Nov. 7, 1917 | Russian Government Overthrown in Bolshevik Revolution

By The Learning Network
L. LéonidovV.I. Lenin
Historic Headlines

Learn about key events in history and their connections to today.

On Nov. 7, 1917, Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution took place as forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky.

The provisional government came to power after the February Revolution resulted in the Russian monarchy being overthrown in March 1917. Weak and unpopular, the provisional government drew criticism from both the right and left. Lenin, a Marxist revolutionary and founder of the Bolshevik Party, had been exiled by the monarchy, but returned to Russia in April to incite workers and soldiers to rise up against the government.

Lenin went into exile again after the Bolshevik-led July Days demonstrations turned violent, but he returned again in October. By then, Premier Kerensky’s government had few remaining supporters and the Bolsheviks were the most powerful opposition. On Nov. 6 and 7, Bolshevik forces began occupying government offices in Saint Petersburg in preparation for seizing the government.

The Nov. 8 New York Times gave the impression that Premier Kerensky remained in control of the situation, reporting that Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky “has given strict orders against outlawry” and that he said it was not their “intention … to seize power.”

That night, however, Bolshevik forces entered the lightly guarded Winter Palace and arrested several members of the government. The provisional government collapsed and the Bolsheviks claimed power. Over the next several months, despite the objections of centrist and right-wing parties, the new leaders transferred government power to Bolshevik-controlled soviets (councils of workers), and began nationalizing Russia’s economy, industry and agriculture.

An alliance of anti-Bolshevik White Army forces tried to overthrow the government, but the Bolshevik Red Army defeated them in the Russian Civil War. In 1922, the Bolshevik, or Communist Party, formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, a one-party, four-republic state that would grow into a 15-republic world superpower until its dissolution in 1991.

Connect to Today:

The brutal police state and forcible collectivization of agriculture under Vladimir Lenin (and even more so under Josef Stalin) led to the internal exile, execution and starvation of millions of people. It was a far cry from the vision of socio-economic equality and the “peace, bread and land” the Bolshevik revolutionaries had envisioned and laid the groundwork to make a reality.

Although its potential as a revolutionary force has been debated, the growing Occupy Wall Street movement seeks to challenge the current economic-political system by “standing against corporate greed, social inequality and the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process,” according to the Times Topics: Occupy Wall Street overview. There, the movement’s own Web site is quoted: “The one thing we all have in common is that we are the 99 percent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent.”

Using Karl Marx’s class distinction between “haves” and “have-nots,” The Times notes that “the 1 percent refers to the haves: that is, the banks, the mortgage industry, the insurance industry. The 99 percent refers to the have-nots: that is, everyone else. In other words, said a group member: ‘1 percent of the people have 99 percent of the money.’”

Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center notes the potential for growth in interest in the movement and activism in the recent Room for Debate: “The Psychology of Occupy Wall Street,” writing, “Over the past two decades we have found a very large majority of respondents agreeing with the statement that ‘this is a country in which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.’ And, since the late 1980s, a growing number of citizens have begun to see the U.S. as a nation divided into two groups: the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots.’”

Do you think Occupy Wall Street can be compared to past movements that challenged the economic status quo of “haves” versus “have nots”? Do you think the current movement in the United States has the potential to effect revolutionary socio-economic change? Why or why not?

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Bobby Buccellato November 8, 2011 · 9:14 am

No the occupy wallstreet people are not Bolsheviks, they are poor people looking for hope. Crying out to a system that has undercut their american dream.

These people are not communists, they are the middle class.

Barry November 8, 2011 · 1:02 pm

The Occupy movement is a direct result of the inequality that has resulted from the present system. These people are putting their frustration with the system into action through peaceful demonstration. The fact that it is going global just shows that people need a different way of government and division of wealth. Governments should pay attention if they do not want a revolution on their hands.

Idene November 8, 2011 · 5:54 pm

I completely agree with Bobby Buccallato and those people are just the middle clasa have nothing to do with Bolsheviks

Ryon A. March 22, 2013 · 12:00 pm

I agree with Mr. Buccellato. These people are not looking for a new government. They are just looking for real change in our economic and political system. They understand, as most American’s know now, first hand how corrupt our government has become.
The Bolsheviks saw this in their government, but they didn’t have a representative government as we do so the only way they could change anything was to take power themselves.