V. I.

Lenin

Every revolution means a sharp turn in the lives of a vast
number of people. Unless the time is ripe for such a turn, no real
revolution can take place. And just as any turn in the life of an
individual teaches him a great deal and brings rich experience and
great emotional stress, so a revolution teaches an entire people
very rich and valuable lessons in a short space of time.

During a revolution, millions and tens of millions of people
learn in a week more than they do in a year of ordinary, somnolent
life. For at the time of a sharp turn in the life of an entire
people it becomes particularly clear what aims the various classes
of the people are pursuing, what strength they possess, and what
methods they use.

Every class-conscious worker, soldier and peasant should ponder
thoroughly over the lessons of the Russian revolution, especially
now, at the end of July, when it is clear that the first phase of
our revolution has failed.

I

Let us see, in fact, what the workers and peasants were
striving for when they made the revolution. What did they expect
of the revolution? As we know, they expected liberty, peace, bread
and land.

But what do we see now?

Instead of liberty, the old tyranny is coming back. The death
penalty is being introduced for the soldiers at the front. [2]
Peasants are prosecuted for the unauthorised seizure of landed
estates. Printing presses of workers’ newspapers are wrecked. Workers’ newspapers are closed down without
trial. Bolsheviks are arrested, often without any charge or upon
blatantly trumped-up charges.

It may be argued that the persecution of Bolsheviks does not
constitute a violation of freedom, for only certain individuals
are being prosecuted and on certain charges. Such an argument,
however, would be a deliberate and obvious lie; for how can anyone
wreck printing presses and close down newspapers for the crimes of
individuals, even if these charges were proved and established by
a court of law? It would be a different thing if the government
had legally declared the whole party of the Bolsheviks, their very
trend and views, to be criminal. But everybody knows that the
government of free Russia could not, and did not, do anything of
the kind.

What chiefly exposes the libelous character of the charges
against the Bolsheviks is that the newspapers of the landowners
and capitalists furiously abused the Bolsheviks for their struggle
against the war and against the landowners and capitalists, and
openly demanded the arrest and prosecution of the Bolsheviks even
when not a single charge against a single Bolshevik had been
trumped up.

The people want peace. Yet the revolutionary government of free
Russia has resumed the war of conquest on the basis of those very
same secret treaties which ex-Tsar Nicholas II concluded with the
British and French capitalists so that the Russian capitalists
might plunder other nations. Those secret treaties remain
unpublished. The government of free Russia resorted to subterfuges, and to this day has not proposed a just peace to all
nations.

There is no bread. Famine is again drawing near. Everybody sees
that the capitalists and the rich are unscrupulously cheating the
treasury on war deliveries (the war is now costing the nation
fifty million rubles daily), that they are raking in fabulous
profits through high prices, while nothing whatsoever has been
done to establish effective control by the workers over the
production and distribution of goods. The capitalists are becoming
more brazen every day; they are throwing workers out into the
street, and this at a time when the people are suffering from
shortages.

A vast majority of the peasants, at congress after congress,
have loudly and clearly declared that landed proprietorship is an
injustice and robbery. Meanwhile, a government which calls itself
revolutionary and democratic has been leading peasants by the nose
for months and deceiving them by promises and delays. For months
the capitalists did not allow Minister Chernov to issue a law
prohibiting the purchase and sale of land. And when this law was
finally passed, the capitalists started a foul slander campaign
against Chernov, which they are still continuing. The government
has become so brazen in its defense of the landowners that it is
beginning to bring peasants to trial for “unauthorised” seizures
of land.

They are leading the peasants by the nose, telling them to wait
for the Constituent Assembly. The convocation of the Assembly,
however, is being steadily postponed by the capitalists. Now that
owing to Bolshevik pressure it has been set for September 30, the
capitalists are openly clamouring about this being “impossibly”
short notice, and are demanding the Constituent Assembly’s
postponement. The most influential members of the capitalist and
landowner party, the “Cadet”, or "people’s freedom", Party, such
as Panina, are openly urging that the convocation of the
Constituent Assembly be delayed until after the war.

As to land, wait until the Constituent Assembly. As to the
Constituent Assembly, wait until the end of the war. As to the end
of the war, wait until complete victory. That is what it comes
to. The capitalists and landowners, having a majority in the
government, are plainly mocking at the peasants.

II

But how could this happen in a free country, after the overthrow of the tsarist regime?

In a non-free country, the people are ruled by a tsar and a
handful of landowners, capitalists and bureaucrats who are not
elected by anybody.

In a free country, the people are ruled only by those who have
been elected for that purpose by the people themselves. At the
elections the people divide themselves into parties, and as a rule
each class of the population forms its own party; for instance,
the landowners, the capitalists, the peasants and the workers all
form separate parties. In free countries, therefore, the people
are ruled through an open struggle between parties and by free
agreement between these parties.

For about four months after the overthrow of the tsarist regime
on February 27, 1917, Russia was ruled as a free country, i.e.,
through an open struggle between freely formed parties and by free
agreement between them. To understand the development of the
Russian revolution, therefore, it is above all necessary to study
the chief parties, the class interests they defended, and the
relations among them all.

III

After the overthrow of the tsarist regime state power passed
into the hands of the first Provisional Government, consisting
of representatives of the bourgeoisie, i.e., the capitalists,
who were joined by the landowners. The “Cadet” Party, the chief
capitalist party, held pride of place as the ruling and
government party of the bourgeoisie.

It was no accident this party secured power, although it was not
the capitalists, of course, but the workers and peasants, the
soldiers and sailors, who fought the tsarist troops and shed
their blood for liberty. Power was secured by the capitalist
party because the capitalist class possessed the power of
wealth, organisation and knowledge. Since 1905, and particularly
during the war, the class of the capitalists, and the landowners
associated with them, have made in Russia the greatest progress
in organising.

The Cadet Party has always been monarchist, both in 1905 and
from 1905 to 1917. After the people’s victory over tsarist
tyranny it proclaimed itself a republican party. The experience
of history shows that whenever the people triumphed over a
monarchy, capitalist parties were willing to become republican
as long as they could uphold the privileges of the capitalists
and their unlimited power over the people.

The Cadet Party pays lip-service to "people’s freedom". But
actually it stands for the capitalists, and it was immediately
backed by all the landowners, monarchists and Black
Hundreds. The press and the elections are proof of this. After
the revolution, all the bourgeois papers and the whole Black
Hundred press began to sing in unison with the

Cadets. Not daring to come out openly, all the monarchist parties supported
the Cadet Party at the elections, as, for example, in
Petrograd.

Having obtained state power, the Cadets made every effort to
continue the predatory war of conquest begun by Tsar Nicholas
II, who had concluded secret predatory treaties with the British
and French capitalists. Under these treaties, the Russian
capitalists were promised, in the event of victory, the seizure
of Constantinople, Galicia, Armenia, etc. As to the people, the
government of the Cadets put them off with empty subterfuges and
promises, deferring the decision of all matters of vital and
essential importance to the workers and peasants until the
Constituent Assembly met, without appointing the date of its
convocation.

Making use of liberty, the people began to organise independently. The chief organisation of the workers and
peasants, who form the overwhelming majority of the population
of Russia, was the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’
Deputies. These Soviets already began to be formed during the
February Revolution, and within a few weeks all class-conscious
and advanced workers and peasants were united in Soviets in most
of the larger cities of Russia and in many rural districts.

The Soviets were elected in an absolutely free way. They were
genuine organisations of the people, of the workers and
peasants. They were genuine organisations of the vast majority
of the people. The workers and peasants in soldiers’ uniforms
were armed.

It goes without saying that the Soviets could and should have
taken over state power in full. Pending the convocation of the
Constituent Assembly there should have been no other power in
the state but the Soviets. Only then would our revolution have
become a truly popular and truly democratic revolution. Only
then could the working people, who are really striving for
peace, and who really have no interest in a war of conquest,
have begun firmly and resolutely to carry out a policy which
would have ended the war of conquest and led to peace. Only then
could the workers and peasants have curbed the capitalists, who
are making fabulous profits “from the war" and who have reduced
the

country to a state of ruin and starvation. But in the
Soviets only a minority of the deputies were on the side of the
revolutionary workers’ party, the Bolshevik Social Democrats,
who demanded that all state power should be transferred to the
Soviets. The majority of the deputies to the Soviets were on the
side of the parties of the Menshevik Social-Democrats and the
Socialist-Revolutionaries, who were opposed to the transfer of
power to the Soviets. Instead of removing the bourgeois
government and replacing it by a government of the Soviets,
these parties insisted on supporting the bourgeois government,
compromising with it and forming a coalition government with
it. This policy of compromise with the bourgeoisie pursued by
the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik parties, who enjoyed
the confidence of the majority of the people, is the main
content of the entire course of development of the revolution
during the five months since it began.

IV

Let us first see how this compromising of the
Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks with the bourgeoisie
proceeded, and then let us try to explain why the majority of
the people trusted them.

V

The Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries have compromised
with the capitalists in one way or another at every stage of the
Russian revolution.

At the very close of February 1917, as soon as the people had
triumphed and the tsarist regime had been overthrown, the
capitalist Provisional Government admitted Kerensky as a
“socialist”. As a matter of fact, Kerensky has never been a
socialist; he was only a

Trudovik, [3] and he enlisted himself with the “Socialist-Revolutionaries”
only in March 1917, when it was already safe and quite profitable to do so. Through Kerensky, as Deputy Chairman of the
Petrograd Soviet, the capitalist Provisional Government
immediately set about gaining control of and taming the
Soviet. The Soviet, i.e., the Socialist-Revolutionaries and
Mensheviks who predominated in it, allowed itself to be tamed,
agreeing immediately after the formation of the capitalist
Provisional Government to "support it" – "to the extent" that
it carried out its promises.

The Soviet regarded itself as a body verifying and exercising
control over the activities of the Provisional Government. The
leaders of the Soviet established what was known as a Contact Commission to keep in touch with the
government. [4] Within that
Contact Commission, the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik
leaders of the Soviet held continuous negotiations with the
capitalist government, holding, properly speaking, the status of
Ministers without portfolio or unofficial Ministers.

This state of affairs lasted throughout March and almost the
whole of April. Seeking to gain time, the capitalists resorted
to delays and subterfuges. Not a single step of any importance
to further the revolution was taken by the capitalist government
during this period. It did absolutely nothing even to further
its direct and immediate task, the convocation of the
Constituent Assembly; it did not submit the question to the
localities or even set up a central commission to handle the
preparations. The government was concerned with only one thing,
namely, surreptitiously renewing the predatory international
treaties concluded by the tsar with the capitalists of Britain
and France, thwarting the revolution as cautiously and quietly
as possible, and promising everything without fulfilling any of
its promises. The Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks in
the Contact Commission acted like simpletons who were fed on
fancy phrases, promises, and more promises. Like the crow in the
fable, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks succumbed to
flattery and listened with pleasure to the assurances of the
capitalists that they valued the Soviets highly and did not take
a single step without them.

But time passed and the capitalist government did absolutely
nothing for the revolution. On the contrary, during this period
it managed, to the detriment of the revolution, to renew the
secret predatory treaties, or, rather, to reaffirm them and
“vitalise” them by supplementary and no less secret negotiations
with Anglo-French imperialist diplomats. During this period it
managed, to the detriment of the revolution, to lay the
foundations of a counter-revolutionary organisation of (or at
least of a rapprochement among) the generals and officers in the
army in the field. To the detriment of the revolution it managed
to start the organisation of industrialists, of factory-owners,
who, under the onslaught of the workers, were compelled to make
concession after concession, but who at the same time began to
sabotage (damage) production and prepare to bring it to a
standstill when the opportunity came.

However, the organisation of the advanced workers and peasants
in the Soviets made steady progress. The foremost representatives of the oppressed classes felt that, in spite of
the agreement between the government and the Petrograd Soviet,
in spite of Kerensky’s pompous talk, in spite of the "Contact
Commission", the government remained an enemy of the people, an
enemy of the revolution. The people felt that unless the
resistance of the capitalists was broken, the cause of peace,
liberty and the revolution, would inevitably be lost. The
impatience and bitterness of the people kept on growing.

VI

It burst out on April 20–21. The movement flared up spontaneously; nobody had cleared the ground for it. The
movement was so markedly directed against the government that
one regiment even appeared fully armed at the Marinsky Palace to
arrest the ministers. It became perfectly obvious to everybody
that the government could not retain power. The Soviets could
(and should) have taken over power with out meeting the least
resistance from any quarter. Instead, the
Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks supported the collapsing capitalist government, entangled themselves even
further in compromises with it and took steps that were even
more fatal to the revolution, that tended to lead to its
doom.

Revolution enlightens all classes with a rapidity and thoroughness unknown in normal, peaceful times. The capitalists,
better organised and more experienced than anybody else in
matters of class struggle and politics, learnt their lesson
quicker than the others. Realising that the government’s
position was hopeless, they resorted to a method which for many
decades, ever since 1848, has been practised by the capitalists
of other countries in order to fool, divide and weaken the
workers. This method is known as a “coalition” government, i.e.,
a joint cabinet formed of members of the bourgeoisie and
turncoats from socialism.

In countries where freedom and democracy have long existed side
by side with a revolutionary labour movement, in Britain and
France, the capitalists have repeatedly and very successfully
resorted to this method. When the “socialist” leaders entered a
bourgeois cabinet, they invariably proved to be figureheads,
puppets, screens for the capitalists, instruments for deceiving
the workers. The "democratic and republican" capitalists of
Russia resorted to this very method. The
Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks let themselves be
fooled at once, and the “coalition” cabinet, joined by Chernov,
Tsereteli and Co., became a fact on May 6.

The simpletons of the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik
parties were jubilant and fatuously bathed in the rays of the
ministerial glory of their leaders. The capitalists gleefully
rubbed their hands at having found helpers against the people in
the persons of the "leaders of the Soviets" and at having
secured their promise to support "offensive operations at the
front", i.e., a resumption of the imperialist predatory war,
which had come to a standstill for a while. The capitalists were
well aware of the puffed-up impotence of these leaders, they
knew that the promises of the bourgeoisie – regarding control
over production, and even the organisation of production,
regarding a peace policy, and so forth – would never be
fulfilled.

And so it turned out. The second phase in the development of the
revolution, May 6 to June 9, or June 18, fully corroborated the
expectations of the capitalists as to the ease with which the
Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks could be fooled.

While Peshekhonov and Skobelev were deceiving themselves and the
people with florid speeches to the effect that one hundred per
cent of the profits of the capitalists would be taken away from
them, that their "resistance was broken", and so forth, the
capitalists continued to consolidate their position. Nothing,
absolutely nothing, was undertaken during this period to curb
the capitalists. The ministerial turncoats from socialism proved
to be mere talking machines for distracting the attention of the
oppressed classes, while the entire apparatus of state administration actually remained in the hands of the bureaucracy
(the officialdom) and the bourgeoisie. The notorious Palchinsky,
Deputy Minister for Industry, was a typical representative of
that apparatus, blocking every measure against the capitalists. While the ministers prated everything remained as
of old.

The bourgeoisie used Minister Tsereteli in particular to fight
the revolution. He was sent to “pacify” Kronstadt when the local
revolutionaries had the audacity to remove an appointed
commissar. [5]
The bourgeoisie launched in their newspapers an incredibly vociferous, violent and vicious campaign of lies,
slander and vituperation against Kronstadt, accusing it of the
desire "to secede from Russia", and repeating this and similar
absurdities in a thousand ways to intimidate the petty bourgeoisie and the philistines. A most typically stupid and
frightened philistine, Tsereteli, was the most “conscientious”
of all in swallowing the bait of bourgeois slander; he was the
most zealous of all in "smashing up and subduing" Kronstadt,
without realising that he was playing the role of a lackey of
the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie. He turned out to be the
instrument of the “compromise” arrived at with revolutionary
Kronstadt, whereby the commissar for Kronstadt was not simply
appointed by the government, but was elected locally and was
confirmed by the government. It was on such miserable compromises that the ministers who had deserted socialism for
the bourgeoisie wasted their time.

Wherever a bourgeois minister could not appear in defence of the
government, before the revolutionary workers or in the Soviets,
Skobelev, Tsereteli, Chernov or some other “socialist” Minister
appeared (or, to be precise, was sent by the bourgeoisie) and
faithfully performed their assignment; he would do his level
best to defend the Cabinet, whitewash the capitalists and fool
the people by making promise after promise and by advising
people to wait, wait and wait.

Minister Chernov particularly was engaged in bargaining with his
bourgeois colleagues; down to July, to the new "crisis of power"
which began after the movement of July 3-4, to the resignation
of the Cadets from the Cabinet, Minister Chernov was continuously engaged in the useful and interesting work, so
beneficial to the people, of “persuading” his bourgeois
colleagues, exhorting them to agree at least to prohibition of
the purchase and sale of land. This prohibition had been most
solemnly promised to the peasants at the All-Russia Congress of
Peasant Deputies in Petrograd. But the promise remained only a
promise. Chernov proved unable to fulfil it either in May or in
June, until the revolutionary tide, the spontaneous outbreak of
July 3-4, which coincided with the resignation of the Cadets
from the Cabinet, made it possible to enact this measure. Even
then, however, it proved to be an isolated measure, incapable of
promoting to any palpable extent the struggle of the peasants
against the landowners for land.

Meanwhile, at the front, the counter-revolutionary, imperialist
task of resuming the imperialist, predatory war, a task which
Guchkov, so hated by the people, had been unable to accomplish,
was being accomplished successfully and brilliantly by the
"revolutionary democrat" Kerensky, that new-baked member of the
Socialist-Revolutionary Party. He revelled in his own eloquence,
incense was burned to him by the imperialists, who were using
him as a pawn, he was flattered and worshipped – all because he
served the capitalists faithfully, trying to talk the "revolutionary troops" into agreeing to resume the war being
waged in pursuance of the treaties concluded by Tsar Nicholas II
with the capitalists of Britain and France, a war waged so that
Russian capitalists might secure Constantinople and Lvov,
Erzurum and Trebizond.

So passed the second phase of the Russian revolution – May 6 to
June 9. Shielded and defended by the “socialist” Ministers, the
counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie grew in strength, consolidated
their position and prepared an offensive both against the
external enemy and against the internal enemy, i.e., the
revolutionary workers.

VII

On June 9, the revolutionary workers’ party, the Bolsheviks, was
preparing for a demonstration in Petrograd to give organised
expression to the irresistibly growing popular discontent and
indignation. The Socialist-Revolutionary and

Menshevik leaders, entangled in compromises with the bourgeoisie and bound by the
imperialist policy of an offensive, were horrified, feeling that
they were losing their influence among the masses. A general
howl went up against the demonstration, and the counter-revolutionary Cadets joined in this howl, this time
together with the Socialist-Revolutionaries and
Mensheviks. Under their direction, and as a result of their
policy of compromise with the capitalists, the swing of the
petty-bourgeois masses to an alliance with the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie became quite definite and
strikingly obvious. This is the historical significance and
class meaning of the crisis of June 9.

The Bolsheviks called off the demonstration, having no wish to
lead the workers at that moment into a losing fight against the
united Cadets, Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. The
latter, however, so as to retain at least a vestige of the
people’s confidence, were compelled to call a general demonstration for June 48. The bourgeoisie were beside
themselves with rage, rightly discerning in this a swing of the
petty-bourgeois democrats towards the proletariat, and they
decided to paralyse the action of the democrats by an offensive
at the front.

In fact, June 18 was marked by an impressive victory for the
slogans of the revolutionary proletariat, the slogans of
Bolshevism, among the people of Petrograd. And on June 19 the
bourgeoisie and the
Bonapartist [1]

Kerensky solemnly announced that the offensive at the front had begun on June 18.

The offensive meant in effect the resumption of the predatory
war in the interests of the capitalists and against the will of
the vast majority of the working people. That is why the
offensive was inevitably accompanied, on the one hand, by a
gigantic growth of chauvinism and the transfer of military power
(and consequently of state power) to the military gang of
Bonapartists, and, on the other, by the use of violence against
the masses, the persecution of the inter nationalists, the
abolition of freedom of agitation, and the arrest and 9hooting
of those who were against the war.

Whereas May 6 bound the
Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks to the triumphal
chariot of the bourgeoisie with a rope, June 19 shackled them,
as servants of the capitalists, with a chain.

VIII

Owing to the resumption of the predatory war, the bitterness of
the people naturally grew even more rapidly and intensely. July
3–4 witnessed an outburst of their anger which the Bolsheviks
attempted to restrain and which, of course, they had to
endeavour to make as organised as possible.

The Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, being slaves of
the bourgeoisie, shackled by their master, agreed to everything:
dispatching reactionary troops to Petrograd, bringing back the
death penalty, disarming the workers and revolutionary troops,
arresting and hounding, and closing down newspapers without
trial. The power which the bourgeoisie in the government were
unable to take entirely, and which the Soviets did not want to
take, fell into the hands of the military clique, the
Bonapartists, who, of course, were wholly backed by the Cadets
and the Black Hundreds, by the landowners and capitalists.

Down the ladder, step by step. Having once set foot on the
ladder of compromise with the bourgeoisie, the Socialist
Revolutionaries and Mensheviks slid irresistibly downwards, to
rock bottom. On February 28, in the Petrograd Soviet, they
promised conditional support to the bourgeois government. On May
6 they saved it from collapse and allowed themselves to be made
its servants and defenders by agreeing to an offensive. On June
9 they united with the counter revolutionary bourgeoisie in a
campaign of furious rage, lies and slander against the revolutionary proletariat. On June 19 they approved the
resumption of the predatory war. On July 3 they consented to the
summoning of reactionary troops, which was the beginning of
their complete surrender of power to the Bonapartists. Down the
ladder, step by step.

This shameful finale of the
Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik parties was not fortuitous
but a consequence of the economic status of the small owners,
the petty bourgeoisie, as has been repeatedly borne out by
experience in Europe.

IX

Everybody, of course, has seen the small owner bend every effort
and strain every nerve to "get on in the world", to become a
real master, to rise to the position of a “strong” employer, to
the position of a bourgeois. As long as capitalism rules the
roost, there is no alternative for the small owner other than
becoming a capitalist (and that is possible at best in the case
of one small owner out of a hundred), or becoming a ruined man,
a semi-proletarian, and ultimately a proletarian. The same is
true in politics: the petty-bourgeois democrats, especially
their leaders, tend to trail after the bourgeoisie. The leaders
of the petty-bourgeois democrats console their people with
promises and assurances about the possibility of reaching
agreement with the big capitalists; at best, and for a very
brief period, they obtain certain minor concessions from the
capitalists for a small upper section of the working people; but
on every decisive issue, on every important matter, the
petty-bourgeois democrats have always tailed after the bourgeoisie as a feeble appendage to them, as an obedient tool
in the hands of he financial mangates. The experience of Britain
and France has proved this over and over again.

The experience of the Russian revolution from February to July
1917, when events developed with unusual rapidity, particularly
under the influence of the imperialist war and the deep-going
crisis brought about by it, has most strikingly and palpably
confirmed the old Marxist truth that the position of the petty
bourgeoisie is unstable.

The lesson of the Russian revolution is that there can be no
escape for the working people from the iron grip of war, famine,
and enslavement by the landowners and capitalists unless they
completely break with the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik
parties and clearly understand the latter’s treacherous role,
unless they renounce all compromises with the bourgeoisie and
resolutely side with the revolutionary workers. Only the
revolutionary workers, if supported by the peasant poor, are
capable of smashing the resistance of the capitalists and
leading the people in gaining land with out compensation,
complete liberty, victory over famine and the war, and a just
and lasting peace.

Afterword

This article was written at the end of July, as is apparent from
the text.

The history of the revolution during August has fully corroborated what is said in this article. Then, at the end of
August, the Kornilov revolt [6] caused a new turn in the revolution by clearly
demonstrating to the whole people that the Cadets, in alliance
with the counter-revolutionary generals, were striving to
disband the Soviets and restore the monarchy. The near future
will show how strong this new turn of the revolution is, and
whether it will succeed in putting an end to the fatal policy of
compromise with the bourgeoisie.

N. Lenin

September 6, 1917

---
Notes:
[1]
Bonapartism (from Bonaparte, the name of the two French
emperors) is a name applied to a government which endeavours to
appear non-partisan by taking advantage of a highly acute
struggle between the parties of the capitalists and the
workers. Actually serving the capitalists, such a government
dupes the workers most of all by promises and petty concessions.
— Lenin

[2]
On July 12 (25) the Provisional Government introduced capital
punishment at the front. The divisional “military revolutionary
tribunals” that were set up passed sentences which became effective
immediately and were executed without delay.

[3]
The Trudoviks (Trudovik group) were a Duma group of petty-bourgeois democrats—peasants and intellectuals with Narodnik
leanings. The group was formed by the peasant Deputies to the
First Duma in April 1906. In the Duma it wavered between the
Cadets and the revolutionary Social-Democrats. During the First
World War most of the Trudoviks adhered to a social-chauvinist
position.

After the February revolution the Trudoviks, expressing the
interests of the kulaks, actively supported the Provisional
Government. Their reaction to the October Revolution was hostile and
they took part in the counter-revolutionary activities of the
bourgeoisie.

[4]
The Contact Commission was formed by decision of the compromising
Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet on March 8 (21) to
“influence” and “exercise control over” the activity of the
Provisional Government. Its members were M. I. Skobelev, Y. M.
Steklov, N. N. Sukhanov, V. N. Filippovsky and N. S. Chkheidze
(subsequently V. M. Chernov and I. G. Tsereteli were included).
The Commission helped the Provisional Government take advantage of the prestige of the Petrograd Soviet to disguise its
counter-revolutionary policies. The Mensheviks and Socialist–
Revolutionaries hoped with its aid to keep the people from revolutionary action
aimed at effecting the transfer of power to the Soviets. The
Commission was abolished in the middle of April 1917, its functions
being handed over to the Executive Committee’s Bureau.

[5]
On May 17 (30), 1917, in view of a conflict between the Kronstadt
Soviet and Pepelayev, the Provisional Government Commissar,
the non-affiliated section of the Soviet passed a resolution
abolishing the office of government commissar and investing the Kronstadt
Soviet with full powers. The resolution, supported by the
Bolsheviks, said that the only authority in Kronstadt was the Soviet of
Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, which should enter into direct
contact with the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’
Deputies on all matters affecting the state.

The bourgeois, S.R. and Menshevik press launched a slander
campaign against the people of Kronstadt and the Bolsheviks,
alleging that Russia had begun to disintegrate, that a state of
anarchy was in, that Kronstadt had seceded, and so on.

First the Petrograd Soviet and then the Provisional
Government sent delegations (Chkheidze, Gotz and others in the former case and the Ministers Skobelev and Tsereteli in the latter) to deal
with the Kronstadt incident. In the Kronstadt Soviet the two
Ministers succeeded in putting through a compromise decision
stipulating that the commissar be elected by the Soviet and his
election confirmed by the Provisional Government. A political
resolution was also passed, saying that the Kronstadt Soviet
recognised the authority of the Provisional Government but adding
that this “recognition certainly does not rule out criticism and the
desire that the revolutionary democrats should form a new central
authority and transfer all power to the Soviet of Workers’ and
Soldiers’ Deputies”. =

The resolution expressed the hope that the
Bolsheviks would achieve this by exerting ideological influence.
It ended with an emphatic protest against attempts to attribute to
the Kronstadt Bolsheviks “the intention of severing Kronstadt
from the rest of Russia”.

[6]
The Kornilov revolt against the revolution was organised by the
bourgeoisie and landowners in August 1917. It was led by the tsarist
general Kornilov, then Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Army.
The conspirators aimed at capturing Petrograd, smashing the
Bolshevik Party, disbanding the Soviets, establishing a military
dictatorship, and paving the way for the restoration of the
monarchy. A. F. Kerensky, head of the Provisional Government, joined
in the conspiracy. However, when the revolt began, ho dissociated
himself from Kornilov, fearing that he might be swept away with
Kornilov, and declared Kornilov to be a rebel against the
Provisional Government.

The revolt began on August 25 (September 7). Kornilov marched
the Third Cavalry Corps against Petrograd. In Petrograd itself,
the counter-revolutionary organisations of Kornilov’s backers were
getting ready for action.

The Bolshevik Party led the people against Kornilov as it
continued, in accordance with Lenin’s recommendation, to expose
the Provisional Government and its S.R. and Menshevik hangers-on. In response to the call of the Bolshevik Party’s Central
Committee, the workers of Petrograd and the revolutionary soldiers
and sailors rose to fight the rebels. The Petrograd workers promptly
formed Red Guard units. Revolutionary committees were set up
in several localities. The advance of the Kornilov troops was
checked and Bolshevik propaganda began to demoralise them.

The Kornilov revolt was put down by the workers and peasants
under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party. Under pressure from
the people, the Provisional Government had to order the arrest
and trial of Kornilov and his accomplices.