Editing Russian revolution of 1917

{{Infobox military conflict
|date = November 7th, 1917
|result = [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Bolshevik]] victory
|combatant1 = {{icon|Red flag.svg}} [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Bolsheviks]]
|combatant2 = {{icon|Flag of Russia.svg}} [[Russian Republic]]
|type=Socialist revolution
|image=File:Lenin proclaims Soviet power.jpeg|image_size=250px
|casualties1=Wounded soldiers
|casualties2=Officers arrested
|place=Post-Tsarist Russia}}
The '''October Revolution''' (also known as the '''Great October Socialist Revolution''', the '''Bolshevik Revolution''', or simply the '''Russian Revolution''') was a socialist [[revolution]] which took place in the [[Russian Empire]] on 7 November 1917, following the abdication of [[Nicholas II|Tsar Nicholas Romanov]] and the establishment of the [[Russian Provisional Government]] in March 1917. Brought on by the popular support for the [[Bolsheviks]] led by [[Vladimir Lenin]] and the failure of the Provisional Government to exit the [[First World War]], the situation of [[Dual Power|dual power]] between the government and the worker-led [[Soviet (governmental body)|Soviets]] led to the overthrow of the state and the establishment of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]] (RSFSR) in the same year.

It received massive international attention at the time and initiated the events of the [[Russian Civil War]], provoking military interventions from the [[United States of America|United States]], [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland|United Kingdom]] and other countries. Key eyewitnesses to the event include [[John Reed]].

== Nomenclature ==
The October Revolution actually occurred on 7 November using the modern Gregorian calendar. However, on Russia's Gregorian calendar that that was used until the revolution, the date was 25 October.

== Events ==

=== Background ===
<blockquote>''See also: [[February Revolution]], [[Russian Republic (1917–1918)]]''</blockquote>The government of [[Alexander Kerensky|Kerensky]] failed to take up the task of necessary reforms and continued the imperialist war which was losing Russia its most class-conscious workers and resulting in financial bondage to the Entente. At its Central Committee meeting on 29 October, the Bolshevik Party elected a Party Center led by [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] to direct the revolution in Petrograd. The [[Mensheviks|Menshevik]] newspaper ''Novaya Zhizn'' printed a statement saying the Bolsheviks were planning an uprising. [[Leon Trotsky|Trotsky]] revealed the date of the uprising, leading the Bolsheviks to begin it one day earlier than planned.<ref name=":1">{{Citation|author=[[Joseph Stalin]]|year=1939|title=History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)|chapter=The Bolshevik Party in the Period of Preparation and Realization of the October Socialist Revolution|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch07.htm|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch03.htm}}</ref>

=== Revolution in Petrograd ===
Early in the morning of 6 November 1917, [[Alexander Kerensky|Kerensky]] dispatched armored cars to the printing plant of ''Rabochy Put'', the main Bolshevik newspaper. Soldiers and Red Guards defended the building, and it officially called for the overthrow of the government by 11 a.m. Lenin arrived that night to personally lead the revolution, and the revolutionaries surrounded the Winter Palace.

On 7 November, revolutionaries occupied the railway and telegraph stations, post office, State Bank, and Ministries. They dissolved the Provisional Council.<ref name=":1" /> The actual seizure of power from the Kerensky government was relatively bloodless. The Winter Palace was attacked and seized on the night of 7 November 1917, and the soviets seized power and dismissed the bourgeois parliament, ending dual power.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|author=[[Vijay Prashad]]|year=2017|title=Red Star over the Third World|chapter=Red October|page=30|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacecu7gb2ei65us6ip3r2ugcgkblneqcftbm456mb6bzvprkbqk55qm?filename=Vijay%20Prashad%20-%20Red%20Star%20Over%20the%20Third%20World-LeftWord%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=New Delhi|publisher=LeftWord Books}}</ref> The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets began at 10:45 p.m. on 7 November, and the Bolsheviks secured a majority over the Mensheviks, [[General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland, and Russia|Bundists]], and right-[[Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries|SRs]].

On the night of 8 November, the Congress adopted the [[Decree on Peace]], ordering an armistice of at least three months that would lead to a permanent end to the [[First World War]]. The [[Decree on Land]], passed on the same night, abolished [[Landlord|landlordism]] and redistributed over 400 million acres of land to the [[peasantry]]. It also outlawed landlords from charging [[rent]] from peasants.<ref name=":1" />

=== Revolution in Russian Turkestan ===
The revolution took longer to build momentum in Russian [[Turkestan]] due to the lack of existing socialist influence in the region. Aside from territories under direct control of the Russian Tsar, the Tsar had vassalised the [[Emirate of Bukhara]] and the [[Khanate of Khiva|Khanates of Khiva]] and [[Kokand]]. The population composition consisted of segregated Russian ''[[kulak]]'' settlers and the local populace, whom were stratified into the clerical nobility of the theocratic regime and the peasantry. The region was highly underdeveloped in terms of agriculture, literacy and social progress and repression was reminiscent of the Medieval ages. The Russian occupation worsened the situation and landlessness among the peasants grew, doubling between 1909 and 1911.<ref>Joshua Konitz, ''Dawn Over Samarkand''</ref> However, the region was rife with activity of ''Djadidists'' (bourgeois [[Nationalism|nationalists]])'','' who went on to ally with the Bolsheviks''.''

== Impact and aftermath ==
The Great October Socialist Revolution inspired a number of communist and [[Anti-colonialism|anti-colonialist]] movements across the globe. Underlining the importance of the unity of the revolutionaries who broke with the [[Social-imperialism|social-chauvinism]] of the [[Second International]], the Third International ([[Communist International]])'s program united disjointed communist groups.  The workers' state immediately showed solidarity by annulling unjust treaties imposed by the former Tsarist regime along with other colonial powers against [[Qing dynasty (1636–1912)|China]], [[Ottoman Empire (1299–1922)|Turkey]] and [[Qajar Iran|Iran]] and going on to assist Turkey in its liberation against the imperialist Treaty of Severing. Along with actively platforming and aiding third-world revolutionary movements in the Baku Congress of the Peoples of the East and Communist University for the Toilers of the East respectively, the Soviet state stood in solidarity with [[Weimar Germany]] against the imperialist Treaty of Versailles to subjugate the latter. Through its progressive [[Nations in the USSR|nationalities' policy of the Soviet Union]], the respect and trust of bourgeois nationalists struggling against imperialism was won.<ref>See Amanullah Khan's letter to Vladimir Lenin [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Amanullah_Khan_letter_to_Vladimir_Lenin available in Wikisource]</ref>

== Historiography ==
Bourgeois historiography pivots around denying the necessity of the October Revolution (Richard Pipes) insisting that Kerensky's liberal-democratic revolution sufficed and denying the general incompetence of the government resulting to susceptibility to a military coup, like the one which had already been staged by Lavr Kornilov. According to such historians, if the anomaly of the first world war and the Bolshevik Revolution had not struck, Russia may have progressed out of backwardness herself or achieved stability under a liberal democracy. These historians deny the historical materialist view of history and ignore the underlying superstructure , viewing instead the First World War as well, as a result of serendipities and breakdown of diplomatic relations. As outlined by [[Joseph Stalin]], reforms are adopted and kept afloat in response to revolutionary social movements (the limited political reforms were a result of the 1905 revolution and were quickly rescinded over the years) and Russia constituted the weakest link in the imperial system – which was only exacerbated and catalysed by the conditions of the first world war.<ref>[[Joseph Stalin|Stalin, Joseph]] (1924). ''[[Library:The foundations of Leninism|The foundations of Leninism]]'': [[Library:The foundations of Leninism#The historical roots of Leninism|''The historical roots of Leninism'']].</ref><ref>Walter Rodney, ''The Russian Revolution: A View from the Third World''</ref>

[[Trotsky]] and [[Trotskyism|Trotskyist]] historians tend to exaggerate the role of Trotsky in the October Revolution and his military exploits. While he was a major figure responsible for the establishment of the [[Workers' and Peasants' Red Army]], he joined the Bolshevik Party only 6 months prior to the revolution and continued to be involved in anti-party activities, like revealing party plans to a bourgeois newspaper and not following party directions for the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. 

Another source of contention within the bourgeois historiographical paradigm is whether or not [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]] and the [[Bolsheviks]]' actions during the [[Russian Civil War]] lead (inevitably) to 'Stalinism', a phenomenon of supposedly ossified bureaucracy, omniscient state and mass repressions, which is a caricature that is often painted of the Soviet history. Glossed over are the democratic advances made under Stalin. Stalin is presented as having usurped power when he held just the post of [[General Secretary of the CPSU|General Secretary]] even before Lenin's death. The humanist [[Main Administration of Camps|prison]] reforms aimed towards rehabilitation which were brought forth after relaxation of the Red Terror are missed as well.

== References ==