7th November 1917: Bolshevik Red Guards take control of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg

Sometimes referred to as the Storming of the Winter Palace in the October Revolution, 7 November is the date from the modern Gregorian calendar that aligns with 25 October on the older Julian calendar, from which the revolution got its alternative name. On the night of 6 November, Bolshevik revolutionary Leon Trotsky led the Red Guards to take control of key government buildings and communication points such as post offices, bridges and the State Bank. Although the Red Guards were armed, historians generally accept that the takeover was carried out without bloodshed or indeed any shots being fired. Throughout 7 November large crowds of troops sympathetic to the Bolsheviks began to surround the Winter Palace. The actual attack on the palace began after a signal shot fired from cruiser ship Aurora. Soviet accounts of the night, portrayed most powerfully in Sergei Eisenstein’s film re-enactment, present the takeover of the Winter Palace as a huge battle. However, this popular image is a fabrication. The large number of Red Guards marching towards the palace led the Cossacks who were guarding the palace to desert their posts, while the remaining Cadets and volunteers from the Women’s Battalion laid down their weapons and surrendered after the Red Guards found their way inside the palace through an open door. The remnants of the Provisional Government were discovered in a small dining room and were arrested. Meanwhile the wine cellar was looted, leading to what historian Orlando Figes suggested was perhaps, ‘the biggest hangover in history’