History of the World War, Volume 4 (of 7) : $b An authentic narrative of the world's greatest warMarch, Francis A., Jr.
History
History of the World War, Volume 4 (of 7) : $b An authentic narrative of the world's greatest war
March, Francis A., Jr.
World War, 1914-1918
On November 7th, an armed insurrection against the Coalition Government
and Premier Kerensky was precipitated by the Bolsheviki faction.
The revolt was headed by Leon Trotzky, President of the Central
Executive Committee of the Petrograd Council, with Nicholas Lenine,
the Bolsheviki leader. The Revolutionists seized the offices of the
telephone and telegraph companies and occupied the state bank and
the Marie Palace where the preliminary Parliament had been sitting.
The garrison at Petrograd espoused the cause of the Bolsheviki and
complete control was seized with comparatively little fighting. The
Government troops were quickly overpowered, except at the Winter
Palace, whose chief guardians were the Woman’s Battalion, and the
Military Cadets. The Woman’s Battalion fought bravely, and suffered
terribly, and with the Military Cadets who also remained true, held the
Palace for several hours. The Bolsheviki brought up armored cars and
the cruiser Aurora, and turned the guns of the Fortress of SS. Peter
and Paul upon the Palace before its defenders would surrender.
That evening the Revolutionary Committee issued a characteristic
proclamation, denouncing the government of Kerensky as opposed to the
government and the people, and calling upon the soldiers in the army to
arrest their officers if they did not at once join the Revolution. They
announced the following program:
First: The offer of an immediate democratic peace.
Second: The immediate handing over of large proportional lands to the
peasants.
Third: The transmission of all authority to the Council of Workmen’s
and Soldiers’ Delegates.
Fourth: The honest convocation of the Constitutional Assembly.
At a meeting of the Council Trotzky declared that the Government
no longer existed, and introduced Lenine as an old comrade whom he
welcomed back. Lenine was received with prolonged cheers, and said:
“Now we have a Revolution. The peasants and workmen control the
Government. This is only a preliminary step toward a similar revolution
everywhere.”
Proclamation after proclamation came from the new Government. In one
of them it was stated “M. Kerensky has taken flight, and all military
bodies have been empowered to take all possible measures to arrest
Kerensky and bring him back to Petrograd. All complicity with Kerensky
will be dealt with as high treason.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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