The old traditional formulas (dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry) no longer satisfy the changed conditions. The revolutionary-democratic dictatorship has been realized, but not in the form we had outlined: interwoven with the dictatorship of imperialist bourgeoisie. The imperialist war has shuffled all the cards – it has transformed the fierce enemies of revolution, the Anglo-French capitalists, into accomplices of revolution for the sake of victory (likewise the upper echelons of the military command and the counterrevolutionary bourgeoisie).

This exceptional concatenation of circumstances in history has brought about a dual dictatorship: the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and the dictatorship of revolutionary democracy. Never has the people kept pace organizationally with the bourgeoisie; in Russia the people created their own organized power, while at the same time failing to achieve political independence. Herein lies the dual power, the unconscious and trusting attitude of the petty-bourgeois majority of the soldier masses and part of the workers toward the Provisional Government, the voluntary submission of revolutionary democracy to bourgeois dictatorship. The peculiarity of the moment consists in this: that the creation of a solid and conscious majority on the side of proletarian politics (all other political currents have wholly shifted to the position of the petty bourgeoisie) is impeded by the unconsciousness of the masses. Revolutionary democracy is a gathering of the most heterogeneous elements (in their class position and interests – which are far from identical!). Their stratification: in the countryside – well-to-do peasants, secured by the law of November 9, and the poorest, those with one horse or none, in the cities – strata adhering to the working class and petty proprietors. The division of proletarians and semi-proletarians from the petty bourgeoisie is inevitable, but it is possible that the consolidation of proprietary elements in the revolutionary bloc will reach such a point as to overwhelm the organization of the masses around proletarian slogans. Therefore it is not excluded that power will remain in the hands of the bourgeoisie, that the transfer of power to the Soviets of workers' and soldiers' deputies will not occur. Conclusion: the task before us is not the overthrow of the Provisional Government: it is sustained by the confidence of the petty-bourgeois and in part of the workers' masses – but rather the careful elucidation of class tasks and organization.