ON THIS DAY ·
Russian Constituent Assembly
5/18 Jan 1918 — The SRs won Russia’s first freely elected parliament, with the Bolsheviks second. Yet the Constituent Assembly meets for only one day before Red Guards close it down. A democratic road for the revolution has been shut.
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The moment in context
The Bolsheviks did not have to conquer Petrograd street by street. Trotsky, as chair of the Petrograd Soviet, built a Military Revolutionary Committee that won over key units of the garrison. Its forces occupied bridges, railway stations, the telegraph, banks and power stations. By controlling the places through which the government moved, communicated and operated, they took possession of much of the machinery of the state.
From October Revolution, chapter 6 of The Russian Revolution, 1855–1924 (NOV 1917).
The place: Russian Constituent Assembly — map and full story →
Teach this in 5 minutes
- Why it happened — Organization beats numbers. The Bolsheviks were never a majority of Russians, but they had organization, a plan and a single will in the two cities that ran the state.…
- The turn — The Winter Palace, night of 25 October/7 November 1917. On the night of 25 October/7 November 1917, the Winter Palace fell with a few casualties. Attackers found doors open and arrested the government at…
- What it changed — “Soviet power” — and the decrees that bought it. The Decree on Peace promised an immediate armistice; the Decree on Land abolished gentry property and ratified peasant seizures. Soldiers had wanted…
Then ask the room: Was October a popular revolution or a coup — and does the distinction actually matter? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
The atlas that shows it
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