At the dawn of the 25th, a man and woman, employed in the party's
printing office, came to Smolny and informed us that the government had
closed the official journal of our body and the "New Gazette" of the
Petrograd Soviet. The printing office was sealed by some agent of the
government. The Military Revolutionary Committee immediately recalled
the orders and took both publications under its protection, enjoining
upon the "gallant Wolinsky Regiment the great honor of securing the free
Socialist press against counter-revolutionary attempts." The printing,
after that, went on without interruption and both publications appeared
on time.
The government was still in session at the Winter Palace, but it was no
more than its own shadow. As a political power it no longer existed. On
the 25th of October the Winter Palace was gradually surrounded by our
troops from all sides. At one o'clock in the afternoon I declared at the
session of the Petrograd Soviet, in the name of the Military
Revolutionary Committee, that the government of Kerensky had ceased to
exist and that forthwith, and until the All-Russian Convention of the
Soviets might decide otherwise, the power was to pass into the hands of
the Military Revolutionary Committee.
A few days earlier Lenin left Finland and was hiding in the outskirts of
the city, in the workingmen's quarters. On the evening of the 25th, he
came secretly to the Smolny. According to newspaper information, it
seemed to him that the issue would be a temporary compromise between
ourselves and the Kerensky Government. The bourgeois press had so often
clamored about the approach of the revolution, about the demonstration
of armed soldiers on the streets, about pillaging and unavoidable
streams of blood, that now this press failed to notice the revolution
which was really taking place, and accepted the negotiations of the
general staff with us at their face value. Meanwhile, without any chaos,
without street fights, without firing or bloodshed, the government
institutions were occupied one after another by severe and disciplined
detachments of soldiers, sailors and Red Guards, in accordance with the
exact telephone orders given from the small room on the third floor of
the Smolny Institute. In the evening a preliminary session of the Second
All-Russian Convention of Soviets was held. In the name of the Central
Executive Committee, Dan presented a report. He presented an indictment
of the rebellious usurpers and insurgents and attempted to frighten the
Convention with a vision of the inevitable failure of the insurrection,
which, he claimed, would be suppressed by the forces from the front. His
address sounded unconvincing and out of place within the walls of a hall
where the overwhelming majority of the delegates were enthusiastically
observing the victorious advance of the Petrograd revolution.
By this time the Winter Palace was surrounded, but it was not yet taken.
From time to time there were shots from the windows upon the besiegers,
who were closing in slowly and cautiously. From the Petropavlovsk
Fortress, two or three shells from cannons were directed at the Palace.
Their thunder was heard at the Smolny. Martof spoke with helpless
indignation from the platform of the convention, about civil war and
especially about the siege of the Winter Palace, where among the
ministers there were--oh, horror!--members of the Mensheviki party. The
sailors who came to bring information from the battle-place around the
Palace took the floor against him. They reminded the accusers of the
offensive of the 18th of June, of the treacherous policy of the old
government, of the re-establishment of the death penalty for soldiers,
of the annihilation of the revolutionary organization, and wound up by
vowing to win or die. They also brought word of the first victims from
our ranks in the battle before the Palace.
All arose as if at an unseen signal and, with a unanimity which could be
created only by a high moral inspiration, sang the Funeral March. He who
lived through that moment will never forget it.
The session was interrupted. It was impossible to deliberate
theoretically the question of the means of reconstructing the government
among the echoes of the fighting and shooting under the walls of the
Winter Palace, where the fate of that very government was being decided
in a practical way. The taking of the Palace, however, was rather slow,
and this caused hesitation among the less determined elements of the
convention. The orators of the right wing prophesied our near
destruction. All anxiously awaited news from the arena of the Palace.
Presently Antonoff appeared, who directed the operations against the
Palace. A death-like silence fell upon the hall. The Winter Palace was
taken; Kerensky had fled; other ministers had been arrested and
consigned to the fortress of Petropavlovsk. The first chapter of the
October revolution was over.
The Right Revolutionists and the Mensheviki, altogether sixty men, that
is, about one-tenth of the convention, left the session in protest. As
there was nothing else left to' them, they "placed the entire
responsibility" for the coming events upon the Bolsheviki and Left S.
R.'s. The latter were passing through moments of indecision. The past
tied them strongly to the party of Chernoff. The right wing of this
party swerved to the middle and petty bourgeois elements, to the
intellectuals of the middle classes, to the well-to-do elements of the
villages; and on all decisive questions went hand in hand with the
liberal bourgeoisie against us. The more revolutionary elements of the
party, reflecting the radicalism of the social demands of the poorest
masses of the peasantry, gravitated to the proletariat and their party.
They feared, however, to sever the umbilical cord which linked them to
their old party. When we left the Preliminary Parliament, they refused
to follow us and warned us against "adventurers," but the insurrection
put before them the dilemma of taking sides for or against the Soviets.
Not without hesitation, they assembled on our side of the barricades.