Who benefited from the October Revolution?

According to Alexander Kerensky

• Russia harmed by Primary record 1 The forcible seizure of the machinery of government by the Bolsheviki in November opened for Russia the period of civil war and terrorism, the period which has not yet found the conclusion.

  Written in 1927 by the last head of the Provisional Government.

• Russian Provisional Government harmed by Primary record 2 With the hands of the Bolsheviki the Provisional Government was overthrown.

  Kerensky headed the Provisional Government. In this passage he argues that its right-wing opponents stood aside so that the Bolsheviks would overthrow it.

According to Erich Ludendorff

• Imperial German government benefited from Primary record 3 The events in Russia gave me no cause for complete satisfaction. They considerably eased the military situation, but elements of the greatest danger still remained.

According to Vladimir Lenin

• Russian landowners harmed by Primary record 4 After the October Revolution we finished off the landowner and took away his land.

  The Decree on Land, adopted on 8 November 1917, abolished landed proprietorship without compensation.

• Russian peasants benefited from Primary record 5 On this, the second, anniversary of the establishment of Soviet power, I wish to extend greetings to the many millions of working peasants who have been liberated from landowner and capitalist oppression and say a few words about that liberation.

  Written for the second anniversary of Soviet power, proclaimed on 7 November 1917, in Bednota, a newspaper read mostly by peasants. Lenin means the "working" peasants, the poor and middle peasants, and sets the kulaks apart.