October Revolution - Lenin Seizes Power in Russia

As the Kronstadt sailors stormed the Winter Palace, appropriating its considerable wine collection along the way, Lenin was consolidating his power base. When he said, “All power to the Soviets, he really meant all power to the Bolsheviks.”

The Russian revolutionaries, like the Kronstadt sailors, hoped for a democratic government. Lenin, however, had never seen a reason to share power with any other political parties. If anyone disagreed with his approach, such a person would be considered a counter-revolutionary.

Sailors, who helped to overthrow the provisional government, began to protest the new order. In doing so, they unwittingly set up their own demise. Over the next three years, trying to save their revolution, they would oppose Lenin’s “Red Army.”

They would not be successful. Lenin’s communist party would rule Russia for the next seventy years.