Page 59 - All About History - Issue 26-15

LENIN'S BLOODY REVOLUTION

VYBORG
DISTRICT

Tsar Nicholas, long the figurehead for the
people’s dissatisfaction – it didn’t help that his
household had come under the malign influence of
Tauride Palace notoriousmonkRasputinwhileNicholashadbeen
Home of the Petrograd fighting in World War I – abdicated, ending the
Soviet (the City Council of
Saint Petersburg, which was Romanov dynasty with extraordinary suddenness.
called Petrograd until 1924). Russia unanimously rejoiced, and in the civil
The Soviet was established conflicts that followed, no party or faction even
after the February revolution suggested the monarchy’s revival. “The country
as a rival power to the
Provisional Government. hadsoradicallyvomitedupthemonarchythat
Several of its members – it could not ever crawl down the people’s throat
including Trotsky – were again,”wrotetheSocialDemocratLeonTrotsky.
instrumental during the
October revolution. The celebrations were short lived. A Provisional
Government was formed, but while the very
word ‘provisional’ was intended to make clear its
temporary nature, it struggled to keep order: not
least because, having not been elected, the people
were resistant to the idea that it wielded any
Hotel Astoria authority. It also continued to fight in World War I,
Hand-to-hand fighting between the which obviously remained an unpopular policy at
Tsarists and the Bolsheviks outside the
Hotel Astoria was so intense that the home. Elections were promised for September and
pavements bore bloodstains the next day. then postponed until November, but before they
Several of the revolutionary leadership could happen, the Bolsheviks seized power.
took up residence there, and Lenin gave a Despite his devotion to his homeland and his
famous address from its balcony in 1919.
passion for its political struggles, Lenin had actually
spent the bulk of the previous two decades away
Smolny
As Lenin’s base in Saint from Russia. Exiled to Siberia for three years in
Petersburg during 1897, afterwards he spent itinerant periods in
October 1917, this Munich, London, Paris, Sweden, Switzerland and
is where the leader
and his government Finland, among other places, all the time keeping
worked. Lenin also a close eye on events at home and keeping up
lived here with his wife correspondence with his revolutionary comrades
until the seat of power
was moved to capital all over Europe. The unrest in February 1917
city Moscow in 1918. made him desperate to return to Russia from
his current base in Switzerland, but the fact
that World War I was raging around him made
that journey problematic. Various adventurous
routes were discussed, but the eventual solution
was an ad-hoc exchange of Russian exiles for
Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war. The Russian
Provisional Government dragged their heels over
the deal, presumably not sure they wanted Lenin
back at all, so the impatient communists did the
deal with Germany themselves. Lenin arrived to
a triumphant reception at the Finland Station in
Saint Petersburg in April 1917.
For Lenin, the timing was urgent. Over
the next six months he deluged his
Bolshevik Central Committee colleagues
with arguments in favour of radical
immediate action, and on 10 October,
the decision to seize power was
made, with an alliance of Lenin and
former Menshevik Trotsky, now
the chairman of the predominantly
Railway lines/stations
Yet another strategic target for the Red
Guard, placing rail transport and stations Lenin
under revolutionary control. Part of the Saint masterminded
Petersburg to Hiitola line was blown up a the October
year later in 1918 by Finnish troops to prevent Revolution from
supplies reaching their Soviet enemies. the Smolny
Institute

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