0:00:02 > 0:00:07In October 1917, the world changed forever.
0:00:07 > 0:00:11Three men led the takeover of the largest country on Earth.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15Russia became the world's first communist state.
0:00:15 > 0:00:20It took everyone by surprise, including its own leaders.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23Revolution might not happen in our lifetime.
0:00:23 > 0:00:27Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky
0:00:27 > 0:00:32and Joseph Stalin had to struggle, plot and force their way into power
0:00:32 > 0:00:36through the most unlikely series of events.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40'Lenin was moving around in secret, being hunted by the police.'
0:00:41 > 0:00:46'For me, this is the real turning point of 20th-century history.'
0:00:46 > 0:00:50This is the moment when one man makes all the difference.
0:00:50 > 0:00:55The insurrection Lenin led still inspires fierce debate.
0:00:55 > 0:01:00'Did they want a Bolshevik government led by Vladimir Lenin?'
0:01:00 > 0:01:02- Miserable- BLEEP- traitors!
0:01:02 > 0:01:04I don't think so.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08The masses are tired of words and resolutions!
0:01:08 > 0:01:10How the hell is that a coup d'etat?
0:01:10 > 0:01:15'He is motivated by a vision of an alternative world.'
0:01:15 > 0:01:18These people should be shot for their incompetence!
0:01:18 > 0:01:23His object was not to convince or persuade anyone,
0:01:23 > 0:01:25it was to destroy them.
0:01:25 > 0:01:30The system Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin created a century ago
0:01:30 > 0:01:33shapes the world we live in today.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36Putin really understands the October Revolution.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39In many ways, he's one of the results of it.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44This is the countdown of the 245 days
0:01:44 > 0:01:48that brought three men from obscurity to supreme power,
0:01:48 > 0:01:53forging a brave and bloody new world.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02February 1917.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05Russia is ready to explode.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08Its royalty, the Tsars, have ruled with an iron fist
0:02:08 > 0:02:10for four centuries.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12EXPLOSION
0:02:12 > 0:02:15Its men are dying in the millions in World War I.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18Its women and children are starving.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21But the Tsar rejects any change.
0:02:24 > 0:02:26JEERING AND SHOUTING
0:02:30 > 0:02:33On February 23rd, Russia erupts.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36The masses of Petrograd take over the capital
0:02:36 > 0:02:39and force the Tsar to abdicate.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41Here, dramatized in October,
0:02:41 > 0:02:46Sergei Eisenstein's propaganda film made ten years after the revolution.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52Yet the men we most associate with the Russian Revolution
0:02:52 > 0:02:54aren't even in the country.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin miss the February Revolution.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12Lenin is in Zurich, having been exiled for nearly 17 years
0:03:12 > 0:03:14as a dangerous revolutionary.
0:03:14 > 0:03:15KNOCKING
0:03:15 > 0:03:18Haven't you heard? There's been a revolution!
0:03:19 > 0:03:21I've heard this sort of rumour before.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23It's probably German propaganda.
0:03:28 > 0:03:33Just days before the February Revolution, Lenin had confessed...
0:03:36 > 0:03:39Revolution might not happen in our lifetime.
0:03:53 > 0:03:54We must go home.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58The one thing Lenin couldn't bear
0:03:58 > 0:04:01was that the revolution, now it's come,
0:04:01 > 0:04:03is going to happen without him.
0:04:03 > 0:04:08He was absolutely tormented about getting back
0:04:08 > 0:04:10and seizing control before someone else did.
0:04:14 > 0:04:19Lenin's drive for power may have its origins in a family trauma.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23Until 1889,
0:04:23 > 0:04:27Lenin is really a fairly average schoolboy
0:04:27 > 0:04:29from a provincial town, Simbirsk.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33But his brother, Aleksandr,
0:04:33 > 0:04:38has been a activist in the main terrorist revolutionary group,
0:04:38 > 0:04:43the People's Will, involved in an attempt to assassinate the Tsar,
0:04:43 > 0:04:45arrested and executed.
0:04:47 > 0:04:52And I think it's partly in revenge for that family tragedy
0:04:52 > 0:04:56that he is so bent on destruction.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00Lenin becomes an ardent Marxist.
0:05:00 > 0:05:05By 1903, he's head of his own radical party, the Bolsheviks.
0:05:09 > 0:05:14Soon after, Leon Trotsky hears about the February Revolution
0:05:14 > 0:05:17while avoiding the Russian authorities in New York.
0:05:18 > 0:05:23'Trotsky was very much the showman, the orator,'
0:05:23 > 0:05:26the real firebrand of the revolution.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30He was a very glamorous figure.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35He was a terrific speaker, real rabble-rouser, and he knew it.
0:05:35 > 0:05:37CHEERING
0:05:39 > 0:05:44Born Lev Bronstein, Trotsky has been a Marxist rebel from youth.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48He had an interesting background.
0:05:48 > 0:05:50He came from the Black Sea coast,
0:05:50 > 0:05:53he was the son of a very rich Jewish farmer.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56He'd had a wonderful education, he was highly cultured,
0:05:56 > 0:05:59he was an internationalist, he'd been all over the world,
0:05:59 > 0:06:01he's been in New York and round Europe and Vienna.
0:06:03 > 0:06:08He's known to be a difficult man, abrasive, extremely charismatic,
0:06:08 > 0:06:12sometimes hard to love but absolutely impossible not to admire.
0:06:13 > 0:06:18This independent revolutionary has rivalled Lenin for 20 years.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21Soon, they'll have to work together.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30Days later, Joseph Stalin learns of the February Revolution
0:06:30 > 0:06:34while exiled for robbery 3,500 kilometres away
0:06:34 > 0:06:37in Achinsky, Siberia.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43'Just look at how attractive Stalin was
0:06:43 > 0:06:45'in the time leading up to the revolution.'
0:06:45 > 0:06:47HE LAUGHS
0:06:47 > 0:06:49'Not only a published poet'
0:06:49 > 0:06:53but an anthologised poet, very handsome,
0:06:53 > 0:06:55with a marvellous head of hair.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59A great one for women.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04He's escaped six times from Siberian exile
0:07:04 > 0:07:06and wanted what?
0:07:07 > 0:07:10Universal equality and justice.
0:07:10 > 0:07:11A completely attractive figure.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16Until he was in power.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Stalin was the ultimate man of action
0:07:21 > 0:07:24and he became Lenin's chosen favourite man of action.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30He was the master of assassinations,
0:07:30 > 0:07:32protection rackets, heists.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36Every revolutionary leader needs a Stalin.
0:07:37 > 0:07:38Stalin...
0:07:39 > 0:07:41..Trotsky
0:07:41 > 0:07:43and Lenin.
0:07:43 > 0:07:49Three comrades in revolution who now have barely 230 days
0:07:49 > 0:07:51to change the world.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54CHEERING
0:07:54 > 0:07:57They return to a country in turmoil.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00The overthrow of the Tsar in the February Revolution
0:08:00 > 0:08:02has unleashed wild euphoria.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08People were partying in the streets,
0:08:08 > 0:08:11soldiers were, sort of, driving around in cars,
0:08:11 > 0:08:14tooting their horns with, sort of, half undressed girls.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17People were having sex in the street.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20There were a multitude of political factions and parties
0:08:20 > 0:08:23and everyone was having meetings about everything.
0:08:23 > 0:08:24So, it was total anarchy.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28It was an explosion,
0:08:28 > 0:08:32which meant all rules were destroyed and it was a chance to start again.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35We're talking about, in aspiration, you know,
0:08:35 > 0:08:40a fundamental reconfiguring of the way human beings live in the world.
0:08:42 > 0:08:47Lenin arrives at a time when there is an enormous amount of hope
0:08:47 > 0:08:50and a sense that this is still a new Russia.
0:08:53 > 0:08:54April 4th,
0:08:54 > 0:08:58the Bolsheviks' few thousand supporters await Lenin in Petrograd,
0:08:58 > 0:09:00now St Petersburg.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04It was Easter Monday and so the factories weren't working
0:09:04 > 0:09:06so they did manage to get a big crowd in,
0:09:06 > 0:09:08partly by the promise of free beer,
0:09:08 > 0:09:12which, actually, sadly didn't arrive for any of them.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17They've got fantastic arc lighting and it made it look terrific.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23The converted, the supporters, the acolytes, the underground,
0:09:23 > 0:09:26the revolutionaries were there to meet him.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28But the vast majority of people
0:09:28 > 0:09:30didn't even really know who Lenin was.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36After two decades of studying the theory of revolution,
0:09:36 > 0:09:41Lenin arrives with radical ideas on what Russia should do now.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46He had an idea of the revolution in his head
0:09:46 > 0:09:48before he'd even got back to Russia
0:09:48 > 0:09:51to see what the real possibilities were.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58Lenin is ready to test his theories on real people.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01He has no time for other politicians.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06'A delegation greet him rather nervously.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12'He doesn't even answer them.'
0:10:12 > 0:10:14Instead, he gives a speech to the crowds.
0:10:14 > 0:10:16Sailors...
0:10:16 > 0:10:19soldiers, comrades...
0:10:20 > 0:10:24..this is no time for compromise or diplomatic phrases.
0:10:25 > 0:10:29This is the time to move towards building a socialist state.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31CHEERING
0:10:31 > 0:10:34As soon as he arrives back in Russia,
0:10:34 > 0:10:39he calls for his party to agitate for a new revolution.
0:10:39 > 0:10:41The piratical, imperialist war...
0:10:41 > 0:10:45Even Lenin's own party, the Bolsheviks, were shocked.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49..and the hour is not far distant when the people will turn their arms
0:10:49 > 0:10:52against their capitalist exploiters.
0:10:52 > 0:10:57'The political conversation was all about a bourgeois democracy.'
0:10:57 > 0:10:59It was all about elections that were going to happen.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03'It was all about coalitions of groups.'
0:11:03 > 0:11:05Lenin didn't want any of that.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09Lenin wants a second revolution to overthrow the provisional government
0:11:09 > 0:11:11that has been set up.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14He calls instead for the country to be run by Soviets -
0:11:14 > 0:11:18committees of workers, soldiers and peasants.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22He was suggesting that they should seize power pretty much immediately.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26The worldwide revolution has already dawned.
0:11:26 > 0:11:28'The party was absolutely confused,'
0:11:28 > 0:11:31bewildered and amazed by what Lenin said.
0:11:31 > 0:11:33And a lot of them thought he'd gone mad.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35The people want peace.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38They want bread and land.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42They give you war and hunger.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46And the landowners still have all the land.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49He coins the first big slogan -
0:11:49 > 0:11:51land for the peasants,
0:11:51 > 0:11:53peace, an end to war
0:11:53 > 0:11:55and bread.
0:11:55 > 0:11:57Feed the poor.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01Simple words, but behind each lies a whole set of policies.
0:12:01 > 0:12:03The same way that the entire...
0:12:03 > 0:12:05The crowd love it.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08Those in power just laugh.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12A lot of liberal politicians were saying, "Forget it, don't worry,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16"Lenin is a busted flush, he's lost his mind, basically an anarchist,
0:12:16 > 0:12:18"we don't need to worry about him."
0:12:18 > 0:12:22Scant months later, this is the most powerful single person in Russia.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26Sailors, comrades...
0:12:26 > 0:12:30we have to fight for a socialist revolution.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32Fight to the end!
0:12:34 > 0:12:37Long live the worldwide socialist revolution!
0:12:37 > 0:12:39CHEERING
0:12:40 > 0:12:45'People would recognise Lenin as a very modern political phenomenon.'
0:12:45 > 0:12:49He believed totally that the ends justify the means.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52That winning is all, that power is all that really matters.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54APPLAUSE
0:12:54 > 0:12:57There was still huge disagreement about Lenin's motives.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01Power on its own for him was nothing.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04He really wasn't interested in that.
0:13:04 > 0:13:09It was power to make big changes in society.
0:13:10 > 0:13:16'He is motivated by a vision of an alternative world.'
0:13:16 > 0:13:19The end of a society dominated by profit.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22What motivates Lenin is power.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25Power is all that matters in a revolution.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28That is how Lenin understands revolution.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31You have to have power before you can do anything.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35So principle goes out the window in the struggle for power,
0:13:35 > 0:13:37as far as Lenin is concerned.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47Spring turns to summer, but the provisional government
0:13:47 > 0:13:50is unable to solve the country's problems.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53Yet most Russians still have faith in this man -
0:13:53 > 0:13:57Minister of War Alexander Kerensky.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01'Alexander Kerensky was really the first love of the revolution.'
0:14:01 > 0:14:03The intelligentsia adored him.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07I don't care, General. The men will manage.
0:14:07 > 0:14:09'What became known as the Kerensky cult'
0:14:09 > 0:14:11becomes absolutely out of control.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15So you have pamphlet after pamphlet describing him literally
0:14:15 > 0:14:17as a divine figure.
0:14:17 > 0:14:18Immediately.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24'He is convinced of his own historical mission'
0:14:24 > 0:14:28and part of his historical mission is to turn the war around.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34Despite the popular opposition to the war,
0:14:34 > 0:14:36Kerensky orders a new offensive.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40So the offensive is launched on the 16th of June.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44It goes forward for a couple of days, the Germans counterattack,
0:14:44 > 0:14:46the Russians run back. There's chaos.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51They lost hundreds of thousands of men within a week
0:14:51 > 0:14:53and this played totally into the hands of Lenin.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58Lenin, who'd been saying that war is a bad thing,
0:14:58 > 0:15:02that he would provide instant peace, suddenly became incredibly popular.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04And so did the Bolshevik Party.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11When Kerensky orders more soldiers to leave Petrograd for the front,
0:15:11 > 0:15:13they refuse to obey.
0:15:14 > 0:15:19Their determined resistance spreads to front-line troops.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27By July the 4th,
0:15:27 > 0:15:31thousands of deserters join anti-government demonstrations
0:15:31 > 0:15:32in Petrograd.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37It looks like Lenin's second revolution has arrived.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43But are Lenin and the Bolsheviks ready to take power?
0:15:44 > 0:15:47The front-page editorial in the party paper, Pravda,
0:15:47 > 0:15:51had meant to tell the crowds to stay home.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54You should all be thrashed for this.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57'When it becomes clear that this will simply look ridiculous
0:15:57 > 0:15:59'with this enormous mass demonstration,
0:15:59 > 0:16:04'it is too late for the Bolsheviks to come up with another line.'
0:16:05 > 0:16:09They just pull it and they have no time to replace it,
0:16:09 > 0:16:13so it comes out with a rather pregnant blank right at its front.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19The Bolsheviks look utterly confused.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22Lenin had been calling for the provisional government
0:16:22 > 0:16:25to be thrown out and replaced by the more radical Soviets.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31Now, thousands are ready to do just that...
0:16:31 > 0:16:32is he?
0:16:35 > 0:16:37'They were screaming,
0:16:37 > 0:16:40'"Show us leadership. Seize power right now, Lenin."
0:16:40 > 0:16:41'And Lenin was hedging.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44'He was wondering what the hell to do, how to manage this.'
0:16:44 > 0:16:48Because he realised that if this went wrong he could be destroyed.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53'When Lenin steps out onto that balcony,'
0:16:53 > 0:16:56perhaps he loses his nerve.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59He doesn't really know what to say.
0:17:02 > 0:17:04We always wanted this to be peaceful.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07With no violence.
0:17:11 > 0:17:16The Bolshevik call to give power to the Soviets will win one day.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21Despite the zigzags of history.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27But maybe not today.
0:17:33 > 0:17:35Why did Lenin hesitate?
0:17:36 > 0:17:39'Perhaps he's slightly intimidated.'
0:17:40 > 0:17:43This is a man who lived in books and libraries,
0:17:43 > 0:17:46a man who'd been abroad for 15 years,
0:17:46 > 0:17:48who'd never really confronted
0:17:48 > 0:17:51angry workers like that before.
0:17:51 > 0:17:56And perhaps also an element of cowardice creeps in here.
0:17:56 > 0:17:59He was not one for mounting the barricades.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02He was, often it was remarked, the first to run
0:18:02 > 0:18:05when the going got dangerous.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10'He was not intimidated at all.'
0:18:10 > 0:18:13To be able to say to a whirling mass
0:18:13 > 0:18:18of 20,000, to 30,000, to 40,000 workers, no.
0:18:19 > 0:18:24There is a time to strike and there is a time to bite our lips.
0:18:26 > 0:18:31'That, to me, is a sign of greatness.'
0:18:38 > 0:18:42One wrong move on our part could wreck everything.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47'He just knew that...'
0:18:47 > 0:18:51this would be used as a provocation by the counterrevolution
0:18:51 > 0:18:53to crush them.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57That the movement wasn't strong enough to take power.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02We are still an insignificant minority.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08Time is on our side.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24It was a little more than a demonstration.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29A lot less than a revolution.
0:19:30 > 0:19:35Perhaps the fact that he bottles it, essentially, on the 4th of July,
0:19:35 > 0:19:38is because in the back of his head he's thinking,
0:19:38 > 0:19:42"Crikey, this could fail and then they'll come for me."
0:19:42 > 0:19:44GUNFIRE
0:19:46 > 0:19:49For Lenin, timing is everything,
0:19:49 > 0:19:51and he proves correct.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53The revolt collapses the next day
0:19:53 > 0:19:57amidst a hail of bullets from government snipers.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02Kerensky then goes after the Bolshevik Party.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06He ordered the arrest of 800 party members, including Lenin,
0:20:06 > 0:20:07for high treason.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12The July days left Lenin isolated.
0:20:12 > 0:20:17To stay in Petrograd, he'd face arrest and possibly being shot,
0:20:17 > 0:20:20and he knew he had to escape somewhere.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25He felt all chance had gone.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32With the Bolsheviks in ruins, Lenin goes into hiding.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36There is a 200,000 rouble bounty on his head.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40He must now rely on his Lieutenant, Joseph Stalin,
0:20:40 > 0:20:43to mastermind his escape.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45'Now they were going underground again.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49'Stalin, the master of the black arts, was essential to Lenin.'
0:20:51 > 0:20:55'Stalin was the boy in the back room who watched what was happening'
0:20:55 > 0:21:00and made himself useful as and when the moment came.
0:21:01 > 0:21:06'There he was, helps Lenin shave off his very distinctive little goatee.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09'They give him a dreadful wig and a worker's cap,'
0:21:09 > 0:21:12and smuggle him out across into Finland.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17With Lenin gone and Trotsky arrested,
0:21:17 > 0:21:20Stalin finds himself the unlikely leader
0:21:20 > 0:21:23of the shattered Bolshevik Party.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26'Lenin trusted Stalin.'
0:21:27 > 0:21:30He carried secret messages, he set up by the machinery
0:21:30 > 0:21:34whereby Lenin could communicate from a barn out in Finland
0:21:34 > 0:21:38with the Bolshevik machine inside Petrograd.
0:21:38 > 0:21:40All of these things, Stalin managed.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44And it was now that Stalin became the key person
0:21:44 > 0:21:47behind Lenin in the revolution.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50The interesting thing about Stalin,
0:21:50 > 0:21:53he played this incredibly subtle waiting game.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56He was very much there in the shadows,
0:21:56 > 0:21:59watching, waiting, learning.
0:22:02 > 0:22:07While the Bolsheviks rot in jail, flee or go underground,
0:22:07 > 0:22:10things are looking up for Alexander Kerensky.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13He is now Prime Minister.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17After the aborted Bolshevik uprising,
0:22:17 > 0:22:20he appoints Siberian General Lavr Kornilov
0:22:20 > 0:22:23to restore order in Petrograd.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28'Kornilov could see that the Bolsheviks were gearing up
0:22:28 > 0:22:30'to try and take over.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33'He desperately wanted to round up the belligerent revolutionaries,
0:22:33 > 0:22:36'the Bolsheviks, slam them in jail
0:22:36 > 0:22:40'and impose almost a military government on the city'
0:22:40 > 0:22:44because he saw that as the only way of saving the situation.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48'The right-wing, the conservatives,
0:22:48 > 0:22:51'are beginning to rally around Kornilov quite explicitly
0:22:51 > 0:22:53'as a figure who can bring order to Russia.'
0:22:54 > 0:22:57Kerensky worries the General wants to rule Russia
0:22:57 > 0:22:59as a military dictator.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03'There's no question that Kerensky was quite paranoid,'
0:23:03 > 0:23:07but there's also not much question that people were out to get him.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10Just days after appointing the General,
0:23:10 > 0:23:14Kerensky dismisses him in a telegram.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20But the General's troops advance on Petrograd.
0:23:20 > 0:23:25Ironically, it takes Bolshevik activists to save the city.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32Bolshevik agitators from within the army, soldiers,
0:23:32 > 0:23:35went and spoke to the Kornilov soldiers and said,
0:23:35 > 0:23:38"Do you know why you're being brought to Petrograd?
0:23:38 > 0:23:41"To attack us, to kill your brothers and sisters.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44"Is this what you're coming to do?"
0:23:46 > 0:23:51And the descriptions of this event are that Kornilov's army
0:23:51 > 0:23:54melted away in front of his very eyes.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02In an extraordinary reversal of fortune,
0:24:02 > 0:24:06the Bolsheviks are now seen as the saviours of Petrograd.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08MUSIC
0:24:16 > 0:24:19Kerensky's credibility lies in tatters.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23He's reduced to keeping himself going with cocaine and morphine.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32'So, rather than buttress his power base, in fact,
0:24:32 > 0:24:37'the defeat of Kornilov only played into the hands of the left.'
0:24:38 > 0:24:40It's hard for me.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44I struggle with the left and with the right.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47The people demand that I lean on one and then the other.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51I want to take a middle road but nobody will help me.
0:24:53 > 0:24:58'How could you roll out democracy in a country like that?'
0:24:58 > 0:25:02So I think it was always inevitable that this anarchic force
0:25:02 > 0:25:04which splintered the country into revolution
0:25:04 > 0:25:08was never going to quickly shuffle the pieces and put them back
0:25:08 > 0:25:11into a neat jigsaw puzzle which was a proper democracy.
0:25:11 > 0:25:13That wasn't going to happen.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16The Kornilov coup created the situation
0:25:16 > 0:25:19where you had a government with no real power.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21With power ebbing away.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24A leader with no real prestige.
0:25:24 > 0:25:30And the opportunity, the vacuum, into which someone, somewhere,
0:25:30 > 0:25:32could seize power.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36And that someone, Lenin was determined, would be the Bolsheviks.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51The Bolshevik resurgence begins when Kerensky releases them from jail.
0:25:51 > 0:25:56While locked up, Leon Trotsky has finally joined Lenin's party.
0:25:57 > 0:25:59Crowds flock to hear him speak.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04Trotsky was the great celebrity of the revolution.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07He was much more famous than Lenin, not to speak of Stalin.
0:26:08 > 0:26:13'Trotsky was probably the most brilliant intellectual mind'
0:26:13 > 0:26:17produced in tsarist Russia,
0:26:17 > 0:26:19including Lenin.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24'Lenin knew that Stalin and Trotsky were his two chief supporters
0:26:24 > 0:26:26'in pushing for the October Revolution,
0:26:26 > 0:26:30'so Stalin and Trotsky had actually had a lot in common politically.'
0:26:30 > 0:26:33But it was personally that they absolutely loathed each other.
0:26:35 > 0:26:40Their animosity only grows when Trotsky replaces Stalin
0:26:40 > 0:26:42as interim leader.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45Stalin was very valuable behind the scenes.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50He did have a knack of convincing the average run of leaders,
0:26:50 > 0:26:53especially the provincials.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55APPLAUSE
0:26:57 > 0:27:00The time for words has passed.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05The country stands on the edge of ruin.
0:27:06 > 0:27:08The Army demand peace.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12The peasants demand land.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15The workers demand work and food.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20The coalition government is against the people.
0:27:21 > 0:27:26The government is a tool in the hands of the enemies of the people.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:27:28 > 0:27:31The time for words has passed!
0:27:33 > 0:27:38Trotsky's individualism and panache is not always trusted by Lenin.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42'Trotsky writes, "Lenin was worried,'
0:27:42 > 0:27:45"suspicious of my non-Bolshevik past,'
0:27:45 > 0:27:48"wondering, have I got the capacity to do it,
0:27:48 > 0:27:52"and I had to constantly reassure him, do not worry, Comrade Lenin,
0:27:52 > 0:27:55"it's going to happen. We are doing it."
0:27:56 > 0:27:59All power to the Soviets!
0:27:59 > 0:28:01CHEERING
0:28:01 > 0:28:04Immediate Armistice on all fronts!
0:28:06 > 0:28:08Land to the peasants!
0:28:08 > 0:28:10CHEERING
0:28:14 > 0:28:18He's sort of arrogant and that's his Achilles heel
0:28:18 > 0:28:21because people don't like arrogance in the party.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24Trotsky felt it should all be delivered to him
0:28:24 > 0:28:26because of that brilliance.
0:28:26 > 0:28:32And he would read... ostentatiously read French novels
0:28:32 > 0:28:35during meetings of the politburo,
0:28:35 > 0:28:40to show how, erm, above all this he was.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46When Lenin was asked what had kept he and Trotsky apart for so long,
0:28:46 > 0:28:48he answered...
0:28:48 > 0:28:50Don't you know?
0:28:50 > 0:28:51Ambition.
0:28:52 > 0:28:54Ambition.
0:28:55 > 0:28:57Ambition.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03Now they share an ambition - real power.
0:29:04 > 0:29:09While hiding in Finland, Lenin makes the biggest decision of his life.
0:29:09 > 0:29:12The time is ripe for his revolution.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16'By then, everyone was sick of the war.'
0:29:16 > 0:29:18They were sick of the food shortages.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21People were openly saying on the streets,
0:29:21 > 0:29:23"Do you know what, we don't care who's in power.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26"If they like, the Germans can come and take Petrograd."
0:29:29 > 0:29:30From mid-September,
0:29:30 > 0:29:35Lenin bombards the Bolsheviks with letters insisting they seize power.
0:29:35 > 0:29:41"The present task must be an armed uprising in Petrograd and Moscow,
0:29:41 > 0:29:46"the seizing of power and the overthrow of the government."
0:29:49 > 0:29:52'Lenin was a complete monomaniac.'
0:29:52 > 0:29:54He's like a boiling pot.
0:29:54 > 0:29:56All the time, you can hear the lid rattling.
0:29:56 > 0:30:00He gets more and more furious and the bubbles are bubbling up.
0:30:00 > 0:30:04"It would be naive to wait for a formal majority for Bolsheviks.
0:30:04 > 0:30:08"No, revolution ever waits for that."
0:30:08 > 0:30:10He brewed himself up extraordinarily
0:30:10 > 0:30:13and twisted himself up into anger
0:30:13 > 0:30:17and his flashes of anger were terrifying.
0:30:17 > 0:30:24"History will not forgive us if we do not assume power now.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27'Lenin is raging that we are about to lose'
0:30:27 > 0:30:32the one-off opportunity to seize power, to seize Russia.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35"To wait would be utter idiocy."
0:30:36 > 0:30:40'The Bolshevik leadership doesn't know what to do with these.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43'It thinks that they might be inflammatory
0:30:43 > 0:30:46'and provoke an uprising prematurely,'
0:30:46 > 0:30:49so they go as far as to destroying these letters if they can.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01- BLEEP- traitors to the proletarian cause!
0:31:02 > 0:31:04'When you read the letters,'
0:31:04 > 0:31:07my God, he could swear like a trooper when he wanted to.
0:31:07 > 0:31:09He had a vicious tongue.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16Lenin realises that writing these letters from his hiding place
0:31:16 > 0:31:20'is not enough. He's going to have to face the central committee
0:31:20 > 0:31:23'to argue for this properly and to win the argument.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26'And then he's going to have to seize power immediately.'
0:31:27 > 0:31:30Suddenly we're in a state of high drama here.
0:31:30 > 0:31:32You know, something has got to give.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36If the Bolsheviks don't seize power now, somebody else might.
0:31:39 > 0:31:44By the beginning of October, Lenin is beside himself with impatience.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48INDISTINCT CHATTER
0:31:56 > 0:31:58Comrade Lenin?
0:32:00 > 0:32:05On the night of October the 10th, Lenin suddenly reappears,
0:32:05 > 0:32:09disguised as a Lutheran minister to avoid capture by the authorities.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17The significance of the meeting is world historical.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20History isn't always made on battlefields.
0:32:20 > 0:32:22They're made in small meeting rooms.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26Since the beginning of September, there has been a certain...
0:32:27 > 0:32:31..indifference to the idea of seizing power.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35We must seize power now
0:32:35 > 0:32:38and not wait for the Soviets or any congresses.
0:32:38 > 0:32:40The time is right now.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43The moment of decision has arrived.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49The masses are tired of words and resolutions.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52The majority are behind us.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54The success of Russian and worldwide revolution
0:32:54 > 0:32:57depends on two or three days' struggle.
0:32:57 > 0:32:59If I may, Comrade Lenin.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02Trotsky wants to wait to launch the uprising
0:33:02 > 0:33:06until after the upcoming Congress of Soviets.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10This way, socialist delegates from all over the country
0:33:10 > 0:33:12can back the insurrection.
0:33:13 > 0:33:15But Lenin disagrees.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19It's difficult for a large, organised body of men
0:33:19 > 0:33:21to take swift, decisive action.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25We must act on the 25th, the day that Congress sits,
0:33:25 > 0:33:29so that we may say to it, "Here is our power.
0:33:30 > 0:33:32"What are you going to do with it?"
0:33:34 > 0:33:37'He hammers and hammers and hammers the point
0:33:37 > 0:33:40'that if we don't act now we'll lose our moment,'
0:33:40 > 0:33:43we'll never have a chance again.
0:33:43 > 0:33:46This is the only time we will succeed.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49I don't think Lenin was browbeating anyone.
0:33:49 > 0:33:52He was just arguing that this is the time.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55Of course, they were vigorous arguments.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58The argument is essential.
0:33:58 > 0:34:04Whether to seize power or to form democratic alliances.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07'At this very moment, the top Bolsheviks'
0:34:07 > 0:34:10start to say, we should negotiate a coalition
0:34:10 > 0:34:15with other parties like the Mensheviks, other rival factions.
0:34:15 > 0:34:17'This isn't the time to seize power,
0:34:17 > 0:34:20'we might lose everything we have already.'
0:34:23 > 0:34:25I say we put it to the vote.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33When they began, at least half the central committee
0:34:33 > 0:34:35was against armed insurrection.
0:34:37 > 0:34:39After ten hours arguing,
0:34:39 > 0:34:43the result goes 10-2 in Lenin's favour.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52'This is just the moment when you realise'
0:34:52 > 0:34:55the absolute paramount power of the individual in history,
0:34:55 > 0:34:57because, you know, half the central committee,
0:34:57 > 0:35:01or even a majority of the central committee of the Bolshevik Party
0:35:01 > 0:35:04doesn't want to seize power in October 1917.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09'The fact that Lenin got the vote and won the permission to go ahead
0:35:09 > 0:35:11'was entirely decisive.
0:35:11 > 0:35:16'This was indeed the cocking of the pistol of revolution.'
0:35:19 > 0:35:24By October the 24th, Kerensky is expecting an uprising,
0:35:24 > 0:35:27but he's still confident he will prevail.
0:35:27 > 0:35:29It'll be like July again.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33I'll be prepared to offer prayers to produce this uprising.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37I'll have greater forces than necessary.
0:35:39 > 0:35:41They will be utterly crushed.
0:35:48 > 0:35:50LOUD THUD
0:36:03 > 0:36:08Kerensky's overconfidence plays right into Lenin's hands.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11With Stalin in charge of the Bolshevik press,
0:36:11 > 0:36:15Kerensky orders two of the newspapers closed.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25Within hours, Stalin is free to get the newspapers running again...
0:36:26 > 0:36:28..announcing Kerensky's censorship
0:36:28 > 0:36:31as the start of a full-blown counterrevolution.
0:36:32 > 0:36:35Now, the Bolsheviks can start their uprising
0:36:35 > 0:36:39under the pretext of defending freedom.
0:36:39 > 0:36:43A lie always has a stronger effect than the truth.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47The main thing is to obtain one's objective.
0:36:52 > 0:36:54You've come a long way, comrades.
0:36:54 > 0:36:56As head of the Petrograd Soviet,
0:36:56 > 0:36:59Trotsky plays his part in the deception.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02He orders that bridges and key government buildings
0:37:02 > 0:37:05be seized to protect the city.
0:37:05 > 0:37:06He claims...
0:37:06 > 0:37:09This is defence, comrades,
0:37:09 > 0:37:11this is defence.
0:37:12 > 0:37:14He goes so far as to say...
0:37:14 > 0:37:17An armed conflict, today or tomorrow,
0:37:17 > 0:37:21on the eve of the Soviet Congress, is not in our plans.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34By that evening, Lenin is convinced the hour,
0:37:34 > 0:37:39indeed the moment to seize power, has finally arrived.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43Everything now hangs by a thread.
0:37:45 > 0:37:49The matter must be decided without fail...
0:37:50 > 0:37:52..this evening.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57'Lenin has been told very categorically by his comrades'
0:37:57 > 0:38:01to stay put and he is crawling the walls.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04'He is desperate to be there, to be in the thick of it.
0:38:06 > 0:38:08'Lenin's face is notorious
0:38:08 > 0:38:11'so what he does is he puts on his disguise.
0:38:11 > 0:38:16'He puts on glasses, he puts on a fairly ridiculous wig,
0:38:16 > 0:38:19'he puts on a battered worker's cap.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27'And finally he, sort of, swathes some bandages around his face
0:38:27 > 0:38:29'to, sort of, look injured in some way
0:38:29 > 0:38:33'and also simply to obscure those notorious features.'
0:38:36 > 0:38:38He is wanted for high treason.
0:38:40 > 0:38:43Government troops are searching the city for him.
0:38:45 > 0:38:50Now, he must risk capture to get to Bolshevik headquarters.
0:38:50 > 0:38:52DOG BARKS
0:39:00 > 0:39:05'On his way, they're stopped by one of the last police patrols'
0:39:05 > 0:39:06of the provisional government.
0:39:06 > 0:39:09HE MUMBLES
0:39:12 > 0:39:16'And they look at this man and think he's some sort of drunk tramp...'
0:39:16 > 0:39:20- What do you think?- He's just drunk.
0:39:20 > 0:39:22..and let him go.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24Get out of here.
0:39:29 > 0:39:34For me, this is the real turning point of 20th century history.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37This is the moment when one man makes all the difference.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42'If Lenin had been arrested...
0:39:43 > 0:39:47'..they probably never would have launched an insurrection.
0:39:48 > 0:39:51'But because those policemen failed to recognise Lenin,'
0:39:51 > 0:39:54for whom there was a warrant for arrest...
0:39:55 > 0:39:57..the insurrection took place.
0:40:08 > 0:40:11'Everything is happening in a series of rooms
0:40:11 > 0:40:14'in the splendid Smolny Institute.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19'Lenin arrived at room 36, which was the key room, the headquarters,'
0:40:19 > 0:40:22the engine room, the beating heart of the revolution,
0:40:22 > 0:40:26'and there he found all the key players.
0:40:26 > 0:40:28'There's Trotsky.
0:40:29 > 0:40:31'There's Stalin.
0:40:32 > 0:40:34'And they're running everything from here.
0:40:38 > 0:40:41'There were soldiers playing cards, smoking.
0:40:42 > 0:40:44'People sleeping.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47'People drinking vodka. Some people drunk.
0:40:47 > 0:40:49'Soldiers rushing in with news'
0:40:49 > 0:40:52that this building or that building had fallen.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56'At this moment in Russian history, in world history,
0:40:56 > 0:40:59'these series of shambolic rooms
0:40:59 > 0:41:04'half encampment, half military headquarters, half student bivouac,
0:41:04 > 0:41:08'are the centre of the world and Lenin has to be in this room.'
0:41:11 > 0:41:15Lenin has always been called the Father of the Revolution.
0:41:15 > 0:41:20But the man who ran the October Revolution was not Lenin or Stalin.
0:41:21 > 0:41:25'Trotsky wasn't just a handsome face and a great orator,
0:41:25 > 0:41:29'he was also an organisational genius.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33'He put together the machinery, the personnel, the plan.
0:41:33 > 0:41:35'It was Trotsky that gave the orders.'
0:41:35 > 0:41:37Trotsky was the man of the hour.
0:41:42 > 0:41:46The Bolsheviks take control of Petrograd overnight,
0:41:46 > 0:41:49just hours before the Congress of Soviets is to meet.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52By the morning of October the 25th,
0:41:52 > 0:41:55only the Winter Palace remains in the hands
0:41:55 > 0:41:57of the provisional government.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00'Kerensky is in cloud cuckoo land, quite frankly.
0:42:00 > 0:42:04'And on the morning of the 25th of October,
0:42:04 > 0:42:07'thinks, well, it might be time to go and summon troops.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10'He can't get any on the telephone.'
0:42:10 > 0:42:13Of course, the Bolsheviks are already in control of virtually
0:42:13 > 0:42:16'every means of communication in the capital.'
0:42:21 > 0:42:25Though the provisional government still occupies the Winter Palace,
0:42:25 > 0:42:30that afternoon, Trotsky announces that the government has fallen.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34In the name of the military revolutionary committee,
0:42:34 > 0:42:39I declare that the provisional government is no more!
0:42:39 > 0:42:41CHEERING
0:42:41 > 0:42:45Well, talk about fake news. It hasn't happened at all.
0:42:45 > 0:42:47It had meant to happen by that point.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50The authority of the provisional government,
0:42:50 > 0:42:53presided over by Kerensky,
0:42:53 > 0:42:55was a corpse
0:42:55 > 0:43:00that only awaited the broom of history to sweep it away.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04Well, this was the first Bolshevik lie
0:43:04 > 0:43:08of...of many of the next, erm, the next 70 years.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12The Winter Palace is not yet taken
0:43:12 > 0:43:17but its fate will be settled in the course of the next few minutes!
0:43:17 > 0:43:19CHEERING
0:43:20 > 0:43:22But the minutes drag into hours.
0:43:22 > 0:43:26Why haven't they seized power?
0:43:27 > 0:43:29'He was promised, he was told by his military'
0:43:29 > 0:43:32that it would take just three or four hours.
0:43:32 > 0:43:34For heaven's sake,
0:43:34 > 0:43:38why aren't shells being fired into the Winter Palace?
0:43:38 > 0:43:41Why haven't they stormed it?
0:43:42 > 0:43:45'They couldn't find the artillery, the guns didn't work,'
0:43:45 > 0:43:48they were blocked, could anyone find anyone to work them?
0:43:48 > 0:43:51They needed a lantern to give the signal
0:43:51 > 0:43:53but no-one could find a lantern.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56'There's a sort of hilarious crisis where the Mayor of Petrograd
0:43:56 > 0:43:58'actually marches in front of the troops
0:43:58 > 0:44:01'and stops the whole seizure of the Winter Palace.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05'An entire group of men in frock coats start waving their umbrellas
0:44:05 > 0:44:08'and saying, "You're not going to seize power now."'
0:44:08 > 0:44:11They have to be moved out of the way and still nothing has happened.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14By this point, Lenin is apoplectic.
0:44:15 > 0:44:17What the hell's going on?
0:44:17 > 0:44:20These people should be shot for their incompetence!
0:44:22 > 0:44:24As long as ministers are in the Palace,
0:44:24 > 0:44:28the provisional government still stands.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32I think the seizure of the Winter Palace is the key,
0:44:32 > 0:44:35'because until then there's a Cabinet
0:44:35 > 0:44:38'sitting around a Cabinet table, still running Russia.'
0:44:39 > 0:44:41And Lenin himself recognises this.
0:44:41 > 0:44:45This is why Lenin doesn't go to the Congress or do anything else.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52Trotsky deals with the other socialist parties
0:44:52 > 0:44:54at the Congress of Soviets.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57Having travelled from all over Russia,
0:44:57 > 0:45:01they are shocked to find Petrograd already seized by the Bolsheviks.
0:45:01 > 0:45:05But their protests are shouted down by Trotsky's men.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08Trotsky has another strategy ready.
0:45:09 > 0:45:14'Trotsky's order of the day was that if the people in the Winter Palace'
0:45:14 > 0:45:16didn't surrender,
0:45:16 > 0:45:21'the battleship Aurora should fire blanks at them.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26'He said that very noise of the battleship,
0:45:26 > 0:45:29'which they could all see with its guns pointing,'
0:45:29 > 0:45:32would be enough to send them out scurrying like rabbits.
0:45:35 > 0:45:41At 10:40pm, the warning shot is fired from the Aurora.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46And is heard as far away as the Congress.
0:45:47 > 0:45:51The other socialist parties are outraged by the aggression...
0:45:52 > 0:45:53..and walk out.
0:45:54 > 0:45:59Without realising it, they have just handed power to the Bolsheviks.
0:46:00 > 0:46:04'It was a godsend that his chief opponent just walked out,
0:46:04 > 0:46:06'leaving the field of battle.'
0:46:08 > 0:46:12So many socialist delegates leave that the Bolsheviks are now
0:46:12 > 0:46:15in the majority and can do as they please.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21'I think we have to agree with the great memoirist,'
0:46:21 > 0:46:25Nikolai Sukhanov, who was at the Soviet Congress himself,
0:46:25 > 0:46:28when he said, it was just a huge gift to Lenin.
0:46:29 > 0:46:34As the delegates leave, Trotsky mocks his one-time allies
0:46:34 > 0:46:37in one of the most quoted speeches of the 20th century.
0:46:37 > 0:46:42The rising of the masses of the people
0:46:42 > 0:46:45requires no justification.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49What has happened is an uprising,
0:46:49 > 0:46:51not a conspiracy.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54Trotsky's the real star of the Petrograd Soviet.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56He's a brilliant orator.
0:46:56 > 0:47:01The masses of the people moved under our banner
0:47:01 > 0:47:03and our uprising
0:47:03 > 0:47:05has won victory.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08But he's also a brilliant theoretician
0:47:08 > 0:47:13who understands how rhetoric and politics are intertwined
0:47:13 > 0:47:16and how he can play on an audience to mobilise them.
0:47:18 > 0:47:21Trotsky is able to make the Bolshevik view
0:47:21 > 0:47:23sound like everyone's view.
0:47:24 > 0:47:25And now...
0:47:26 > 0:47:29..we are told...
0:47:29 > 0:47:32to renounce our victory.
0:47:32 > 0:47:34Make concessions.
0:47:34 > 0:47:36Compromise.
0:47:37 > 0:47:39With whom?
0:47:39 > 0:47:42With that wretched group who've just left us?
0:47:42 > 0:47:45No-one in Russia is with them any more.
0:47:45 > 0:47:47No.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50No compromise is possible.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55The Bolshevik position becomes the Soviet position.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58To those who have left
0:47:58 > 0:48:00and those who make these proposals,
0:48:00 > 0:48:05we say, you are pathetic individuals!
0:48:05 > 0:48:07You are bankrupt!
0:48:07 > 0:48:10Your role is played out.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13Go off to where you belong from now on.
0:48:14 > 0:48:16To the dustbin of history!
0:48:16 > 0:48:18CHEERING
0:48:20 > 0:48:25'His kind of dripping contempt lets them know that power is moving now,'
0:48:25 > 0:48:29minute by minute, erm, to the Bolsheviks,
0:48:29 > 0:48:31and to the creation of an entirely new world.
0:48:41 > 0:48:46At virtually the same moment, Lenin's wish is becoming reality.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49The Winter Palace is about to be taken.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02Though its capture may not have been quite as spectacular
0:49:02 > 0:49:06as Sergei Eisenstein's film, October, portrayed it.
0:49:14 > 0:49:16First of all, it wasn't even locked.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19Secondly, it was guarded by a group of adolescent boys
0:49:19 > 0:49:21who were about 15 years old - cadets,
0:49:21 > 0:49:24and by a group of female soldiers
0:49:24 > 0:49:27who were getting more and more terrified.
0:49:29 > 0:49:34So when they finally did, on that evening, enter the Winter Palace...
0:49:37 > 0:49:39..when the doors were open, no-one stopped them.
0:49:39 > 0:49:42There was no fighting, there was no storming.
0:49:42 > 0:49:48The heroic scale of that film is creating a myth of October,
0:49:48 > 0:49:50far from the reality.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55'The storming of the Winter Palace creates this foundation myth
0:49:55 > 0:49:58'of it being a mass uprising.
0:49:59 > 0:50:02'That the thousands who stormed the Winter Palace,'
0:50:02 > 0:50:05instead of the few dozen who actually did so,
0:50:05 > 0:50:08were representatives of the whole people.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14'Revolutions are, by nature, illegitimate.'
0:50:14 > 0:50:17So you need to create foundation myths.
0:50:17 > 0:50:22The moment that power passes to the Bolsheviks is an epic example.
0:50:23 > 0:50:26They walked into the Cabinet meeting.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36'And the Cabinet looked up and said, "What do you want us to do?"
0:50:36 > 0:50:39'And the Bolsheviks said, "You're under arrest."'
0:50:42 > 0:50:46That is the moment the October Revolution happens.
0:50:49 > 0:50:51CHEERING
0:50:52 > 0:50:55An heroic new world is born.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59At least in Eisenstein's version of events.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07In reality, Lenin is in room 36 when he gets the news,
0:51:07 > 0:51:09far from the action.
0:51:13 > 0:51:15It is finally done.
0:51:18 > 0:51:20Russia is his.
0:51:30 > 0:51:34But did Lenin just grab power in a coup
0:51:34 > 0:51:36or did he have popular support?
0:51:37 > 0:51:39'I think it was a coup d'etat.'
0:51:39 > 0:51:41There were people who wanted bread and land
0:51:41 > 0:51:43and all power to the Soviets,
0:51:43 > 0:51:48but did they want a Bolshevik government led by Vladimir Lenin?
0:51:48 > 0:51:50I don't think so.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53Was there an element of conspiracy in it?
0:51:53 > 0:51:57Well, of course, because you can't plan an insurrection
0:51:57 > 0:52:00by publishing the details the day before.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04But everything till then, till the day before,
0:52:04 > 0:52:08had been discussed in Lenin's speeches, in his writings,
0:52:08 > 0:52:11and those of Trotsky, what he was saying,
0:52:11 > 0:52:14they were saying, yes, we are making a revolution.
0:52:14 > 0:52:17How the hell is that a coup d'etat?
0:52:17 > 0:52:22For sure, the coup d'etat of October, which is what it was,
0:52:22 > 0:52:26based itself on the underpinnings of a mass social revolution
0:52:26 > 0:52:30which originated in February 1917.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34And we see the radicalisation of peasants, workers, soldiers,
0:52:34 > 0:52:40across the country, giving a mandate for Soviet power by October.
0:52:40 > 0:52:45But Soviet power is not what Lenin makes
0:52:45 > 0:52:47of the events of the 25th of October.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51Lenin is using the cloak of Soviet power
0:52:51 > 0:52:54to establish a Bolshevik dictatorship.
0:52:58 > 0:53:00APPLAUSE
0:53:05 > 0:53:10The next day, Lenin appears at the Congress of Soviets to announce...
0:53:11 > 0:53:13We shall now proceed
0:53:13 > 0:53:16to construct the socialist order.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23'This is a man who had spent years working out the theory
0:53:23 > 0:53:25'of exactly what he was going to do.'
0:53:26 > 0:53:29And so the moment that they took over, he was ready.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35Trotsky is named the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs.
0:53:35 > 0:53:39Stalin, the People's Commissar for Nationalities.
0:53:39 > 0:53:42And Lenin becomes the leader of the government.
0:53:43 > 0:53:48A new era in the history of Russia and of the world begins.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55Lenin issues scores of decrees that transform Russia in days.
0:53:57 > 0:54:01'You start to see the first stirrings of a different kind
0:54:01 > 0:54:03'of social control, for example.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07'Workers' control and peasantry having control of their own lives.
0:54:08 > 0:54:11'Equal rights of men and women, of divorce law,
0:54:11 > 0:54:13'decriminalising homosexuality.'
0:54:15 > 0:54:19To me, there's no question that October represents a moment of hope.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25'Just weeks after the October Revolution,'
0:54:25 > 0:54:29Lenin created a one-party state, a totalitarian state.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33'He also created the Cheka, the secret police,
0:54:33 > 0:54:37'with power over life and death, to kill enemies of the revolution.'
0:54:38 > 0:54:42He repeatedly ordered mass shootings of thousands of innocent people.
0:54:43 > 0:54:45'He specified that, you know,
0:54:45 > 0:54:49'annihilation was the only way for the party to keep power.
0:54:49 > 0:54:51'So, gradually, he created a dictatorship'
0:54:51 > 0:54:56that was inherited by Stalin, and made much more intense by Stalin.
0:54:58 > 0:55:02'When the ideologue is confronted with reality,
0:55:02 > 0:55:04'that doesn't fit into his scheme,'
0:55:04 > 0:55:06he can't defeat reality with argument,
0:55:06 > 0:55:08so the fist tightens.
0:55:09 > 0:55:13Vladimir Lenin dies of a stroke in 1924.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18Joseph Stalin rises to power.
0:55:19 > 0:55:21He eliminates his rivals.
0:55:21 > 0:55:23Notably, Leon Trotsky,
0:55:23 > 0:55:26who was assassinated in 1940.
0:55:29 > 0:55:33Joseph Stalin, the quiet backroom fixer,
0:55:33 > 0:55:36outlasts both Lenin and Trotsky.
0:55:36 > 0:55:39His reign becomes the Great Terror
0:55:39 > 0:55:42that lasts for over a quarter of a century.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47The Tsars, in their last half century,
0:55:47 > 0:55:51were averaging 17 executions a year.
0:55:51 > 0:55:53Within a month...
0:55:53 > 0:55:56a few months of Lenin taking power,
0:55:56 > 0:55:59erm, it was 1,000 a month, executions.
0:55:59 > 0:56:04And during the Great Terror, it was more like 1,000 a week.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07'Under Stalin, something like 20 million people'
0:56:07 > 0:56:11would go through the concentration camps, the Gulag camps.
0:56:11 > 0:56:16Somewhere between 20 and 30 million people were killed.
0:56:16 > 0:56:18These were on the orders not just of Stalin,
0:56:18 > 0:56:21but of Lenin and the Bolshevik Party.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24Stalin is not Lenin's heir.
0:56:24 > 0:56:26In his last will and testament,
0:56:26 > 0:56:30Lenin made it very clear that he should be removed
0:56:30 > 0:56:32as General Secretary of the party.
0:56:32 > 0:56:36Said he was not the right sort of person to be leading the party.
0:56:40 > 0:56:46Stalin's impact on Russia lasts beyond his death in 1953
0:56:46 > 0:56:50or even the death of the Soviet Union in 1991.
0:56:51 > 0:56:53ANNOUNCED IN RUSSIAN
0:56:55 > 0:56:57'Putin really understands the October Revolution.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01'In many ways, he's a result of it, one of the results of it.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05'When he looks back at history, he's really interested,'
0:57:05 > 0:57:08not in Marxism or Bolshevism,
0:57:08 > 0:57:12'he's most impressed by the Red Tsar, by Stalin.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16'Because Stalin is the successful manager
0:57:16 > 0:57:18'of the Russian nation.'
0:57:18 > 0:57:20HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN
0:57:20 > 0:57:24'Putin's not interested in the chaos caused by Lenin and Trotsky.
0:57:24 > 0:57:28'He's interested in the prestige and the victory'
0:57:28 > 0:57:30delivered by Joseph Stalin.
0:57:34 > 0:57:38So, has history proved Stalin to be more influential
0:57:38 > 0:57:40than Lenin or Trotsky?
0:57:41 > 0:57:44For so many years, 70 years of the Soviet Union,
0:57:44 > 0:57:48it was Lenin who was always invoked as the godlike figure,
0:57:48 > 0:57:50the Father of the Revolution.
0:57:50 > 0:57:55And now, in the Putin era, he's been sort of left to one side a bit.
0:57:55 > 0:57:56The statues are still there,
0:57:56 > 0:57:59but somehow he's not talked about as much.
0:57:59 > 0:58:03When there was a poll recently about some of the greatest leaders
0:58:03 > 0:58:07or figures in Russia, it was Stalin who figured, not Lenin.
0:58:12 > 0:58:15But is Lenin's time coming again?
0:58:19 > 0:58:24'We live today in a world of rampant populism, of post-factual politics,
0:58:24 > 0:58:29'and much of this can be traced back to Lenin.
0:58:29 > 0:58:32'That ultimate political manipulator...'
0:58:33 > 0:58:37..who, though he was a fanatical Marxist,
0:58:37 > 0:58:40was also the master of pragmatism.
0:58:40 > 0:58:45'He understood that politics was all about who controls who
0:58:45 > 0:58:50'and any means were suitable to achieving his ends.'