On this day November 7th in 1917, the October Revolution began in Russia when the Bolsheviks initiated an armed insurrection in Petrograd, seizing the Winter Palace and dissolving the Provisional Government in a coup with minimal violence. The name “October Revolution” comes from the fact that the revolution began on October 25th in the dating convention of the time.

The October Revolution was the culmination of popular sentiment directed against the provisional government which was achieving little for the majority of people to change Russia from its Tsarist past. In particular, the unelected body continued to participate in the very unpopular First World War opting in July for participation in further military campaigns which provoked outrage amongst soldiers and workers alike.

After the February Revolution which established the Provisional Government, during the period of the Dual Power (February-October 1917), the Bolsheviks gradually gained in strength and influence especially in the soviets and in the army after July. The Bolshevik slogan ‘Peace, Bread and Land’ summarised their programme and was increasingly popular. They established their headquarters in the Smolny Institute. This was a former girls’ convent school which also housed the Petrograd Soviet. The Provisional Government now headed by Kerensky, was still officially in power and under pressure from the nobility and industrialists, Kerensky was persuaded to take decisive action against the Bolsheviks. Thus, on 22nd October he ordered the arrest of the Bolshevik Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC). The government was aware of the unstated purpose of the MRC, established on 12th October and led by Trotsky. The purpose of this committee, created by the Bolsheviks within the Petrograd soviet, was to prepare for armed insurrection against the government. The next day, 23rd October, the government attempted to close down the Bolshevik newspapers and cut off the telephones to the Smolny Institute. However, soldiers and Red Guards ultimately thwarted all Kerensky’s plans.

Following this, a long debate took place at a secret meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee. At this meeting the main issue centred around Lenin’s proposal that the Bolsheviks should take action before the elections for the Constituent Assembly; in other words, the socialist revolution should proceed without delay. Zinoviev and Kamenev dissented, hence the importance of the MRC which had already deployed commissars to all garrison units. In essence this was both a measure of defence and, at the same time, a preparation for attack

Thus, orders were given for the Bolsheviks to occupy the railway stations, the telephone exchange and the State Bank. In the early morning of October 25th, armed workers started occupying key points of Petrograd, in conjunction with pro-Bolshevik sailors pulling into the city’s harbour. Power stations were seized and strategic bridges were held. These instances produced very little resistance and were not met with violence.

A blank shot from the Cruiser Aurora in the evening signalled the siege of the Winter Palace, which was to be the final offensive of the revolution. Crowds of Red Guards and insurgents surrounded the palace and secured entry, leading to the surrender of the remaining government officials in the early hours of the morning. Members of the Provisional Government that had not already fled the capital were imprisoned. Kerensky had managed to escape from the city.

Crowds of Red Guards and insurgents surrounded the palace and secured entry, leading to the surrender of the remaining government officials.

The revolution itself was brief, being almost entirely peaceful in its execution. Posters were distributed across the city declaring that “the Provisional Government is overthrown” and “Long live the Revolution of Workers, Soldiers and Peasants!” Lenin emerged from the revolution as one of its most notable strategists and a potential leader in the new era.

On 26th October 1917, the second All-Russian Congress of Soviets met and handed over power to the Soviet Council of People’s Commissars. Lenin was elected chairman and other appointments included Trotsky (Foreign Affairs). Two decrees were adopted at the first session: the Decree on Peace, which moved to start negotiations to withdraw from the war in order to bring about “a just and democratic peace,” and the Decree on Land, which moved to transfer land away from landowners and the church to peasant committees. ‘Peace, Bread and Land’ was thus transformed from a slogan into a living reality. In addition, the Council of People’s Commissars nationalised the banks and workers control of factory production was introduced. The army was demobilised and in December and the Soviet Government announced that it planned to seek an armistice with Germany. In December 1917, Trotsky led the Russian delegation at Brest-Litovsk to negotiate peace terms with representatives from Germany and Austria-Hungary.

Thus it was that the full Bolshevik programme, as outlined in Lenin’s ‘April Theses’ was implemented within three months of the successful socialist revolution.

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  • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    8 days ago

    Falling asleep to Inle by Fall of Efrafaz such a great album by such a great band based on such a great book based on super amazing animals.

    These throws of rapture, kindly hands caress broken bones, hands that cut through parched soul like a sharpened stone. What is it that we leave in these fitting moments? Sentiment? These curtains fall and wrap us up in our rigor mortis, the nimble fingers of the black one, his majesty of cold, courting me into sweet abeyance. The malign steely touch of needle thorns massing and directing their gaze on my misfiring neurons. The vestiges of my sickening life, of my loves, my crowning glories, the pain and poetry of a spent existence. He coils up inside me now, kissing me and whispering sweet nothings. The words of release, the words I crave as I lose all, as the clotted mass of cumuli nimbus bows his head in salute. As i claw upwards, as i fall back into oblivion and his words speak out amongst the frightening turbulence, those final fleeting words i coax from his abhorrent throat. "Will you join my owsla

        • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
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          8 days ago

          Dandelion is the name of one of the buns in Watership Down. You’ll love this a lot. It’s based on the author watching some bunnies move Warren’s over about a mile of countryside and he made up a lord of the rings style quest from their POV thet he swore had no symbolism at all Ala Tolkien. But you read it and that’s clearly bullshit

            • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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              7 days ago

              Cw: it’s about real rabbits, not comfy cartoon rabbits. You wouldn’t think rabbits could have harrowing scenes of terror and valor but Watership Down is a very heavy book. It’s one of the great works of literature, but it’s good to be prepared going in.

              There’s an old animation that’s also quite good which traumatized generations of children.

      • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        8 days ago

        Republic of Heaven:

        We wane in remembrance,

        Drained by our scorn.

        The flocks of the patriarch throttled,

        Forlorn.

        We gasp with epiphany,

        Perception unmasked.

        Ranks of black muslin litter out path.

        Empyrian empties,

        On our woeful malaise,

        Engulfs and entwines our impious parade.

        These are the embers,

        The fetid ideal,

        The end of our chastity,

        Allow us to feel.

        Nerves remain tender,

        To touch makes us cry.

        We see through these windows no

        become eyes.

        Our burden is heavy,

        As we ascend.

        Like blemished flesh,

        The earth seems to rent.

        Pustules of faces,

        Mouths like crevasse,

        Our weathered coherence lost to morass.

        Our debts are paid to this epoch,

        Sanctimonious,

        No remorse.

        The king is dead!

        The king is dead!

        We bound his face!

        Cut off his head!

        We spit at thee,

        We curse at thee,

        The king is dead!

        Brothers and sisters,

        The king is dead!

        Cut him down,

        Flay his skin,

        Our god is dead!

        Courtisans!

        Compatriots!

        Lend me your ears,

        We slayed this demagogue,

        Dragged it to its knees.

        We cut all the sycophants,

        Deafened their call,

        We gave back the willing to better us all.

        We will not go quiet,

        We will not be restrained,

        We will not be slaves to an impotent

        regieme.

        Mark this in remembrance,

        The turning of tides.

        Our nascent republic,

        Born of (his) demise.

        The nativity!

        Our elegy!

        To this reform!

        This song is about bunny rabbits. Fall of Efrafa is something else

      • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        8 days ago

        They didn’t write about Redwall, they wrote about Watership Down. Which is fantasy realism redwall with bunnies. Watership Down is the Tolkien to Redwall’s CS Lewis. I haven’t read much Redwall but as a guy that watched local bunnies over a year like the author, Watership Down is one of my all ti e favorite novels and I TOTALLY GET how someone could write an opera around it

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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        7 days ago

        I just love that Watership Down has a huge cultural impact in some weird quarters. Like wasn’t Skrillex lable called Owsla back in the way back?