Was the October Insurrection a genuine furthering of the Russian revolution?

[Leninator]

I know this is my first actual thread, so I have no intention of starting a tendency war.

Anyways, without much further ado, I bring you to my dilemma.

I have been studying the Russian revolution of 1917 specifically for quite some time now, through books such as History of the Russian Revolution by Leon Trotsky and The Bolsheviks In Power, by Alexander Rabinowitch.

One central theme that runs through both books is the question of the October Insurrection and how it relates to a furthering of the Russian revolution and a bringing to power of the soviets.

Naturally Trotsky's account is more one sided, which leaves me with Rabinowitch's modern, 21st century account.

He explicitly states that "Red October" was neither a popular revolution nor was it a coup by the Bolshevik-dominated Military Revolutionary Committee(MRC).

This account bothers me, as one astute in revolutionary Russian history can clearly point out that immediately after being propelled to power, the Bolsheviks, while under the leadership of Lenin, went about infringing freedom of speech and ultimately banning the Kadet right-wing political party.

The Bolsheviks even went as far as to use the Sovnarkom(the Executive body of the new soviet government) to issue decrees by Lenin and Trotsky without consulting the CEC(the legislative body of the new soviet government).

Can anyone clarify whether or not the Bolsheviks had grand designs for power or not. If so, wouldn't that make it[the October insurrection] a coup?

Or alternatively, was it a genuine, yet flawed attempt to implement soviet power across Russia?

Opinions?

I'm trying to fuel as much discussion here as possible. Be civil comrades. :)

[PhoenixAsh]

Bye sock.

I allow the thread. But I'll be monitoring it.

[GoddessCleoLover]

Sure was, and even though the Bolsheviks were far from perfect their general line through the period of the civil war is entirely defensible. To my mind, the real arena for debate concerns the post-civil war era, and IMO either the Kronstadt rebellion or the Tambov rebellion were the coda to that war. My view is that 1921 was the year that the Bolsheviks ought to have planted the seeds for some type of workers' democracy. Tragically, it was the year that the RCP (b) stifled democracy, allowing the creation of an excessively powerful Secretariat the following year. That Secretariat gave rise to the dictatorship of Stalin.