7th November, 1917: Through the eyes of newspapers

The San Diego Union Tribune
7th November, 1917 

RUSSIAN RADICALS OVERTHROW GOVERNMENT; KERENSKY FLEES WHEN ARREST IS ORDERED

REVOLUTIONISTS BOMBARD, SEIZE WINTER PALACE IN PETROGRAD, IMPRISON CABINETS HEADS, CALL CONGRESS TO DISCUSS PEACE

Extremists Headed by Lenine Depose Provisional Government; Cruisers and Fortresses Besiege and Capture Loyal Troops; Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates Convene, Declare Themselves Supreme Authority, Order Abolition of Death Penalty, Arrest of All Who Oppose Them, Call for Peace; Navies in Black and Baltic Seas Pledge Support; Whereabouts of Premiere Unknown; Most of country Still Loyal, Says Slav Ambassador to America; Predicts Failure; Cossacks Back Kerensky.

PETROGRAD again is in turmoil. The provisional government has been thrown out of power by the extreme radicals headed by Nickolai Lenine. Premiere Kerensky has fled the capital. Several of his ministers have been placed under arrest, and the winter palace, the seat of the government, has been bombarded by the guns of the cruiser Aurora, and of the St. Peter and St. Paul fortresses and forced to capitulate to the revolutionists.

A congress of the Workmen’s and Soldiers’ delegates of all Russia has convened in Petrograd, and will discuss the questions of organization of power, peace and war and the formation of a constituent assembly. A delegation has been named by the congress to confer with other revolutionary and democratic organizations with a view to initializing peace negotiations for the purpose of taking steps to stop the bloodshed.

As yet the details of the disorders which followed the assumption of power by the radical element are meager, but it is known that from its mooring in the Neva the cruiser Aurora fired shrapnel and solid shot against the winter palace for four hours, with the guns of the great fortresses and machine guns stretched in front of the palace keeping in accord with the salvos from the warship.

The Guardian

8 November 1917 

Bolsheviks seize power in Petrograd - archive, 1917

The Maximalists have occupied the Central Telegraph Office, State Bank and Marie Palace

Maximalist rising in Petrograd - Parliament building seized

Petrograd, Wednesday Noon
An armed naval detachment, acting under the orders of the Maximalist Revolutionary Committee, has occupied the offices of the official Petrograd Telegraph Agency.

4 25pm
The Maximalists have also occupied the Central Telegraph Office, the State Bank, and the Marie Palace, where the Preliminary Parliament, the proceedings of which have been suspended in view of the situation, has been holding its sittings. Up to the present no disorders have been reported, with the exception of some outrages by apaches. Street traffic and the general life of the city remain normal.

Demand for control of military - Governor’s resistance
Petrograd, Tuesday, 7pm
The dispute between the General Staff of the military district of Petrograd and the Revolutionary Military Committee of the Soviet became considerably aggravated last night, when negotiations began on the basis of strengthening the democratic elements of the Staff were broken off.

The Committee having been informed that the Military Governor of Petrograd had summoned during the night troops from the environs of the capital, notably from Peterhof, Pavlovsk, and Tsarskoe Selo, ordered these troops not to obey the Government. About five o’clock yesterday afternoon the authorities ordered the brigades to be disconnected, and the city is now guarded by troops who are faithful to the Government.

Soviet Committee’s Demands
Petrograd, Tuesday
According to further details concerning the dispute which has arisen between the Revolutionary Military Committee recently created by the Petrograd Soviet and the General Staff of Petrograd military district, the members of the Committee on the night of November 4 called upon the General Staff and demanded the right to control all its orders and to participate in its military deliberations.

Colonel Polkovnikoff (Commander-in-Chief of the troops in the Petrograd district), having refused the demands of the Soviet, the latter at once convened a meeting of the delegates from the garrison, who sent to each regiment a telephone message announcing, as the result of the uncompromising attitude of the General Staff, which refused to recognise the Revolutionary Committee, the Soviet had decided to break off its relations with the General Staff, which would henceforth be considered as an anti-democratic organisation.

At the same time the message invited the troops only to observe orders signed by the Revolutionary Military Committee. The Revolutionary Committee also addressed to the soldiers and workers and the population of Petrograd a communication stating that it had appointed special commissioners, who were declared to be inviolable, to undertake the military direction of the most important points in Petrograd and surrounding districts.

When the Provisional Government learned of the action of the Committee it ordered that the latter’s telephone instructions should be cancelled. The Committee refused to do this, however, and decided to resist the Government. With this object, machine-gun detachments were moved to the headquarters of the Soviet.

In these circumstances, the Government resolved not to have recourse to armed force for the time being, hoping for a peaceful settlement of the dispute.

A plenary sitting of the Government yesterday evening decided to regard the Revolutionary Military Committee as an illegal organisation. The Minister of Justice was asked to prosecute the members of the Committee, and it was proposed that the military authorities should take all necessary measures in case of revolt against the Government.

INQUILAB ZINDABAD!!!