the controlled forces. So the fighting continued all night on the third of November, in some areas the “whites” even still resisted and even tried to advance. The Kremlin was finally taken "red" on the day of the third of November.
On the same day, a manifesto was officially published, which proclaimed in the capital the complete power of the Soviets of Deputies - such was the victory of an armed uprising in Petrograd. It is believed that revolutionary forces lost about a thousand people during the uprising. However, the exact number of victims is unknown.
ROC reaction
In those days, Moscow hosted the Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church. Priests called on the warring parties to end the confrontation in order to avoid casualties. They also asked not to allow acts of revenge and cruel reprisal, in all cases to save the lives of prisoners and vanquished. The cathedral called not to expose the greatest shrine - the Kremlin, as well as Moscow cathedrals - to shell artillery.
Some priests in those days became orderlies. Under crossfire, they provided first aid to the wounded and bandaged the victims. The Council also decided to mediate in the negotiations of the warring parties. After the confrontation ended, the church took up the assessment of the damage caused and the burial of all the dead.
Human losses
After the end of the armed confrontation, VRK decided to organize a mass grave of those who died near the Kremlin walls. Mourning events were scheduled for November 10. The day before the funeral, newspapers published mourning processions so that those who wish could say goodbye to the dead. On the day of the funeral, 238 people were buried in mass graves. But only 57 of them are known for certain names.
The Russian Orthodox Church condemned the fraternal burial under the walls of the Kremlin. They accused the Bolsheviks of insulting the shrine and the church.
The dead supporters of the Provisional Government were buried in the Bratskoye cemetery. Impressed by the funeral service and the funeral procession, the Russian and Soviet artist director and poet A. Vertinsky wrote the song “What I Must Say”.
After 78 years, a memorial cross and a crown of barbed wire were erected in the cemetery. Now the cross is in the temple of All Saints.
Summary
The results of the armed uprising in Petrograd are the establishment of Soviet power and the upcoming division of the world into two opposing camps - capitalist and socialist. The old power as a result of this armed uprising was completely destroyed, and in the modern history of Russia a completely new era has begun.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution. It became a logical continuation of the uprising and a turning point in Russian history. These events have not yet gained an unambiguous assessment. In the year of the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution, the Russian Historical Society and other organizations similar to it plan to support the trend of reconciliation of modern society with the landmark events of those years.