Take Winter Palace considered the starting point of the October Revolution of 1917. In Soviet history textbooks, this event is covered with an aura of heroism. And, of course, there are many myths surrounding it. How did it all really happen?

Who defended Winter?

By October 1917, the Winter Palace housed the residence of the Provisional Government and a soldier's hospital named after Tsarevich Alexei.

On the morning of October 25, the Petrograd Bolsheviks occupied the buildings of the telegraph, telephone exchange, state bank, as well as train stations, the main power station and food warehouses.

At about 11 o'clock in the afternoon, Kerensky left Petrograd by car and went to Gatchina, without leaving any instructions to the government. The fact that he fled from Zimny, dressed in a woman’s dress, is nothing more than a myth. He left completely openly and in his own clothes.

Civilian Minister N.M. was hastily appointed as Special Commissioner for Petrograd. Kishkina. All hope was that troops would arrive from the front. In addition, there was no ammunition or food. There was even nothing to feed the cadets of the Peterhof and Oranienbaum schools - the main defenders of the palace.

In the first half of the day they were joined by a women's shock battalion, a battery of the Mikhailovsky Artillery School, a school of engineering warrant officers and a Cossack detachment. Volunteers also stepped up. But by evening the ranks of the Winter Palace defenders had thinned significantly, as the government behaved very passively and was virtually inactive, limiting itself to vague appeals. The ministers found themselves isolated—the telephone connection was cut off.

At half past six, scooter riders from the Peter and Paul Fortress arrived on Palace Square, bringing an ultimatum signed by Antonov-Ovseenko. In it, the Provisional Government, on behalf of the Military Revolutionary Committee, was asked to surrender under threat of fire.

The ministers refused to enter into negotiations. However, the assault actually began only after several thousand Baltic Fleet sailors from Helsingfors and Kronstadt arrived to help the Bolsheviks. At that time, Zimny ​​was guarded only by 137 shock women of the female death battalion, three companies of cadets and a detachment of 40 St. George Knights with Disabilities. The number of defenders varied from approximately 500 to 700.

Progress of the assault

The Bolshevik offensive began at 21:40, after a blank shot was fired from the cruiser Aurora. Rifle and machine gun shelling of the palace began. The defenders managed to repulse the first assault attempt. At 11 p.m. the shelling resumed, this time they fired from artillery pieces Petropavlovka.

Meanwhile, it turned out that the rear entrances of the Winter Palace were practically unguarded, and through them a crowd from the square began to filter into the palace. Confusion began, and the defenders could no longer offer serious resistance. The defense commander, Colonel Ananyin, addressed the government with a statement that he was forced to surrender the palace in order to save the lives of its defenders. Arriving at the palace along with a small armed group, Antonov-Ovseyenko was allowed into the Small Dining Room, where the ministers were meeting. They agreed to surrender, but at the same time emphasized that they were forced to do this only by submitting to force... They were immediately arrested and transported in two cars to the Peter and Paul Fortress.

How many victims were there?

According to some sources, only six soldiers and one shock worker from the women’s battalion were killed during the assault. According to others, there were much more victims - at least several dozen. The wounded in the hospital wards, which were located in the main halls overlooking the Neva, suffered the most from the shelling.

But even the Bolsheviks themselves did not subsequently deny the fact of the plunder of the Winter Palace. As American journalist John Reed wrote in his book “Ten Days That Shook the World,” some citizens “... stole and carried away silverware, watches, bedding, mirrors, porcelain vases and stones of average value.” True, within 24 hours the Bolshevik government began to restore order. The Winter Palace building was nationalized and declared a state museum.

One of the myths about the revolution says that the water in the Winter Canal after the assault turned red with blood. But it was not blood, but red wine from the cellars, which the vandals poured there.

In essence, the coup itself was not so bloody. The main tragic events began after him. And, unfortunately, the consequences October revolution turned out to be completely different from what romantically minded supporters of socialist ideas dreamed of...

The key event in the phase of the October Revolution was the capture by the Bolsheviks of the residence of the Provisional Government, located in the Winter Palace in Petrograd on the night of October 25-26, 1917, as a result of which the Provisional Government was overthrown and arrested. Was it really that they stormed? Documentary evidence of eyewitnesses of those events from those inside the Winter Palace has been preserved.

Excerpts from the diary of a nurse who was on duty at the Winter Palace hospital during the days of the coup

Those who stormed fired howitzers at the virtually unarmed palace: after all, the Cossacks and shock workers of the women’s battalion had already left the Winter Palace with white banners in their hands. There was no point in firing cannons at several dozen cadet boys. Most likely it was a psychic attack. At that time, the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets was taking place in Smolny. The cannons from the Peter and Paul Fortress fired not at the citadel of the monarchy, but at the hospital wards. On October 25, 1917, revolutionary detachments of the Bolsheviks broke not into the palace, but into the hospital for the seriously wounded - the number of bedridden here averaged 85 - 90%. Both Smolny and Dvortsovaya knew this very well.

For many decades, it was not customary to remember the hospital, located in the Winter Palace and created by the decision of Emperor Nicholas II and his family. In publications on the history of the palace, the hospital was mentioned in one line at best. Meanwhile, in the archives of the State Hermitage there is a documentary fund that made it possible to restore the history of the hospital. One of the most striking evidence of those days is the memoirs of a former hospital nurse in the Winter Palace, Nina Galanina, transferred to the Hermitage in the 1970s (the decision to accept such a “seditious” document into the museum required professional and civic courage from director Boris Piotrovsky). These memories differ sharply not only from those memorized in Soviet time ideologies about the assault, but also from the myths circulated in the last decade and a half about the almost idyllic situation in the palace and on the square on October 25, 1917.

An equally interesting document is the never-published notes of the head of the Petrograd Red Cross, deputy IV State Duma and the provincial leader of the nobility Lev Zinoviev. Fragments of these notes, located in family archive, are published with the permission of his grandson, the Honorary Consul of Australia in St. Petersburg, Sebastian Zinoviev-Fitzlyon. We are accustomed to looking at the events of the “days that shocked the world” through the eyes of those who were on Palace Square and on the Neva embankment. Two unique documents published today provide an opportunity to look at the situation 90 years ago from the inside - from the Winter Palace.

Wounded and nurses in the Field Marshal's Hall of the Winter Palace, October 1917

From the memoirs of Nina Galanina:

“The day of October 25, 1917 was my day off after night duty. After sleeping a little, I went to walk along the central streets of Petrograd - I looked and listened. There were a lot of unusual things. Shots were heard in some places on the streets, and institutions stopped working. They persistently said that the bridges were about to be lifted. Soldiers of the women's battalion lined up on the Palace Bridge.

...By nightfall, rifle and machine-gun fire did not stop.

...As soon as the morning of 26/X arrived, I... hurried to the city. First of all, I wanted to get to the Winter Palace hospital.

Getting there was not so easy: from the Palace Bridge to the Jordan Entrance there was a triple chain of Red Guards and sailors with rifles at the ready. They guarded the palace and did not let anyone in.

I got through the 1st chain, having explained where I was going, relatively easily. When the second one passed, I was detained. Some sailor shouted angrily to his comrades: “Why don’t you know that Kerensky is disguised as his sister?” They demanded documents. I showed the certificate issued in my name back in February, with the seal of the Winter Palace Hospital. It helped - they let me through. They shouted something else after me, but I couldn’t make it out and moved on.
The third chain no longer held up.

In the hospital, where there was always such exemplary order and silence, where it was known where each chair should be, everything was turned upside down, everything was upside down. And everywhere there are armed people.

The elder sister was under arrest: two sailors were guarding her.”

From the notes of Lev Zinoviev:

As always, in the morning I went to my Red Cross Office (located at 4 Inzhenernaya Street, a five-minute walk from Nevsky Prospect and twenty minutes from Palace Square. - Yu.K.).

At about 11 o'clock in the morning... workers mixed with sailors armed with guns suddenly appeared opposite the windows of our Office. A firefight began - they fired in the direction of Nevsky Prospekt, but the enemy was not visible. Not far away... machine guns began to fire.

Several bullets hit our windows. One random bullet, breaking a window, tore off the ear of one poor girl, our typist. The wounded and dead began to be brought to the outpatient clinic, located right there in the building of our Administration.

They brought in the murdered owner of a neighboring shop that sold stationery, with whom I had exchanged a few words two hours before, on my way to the Office. He was already without a jacket and without boots; someone had already managed to steal them.

This shooting lasted for two hours, and then everything became quiet, the shooting workers and sailors disappeared somewhere.

But soon information began to be received that the uprising was successful everywhere, telephone exchange, water supply, stations railways and other important points of the city were already in the hands of the Bolsheviks and the entire St. Petersburg garrison joined them.

The palace was surrounded on all sides by Bolsheviks, soldiers and sailors.

When in the evening, around 6 o’clock, I was walking home, in the part of the city through which I had to pass, everything was quiet and calm, the streets were empty, there was no traffic, I didn’t even meet pedestrians.

The house in which we lived was very close to the Winter Palace - a five-minute walk, no more... In the evening, after dinner, lively shooting began near the Winter Palace, at first only rifle fire, then it was joined by the crackling of machine guns.

... Around 3 am everything was quiet.

Early in the morning, at about six o'clock, I was informed from my Red Cross Office that the Winter Palace had been taken by the Bolsheviks and that the nurses of our infirmary who were in the palace had been arrested.

Having quickly dressed, I immediately went to the Winter Palace.

They let me in immediately, without any difficulties, no one even asked why I came. The inside of the palace looked little like what I was used to seeing there.

Everything was in disarray, the furniture was broken and overturned, everything bore a clear trace of the struggle that had just ended. Guns and empty cartridges were scattered everywhere, in the large entrance hall and on the stairs lay the bodies of killed soldiers and cadets, and here and there lay wounded people who had not yet been carried to the infirmary.

I walked for a long time through the halls of the Winter Palace that were so familiar to me, trying to find the commander of the soldiers who had captured the palace. The Malachite Hall, where the Empress usually received those who introduced themselves to her, was covered like snow with torn pieces of paper. These were the remains of the archives of the Provisional Government, destroyed before the palace was captured.

In the infirmary I was told that the sisters of mercy were arrested for hiding and helping to hide the cadets defending the palace. This accusation was absolutely true. Many cadets, just before the end of the fight, rushed to the infirmary, asking the sisters of mercy to save them - obviously, the sisters helped them hide, and thanks to this, many of them actually managed to escape.

After a long search, I managed to find out who was now the commandant of the palace, and I was led to him. He was a young officer of the Moscow Guards infantry regiment... I explained to him what was happening, said that there were about 100 wounded soldiers in the hospital and that nurses were needed to care for them. He immediately ordered their release on my signature that they would not leave St. Petersburg until their trial. This was the end of the matter, there was never any trial of the sisters, and no one bothered them anymore, at that time the Bolsheviks had more serious concerns.”

One of the rooms of the Winter Palace after the assault, late October 1917

The hospital in the Winter Palace was opened in 1915 for soldiers of the First World War. The Antechamber, the Eastern Gallery, most of the Field Marshal's Hall, the Armorial, Picket and Alexander Halls, as well as the Nicholas Hall, which accommodated two hundred beds, were allocated for hospital wards. Petrovsky Hall was turned into a ward for the wounded who had undergone particularly difficult operations. Part of the Field Marshal's Hall was occupied by a dressing room, the second dressing room and the operating room were located in the Column Hall. The gallery of 1812 served to store linen, and in the part of it where the portrait of Alexander I hung, an X-ray room was placed.

...During the war, having passed nursing exams, the senior princesses worked in the Tsarskoye Selo hospital, showing complete dedication to their work. Little sisters They also visited the hospital and with their lively chatter helped the wounded to forget their suffering for minutes.

In all four it was noticeable that a sense of duty had been instilled in them from early childhood. Everything they did was imbued with thoroughness in execution. This was especially expressed in the two older ones. They not only carried out the duties of ordinary nurses in the full sense of the word, but also assisted during operations with great skill. This was much commented on in society and the Empress was blamed. I find that given the crystal purity of the Tsar’s Daughters, this certainly could not have a bad influence on them, and was a consistent step of the Empress as an educator. In addition to the hospital, Olga and Tatyana Nikolaevna worked very intelligently and intelligently and chaired committees named after them.

Vladimir Tolts: We are in Lately they talked a lot about 1917, about the revolution. About February, October, about whether there were real alternatives to the Bolshevik dictatorship. About how later, year after year, the Soviet government celebrated the anniversary of its victory. But there are, you know, such details in history, seemingly not very significant, but allowing one to see what seems to have been known for a long time in a new, unexpected light. Or vice versa - to make sure that they, these famous and significant episodes of the past, no matter how you look at them, were what they were. This is the unusual look at the events of 1917 provided by the documents that we bring to your attention today. The key is considered to be - well, if not key, then symbolic, symbolically most important event- this is the notorious storming of the Winter Palace on October 25 at the command of the Bolshevik Military Revolutionary Committee. However, there were so few defenders at the palace that there was practically no assault; the spectacular assault scene was invented by the Bolsheviks later, for propaganda.

Olga Edelman: The Winter Palace was perceived as a symbol and stronghold of autocracy. Taking Winter is like penetrating the enemy’s most secret lair. But not only the assault was a mythical event. At that time, the palace also had a rather symbolic relationship to the autocracy. The Tsar and his family had actually lived in Tsarskoe Selo for many years. And during the First World War, a hospital for wounded soldiers was located in the halls of the palace.

I immediately have a question for our interlocutor today, adviser to the director of the Hermitage Yulia Kantor. The palace is not, in general, a very suitable premises for a hospital. Have the halls been remodeled in any way? And do the current walls of the Hermitage preserve traces of that hospital part of its history?

Julia Kantor: Indeed, the palace is a completely inconvenient place, especially like the Winter Palace, for setting up a hospital there. And this immediately became a problem for doctors, nurses, patients, and wounded soldiers. Placing a hospital in the Winter Palace turned out to be a very difficult and time-consuming task. Not only were painting work carried out in all the halls, all windows were carefully closed and new chimneys were knocked out, boilers and boilers were installed, and the water supply and sewerage network was expanded. But it was necessary to create dressing rooms, operating rooms, and offices for doctors and procedures. And for this it was necessary to remodel the halls, while preserving their decoration, because it was assumed that the war would end and everything would return to normal. The steps of the Jordan Staircase were covered with boards, the doors from the stairs to the Field Marshal's Hall were tightly closed, and on the upper landings the dining rooms for doctors and nurses were fenced off with curtains. Moreover, it is typical: there was no separate dining room for the wounded. In the halls, vases, stucco decorations and candelabra were closed, some of the statues and paintings were moved to other rooms. In the famous Nikolaevsky, Gerbovoy, Aleksandrovsky, and known to all of us, which today have retained their original decoration, dishes, salt shakers and brackets were removed. They photographed them, numbered them and put them in boxes. The walls in the halls where the hospital wards were located were covered with white calico, and the floors were covered with linoleum so as not to spoil the magnificent parquet floors. The palace chandeliers were not turned on; a light bulb was hung from them on cords, and at night only lamps were allowed to be turned on purple. A special feature is the Armorial Hall, the coats of arms in them were covered with shields, the candelabra in the Nicholas Hall and the sculptures in the Jordan vestibule were covered with wood. The antechamber, the Eastern Gallery, most of the Field Marshal's Hall, the Armorial, Picket and Alexander Halls, as well as the Nicholas Hall, which accommodated two hundred beds, were allocated for hospital wards. Petrovsky Hall, which was originally intended for doctors on duty, was turned into a ward for the wounded after particularly difficult operations when the hospital was established. And part of the Field Marshal's Hall was occupied by a dressing room, the second dressing room and the operating room were located in the Column Hall. Imagine, there were bathrooms and showers in the Winter Garden and the Jordan Entrance. And the gallery for 12 years served as a storage area for linen. Now the Winter Palace, of course, does not store anything related to the external surroundings of the Winter Palace, which was turned into a hospital during the First World War. All documents and photographs of that time are in the Hermitage archive, and this collection, associated with the hospital in the Winter Palace, of course, could not have been formed in Soviet times and, in fact, only 20-25 years ago the Hermitage began to collect such a collection.

Olga Edelman: And another question. The documents heard in the program today are from the Hermitage archives.

Julia Kantor: Mostly yes. In general, the first documents began to reach the Hermitage, as I already said, a little more than a quarter of a century ago. These are the memories of nurses, in particular, nurse Galanina, who worked in February 17 at the Winter Palace. Among the documents that will be heard today will be memoirs written in 17 by Dr. Lev Aleksandrovich Zinoviev, who led the Petrograd Red Cross in 17. Zinoviev was a fairly well-known deputy of the Fourth State Duma. His family left after the revolution and emigrated from Russia. Today, his grandson Sebastian Zinoviev works as the Australian consul in St. Petersburg and, with the permission of the Zinoviev family, these diaries from the personal archive, which are now stored in England, are presented for this broadcast.

...The grand opening took place on October 5, 1915, on the day of the “name day” former heir Alexey Nikolaevich, after whom the hospital was named.

Eight ceremonial halls of the 2nd floor: Antechamber, Nicholas Hall, Eastern Gallery, Field Marshal's, Petrovsky, Armorial Hall, Foot Picket and Alexander Hall were turned into chambers.

On the 1st floor there were utility rooms: a reception room, a pharmacy, a kitchen, bathrooms, various offices, a utility room, an office, the office of the Chief Doctor and others.

The entrance to the hospital was from Palace Embankment, through the Main Entrance and the Main Staircase.

Along these stairs of the palace - the Jordan - the steps of which were lined with boards, the arriving wounded were carried upstairs, food and medicine were delivered.

Only seriously wounded soldiers who needed complex operations or special treatment could go to this hospital. Therefore, the number of bedridden people was very high, averaging 85-90%. When they began to recover and walk, they were transferred to other medical institutions, and their places were again taken by the wounded in serious condition.

The patients were placed according to their wounds. Thus, in the Nikolaevsky Hall, which accommodated 200 beds, arranged in rectangles in 4 rows perpendicular to the Neva, those wounded in the head lay (separately - in the skull, eyes, ears, jaws); wounded in the throat and chest. And also very seriously ill “spines”.

The constant visitors to the hospital were a huge evil. There were a lot of them: the “highest” - members of the imperial family, and various noble foreigners (I remember the King of Romania, the Japanese prince Kan-In, the Emir of Bukhara and others); and simply “high” - high-ranking Russian officials; and endless foreign delegations of the Red Cross - French, Belgian, English, Dutch and others. and so on.

All delegations who came to our country were always shown the Winter Palace hospital; it was not only demonstrative, but also ostentatious.

Olga Edelman: During the First World War, such propaganda, demonstrative gestures - caring for the wounded, military-patriotic rhetoric, glorifying heroes - became urgently necessary for the authorities. The war dragged on, became less and less popular, and the people understood less and less what we were fighting for. The emperor's prestige was falling, and the queen was openly hated. Caring for wounded soldiers has become one of the main trump cards of propaganda. Alexandra Feodorovna and the senior princesses worked in the hospital (not in Zimny ​​- in Tsarskoe Selo) as simple nurses. A lot of photographs of them have been preserved, in the uniform of sisters of mercy, among the wounded. The queen visited other hospitals every now and then and distributed memorable gifts. Personally, they probably really sincerely sought to show mercy and help the sufferers. Like all the other high-ranking figures from charity.

There were only two nurses left for the entire hospital that night.

All night they ran from one weak patient to another over long distances (4 halls), fearing only one thing: “not to miss out.” And you could have missed the cessation of the pulse, sudden bleeding, and much more.

During the night, the nurses on duty barely had time to sit down for a few minutes to prescribe the medications needed for the department the next day. Often it was not possible to sit down for a minute. ...

Many times, especially after the February Revolution, when we often held meetings, the sisters raised the issue of the unacceptable overload of night watchmen, the need to at least double their number. But the answer from the authorities was always the same: during the day all the sisters must be on duty, so nothing can be changed.

The wounded, despite highly qualified medical care and excellent food, they must have often felt very lonely, almost abandoned.

Perhaps this was felt most strongly at the New Year's (under 1917) tree.

Extremely slender, huge, almost to the ceiling, decorated with many expensive glass toys, she stood in the middle of the Antechamber. It was announced that the heir himself donated money for the tree. In the evening, when the Christmas tree was lit, the gramophone was started - some uninteresting, calm music was broadcast. Gifts were distributed: bags of sweets, cigarettes and a silver teaspoon decorated state emblem. It was decorous, official, tense and not at all festive.

Vladimir Tolts: Well, what can I say? It’s a shame, of course, that the last (who knew then that it would be the last?) Christmas tree was not a success. It is unlikely that anyone would think of blaming the “rotten tsarist regime” for this. And yet, if we remember that the proletarian “democracy” that fell on the heads of the people soon and for a long time abolished Christmas trees as a religious relic, sadness covers both these same masses of people, and about the fate of the crown prince, who was soon killed, who donated funds for this latter unsuccessful Christmas tree.

When did it start February Revolution, in the Winter Palace, including in the hospital, it became very alarming. ... Trucks filled with people rushed along the bridges, Dvortsovoy and Birzhevoy: from there rifles were fired randomly in all directions. ... Several bullets whistled along Palace Embankment. One of them was wounded in the arm by a sentry standing on duty. He was admitted to the hospital, in the Eastern Gallery.

At night I had to endure a very difficult explanation with an ensign, who had a huge red bow on his chest and who led a detachment of armed soldiers. He screamed furiously, demanding that the wounded sentry be “thrown out the window.” The wounded did not have to sleep that night.

Several times during the night, armed soldiers, led by warrant officers, rushed into the hospital and rudely asked the sisters where they hid the royal ministers who were supposedly in the palace. They looked for them under the beds of the wounded, in bins with dirty laundry, even in sisters’ bedrooms, in mirrored wardrobes. Fortunately, there were no ministers in the palace.

Olga Edelman: Today we are again talking about the 1917 revolution. About how the events of February and October were seen by those who visited the Winter Palace on duty - in the hospital that worked there. Sister of mercy Nina Galanina lived through the February days together with the wounded soldiers in the halls of the Winter Palace. By October, she was no longer working there, but in another hospital, in Lesnoy.

From the memoirs of nurse Nina Valerianovna Galanina

October 25, 1917 was my day off after night duty. After sleeping a little, I went to walk along the central streets of Petrograd - I looked and listened. There were a lot of unusual things. Shots were heard in some places on the streets, and institutions stopped working. They persistently said that the bridges were about to be lifted. Soldiers of the Women's Battalion lined up on the Palace Bridge.

I hurried to Lesnaya so as not to be cut off from work.

It was calm there, and only shots flying from afar indicated that it had “begun” in the city. By nightfall, rifle and machine-gun fire did not stop.

Ambulances were sent from the hospital to the city, so we were more or less aware of what was happening - we knew that they were taking the Winter Palace, that they were shooting at it from guns. But the information received was fragmentary and contradictory.

We sisters went to bed late that night. We had just fallen asleep when the first wounded man was brought in. ... It was about 2-3 o'clock. The first wounded person to be delivered underwent heart surgery by the chief physician of the hospital, Dr. Jeremic. Then they brought in several more wounded.

Vladimir Tolts: And here’s what another doctor, Doctor Zinoviev, who worked for the Red Cross, saw on October 25.

I, as always, went to my Red Cross Office in the morning. Where I had to go it was still calm and nothing special was noticeable.

But at about 11 o’clock in the morning, on Liteinaya, opposite the windows of our Office, workers armed with guns, mixed with sailors, suddenly, somehow unexpectedly appeared. A firefight began - they fired in the direction of Nevsky Prospekt, but the enemy was not visible. Not far away, right there on Liteinaya, machine guns began to fire. Several bullets hit our windows. One random bullet, breaking a window, tore off the ear of one poor girl, our typist. The wounded and dead began to be brought to the outpatient clinic, located right there in the building of our Administration. I remember one old worker, slightly wounded in the leg, crying and moaning like a child while he was bandaged.

They brought in the murdered owner of a neighboring shop that sold stationery, with whom I had exchanged a few words about two hours before, on my way to the Office. He was already without a jacket and without boots; someone had already managed to steal them.

This shooting lasted for two hours, and then everything became quiet, the shooting workers and sailors disappeared somewhere. ... When in the evening, around 6 o’clock, I was walking home, in the part of the city through which I had to pass, everything was quiet and calm, the streets were empty, there was no traffic, I didn’t even meet pedestrians.

The house in which we lived was very close to the Winter Palace - no more than five minutes' walk. In the evening, after dinner, lively shooting began near the Winter Palace, at first only rifle fire, then it was joined by the crackling of machine guns. ... Some screams were heard, bullets often whistled past our windows, and occasionally the roar of machine gun fire was heard. As it turned out later, it was the cruiser Aurora, which had sailed onto the Neva to help the Bolsheviks, who fired at the Winter Palace.

Around 3 am everything was quiet.

Olga Edelman: But let's return to the hospital in the Winter Palace, where exclusively seriously wounded soldiers were treated. The guardians of the people's happiness in the excitement of revolutionary achievements - well, maybe they didn't completely forget about them, but they lost sight of them and didn't consider them important.

From the memoirs of nurse Nina Valerianovna Galanina

On the night of October 26, the most alarming, ominous rumors began to circulate. Among others - that as a result of the shelling of the Winter Palace from the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Aurora, the palace and many nearby buildings were allegedly destroyed. ... As soon as morning came... I, having asked for half a day off from work, hurried to the city. First of all, I wanted to get to the Winter Palace hospital. Getting there was not so easy: from the Palace Bridge to the Jordan Entrance there was a triple chain of Red Guards and sailors with rifles at the ready. They guarded the palace and did not let anyone in.

I got through the 1st chain, having explained where I was going, relatively easily. When the second one passed, I was detained. Some sailor shouted angrily to his comrades: “Why don’t you know that Kerensky is disguised as his sister?” They demanded documents. I showed the certificate issued in my name back in February, with the seal of the Winter Palace Hospital. It helped - they let me through. They shouted something else after me, but I couldn’t make it out and moved on. The third chain no longer held up.

I entered, as I had done hundreds of times before, into the Jordan entrance.

The usual doorman was not there. At the entrance stood a sailor with the inscription “Dawn of Freedom” on his cap. He allowed me to enter.

The first thing that caught my eye and amazed me was the huge amount of weapons. The entire gallery from the lobby to the Main Staircase was littered with it and looked like an arsenal. Armed sailors and Red Guards walked around all the premises.

In the hospital, where there was always such exemplary order and silence: where it was known where each chair should be, everything was turned upside down, everything was upside down. And there are armed people everywhere.

The elder sister was under arrest: two sailors were guarding her.

I didn’t see anyone else from the medical staff and went straight to the Eastern Gallery.

I didn’t find any sick people walking – they went to look at the palace.

The lying wounded were very frightened by the storming of the palace: they asked many times whether they would shoot again. I tried to calm them down as much as possible. Noticing that I was being watched, I did not go, as I wanted, back to the Nikolaev Hall to the “spines” and soon headed for the exit. I saw the wounded, with whom I had shared several difficult hours in the February days, and was pleased that I was able to at least to some extent change the direction of their thoughts. ...

The next day, October 27, the wounded began to be sent to other hospitals in Petrograd. On October 28, 1917, the Winter Palace Hospital was closed.

Olga Edelman: We have the opportunity to compare the stories of two memoirists - not only Nina Galanina, Doctor Zinoviev also visited the Winter Morning on October 26th. He served in the Red Cross, but the fact is that the Ministry of the Household organized the hospital in the palace, but it was equipped and maintained by the Red Cross, and the staff were from the Red Cross.

From the memoirs of Doctor Zinoviev

Early in the morning, at about six o'clock, I was informed from my Red Cross Office that the Winter Palace had been taken by the Bolsheviks, and that the nurses of our infirmary who were in the palace had been arrested. Having quickly dressed, I immediately went to the Winter Palace. I entered from the large entrance from the embankment, from which officers usually entered when arriving at court balls and exits. They let me in immediately, without any difficulties, no one even asked why I came. The inside of the palace looked little like what I was used to seeing there. Everything was in disarray, the furniture was broken and overturned, everything bore a clear trace of the struggle that had just ended. Guns and empty cartridges were scattered everywhere, in the large entrance hall and on the stairs lay the bodies of killed soldiers and cadets, and in some places there were also wounded who had not yet been carried to the hospital.

I walked for a long time through the halls of the Winter Palace that were so familiar to me, trying to find the commander of the soldiers who had captured the palace. The Malachite Hall, where the Empress usually received those who introduced themselves to her, was covered like snow with torn pieces of paper. These were the remains of the archives of the Provisional Government, destroyed before the palace was captured.

In the infirmary I was told that the sisters of mercy were arrested for hiding and helping to hide the cadets defending the palace. This accusation was absolutely true. Many cadets, just before the end of the fight, rushed to the infirmary, asking the sisters of mercy to save them - apparently the sisters helped them hide, and thanks to this, many of them actually managed to escape.

After a long search, I managed to find out who was now the Commandant of the palace and I was taken to him. He was a young officer of the Moscow Guards Infantry Regiment, I completely forgot his last name, but then he played a rather large role in the Red Army. He was very decent and correct with me. I explained to him what was happening, said that there were about 100 wounded soldiers in the hospital, and that nurses were needed to care for them. He immediately ordered their release on my signature that they would not leave St. Petersburg until their trial. This was the end of the matter, there was never any trial of the sisters, and no one bothered them anymore, at that time the Bolsheviks had more serious concerns.

On the same day, we moved the wounded who were lying in this infirmary to other places and the infirmary was closed.

Olga Edelman: I would like to ask the guest of our program, Yulia Kantor. Is anything known about the fate of those who worked in the Winter Palace hospital? Memoirists of Nina Galanina, those sisters who saved the cadets and then sat under arrest?

Julia Kantor: Certainly. As for the nurses who were under arrest, of course, after the assault, the Bolsheviks had a huge number of cases in the first days; these nurses were simply forgotten. And thank God, quite prosperous life lived Nina Galanina and other nurse Lyudmila Somova, who was in the Winter Palace just during the assault on October 25, the so-called assault, and worked all her life in children's institutions nurse and taught at medical schools.

Vladimir Tolts: You know, this is what comes to mind after hearing all these documents and Yulia Kantor speaking on our program: if the capture of Zimny ​​was a symbolic event, then the closure of the hospital was also such a symbolic event. The autocratic government established a hospital in the palace, however, it also brought Russia into the war, supplying the wounded to the palace hospital. After February, they talked about people's freedom, called for an offensive at the front, and the hospital was tolerated at the very least, although not without incidents. After October - what kind of hospital is there, in Zimny. And it was not the Bolsheviks who closed it - the Red Cross officials themselves hastened, out of harm’s way, to transfer the wounded to other hospitals. - Interesting sequence...

Under the guise of Winter, the Bolsheviks took the hospital

90 years have already passed since the day when the Great October Socialist Revolution took place. Over all these years, the history of those troubled times has been subjected to radical revision more than once, depending on the socio-political changes in the country. The seventh of November ceased to be a red day on the calendar several years ago, officially becoming the Day of Accord and Reconciliation.

But never once did the October revolution appear to us as it was seen from the Winter Palace. There was a hospital there in 1917, and it was in its wards that the revolutionary detachments of the Bolsheviks, going on an assault, fiercely fired howitzers. However, almost none of the textbooks on the history of the Winter Palace really talk about the hospital. And only now, almost a century after the revolution, the pages of The New Times published the memoirs of people who, by the will of fate, found themselves under fire within the walls of the palace on October 25.

Cannons from the Peter and Paul Fortress fired at the building, where at that time only the wounded and the nurses caring for them remained. This hospital was created by the decision of Emperor Nicholas II and his family, which is why the revolutionaries associated this hospital with the hated monarchy. In the wards where the assault participants burst in, there were actually only seriously wounded people. But this did not bother the attackers.

Those terrible events were covered in her diary by former nurse Nina Galanina, whose notes ended up in the archives of the State Hermitage in the 1970s. In order to accept this document, seditious by Soviet standards, the director of the museum, Boris Piotrovsky, had to show a fair amount of courage - both professional and civil. One way or another, the diary survived and has now become available to a wide range of readers.

Nina Galanina's memoirs allow us to look at the revolution without the stereotypes and post-perestroika anti-myths imposed by Soviet ideology - from the perspective of an ordinary person at the beginning of the last century. “I went to walk along the central streets of Petrograd - I looked and listened. There was a lot of unusual things. Shots were heard in some places on the streets, and institutions stopped working,” the nurse wrote down on October 25, 1917. And the next day, when I tried to get into the Winter Palace hospital, I came across a triple cordon of Red Guards and sailors with rifles at the ready.

“I passed through the first chain, having explained where I was going, relatively easily. When I passed the second, I was detained. Some sailor angrily shouted to his comrades: “Why are you looking, don’t you know that Kerensky is disguised as a sister?” They demanded documents. I showed my ID, issued in my name back in February, with the seal of the Winter Palace Hospital. This helped - they let me through. They shouted something else after me, but I couldn’t make it out and moved on. The third chain didn’t stop me any longer,” it is written in the diary.

According to the memoirs of Nina Galanina, Zimny ​​changed dramatically overnight. “The first thing that caught my eye and struck me was the huge amount of weapons. The entire gallery from the lobby to the Main Staircase was littered with them and looked like an arsenal. Armed sailors and Red Guards walked through all the rooms. In the hospital, where there was always such exemplary order and silence, where it was known where each chair should be, everything was turned upside down, everything was upside down. And there were armed people everywhere. The elder sister was under arrest: two sailors were guarding her," this is how the author of the notes remembered the palace.

Her impression of the revolutionary changes is complemented by previously never published notes from the head of the Petrograd Red Cross, deputy of the IV State Duma and provincial leader of the nobility Lev Zinoviev. Until now, these documents were in the family archive.

During the days of the Petrograd unrest, Lev Zinoviev, despite dangerous situation, went to work regularly. It was at his workplace that he met the revolution on November 7 in a new style. “Several bullets hit our windows. One random bullet, breaking a window, tore off the ear of one poor girl, our typist. They began to bring the wounded and dead to the outpatient clinic, located right there in the building of our Administration. They brought the murdered owner of a neighboring shop... , with whom I exchanged a few words about two hours before... He was already without a jacket and without boots, someone had already managed to steal them. This shooting lasted for two hours, and then everything calmed down..."

The capture of Zimny ​​forced the head of the Red Cross to go to the scene: he was informed that the sisters of mercy were under arrest, and he hurried to their aid. The picture that appeared to the gaze of Lev Zinoviev inside the palace echoes what Nina Galanina recalled: “Everything was in disarray, the furniture was broken and overturned, everything bore a clear trace of the struggle that had just ended. Guns, empty cartridges were scattered everywhere, in the large hallway and on the stairs lay the bodies of killed soldiers and cadets, and in some places there were also wounded who had not yet been taken to the infirmary. I walked for a long time through the halls of the Winter Palace that were so familiar to me, trying to find the commander of the soldiers who had captured the palace. The Malachite Hall, where the Empress usually "received those who introduced themselves to her, and was covered like snow with torn papers. These were the remains of the archives of the Provisional Government, destroyed before the palace was captured."

As for the arrested sisters of mercy, they were kept in custody because they helped the defenders of Winter Palace take refuge. In his notes, Zinoviev called this accusation “absolutely true” and noted that thanks to the determination of the hospital employees, many of the cadets managed to escape.

The head of the Petrograd Red Cross managed to reach the new commandant of the palace - a young officer of the Moscow Infantry Regiment, who listened to the visitor and agreed that the wounded could not do without the help of nurses. By his order, those arrested were immediately released on Zinoviev’s signature. He was required to guarantee that none of the women would leave the city before the trial. The diary also says that the matter ended there: “There was never any trial of the sisters, and no one bothered them anymore, at that time the Bolsheviks had more serious concerns.”

Main article: Storming of the Winter Palace

The cruiser "Aurora" at the "eternal mooring" on the Bolshaya Nevka, a tributary of the Neva.

In the afternoon, the forces of the Pavlovsky Regiment surrounded the Winter Palace within Millionnaya, Mokhovaya and Bolshaya Konyushennaya streets, as well as Nevsky Prospect between the Catherine Canal and the Moika. Pickets were set up with the participation of armored cars on the bridges over the Catherine Canal and Moika and on Morskaya Street. Then detachments of Red Guards arrived from the Petrograd region and from the Vyborg side, as well as parts of the Kexholm regiment, which occupied the area north of the Moika.

The Winter Palace continued to be defended by cadets, the women's shock battalion and the Cossacks. In the large Malachite Hall on the second floor there was a meeting of the cabinet of ministers of the Provisional Government chaired by Konovalov. At the meeting, they decided to appoint a “dictator” to eliminate the unrest; N.M. Kishkin became him. Having received the appointment, Kishkin arrived at the headquarters of the military district, fired Polkovnikov, appointing Bagratuni in his place. By this point, the Winter Palace was completely blocked by the forces of the uprising.

Historical photograph of P. A. Otsup. Armored car "Lieutenant Schmidt", captured by the Red Guards from the cadets. Petrograd, October 25, 1917

Despite the fact that in general the forces of the uprising significantly outnumbered the troops defending the Winter Palace, the assault was not launched at 6 pm. This was due to a number of minor circumstances that caused a delay in the mobilization of the revolutionary forces, in particular, detachments of sailors from Helsingfors did not have time to arrive. Also, the artillery of the Kronstadt fortress was not prepared for firing, and the means were not prepared to give a signal for the assault. However, the delay in the assault simultaneously weakened the defenders of the Winter Palace, as gradually some of the cadets left their positions. At 6:15 pm a significant group of cadets from the Mikhailovsky Artillery School left the palace, taking with them four of the six cannons. And at about 8 o’clock in the evening, the 200 Cossacks guarding the palace went to their barracks, making sure that there was no mass support from the government.

The Commissioner of the Peter and Paul Fortress G.I. Blagonravov sent two scooters to General base, where they arrived with an ultimatum to surrender the Provisional Government, the deadline was set for 19 hours 10 minutes. The ultimatum was transmitted to the Winter Palace and rejected by the Cabinet of Ministers. Soon the General Staff building was occupied by rebel forces.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, Commissar of the Military Revolutionary Committee G.I. Chudnovsky arrived at the Winter Palace as a parliamentarian with a new ultimatum to surrender, which was also rejected. The Red Guard, revolutionary units of the garrison and sailors were ready to begin the assault. After 9 pm, the revolutionary troops began firing rifle and machine gun fire at the Winter Palace. At 9:40 pm, following a signal shot from the cannon of the Peter and Paul Fortress, a blank shot was fired from the Aurora’s bow gun, which had a psychological effect on the defenders of the Winter Palace (according to some researchers, the cruiser was not able to fire live shells at the Winter Palace). After this, skirmishes broke out again between the besiegers of Zimny ​​and its defenders. Then the detachments of cadets and women from the shock battalion who had abandoned their posts were disarmed. By 10 o'clock in the evening, ships supporting the uprising arrived in Petrograd from Helsingfors: the patrol boat "Yastreb" and five destroyers - "Metky", "Zabiyaka", "Powerful", "Active" and "Samson".

At about 11 o'clock at night, shelling of Zimny ​​with live shells began from the Peter and Paul Fortress, although most of them did not hit the building directly. On October 26, at one o'clock in the morning, the first large detachments of the besiegers entered the palace. By one o'clock in the morning, half of the palace was already in the hands of the rebels. The cadets stopped resisting and at 2:10 a.m. the Winter Palace was taken. Antonov-Ovseyenko and a detachment of revolutionary forces soon arrived at the Small Dining Room next to the Malachite Hall, in which members of the Provisional Government were located. According to the Minister of Justice P. N. Malyantovich,

Noise at our door. It swung open and flew into the room like a piece of wood thrown towards us by a wave, little man under the pressure of the crowd, which poured into the room behind him and, like water, spread into all corners at once and filled the room... We sat at the table. The guards have already surrounded us with a ring. “The provisional government is here,” said Konovalov, continuing to sit. - What do you want? - I announce to you, all of you, members of the Provisional Government, that you are under arrest. I am a representative of the Antonov Military Revolutionary Committee. “Members of the Provisional Government submit to violence and surrender to avoid bloodshed,” Konovalov said.

The arrested members of the Provisional Government (without Kerensky, who went to the front for reinforcements) were sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress under heavy security. The cadets and the women's battalion were disarmed. Three drummers were raped.

The number of victims of the armed struggle was insignificant - there were 6 killed and 50 wounded on both sides.

Why did the Provisional Government in October 1917 protect only cadets and women? Why did the Bolsheviks fire at the soldiers’ hospital located in the Winter Palace from the Peter and Paul Fortress? Why did the water in the Winter Canal turn red after his capture? Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Department of General History of the Russian State Pedagogical University named after. A.I. Herzen Julia Kantor.

Hospital of Tsarevich Alexei

The general public is almost unaware of what the Winter Palace was like in October 1917. What was in the former imperial residence then?

Few people here know that since October 1915, the Winter Palace has ceased to be a citadel of the Russian monarchy. The imperial family moved to the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoe Selo, where they spent the next two years. And the Winter Palace was given over to a military hospital for soldiers (and only for soldiers) wounded during the First World War.

All ceremonial and ceremonial halls, except for the Great Throne, were turned into huge chambers that could accommodate up to 200 people. At the same time, in the suite of halls overlooking the Neva embankment, there were bedridden patients who could not move independently. The hospital bore the name of Tsarevich Alexei, since when it opened imperial family made a vow to free the heir to the throne from hemophilia.

Military hospital in the Winter Palace

What happened to the luxurious decoration of the palace and numerous objects of art?

All the walls of the premises given over to the hospital were covered with gauze shields almost to the ceiling. As for the treasures of the Winter Palace and the Hermitage, during the First World War a significant part of them was evacuated.

By the way, the palace building was not painted in the current color. green color, and in beetroot, like a university in Kyiv.

Why?

This was done during the First World War - apparently, they decided to experiment. Before this, the Winter Palace was grayish-beige for some time, although it was originally blue, like most of Rastrelli's other buildings.

Hospital wards in the Winter Palace

Besides the huge hospital, what else was located in the Winter Palace in October 1917?

Since the end of March 1917, there was the residence of the Provisional Government. This was the initiative of Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky, who after that began to be jokingly called Alexander the Fourth. There, of course, there was a huge apparatus of ministries, reception rooms for petitioners and visitors. In a word - Government House.

The myth of Kerensky's flight

Kerensky was also mockingly called Alexandra Fedorovna, because he allegedly lived in the chambers of the former empress.

There is actually no documentation to support this. It is known for sure that members of the Provisional Government spent the night in the Winter Palace for the last two days before their arrest on the night of October 26, 1917 (hereinafter all dates are given according to the old style - approx.). Kerensky was no longer among them on the last - revolutionary - night, since on the morning of October 25 he left for Gatchina.

Why do you think he did this? After all, this was clearly a reckless step on his part.

We must understand what situation had developed in Petrograd by that time. It was impossible to rely on the Petrograd garrison, since it consisted almost entirely of rear units, which Kerensky tried to send to the front at the beginning of October. It is not surprising that the soldiers did not have warm feelings towards the Provisional Government and turned out to be very susceptible to Bolshevik propaganda. The sailors of the Baltic Fleet (especially the Kronstadters) and the Cossacks for the most part were either on the side of the Bolsheviks or did not understand at all what was happening. It is important to remember: Zimny ​​was cut off from the world; in those two days he no longer even had a telephone connection.

Therefore, Kerensky on the morning of October 25 set off towards Gatchina to call on loyal troops to the capital. The fact that he allegedly escaped from the Winter Palace in a woman's dress is an invention of the Bolsheviks. Alexander Fedorovich went to Gatchina in a car, with an open top, and in his own clothes.

So it wasn't like running away?

No, Kerensky’s departure was not similar to the flight from Kyiv in December 1918 of the Ukrainian Hetman Skoropadsky, who was carried out of his office on a stretcher and with a bandaged face, so colorfully described by Bulgakov in The White Guard.

Do you remember the famous painting by Georgy Shegal “Kerensky’s Flight from Gatchina in 1917”, where the Minister-Chairman of the Provisional Government is depicted in the dress of a nurse? In Soviet times, everyone heard about women's dress, but no one thought about why Kerensky is shown in the picture wearing a nurse's costume.

The fact is that even twenty years after those events, the artist remembered the existence of a soldier’s hospital in the Winter Palace in October 1917. Therefore, Shegal tried to doubly humiliate former head Russian state, who allegedly fled not just to women's clothing, and in the dress of a sister of mercy.

Women's shock battalion on the square in front of the Winter Palace

Passive defense of Zimny

But then where did this legend come from?

According to the recollections of the palace hospital nurse Nina Galanina, on the morning of October 26, after the capture of the Winter Palace, the Bolsheviks tore off the bandages of bedridden patients, especially those with maxillofacial wounds. They suspected that the ministers of the Provisional Government and the cadets who protected them were hiding among them. I think the legs of this myth grow from there.

Only the cadets and cadets remained loyal to the legitimate authorities. It is not known for certain how many of them were inside and outside the Winter Palace - approximately from 500 to 700 people. Defenders of the Provisional Government either came to the palace or left it for various reasons.

According to what?

If you believe the recollections of eyewitnesses, they left mainly for domestic reasons. The provisional government was so helpless that it could not even feed its defenders. At the most crucial moment, on the evening of October 25, the women's battalion went to wash and eat. There was no organized and thoughtful defense of the Winter Palace. And yet - everyone is just tired of waiting.

Junkers in the halls of the Winter Palace are preparing for defense

Didn't the Provisional Government really expect an attempt to seize the building?

It's still a mystery to me. Hypothetically, we expected it. After all, an extraordinary congress of Soviets met in Smolny, which, under pressure from a small group of radicals led by Lenin and Trotsky, in the form of an ultimatum, proposed to the legitimate Provisional Government to resign its powers. Of course, the Provisional Government rejected the ultimatum. After this, late in the evening of October 25, it was obvious that the Bolsheviks would begin active operations. But the ministers sitting in the Winter Palace behaved passively, if not confused.

Shooting the wounded

Tell us how the Winter Palace was captured by the Bolsheviks. As far as we know now, there was no assault?

There was no assault, but there was a capture. The famous shots from Eisenstein’s film “October,” when a huge human avalanche rushes from the arch of the General Staff building through Palace Square to the front gates of the Winter Palace, have nothing to do with reality.

By the way, in October 1917, there were no longer any double-headed eagles on these gates - by order of Kerensky, all symbols Russian Empire(including the imperial monograms on the facade of the building) were removed a month earlier, after Russia was declared a republic on September 1, 1917. There was no assault, there was a gradual seizure of the Winter Palace by the Bolsheviks.

But did the famous Aurora shot actually happen?

Yes, sure. A single shot with a blank shell from gun No. 1.

Did this shot really signal the start of an armed uprising?

On October 27, the Aurora team (and it was, of course, propagandized by the Bolsheviks) made a statement in the press for the citizens of Petrograd. It stated in a harsh but slightly offended tone that rumors about the cruiser firing live shells at the Winter Palace were lies and a provocation.

The cruiser’s crew claimed that the blank shot was fired only to warn all ships in the Neva waters to be “vigilant and ready.”

That is, no one fired at the Winter Palace that night at all?

They still fired at me. Real live shells were fired at the Winter Palace on the night of October 25-26 from the direction of the Peter and Paul Fortress, the garrison of which was pro-Bolshevik. Moreover, the hospital wards with the bedridden wounded, located in the main halls overlooking the Neva, suffered the most from the shelling. The exact number of those killed from this artillery cannonade is unknown, but at least several dozen were killed. These were the first victims.

But didn’t the garrison of the Peter and Paul Fortress know that they were shooting at the hospital?

Of course, they knew - newspapers of all directions wrote a lot about the existence of the hospital throughout its existence. They fired directly at the façade of the Winter Palace, not caring at all that there were wounded soldiers there, many of them in a completely helpless state.

And this didn’t bother anyone?

A rhetorical question. According to the recollections of nurses and surviving soldiers, after the shelling from the Neva, wild panic arose in the palace hospital - no one knew who was shooting and why and when it would all end. Those who could somehow move lay down on the floor. The shooting from the Peter and Paul Fortress began around midnight and continued for an hour and a half.

Arrest of the Provisional Government

Did the capture of the Winter Palace by the Bolsheviks begin only after this shelling?

After one o'clock in the morning, a small armed group (10-12 people) led by Antonov-Ovseenko entered through the only unlocked and unguarded entrance to the Winter Palace from Palace Square, which led to the Empress's chambers.

Why none of the palace defenders were there is now impossible to find out - probably everyone simply forgot about this entrance, since this part of the Winter Palace had been empty for a long time. According to some reports, one of the companies of the women’s battalion was supposed to be located here, but late in the evening of October 25, almost all of its personnel left their positions.

Antonov-Ovseyenko and his comrades climbed a small narrow staircase to the second floor and, naturally, got lost in many completely dark rooms. At about two o'clock in the morning, hearing someone's voices, they went out to the Malachite Living Room and found themselves right in front of the door of the Small Dining Room, where the ministers of the Provisional Government were meeting.

Nobody guarded them?

There was supposed to be a post of cadets in the Malachite Living Room, but for some reason there was no one there. Another cadet post was located in a room adjacent to the Small Dining Room on the opposite side.

Didn't the Junkers try to neutralize the Antonov-Ovseenko detachment?

There is no evidence that the cadets were in any way involved in this situation.

How can this be explained? Maybe they were just sleeping?

Don't think. The Winter Palace was under heavy fire from the Peter and Paul Fortress, so it is unlikely that any of its inhabitants slept that night. I can only assume that the appearance of the Antonov-Ovseyenko armed group came as a complete surprise to everyone.

Reception Alexandra III, where one of the shells fired at the palace from the Peter and Paul Fortress hit

Perhaps the members of the Provisional Government, in order to avoid bloodshed, asked the cadets not to resist, especially since Antonov-Ovseenko guaranteed everyone’s life. He declared the ministers under arrest, after which they were taken to the Peter and Paul Fortress in two cars.

So there was no violence?

At this moment there was none. But after a few hours, the entrances from the Neva were opened, and the Winter Palace gradually began to fill with various loitering people. After that, a real bacchanalia began there.

The destruction of the royal cellars

What do you have in mind?

I have already mentioned that in the palace hospital the Bolsheviks began to tear off bandages and bandages from bedridden patients. But other hospital residents who could move independently offered them worthy resistance. According to the memoirs of eyewitnesses, the first uninvited guests who broke into the medical premises suffered greatly: they were simply thrown down the stairs, and sick soldiers used not only crutches, chairs and stools, but also vessels for the discharge of natural needs as means of defense.

Symbolic.

Not without it…

Is it true that after the capture the Winter Palace was truly destroyed?

No, that's an exaggeration. In some places door handles were unscrewed, in some places wallpaper was cut off or furniture was damaged, and some small things were, of course, stolen. Some interiors were damaged. The victims of that public were portraits of Alexander III and Nicholas II: they were pierced with bayonets. One - Nicholas II - is now kept in the Museum of Political History of Russia, the second - Alexander III - is still in the Hermitage. The Winter Palace, by the way, suffered damage between February and October 1917, when it actually turned into a passage courtyard.

I. Vladimirov. "Taking of the Winter Palace"

Why?

There were government offices there, which were visited by a wide variety of people. The building was cluttered and kept in extremely careless condition: there is a lot of archival evidence of this from those who were “maintenance staff.” The cadets also caused some damage to the interior decoration of the palace, using interior items as targets.

Why did they do this?

It is unlikely that this was malicious vandalism - probably the cadets were having fun like that. In general, the Winter Palace was lucky and, unlike the Versailles of the times, it was not very damaged during the events of 1917.

They say that after the capture of Winter Palace, the new owners plundered its wine cellars and shit in vases?

The Winter Palace was at the mercy of various loitering public for exactly 24 hours. We must pay tribute to the Bolsheviks - they were able to quickly restore order in the building, declaring it a state museum.

But during these 24 hours, the palace wine cellars were indeed completely empty. Thank God, a significant part of the red wine reserves were drained into the Winter Canal. By the way, this is where another myth was born: that after the assault, the water in the canal turned red with blood. The winter ditch really turned red, but not from blood, but from good red wine. As for the allegedly desecrated vases and vessels, this is also a myth. If there were such cases, they were isolated.

“Lock the floors, there will be robberies today”

Were there cases of abuse and reprisals against cadets and violence against women?

I haven't heard anything about violence against women. I can say for sure that no one touched the nurses from the hospital - this is confirmed by their own memories. As for the cadets, they were disarmed and sent home. In those days, massacres and lynchings took place not in the Winter Palace, but throughout Petrograd.

As with any turmoil, armed gangs of criminals immediately appeared in the capital, which even the Bolsheviks at first could not cope with. They robbed shops and banks everywhere, broke into the houses of townspeople and killed them. It was not for nothing that Blok wrote at that time: “Lock the floors, Today there will be robberies! // Unlock the cellars - the bastard is on the loose today.”

S. Lukin. It's finished!

What happened to the building of the Winter Palace after the October Revolution?

I already said that just a few days after seizing power, the Bolsheviks nationalized the Winter Palace and the Hermitage, setting up a state museum there. At the same time, they liquidated the palace hospital, and its guests were distributed to other infirmaries in the capital.

How did Petrograd and the rest of Russia react to the change of power?

At first they didn't really notice her. Let's not forget that the Bolsheviks immediately after the October Revolution declared themselves a temporary government only until the elections to the Constituent Assembly. Many believed that they would last even less than the Provisional Government. No one then could have imagined that this regime would last in our country until 1991.

At the announcement: Women's shock battalion on the square in front of the Winter Palace

Supporters of the Russian Provisional Government

Arrested Provisional Government of Russia

Storming of the Winter Palace- in Soviet historiography, one of the key events of the October Revolution is the capture by the Bolsheviks on the night of October 25-26, 1917 of the residence of the Provisional Government, located in the Winter Palace in Petrograd, as a result of which the Provisional Government was overthrown and arrested. The assault was carried out without significant military action, but under the threat of the use of force.

Background

Since July 1917, the Winter Palace became the residence of the Provisional Government, whose meetings were held in the Malachite Hall. There, in the palace, since 1915 there was a hospital for the seriously wounded.

The day before

Women's shock battalion on the square in front of the Winter Palace.

Junkers in the halls of the Winter Palace are preparing for defense.

In the conditions of the openly prepared and already beginning Bolshevik uprising, the Headquarters of the Provisional Government did not bring a single soldier military unit to defend the government; preparatory work and with cadets in military schools, so there were negligibly few of them on Palace Square on October 25, and there would have been even fewer if the cadets had not come on their own. The fact that it was the cadets who did not take part in the defense of the Winter Palace on October 25 who took part in the anti-Bolshevik cadet action on October 29 speaks of complete disorganization in the defense of the Provisional Government. The only military unit of the Petrograd garrison that swore allegiance to the Provisional Government were the Cossacks. The main hopes were placed on them during the days of unrest. On October 17, 1917, the head of the Provisional Government A.F. Kerensky was visited by delegates of the Don Cossack Military Circle, who noted the Cossacks’ distrust of the government and demanded that the government restore A.M. Kaledin as commander of the army and openly admit its mistake to the Don. Kerensky recognized the episode with Kaledin as a sad misunderstanding and promised to make an official statement disavowing the episode in the coming days, but he did not keep his word and no official clarification was forthcoming in a timely manner. And only on October 23, the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry issued a ruling that General Kaledin was not involved in the Kornilov “rebellion.” In general, the Petrograd Cossacks reacted passively to the upcoming events: even at the critical moment on the night of October 24-25, despite repeated orders from the headquarters, the Cossacks did not act without receiving personal guarantees from Kerensky that “this time Cossack blood will not be shed in vain.” , as was the case in July, when sufficiently energetic measures were not taken against the Bolsheviks." The Cossacks were ready to come to the aid of the Provisional Government on the condition that the regiments would be provided with machine guns, each regiment, organized from hundreds distributed among factories, would be given armored cars and infantry units would march together with the Cossacks. Based on this agreement, 2 hundred Cossacks and a machine gun team of the 14th regiment were sent to Winter. The remaining regiments were to join them as the Provisional Government fulfilled the demands of the Cossacks, which, in their opinion, guaranteed that their futile July sacrifices would not be repeated. Due to the failure to fulfill the conditions proposed by the Cossack regiments, at an afternoon meeting of the Council of Cossack Troops with representatives of the regiments, it was decided to recall the 2 hundreds sent earlier and not to take any part in the suppression of the Bolshevik uprising. According to the historian of the revolution S.P. Melgunov, the October refusal of the Cossacks to suppress the Bolshevik uprising became a great tragedy for Russia.

On the morning of October 25 (November 7), small detachments of Bolsheviks begin to occupy the main objects of the city: the telegraph agency, train stations, the main power station, food warehouses, a state bank and a telephone exchange. These “military operations” were like a “changing of the guard,” since there was no resistance to the commissars of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC) who came and occupied this or that institution. By this time, the Provisional Government found itself practically without defenders: it had only a detachment of disabled soldiers, cadets and shock troops of the 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion.

In the complete absence of any forces in the government, the Bolsheviks also acted, despite later reports of victory, indecisively: they did not dare to storm the Winter Palace, since neither the workers nor the garrison of Petrograd as a whole took part in the uprising, and those present on paper “tens of thousands” of the Bolshevik “Red Guards” (in the Vyborg region alone there were 10 thousand Red Guards) did not actually fight the Bolsheviks. The huge Putilov plant, which supposedly had 1,500 organized Red Guards, also sent only a detachment of 80 people to participate in the uprising.

By mid-day, most of the key objects were occupied by Bolshevik patrols without resistance from the Provisional Government patrols. The head of the Provisional Government, Kerensky, left Petrograd by car at about 11 o'clock, without leaving any instructions to the government. Civilian minister N.M. Kishkin was appointed specially authorized to restore order in Petrograd. Of course, de facto his “governor general” powers were limited only to self-defense in the Winter Palace. Convinced that the district authorities have no desire to act, Kishkin removes Georgy Polkovnikov from his post and entrusts the functions of commander of the troops to General Yakov Bagratuni. On the day of October 25, Kishkin and his subordinates acted quite boldly and orderly, but even Kishkin, who was energetic and possessed organizational skills, was unable to do much in just the few hours remaining at his disposal.

The position taken by the government was quite absurd and hopeless: sitting in the Winter Palace, where meetings were taking place, members of the government waited for the arrival of troops from the front. They counted on the unreliability and demoralization of the detachments withdrawn by the Bolsheviks, hoping that “such an army would scatter and surrender at the first blank shot.” Also, nothing was done by the government to protect its last citadel - the Winter Palace: no ammunition or food was obtained. The cadets who were called to the government residence during the day could not even be fed lunch.

In the first half of the day, the cadets of the Peterhof and Oranienbaum schools guarding the Winter Palace were joined by shock workers of the women's battalion, a detachment of Cossacks with machine guns, a battery of the Mikhailovsky Artillery School, a school of engineering warrant officers, as well as a number of volunteers. Therefore, in the first half of the day, members of the government most likely did not feel the tragedy of their situation: some people gathered near the Winter Palace military force, perhaps sufficient to hold out until the arrival of troops from the front. The passivity of the attackers also lulled the vigilance of the Provisional Government. All government activities were reduced to addressing the population and the garrison with a series of belated and therefore useless appeals.

Departure of some of the defenders of the Winter Palace

By the evening of October 25, the ranks of the Zimny ​​defenders were greatly thinned: the hungry, deceived, and disheartened left. The few Cossacks who were in Zimny ​​also left, embarrassed by the fact that all the government infantry turned out to be “women with guns.” By evening, the artillery also left the government residence: they left on the orders of their chief, the cadets of the Mikhailovsky Artillery School, although a small part of them disobeyed the order and remained. The version later spread by the Bolsheviks that the order to leave was allegedly given “under pressure” from the Military Revolutionary Committee was a lie. In reality, the artillery was taken away by deception with the help of the political commissar of the school. Some of the cadets from the Oranienbaum school also left.

The armored cars of the Provisional Government were forced to withdraw from the Winter Palace Square due to a lack of gasoline.

Evening of October 25

By evening, the hitherto rare single shots began to become more frequent. The guards responded by firing shots into the air when crowds of Bolsheviks approached the palace, and at first this was enough.

At 18:30, scooter riders from the Peter and Paul Fortress arrived at the besieged headquarters with an ultimatum from Antonov-Ovseenko to surrender the Provisional Government and disarm all its defenders. In case of refusal, the Bolsheviks threatened to fire from the warships stationed on the Neva and from the guns of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The government decided not to enter into negotiations with the Military Revolutionary Committee.

Finally, beginning to realize the degree of criticality of their situation, the ministers decided to turn to the City Duma for moral support and began to look for some physical help through the telephone. Someone even went to the City Duma and bypassed its factions with the words that a tragic outcome was coming, that it was necessary to come to the defense of the government and also call on the population. But no help came. The only real attempt to help the Provisional Government was made by B.V. Savinkov, and it was associated with the name of General M.V. Alekseev. I found the former Supreme Commander-in-Chief Savinkov only on the night from the 25th to the 26th. The possibility of collecting at least a small armed force to give battle to the Bolsheviks. According to Savinkov, the general even sketched out a plan for the upcoming military actions, which, however, did not have time to be implemented.

Finally, in Zimny ​​they began to take some real steps to their own self-defense in order to hold out until the arrival of troops from the front, expected in the morning. All forces were pulled directly to the palace, the headquarters was left to the Bolsheviks. General Bagratuni refused to bear the responsibilities of commander and left the Winter Palace, then was arrested by sailors and survived thanks to an accident. The head of defense becomes Lieutenant Colonel Ananyin, the head of the school of engineering warrant officers, which was destined to become the main organized force, the support of the besieged government. The functions of defenders in case of an assault are distributed, machine guns abandoned by the departed Cossacks are placed.

Very indicative and characterizing the situation is the episode with the arrival at about 20:00 of the Winter Palace, already in a combat state in anticipation of an attack, of one of the leaders of the siege - Commissar of the Military Revolutionary Committee Grigory Chudnovsky, at the invitation of the delegate of the Oranienbaum school, cadet Kiselev, for negotiations on “surrender”. Chudnovsky, together with Kiselev, were immediately arrested on the orders of Palchinsky, but later, at the request of the cadets who guaranteed the immunity of the cadets with their “word of honor” to Chudnovsky, they were released. Another group of cadets who did not want to fight anymore left with them.

At 21 o'clock the Provisional Government addressed the country with a radio telegram:

Petrograd Soviet district and s. D. declared the Provisional Government deposed and demanded the transfer of power to it under the threat of bombing the Winter Palace from the cannons of the Peter and Paul Fortress and the cruiser Aurora, stationed on the Neva. The government can transfer power only to the Constituent Assembly, and therefore decided not to give up and put itself under the protection of the people and the army, about which a telegram was sent to Headquarters. Headquarters responded about sending a detachment. Let the people and the country respond to the insane attempt of the Bolsheviks to raise an uprising in the rear of the fighting army.

Storm

The Bolsheviks decided to storm the Winter Palace only after the arrival to their aid from Kronstadt of several thousand Baltic Fleet sailors from Helsingfors and Kronstadters, who had already been tested in the July days and who on October 25 in Petrograd constituted the real strength of several thousand sailors of the Baltic Fleet from Helsingfors and the Kronstadters. Despite the fact that Lenin demanded the withdrawal of the entire fleet, believing that a coup in Petrograd was in greater danger than from the Baltic Sea, the sailors themselves, in violation of Lenin’s demands, did not want to expose the external front to the Germans.

At the same time, it is known about the forces guarding the Winter Palace that at the time of the assault they consisted of approximately 137 shock troops of the 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion (2nd company), 2-3 companies of cadets and 40 disabled Knights of St. George, led by a captain on prosthetics .

By evening, only the Winter Palace remained in the hands of the Provisional Government, which was guarded by a small detachment of cadets and a small part of the 1st Petrograd Women's Death Battalion. The main part of the women's battalion was sent back to its location in Levashovo outside the city. P. I. Palchinsky, Kishkin’s deputy, was appointed head of the defense of Zimny. Another key figure Kishkin's deputy was Pyotr Rutenberg.

First attack on the Winter Palace

Almost simultaneously with the last appeal of the government to Russia, at 21:00, after a blank signal shot from the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Bolshevik attack on the Winter Palace began (At 21:40, by order of Commissioner A.V. Belyshev, gunner E. Ognev from the Aurora tank gun One blank shot was fired, which, according to a number of Soviet sources, served as the signal to begin the assault on the Winter Palace). The first attack was a rifle and machine gun shelling of the palace with the participation of armored cars, accompanied by return fire from the palace defenders, and lasted about an hour. Following the attack, Palchinsky notes in his notebook that there are quite enough forces for defense, but the lack of command staff is tragic - there were only 5 officers among the defenders of the Provisional Government. Immediately the Executive Committee of the Postal and Telegraph Union sends out a message:

The first attack on the Winter Palace at 10 pm. recaptured

At the same time, the Government brought to the attention of:

The situation is considered favorable... The palace is shelled, but only with rifle fire without any results. It turns out that the enemy is weak.

The words of Antonov-Ovseenko himself give approximately the same assessment:

Disorderly crowds of sailors, soldiers, and Red Guards either float to the palace gates or retreat

The first Bolshevik attack from 21:00 to 22:00 resulted in the surrender of the female battalion’s shock troops, who, according to Soviet sources, allegedly “could not withstand the fire.” In fact, the surrender was the result of an unsuccessful sortie of shock troops to “liberate General Alekseev,” which the head of the Zimny ​​defense, Colonel Ananyin, could not stop. The girls ran to the arch of the General Staff building and fell into the hands of a Red patrol. Before this, the drummers were called for a sortie by a drummer girl, apparently for some reason thinking that Alekseev was there... The ranks of the defenders thinned completely. In the end, through the back doors of the palace, which no one was guarding or defending, the Reds entered the building. Without any resistance or "assault". They were "met" by empty corridors.

Simultaneously with the beginning of the storming of the Winter Palace by the Bolsheviks, a meeting of the Petrograd City Duma was held, which decided to support the revolutionary government besieged in the Winter Palace, and attempted to march to the Winter Palace in order to help the ministers of the Provisional Government.

Second attack on the Winter Palace

At 11 p.m., the Bolsheviks began shelling the Winter Palace from the guns of the Peter and Paul Fortress, firing 35 rounds of live shells, of which only 2 slightly “scratched” the cornice of the Winter Palace. Later, Trotsky was forced to admit that even the most faithful of the artillerymen deliberately fired over the Winter Palace. When those who started the uprising wanted to use the 6-inch cruiser Aurora, it turned out that, due to its location, the cruiser was physically unable to shoot at the Winter Palace. And the matter was limited to intimidation in the form of a blank shot.

For the stormers, the Winter Palace could not pose a serious obstacle, since it was defended only from the facade, and at the same time they forgot to lock the rear doors from the Neva side, through which not only sailors and workers began to easily penetrate, but also simply curious people and those who wanted to make money. This accidental oversight of the defenders of the Winter Palace was subsequently used in Bolshevik ideology and presented in propaganda in a false form: “the inhabitants of the palace basements, in their class hatred of the exploiters,” allegedly opened “secret” entrances for the Bolsheviks, through which the agitators of the Military Revolutionary Committee penetrated and began spreading propaganda for the defenders of the palace . “...these were not random spies, but, of course, special envoys of the Military Revolutionary Committee,” one of the researchers of the 1917 revolution, S.P. Melgunov, sneers at the methods of Bolshevik propaganda.

Parliamentarians led by Chudnovsky with a new ultimatum appear among the besieged. Trotsky, following Malyantovich, repeats the mistake of the Winter Palace guards, who mistook two hundred enemies for a Duma deputation, who thus broke into the corridors of the palace. According to the historian of the revolution S.P. Melgunov, such a mistake might not have happened: behind the parliamentarians, who with their appearance destroyed the fire and bayonet barrier between attackers and defenders, a crowd poured from Palace Square, poured into the courtyard, and began to spread along all the stairs and corridors palace

In some episodes, the cadets tried to resist here and there, but were quickly crushed by the crowd and stopped resistance by nightfall.

The chief of defense, Ananyin, sends Lieutenant A.P. Sinegub to the government with a message about the forced surrender of Zimny, and also that the cadets were promised the preservation of life by the Bolshevik parliamentarians. During the government meeting on surrender, the crowd accompanying Antonov-Ovseenko approaches the cadet guards. Palchinsky brings one Antonov into the room with the ministers, then goes out to the cadets with an announcement about the decision taken unconditional surrender of ministers, thereby expressing submission only to force, and an invitation to the cadets to do the same. However, the cadets had to be convinced.

Arrest of the ministers of the Provisional Government

Composition of the last, third, cabinet of the Russian Provisional Government.

The ministers of the Provisional Government were arrested by the representative of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko at 2 hours 10 minutes on October 26, 1917.

Despite all the real danger, when a motley crowd burst into the Winter Palace, excited by the combat situation of shooting, bombs and gunpowder, with the excesses and violence inherent in such a crowd, the ministers of the Provisional Government showed neither confusion nor hesitation.

One of the ministers even quite courageously said to Antonov-Ovseenko:

We did not give up and only submitted to force, and do not forget that your criminal deed has not yet been crowned with final success

The ministers, who were unable to organize resistance to the Bolsheviks in the October days of 1917, nevertheless managed to leave a beautiful and worthy page in history with their courage and dignified behavior in the last tragic hours of the Provisional Government.

Many of his contemporaries assessed the action of the ministers of the Provisional Government who remained in their position until the end as a feat: a citywide meeting of 350 Menshevik-defencists on October 27 welcomed “the unshakable courage that the ministers showed Russian Republic, who remained at the post until the end under cannon fire and thus showed a high example of truly revolutionary valor.”

Events first hand

From a conversation with Minister S. L. Maslov, who was part of the Provisional Government:

On Tuesday (October 24, 1917 according to the old style) I came to an ordinary meeting of the Prosecutor General. Government in the Winter Palace. The entire cast was present. A. F. Kerensky presided...

During the discussion of the bill, A.F. Kerensky was reported several times about the Bolsheviks preparing to speak. It was decided to postpone the end of the discussion of the bill and move on to consideration of current events...

On Wednesday, at 11(?) o'clock. morning, I received a telephone message about my arrival at an urgent meeting. Governments...

At 7 o'clock evening At headquarters, two sailors presented N. M. Kishkin with a written demand signed by Antonov for the surrender of the Provisional Government and for the disarmament of the guard. The demand included an indication that all the guns of the Aurora and the Peter and Paul Fortress were aimed at the Winter Palace. We were given 25 minutes to think...

Antonov declared everyone under arrest in the name of the revolutionary committee and began to register those present. Min. was the first to sign up. Konovalov, then Kishkin and others. They asked about Kerensky, but he was not in the palace...

They began to take them to the cells of the Trubetskoy Bastion, each one alone. I was put in cell No. 39, and Kartashev was put next to me. The room is damp and cold. This is how we spent the night...

The day passed without incident...

At three o'clock in the morning I was woken up by several military men who entered the cell. They announced to me that, by resolution of the 2nd Congress of Soviets, Salazkin and I were released under house arrest...

The interview was published in the newspaper Delo Naroda, No. 193, October 29, 1917.

Casualties

There is no exact data on the losses of the parties. It is certainly known that six soldiers and one shock worker were killed.

Looting the palace. Vandalism

The fact that hooligan elements from among those who stormed the Winter Palace was not denied even by Bolshevik memoirists and Soviet historians. The robbery took place both during the assault and in the days after it, when, as an eyewitness to the events, American journalist John Reed wrote, “some people from among all the citizens in general, who for several days after occupying the palace were allowed to wander freely through its rooms... stole and took with them silverware, watches, bedding, mirrors, porcelain vases and stones of average value”. According to the same journalist, some of the defenders of the Winter Palace were also caught in an attempted robbery. The new authorities tried to stop the looting, but in vain.

5 days after the assault, a special commission of the City Duma examined the destruction of the Winter Palace and found that the palace had lost valuable works of art, but not much. In those places where the robbers passed, the commission was faced with scenes of real vandalism: portraits had their eyes pierced, leather seats were cut off from chairs, oak boxes with valuable porcelain were pierced with bayonets, the most valuable icons, books, miniatures, etc. were scattered along the floor of the palace. The commission assessed the damage caused to the Winter Palace by robbery and vandalism at 50 thousand rubles. Some of the items were later returned - they were found from resellers, in bazaars and from foreigners leaving Russia.

The apartment of the director of the Hermitage D. Tolstoy was also looted.

At first, the robbers were unable to penetrate the wine cellar, which was worth several million gold rubles, but all attempts to wall it up were also unsuccessful. The contents of wine cellars began to be destroyed by rifle fire. This led to the fact that the soldiers guarding the palace, fearing that the Bolsheviks would destroy all the wine, seized it a second time and staged a real pogrom in the wine cellars. Trotsky recalled: “The wine flowed down the canals into the Neva, soaking the snow; the drunkards lapped it up straight from the ditches.” In order to stop the uncontrolled looting of wine, the Military Revolutionary Committee was forced to promise to provide representatives of military units with alcohol every day at the rate of two bottles per soldier per day.

Excesses and violence

After the capture of the Winter Palace, rumors began to spread that captured cadets and officers were mocked, tortured and killed; that women from the shock battalion were raped and some were killed. Similar statements were made in the anti-Bolshevik press, in the diaries and memoirs of contemporaries. The official bodies of the Bolsheviks and some of the participants in the events on both sides rejected such allegations. In historical literature, such rumors are regarded as unreliable. It is difficult to say how accurate this information was, however, as a specially created commission of the Petrograd City Duma established, three shock workers were raped, although perhaps few dared to admit it, one committed suicide.

The City Duma appointed a special commission to investigate the case. On November 16 (3), this commission returned from Levashov, where the women’s battalion was quartered. ... a member of the commission, Dr. Mandelbaum, dryly testified that not a single woman was thrown from the windows of the Winter Palace, that three were raped and that one committed suicide, and she left a note in which she writes that she was “disappointed” in her ideals." .

John Reed, "10 days that...", 1957, p. 289

The historian Melgunov, in his monograph “How the Bolsheviks Seized Power,” agrees with L. Trotsky’s statement that there were no executions and there could not have been; according to historian V.T. Loginov, immediately after the capture of the Winter Palace “began” information war“which created an atmosphere of general psychosis and confrontation,” he writes about the unreliability of reports of executions and rapes.

Reconstructions of the “Storm of the Winter Palace”

On November 7, 1920, in honor of the third anniversary of the revolution, a mass production of “The Capture of the Winter Palace” was organized (organizer - musician D. Temkin, chief director - Evreinov).

Chronology of the 1917 revolution in Russia
Before: Bolshevization of the Soviets See also: Directory, All-Russian Democratic Conference, Provisional Council of the Russian Republic	October armed uprising in Petrograd	After: The struggle for the legitimation of the new government: II All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies Other events Bolsheviks occupy the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief (1917)

"Storm of the Winter Palace" in cinema

The storming of the Winter Palace is shown in many films. Among them:

• October -