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right, as conservative and middle-class Russians
pinned their hopes on a military solution, per-
sonified by General Lars
KORNILOV
, which would
stop what they saw as the disintegration of Rus-
sia. As Kornilov marched on Petrograd, the city's
workers, often Bolshevik supporters, played a
crucial role in defeating the threat of a military
coup. Although the Provisional Government
remained in place, the real winners of the Kor-
nilov incident were the Bolsheviks, who emerged
as the consistent opponents of the war that was
seen as the root of most of Russia's problems.
On September 26 (September 13) the Bolshe-
viks gained a majority in the Petrograd Soviet, a
crucial development in their growing political
strength. One week later they also had a major-
ity in the Moscow Soviet. With support for the
Bolsheviks rising throughout the country, espe-
cially in urban centers, Lenin called for an upris-
ing from his hideout in Finland. Sensing the
reluctance of the Petrograd Bolsheviks to move
against the Provisional Government, Lenin
returned to Petrograd under disguise on Novem-
ber 5 (October 23). After meeting with the exec-
utive committee of the Bolshevik Party Lenin
gained their support for an uprising, although
there were still some misgivings. With elections
to the Constituent Assembly that would decide
Russia's future system of government scheduled
for later in November 1917, it was crucial that
the Bolsheviks act quickly while the fortunes of
the Provisional Government were at their lowest
ebb. They also wanted to present the Second All-
Russian Congress of Soviets scheduled to meet in
early November with a de facto situation. On
November 7 (October 25), they occupied strate-
gic points throughout Petrograd. With assistance
from Bolshevik sympathizers in the Petrograd
garrison, the Kronstadt naval base and the work-
ing-class Red Guards, the Bolsheviks succeeded
in capturing the Winter Palace and members of
the Provisional Government who had not man-
aged to escape. On the morning of November 8
(October 26), the residents of Petrograd awoke to
a new Soviet government. One week later, after
extensive fighting in the city, the Bolsheviks tri-
umphed in Moscow, and throughout the winter
and spring months that followed Soviet power
was proclaimed in other Russian cities.
Odessa
A port on the Black Sea with a rich multicultural
history, Odessa belonged to Russia from 1791 to
1991, when it became part of an independent
Ukraine. Although Odessa itself was founded in
1794 as a Russian naval fortress, it is believed the
area was the site of a Greek trading colony in
ancient times. Crimean Tatars also traded in the
area in the 14th century, and control of the area
passed from Lithuanian to Tatar to Turkish
hands. In the course of the Russo-Turkish war of
1787-92, Russian troops stormed the Turkish set-
tlement in 1789 and annexed it for Russia in
1792. In 1805 it became the residence of the
viceroy of the province of New Russia. Odessa's
importance in the 19th century was tied to the
spectacular growth of the Russian grain trade, for
which the city served as the main port. In 1854,
the French and British allies bombarded Odessa
in the course of the
CRIMEAN WAR
. The first all-
Russian census of 1897 recorded a population of
about 400,000. It was during the 19th century
that Odessa developed its multicultural character,
with significant Bulgarian and Jewish colonies in
addition to its Ukrainian and Russian popula-
tions. The anti-Semitic
POGROM
s that occurred
with greater frequency in Russia after 1881 also
took their toll on the city's Jewish population,
contributing to large numbers of emigrants from
Odessa. During the 1905 Revolution, Odessa was
the site of internal disturbances triggered by a
workers' strike supported by the mutinying
sailors of the battleship
Potemkin.
These events
would be later celebrated in Sergei
EISENSTEIN
's
classic 1926 film of the same name. During
World War I, Odessa was briefly captured by the
Austrians then changed hands several times dur-
ing the civil war that followed the Bolshevik rev-
olution of 1917. In 1919, as part of the Allied
Intervention during the Russian Civil War, Odessa
was briefly occupied by the French and then, as
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