Storming of the Winter Palace: 7 November 1917

Bolsheviks storm the Winter Palace and meet with little resistance. Later interpretations of the attack prefer to present the events as a popular rising against oppression.

When Lenin decides to seize power, Red Guards take over post offices, bridges and banks until the Bolsheviks control most of Petrograd (St Petersburg). They arrest provisional government ministers. Kerensky escapes, fails to rally the troops, then flees into exile. The Petrograd Soviet announces: 'The cause for which the people have fought has been made safe.'

Russian newsreel: dramatised reconstruction of events of 1917.

Back

Top