Petrograd Soviet
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Formation | March 12, 1917 |
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Dissolved | 1924 (renamed Leningrad Soviet) |
Location |
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Chairman |
The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies (Russian: Петроградский совет рабочих и солдатских депутатов, Petrogradskij sovjet rabočih i soldatskih deputatov) was a city council of Petrograd (Saint Petersburg), the capital of Russia at the time. For brevity, it is usually called the Petrograd Soviet (Russian: Петроградский совет, Petrogradskiy soviet).
The Soviet was established in March 1917 after the
Formation
Before 1914, Petrograd was known as
On January 27, 1917 (all dates
That evening, between 69 and 300 people attended the meeting at the Tauride Palace. A provisional executive committee (Ispolkom) was chosen, named "Provisional Executive Committee of the Soviet of Workers' Deputies" and chaired by Nikolay Chkheidze, and with mostly Menshevik deputies. (Chkheize was replaced by Irakli Tsereteli in late March). Izvestia was chosen as the official newspaper of the group. The following day, February 28, was the plenary session; elected representatives from factories and the military joined the soviet, and again moderates dominated. Non-representative voting and enthusiasm gave the Soviet almost 3,000 deputies in two weeks, of which the majority were soldiers. The meetings were chaotic, confused, and unruly, little more than a stage for speechmakers. The party-based Ispolkom quickly took charge of actual decision-making.
Chairmen
- Nikolay Chkheidze, March 12 – September 19, 1917
- Leon Trotsky, 25 September [O.S. 8 October] 1917.[1] – 26 October [O.S. 8 November] 1917
- Grigory Zinoviev, December 13, 1917 – March 26, 1926
Executive committee
The members of the executive committee, called Ispolkom, came only from political groups, with every socialist party given three seats (agreed March 18). This created an intellectual and radical head to the peasant-, worker-, and soldier-dominated body. The executive committee meetings were more intense and almost as disorderly as the public meetings and were often extremely long.
On March 1, the executive committee resolved to remain outside any new
Other committees
- Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee (Milrevkom)
- Committee on Revolutionary Defense
Power struggle with the Provisional Government
The Petrograd Soviet developed into an alternate source of authority to the Provisional Government under (Prince) Georgy Lvov and later Alexander Kerensky.
This created a situation described as dvoevlastie (
The Ispolkom (the "executive committee") of the Petrograd Soviet often publicly attacked the Provisional Government as
In March 1917, the Petrograd Soviet was opposed to the workers, which protested its deliberations with strikes.
The
Rise of the Bolsheviks
The rise of the Bolsheviks throughout 1917 is known as the Bolshevization of soviets. The Bolsheviks rapidly assumed the mantle of the official opposition, and took advantage of the new socialist presence in the Cabinet to attack them for the failures of the Provisional Government. The Bolsheviks began a strong run of propaganda. In June, 100,000 copies of Pravda (including Soldatskaya Pravda, Golos Pravdy, and Okopnaya Pravda) were printed daily. In July, over 350,000 leaflets were distributed. The July Days riots from July 16–17, inspired but not led by the Bolsheviks, were without success.
The rise of Kerensky, and the later shock of the Kornilov affair, polarized the political scene. The Petrograd Soviet moved steadily leftwards, just as those of the center and right consolidated around Kerensky. Despite the events in July, the Ispolkom moved to protect the Bolsheviks from serious consequences, adopting resolutions on August 4 and August 18 against the arrest and prosecution of Bolsheviks. Still wary of the Ispolkom, the government released many senior Bolsheviks on bail or promise of good behavior.
In the August 20 municipal elections, the Bolsheviks took a third of the votes, a 50% increase in three months.
During the Kornilov affair, the Ispolkom was forced to use the Bolsheviks' military as its main force against the "counter-revolution". Kerensky ordered the distribution of 40,000 rifles to the workers of Petrograd (some Red Guards), many of which ended in the hands of Bolshevik groups.[citation needed]
As other socialist parties abandoned[citation needed] the Soviet organizations, the Bolsheviks increased their presence. On September 25, they gained a majority in the Workers' Section and Leon Trotsky was elected chairman. He directed the transformation of the Soviet into a revolutionary organ according to Bolshevik policies.
October days of 1917
On October 6, with a German advance threatening the city, the government - after advice from the military – made plans to evacuate to Moscow. The Ispolkom attacked the move, and Trotsky had the soldiers' section, who were mostly Mensheviks, vote on a resolution condemning the evacuation. The Provisional Government postponed evacuation indefinitely. Its attempts to dispatch Petrograd garrison units to the front were resisted by the troops and by the Ispolkom.
On October 9, the Soviets considered the creation of a Committee of Revolutionary Defense. The Bolsheviks and Trotsky amended the resolution to include security of Petrograd against both German and domestic threats. The Plenum of the Soviet voted for a committee to "gather... all the forces participating in the defense of Petrograd... to arm the workers... ensuring the revolutionary defense of Petrograd... against the... military and civilian Kornilovites."
The Ispolkom approved the resolution, against Menshevik resistance, on October 12, and the Soviet approved it on October 16 (despite warnings by the Mensheviks and SRs), creating the Military Revolutionary Committee (Voenno-Revoliutsionnyi Komitet), also called the Milrevcom or Military Committee.
The Military-Revolutionary Committee was chaired by Pavel Lazimir, with Nikolai Podvoisky as his deputy. It was a front for the activities of the Bolshevik's Military Organization. Podvoisky would take official control of the committee on the day of the uprising, with Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko as secretary. The Ispolkom and the Provisional Government had been cut out of control of the forces in the Petrograd Military District, since very few of them remained loyal to them.
The Military Staff was sidelined on the night of October 21, when the Milrevcom took exclusive control of the garrison in the name of the Soldiers' Section of the Soviet. The District Commander, Colonel Polkovnikov, refused to allow this control, and he and his staff were condemned in a Milrevcom public statement as "a direct weapon of the counter-revolutionary forces". The military command responded with an ultimatum to the Soviet, which led to delaying negotiations and meetings on October 23 and 24.
The Bolshevik-popular uprising began on October 24, when "liberal" forces tried to shut down Pravda and take other steps to secure the government. The Milrevcom sent armed groups to seize the main telegraph offices and lower the bridges across the Neva. That night, the Bolsheviks took control quickly and easily, since the vast majority of both the guard and the workers had sided with them, participating in the plans of the "Milrevcom".
The following morning at 10 am, the Milrevcom issued an announcement written by Lenin, declaring the end of the Provisional Government and the transfer of power to the Petrograd Soviet. In the early afternoon, Trotsky convened an Extraordinary Session of the Petrograd Soviet, to preempt the Congress of Soviets. It was packed with Bolsheviks and Left SR deputies.
That evening, the Second Congress of Soviets opened in the Assembly Hall in Smolny. The 600 or so delegates chose a Presidium of 3 Mensheviks and 21 Bolsheviks and Left SRs.
The following day, the Ispolkom rejected the workings of the Congress and called on the Soviets and the army to defend the Revolution. But in the evening, the Congress dismissed the Ispolkom and replaced it with a new group of 101 members (62 Bolsheviks) under
References
- ^ Wade 2004, p. xxi
- ^ a b Tony Cliff Lenin 2 Chapter 12 Lenin and Workers’ Control, section The Rise of Factory Committees
- Wade, Rex A., ed. (2004). Revolutionary Russia: New Approaches. ISBN 9780415307482. - Total pages: 275