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Soviet Union [USSR] The Period of Dual Power
The collapse of the monarchy left two rival political
institutions--the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet--
to share administrative authority over the country. The Petrograd
Soviet, drawing its membership from socialist deputies elected in
factories and regiments, coordinated the activities of other
soviets that sprang up across Russia at this time. The Petrograd
Soviet was dominated by moderate socialists of the Socialist
Revolutionary Party and by the Menshevik faction of the Russian
Social Democratic Labor Party. The Bolshevik faction of the latter
party provided the opposition. While representing the interests of
Russia's working classes, the Petrograd Soviet at first did not
seek to undermine the Provisional Government's authority directly.
Nevertheless, the Petrograd Soviet's "Order No. 1" of March 14
(March 1) instructed soldiers and sailors to obey their officers
and the government only if their orders did not contradict the
decrees of the Petrograd Soviet, thereby effectively limiting the
Provisional Government's control over the armed forces.
The Provisional Government, in contrast to the socialist
Petrograd Soviet, chiefly represented the propertied classes.
Headed by ministers of a moderate or liberal bent, the new
government pledged to convene a constituent assembly that would
usher in a new era of bourgeois democracy. In the meantime, the
government granted unprecedented rights--full freedom of speech,
press, and religion, as well as legal equality--to all citizens.
The government did not take up the matter of land redistribution,
however, leaving it for the constituent assembly. Even more
damaging, the ministers favored keeping Russia's military
commitments to its allies, a position that became increasingly
unpopular as the war dragged on. The government suffered its first
crisis in the "April Days," when demonstrations against the
government's annexationist war aims forced two ministers to resign,
leading to the appointment of moderate socialist Aleksandr Kerensky
as war minister. Kerensky, quickly assuming de facto leadership of
the government, ordered the army to launch a major offensive in
June, which, after early successes, turned into a full-scale
retreat in July.
While the Provisional Government grappled with foreign foes,
the Bolsheviks, who were opposed to bourgeois democracy, gained new
strength. Lenin, the Bolshevik leader, returned to Petrograd in
April 1917 from his wartime residence in Switzerland. Although he
had been born into a noble family, from his youth Lenin espoused
the cause of the common workers. A committed revolutionary and
pragmatic Marxist thinker, Lenin astounded the Bolsheviks already
in Petrograd by his April Theses, boldly calling for the
overthrow of the Provisional Government, the transfer of "all power
to the soviets," and the expropriation of factories by workers and
of land belonging to the church, the nobility, and the gentry by
peasants. Lenin's dynamic presence quickly won the other Bolshevik
leaders to his position, and the radicalized orientation of the
Bolshevik faction attracted new members. Inspired by Lenin's
slogans, crowds of workers, soldiers, and sailors took to the
streets of Petrograd in July to wrest power from the Provisional
Government. But the spontaneity of the "July Days" caught the
Bolshevik leaders by surprise, and the Petrograd Soviet, controlled
by moderate Mensheviks, refused to take power or enforce Bolshevik
demands. After the uprising died down, the Provisional Government
outlawed the Bolsheviks and jailed Leon Trotsky (Lev Trotskii,
originally Lev Bronstein), an active Bolshevik leader. Lenin fled
to Finland.
In the aftermath of the "July Days," conservatives sought to
reassert order in society. The army's commander in chief, General
Lavr Kornilov, who protested the influence of the soviets on both
the army and the government, appeared as a counterrevolutionary
threat to Kerensky, now prime minister. Kerensky dismissed Kornilov
from his command, but Kornilov, disobeying the order, launched an
extemporaneous revolt on September 10 (August 28). To defend the
capital, Kerensky sought help from all quarters and relaxed his ban
on Bolshevik activities. Railroad workers sympathetic to the
Bolsheviks halted Kornilov's troop trains, and Kornilov soon
surrendered, ending the only serious challenge to the Provisional
Government from the right.
Data as of May 1989
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