The Bolshevik Party was well aware of the state of feeling in the army and among the workers in the factories. It fully realised how much revolutionary energy had accumulated among the masses. But the Party did not consider the time ripe for an armed fight, and it was not on the initiative of the Bolsheviks that the masses came out on to the streets in the July days. The Party was opposed to immediate action. On June 22 a joint conference of members of the Central Committee, the Petrograd Committee and the Bolshevik military organisation had stressed the fact that this was not a favourable moment to accept the challenge.
The Bolsheviks kept a careful watch on the manœuvres of the Cadets. Lenin warned the Party that it was in the interest of bourgeoisie to provoke the revolutionary masses of Petrograd to come out on to the streets before the revolutionary ferment had spread to the whole country.
But the movement in the capital was rapidly gaining in intensity. The counter-revolutionary character of the government was daily becoming more obvious to the masses. Every hour exposed the compromising policy of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks. At a moment when the movement was growing, and promising to grow still more rapidly, it would be a mistake to take risks.
“Let the future Cavaignacs begin first.”(1) Lenin said.
There were other reasons that inspired the tactics of the Bolshevik Party. Important as Petrograd was, it alone would not decide the issue of the revolution. It would be madness to resort to action without the proletarians of the Urals, without the miners of the Donbas and without the soldier millions. The army was obviously slipping from the grasp of the government, the army already did not trust the Provisional Government, but it was still under the influence of its committees, which were dominated by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks.
In pursuance of the instructions of the Party, the Bolsheviks, and particularly the representatives of the military organisation of the Party, opposed armed action on July 3. But the excitement of the soldiers and workers in the capital had already reached bursting point.
The Second Petrograd City Conference of the Bolshevik Party was being held just at this time (July 1-3). Representatives from the Machine-Gun Regiment appeared at the Conference and reported the action of the regiment. Speaking at the Conference, Stalin described this incident as follows:
“You recall how you told the delegates that Party members cannot go counter to the decision of their Party, and how annoyed the representatives of the regiment were, and how they declared that they would rather resign from the Party than go against the decision of the regiment.”(2)
At about 5 p.m. on July 3, Stalin, speaking on behalf of a joint meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee and the Conference which had been held at 4 p.m., officially declared at a meeting of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets that the Party had decided not to take action. An appeal was immediately drawn up and sent to the Pravda to be published on the morning of July 4. Those who had attended the meeting and the Conference hurried to the districts to restrain the masses from action. But it was already too late to stop the movement. The people listened impatiently to the Bolsheviks, and then poured into the streets. Two Bolsheviks, who had vainly tried to restrain the soldiers of the Moscow Regiment and the workers of the neighbouring factories, were told by the demonstrators:
“If we did not know them personally we would have chased them out as Mensheviks.”(3)
Some other decision was necessary. Rank-and-file members of the Bolshevik Party in many cases took this decision on their own initiative and responsibility—so high had the political development of the Party become. They clearly realised that if left to itself the demonstration would be smashed by the counter-revolutionaries. Having lost all hope of stopping the avalanche, the Bolsheviks placed themselves at the head of the demonstration: they assumed charge of the movement and surrounded the demonstration by armed Red Guards to protect it from possible provocative action by the counter-revolutionaries.
“The demonstration was under way,” Stalin said later at the Conference of the Petrograd Bolshevik organisation. “Had the Party the right to wash its hands of the action of the proletariat and soldiers and to hold aloof? We anticipated the possibility of even more drastic consequences to the demonstration than have actually occurred. We had no right to wash our hands of it; as the Party of the proletariat we were obliged to intervene in the demonstration and lend it a peaceful and organised character, without setting ourselves the aim of seizing power by force of arms.”(4)
At about 10 p.m. on July 3 delegates from the Bolshevik City Conference, members of the Bolshevik Central Committee and representatives from the army units and the factories met in the Kshesinska mansion. The meeting discussed the events in Petrograd and adopted the following resolution:
“The crisis of power which has arisen will not be settled in the interests of the people if the revolutionary proletariat and the garrison do not immediately declare, firmly and resolutely, that they are in favour of the transfer of power to the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies. For this purpose, an immediate demonstration of the workers and soldiers in the streets is recommended in order to express their will.”(5)
The Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, together with the Petrograd Committee and the military organisation of the Party, resolved to rescind their previous decision forbidding the demonstration and to assume charge of the spontaneous movement and to lend it an organised character. A peaceful demonstration was appointed for July 4 under the slogan “All Power to the Soviets!” Since the earlier appeal had already been printed, Pravda appeared next day with a blank page. The new appeal was issued as a handbill calling upon the workers and soldiers of Petrograd in the following terms:
“Now that the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie has clearly come out in opposition to the revolution, let the All-Russian Soviet of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies take the entire power into its own hands.”(6)
On the following day a new and powerful demonstration took place, this time led by the Bolshevik Party. A headquarters staff was formed to direct the movement, and instructions were drawn up. The demonstrators were protected by armoured cars stationed in various parts of the city. A company from the Machine-Gun Regiment was sent to the Fortress of Peter and Paul.
Sailors from Kronstadt and troops from Peterhof, Oranienbaum, Krasnoye Selo and other places joined the demonstration on July 4. The sailors from Kronstadt assembled before the Kshesinska mansion and insistently requested that the leader of the Party, Lenin, should address them.
Lenin addressed them in a brief speech, the only one he made during the July events. He conveyed the greetings of the Petrograd workers to the revolutionary sailors of Kronstadt and expressed the conviction that the slogan “All Power to the Soviets!” was bound to win. At the same time, Lenin appealed for “firmness, steadfastness and vigilance.”(7)
The columns of demonstrators marched to the Kshesinska mansion, where the Central Committee and the Petrograd Committee of the Bolshevik Party were quartered, and thence to the Taurida Palace, where the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets held its sessions. There the columns elected delegations to transmit the demands of the masses. Ninety representatives, elected by fifty-four enterprises, passed before the members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. One after another, the delegates stepped forward and fervently called upon the All-Russian Central Executive Committee to take the power into its hands. The frightened Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks whispered to each other in alarm as they heard the measured tread of the demonstrators. But they arrived at no decision. The growing tumult created by about half a million demonstrating workers and soldiers scared the leaders of the “revolutionary democracy.” They tried in every way to avoid carrying out the demands of the people.
[1] Lenin, “At the Breaking Point,” The Revolution of 1917, (Eng. ed.), Vol. II.
[2] The Second and Third Petrograd City Conferences of the Bolsheviks, July and October 1917. Minutes and Materials, Moscow, 1927, pp. 53-54.
[3] Y. Kokko, “The Aivaz Factory in the July Days,” Leningrad Workers in the Fight for the Power of the Soviets, Leningrad, 1924, p. 68.
[4] The Second and Third Petrograd City Conferences of the Bolsheviks, July and October 1917, Minutes and Materials, Moscow, 1927, pp. 53-54.
[5] October in Petrograd, Leningrad, 1933, p. 81.
[6] “The Events in Petrograd,” Sotsial-Demokrat, No. 104, July 11, 1917.
[7] Lenin, “An Answer,” Towards the Seizure of Power, (Eng. ed.), Vol. I.
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