bank went over into the hands of the Military Revolutionary Committee
without a single shot being fired. There was on the river Neva, behind
the Franco-Russian plant, the cruiser Aurora, which was under repair.
Its crew consisted entirely of sailors devotedly loyal to the
revolution. When Korniloff, at the end of August, threatened Petrograd
the sailors of the Aurora were called by the government to guard the
Winter Palace, and though even then they already hated the government of
Kerensky, they realized that it was their duty to dam the wave of the
counter-revolution, and they took their post without objection. When the
danger passed they were sent back. Now, in the days of the October
uprising, they were too dangerous. The Aurora was ordered by the
Minister of the Navy to weigh anchor and to get out of Petrograd. The
crew informed us immediately of this order. We annulled it and the
cruiser remained where it was, ready at any moment to put all its
military forces and means at the disposal of the Soviets.



THE DECISIVE DAY

At the dawn of the 25th, a man and woman, employed in the party's
printing office, came to Smolny and informed us that the government had
closed the official journal of our body and the "New Gazette" of the
Petrograd Soviet. The printing office was sealed by some agent of the
government. The Military Revolutionary Committee immediately recalled
the orders and took both publications under its protection, enjoining
upon the "gallant Wolinsky Regiment the great honor of securing the free
Socialist press against counter-revolutionary attempts." The printing,
after that, went on without interruption and both publications appeared
on time.