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Events leading to the October Revolution (The October Revolution (The…

- - - - Lenin could see that the Russian people wanted an end to the war. The Bolsheviks were offering what they wanted.
    - - Lenin claimed that the Bolsheviks could solve the food shortages - the Provisional Government had made them worse.
    - - This was a shrewd move by Lenin. The Bolsheviks were a party of the cities and the industrial areas and they had very little support among the peasants. However, with the peasants being the vast majority of the population, Lenin could not risk them turning against the Bolsheviks. By offering them land, Lenin ensured that the peasants stayed neutral when the Bolsheviks made their bid for power.
      - Lenin was actively supported by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky had superb skills of organisation and improvisation. He created the Red Guards, a Bolshevik militia formed from armed factory workers, soldiers and sailors. Trotsky took charge of the detailed planning of the actual Bolshevik takeover at the end of October, to make sure that all the vital areas of Petrograd were effectively in Bolshevik hands.
- - - - This was the last gasp of the Russian Army in World War I. Enough troops were scraped together for an offensive but, almost inevitably, the result was a disastrous failure. The morale of the army declined further and there were huge increases in the level of desertions. The soldiers became more receptive to Bolshevik propaganda and the loyalty of a number of units to the Provisional Government was now uncertain.