Historic moments – in the Hermitage
Posted by Lisa Hill on August 30, 2012
I’ll bet many tourists walk through a small and (by the standards of the rest of this lavish Palace) somewhat nondescript room in the Hermitage without having any idea that they are on the site of one of the most momentous events in the 20th century…
Small dining room where Lenin’s Bolsheviks stormed the Provisional government
Source: Virtual Excursions, Hermitage Museum
This is the ‘small dining room’ in the Winter Palace where in 1917 the Provisional Government of Nicholas II met. (See the photo at left). This Provisional Government was a token effort by Nicholas to meet the demands for political reform, but it had no real power because he simply revoked any reforms that they made if he didn’t like what they had decided. It certainly didn’t meet the demands of Lenin’s Bolsheviks and so on the 7th of October, they entered the palace from the main entrance (at right) and the west side and captured the Provisional Government as they met in this dining room.
Over on the mantelpiece there is a clock, stopped at ten past two, because that was the actual moment when the October Revolution began. There is a plaque next to it which explains the significance of the room, but because it’s in Russian, most tourists won’t realise where they are unless they have a tour guide or (presumably) a guide book. (Actually, the Hermitage is pretty good with signage – a lot of paintings and artefacts are captioned in both Russian and English but not this room).
It was an amazing experience to be standing right where one of the most significant events in the history of the 20th century took place!
Travels with Tim and Lisa 
Lenin the Dictator, by Victor Sebestyen | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog said
[…] By the time of the First World War, there was so much unrest that the army was barely functional, and with 17 million dead in the trenches, there was strong support for making peace with Germany (and the Germans were only too happy to fund the Bolsheviks whose policy was for an armistice). There were riots, strikes and assassinations, which triggered violent repression in return. For his own safety Lenin and his supporters were out of the country for long periods of time, and there were so many different groups with different political agendas that when the Tsar finally abdicated and a provisional government took over in March 1917, it was total chaos. The actual business of the Bolsheviks storming the palace in October 1917 was more like an episode of the Keystone Cops than a revolution that would change the world. (On my travel blog, I struggled to convey the sense of awe I felt on being in the room where the Octo…). […]
Lenin the Dictator, by Victor Sebestyen #BookReview | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog said
[…] By the time of the First World War, there was so much unrest that the army was barely functional, and with 17 million dead in the trenches, there was strong support for making peace with Germany (and the Germans were only too happy to fund the Bolsheviks whose policy was for an armistice). There were riots, strikes and assassinations, which triggered violent repression in return. For his own safety Lenin and his supporters were out of the country for long periods of time, and there were so many different groups with different political agendas that when the Tsar finally abdicated and a provisional government took over in March 1917, it was total chaos. The actual business of the Bolsheviks storming the palace in October 1917 was more like an episode of the Keystone Cops than a revolution that would change the world. (On my travel blog, I struggled to convey the sense of awe I felt on being in the room where the Octo…). […]