Petrograd during the October Revolution

Following the February Revolution the previous march(remember Russia still used the old Julian calendar at this point) Russia was now a republic. A provisional government had been set up. The remnants of hereditary autocratic power had been dismantled. However not all was rosy.

The political exiles who returned to Russia were being excluded from society as ‘undesirables’ and some were imprisoned for ‘crimes’ they had committed in the revolution of 1905, a Revolution that resulted in the formation of a deliberative body known as the duma, which acted more like an advisory body to the tsar and the nobles had to pass any laws for it to be implemented.

There was wide spread destitution, as the American journalist John Reed reports from the time:

On the freezing front miserable armies continued to starve and die without enthusiasm. The railways were breaking down, food lessening, factories closing. Week by week food became scarcer. The daily allowance of bread fell from a pound and a half to a pound,then three-quarters,half, and a quarter pound. Towards the end there was a week without bread at all. Sugar one was entitled to at the rate of two pounds a month — if one could get one at all, which was seldom. A bar of chocolate or tasteless candy cost anywhere from 7 to 10 roubles — at least a dollar (Today that one dollar is worth $18.60,£13.09,€16.46). There was milk for about half the babies in the city; most hotels and private houses never saw it for months. In the fruit season apples and pears sold for a little less than a rouble apiece on the street corner. For milk and bread and sugar one had to stand in queue long hours in the chill rain. Coming home from an all-night meeting I have seen the kvost (tail) beginning to form before dawn, mostly women, some with babies in their arms. According to the official report of the last minister of supplies in the provisional government, coffee was bought wholesale in Vladivostok for two roubles a pound, and the consumer in Petrograd ( St.Petersburg today) paid thirteen. In all the stores of the large cities were tons of food and clothing; but only the rich could buy them.

The wealth gap between the ordinary people and the 1% was at an all time high. Much like today, the people of Russia wanted real change.

Provisional government forces opening fire on protesters in July 1917

This is not even mentioning the massive amounts of causalities suffered by Russia during the first world war, which between wounded, killed and captured is estimated to be 9,150,000 or 76.3% of the total armed forces mobilised. All this in a war which now, or arguably ever, had no meaning to the Russian people and was defended by the government with fears of national defence or retaining Russian prestige by honouring their commitment to their allies.

In terms of democracy, the provisional government kept pushing back the date of the elections while the people cried out for change. In desperation, the people turned to the Soviets.

Image of the Petrograd Soviet

Soviet is Russian for council, and the Russian people created Soviets of to control their workplaces, farms and army battalions. These Soviets, contrary to popular belief, were some of the most democratic institutions of their time. Utilising direct democracy, these institutions allowed people’s voices to really be heard, at a time when the government and the elite were refusing to listen. In one of these Soviets, a party known as the Bolsheviks were becoming more and more powerful. This was due to their proposal for the government to be founded on the Soviets, in a system where all the workers and farmers collectively owned and managed their own place of work democratically and an end to the most barbaric war in human history thus far. With the rallying cry ‘ Power to the Soviets’ they rose up with the people, they defeated the army of the provisional government, the proto-fascist white movement, the armies of Great Britain, Greece, Japan, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Italy, China and the United States, all with an army of armed workers and deserted soldiers. Whether you think what happened afterwards was a pragmatic choice to defend the revolution or a power grab by some power hungry fools is up to you to decide, however what is certain is that the legacy of the October Revolution has had a massive influence on the world to this day and shows the excitement and energy the people get when they directly get to engage in their politics. As that same American journalist writes “ Across the horizon spread the glittering lights of the capital, immeasurably more slendid by night than by day, like a dike of jewels on the barren plain. The old workman who drove held the wheel in one hand, while with the other he swept the far-gleaming capital in an exultant gesture. ‘Mine!’ He cried, his face all alight. ‘All mine now! My Petrograd! “