The Red Guards then stormed the Winter Palace and arrested the ministers of the Provisional Government. Here they were supported by the battleship Aurora, which was said to have been carrying heavy artillery and ample fire power.
Their leader, Kerensky, fled Petrograd and attended the front line in an attempt to rally troops to form an opposition to the revolution. This failed badly as there were not enough loyal troops to follow him and he was therefore forced into exile.
While all this was in motion, the All-Russian Congress of Soviets was in meeting. The Mensheviks and most of the Social Revolutionaries walked out, leaving Lenin and the Bolsheviks in power.
Following this, Lenin proclaimed a new government of Russia and one week later the Bolshevik party seized control of Moscow. They now had control over the two largest cities in Russia, but little else.
The Bolsheviks turned out to be the ultimate spin-doctors of the early 1900s; it was claimed that they had been leading a most popular revolution and that the Red Guards
had triumphed over masses of opposition to bring them victory. This was of course contrary to the truth:
The Bolsheviks had little support, which was evident from the rest of the Russian Congress off Soviets walking out on them. The Red Guards faced a minute opposition; Kerensky was unable to form any kind of opposition towards them and in reality it took little more than 30 people to take the Winter Palace. The whole revolution consisted of no more than 300 people.
The battleship Aurora was actually ashore at the palace by pure coincidence and the ministers of the Provisional Government were being fired at with blank shells.
In fact, the vast majority of the Russian population was oblivious to the fact that any revolution had taken place and in some secluded regions it was still assumed that the Tsar was still in power!
The actual reasons of success for the Bolsheviks were firstly that the Provisional Government was extremely unpopular and that Lenin offered everything they didn’t; ‘Peace, bread and land’ was his slogan. The people of Russia were inclined to fair pay and food for all and the promise that they would be pulled out of the war. He prominently advertised these promises in key areas such as Petrograd and especially the Russian army, which brought him extra support.
Secondly, the meticulous and brilliantly clever planning of Trotsky only made the whole operation easier. It is noticeably evident that such a small amount of people could not have accomplished such an achievement without huge organisation and rigorous preparation. The seizure of key sites in both Petrograd and Moscow gave an air of authority, which was a key factor in the revolution. This was also down to Trotsky.
So in conclusion we can see that the Bolsheviks were in fact masters of propaganda and led a campaign that would almost certainly have collapsed if it were known how minor a force they possessed.
They overthrew the Provisional Government through careful planning and were hugely aided by circumstantial conditions without which they may not have achieved their goals.
In the end they billed the whole affair as a huge act of revolution and heroism to a people who would not have known the difference for want of their severe isolation and general illiteracy.
