On the morning of October 26 (November 8 A.D.), 1917, the second day of the Great October Socialist Revolution, a damp autumn wind gusted through the streets of Petrograd, and in some places bonfires were still burning right on the pavements. Their ragged light picked out men with cartridge belts - pickets of Red Guard workers, sailors, and soldiers. Even the day before, on the first day of the proletarian revolution, one could read on the billboards and walls of houses the text of the appeal of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, written by Lenin: "The cause for which the people fought: the immediate proposal of a democratic peace, the abolition of landowner ownership of land, workers' control over production, the creation of the Soviet government, this"1 . The armed insurrection of the masses of the people was accomplished. The Winter Palace, the last stronghold of the Provisional Government, was taken. In the evening of the same day in Smolny, at a meeting of the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets, historical decrees on peace, on land, on the creation of the Soviet government were adopted, which became the personification of the events that took place at that time, which shocked the whole world. Representatives of more than 400 Soviets of the country - envoys of revolutionary workers from 80 provinces and regions, 200 cities and localities, including national districts, from different parts of Russia - the Center, the Urals, Siberia, the Far East, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States, the Caucasus, Central Asia, who arrived from the front lines-gathered in the Smolny white-column Assembly Hall delegates of the Active Army 2 . The congress was attended by numerous delegations of factories and factories, revolutionary units of the Petrograd garrison and warships of the Baltic Fleet, as well as journalists. A vivid description of Smolny in those historic days was left by the American publicist John Reed, who was in Petrograd as a correspondent for The New ... Читать далее