# Appendix to Chapter IV explained — Ten Days That Shook the World

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

## What happens

This appendix details the events of November 7th and the immediate aftermath of the Bolshevik seizure of power, including Kerensky's flight from Petrograd and his failed attempts to rally support from Cossacks and front-line troops. It also addresses controversies surrounding the looting of the Winter Palace and the alleged rape of the Women's Battalion, providing evidence that the worst rumors were exaggerated. The chapter concludes with the dissolution of the Women's Battalion and the transformation of the Winter Palace into a People's Museum.

## Themes in this chapter

### Struggle for Legitimacy and Power

Kerensky's desperate appeals to Cossacks and front-line troops highlight the collapse of Provisional Government authority, while the Bolsheviks consolidate control through decrees and commissions.

### Counterrevolution and Civil War

Kerensky's flight and attempts to rally military support foreshadow the coming civil war, as the old regime's forces fragment and the Bolsheviks move to secure power.

## Character check-ins

### Alexander Kerensky

Flees Petrograd on November 7th, appeals to Cossacks at Ostrov, and later seeks support from the Southwest Front and Stavka, but is largely rebuffed.

### Colonel Polkovnikov

Commandant of Petrograd, relieved of his functions by Kishkin on November 7th for inaction.

### Nikolai Kishkin

Invested with extraordinary powers by the Provisional Government to restore order in Petrograd; relieves Polkovnikov and attempts to coordinate defense.

### Alexander Konovalov

Vice-Premier, issues an appeal to the population on November 7th urging support for the Provisional Government.

### G. Yatmanov

Serves as Commissar for the Protection of Museums and Artistic Collections, co-signs proclamations urging return of looted Winter Palace objects.

### Pyotr Palchinsky

Present at the Staff Headquarters meeting when soldiers demand surrender; later retreats to the Winter Palace.

## Key lines

> The most important art treasures of the Palace—paintings, statues, tapestries, rare porcelains and armorie—had been transferred to Moscow during the month of September; and they were still in good order in the basement of the Imperial Palace there ten days after the capture of the Kremlin by Bolshevik troops.

The most valuable artworks from the Winter Palace had been moved to Moscow in September and remained intact in the Imperial Palace basement even after the Bolsheviks took the Kremlin.

_Reed refutes exaggerated claims of massive looting by noting that the major treasures were safely stored elsewhere._

> The City Duma appointed a commission to investigate the matter. On November 16th the commission returned from Levashovo, headquarters of the Women's Battalion. Madame Tyrkova reported that the girls had been at first taken to the barracks of the Pavlovsky Regiment, and that there some of them had been badly treated; but that at present most of them were at Levashovo, and the rest scattered about the city in private houses.

A Duma commission investigated the Women's Battalion and found that while some mistreatment occurred, the worst rumors of mass rape and murder were false; most women were safe at Levashovo or in private homes.

_Reed provides evidence to counter sensationalist anti-Bolshevik stories about the fate of the women soldiers._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/ten_days_that_shook_the_world_se/chapters/appendix-to-chapter-iv
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