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Insurrection
Planning
On 23 October 1917 (5 November new style), the Bolsheviks' Central Committee voted 10–2 for a resolution saying that "an armed uprising is inevitable, and that the time for it is fully ripe".[16] At the Committee meeting, Lenin discussed how the people of Russia had waited long enough for "an armed uprising", and it was the Bolsheviks' time to take power. Lenin expressed his confidence in the success of the planned insurrection. His confidence stemmed from months of Bolshevik buildup of power and successful elections to different committees and councils in major cities such as Petrograd and Moscow.[17]
The Bolsheviks created a revolutionary military committee within the Petrograd soviet, led by the soviet's president, Trotsky. The committee included armed workers, sailors and soldiers, and assured the support or neutrality of the capital's garrison. The committee methodically planned to occupy strategic locations through the city, almost without concealing their preparations: the Provisional Government's president Kerensky was himself aware of them, and some details, leaked by Kamenev and Zinoviev, were published in newspapers.[18][19]
Onset
In the early morning of 24 October (November 6 N.S.), a group of soldiers loyal to Kerensky's government marched on the printing house of the Bolshevik newspaper, Rabochy put [Worker's Path], seizing and destroying printing equipment and thousands of newspapers copies. Shortly thereafter the government announced the immediate closure of not only Rabochy put but also the left-wing Soldat as well as the far-right newspapers Zhivoe slovo and Novaia Rus'. The editors of these newspapers, as well as any authors seen to be calling for insurrection, were to be prosecuted on criminal charges.[20]
In response, at 9 AM the Military Revolutionary Committee issued a statement denouncing the government's actions. At 10 AM, Bolshevik-aligned soldiers successfully retook the Rabochy put printing house. Kerensky responded at approximately 3 PM that afternoon by ordering the raising of all but one of Petrograd's bridges, a tactic used by the government several months earlier in the July Days. What followed was a series of sporadic clashes over control of the bridges between Red Guard militias aligned with the Military Revolutionary Committee and military regiments still loyal to the government. At approximately 5 PM the Military Revolutionary Committee seized the Central Telegraph of Petrograd, giving the Bolsheviks control over communications through the city.[20][21]
On 25 October (7 November new style) 1917, Bolsheviks led their forces in the uprising in Petrograd (now St. 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 crews, in St. Petersburg 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.[19]