ABSTRACT
The Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets opened on the night of 7 November, at 10:40 p.m., John Reed, who was in the chamber at the Smolnyy, noted. The Bolsheviks had a solid majority, 390 out of 670 delegates, and on the basis of it received 14 seats and the chairmanship in the 21-member presidium. On the other hand, the Bolshevik position was not quite as strong as it had seemed to be in the afternoon. The Provisional Government was still barricaded in the Winter Palace, and the surprise had begun to wear off. When Kamenev, who had renounced his opposition to the uprising and been elected chairman of the presidium, put forward the question of power as the first order of business, the Menshevik and Right Social Revolutionary leadership, having already refused to sit in the presidium, accused the Bolsheviks of having conducted a conspiracy against the revolution and demanded that the decision on power be made outside the congress by negotiation with all the parties and the Provisional Government. After Trotskiy told them to go where they belonged,‘into the garbage can of history’, they withdrew to the city hall to join other anti-Bolshevik groups in forming the Committee for Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution. By 3:00 a.m., when Kamenev announced that the Winter Palace had been taken and the members of the Provisional Government were under arrest, the Bolsheviks and Left Social Revolutionaries were the only parties officially represented in the congress.A.V. Lunacharskiy then read a Bolshevik-written proclamation, which was approved. It declared that the Provisional Government had been deposed, the congress had assumed power, and all local power throughout the country should pass to the soviets.
