Ten Days That Shook the World · Chapter
Appendix to Chapter I explained
This appendix provides supplementary data and commentary on the political and economic conditions in Russia leading up to the October Revolution.
What happens
This appendix provides supplementary data and commentary on the political and economic conditions in Russia leading up to the October Revolution. It includes Lenin's critique of coalition governments, election results from Moscow showing the rise of the Bolsheviks, reactionary statements from the Cadet party and business leaders, and detailed tables comparing wages and the cost of living before and during the revolution, illustrating the severe economic disparity.
Themes in this chapter
Class Conflict and Polarization
The appendix starkly illustrates the widening gap between workers and capitalists through wage and price tables, and through Lenin's analysis of coalition ministries as a bourgeois strategy to deceive the working class.
Struggle for Legitimacy and Power
The election results and reactionary statements from Cadets and business leaders show the intense political struggle over the future form of government, with monarchists, republicans, and socialists vying for control.
Counterrevolution and Civil War
The demands from the Conference of Business Men in October 1917, including the suppression of soldier committees and the return of conservative officers, foreshadow the organized counterrevolutionary efforts that would lead to civil war.
Characters to notice
- Vladimir Lenin
Quoted extensively on the nature of coalition ministries as a capitalist tool to deceive workers.
- Victor Tchernov
Listed as a Socialist Revolutionary who joined the coalition ministry in June.
- Irakli Tsereteli
Listed as a Menshevik who joined the coalition ministry in June.
- Matvei Skobelev
Listed as a Menshevik who joined the coalition ministry in June.
- Nikolai Avksentiev
Listed as a Socialist Revolutionary who joined the coalition ministry in June.
- Boris Savinkov
Listed as a Socialist Revolutionary who joined the coalition ministry in June.
- Alexei Nikitin
Listed as a Menshevik who joined the coalition ministry in June.
- Vasily Shulgin
Quoted as a Cadet opposing the republic and advocating for a constitutional monarchy.
Key passages
“The ‘Socialist’ leaders, upon entering the Ministries, invariably prove mere figureheads, puppets, simply a shield for the capitalists, a tool with which to defraud the workers.”
Lenin argued that socialist ministers in coalition governments become powerless fronts used by capitalists to deceive the working class.
Lenin's critique of coalition ministries, central to his argument against cooperation with bourgeois parties.
“If civil war can yet be avoided, it can only be done by a united front of all the revolutionary democracy.”
The only remaining chance to prevent civil war is for all revolutionary democratic forces to unite.
From Novaya Zhizn's commentary on the Moscow election results, reflecting the urgency of political unity.
“We cannot admit either a Republic, or the present Republican Government. … And we are not sure that we want a Republic in Russia. …”
Shulgin declared that the Cadets reject both the republic and the current government, expressing uncertainty about wanting a republic at all.
Shulgin's statement reveals the Cadet party's monarchist leanings and opposition to the Provisional Government.
