Why were the Bolsheviks successful in Russia, October 1917?

The old Russian society was a brutal capitalist society, headed by a king called the Tsar. The country was controlled by wealthy capitalists allied with big landowners, who supported the Tsar and exploited the peasants and workers. Poverty, brutal exploitation in the factories, hunger and constant war created a strong revolutionary mood among the working class. The Provisional Government was opposed by the soviets, or councils of workers and peasants, who wanted the right to …

…of November 6-7 under the orders of the Soviet's Military Revolutionary Committee. These forces "seized post and telegraph offices, electric works, railroad stations, and the state bank. Once the shot rang out from the Battleship Aurora, the thousands of people in the Red Guard stormed the Winter Palace" (1). The Provisional Government had officially fallen to the Bolshevik regime. Bibliography: (1) http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/history/A0860858.html (2) www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/russ/rusrev.html