On the occasion of the 109th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, Rizospastis, the official organ of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), republished an excerpt from the book October 1917: The Bolsheviks’ Road to Victory, published by Synchroni Epochi. The piece, titled “Why did the Bolsheviks prevail?” was published on the weekend edition (7-8 November 2026). Read below the translation in English:
“Without these objective changes, which are independent of the will not only of individual groups and parties but even of individual classes, a revolution, as a general rule, is impossible. The totality of all these objective changes is called a revolutionary situation…
“Not every revolutionary situation leads to revolution. Revolution arises only out of a situation in which the above-mentioned objective changes are accompanied by a subjective change, namely, the ability of the revolutionary class to take revolutionary mass action strong enough to break (or dislocate) the old government, which never, not even in a period of crisis, ‘falls’, if it is not toppled.” [1]
A new nationwide crisis erupted in Russia. The economy was going from bad to worse. Government circles were incapable of preventing the impending catastrophe. On the contrary, their policies were bringing it ever closer.
Workers began expelling management personnel from industrial enterprises and the railways, arresting directors and administrators. They demanded with growing insistence that the Soviets take power into their own hands.
Soldiers refused to continue the war. They drove out reactionary officers and replaced them with others who enjoyed their confidence. On two of the three fronts, including those closest to Petrograd (the Northern Front) and Moscow (the Western Front), the majority of soldiers supported the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks also enjoyed the full support of the sailors of the Baltic Fleet. Most troops stationed in cities behind the front lines were on their side.
The peasants, having lost all hope that their own party, the Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs), would implement its agrarian programme, began driving out the landowners, occupying their estates, seizing agricultural implements and distributing them among themselves, and setting fire to manor houses. The peasant movement was thus developing into an uprising that spread across half the country’s provinces.
The character of the movement among the oppressed nationalities also changed. Despite resistance from bourgeois and petty-bourgeois nationalist parties and organizations, their struggle increasingly merged with that of Russian workers, soldiers and peasants.
The nationwide crisis intensified the disagreements, divisions and confusion prevailing among those at the top. Exceptionally favourable conditions were thus emerging for the working class to seize power.
In late September 1917, from Finland, where he was living in hiding to evade the agents of the Provisional Government, Lenin wrote to the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, clearly raising the question of insurrection and the overthrow of the Provisional Government.
He then sent the Central Committee another letter, entitled Marxism and Insurrection. In it, the Bolshevik leader recalled three essential conditions without which an insurrection could not succeed:
It must rely not on a conspiracy or on a party, but on the advanced class.
It must rely on the revolutionary upsurge of the people.
It must take place at a critical turning point, when the activity of the advanced sections of the people is at its height and vacillation in the enemy’s ranks is at its strongest.
All these conditions were present. [2]
On October 23, 1917 (October 10, Old Style), for the first time since the events of July, Lenin attended a meeting of the Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) and addressed its members:
“The political situation is ready. We must now speak of the technical side. That is the essential thing.” [3]
It was precisely in this spirit that the Committee adopted the resolution drafted by Lenin:
“Recognizing (…) that an armed uprising is inevitable, and that the time for it is fully ripe, the Central Committee instructs all Party organizations to be guided by this fact, and to discuss and decide all practical questions accordingly.” [4]
Lenin read this resolution again at the enlarged meeting of the Central Committee on October 29, 1917 (October 16, Old Style), explaining:
“The masses are following us… The masses have placed their confidence in the Bolsheviks and demand from them not words but deeds, a determined policy both in the struggle against the war and in the struggle against economic chaos.” [5]
At this meeting, a Party Military-Revolutionary Centre was elected, consisting of Yakov Sverdlov, Joseph Stalin, Andrei Bubnov, Moisei Uritsky and Felix Dzerzhinsky. All five joined the Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC) of the Petrograd Soviet, forming its leading core and transforming it into the headquarters of the insurrection.
Although preparations for the uprising were conducted in secrecy, the Provisional Government learned of them and hurried to take countermeasures. [6]
All street gatherings and demonstrations were prohibited. The commander of the Petrograd Military District ordered officers in all military units to arrest anyone entering the barracks to call on soldiers to take up arms.
The Minister of Justice once again ordered Lenin’s arrest. Meanwhile, Alexander Kerensky, head of the Provisional Government, called for counterrevolutionary troops to enter Petrograd — the very cavalry corps that, just two months earlier, had marched against him on the orders of General Kornilov.
Finally, to give the Provisional Government more time to prepare for the suppression of a possible uprising, the Socialist Revolutionary–Menshevik Central Executive Committee of the Soviets postponed the scheduled convening of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets from November 2 to November 7 (from October 20 to October 25, Old Style).
The Military Revolutionary Committee responded by deciding that military units in the capital would obey only orders bearing its own signature and seal. At the same time, it appointed its own commissars to every barracks, to the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District, and to communications centres and railway stations.
Seeking to forestall the insurrection, the Provisional Government decided to ban the Bolshevik newspapers and shut down their printing press.
At dawn on November 6 (October 24, Old Style), a detachment of officer cadets stormed the printing house and sealed it. Acting on the orders of the Military Revolutionary Committee, however, revolutionary soldiers and fighters of the workers’ Red Guard drove them out.
That evening, the cadets attempted another raid on the printing house and tried to raise the bridges connecting the city centre with the working-class districts.
Lenin, who was then staying in a clandestine apartment, wrote to the members of the Central Committee:
“The situation is critical in the extreme. It is absolutely clear that now, indeed, to delay the uprising would be fatal.
“With all my might I urge comrades to realize that everything now hangs by a thread; that we are confronted by problems which are not to be solved by conferences or congresses (even congresses of Soviets), but exclusively by peoples, by the masses, by the struggle of the armed masses…
“If we seize power today, we seize it not in opposition to the Soviets but on their behalf…
“It would be disastrous to cling to formalities, to wait for the uncertain vote of October 25. The people have the right and the duty to decide such questions not by voting but by force…” [7]
Night fell. There was still no news from the Smolny Institute. Lenin then decided to go there himself, defying the danger he faced, and immediately assumed direct leadership of the insurrection.
By the morning of November 7 (October 25, Old Style), the workers’ Red Guard, revolutionary troops, sailors and soldiers had seized the bridges over the Neva River, the telegraph office, the city’s telephone exchange, the radio station, railway stations, government ministries and the central bank.
They had immobilized the cadets in most military academies and surrounded the Winter Palace, where the Provisional Government had taken refuge. [8]
At ten o’clock, the appeal To the Citizens of Russia! was broadcast by radio and telegraph. It proclaimed:
“The cause for which the people have fought — the immediate proposal of a democratic peace, the abolition of landed proprietorship, workers’ control over production, and the establishment of Soviet power — this cause has been secured.” [9]
That evening, the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets began its sessions at the Smolny Institute. Its 649 delegates represented 400 Soviets: 390 Bolsheviks, 160 Socialist Revolutionaries and 92 Mensheviks.
The first session lasted almost the entire night. In the early hours of the morning, news arrived: the Winter Palace had been captured and the ministers of the Provisional Government arrested.
Amid thunderous applause, the Congress adopted the appeal To Workers, Soldiers, and Peasants!, which declared:
“Backed by the will of the overwhelming majority of the workers, soldiers and peasants, and by the victorious uprising of the workers and garrison of Petrograd, the Congress takes power into its own hands…
“The Congress resolves: All power in the localities shall pass to the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies…” [10]
The second session of the Congress of Soviets began on the evening of November 8 (October 26, Old Style).
There, the Decree on Peace, presented by Lenin, was read, discussed and adopted. This first act of Soviet foreign policy described the war as the greatest crime against humanity and proposed that the peoples and governments of all belligerent countries immediately end hostilities and conclude a peace treaty on terms equally just for all, without annexations or indemnities. [11]
The Congress then adopted another decree proposed by Lenin: the Decree on Land.
All land belonging to the landlords, the tsarist family, monasteries and the Church was confiscated without compensation, and its use was granted free of charge to the peasants for cultivation.
As a guide for implementing agrarian reforms, the decree adopted the Peasants’ Mandate on the Land, drawn up by the Socialist Revolutionaries in May 1917 and summarizing 242 local mandates issued by peasants.
Not all its provisions were consistent with the Bolsheviks’ agrarian programme.
“Voices are being raised here that the decree itself and the mandate were drawn up by the Socialist Revolutionaries,” Lenin remarked on this occasion.
“Let that be so. It does not matter who drew them up. As a democratic government, however, we cannot ignore the decision of the lower strata of the people… Life is the best teacher, and it will show who is right…
“The essential thing is that the peasantry should acquire the firm conviction that there are no longer any landlords in the countryside, that the peasants themselves must settle all questions and organize their own lives.” [12]
It was a wise political step.
It helped further free the many millions of peasants from the influence of the “agrarian” party of the Socialist Revolutionaries, which, during its eight months in power, had done nothing to satisfy the vital needs of the countryside.
To govern the country, the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets decided to establish a workers’ and peasants’ government: the Council of People’s Commissars (Sovnarkom).
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) was elected its chairman.
The new government still had to repel the offensive of counterrevolutionary troops, which Kerensky led towards the immediate outskirts of Petrograd on November 9 (October 27, Old Style).
On November 14, his soldiers went over to the side of the revolution, and Kerensky himself was once again forced to flee in secret.
The Bolsheviks could now turn to the most difficult, but also the most important, task: governing the newly established state.
Thousands of the most educated and politically mature workers were appointed to state institutions to replace bourgeois officials and senior administrators who had engaged in sabotage against the new government.
Workers’ control was introduced in all industrial, commercial and banking enterprises. The decree establishing the eight-hour working day was adopted. New state bodies were created to direct the economy according to a plan.
All private banks and credit institutions were confiscated and transferred to the ownership of the workers’ state, while the same process began in factories and industrial plants.
In the countryside, the first state farms and agricultural production cooperatives were established on the basis of the most productive and best-organized estates.
The Church was separated from the state. Universal compulsory primary education was introduced. Women gained equal rights with men, both in voting and in remuneration for their work. All the nationalities of Russia were granted equal rights.
Soon, however, this enormous work of socialist construction would be interrupted by foreign intervention and civil war.
First Austro-German, Hungarian and Turkish troops, followed by British, French, Japanese, American, Czechoslovak, Polish, Romanian and other forces — including Greek troops dispatched by the Venizelos government — invaded the territory of Soviet Russia.
Under their protection, the forces of internal counterrevolution raised their heads once again and unleashed civil war in mid-1918.
The first to act were the Right Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. Their “work” was subsequently continued by former tsarist generals and the Constitutional Democrats (Cadets). The Left Socialist Revolutionaries also organized an anti-Soviet revolt.
The enemies of the revolution calculated that the collapse of Soviet power would not be long in coming.
But the tireless activity of the Bolshevik Party and the mass heroism of the workers and peasants, who defended the revolution with self-sacrifice and determination, secured the defeat of foreign intervention and internal counterrevolution by the end of 1920.
An important factor contributing to the consolidation of the proletarian revolution was its international impact, which generated support among workers in other countries.
Strikes, demonstrations and actions to prevent warships from sailing and military supplies from being transported were organized in defence of the revolution.
Uprisings even broke out aboard the warships of the imperialist intervention forces stationed in the Black Sea.
Revolutions also erupted in other countries, including Germany and Hungary, while major working-class uprisings took place in Italy and elsewhere.
The principal reason these revolutions failed to achieve victory was that they did not follow the example of the Bolsheviks.
Why, Ultimately, Did the Bolsheviks Win?
Lenin’s writings, both before and after the victory of the revolution, reveal fundamental laws governing the revolutionary struggle of the working class to win over the broad masses of workers and other working people.
The application of these principles made possible the victory of the working class in Russia in 1917.
Lenin wrote characteristically:
“The Bolsheviks were victorious primarily because they had on their side the overwhelming majority of the proletariat, including its most class-conscious, energetic and revolutionary section, the genuine vanguard of this advanced class…
“Without extremely serious and comprehensive preparation of the revolutionary section of the proletariat for the rejection and crushing of opportunism, it is foolish even to think of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
“The Bolsheviks had on their side not only the majority of the proletariat, not only the revolutionary vanguard of the proletariat, steeled in a long and stubborn struggle against opportunism. They also possessed, if we may use military terminology, a powerful ‘striking force’ in the capitals.
“To have overwhelming superiority of forces at the decisive moment and at the decisive point — this ‘law’ of military success is also a law of political success, particularly in such a fierce and intense war between classes as a revolution…
“And because we were able, through a swift and decisive blow, to capture both capitals, both centres of the entire capitalist state apparatus, economically as well as politically, despite the furious resistance of bureaucrats and ‘intellectuals’, sabotage and so forth, we were able, with the assistance of the central machinery of state power, to demonstrate through deeds to the non-proletarian working masses that the proletariat was their only reliable ally, friend and leader…
“Beginning in August 1914, the proletarian revolutionaries directed all their attention towards revolutionizing the army, using it against the imperialist robbers of the bourgeoisie, and transforming the unjust and predatory war between the two groups of imperialist plunderers into a just and legitimate war of the proletarians and oppressed working masses of each country against their ‘own’, ‘national’ bourgeoisie…
“Consequently, by October–November 1917, half the army was already Bolshevik. Without this, we could not have won.” [13]
References
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V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 26, p. 223, Synchroni Epochi Publishers (Greek edition). English work: The Collapse of the Second International (1915), Collected Works, Vol. 21.
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V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 34, pp. 242–247, Synchroni Epochi Publishers (Greek edition). English work: Marxism and Insurrection (1917), Collected Works, Vol. 26, pp. 22–27.
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Ibid., p. 395. English source: Lenin’s remarks at the Central Committee meeting of October 10 (23), 1917, Collected Works, Vol. 26.
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Ibid., p. 393. English source: Resolution of the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P.(B.) on Armed Uprising, October 10 (23), 1917, Collected Works, Vol. 26.
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Ibid., p. 394. Lenin’s remarks concerning the confidence of the masses in the Bolsheviks and the necessity of decisive action.
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A Menshevik newspaper published an interview with Central Committee member Lev Kamenev, who revealed the Central Committee’s plan and declared that he and another Central Committee member, Grigory Zinoviev, opposed it. By making the Central Committee’s confidential decision public, the two betrayed it to the enemy. Lenin described their conduct as “the immeasurable vileness, the real treachery committed by these two individuals.” V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 34, p. 425, Synchroni Epochi Publishers (Greek edition).
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V. I. Lenin, Letter to Central Committee Members, Collected Works, Vol. 34, pp. 435–436, Synchroni Epochi Publishers (Greek edition). English edition: Collected Works, Vol. 26, pp. 234–235.
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Kerensky, head of the Provisional Government, managed to slip through the cordon established by the revolutionary troops in a car belonging to the American ambassador and went to meet the cavalry corps he had summoned.
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V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 35, p. 1, Synchroni Epochi Publishers (Greek edition). English work: To the Citizens of Russia!, Collected Works, Vol. 26, p. 236.
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Ibid., p. 11. English document: To Workers, Soldiers, and Peasants!, adopted by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets.
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Having received no response to the proposals repeatedly addressed to the governments of the countries allied with Russia, the Soviet government decided to open negotiations independently with Germany and its allies. An armistice agreement was signed on December 5, 1917, and a peace treaty with Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey was signed on March 3, 1918.
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V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 35, p. 27, Synchroni Epochi Publishers (Greek edition). Passage from Lenin’s remarks on the Decree on Land at the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets.
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V. I. Lenin, The Constituent Assembly Elections and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, Collected Works, Vol. 40, pp. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9–10, Synchroni Epochi Publishers (Greek edition). English work: The Constituent Assembly Elections and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat (1919).
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