Russia Controlled Assessment The October Revolution 1917 L.O. To understand why Lenin and the Bolsheviks were able to seize power in October 1917 Starter: Get out the line graphs you were completing for homework At what point were the Provisional Government at their strongest and weakest?

The fortunes of the Provisional Government Plot the changing fortunes of the Provisional Government after each event. Join the points to make a line graph

The time is right… The Bolsheviks had nearly missed their chance and would have done if Kornilov had been successful However, the Bolsheviks were now the ‘saviours’ of Petrograd Lenin wants the Bolsheviks to seize power immediately but Trotsky urges him to wait until the meeting of the Second Congress of All Russian Soviets on Oct 26 th – Trotsky thought the Bolsheviks could use this meeting to take control of the Soviets and thus any seizure of power would look like it was endorsed by the Soviets and not just the Bolsheviks acting alone Complete the task on the sheet to explain and report back on what potential there is for the Bolsheviks to seize power in 1917

The time is right… Trotsky was right to wait – Kerensky makes his final mistake and orders the Petrograd garrison to the front line The Soviets resisted this and set up a Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC) which was controlled by Trotsky This meant the Bolsheviks now had control of the soldiers in the capital and great quantities of arms and ammunition

The Bolsheviks seize power Read through the information on your sheet and the timeline– how would you sum up the Revolution? Was it as you would have expected it to be? Do your findings surprise you? Why?

The Bolsheviks seized control in one night in October 1917 No one had voted the Bolsheviks into power, not even the Petrograd Soviet. But now they were the leaders of Russia 1. Trotsky got the support of the troops at the Peter & Paul Fortress. 2. Bolshevik Red Guards captured important places such as bridges, the telephone exchange and radio station. 3. At 10 p.m. a group of less than a dozen Red Guards seized the government headquarters. The government had fled and there was no resistance. 4. At about 1 a.m. Lenin stood up at a meeting of the All Russian Congress of Soviets, took off his disguise and announced that the Bolsheviks had now taken control in the name of the Soviets.

The painting below was produced in 1937 to show what the October Revolution was like. How many things can you see that may not be factually accurate?

There are too many Bolshevik soldiers in the picture There are too many other people There was no large-scale resistance It’s made to look more exciting than it really was This painting is propaganda. a) What does this mean? b) Why was it painted showing things that did not really happen? It’s an attempt to try to show that the Bolsheviks were popular and heroic leaders, giving the Russian people what they wanted.

Why were the Bolsheviks able to take control? 1.Defeats in the war 2.Weaknesses of the PG 3.Lenin’s April Theses 4.Shortage of Food 5.Formation of Petrograd Soviet 6.The Kornilov Affair 7.Trotsky organised the Red Guard Copy this list of factors into your book and decide if it was Political (P), Economic (E), Social (S) or about Leadership (L) Which were short-term (ST) and which were long-term (LT) causes?