The Soviets had to improvise the defense of the hills south of the city and wait for the attack of Kerensky's troops, who, despite the efforts of the high command, received no reinforcements.

The clash in the Pulkovo Heights ended with the withdrawal of the Cossacks after the Junker mutiny, which failed prematurely, and they did not receive the necessary support from other units to force the defences.

[8] In turn, Cheremisov, whose troops were effectively under Bolshevik control and who had bad relations with Kerensky, had rescinded[4][8] the orders to help the Provisional Government by sending him to Petrograd.

[4] The dispersion of the III Corps and the lack of support for Kerensky among the troops prevented the assembly of larger forces,[4] and only those that were stationed in Ostrov marched towards the capital.

[12] Various circumstances, however, prevented the arrival of new forces to Kerensky: the neutrality of many officers in the conflict, such as the commander of the Northern Front, General Cheremisov, the refusal of the majority of the army to fight, the growing influence of the Bolsheviks in the troops and the reluctance of railway workers to collaborate in the operation.

[2][10] Cheremisov, with bad relations with Kerensky due to a previous personal offense, had ordered that none troops were sent to the capital the day before, declaring that the army should not mix in politics.

[13] In Gatchina, only a few officers from the aviation school joined Krasnov's Cossacks; contributed a couple of planes and an armored car and dropped leaflets over the capital.

[15] At Tsarskoye Selo, the great garrison — sixteen thousand men — who outnumbered Krasnov's forces twenty to one, declared his neutrality[17] in the confrontation.

[18][17] The command has been placed in the hands of Colonel Muraviov,[16] to whom Chudnovsky was attached as a commissioner; Trotsky and Pavel Dybenko accompanied them to supervise the operation.

[18] After the failure of the junker mutiny in Petrograd, which had to be precipitated when it was discovered, some members of the PSR Central Committee joined Kerensky after fleeing the capital.

12 November], 1917, faced with reports of excesses in the capital after the crushing the revolt of the cadets, tried to advance from the Tsarskoye Selo against the entrenched Bolshevik forces, which were twenty times as numerous.

14 November], the situation had deteriorated to the point that Kerensky was in danger of being arrested by his own men and handed over to the Bolsheviks; the leaders of the Socialist Revolutionary Party forced him to flee dressed [17] as a sailor.