15Petrograd, Russia
October 1917
Lenin returned to Petrograd in October just as Mozger was released from prison. “I’m able to feel it in the air, to breathe it, comrades! The revolution is imminent!” Lenin proclaimed with glee. The Bolsheviks assembled in their version of the Duma, the Smolny Institute. This former girls’ school had become their refuge ever since they had been forced out of Tauride Palace after the attempted July coup. On October 10, Lenin proposed the immediate overthrow of the Provisional Government. Not all of the Bolshevik Central Committee stood in agreement with him.
“Comrade Lenin,” commented Zinoviev, “we’re just not sure if the masses will rise up at this time. We know that the momentum is growing, but I fear that now may not be the time. Besides, the All-Russi
