The tension rose ever higher; the sound of gunfire floated in from the shore. No sign from the Peter and Paul Fortress – it was already thirty-five minutes past nine and yet there was still no red light to be seen. Voices rang out: “The light, the light!” In the mist beyond the bridge, a crimson light had appeared. It was nine forty. I gave the command: “Open fire!”
The power is taken, at least in Petrograd. Lenin hasn't even changed his collar yet. He's tired, but his eyes are shining. He's looking at me - amicably, softly, a little bashfully.
The session of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets is closed.
Krylenko, staggering with fatigue, climbed to the tribune with a telegram in his hand.
“Comrades! From the Northern Front. The Twelfth Army sends greetings to the Congress of Soviets, announcing the formation of a Military Revolutionary Committee which has taken over the command of the Northern Front!” Pandemonium, men weeping, embracing each other. “General Tchermissov has recognized the Committee—Commissar of the Provisional Government Voitinsky has resigned!”
I've been placed in the cell № 54.
They escorted us to individual cells of the Trubetskoy fort. I've been placed in the cell №39, Kartashev - in the nearby cell. It's damp and cold.
The Congress of Soviets passed Lenin's appeal "To workers, soldiers and peasants" by an overwhelming majority. Two people voted against it, twelve abstained.
It was truly said that the Russian sailors killed many more Russian officers during the eight months after the Revolution than they had killed German officers in the preceding three and a half years of war.
The Pavlovsky Infantry School is disarmed. Officers are sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Georgy Tumanov, the aide to the Minister of the Military, who was arrested several hours ago, was killed in the yard of the Volynsky regiment barracks. Sailors have reportedly arrived at the barracks, pulled Tumanov outside and tortured him for one and a half hours, and then, once they killed him, they threw his body into the Moika river.
Soldiers, actively resist Kerensky the Kornilovite! Be on your guard! Railwaymen, hold up all troop trains dispatched by Kerensky against Petrograd! Soldiers, workers in factory and office, the fate of the revolution and the fate of the democratic peace is in your hands! Long live the revolution!
The Congress decrees: all power in the localities shall pass to the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, which must guarantee genuine revolutionary order.
The Soviet government will propose an immediate democratic peace to all the nations and an immediate armistice on all fronts. It will secure the transfer of the land of the landed proprietors, the crown and the monasteries to the peasant committees without compensation; it will protect the rights of the soldiers by introducing complete democracy in the army; it will establish workers’ control over production; it will ensure the convocation of the Constituent Assembly at the time appointed; it will see to it that bread is supplied to the cities and prime necessities to the villages; it will guarantee all the nations inhabiting Russia the genuine right to self-determination.
