Confrontation with Soviet authorities (November 1917)
Following the October Revolution on 7 November [O.S. 25 October] 1917, the Bolsheviks moved to seize control of Russia's financial institutions. On the first day of the revolution, an armed detachment under direct orders from Vladimir Lenin occupied the State Bank building in Petrograd. However, the bank's staff, led by Shipov, refused to cooperate with the new regime.
According to a first-hand account published in the documentary collection The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917–1918:
The Soviet of People's Commissars insisted upon a complete subordination of the bank and a transfer of ten million rubles which were required for urgent operations. The personnel of the bank, together with its manager, Shipov, refused to recognise the Soviet Government: they insisted upon "autonomy" in their work and refused to transfer the money.
Beginning on 12 November 1917, the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) issued decrees threatening bank directors, particularly Shipov, with arrest if they continued to refuse cooperation. Despite these threats, Shipov and the Petrograd banking community maintained their resistance.
On 17 November 1917, Shipov responded to Bolshevik criticism by noting that the State Bank had paid out, in the preceding week, more than 600 million rubles to the army, representatives of Russia's legitimate government, and to public charities such as soup kitchens. To the Bolsheviks, whom he regarded as usurpers lacking proper authorisation for government withdrawals, he would give nothing.
