Part of the Armoured Car Division of the Petrograd garrism stationed
in the Winter Palace.
Upon orders signed by Trotzky, several thousand rifles delivered by
the Government Arms Factory at Sestroretzk to delegates of the
Petrograd workmen.
At a meeting of the City Militia of the Lower Liteiny Quarter, a
resolution demanding that all power be given to the Soviets.
This is just a sample of the confused events of those feverish days,
when everybody knew that something was going to happen, but nobody
knew just what.
At a meeting of the Petrograd Soviet in Smolny, the night of October
30th, Trotzky branded the assertions of the bourgeois press that the
Soviet contemplated armed insurention as "an attempt of the
reactionaries to discredit and wreck the Congress of Soviets.... The
Petrograd Soviet," he declared, "had not ordered any _uystuplennie._
If it is necessary we shall do so, and we will be supported by the
Petrogruad garrison.... They (the Government) are preparing a
counter-revolution; and we shall answer with an offensive which will
be merciless and decisive."
It is true that the Petrograd Soviet had not ordered a
demonstration, but the Central Committee of the Bolshevik party was
considering the question of insurrection. All night long the 23d
they met. There were present all the party intellectuals, the
leaders-and delegates of the Petrograd workers and garrison.
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