The Mensheviks and SRs dominated the popular movement in spring and summer i9i7. In late May 537 SR delegates confronted a mere fourteen Bolsheviks at the First Congress of Peasant Soviets. At the beginning of June, 285 SRs, 248 Mensheviks and only 105 Bolsheviks attended the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets.[86] The First World War had caused Mensheviks and SRs to split between internationalists, who refused to support either side in the war, and defencists, who believed that an Allied victory would represent a triumph of democracy over Austro-German militarism. Tsereteli's policy of 'revolutionary defencism' did something to heal the rift in the Menshevik Party, but the decision to join the coalition opened up new divisions. From summer L. Martov, leader of the internationalist wing, advocated the creation of a purely socialist government and the imposition of direct state controls on industry. But the centre-right insisted that there was no alternative to a coalition with the 'bourgeoisie' given that socialism was not yet feasible in Russia. It is difficult to estimate the number of Mensheviks, since many provincial organisations of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party had declined to split into Menshevik and Bolshevik factions.[87] By May there may have been as many as 100,000, half of them in Georgia, the faction's stronghold; this probably rose to nearly 200,000 by autumn, only to fall to 150,000 by December. Intellectuals dominated the leadership of the Mensheviks, but its members were overwhelmingly workers.[88]
The SRs were the largest political party in 1917. In spring they had about half a million members, which rose to 700,000 by autumn (including Left SRs).[89]They were seen as the party of the peasantry, since they had invested much energy into organising the villages in 1905-7, but they also had a strong base in the factories and armed forces.[90] The February Revolution exacerbated divisions within the party. Viktor Chernov, leader of the centrist majority, approved the policy of coalition on the grounds that it would increase the influence of the 'democracy' within government. He took up the post of minister of agriculture and was active in preparing land redistribution, but his support for legality and 'state-mindedness' alienated him from the party's peasant base. The Left SRs, who were hostile to the 'imperialist' war, began to crystallise as a distinct faction in May; they supported the peasants' seizure of landowners' estates and favoured a homogeneous socialist government rather than a coalition with the 'bourgeoisie'. Their influence grew, and by autumn a majority of party organisations in the provinces had come out in favour of soviet power.
On 3 April, V. I. Lenin returned to Russia from Switzerland. Apart from a six-month stay in 1905-6, he had been away from his native land for almost seventeen years and his record as a revolutionary was largely one of failure.[91]Yet his hatred of liberalism and parliamentarism, his implacable opposition to the 'imperialist' war and his appreciation of the mass appeal of soviets oriented him well to the new conditions in Russia. Prior to his return, the Bolshevik Party was also divided, the return of L. B. Kamenev and Joseph Stalin from Siberian exile having committed it to qualified support for the Provisional Government, a revolutionary defencist position on the war and to negotiations with the Mensheviks to reunify the RSDRP. In his April Theses Lenin fulminated against these policies, insisting that there could be no support for the government of'capitalists and landlords', that the character of the war had not changed, and that the Bolsheviks should campaign for power to be transferred to a state-wide system of soviets. The war had convinced Lenin that capitalism was bankrupt and that socialism was now on the agenda internationally. L. D. Trotsky welcomed his conversion to a view that the revolution in Russia could trigger international socialist revolution. Though more unified politically than the other socialist parties, the Bolsheviks nevertheless remained rather diverse; the more moderate views of Kamenev or G. E. Zinoviev continued to command support, so that key committees like those in Moscow and Kiev would oppose the plan to seize power in October.[92] Owing to wartime repression, the number of Bolsheviks may have fallen as low as 10,000, but in the course of 1917 tens of thousands of workers, soldiers and sailors flooded into the party, knowing little Marx but seeing in the Bolsheviks the most committed defenders of their class interests. By October party membership had risen to at least 350,000.[93]
Six Mensheviks and SRs entered the government on 5 May, believing that their action would hasten the advent of peace. Almost immediately, they became involved in Kerensky's preparations for a new military offensive. This was motivated by his desire to see Russia honour her treaty obligations to the Allies and be guaranteed a place in the comity of democratic states. Keren- sky toured the fronts, frenetically whipping up support for an offensive. On 18-19 July only forty-eight battalions refused to go into battle, but most had rallied for the last time. The offensive was a fiasco and led to about I50,000 losses and a larger number of deserters.[94] In its wake the Russian army unravelled as soldiers despaired of seeing an end to the bloodshed, grew angry at the unequal burden of sacrifice and determined to lay hands on gentry estates.
Left SRs and Bolsheviks - whose support was now growing - found their denunciation of the war falling on receptive ears.[95]
On 3 July the Kadet ministers resigned from the government, ostensibly over concessions made to Ukrainian nationalism.[96] By 2 a.m., 60,000 to 70,000 armed soldiers and workers had surrounded the Tauride Palace in Petrograd to demand that the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets (VTsIK) take power. The latter condemned the demonstration as 'counter-revolutionary' and denounced the Bolsheviks for attemptingto 'dictate withbayonets'thepol- icy of the Soviets. Although lower-level Bolshevik organisations were involved in the demonstration, party leaders considered this attempted uprising premature. As more and more soldiers and workers came onto the streets, however, they decided to lead the movement. By the next day, a semi-insurrection was under way. That night the government brought in troops to protect the Soviet, and news that a powerful force was on its way from the northern front, together with the increasingly ugly character of the demonstrations (estimates of total dead and wounded in two days of rioting ran to 400), caused regiments that had been raring for action to lose heart. Kerensky vowed 'severe retribution' on the insurgents and issued orders for the arrest of leading Bolsheviks and for the closure of their newspapers. On 7 July, he formed a 'government of salvation of the revolution' and on 21 July, after threatening to resign, persuaded the Kadets to join a second coalition government. It looked as though the Bolshevik goose had been truly cooked.
86
Oskar Anweiler,
87
Ziva Galili,
88
Z. Galili et al. (eds.),
90
The following is based on O. H. Radkey,
91
The following is based on Robert Service,
92
Robert Service,
94
Figes,
95
A. K. Wildman,
96
The following is based on: Alexander Rabinowitch,