Trotsky

Trotsky was famous as a Menshevik before he joined the Bolsheviks in June.

• This made him Lenin’s second in command. He displaced Stalin.
• He played an important role as the Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet.
• He chaired the Military Revolutionary Committee, which ran the revolution in November.

The Revolution

Power changed hands without a shot being fired. By October the Bolsheviks had majorities in the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets. All they needed to do was withdraw their support from the Provisional Government to make it fall.

Lenin timed this for the meeting of the National Congress of Soviets on 7 November. Menshevik deputies were encouraged to walk out of the Congress, leaving Lenin free to declare that the revolution was the will of the people.

At the same time the Red Guards, who had taken strategic bridges, railway stations and telephone exchanges beforehand, took the Winter Palace and arrested the Provisional Government.