Russia 1917: Countdown to Revolution Page #4

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The front-page editorial

in the party paper, Pravda,

had meant to tell the crowds

to stay home.

You should all be thrashed for this.

'When it becomes clear that

this will simply look ridiculous

'with this enormous

mass demonstration,

'it is too late for the Bolsheviks

to come up with another line.'

They just pull it and they

have no time to replace it,

so it comes out with a rather

pregnant blank right at its front.

The Bolsheviks look utterly

confused.

Lenin had been calling for

the provisional government

to be thrown out and replaced

by the more radical Soviets.

Now, thousands are ready

to do just that...

is he?

'They were screaming,

'"Show us leadership.

Seize power right now, Lenin."

'And Lenin was hedging.

'He was wondering what the hell

to do, how to manage this.'

Because he realised that if this

went wrong he could be destroyed.

'When Lenin steps out

onto that balcony,'

perhaps he loses his nerve.

He doesn't really know what to say.

We always wanted this

to be peaceful.

With no violence.

The Bolshevik call to give power

to the Soviets will win one day.

Despite the zigzags of history.

But maybe not today.

Why did Lenin hesitate?

'Perhaps he's slightly intimidated.'

This is a man who lived

in books and libraries,

a man who'd been abroad

for 15 years,

who'd never really confronted

angry workers like that before.

And perhaps also an element

of cowardice creeps in here.

He was not one for mounting

the barricades.

He was, often it was remarked,

the first to run

when the going got dangerous.

'He was not intimidated at all.'

To be able to say to a whirling mass

of 20,000, to 30,000,

to 40,000 workers, no.

There is a time to strike and there

is a time to bite our lips.

'That, to me,

is a sign of greatness.'

One wrong move on our part

could wreck everything.

'He just knew that...'

this would be used as a provocation

by the counterrevolution

to crush them.

That the movement wasn't strong

enough to take power.

We are still an insignificant

minority.

Time is on our side.

It was a little more

than a demonstration.

A lot less than a revolution.

Perhaps the fact that he bottles it,

essentially, on the 4th of July,

is because in the back of his head

he's thinking,

"Crikey, this could fail

and then they'll come for me."

GUNFIRE:

For Lenin, timing is everything,

and he proves correct.

The revolt collapses the next day

amidst a hail of bullets

from government snipers.

Kerensky then goes after

the Bolshevik Party.

He ordered the arrest of 800

party members, including Lenin,

for high treason.

The July days left Lenin isolated.

To stay in Petrograd, he'd face

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