The second reason for the success was the “April Theses”. The points made in Lenin’s speech were later written up as this. In his theses, Lenin argued that there should be a socialist revolution, in which the workers took power. Many Bolsheviks were surprised, and some did not take him seriously. The Bolshevik party turned Lenin’s ideas into the slogan ‘Bread, Peace, Land’. This was what the people wanted to hear. Support for the Bolsheviks began to grow.
The war was another reason for success. The war distinguished the Bolsheviks from any other groups. Only they opposed the war. Over the summer of 1917, people got more and more opposed to the war as shortages continued. The defeat in July sparked an enormous demonstration in Petrograd (known as ‘July Days’) Soldiers, sailors and workers poured onto the streets. Naturally, they turned to the Bolsheviks, the anti-war party, to lead them. But the demonstrations turned into rioting. Kerensky used this opportunity to produce evidence that seemed to show that Lenin was in the pay of the Germans. Lenin fled and other leading Bolsheviks were arrested. Kerensky became prime minister.
Yet more reason for the success of the revolution were the weapons and the Red Guards. Kerensky had appointed a general called Kornilov to be head of the army. But Kornilov wanted his own government. He ordered his Cossack troops to march on Petrograd. There was bound to be bloodshed. Kerensky panicked and asked the Bolsheviks for help. He gave rifles to the Bolshevik Red Guard, groups of workers who had been training secretly. But Kornilov’s troops never arrived. However the Red Guard kept their rifles and used these in the summer.
Another reason for success was Soviet control. During the whole of 1917 the Bolsheviks had been sending their members to join the Petrograd Soviet. These Bolsheviks in the Soviet worked hard to convert others to Bolshevism. By October 1917 the Bolsheviks dominated the Petrograd Soviet and they could use the Soviet to help them control Russia.
Finally there were the mistakes and problems of the Provisional Government. They were weak because the actual power was in the Soviets. They did not listen to peoples needs and were slow to change and they were more interested in their own positions than in its peoples. They also continued the war against Germany, which led to many hardships: inflation, shortage of war products and daily necessities, shortages of peasants and horses leading to food shortages and finally heavy losses in the war against Germany.
To conclude, I think that the most important was Lenin’s theses because it promised to solve all of Russia’s problems. He promised peace - ending the war against Germany and stopping the suffering of war. He promised land - peasants would regain the land that they worked so hard on. Finally, he promised bread - to end the food shortages, hunger and starvation.
