The Aleksandrovskaya Railway and the Bolsheviks’ armed seizure of power in Moscow

The article examines the military operation conducted by the reserve military units which stood on the side of the Bolsheviks at the Aleksandrovskaya Railway in October and November 1917. In response to the request of the Commander of the Moscow Military District forces, the headquarters of the Supreme commander and the commandment of the Western Front sent to Moscow the armed forces loyal to the Provisional Government. They consisted of regular cavalry regiments, Cossack cavalry and the “storm” troops. However, while on the move, practically all the military echelons were stopped and disarmed. The author focuses on the events at the Vyazma railway junction where the bulk of the military echelons moving from the Western Front to Moscow, were blocked by soldiers from reserve units and railway workers. Despite the fact that the reserve forces of the Vyazma garrison lost to the armed forces from the front in discipline and combat efficiency, they coped with the task. The decisive factor was the wide support for the Bolsheviks, typical of the population of the Smolensk province, and the resolute actions of Vyazma Military-Revolutionary Committee whose leaders were regular officers. As a result, the troops from the front that were theoretically capable of preventing the Bolsheviks from seizing power in Moscow never arrived to help the Moscow officers and cadets remaining loyal to the Provisional government and offering resistance to the Bolshevik coup. Consequently, Moscow lost the opportunity of becoming the centre of anti-Bolshevik resistance. As the Civil War flared up, this role was taken by the Cassack regions in the South of Russia.