Military Revolutionary Committee


The Military Revolutionary Committee, was the name for military organs created by the Bolsheviks under the soviets in preparation for the October Revolution. The committees were powerful directing bodies of revolt, installing and securing the Soviet power. They executed a role of provisional extraordinary organs of Proletariat power.
The most notable ones were those of the Petrograd Soviet, the Moscow Soviet, and at Stavka. The Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee was created on.

Creation

The idea for organization of the armed revolt battle center belongs to Lenin. In his letter "Marxism and Revolt" directed to the Central Committee of RSDLP in September 1917, he putting on the agenda the task of preparing an armed uprising wrote:
The decision of Central Committee of RSDLP of October 23 and 29, 1917 on enhanced preparation for the armed revolt hastened the creation of uprising bodies at central and local levels. The MRC were elected from representatives of the Bolsheviks' party, soviets, factory or soldier committees, Bolshevik Military Organizations, Red Guards, and others. The committees were of various levels such as gubernial, city, county, district, volost; while in the Army were frontlines, army, corps, division, and regimental. On occasions the functions of the Military Revolutionary Committee were performed by revolutionary committees. The military revolutionary committees were not uniform in terms of their social and party composition, however most of them were predominantly represented by bolsheviks.
The first headquarters of armed uprising became the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee that was created by the Petrograd Soviet on October 25, 1917. Prior to a victorious moment of the uprising in Petrograd, there were over 40 Military Revolutionary Committees in the country the main activity of which was military and technical preparations for the forthcoming revolt.

List of military revolutionary committees

During the "Triumphant advance of Soviet power" there was a mass establishment of MRCs. Many MRCs appeared on initiative of the arrived delegates of the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets. Big squad of commissars, emissaries, agitators was sent to various country's regions by the Petrograd MRC on direction of the Central Committee of RSDLP. The Bolshevik's party composed the committees of experienced organizers.
Creation dateNameHead Notes
October 29Petrograd MRCPavel Lazimir
October 3112th Army MRCJānis Čarin until November 8, 1917 existed illegally in Cēsis
November 4Estland MRC
November 4Pskov MRCNorthern Front
November 7
November 7Voronezh revkom
November 8Ryazan MRC
November 9Minsk MRCAleksandr Myasnikyan Western Front and Northwestern Region
November 9Samara MRCValerian Kuybyshev
November 9Tula revkomGrigory Kaminsky
November 10Tomsk MRC
November 11Kiev MRC recreated as Kiev revkom on January 28, 1918
November 11Smolensk revkomSemyon Ioffe
November 21Dagestan MRC
November 27Orenburg MRC
December 1Southwestern Front MRCGrigory Razzhivin
December 15Romanian Front MRC
December 20Barnaul MRC
December 23Kharkov MRCComrade Artyom
December 23Yekaterinoslav MRCNikolay Krestinsky
December 23Vinnitsa MRC
December 23Odessa MRC
December 23Simferopol MRC
December 29Sevastopol revkomYuri Gaven-
JanuaryAstrakhan revkom
JanuaryShuya MRCMikhail Frunze
January 10Caucasus Army MRCGrigory Korganov
January 23Don MRC
January 30Kuban - Black Sea MRC
March 2Semirechye MRC

Influence

In the weeks following the October insurrection, military revolutionary committees based on the MRC of Petrograd were set up throughout the other soviets and helped cement Bolshevik control. These other MRCs were formed by locals but agents from the Petrograd MRC were often in positions to give advice or direction. By the end of October 1917, representatives from the Petrograd MRC were on assignments in at least forty-four cities as well as 113 military units throughout Russia, Turkestan, and the Caucasus.