On this day November 7th in 1917, the October Revolution began in Russia when the Bolsheviks initiated an armed insurrection in Petrograd, seizing the Winter Palace and dissolving the Provisional Government in a coup with minimal violence. The name "October Revolution" comes from the fact that the revolution began on October 25th in the dating convention of the time.
The October Revolution was the culmination of popular sentiment directed against the provisional government which was achieving little for the majority of people to change Russia from its Tsarist past. In particular, the unelected body continued to participate in the very unpopular First World War opting in July for participation in further military campaigns which provoked outrage amongst soldiers and workers alike.
After the February Revolution which established the Provisional Government, during the period of the Dual Power (February-October 1917), the Bolsheviks gradually gained in strength and influence especially in the soviets and in the army after July. The Bolshevik slogan ‘Peace, Bread and Land’ summarised their programme and was increasingly popular. They established their headquarters in the Smolny Institute. This was a former girls' convent school which also housed the Petrograd Soviet. The Provisional Government now headed by Kerensky, was still officially in power and under pressure from the nobility and industrialists, Kerensky was persuaded to take decisive action against the Bolsheviks. Thus, on 22nd October he ordered the arrest of the Bolshevik Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC). The government was aware of the unstated purpose of the MRC, established on 12th October and led by Trotsky. The purpose of this committee, created by the Bolsheviks within the Petrograd soviet, was to prepare for armed insurrection against the government. The next day, 23rd October, the government attempted to close down the Bolshevik newspapers and cut off the telephones to the Smolny Institute. However, soldiers and Red Guards ultimately thwarted all Kerensky’s plans.
Following this, a long debate took place at a secret meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee. At this meeting the main issue centred around Lenin’s proposal that the Bolsheviks should take action before the elections for the Constituent Assembly; in other words, the socialist revolution should proceed without delay. Zinoviev and Kamenev dissented, hence the importance of the MRC which had already deployed commissars to all garrison units. In essence this was both a measure of defence and, at the same time, a preparation for attack
Thus, orders were given for the Bolsheviks to occupy the railway stations, the telephone exchange and the State Bank. In the early morning of October 25th, armed workers started occupying key points of Petrograd, in conjunction with pro-Bolshevik sailors pulling into the city's harbour. Power stations were seized and strategic bridges were held. These instances produced very little resistance and were not met with violence.
A blank shot from the Cruiser Aurora in the evening signalled the siege of the Winter Palace, which was to be the final offensive of the revolution. Crowds of Red Guards and insurgents surrounded the palace and secured entry, leading to the surrender of the remaining government officials in the early hours of the morning. Members of the Provisional Government that had not already fled the capital were imprisoned. Kerensky had managed to escape from the city.
Crowds of Red Guards and insurgents surrounded the palace and secured entry, leading to the surrender of the remaining government officials.
The revolution itself was brief, being almost entirely peaceful in its execution. Posters were distributed across the city declaring that "the Provisional Government is overthrown" and "Long live the Revolution of Workers, Soldiers and Peasants!" Lenin emerged from the revolution as one of its most notable strategists and a potential leader in the new era.
On 26th October 1917, the second All-Russian Congress of Soviets met and handed over power to the Soviet Council of People's Commissars. Lenin was elected chairman and other appointments included Trotsky (Foreign Affairs). Two decrees were adopted at the first session: the Decree on Peace, which moved to start negotiations to withdraw from the war in order to bring about "a just and democratic peace," and the Decree on Land, which moved to transfer land away from landowners and the church to peasant committees. ‘Peace, Bread and Land’ was thus transformed from a slogan into a living reality. In addition, the Council of People's Commissars nationalised the banks and workers control of factory production was introduced. The army was demobilised and in December and the Soviet Government announced that it planned to seek an armistice with Germany. In December 1917, Trotsky led the Russian delegation at Brest-Litovsk to negotiate peace terms with representatives from Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Thus it was that the full Bolshevik programme, as outlined in Lenin’s ‘April Theses’ was implemented within three months of the successful socialist revolution.
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Dude is Phillipino and his English ain't good but he's been here over a year and is a fucking engineer in his 40s who's just trying to get his citizenship hours in as quick as possible, I've had fairly complex conversations with the guy, it shouldn't be this hard. He also apparently can't tell when food looks cooked if it isn't a pizza when he's watching the oven. Dude will ask if an almost liquid brie is finished when it's been around for six months and also I'm pretty sure a baked anything is clearly done if it's a liquid. Same with Brussel sprouts he still hasn't figured out that if they're turning black they've been there too long. It's weird cause he's fucking amazing at prep and works harder than he should. There's just some things that seem super obvious and like you'd have to have never made a email before to not know.
And the fridge shouldn't be my problem and I am losing a LOT of time in my day, 40 minutes every Wednesday which is after my weekend and 15-20 most other days unfucking our fridge. I have a lot of other shit to do and it shouldn't be my responsibility anyway, I work the evening shift, that should be done right when the orders are put away etc. Everything is just thrown wherever it can be crammed with no regard for the fact that people will be in more of a hurry when looking for stuff in the fridge than the morning guy who's filling it before the place is even open. It doesn't help our morning dishwasher/prep guy got the chef his first dish joh way back and he stayed a dishwasher when the chef became a chef and then hired him as a dishwasher, so he can get away with anything. The Airing of Grievances is comkg tomorrow. I also have a weird relationship with the chef cause he used to be in the punk scene and can guilt him into working class solidarity, this one is a bit weird cause it's telling him he'd been fucking up, but that's fine, I'm not afraid of him
Sending good vibes, and good luck wishes on the resolve of this- I’ve only been out of the kitchen for 2 years, and while there are times I miss it, I don’t miss the constant putting-things-back-where-they-go-struggle. Power to you!