← Section III (Personalities): Leon Trotsky, Revolutionary and Theorist of Permanent Revolution
What was Trotsky's role in the October Revolution of 1917?
Trotsky's role in the October Revolution of 1917, including his May 1917 return, his July arrest, his Bolshevik membership from late July, his Petrograd Soviet chairmanship from September, his chairmanship of the Military Revolutionary Committee, and his direction of the 24-25 October seizure of power
A focused answer to the HSC Modern History Personality dot point on October 1917. The May 1917 return, the Mezhraiontsy fusion, the July Days arrest, the Petrograd Soviet chairmanship, the Military Revolutionary Committee, the 24-25 October seizure of power, the Second Congress of Soviets, and Lenin's later assessment of Trotsky as the second man of October.
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What this dot point is asking
NESA expects you to outline Trotsky's actions between his May 1917 return to Russia and the October 1917 seizure of power, and to assess the weight of his contribution. Strong answers integrate the Mezhraiontsy fusion with the Bolsheviks, the July Days arrest, the chairmanship of the Petrograd Soviet, the Military Revolutionary Committee, the 24-25 October events, and the Second Congress of Soviets.
The answer
Return from New York
Trotsky was in New York at the outbreak of the February Revolution, editing the Russian socialist paper Novy Mir with Bukharin and Volodarsky. He left New York on 27 March 1917 (New Style) on the SS Kristianiafjord. The British navy interned him at Amherst, Nova Scotia from 3 April to 29 April 1917, on suspicion of being a German agent. After Provisional Government protests he was released and arrived in Petrograd on 4 May 1917 (Old Style 17 May).
He came back to a Russia transformed by the February Revolution. His politics had already moved close to Lenin's April Theses: no support for the Provisional Government, soviet power, immediate end to the war.
The Mezhraiontsy and the Sixth Party Congress
Trotsky led the Mezhraiontsy (Inter-District Organisation), a Petrograd Marxist faction of some 4,000 members that stood between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. Through May, June, and July 1917 Trotsky negotiated the fusion of the Mezhraiontsy with the Bolshevik Party. The fusion was completed at the Sixth Party Congress (26 July to 3 August 1917, Old Style), held in semi-clandestine conditions because Lenin was in hiding in Finland.
Trotsky was elected to the Bolshevik Central Committee at the Sixth Congress. Lenin's faction had absorbed its most articulate critic.
The July Days and the Kresty Prison
The July Days (3-7 July 1917) were the unsuccessful Petrograd workers' and sailors' rising. The Provisional Government blamed the Bolsheviks. Lenin fled to Finland. Trotsky was arrested on 23 July 1917 and held in the Kresty Prison. He continued to write articles for Pravda from the cell.
The Kornilov coup attempt (25-31 August 1917) collapsed the Provisional Government's credibility. Trotsky was released on bail on 4 September 1917.
The Petrograd Soviet chairmanship
The Petrograd Soviet gained a Bolshevik majority on 31 August 1917. Trotsky was elected chair of the Petrograd Soviet on 25 September 1917, the position he had occupied for 50 days in 1905. The chairmanship gave him institutional command of the city's workers' and soldiers' deputies and a public platform second only to the Provisional Government's.
The Military Revolutionary Committee
The Northern Front commander Lavr Kornilov's defeat had left Petrograd defenceless. The Provisional Government's proposal to move two-thirds of the Petrograd garrison to the front (10 October 1917, Old Style) was the immediate trigger for the seizure of power: the Bolshevik claim was that the soldiers were being moved to disable the Petrograd Soviet.
On 9 October 1917 (Old Style 22 October) the Petrograd Soviet established the Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC), nominally to coordinate the defence of Petrograd, in fact to prepare the seizure of power. Trotsky chaired the MRC; its Bolshevik core included Antonov-Ovseenko, Podvoisky, and Sverdlov.
The MRC sent commissars to every Petrograd garrison unit, the Peter and Paul Fortress, and the Kronstadt naval base. By 21 October 1917 most of the garrison was loyal to the MRC rather than the Provisional Government.
24-25 October 1917
The seizure of power began on the night of 24 October 1917 (New Style 6-7 November) after the Provisional Government attempted to close two Bolshevik papers and to arrest the MRC leadership. Trotsky directed operations from the Smolny Institute. By the morning of 25 October the MRC controlled the bridges, the telephone exchange, the post office, the railway stations, the State Bank, and the major streets. The Winter Palace fell late in the night of 25-26 October.
Trotsky's role was operational direction rather than the decision to act, which was Lenin's. John Reed (Ten Days That Shook the World, 1919) and Sukhanov (The Russian Revolution 1917, 1922) both emphasise Trotsky's visible leadership at Smolny.
The Second Congress of Soviets
The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets opened at Smolny at 10:40 PM on 25 October 1917. Mensheviks and Right SRs walked out in protest at the armed seizure. Trotsky met the walkout with the famous line, "You are a pitiful handful of bankrupts. Your role is played out. Go where you belong: into the dustbin of history!"
The Congress passed the Decree on Peace and the Decree on Land on 26 October. It established the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) with Lenin as chair and Trotsky as Commissar for Foreign Affairs.
Lenin's later assessment
In the "Letter to the Congress" of December 1922 (commonly called Lenin's Testament), Lenin wrote: "Comrade Trotsky, as his struggle against the Central Committee on the question of the People's Commissariat of Transport has already proved, is distinguished not only by outstanding ability. He is personally perhaps the most capable man in the present Central Committee."
The History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks): Short Course (1938), Stalin's textbook, deletes Trotsky from October entirely. The Soviet historiography that descended from the Short Course followed suit until the late 1980s. Trotsky's October role only re-entered the official Russian record after 1991.
How to read a source on this topic
The MRC papers, the Petrograd Soviet minutes, and Lenin's collected works are the documentary core. Trotsky's own History of the Russian Revolution (1932), written in Prinkipo, is the major participant account and is also the major theoretical statement of October as the proof of Permanent Revolution.
Edward Hallett Carr's History of Soviet Russia (1950-1978) treats Trotsky as central. Pipes' The Russian Revolution (1990) is sceptical and treats Lenin as the decisive figure with Trotsky as instrument. Service (Trotsky, 2009) splits the difference.
Common exam traps
Confusing Old Style and New Style dates. The seizure of power was 25 October Old Style and 7 November New Style.
Treating the MRC as a Bolshevik body. It was nominally a Petrograd Soviet body, with Left SR membership; this gave the seizure its formal cover.
Forgetting the Mezhraiontsy. Trotsky entered the Bolshevik Central Committee at the head of his own faction in July 1917.
In one sentence
Trotsky returned to Petrograd from New York in May 1917, joined the Bolsheviks at the head of the Mezhraiontsy in July, was arrested in the July Days and released after the Kornilov affair, became chair of the Petrograd Soviet on 25 September, chaired the Military Revolutionary Committee from 9 October, directed the 24-25 October seizure of power from Smolny, and presented the new Sovnarkom to the Second Congress of Soviets with the line that drove the Mensheviks and Right SRs into the dustbin of history.
Past exam questions, worked
Real questions from past NESA papers on this dot point, with our answer explainer.
Practice (NESA)12 marksAssess Trotsky's contribution to the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917.Show worked answer →
A 12-mark "assess" needs thesis, three or four areas of evidence, historiography, and judgement.
Thesis. Trotsky was the principal organiser of the October seizure of power, second only to Lenin in political weight and possibly first in operational direction.
Return. Trotsky returned to Petrograd from New York via Halifax on 4 May 1917 (Old Style) after a month's internment by the British in Nova Scotia. He came in close to Lenin's April Theses position.
Mezhraiontsy fusion. Trotsky led the Mezhraiontsy ("Inter-District") faction of some 4,000 Petrograd Marxists into the Bolshevik Party at the Sixth Party Congress in late July 1917. He was elected to the Central Committee.
July Days arrest. Trotsky was arrested by the Provisional Government on 23 July 1917 and held in the Kresty Prison until 4 September 1917, when the post-Kornilov amnesty released him.
Petrograd Soviet chair. Bolshevik majorities in the Petrograd Soviet (31 August 1917) and the Moscow Soviet (5 September) made Trotsky chair of the Petrograd Soviet on 25 September 1917, the position he had held in 1905.
MRC. On 9 October 1917 the Petrograd Soviet established the Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC). Trotsky chaired it. The MRC was the executive instrument of the seizure of power.
24-25 October. Through the night of 24-25 October the MRC seized the bridges, telephone exchange, post office, railway stations, State Bank, and finally the Winter Palace. Trotsky directed operations from Smolny.
Second Congress of Soviets. Trotsky's speech to the Mensheviks and Right SRs walking out of the Second Congress ("Go where you belong: into the dustbin of history!") is the most famous line of the revolution.
Lenin 1922. "After Lenin's arrival, no Bolshevik would have disputed Trotsky's place" (Lenin's "Letter to the Congress," December 1922).
Markers reward MRC, Smolny, the 25 October timing, and the Lenin testament line.
Related dot points
- Trotsky's role in the 1905 Revolution, including his return to Russia in February 1905, his chairmanship of the St Petersburg Soviet from October to December 1905, his arrest in December 1905, his 1906 trial, and the political lessons embodied in Results and Prospects
A focused answer to the HSC Modern History Personality dot point on Trotsky in 1905. The February return, the Soviet of Workers' Deputies, the October Manifesto, Trotsky's 50-day chairmanship, the 3 December arrest, the 1906 trial, and Results and Prospects (1906) as the first programmatic statement of Permanent Revolution.
- Trotsky's theory of Permanent Revolution, including its 1906 formulation in Results and Prospects, its mature 1929 statement in The Permanent Revolution, and its political function as the alternative to Stalin's Socialism in One Country
A focused answer to the HSC Modern History Personality dot point on Permanent Revolution. The 1906 essay, the Parvus collaboration, combined and uneven development, the proletariat as the revolutionary class in a backward country, the international dimension, and the 1928-1929 rearticulation as the direct alternative to Stalin's Socialism in One Country.
- Trotsky as People's Commissar for War, 1918 to 1925, including the construction of the Red Army on conscription and military specialist foundations, the political commissar system, the armoured train, the defence of Petrograd in 1919, and the Polish War of 1920
A focused answer to the HSC Modern History Personality dot point on Trotsky as War Commissar. The March 1918 appointment, conscription and ex-Tsarist military specialists, the political commissar system, the armoured train, the Tsaritsyn dispute with Stalin, the August 1918 to October 1919 turning points, the Polish War of 1920, and the Kronstadt revolt of March 1921.
- The historiography and modern interpretations of Leon Trotsky, including the Stalinist anti-myth, Isaac Deutscher's classic trilogy of 1954 to 1963, Pierre Broue's 1988 biography, the post-1991 archival opening, and Robert Service's revisionist 2009 biography
A focused answer to the HSC Modern History Personality dot point on Trotsky historiography. The Stalinist anti-myth of the Short Course (1938), Isaac Deutscher's three-volume biography (1954-1963), Pierre Broue (1988), Dmitri Volkogonov (1992), Robert Service's 2009 revisionist Trotsky, and the post-2009 Patenaude and North critiques.