8 November 1917. George Buchanan

Riots in Petrograd. Live broadcast.

Non-fiction

Project 1917 is a series of events that took place a hundred years ago as described by those involved. It is composed only of diaries, letters, memoirs, newspapers and other documents

George Buchanan

4, Dvortsovaya embankment, Petrograd, Russian Republic (British Embassy)

At six o'clock yesterday evening armoured cars took up positions at all points commanding the approaches to the Winter Palace, and shortly afterwards delegates from the revolutionary committee came and demanded its unconditional surrender.

As no answer was returned, the signal for attack was given by the firing at 9 p.m. of a few blank rounds by the guns of the fortress and of the cruiser Aurora. The bombardment which followed was kept up continually till ten o'clock when there was a lull for about an hour. At eleven o'clock it began again, while all the time, as we watched it from the Embassy windows, the trams were running as usual over the Troitski Bridge.

The garrison of the palace consisted mainly of cadets from the military school and of a company of the women's battalion — for Russian women had been fighting at the front, and had by their courage and patriotism set a bright example that ought to have shamed the men. There was, however, no organized defense, and the casualties on either side were but few in number. The Ministers meanwhile must have passed through a terrible ordeal as they moved about from room to room, not knowing what fate was in store for them. By half-past two in the morning parties of the attacking force had penetrated into the palace by side entrances and disarm€d the garrison. The Ministers were then arrested and marched off through hostile crowds to the fortress. They seem to have been well treated by the commandant, who apparently thought it prudent to make friends with the mammon of unrighteousness for fear, as he remarked to someone, that the tables might be one day turned and that he might find himself an occupant of one of their cells.

I walked out this afternoon to see the damage that had been done to the Winter Palace by the prolonged bombardment of the previous evening, and to my surprise found that, in spite of the near range, there were on the river side but three marks where the shrapnel had struck. On the town side, the walls were riddled with thousands of bullets from machine guns, but not one shot from a field gun that had been fired from the opposite side of the Palace Square had struck the building.

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Nicholas II

Tobolsk, Russian Republic

From 10 o'clock to 11 o'clock I was with Kastritsky. During the evening I said goodbye to him. He left for the Crimea. The day became nice; in the sun it was 11 degrees. For a long time I chopped firewood.

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Julius Martov

The Menshevik faction proposes that the congress pass a resolution on the need to resolve this crisis peacefully by forming an all-democratic government. To this end, the congress must appoint a delegation to hold discussions with other democratic organisations and all the socialist parties. The Menshevik-Internationalist faction proposes that the work of the congress be suspended until the results of this delegation’s efforts become clear.

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Lev Kamenev

The Duma faction has come to win or die with the All-Russian Congress.

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Leon Trotsky

Mass insurrection doesn't need justification. It is an insurrection, not a conspiracy. We've been building up the revolutionary tension of workers and soldiers. We've been openly calling masses for an uprising, not a conspiracy... The masses have been following us, and our insurrection has been victorious. And now we hear: back down, reach an agreement. With who? I am asking you, who should we conclude this agreement with? With those pathetic groups who left the building? But we've seen all of them. No one else in Russia supports them.

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Leon Trotsky

To those who left and who are now making those suggestions, we say: "You are pathetic, you are bankrupt, your part is over! Go back to where you belong now: the trashcan of history!"

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Julius Martov

Then we are leaving!

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Smolny Institute, Petrograd, Russian Republic

Bolsheviks introduce a resolution condemning Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries for leaving.

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John Reed

We hailed a cab. “Where to?” But when we said “Smolny,” the izvoshtchikCab driver shook his head. “Niet!” said he, “there are devils and….” It was only after weary wandering that we found a driver willing to take us—and he wanted thirty rubles, and stopped two blocks away.

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33/1, Nevsky prospekt, Petrograd, Russian Republic

Mensheviks and right-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries, who had left the Congress of Soviets, together with pre-parliament members and Duma deputies, gathered in the Alexandrovsky hall of the Petrograd city duma. They formed a Committee to Save the Motherland and the Revolution, designed to unite all Anti-Bolshevik forces. American journalist John Reed attended the meeting as well.

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Smolny Institute, Petrograd, Russian Republic

Left-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries remain at the Congress, but they oppose the Bolshevik resolution.

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At the Congress of Soviets, the Bicycle regiment soldiers announce that they refuse to follow the orders of the Provisional Government.

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Pavel Malyantovich

Who is now in actual control of the palace - us of the Bolsheviks?

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City Duma representatives, Mensheviks who left the Congress session and right-wing Social Revolutionaries are headed to the Winter Palace.

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John Reed

It was an astonishing scene. Just at the corner of the Ekaterina Canal, under an arc-light, a cordon of armed sailors was drawn across the Nevsky, blocking the way to a crowd of people in columns of fours. There were about three or four hundred of them, men in frock coats, well-dressed women, officers—all sorts and conditions of people. Among them, we recognised many of the delegates from the Congress, leaders of the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries.

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in Petrograd

in Moscow