Internal Assessment
What role did the Aurora Play in the Storming of the Winter Palace?
May 2022
The
Essay Question: What role did the (Cruiser) Aurora play during the
Storming of the Winter Palace? This is worth investigating because of a
statement made by Leon Trotsky that the Kronstadt-sailors and by
extension the Aurora were the vanguard of the Revolution “that led the
majority of the proletariat” during October 1917.1
Section A- Identification and Evaluation of sources
The
first source is Orlando Figes’ book “A People's Tragedy” from 1996. The
origin of the source is valuable as Figes is an expert on the Russian
Revolution; he is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of
Russian history. Figes had much greater access to Russian archives than
previous historians, more sources that emerged over time from archives,
as well as decades of secondary research. The book’s purpose is to
inform about the full story of the Russian Revolution and what life was
like for the average Russian citizen from 1891 up until the death of
Lenin in 1924. The goal of the book in Figes’ words is “to convey the
chaos of those years, as it must have been felt by ordinary [people,]
not as a march of abstract social forces and ideologies”. This makes the
sources valuable for explicit analysis on the role of the Aurora, as
Figes’ diligent aim to discuss nuisances and casualties of the
Revolution. One limitation of this source is that only a small segment
of the entire book is devoted to the October Revolution and might
therefore not be as in depth as hoped. Also it relies on secondary
sources and the Author has faced professional criticism for his
historiography and objectivity. So the interpretations presented in the
book might be questionable.2
The second source evaluated in
depth is Sergei Eisenstein’s 1927 movie “October”, silent-film
commissioned by the October Jubilee Committee. The origin of the movie
is valuable since it was filmed less than ten years after the October
Revolution with veterans of the Storming of the Palace as advisors to
Eisenstein. Thesourceisthereforegoingtohelpbalanceoutthesecondarysource
as is from the time and is able to draw upon first hand accounts, such
as Nikolai Podvoisky one of the movie’s who actually stormed the Winter
Palace.3 The purpose of the movie is in part to educate and instill
pride into the Russian People about the October Revolution. However, the
portrayal of some events may be manipulated for the purpose of
propaganda. Eisenstein’s background, a value as it proves he is very
skilled in conveying meaning over film, and a limitation as he was a
well known propaganda director. October is in Eisenstein’s own words a
“docudrama”, and there is a real attempt to document the events of the
Revolution while also likely dramatizing them to entertain audiences.
The film can still provide value as it shows us how the communist party
wanted the role of the Aurora to be perceived, however as a piece of
propaganda we must acknowledge its limitations.
Section B- Investigation
On
the night of October 25th 1917, the Bolsheviks planned to overthrow the
Chairman of the Provincial Government, Alexander Kerensky, whose 9
month old government used the Winter Palace to house its chief council
chamber. This concentration of Provisional Government loyalists and the
historic importance of the Palace made its control paramount to any coup
attempt. The Bolshevik leadership had planned to overthrow their former
anti-Tsar ally in a decisive raid on numerous strategic points, the
Winter Palace being the most important, right next to the Neva-River.
The location directly on the river bank meant that it was accessible to
ships such as the Armored Cruiser Aurora, with a length of 130m, 14x
152mm guns and 590 men.4
In order to answer the research
question this essay will investigate three important moments of the
Storming of the Winter Palace and what role the Aurora played in each of
them, the planning, the build up, and the attack on the Palace itself.
According
to Eisenstein the Aurora was a pivotal element in the planning phase of
the coup. In the movie we see Lenin and the rest of the Bolshevik
leaders around a map of Petrograd, Lenin draws the Aurora on the map
with a thick pen, after that he makes markings around Peter & Paul
Fortress indicating that it ought to be captured by the Kronstad Sailors
from the ship.5 After this he makes numerous marks around Petrograd
which are all occupied by Bolsheviks in the following scene. Then Lenin
draws another line around the Palace indicating he wants his men to
surround it. However, he does not put a mark onto the Palace as it seems
he wants to avoid having to enter it.
The sailors of the Aurora
being tasked with and capturing Peter & Paul Fortress and its
arsenal, meant that the enormous stock of guns, cannons and artillery
could be used by the communists against the Winter Palace if necessary,
which would help further persuade the ministers in the Palace to simply
surrender.67 Eisenstein’s movie indicates that the Aurora was incredibly
important during the Bolshevik planning phase as they needed the ship
and its sailors to secure the large weapons stocks to make besieging the
Winter Palace effective.
On the other hand Figes argues differently,
according to him the Bolshevik plan was not nearly as well thought out
as Eisenstein portrayed, and was rather “simple”.8 According to Figes
the plan only consisted of capturing Marinsky Palace and dissolving the
Provisional Council present, demanding the surrender of the remaining
Provisional Government at the Winter Palace, which if refused would be
stormed by a signal given from Peter & Paul Fortress and Aurora.9
So
Figes suggests that the Aurora still played a part in the little
planning that was done, as it would have been used as a signaling device
to coordinate the assortment of different Bolshevik-troops which could
not communicate. However, while the signal from the Aurora was a
critical element of the plan according to Figes, this could also be done
by the Fortress and as is mentioned before the Aurora this indicates
this role was intended for the Fortress but could also be done by the
Ship. This suggests that the Ship only played a minor role in the
planning phase.
Overall, the Aurora was not a critical element of the
plan although it was still expected to play an important role, to
capture the Fortress and as a possible signaling point. The main reason
why its role was not critical was because the Peter & Paul Fortress
could fulfill the same signaling duties as the ship.
Moving onto the
initial stage of the coup, the plan of the Bolsheviks would see the
entire Provisional Government replaced by 10am of October 25th. The
seizing of key points was not achieved due to the “incompetence of the
insurgents”.10
Figes’ account of the initial phase of the coup
includes an analysis of all the things that went wrong at the Fortress
but says remarkably little about the Aurora.11 Figes mentions the guns
at the Fortress were “rusty museum pieces which could not be fired”,
after the sailors scrambled to find guns that could be fired it turned
out there was no munition to fit the barrels.1213 Further issues arose
with the signaling as no lantern was found that could be raised on the
flag pole.14 The fact that sailors struggled so much to send a signal
from the Fortress, suggests the Aurora was not as important as the
Fortress. At no point in this does Figes talk about any issues
surrounding the Aurora. While this might be because the Aurora faced few
issues it might also be because the Aurora was not that important
during this phase.
Eisenstein glosses over all embarrassing issues
encountered at the Fortress, he, unlike Figes, puts more emphasis on the
Aurora, according to his film it seems to be the Aurora that sent the
signal to commence the storming.15
By the eve of the Revolution the
Winter Palace had been “surrounded by a ring of steel”.16 An ultimatum
was handed to the Provisional Government at 6:50, yet the ministers felt
a “solemn obligation to [...] resist”.17 Their resistance made a
violent response likelier, as the Bolsheviks would end up needing to use
Peter & Paul Fortress and the Aurora to end such resistance.
A
flare went up from the Aurora with the caption “THE SIGNAL” in the
Movie.18 The Aurora then fired a blank shell at 9pm which was louder
than a conventional shot.19 Eisenstein gives this moment great
importance, despite him being limited to silent film Eisenstein uses a
floating light to represent the shockwave of the blast resonating
through the Winter Palace before finding its way to the ministers, who
tremble in response. The fact that Eisenstein emphasized the sound of
the Aurora firing a blank-shell suggests that it was pivotal in scaring
the Provisional Government out of the Palace. Directly after this scene
Eisenstein shows a large segment of the Palace garrison fleeing the
building, after which the actual shelling began to form the Fortress and
the Aurora.
Figes’ account of the storming differs, according to him
the signal allegedly came from Peter & Paul Fortress. He does
however agree that the blank was “much louder than a live-round” and
that this, like in the movie, “frightened” the ministers who dropped to
the ground.20 Despite this, Figes critically points out the time
disparity between the blank-shell at 9pm, the actual shelling at
10:40pm, and the surrender of the ministers at 2:10am the following day.
He also blames the Aurora for the minimal damage done to the Palace as
his research suggests all shells fired from the Fortress fell short.
To
sum up, the Aurora had a role in intimidating the Winter Palace
garrison, it does seem to have been more effective than the Fortress
however there were other factors such as small arms fire pouring in from
the window.212223 Furthermore the Aurora’s role of bombarding the
Palace was not as effective as only two shells hit and “slightly damaged
the plaster”.24 The Aurora simply did not live up to its role presented
in Eisenstein’s movie, as Figes pointed out the ministers surrendered
significantly after the shells struck the building. This means that the
Aurora was not by any means a leading cause for the surrender of the
provisional government ministers, and although some of the garrison left
after the Auroras shots.
Looking at these three phases the role of
the Aurora was varied. There is little doubt that its presence on the
Neva River across the Winter Place emboldened the Bolsheviks and shaped
their planning. During the initial phase of the coup its role became
quickly overshadowed by the Fortress. During the attack the Aurora
effect on the surrender was questionable at best.
Section C- Reflection
The
process of this investigation has certainly exposed me to a variety of
different research methods and therefore has shown me many of the
challenges that historians face during their attempts to unwind the
past. The use of primary sources such as in this case Eisenstein’s
October, has shown me how incredibly difficult it can be to investigate
topics that have political implications for their culture/society. The
image of the Aurora is bolstered onto the Soviet Order of the October
Revolution, this matter of national pride put pressure onto Eisenstein
to play up its importance in his movie. Especially, the scene where a
flare goes up “over the Aurora '' is quite odd to me, the angle used
makes it impossible to tell if the flare comes up from the Aurora or if
it came from the Fortress hidden behind the ship. This was likely done
to avoid confrontation with the Bolshevik image of the Aurora and the
reality many of the people he was working with experienced. Although
knowing where the flare came from is really important to answer the
question what role the Aurora played that night.
For events like
the October Revolution bias is more inevitable than ever and must be
addressed by historians by using a variety of sources with different
backgrounds in order to get a clear picture of the historical event that
is being investigated. For instance a source I ended up using to look
at the same event from another perspective was a Guardian article from
December 1917 written by an unknown provisional government loyalist from
inside the Palace while it was being fired upon. It gave a perspective
that outside sources could have never given me, as the Author mentions
that one of the things they were actually most scared of was the
small-arms and machine gun fire that rained in through the windows from
the streets. This is all interesting and relevant to my investigation
however due to the world limit I was not able to include this incredibly
interesting information. So I thought the other two sources were more
clear, and expansive. Furthermore the source was complicated as this
source’s Author’s name and position are either not known or were lost
during the digital archiving process. For this reason I can see why
historians would avoid this source when writing a book. This source made
me realise how difficult it can be choosing sources based on their
values and limitations.
Bibliography:
Figes, Orlando. A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.
“How
the Bolsheviks Took the Winter Palace.” The Guardian. Guardian News and
Media, December 27, 1917.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/1917/dec/27/russia.fromthearchive.
Leon, Trotsky. “Hue and Cry Over Kronstadt”, The New International (January 15, 1938).
Massie, Robert K. Nicholas and Alexandra. London: Head of Zeus, 2013.
Pretty,
Dave. “Pretty on Figes, 'A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian
Revolution'.” H-Net. University of Colorado at Boulder, February 1998.
https://networks.h-net.org/node/10000/reviews/10105/pretty-figes-peoples-tragedy-
history-russian-revolution.
Ten Days That Shook the World. 1927. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVuf3T3k-W0.
The
Cruiser Aurora, General information: Tactic and technical
characteristics. (Website 2021)
http://aurora.org.ru/eng/index.php@theme=info
Von Geldern, James.
Bolshevik Festivals, 1917-1920. Berkeley: University of California
Press, c1993 1993. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft467nb2w4/
