The October Revolution was not a street uprising, but a coup decided by twelve men voting in the dead of night
On the night of October 10, 1917, twelve Bolshevik Central Committee members voted 10–2 to authorize armed uprising; that night trams ran normally in Petrograd and theatres remained open, with almost no street bloodshed.
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Lenin disguised as a priest infiltrates back into Petrograd
Lenin disguised himself as a priest to slip back to Petrograd and met with twelve Central Committee members at the home of Mensheviks journalist Sukhanov—considered safest precisely because Sukhanov himself was hostile to the Bolsheviks; his wife Galina was actually a secret Bolshevik sympathizer and deliberately stayed away that night. The twelve debated for seven and a half hours, Lenin repeatedly pounded the table, and finally passed the resolution for armed uprising 10–2, hastily written in a child's notebook.
— Dan SnowThe February Revolution was spontaneous, and the Bolsheviks were weak at the time
When the February Revolution erupted, Lenin was still in Switzerland on exile, writing newspaper articles with almost no followers; the Bolsheviks had neither organized nor led this revolution, and the real drivers were starving workers, deserting soldiers, and angry women taking to the streets of their own accord. Victor notes that the Bolsheviks only committed fully to supporting it after seeing that the revolution might actually overthrow the tsar and might actually succeed.
— Victor SebestyenPeace, land, bread sold better than democratic institutional design
Lenin, supplied with vast German funding, ran newspapers and propaganda promoting the slogan ‘Peace, land, bread’—no more war, divide the nobility's land among peasants, have enough to eat. By contrast, the Provisional Government wanted to maintain war against Germany while building modern representative democracy, a complex program with no appeal that could fit on a leaflet.
— Victor SebestyenWithout Lenin present, this coup would not have happened
At the October 10 meeting in the dead of night, Lenin initially stood in the minority; old comrades Zinoviev and Kamenev warned that armed uprising was gambling the revolution's future—if it failed, everyone would hang. Lenin convinced skeptics through threats of resignation and various arguments, getting them to vote yes by dawn. Trotsky later said that if Lenin had not been in Petrograd that night, the Bolshevik Revolution would never have happened.
— Victor SebestyenStorming the Winter Palace was essentially fabricated myth
On the night of October 24–25, trams ran normally through Petrograd, restaurants and theatres continued operating, and most residents had no idea political power had changed hands. The Bolshevik Red Guard numbered no more than 2,000 and occupied only key nodes—telephone exchange, bridges, post office, train stations. So-called ‘storming of the Winter Palace’ was largely fiction: shells from the Aurora cruiser mostly missed their targets, and when Lenin announced ‘power has been seized,’ the palace actually had not yet been truly taken.
— Victor SebestyenElection results expose the fiction of liberal democracy
In late November Constituent Assembly elections, Bolsheviks took only 22 percent of the vote, Socialist Revolutionaries 39 percent, liberal Constitutional Democrats just 6 percent—showing that Russians wanted not Western liberal democracy but radical left-wing transformation. Lenin allowed the Assembly to sit for 13 hours, then closed it; Russia never again had a free parliament for the next 75 years.
— Victor SebestyenThe White armies' unpopularity made them lose the civil war
Not until mid-1920 did the Bolsheviks truly control all of Russia. The White armies' three forces lacked coordination, and their policy was reactionary—returning estates to landlords and moving backward toward the old tsarist order; the Red Army could say ‘we will keep distributing land.’ British and American aid fell far short of what had been promised, and after World War I ended, the West had no appetite to send troops back into Russia. The White armies' reactionary character became the decisive factor in the Red Army's victory.
— Victor SebestyenLenin's will ordering Stalin's removal from general secretary was never read aloud
In his final years, Lenin suffered a stroke and lay bedridden, yet still struggled to dictate his political testament, explicitly ordering Stalin removed from his position as party general secretary. But this testament was never publicly read; it was kept secret for a long time, and by the time it was finally exposed, Stalin had already installed his people throughout. Victor notes that in Lenin's view, no one was fit to succeed him.
— Victor SebestyenIn their own words · checked verbatim
We must seize power now. Now is the time, was the essence of his argument.
Dan Snow3:04
He said, I'm going to give you peasants land. And bread. It's a very simple message.
Victor Sebestyen18:40
there would never have been a Bolshevik revolution if Lenin hadn't been in Petrograd. It just wouldn't have happened.
Victor Sebestyen25:50
There actually was no storming. There were a few isolated shots from the famous battleship Aurora in the Navy. Most of the shots were missed, but occasionally it was hit.
Victor Sebestyen28:55
far, far more people were involved as extras in the famous Eisenstein movie, October.
Victor Sebestyen30:00
they were in a minority of 22% of the vote. But the socialist revolutionaries were 39% of the vote. The nice liberal democrats got 6% of the vote, the cadets.
Victor Sebestyen34:06
their appeal was only an ultra-conservative appeal to the past generation, whereas the Reds could say, no, we're going to continue giving land back.
Victor Sebestyen40:18
you've got to get rid of Stalin as General Secretary of the Party. And you've got to get rid of, basically, remove Stalin. But, of course, that was never read out.
Victor Sebestyen46:44
Figures
| October 10 armed uprising vote | 10 votes in favor, 2 votes against | 4:05 |
| Bolshevik Red Guard force | no more than 2,000 | 26:52 |
| Tsar Nicholas II's abdication date | March 1, 1917 | 12:24 |
| Constituent Assembly duration | 13 hours; Russia had no free parliament for the next 75 years | 33:04 |
| Constituent Assembly election—Bolsheviks | 22% | 34:06 |
| Constituent Assembly election—Socialist Revolutionaries | 39% | 34:06 |
| Constituent Assembly election—Constitutional Democrats | 6% | 34:06 |
| Bolsheviks' actual control of all Russia | mid-1920 | 39:14 |
Glossary
- Bolsheviks
- The radical faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party; the party to which Lenin belonged.
- Mensheviks
- A Russian left-wing party with more moderate positions than the Bolsheviks.
- Soviet
- Russian for ‘council’; self-organized deliberative bodies composed of workers and soldiers.
- Cheka
- The secret police apparatus established by the Bolsheviks; later evolved into the KGB.
- Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
- Peace treaty signed between Russia and Germany; ceded Ukraine, Byelorussia, and vast other territories.
How to listen
Readers interested in Russian revolutionary history, the mechanics of minority seizure of power, and how historical events are mythologized.
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