ABSTRACT
The Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917 swept away the Provisional Government and forced its members to flee the Winter Palace and Admiralty Buildings or face arrest. Apart from that, there were several examples of initial continuity. The Congress of Soviets remained in existence and the Bolsheviks soon carried out the pledge of the Provisional Government to organise elections to a new constituent assembly. The various political parties – Cadets, Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks – also retained their separate identities, even if the Left SRs and Menshevik Internationalists had thrown in their lot with the Bolsheviks. Major decisions had still to be taken and there was widespread expectation of a new era of broad revolutionary consensus.
