Though he was the minelayer crew's delegate to the Second Congress of Soviets in October, he instead attended the assault on the Winter Palace with a crew of sailors, as part of the October Revolution. Zhelezniakov cooperated with the Bolshevik overthrow of the Russian Provisional Government and subsequently joined the Revolutionary Naval Committee. He also took part in battles against the Kerensky–Krasnov uprising on the outskirts of Petrograd.