The idea of the Central Committee to organize the October Revolution was to anticipate the Provisional Government’s intention to call a general election in which the secret ballot would be used to elect a representative constitutional government to rule the Russian Empire.  Lenin felt that if his bid for power was to succeed he had to make it before the Constitutional Assembly met in January to arrange the nation-wide election.  If this election was ever held the people would have their own representatives in the government.  He felt it would be harder to get the support necessary to overthrow a peoples’ government than it would to overthrow the Provisional Government.  In this he proved right.

Strange as it may seem, in the light of future events, Kamenev was released from prison August 17th, and Trotsky exactly a month later.  By September 24th, Trotsky was elected president of the Petersburg Soviet in place of Cheidze.  On September 26th the Petersburg Soviet voted to transfer all military power to a Military Revolutionary Committee under the leadership of Trotsky.  The real Lenin revolution was by now only a few days away.  Lenin was proving what proper planning and time-table precision, backed by unlimited financial aid, could accomplish.  He knew how to use the element of surprise advantageously.  He rapidly convinced many leaders of other revolutionary groups that he was the man to direct the revolutionary war.  He soon had everyone under discipline.  The leaders were required to obey orders efficiently, and without question — or else.

The revolutionary leaders circulated an order that the second AllRussian Congress of the Soviets would meet November 7th.  This was a “red” herring, drawn across the trail to make the general public believe that no revolutionary action was pending in the immediate future.  On November 4th, however, the Military Revolutionary Committee arranged huge mass meetings preparatory for the actual revolt.  The next day, November 5th, the garrison of Peter and Paul declared itself in alliance with the Bolsheviks.  On November 6th Kerensky made a desperate effort to forestall the revolution by ordering the arrest of the Military Revolutionary Committee.  He banned all Bolshevik publications.  He ordered fresh troops to replace the garrison of Peter and Paul.  But Lenin had organized his Fifth Column too well, Kerensky’s orders were never carried out.  Officials he trusted let him down.

Lenin sneaked out of hiding.  He joined the Military Revolutionary Committee in Smolny Institute as soon as he knew Kerensky’s counterrevolutionary measures had failed.  The Institute served as the revolutionary headquarters.  At 2.00 A.M. November 7th, the order to begin the organized revolutionary effort was given.  By noon, St. Petersburg was largely in Lenin’s hands.  At 3.00 P.M. he delivered a fiery speech to the Petersburg Soviet.  By 9.00 P.M. Bolshevik troops were besieging the Winter Palace headquarters of the Provisional Government.  At 11.00 P.M. the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets met and the Bolsheviks had a clear majority.  The Congress thus became the official government of Russia.  Kamenev was elected the first president.  Lenin became Premier.  Trotsky became Commissar of Foreign Affairs.  On November 21st a Jew by the name of Sverdlov succeeded Kamenev.  He had been in the Bolshevik Party only six months and was considered a very minor figure but, after being elected president, he quickly assumed absolute control of the Russian economy.  He was a specially trained financial expert and agent of the Bankers.

Many things happen in revolutionary circles which never come to light.  Sverdlov died, a very young man, only two years after he reorganized the Russian internal economy.  He had served his purpose.  He knew too much, so he died.  Thus history repeats itself.

Bloody battles, which might better be described as wholesale massacres, and the ruthlessly conducted “Reign of Terror” proved the theory that utter ruthlessness and organized terror, in which physical sufferings are combined with mental anguish, and moral degradation, have definite economic value, because the Bolsheviks obtained undisputed control of Petersburg within a few days.  Lenin didn’t allow success to go to his head.  The Russian Empire was large.  He craftily allowed the elections, for which the Provisional Government had set up the machinery, to be held on November 25th.

The Provisional Government had planned that the convocation of the Assembly of freely elected representatives should be organized by a special commission.  Lenin let everything go according to schedule and then he arrested the members of this special commission.  He substituted for it a “Commissary for the Constitutional Assembly”.  The only difference between the one and the other was that Bolsheviks headed by Uritzky dominated the one Lenin had formed.  By this move the Bolsheviks were in a position to exert authority over the newly elected Assembly as soon as it convened.  When the Assembly did finally convene Sverdlov took charge of the proceedings ALTHOUGH HE WAS NOT A DELEGATE.  The Bolsheviks present resorted to tactics which kept the delegates in a constant uproar.  They created utter confusion.  After ten hours the Bolsheviks all walked out suddenly.  Bolshevik troops walked in.  They ejected the remaining delegates and locked the doors of the building.  This was the end of Constitutional rule in Russia.

In March, 1918, the Bolsheviks, who called themselves “The Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party” moved to Moscow and changed their name to the Communist Party.  The second All-Russian Congress of Soviets now became the official governing body.

The Jewish-led Social Revolutionary Party did not want Lenin as Number One man in Russia.  On August 30th, 1918 two Jewish members of this group tried to assassinate him.  Lenin was wounded and Uritzky, whom Lenin had appointed head of his Cheka organization, was killed.

This incident gave Lenin the excuse for pulling out all stops.  He turned on terrorism at full blast.  Night raids became regular occurrences.  No person knew, when he went to bed, if he would be alive in the morning.  David Shub in his Pro-Marxist book “Lenin” says :  “Little time was wasted sifting evidence, or classifying people rounded up, in these night raids ... The prisoners were generally hustled to the old police station, near the Winter Palace and shot.”  Murder, torture, mutilation, rape, burning;  these and all other outrages against human sentiment and decency, were the impregnable rocks upon which the so-called Soviet Socialist Republic was founded.  Millions of Russian citizens died.  It is estimated that more than 12,000,000 others were condemned to serve the State at Forced Labour until they were released by death.

And while the allies were half-heartedly fighting Bolshevism on four fronts, Lenin re-organized the W.R.M.  In March, 1919, he convened the Third International.  He presided.  Zinoviev was elected president.  The purpose of the meeting was to consolidate the revolutionary parties in every country in the world, and to arrange to provide the leaders with advice, financial aid, and any other assistance considered necessary to the success of Popular World Revolution.^[14]

footnotes

14 A great deal more information on the Russian angle can be obtained by reading “Behind Communism” by Frank Britton

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