The October Revolution

An article written by Stalin to commemorate the first anniversary of the victory of the October Revolution. First published in Pravda issue No. 241, November 6, 1918. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 4 of the Complete Works of Stalin. This article expounds on the development course of the October Revolution.

Stalin pointed out in his article that the most important of the events which hastened the October uprising were: the intention of the Provisional Government to surrender Petrograd, the Kerensky Government’s preparations to remove to Moscow, the decision of the command of the old army to dispatch the entire Petrograd garrison to the front and leave the capital undefended.

Stalin recalled the key parts of the uprising. The Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party had already in the closing days of September decided to mobilize all the forces of the Party for the organization of a successful uprising. To this end, the Central Committee resolved to set up a Revolutionary Military Committee in Petrograd, to secure the retention of the Petrograd garrison in the capital, and to convene an All-Russian Congress of Soviets. The Revolutionary Military Committee played a key role in the uprising. The first open clash with the Provisional Government arose over the banning of the Bolshevik newspaper Rabochy Put. It was shut down by order of the Provisional Government. It was re-opened in revolutionary fashion, by order of the Revolutionary Military Committee. The seals were removed and the commissars of the Provisional Government were sent off. That was on October 24. Then, commissars of the Revolutionary Military Committee forcibly ejected the representatives of the Provisional Government from a number of major government institutions. On October 25 the Military Revolutionary Committee led by the Bolsheviks handed over the power it had already seized to the Congress of Soviets. The provisional government surrendered on October 26. Stalin concluded his article by emphasizing that the Party Centre, headed by Lenin, had been the inspiration for the revolution just from the beginning, and that the Baltic sailors and the Red Guards of the Vyborg district had played a major role in the uprising.