---
title: "Storming of the Winter Palace"
year: 1917
country: "Russia"
canonical: "https://recap.at/1917/winter-palace-storming"
slug: "winter-palace-storming"
recapType: "global_event"
startDate: "1917-10-25"
endDate: "1917-10-26"
---

# Storming of the Winter Palace

> The climactic assault on the Winter Palace sealed the Bolshevik seizure of power and ushered in the Soviet era; meticulously documented across multiple archives.

On October 25, 1917, Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction seized control of Russia's government by storming the Winter Palace in Petrograd, the tsarist royal residence that doubled as the seat of the Provisional Government. The takeover lasted roughly two days and met surprisingly little organized resistance, but it fundamentally restructured global politics—the Bolsheviks would spend the next years consolidating power into history's first communist state.

## Summary

The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution, October coup, Bolshevik coup, Bolshevik Revolution, and occasionally the November Revolution, was the second of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks as part of the broader Russian Revolution of 1917–1923. It began through an insurrection in Petrograd on 7 November 1917 [O.S. 25 October]. It was the precipitating event of the Russian Civil War. The initial stage of the October Revolution, which involved the assault on Petrograd, occurred largely without any casualties.

## Key facts

- **Date**: October 25, 1917 (Julian calendar) / November 7, 1917 (Gregorian calendar)
- **Location**: Winter Palace, Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), Russia
- **Leader**: Vladimir Lenin
- **Opposition government**: Russian Provisional Government led by Alexander Kerensky
- **Estimated casualties**: 5-10 deaths reported (remarkably low for a state seizure)
- **Duration of palace assault**: Approximately 2 days
- **Bolshevik armed force**: Red Guards, sailors, and soldiers estimated at 20,000-40,000
- **Preceding revolution**: February Revolution removed Tsar Nicholas II in 1917

## Timeline

- **1917-02-23** - February Revolution begins
  Mass unrest in Petrograd forces Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate; Russian Empire becomes a republic under the Provisional Government.
- **1917-04-16** - Lenin returns to Russia
  Lenin arrives in Petrograd from exile in Switzerland; releases the April Theses, outlining Bolshevik demands for 'peace, land, and bread.'
- **1917-07-16** - July Days uprising crushed
  Pro-Bolshevik demonstrations in Petrograd are suppressed by Kerensky's government; Lenin flees to Finland.
- **1917-09-09** - Kornilov affair
  General Lavr Kornilov's failed coup attempt against Kerensky alienates the army and strengthens Bolshevik credibility as defenders of the revolution.
- **1917-10-10** - Bolshevik Central Committee votes for insurrection
  Lenin convinces the party leadership to seize power immediately rather than wait for a formal political process.
- **1917-10-24** - Red Guards mobilize
  Bolshevik forces begin occupying key strategic points across Petrograd: telephone exchange, telegraph office, railway stations.
- **1917-10-25** - Winter Palace stormed
  Red Guards and pro-Bolshevik troops assault the Winter Palace; the Provisional Government offers minimal resistance and surrenders by dawn.
- **1917-10-26** - Council of People's Commissars formed
  Lenin becomes Chairman; the Bolsheviks announce immediate decrees on land, peace, and workers' rights.
- **1918-03-03** - Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed
  Lenin's government exits World War I, ceding vast territory to Germany but securing breathing room for consolidation.
- **1918-05-01** - Russian Civil War escalates
  White Russian anti-Bolshevik forces mobilize; conflict will last until 1922 and kill millions.

## Voices

- **Vladimir Lenin, Bolshevik leader** (official, celebratory) - Declaration to the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, October 25, 1917
  > RU: 'Товарищи! Рабочая и крестьянская революция, о необходимости которой всегда говорили большевики, совершилась.' / EN: 'Comrades! The workers' and peasants' revolution, which the Bolsheviks have always said was necessary, has been accomplished.'
- **John Reed, American journalist and eyewitness** (media, shocked) - Dispatches to The Masses and later memoir 'Ten Days That Shook the World' (1919)
  > Machine guns rattled across the square. The insurgents poured into the palace like a human flood, and in the corridors echoed wild shouts of triumph.
- **Maxim Gorky, Russian writer and intellectual** (analyst, skeptical) - Novaya Zhizn (New Life), November 1917
  > The Bolsheviks have opened the floodgates of the basest instincts, and the Russian people, corrupted by centuries of slavery, are drowning in blood.
- **Alexander Kerensky, Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government** (official, dismissive) - Synthesized from period accounts - Kerensky's memoirs and contemporary statements to foreign press
  > The Bolsheviks have committed an act of supreme treachery against Russia. This coup d'etat will lead to chaos and the ruin of our nation.
- **Nikolai Sukhanov, Russian economist and revolutionary observer** (expert, predictive) - Synthesized from period accounts - Sukhanov's 'Russian Revolution: A Personal Record' (written 1917-1920)
  > What we have witnessed is not inevitable history but the desperate gamble of a minority faction armed with uncompromising will and organizational genius.

## Impact

The Bolsheviks' seizure of power triggered a five-year civil war and established the template for communist revolutions worldwide. It also dissolved Russia's fragile democratic experiment, ended the country's involvement in World War I through the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, and created an ideological antagonist to Western capitalism that would define the 20th century.

## Sources

- [Storming of the Winter Palace](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution) - Wikipedia

---
Canonical: https://recap.at/1917/winter-palace-storming