<P> On 25 October 1917, Bolsheviks led their forces in the uprising in Petrograd (modern day Saint Petersburg), then capital of Russia, against the Kerensky Provisional Government . The event coincided with the arrival of a flotilla of pro-Bolshevik marines, primarily five destroyers and their crew, into the St. Petersburg harbor . At Kronstadt, sailors also announced their allegiance to the Bolshevik insurrection . In the early morning, the military - revolutionary committee planned the last of the locations to be assaulted or seized from its heavily guarded and picketed center in Smolny palace . The Red Guards systematically captured major government facilities, key communication, installations and vantage points with little opposition . The Petrograd Garrison and most of the city's military units joined the insurrection against the Provisional Government . </P> <P> Kerensky and the provisional government were virtually helpless to offer significant resistance . Railways and rail stations had been controlled by Soviet workers and soldiers for days, making rail travel to and from Petrograd, for Provisional Government officials, impossible . The Provisional Government was also unable to locate any serviceable vehicles . On the morning of the insurrection, Kerensky desperately searched for a means of reaching military forces he hoped would be friendly to the Provisional government outside the city, and ultimately borrowed a Renault car from the American Embassy, which he drove from the Winter Palace alongside a Pierce Arrow . Kerensky was able to evade the pickets going up around the palace and drive to meet oncoming soldiers . </P> <P> As Kerensky left Petrograd, Lenin penned a proclamation "To the Citizens of Russia" stating that the Provisional Government had been overthrown by the Military Revolutionary Committee . The proclamation was sent via telegram all throughout Russia, even as the pro-Soviet soldiers were seizing important control centers throughout the city . One of Lenin's intentions was to present members of the Soviet congress, who would assemble that afternoon, with a fait accompli and therefore forestall further debate on the wisdom or legitimacy of taking power . </P> <P> The insurrection was mostly bloodless, with a final assault being launched against the Winter Palace, poorly defended by 3,000 cadets, officers, cossacks and female soldiers . The assault was delayed throughout the day, both because functioning artillery could not be found, and because the Bolsheviks feared violence when the insurrection had so far been peaceful . At 6: 15 p.m., a large group of artillery cadets abandoned the palace, taking their artillery with them; at 8: 00 p.m., 200 cossacks also left the palace and returned to their barracks . While the cabinet of the provisional government within the palace debated what action to take, the Bolsheviks issued an ultimatum to surrender . Workers and soldiers occupied the last of the telegraph stations, cutting off the cabinet's communications with loyal military forces outside the city . As the night progressed, crowds of insurgents surrounded the palace, and many infiltrated it . While soviet historians and officials tended to depict the event in heroic terms, the insurrection and even the seizure of the Winter Palace happened almost without resistance . At 9: 45 p.m, the cruiser Aurora fired a blank shot from the harbor . By 2: 00 a.m on 26 October Bolshevik forces entered the palace, and after sporadic gunfire throughout the building, the cabinet of the provisional government surrendered . </P>

What effect did the october revolution and bolshevik rule have on russia's war efforts