Russia 1917: Countdown to Revolution Page #2

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the Bolsheviks, were shocked.

..and the hour is not far distant

when the people will turn their arms

against their capitalist exploiters.

'The political conversation was all

about a bourgeois democracy.'

It was all about elections

that were going to happen.

'It was all about coalitions

of groups.'

Lenin didn't want any of that.

Lenin wants a second revolution to

overthrow the provisional government

that has been set up.

He calls instead for the country

to be run by Soviets -

committees of workers,

soldiers and peasants.

He was suggesting that they should

seize power pretty much immediately.

The worldwide revolution

has already dawned.

'The party was absolutely confused,'

bewildered and amazed

by what Lenin said.

And a lot of them thought

he'd gone mad.

The people want peace.

They want bread and land.

They give you war and hunger.

And the landowners still have

all the land.

He coins the first big slogan -

land for the peasants,

peace, an end to war

and bread.

Feed the poor.

Simple words, but behind each

lies a whole set of policies.

The same way that the entire...

The crowd love it.

Those in power just laugh.

A lot of liberal politicians were

saying, "Forget it, don't worry,

"Lenin is a busted flush, he's lost

his mind, basically an anarchist,

"we don't need to worry about him."

Scant months later, this is the most

powerful single person in Russia.

Sailors, comrades...

we have to fight

for a socialist revolution.

Fight to the end!

Long live the worldwide

socialist revolution!

CHEERING:

'People would recognise Lenin as a

very modern political phenomenon.'

He believed totally that the ends

justify the means.

That winning is all, that power

is all that really matters.

APPLAUSE:

There was still huge disagreement

about Lenin's motives.

Power on its own for him

was nothing.

He really wasn't interested in that.

It was power to make big changes

in society.

'He is motivated by a vision

of an alternative world.'

The end of a society dominated

by profit.

What motivates Lenin is power.

Power is all that matters

in a revolution.

That is how Lenin understands

revolution.

You have to have power

before you can do anything.

So principle goes out the window

in the struggle for power,

as far as Lenin is concerned.

Spring turns to summer,

but the provisional government

is unable to solve

the country's problems.

Yet most Russians still have faith

in this man -

Minister of War Alexander Kerensky.

'Alexander Kerensky was really

the first love of the revolution.'

The intelligentsia adored him.

I don't care, General.

The men will manage.

'What became known as

the Kerensky cult'

becomes absolutely out of control.

So you have pamphlet after pamphlet

describing him literally

as a divine figure.

Immediately.

'He is convinced of his own

historical mission'

and part of his historical mission

is to turn the war around.

Despite the popular opposition

to the war,

Kerensky orders a new offensive.

So the offensive is launched

on the 16th of June.

It goes forward for a couple of

days, the Germans counterattack,

the Russians run back.

There's chaos.

They lost hundreds of thousands

of men within a week

and this played totally

into the hands of Lenin.

Lenin, who'd been saying

that war is a bad thing,

that he would provide instant peace,

suddenly became incredibly popular.

And so did the Bolshevik Party.

When Kerensky orders more soldiers

to leave Petrograd for the front,

they refuse to obey.

Their determined resistance

spreads to front-line troops.

By July the 4th,

thousands of deserters join

anti-government demonstrations

in Petrograd.

It looks like Lenin's second

revolution has arrived.

But are Lenin and the Bolsheviks

ready to take power?

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

arrest and possibly being shot,

and he knew he had to escape

somewhere.

He felt all chance had gone.

With the Bolsheviks in ruins,

Lenin goes into hiding.

There is a 200,000 rouble bounty

on his head.

He must now rely on his Lieutenant,

Joseph Stalin,

to mastermind his escape.

'Now they were going underground

again.

'Stalin, the master of the black

arts, was essential to Lenin.'

'Stalin was the boy in the back room

who watched what was happening'

and made himself useful as

and when the moment came.

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