The main reason for the Bolsheviks seisure of power in October 1917 was the leadership of Lenin

In October 1917, Bolsheviks eventually took over the Provisional Government and seize power in Russia. This happened due to some key reasons which were; the failure of the Provisional Government and successful planning of Bolsheviks in order to take over the government whom they opposed. Lenin, who led the Bolsheviks to power in November 1917, was one of the major people to take over the government, along with Trotsky who came back to Russia to join Lenin and became a chairman of Military Revolutionary committee. To argue whether it was mainly a Lenin’s strong leadership that helped Bolsheviks to win is controversial as there are other factors which affected the success of Bolsheviks.

In Source A, which is a painting of the stroming of the Winder Palace in Petrograd in October 1917, there are lots of different kinds of people. This shows that there were lots of people who were attended to the Revolution, including Red Guards, Women’s Death Battalion and the Aurora.　These groups consisted of soldiers, industrial workers and women. This suggests the strong morale and determination and power of Bolsheviks against the government, with Lenin leading them. Moreover, this can suggest that Lenin had a broad support among Russia and this meant that he had responsibility to lead and control them. Therefore, the Bolsheviks had control of Petrograd. However, this wasn’t only because of power of Bolsheviks. The Provisional Government was getting weaker and weaker. The government lost support among peasants as they kept the support of the landlords whilst peasants demanded land from the landlords. Also, Kerensky’s decision to continue the war was huge failure as there were many soldiers deserting. Russia was in crisis and this made lots of opposition towards them. Their morale was low as the Cossack guards had deserted. Therefore, this partially helped Bolsheviks to gain more support relatively even though the Bolsheviks didn’t have support of the majority f the Russian people.

Lenin showed a great support and encouragement towards the revolution. This is shown in source B, which is a letter by Lenin sent to the Central Committee of Bolshevik party. It is showing his determination, where he writes, ‘ Tonight we must, at all costs, arrest the ministers and disarm the military cadets.’ Following this command by Lenin, on 7th of November, they made a successful move to take control of parts of the city. The Red Guards moved to take control of bridges, telegraph office, railway and power stations. The next week, they took control in various other cities including Moscow. As this shows, Lenin’s ideas affected a lot to the society and to the act of revolution. By June 1917, there were more than 40 newspapers spreading Lenin’s views across Russia. These suggest that Lenin planned these act of movements. Trotsky, who was the chairman of the Military Revolutionary Committee, played an important role as well such as making the first moves to take control of bridges and other places. He made the first moves on 7th of November. Bolsheviks seized key places under control of Trotsky as well. His power can be shown in source B saying ‘ Comrade Trotsky’s plans are in place.’ This suggests that Trotsky was taking lead of the actual movement of Bolsheviks. This is also shown in Source C which is an article by Stalin in a Bolshevik newspaper, November 1917. Stalin wrote, ‘ All the work put into the organisation of the revolution was conducted under the immediate leadership of Trotsky.’ He organised the November Revolution, 1917 and carried it out. After the revolution in 1917, he became one of the members of the committee which ran the government.

Another fact that supports the statement is that Lenin was the essential leader of the whole community of Bolsheviks. His achievements are such as leading Bolsheviks from exile in Switzerland and his return to St Petersburg in 1917 to lead Bolsheviks. According to Source D, he ‘encouraged support for the Bolsheviks with his April Theses’ and ‘decided timing of the Bolshevik takeover.’ Even thought was Trotsky who organised the Red Guards, it was Lenin who put him in that position. In another point of view, Trotsky played an important role as well by organising the terror. He was put in charge of the Cheka (secret police) which Lenin set up. He eliminated all the enemies of the revolution. HE also organised the peace Treaty of Brest- Litovsk, which he decided that they had to have peace with Germany. This helped solve the crisis which the government has made and this increased popularity of Bolsheviks. This made it possible for Bolsheviks to seize power in October 1917.

In conclusion, leadership of Lenin, failure of government and organisation of Trotsky affected greatly to Bolsheviks to take over the Provisional government. Lenin seek some chance and had lucky timing to seize power as Russian society was collapsed which made Russians miserable and find a new ruler of the nation. This increased in his power and gained authority. With the leadership of Lenin, preparations made by Trotsky and exposed weakness of government helped Bolsheviks to control Petrograd and later Moscow as well by the 26th of October.