Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/October 2017/Op-ed
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Red Storm Rising |
- By TomStar81
October 1917... For the last 8 months Russia has been without an effective national government owing to the uprising that forced the Tsar and his family out of power in February. With no faith or confidence in the Emperor, and with order broken down across the Russian Empire, the Russian Provisional Government has assumed the role of the national leadership in an attempt to restore order. While the effort made by this body to work towards a middle road that all Russians could accept was admirable, its inability to move toward that goal quickly left an unmistakable scent of vulnerability at the national level. This scent had twice attracted predators who were keen on the idea of seizing national power in the world's largest country by landmass, and in both cases the Provisional Government had just barely managed to stay in power by getting far enough ahead of the movements to shut down their leadership cores. In the latter half of October 1917, however, one of these predatory groups would finally succeed in overthrowing the Provisional Government and, in so doing, this group would earn the right to reshape Russia in its own image.
The predatory group in question were the Bolsheviks, a
In the second attempt, known as the
, and other cities.Having thus primed the revolutionary pump, the Bolsheviks finalized their plans for the endgame and control of the Russian government, and on 25 October 1917 set into motion their plans for seizing control by leading their forces in the uprising in Petrograd (modern-day Saint Petersburg), then capital of Russia, against the Kerensky Provisional Government. The event coincided with the arrival of a flotilla of pro-Bolshevik marines, primarily five destroyers and their crew, in St. Petersburg's harbor. At Kronstadt, sailors also announced their allegiance to the Bolshevik insurrection. In the early morning, the military-revolutionary committee planned the last of the locations to be assaulted or seized from its heavily guarded and picketed center in Smolny palace. The Red Guards systematically captured major government facilities, key communication, installations and vantage points with little opposition. The Petrograd Garrison and most of the city's military units joined the insurrection against the Provisional Government.
Kerensky and the Provisional Government were virtually helpless to offer significant resistance. Russia's military had been severely depleted after three years of war, combat veterans and others who may have been willing to help put down the uprising were out of the capital, forces left in the capital were recruits, reservists, and others who had seen no reason to risk life and limb to defend the Emperor in February and once again saw little if any reason to put down an uprising against what had up to that point proven to be an ineffective government. Compounding this problem was the logistical situation in the capital: railways and railway stations had been controlled by Soviet workers and soldiers for days, making rail travel to and from Petrograd for Provisional Government officials all but impossible. The Provisional Government was also unable to locate any serviceable vehicles. On the morning of the insurrection, Kerensky desperately searched for a means of reaching military forces he hoped would be friendly to the Provisional government outside the city, and ultimately borrowed a Renault car from the American Embassy, which he drove from the Winter Palace alongside a Pierce Arrow. Kerensky was able to evade the pickets going up around the palace and drive to meet oncoming soldiers.
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Unlike the February uprising, this insurrection was mostly bloodless, a final assault being launched against the Winter Palace, poorly defended by 3,000 cadets, officers, cossacks and female soldiers. The assault was delayed throughout the day, both because functioning
With this event, the Bolshevik faction cemented its control of the greater Russian national government. In the newly created Soviet Russia, Vladimir Lenin assumed the role of the national leader,
Author's note: Due to dating discrepancies arising from the use of Old Style and New Style dates I want to note that all dates given in this article are Old Style, which was approximately two weeks behind the currently used new style dating system.
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