"All Power to the Soviets" The Bolsheviks Take Power

• Published in: Revolutionary Russia pp. 211 - 242
• Main Author: Wade, Rex A.
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2004
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Kornilov Affair; Moderate Socialist Leaders; Petrograd Garrison; Bolshevik Central Committee; Winter Palace; Petrograd Soviet; Soviet Power; Bolshevik Party; pro-Soviet Forces; July Days; Garrison Soldiers; Left SRs; Red Guards; Petersburg Committee; SR Party; Bolshevik Intentions; Broad Socialist Coalition; Provisional Government; Young Men; Armed Seizure; Army Committees; Revolutionary Defensism; Left SR; MRC
• ISBN: 9780415307475; 0415307473; 9780415307482; 0415307481
• DOI: 10.4324/9780203635711-14

This selection looks at the October Revolution in the broader political and social-economic context that created the rising demand for "all power to the soviets" and made a new revolution increasingly probable by October. In this respect it might be contrasted to White's detailed examination of the events surrounding a specific event, the Congress of Soviets of the Northern Front, although the conclusions of the two essays match. The book from which this essay is drawn argues that a political realignment followed the February Revolution that resulted in the emergence of multi-party political blocs; this selection starts by discussing the Bolsheviks within a larger radical left that agreed on many fundamental issues, including the need to replace the Provisional Government by a new government, probably one based on the soviets. It also blends social-economic history into the political story, showing how important that was to the situation leading up to the October Revolution (an earlier part of the book gave an extensive overview of popular aspirations and organization). It relates that to the immediate pre-October Revolution events in Petrograd, especially the "Day of the Petrograd Soviet" (October 22) and other aspects of a general mobilization behind the idea of power being taken by the forthcoming Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets. Looking more closely at what happened during October 22-24, it emphatically revises the traditional story of a Lenin-conceived and Lenin-directed conspiratorial seizure of power on the eve of the Congress of Soviets. It also carries the story forward to the events of October 24-25, the "October Revolution itself," and the initial steps in consolidation of power, steps that would set the Bolshevik government on the path to dictatorship and a very different regime from what most participants in the October Revolution expected.