After the failure of the Kornilov revolt, the Bolsheviks, arrested during the July events, were released from prison. Some of them (Kamenev, Lunacharsky) were released as early as the beginning of August.

Great importance in the struggle of the Bolsheviks for the masses played the VI Congress of the RSDLP (b), held from July 26 to August 3, 1917 in Petrograd. The slogan "All power to the Soviets!" was temporarily filmed. The most important document of the congress was the resolution “On the political situation”, in which the instructions of V. I. Lenin were taken into account. The leader of the Bolsheviks himself, after the decision of the Central Committee of the Party after the July days, moved to an untenable position and left the capital, hiding first (together with G. E. Zinoviev) at Razliv lake (until August 8) and then in Finland. The Sixth Congress oriented the RSDLP (b) towards a general political preparation for the conquest of power through an armed uprising.

From the end of August began the mass Bolshevization of the Soviets. At a meeting of the Petrograd Soviet on the evening of August 31, a Bolshevik resolution was adopted for the first time on the current political moment and on the issue of power in the country. On September 5, the Bolshevik resolution was adopted by the Moscow Council, on September 7 - Kazan and Ufa, on September 8 - Kiev. After the adoption of the Bolshevik resolution “On Power” by the Petro-Soviet on August 31, Council Chairman N. S. Chkheidze, together with other members of the Presidium — the Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks — declared his intention to resign. On September 9, when the resolution of the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries about trusting the Presidium did not get the necessary number of votes at a meeting of the Council, Chkheidze, leaving the chair, said: "There is no more presidium." On September 25, at the suggestion of the Bolshevik faction of the Petrograd Soviet, the chairman was from Lev Trotsky .

Shortly before that, at the VI Congress of the RSDLP (B), he was among the other "mezhrayontsev" (members of the St. Petersburg Interdistrict Committee of the RSDLP, who advocated the unity of the Russian Social Democrats) - D. B. Ryazanov, A. V. Lunacharsky, M. S Uritsky, V. Volodarsky, D. 3. Manuilsky and others - was admitted to the Bolshevik Party.

In the autumn of 1917, the Bolsheviks again put forward the slogan "All power to the Soviets !", But now he meant the transfer of power to the Soviets by overthrowing the Provisional Government. In October 1917, there were 1,429 Soviets in Russia, including over 700 Soviets of workers and soldiers' deputies.

The question of the immediate preparation of an armed uprising was raised by Lenin in the letter Marxism and Uprising, written on September 13-14 in Finland. It was discussed at a meeting of the Central Committee on September 15, along with another letter from Lenin “The Bolsheviks must take“ power. ”However, at that moment Lenin’s position was not supported, and two weeks later he wrote the article“ The crisis is overdue ”, in which he persuades comrades-in-arms, that "the victory of the armed uprising of the proletariat is now assured as never before."

The decision on the armed uprising of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (B) was made at its meeting on October 10, 1917. At that time Lenin returned to Petrograd and for the first time after the July days participated in the work of the Central Committee. From October 9, the Military Department and the presidium of the soldier’s section of the Petrograd Soviet began to prepare a project for the formation of a Revolutionary headquarters for the defense of Petrograd. On October 12, the project was approved and the Military Revolutionary Committee (WRC) was created.

On October 21, in the military units of the Petrograd garrison, the Military Revolutionary Committee appointed its first commissars. By October 24, the commissars of the Revolutionary Command of the Republic of Belarus were appointed in 51 parts. In addition, they were in industrial plants, warehouses of weapons, railways. One of the main organizers and leaders of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee was the left SR of P. Ye. Lazimir. At the same time, being the organ of the Petrograd Soviet, the WRC was subordinated to L. D. Trotsky. The main task of the WRC was the mobilization of the masses for an armed uprising.

On the night of October 15 to 16, an expanded meeting of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party was held, at which Lenin's resolution on the armed uprising of October 10 was again supported. At the same time, the party military revolutionary center (WRC), which became part of the WRC, was formed, consisting of: A. S. Bubnov, F. E. Dzerzhinsky, Ya. M. Sverdlov, I. V. Stalin, and M. S. Uritzky.

On the night of October 24, Kerensky ordered the closure of the Bolshevik newspapers Work Path and Soldier and the calling of military units loyal to him from the suburbs. Early in the morning, the Worker's Publishing House was seized by the junkers. At a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (B) it was decided to take measures to protect Smolny, to create a spare center for the uprising in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Lenin's arrival at Smolny from a safe flat on the evening of October 24 gave a decisive impulse to the preparation of the uprising. By the morning of October 25, Petrograd was at the mercy of the Revolutionary Command. In the afternoon, a detachment of soldiers and sailors under the command of Commissioner of the Revolutionary Command of the Supreme Command dismissed the Pre-Parliament, whose deputies hastily assigned N. D. Avksentyev to reconvene the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic at the first opportunity.

On October 25, at 22 hours and 40 minutes, the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets opened its meetings, the work of which was originally scheduled for October 20, but then it was postponed. According to the testimony of one of the military leaders of the October armed uprising N. I. Podvoisky, Lenin at that time "rushed around the small room of Smolny like a lion locked in a cage. He needed Zimny ​​by any means: he had to take Zimny the palace - he remained the last outpost on the way to the power of the working people. Vladimir Ilyich cursed ... He shouted ... He was ready to shoot us. " On the night of October 25-26, the Winter Palace was taken, and the Provisional Government was arrested.

Having condemned the coup, the Mensheviks left the congress, followed by the Social Revolutionaries and the Bundists. As N. N. Sukhanov noted, “we left, completely unleashing the hands of the Bolsheviks, making them full masters of the whole situation, giving them the whole arena of the revolution. The struggle at the congress for a united democratic front could have success. With our hands, we gave the Bolsheviks a monopoly over the Soviet, over the masses, over the revolution. By our own unreasonable will, we ensured the victory of the whole "Lenin line".

On October 26, the decrees on peace and land were adopted at the congress on the reports of Lenin . On the night of October 26-27, the congress formed the first, purely Bolshevik Soviet government - the Council of People's Commissars headed by Lenin. By decision of the congress, it was a temporary workers 'and peasants' government, formed to govern Russia, "until the convening of the Constituent Assembly".

The first composition of the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) included: Chairman - V. I. Lenin; People's Commissars: for internal affairs - A. I. Rykov, agriculture - V. P. Milyutin, labor - A. G. Shlyapnikov, for military and naval affairs - committee composed of: V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko, N. V. Krylenko, P. E. Dybenko, for trade and industry - V. P. Nogin, for public education - A. V. Lunacharsky, for finance - I. I. Skvortsov-Stepanov, for foreign affairs - L. D Trotsky, justice - A. Lomov (GI Oppokov), for food affairs - I. A. Teodorovich, posts and telegraphs - N. P. Avilov (Glebov), for national affairs - I. V. Stalin .

One of the key questions of the Russian revolution is why the Bolsheviks won the struggle for power in 1917. Of course, the course and results of the revolution were greatly influenced by World War I. If the Provisional Government felt the “pulse of the people” and did not seek to bring the war to a victorious end (this slogan did not have wide support), then it would probably have more chances to cope with the many difficulties that became the inevitable consequence of the collapse of the old order. . The Provisional Government for too long was going to start radical reforms. “Would there have been at least one fool in the world who would have gone to the revolution,” Lenin would say later, “if social reform was really begun?”

There is no doubt that in 1917 the slogans of "Peace, land, bread," "All power to the Soviets!" and others. In addition, it is necessary to note the ability of the Bolsheviks to prepare for the seizure of power in just a few months, which was due to the great work they carried out in the rear and at the front. Only the Bolsheviks were able to fully understand and appreciate the most important role of the armed forces in the struggle for power.

Attempts to accuse the Bolsheviks of receiving "German money" for revolutionary purposes took place as early as 1917. Thus, even before the July days, the Provisional Government began, with the suggestion of French counter-intelligence, to prepare the case against the Bolsheviks, trying to accuse them of relations with Germany. The option was discarded according to which until July 1917 the main channel for the transfer of "German money" to the Bolsheviks in Petrograd was the export-import company Parvus (A.I. Gel-fanda), whose sympathies were well known to the authorities.

Nevertheless, the “investigative commission of the prosecutor of the Petrograd Court of Justice, which in July-October 1917 investigated Lenin’s case for obtaining German subsidies, could not find direct evidence to confirm that the Bolsheviks received any amounts through the Scandinavian company Parvus-Tanetsky ( the latter was the managing director of the company.) In 1917, part of the "German money" still reached the Bolsheviks through the Swiss Marxist Karl Moore, who was the "especially trusted agent" of the Germans (which became known only in the second in the 1950s.).

And although the Bolsheviks at the meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) on September 24, 1917, Moor refused to accept the money, suspecting him of having connections with the German government, by that time he managed to give the Foreign Bureau of the Central Committee about 35 thousand dollars. To date, this information is the only strictly documented evidence that the Bolshevik Party received money from an agent of the German government in 1917. In 1923-1926, about 40 thousand dollars were returned to K. Moor at his request due to the difficult material situation ".

In this "case" one thing is certain: in the seizure of power in Petrograd in October 1917, the "German money" did not play any role. During the revolution, much more important was the combination of internal political factors - discontent of the masses with the continuation of the war and deterioration of life, the delay in power with the implementation of land reform, the skillful agitation of the Bolsheviks, the seizure of control over the Petrograd garrison. The October Revolution was made with “clean hands,” although the Germans sympathized with the attempts of the RSDLP (b) to seize control of the country.

It was not by chance that Rosa Luxemburg, a prominent figure in the German and international labor movement, who was in the cell of the Breslavl prison in the fall of 1918, wrote: "The liberation of Russia ... had deep roots in its own country and fully matured internally."