# Canonical recap data for Storming of the Winter Palace (1917)
# Source: https://recap.at/1917/winter-palace-storming
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: winter-palace-storming
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1917/winter-palace-storming"
title: Storming of the Winter Palace
aliases:
- October Revolution
- Bolshevik Revolution
- October Coup
- Great October Socialist Revolution
subtitle: The climactic assault on the Winter Palace sealed the Bolshevik seizure of power and ushered in the Soviet era; meticulously documented across multiple archives.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1917-10-25
endDate: 1917-10-26
datePrecision: day
year: 1917
decade: 1910
country:
name: Russia
slug: russia
summaryShort: 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 1917–192
summaryLong: 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.
lede: 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.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/After_the_capture_of_the_Winter_Palace_26_October_1917.jpg/1280px-After_the_capture_of_the_Winter_Palace_26_October_1917.jpg"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "October Revolution"
importance: 89
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts:
- label: Date
  value: October 25, 1917 (Julian calendar) / November 7, 1917 (Gregorian calendar)
- label: Location
  value: Winter Palace, Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), Russia
- label: Leader
  value: Vladimir Lenin
- label: Opposition government
  value: Russian Provisional Government led by Alexander Kerensky
- label: Estimated casualties
  value: 5-10 deaths reported (remarkably low for a state seizure)
- label: Duration of palace assault
  value: Approximately 2 days
- label: Bolshevik armed force
  value: Red Guards, sailors, and soldiers estimated at 20,000-40,000
- label: Preceding revolution
  value: February Revolution removed Tsar Nicholas II in 1917
timeline:
- date: 1917-02-23
  title: February Revolution begins
  description: Mass unrest in Petrograd forces Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate; Russian Empire becomes a republic under the Provisional Government.
- date: 1917-04-16
  title: Lenin returns to Russia
  description: Lenin arrives in Petrograd from exile in Switzerland; releases the April Theses, outlining Bolshevik demands for 'peace, land, and bread.'
- date: 1917-07-16
  title: July Days uprising crushed
  description: Pro-Bolshevik demonstrations in Petrograd are suppressed by Kerensky's government; Lenin flees to Finland.
- date: 1917-09-09
  title: Kornilov affair
  description: General Lavr Kornilov's failed coup attempt against Kerensky alienates the army and strengthens Bolshevik credibility as defenders of the revolution.
- date: 1917-10-10
  title: Bolshevik Central Committee votes for insurrection
  description: Lenin convinces the party leadership to seize power immediately rather than wait for a formal political process.
- date: 1917-10-24
  title: Red Guards mobilize
  description: "Bolshevik forces begin occupying key strategic points across Petrograd: telephone exchange, telegraph office, railway stations."
- date: 1917-10-25
  title: Winter Palace stormed
  description: Red Guards and pro-Bolshevik troops assault the Winter Palace; the Provisional Government offers minimal resistance and surrenders by dawn.
- date: 1917-10-26
  title: Council of People's Commissars formed
  description: Lenin becomes Chairman; the Bolsheviks announce immediate decrees on land, peace, and workers' rights.
- date: 1918-03-03
  title: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed
  description: Lenin's government exits World War I, ceding vast territory to Germany but securing breathing room for consolidation.
- date: 1918-05-01
  title: Russian Civil War escalates
  description: White Russian anti-Bolshevik forces mobilize; conflict will last until 1922 and kill millions.
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution"
  title: Storming of the Winter Palace
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
impactStatement: 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.
categories:
- revolution
- war
taxonomy:
domain: political
eventTypes:
- coup
- revolution
- regime_change
canonicalClasses:
- conflict
- governance
- transformation
- mobilization
impactRadius: global
velocity: sudden
predictability: forecastable
intentionality: planned
domainCoupling: multi_domain
lifecycleClass: birth
metaDescription: How Lenin's Bolsheviks seized Russia's government on October 25, 1917, and launched the communist era.
wikidataQid: Q42976
peoplesVoice:
- source: Vladimir Lenin, Bolshevik leader
  voiceType: official
  context: Lenin issued this declaration immediately after Bolshevik forces secured the Winter Palace on October 25, 1917, establishing Soviet power.
  excerpt: "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.'"
  sentimentLabel: celebratory
  significance: 92
  attribution: Declaration to the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, October 25, 1917
  publishedAt: 1917-10-25
  originalLanguage: ru
- source: John Reed, American journalist and eyewitness
  voiceType: media
  context: Reed witnessed the palace assault firsthand and filed dispatches capturing the scale and chaos of the seizure for Western readers.
  excerpt: 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.
  sentimentLabel: shocked
  significance: 78
  attribution: Dispatches to The Masses and later memoir 'Ten Days That Shook the World' (1919)
  publishedAt: 1917-10-26
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Maxim Gorky, Russian writer and intellectual
  voiceType: analyst
  context: Gorky, initially sympathetic to revolution but alarmed by Bolshevik methods, published this critical assessment within days of the coup.
  excerpt: The Bolsheviks have opened the floodgates of the basest instincts, and the Russian people, corrupted by centuries of slavery, are drowning in blood.
  sentimentLabel: skeptical
  significance: 72
  attribution: Novaya Zhizn (New Life), November 1917
  publishedAt: 1917-11-02
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Alexander Kerensky, Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government
  voiceType: official
  context: Kerensky fled Petrograd as the Bolsheviks consolidated control and later issued statements characterizing the seizure as illegitimate usurpation.
  excerpt: 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.
  sentimentLabel: dismissive
  significance: 68
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Kerensky's memoirs and contemporary statements to foreign press
  publishedAt: 1917-10-27
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Nikolai Sukhanov, Russian economist and revolutionary observer
  voiceType: expert
  context: Sukhanov documented the revolution in real time and offered this analytical judgment on the Bolsheviks' audacious seizure of state power.
  excerpt: What we have witnessed is not inevitable history but the desperate gamble of a minority faction armed with uncompromising will and organizational genius.
  sentimentLabel: predictive
  significance: 65
  attribution: "Synthesized from period accounts - Sukhanov's 'Russian Revolution: A Personal Record' (written 1917-1920)"
  publishedAt: 1917-10-28
  originalLanguage: en
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260617210345/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution"
  capturedAt: 2026-06-17
  label: Storming of the Winter Palace
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution"
