In 1917, a coup took place in Russia, which once and for all divided the history of the country into "before" and "after". Now the Russian people had to live in a country with a new regime and new rules.
Prerequisites for the coup
By 1917, a difficult situation had developed in the country. After the coup organized by Kornilov, the February Revolution and the April Crisis, the majority of the population did not believe in anything. The existing government was no longer satisfied. Yes, the people simply did not believe her - she was tortured by the protracted First World War, which bled the Russian Empire in every sense. The workers and soldiers went on strike, and the Provisional Government, led by Kerensky, was powerless in solving problems.
On November 3 (October 21), the representatives of the Bolsheviks gathered for a conference convened on the issue of the impending coup. Lenin presided over this meeting. With the support of the Bolsheviks, he hoped to overthrow the Provisional Government and seize power. The future leader could not decide on the date of the coup. As a result, the choice fell on October 25th. Later, according to Trotsky's reviews, Vladimir Ilyich himself called the delay in the beginning of the coup disastrous. There is an opinion that Lenin delayed the beginning of the coup in accordance with the opinion of Germany. After all, the October Revolution took place with German money and taking into account German interests. This is supported by the fact that Lenin traveled through Germany in a sealed carriage.
By the way, do not underestimate the role of Trotsky in the preparation and implementation of the October Revolution. This politician was precisely the ideologist of the 1917 revolution and the developer of the coup plan.
Changing the course of history
On the morning of October 25 (November 7), only the Winter Palace remained under the control of the Provisional Government. And he was surrounded by detachments of the Red Guards. On that day, at 10 am, the Bolsheviks issued an appeal "To the Citizens of Russia," which spoke of the transfer of power into the hands of the Military Revolutionary Committee. While Kerensky was looking for units loyal to the government in a car with an American flag, in the evening of the same day, soldiers and sailors of the Baltic Fleet took the Winter Palace. The power of the Provisional Government ceased even nominally. Later, Kerensky, together with the remnants of Krasnov's troops, undertook a campaign against Petrograd, which had no result.
In Moscow, also, on the day of the October Revolution, it was not without hostilities. Representatives of the Bolshevik government organized a military revolutionary committee. Due to the active resistance of the Social Revolutionaries, who created the Public Security Committee, the Bolsheviks could not seize power in Moscow for several days. The fighting continued until November 3 (16), several hundred people were killed.
Later there will be a Constituent Assembly, persecution of the cadets and many other events that will so much agitate and divide the country into two camps. In world and domestic historiography, there is no single view of the events of October 1917.
