Office of the Historian

File No. 861.00/631

The Minister in Sweden ( Morris) to the Secretary of State

[Telegram]
Stockholm, November 9, 1917.
[Received 11.65 p.m.]

963. Information has reached me from Russia to the effect that a congress of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Councils for all Russia which opened Wednesday evening in Petrograd sent out yesterday morning three proclamations:

(1)
All power belongs to Soviets; the Government’s representatives have been removed from their posts; chairmen of various Soviets are in direct communication with revolutionary Government.
(2)
Death penalty restored by Kerensky at the front is annulled and free play is given to political propaganda at the front; all revolutionary soldiers and officers arrested for so-called political crimes are to be set free.
(3)
Former Ministers Konovalov, Kishkin, Tereshchenko, Malyantovich, Nikitin and others have been arrested; Kerensky has fled; all military organizations are exhorted to take all measures to arrest him and bring him back to Petrograd; all complicity with Kerensky will be punished as high treason.

After some fighting the Bolsheviki took possession of Winter Palace where all Ministers except Kerensky were located.

Morris