Petrograd, Russia
25th October 1917
The Winter Palace shivered in the frost of the autumn night. In front of the exquisite grandeur of the building amassed a vast gathering of Bolshevik revolutionaries. Led by Vladimir Lenin, these people were there to seize a better or fairer life.
Inside, protected by a battalion of Cossacks, a female brigade and a few cadets were the Provisional Government.
“Comrade Lenin, do we attack the palace?” shouted a big man with a self-loading rifle in his hands. There was no immediate reply.
By the River Neva not far from the palace, Fabian Fortin looked at his watch. “Come on then Lenin get on with it,” he said to himself.
Then, just after he said that one of the big guns on the battle cruiser Aurora, moored beside the palace, moved round until it was aiming at the building. Then with a blast that shook the frosty night, it fired a blank.
Fortin watched as the Bolsheviks charged up to and then into the palace. There was no resistance–the Cossacks, and the others had fled. The whole thing’s been staged, he thought. He turned away laughing, "yeah, long live the revolution!”