# 5: Were the Bolsheviki Conspirators? explained — Ten Days That Shook the World

> Chapter companion for Ten Days That Shook the World by John Reed.

## What happens

This chapter examines the accusation that the Bolsheviks were conspirators, countering it with the argument that they acted openly and audaciously, fixing the date of their uprising in advance and agitating publicly in factories, barracks, and the countryside.

## Themes in this chapter

### Struggle for Legitimacy and Power

The chapter debates whether the Bolshevik seizure of power was a conspiracy or a legitimate revolutionary act.

## Character check-ins

### Vladimir Lenin

Mentioned as part of the 'Government of Lenin and Trotsky' that attacks and acts.

### Leon Trotsky

Mentioned as part of the 'Government of Lenin and Trotsky' that attacks and acts.

### Alexander Kerensky

Mentioned as the head of a government that discusses and hesitates.

## Key lines

> The Government of Kerensky discusses and hesitates. The Government of Lenin and Trotsky attacks and acts.

Kerensky's government deliberates indecisively while Lenin and Trotsky's government takes decisive action.

_Contrast between the two governments' approaches._

> No! They did not conspire. On the contrary, openly, audaciously, without mincing words, without dissimulating their intentions, they multiplied their agitation, intensified their propaganda in the factories, the barracks, at the Front, in the country, everywhere, even fixing in advance the date of their taking up arms, the date of their seizure of the power.

The Bolsheviks did not conspire; they openly and boldly spread their message and even announced the date of their uprising in advance.

_Defense of the Bolsheviks against the conspiracy charge._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/ten_days_that_shook_the_world_se/chapters/5-were-the-bolsheviki-conspirators
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/ten_days_that_shook_the_world_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/ten_days_that_shook_the_world_se/chapters