On this day November 7th in 1917, the October Revolution began in Russia when the Bolsheviks initiated an armed insurrection in Petrograd, seizing the Winter Palace and dissolving the Provisional Government in a coup with minimal violence. The name “October Revolution” comes from the fact that the revolution began on October 25th in the dating convention of the time.

The October Revolution was the culmination of popular sentiment directed against the provisional government which was achieving little for the majority of people to change Russia from its Tsarist past. In particular, the unelected body continued to participate in the very unpopular First World War opting in July for participation in further military campaigns which provoked outrage amongst soldiers and workers alike.

After the February Revolution which established the Provisional Government, during the period of the Dual Power (February-October 1917), the Bolsheviks gradually gained in strength and influence especially in the soviets and in the army after July. The Bolshevik slogan ‘Peace, Bread and Land’ summarised their programme and was increasingly popular. They established their headquarters in the Smolny Institute. This was a former girls’ convent school which also housed the Petrograd Soviet. The Provisional Government now headed by Kerensky, was still officially in power and under pressure from the nobility and industrialists, Kerensky was persuaded to take decisive action against the Bolsheviks. Thus, on 22nd October he ordered the arrest of the Bolshevik Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC). The government was aware of the unstated purpose of the MRC, established on 12th October and led by Trotsky. The purpose of this committee, created by the Bolsheviks within the Petrograd soviet, was to prepare for armed insurrection against the government. The next day, 23rd October, the government attempted to close down the Bolshevik newspapers and cut off the telephones to the Smolny Institute. However, soldiers and Red Guards ultimately thwarted all Kerensky’s plans.

Following this, a long debate took place at a secret meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee. At this meeting the main issue centred around Lenin’s proposal that the Bolsheviks should take action before the elections for the Constituent Assembly; in other words, the socialist revolution should proceed without delay. Zinoviev and Kamenev dissented, hence the importance of the MRC which had already deployed commissars to all garrison units. In essence this was both a measure of defence and, at the same time, a preparation for attack

Thus, orders were given for the Bolsheviks to occupy the railway stations, the telephone exchange and the State Bank. In the early morning of October 25th, armed workers started occupying key points of Petrograd, in conjunction with pro-Bolshevik sailors pulling into the city’s harbour. Power stations were seized and strategic bridges were held. These instances produced very little resistance and were not met with violence.

A blank shot from the Cruiser Aurora in the evening signalled the siege of the Winter Palace, which was to be the final offensive of the revolution. Crowds of Red Guards and insurgents surrounded the palace and secured entry, leading to the surrender of the remaining government officials in the early hours of the morning. Members of the Provisional Government that had not already fled the capital were imprisoned. Kerensky had managed to escape from the city.

Crowds of Red Guards and insurgents surrounded the palace and secured entry, leading to the surrender of the remaining government officials.

The revolution itself was brief, being almost entirely peaceful in its execution. Posters were distributed across the city declaring that “the Provisional Government is overthrown” and “Long live the Revolution of Workers, Soldiers and Peasants!” Lenin emerged from the revolution as one of its most notable strategists and a potential leader in the new era.

On 26th October 1917, the second All-Russian Congress of Soviets met and handed over power to the Soviet Council of People’s Commissars. Lenin was elected chairman and other appointments included Trotsky (Foreign Affairs). Two decrees were adopted at the first session: the Decree on Peace, which moved to start negotiations to withdraw from the war in order to bring about “a just and democratic peace,” and the Decree on Land, which moved to transfer land away from landowners and the church to peasant committees. ‘Peace, Bread and Land’ was thus transformed from a slogan into a living reality. In addition, the Council of People’s Commissars nationalised the banks and workers control of factory production was introduced. The army was demobilised and in December and the Soviet Government announced that it planned to seek an armistice with Germany. In December 1917, Trotsky led the Russian delegation at Brest-Litovsk to negotiate peace terms with representatives from Germany and Austria-Hungary.

Thus it was that the full Bolshevik programme, as outlined in Lenin’s ‘April Theses’ was implemented within three months of the successful socialist revolution.

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  • NoLeftLeftWhereILive@hexbear.net
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    5 days ago

    Hexbear appreciation post.

    Went to have a wee look at my normo social media and the first thing I see is two grown ass adult lib men attacking a thoughtful young principled ML by posting shit about her. The ML tries to constructively engage and talk to these people about their attacks and these adults just go “lol no”.

    Came to Hexbear after where the first thing I see is a good thought provoking discussion about anarchists. Yesterday it was something else and tomorrow it will be something new again, but every time I learn something and rarely have to watch people being petty, mean or just shitty towards others.

    Hexbear posts give me stuff to think about, make me think and teach me things I don’t know. People generally post with well formulated arguments and a genuine interest to understand things better. This is Hexbear every day.

    I don’t think there are other places like this on the internet. Thank you for being here comrades. heart-sickle

  • Dimmer06 [he/him,comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    5 days ago

    I had some CPUSA members tell me Trump was a fascist threat that needed to be defeated even if it meant voting for genocidal Democrats and I desperately want to ask them why they aren’t organizing a new Abraham Lincoln brigade now that the fascist threat is here.

  • keepcarrot [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    5 days ago

    I don’t think of myself as an anarchist anymore, but whenever someone (usually screenwriters using them as a villain, but also people in my social spheres) slags anarchists for no reason, I feel the need to defend them

  • EstraDoll [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    5 days ago

    AMERICA PATCH NOTES, 8/11/24

    • updated the way dates are written

    • changed the spelling of Conneticut so it isn’t spelled dumb

    • gridiron football is now called footgrid, football is now the same as the rest of the world

    • Farenheight is now somewhat more spellable

    • got rid of Conneticut, it was a dumb idea for a state anyway

    • added “Longyarns” to the measurement system. Equal to 842.85 feet

    • reduced racism by about 20%, improving overall performance

    • libertarians now 15% more insufferable

  • Torenico [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    5 days ago

    My life-long cat has fallen ill. Earlier this year her sister died due to complications on her kidneys, she was 17. Her sister is now 18 and is suffering from the same issues, but she’s also very thin and weighs only around 1kg. She struggles a lot to just walk, her back legs don’t seem to respond too well. She can’t jump much and can barely make safe landings, so we do our best to keep an eye on her to avoid injuries, and we don’t allow her to go up and down the stairs. She lost a lot of muscles and doesn’t eat too much, she does drink a lot of water.

    It’s super hard to see her like this. She has daily visits to the vet for some meds but we know the only thing they do is delay the inevitable…

    She’s now enjoying a nap by the sun, as she always does. I hope that gives her some comfort…

    Go hug your pet. Unless you can’t because you put it at risk.

  • Rojo27 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    5 days ago

    Put in a PTO request. I’m feeling the daily grind getting to me. Like all I ever have time to do is just work. Rarely have time to hang out with the people I want to hang out with. Just feeling bleh.

  • UmbraVivi [he/him, she/her]@hexbear.net
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    5 days ago

    Don’t wanna make a dunk/dredge tank post for this but just saw this zionist bs on my timeline and wanted to rant about it

    tw: zionists being unhinged + rant

    After all the horrific nazi shit I’ve heard zionists say over the past 13 months, somehow this post still made me go “Wow.”. Can you imagine looking Anne Frank in the eye, a 15-year-old girl dying of starvation and sickness in a 1945 concentration camp, her sister having dropped dead a few days ago, and telling her this with a straight face? That her fate is just like what happened to some racist hooligans who got beat up for chanting “death to arabs”?

    I’m just shocked that zionists would spit on Anne Frank’s image like this. She is a symbol for all innocent victims of the Holocaust, a young girl who did absolutely nothing wrong, who spent her entire life being persecuted purely for being jewish and who was eventually killed for it. I can’t believe that any jew, even a morally bankrupt zionist, would disrespect her like that. I know they’ve been relativizing the Holocaust this whole time, but specifically invoking Anne Frank, such an embodiement of innocence with such a cruel fate, all while talking about fucking football hooligans, just feels like a whole new level of shamelessness.

    How dare you compare yourself to her when your guys are literally being protected by cops? This girl had to live crammed inside a fucking shack with her family for 2 years where they lived in constant fear of being discovered by the authorities, while your guys are getting police escorts whenever there’s any trouble and your favorite hobby is complaining to the manager because you saw a watermelon somewhere. In this analogy, you’re the one who ratted Anne out to the Nazis and got her sent to fucking Auschwitz. That would’ve been you, you depraved freak. Sorry if this sounds melodramatic but if there is an afterlife, I really hope that Anne Frank doesn’t have to see this. What a disgrace. What an affront to victims of the Holocaust. I don’t want to see any zionist invoke Anne Frank ever again. Fuck all of you shameless, genocidal maniacs.

  • Blockocheese [any]@hexbear.net
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    5 days ago

    You can add names to the digital pipettes my work uses and it’ll display it when they’re idle.

    Recently someone added freakbob, John pork, and skibidi toilet as names and everyone is pointing to this one guy, who in turn is denying it and getting annoyed at everyone else

    What no one knows is that I did it angel-biblical-shh

  • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    6 days ago

    Feeling good as hell about my vibe reading powers right now. Listening to Will on the new chapo talking about going back and forth in his head on who would win, thinking about all these people with access to so much information that it’s paralyzing. Meanwhile, those of us who could do so simply closed our eyes, unfurled our axolotl-like morgellon head tentacles, tasted the noosphere and said “her ass does not have the mandate of heaven”. I’ve never bet or gambled on anything before, but I really really wish I’d put money on this: only laziness, not a lack a certainty, stopped me from looking into it.

  • The_sleepy_woke_dialectic [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    6 days ago

    I went into town today but I couldn’t get anywhere because of this new Vietnamese place and people were lined up for mile. Of course I didn’t know this until I asked a guy what was going on and he said “Pho queue”

    Nice guy