Dimitri’s Reviews > The Russian Revolution: A New History > Status Update

Two contrast basic numbers:
2 months of Red Terror killed 15.000
The last century of Romanov rule ruled 6321 executions.

"In their first 2 months of power, the Bolsheviks had not so much won over the Russian people as harassed & bludgeoned them into submission. A Parliament was an impossible scam as long as the whole country rose up. Lenin however, had an ace in the hole: he who could bring peace might carry all before him. It was time to play the German card."

Moscow was a bloodier affair [than St. Petersburg] against strong government forces, storming the Kremlin after a point-blank artillery duel.

To the Dustbin of history: the Mensheviks & Socialist revolutionaries leave the Second all-Russian Congress of Soviets, while Lenin APPROPRIATES their slogan "Peace, Land and Bread".

Officials resisted, banks refused to open their vault, so they went after private deposits...

Storming the Winter Palace in 1917 was a dream fullfilled of seizing power while barely breaking a sweat: 5 casualties. The spirited reconstruction for Eisenstein's 1928 movie "Oktober" wounded more people...

On one side stood Lenin pushing a program sharp&clear: end the war now, all power to the Soviets! On the other side stood.. not clear exactly who, a loose coalition of anyone opposed to hostile Bolshevik takeover of Russia's remnant army&government. Kerensky was their leader without followers. His departure left the door wide open. Lenin didn't even have to "kick in the door" like Hitler but could simply walk in.

Kerensky decided to let the Bolsheviks off the hook so as to fight the phantom menace of "Kornilovism" but this ruined his credit with the rank-and-file just as Operation Albion opened the way to Petrograd. So the Bolesheviks , still officially charged with treason, returned smoothly from the wilderness to take center stage again, with a strategic majority in the Petrograd & Moscow Sovjets.

By ordering an offensive & sending a Bolshevik-infected unit to the front, Keresky had forced Lenin to show his hand. Now it was up to Kerensky to show his own. The Okhrana had a field day fielding documents&witnesses. In the wake of the July coup a "overpatriotic" realignment to the right occured: Kerensky cleaned the cabinet of its last Kadets (moderates) to become the (needed?) Liberal Russian Strong Man.

Worse, the Provosional Government published proof of Lenin's German deal. He shaved his beard & slipped away from his HQ while Stalin negotiated terms of surrender from the Peter-Paul fortress & loyal troops poured into Petrograd. The Pravda's presses were smashed... If Kerensky made the charges stick in a public trial, the Bolsheviks were finished.

With their most loyal troops soon to be gone from Petrograd, the time seemed ripe to round up the Bolshevik leaders, but the date was leaked (7 july) Lenin fled timely to Finland, leaving the Menshevik Trotsky to speech an overthrow of Kerensky, with generous rubbls (again) buying the bayonets of the lukewarm. Curiously, Trotsky didn't know exactly what to do with his enthousiastic armed mob. It broke down in 48h.

Tke Kerensky offensive came too late to help the Allies by 2 months & to turn the Petrograd garrison around (a prime unit, the 1st Machine-Gun Regiment, a transfer from Galicia) by cleansing their agitation in the flame of battle. Whole WHY is muddled but redistribution was ruled out as mutineers would only infect other units with the Bolshevik virus & its slogan "ours we will not yield but others we do not seek"