The photograph "The Storming of the Winter Palace" has long been regarded as one of the symbols of the Russian October Revolution on this day 104 years ago. It envisioned the fall of the Russian provisional government, which had been established after the previous February Revolution, in its very last stronghold.
Because of that, this photo has been used by the Soviet government for propaganda for a long time, and a series of books around the world have also used it in many articles about the event. Despite appearing all over the world, used millions of times even in textbooks and chronicles in many countries, the photo turned out to be a staged work.
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| The Winter Palace |
That photograph depicts the storming on the Winter
Palace by the Bolsheviks (the communists), part of the Russian October
Revolution. This storming hit the last stronghold of the provisional government
at the time, the Bolsheviks fought bravely to capture the building and arrested
most of its highest officials. The provisional government quickly collapsed and
the Bolsheviks quickly took over the leadership of Russia. That is what the
Soviet propaganda machine as well as many other documents reported. But how it
actually happened?
On the evening of November 7th, 1917 (October 25th
according to the Russian calendar used at the time), Bolshevik forces of more
than 40,000 men sieged the Winter Palace in the city of Petrograd (today Saint
Petersburg). The people inside the building did not fight back, and at 8 pm,
about 200 cossacks (soldiers of the government at the time) had left the palace
and returned to their barracks. While government officials were debating on how
to react, Bolshevik soldiers issued an ultimatum demanding that those in the
building had to surrender. The government's cabinet could not communicate with
the outside because the telegraph stations were occupied.
At 9:45 pm, the cruiser Aurora fired a shot from the city harbor, and the Bolsheviks broke into the building under the command of the leader Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko. After several hours of searching, the Bolsheviks found the meeting room where the officials of the provisional government were, completely unprotected. Antonov-Ovseenko immediately arrested them and ensured the safety of all those officials.
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| Inside the Winter Palace after the storm |
One of the interesting stories is that inside the
building there is a large wine cellar. To prevent his soldiers from drinking
and becoming undisciplined, commander Antonov-Ovseenko ordered them to fire at
the barrels. A large amount of wine flowed into the streets and became the
inspiration for later stories about how much blood was spilled in the palace
during the fighting.
A few hours later, the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets was held there.
Get back to the photo, there is, in fact, no
photograph of the moment the Winter Palace was taken, or a photograph that has
survived more than 100 years of tumultuous history. But even if there was a
camera available, it would be impossible to capture such a picture, since there
simply was no such event. The Winter Palace was taken without any confrontation
between the parties, it was more like a peaceful transfer of power than a tense
and dramatic struggle.
But all of us, once we know the truth, it is easy to
judge whether the photo is real or fake. Whether in the propaganda story or the
actual story, the storming took place at night, and it is clear that when we
look at the photo, it is easy to see that it was taken in daylight.
In 1920, to commemorate the 3rd anniversary of the October Revolution, a Russian theater director named Nikolai Evreinov accepted the offer to reconstruct what had happened at the Winter Palace. And the famous photo was taken during a rehearsal of the actors before the official performance day. That's why the scene in the photo is daytime.
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| The original photo before being edited, showing more people watching the rehearsal, and a small tower for the director's direction |
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| Another photo from the rehearsal |
The reenactment of the October Revolution in 1920 was one of the largest and most impressive public performances ever held, with more than 10,000 participants and over 100,000 live viewers. Under the direction of Evreinov and his associates, several events of the October Revolution were reconstructed, and the storming on the Winter Palace was one of them. So the storming on the Winter Palace, which had been a quiet transfer of power, became much more dramatic. The power struggle had become more intense, and that clearly showed the heroism of the Bolsheviks who fought in the winter days of 1917. Even though those events never happened in reality, but given the situation in Russia in 1920, which had just ended a civil war with anti-communist forces, giving meaning to the October Revolution and honoring the Bolsheviks as heroes were essential.
Nikolai Shubski, one of the people who witnessed the
performance in Petrograd in 1920, recounted in quite a detail the grandeur of
the event. The French Anthem and Internationale were played, engines and
gunfire blared as soldiers stormed the Winter Palace, silhouettes of those
insides were fighting over parts of the building, and finally was the crowd
outside being informed of the Bolshevik victory. Then, fireworks were shot into
the sky.
You can watch part of the performance here.
Shubski ended his account by telling about him having
heard a veteran who participated in the actual storm said while watching the
performance: “They fired less in 1917!”