Furthermore, he writes about the Bolsheviks in a cruel way. This gives the reader a stronger opinion that he felt it was a coup. He talks about how the Bolsheviks were against the Provisional Government and how they had been planning it for a long time and were just waiting for the right time to actually do their coup. This shows that they were actually against the government and wanted a change.
In addition, they agreed to a Menshevik motion, which helped them to further their coup. The soviets “Military-Revolutionary Committee” was there to protect Petrograd and from domestic unsettling, which they believed to be the Provisional government. This was good because they did not like the Provisional Government and were planning a revolt.
Later on, Pipes speaks about the government power being undermined. He says that the military were instructed ‘to ignore orders from the government unless countersigned by the Military-Revolutionary.’ This could prove that it was a coup because coups are revolts from above. This means that if it was a revolution it would be a revolt from below which it is not because there were no mass protests and also people wouldn’t be able to gain control over the government as easily as this.
After, the Military-Revolutionary Committee took over the capitals city’s key installations. This leads the reader to believe that it was a coup because it was a small political group. The fact that the Russian people didn’t really know what was actually going on further adds to this.
Another example of this is the way the military headquarters were taken. The Bolshevik officers just walked in and replaced the officers that were there. This yet again strengthens the image that it was the Bolsheviks and not the entire Russian people that took over and caused a revolution. It suggests that the government knew about it, did not try to stop it and the Russian people knew nothing about it.
After this, there was only one actual building that was still in government control, the Winter Palace. There was propaganda surrounding it, as there were photographs of the palace actually being stormed, but these were false. In the end the workers left the building and the attackers went in. with this Pipes portrays that they were trying to make it look like a revolution when in actual fact it was a coup.
Later on, Pipes writes “It seemed to be just another one of those government crises that had been occurring with increasing frequency since the tsar abdicated.” The way he puts this makes the reader feel that it didn’t really affect Russia on that much of a level. This is because they have obviously gotten used to the government actually having problems and just see it as another one of those. Or this could also indicate that maybe the Bolsheviks were trying to cover up what they were doing until they actually got complete control.
It seemed that the government knew what was going on but none of the Russian people actually did. Pipes writes that ‘it was widely believed that as soon as the Constituent Assembly had met, the Bolshevik government would gracefully yield power. And the new masters did nothing to dispel the mirage.’ This leads the reader to believe that the government seemed to know what was going on, whereas, the Russian people had no clue what was actually taking place. This yet again strengthens the view in which Pipes is portraying. Which is, that it’s a ‘bloodless coup.’
To conclude, all of these, plus several other points show that Richard Pipes believed that the October revolt in 1917 was a coup as he believes it was a revolt from above and the Bolsheviks has it all planned out from the beginning.
