July Days

Petrograd, 4 July 1917. Street demonstration on Nevsky Prospekt just after troops of the Provisional Government have opened fire with machine guns.

The July Days refers to events in 1917 that took place in Petrograd, Russia, between 3 July and 7 July ( Julian calendar ) (16 July - 20 July, Gregorian calendar ), when soldiers and industrial workers engaged in spontaneous demonstrations against the government. The Bolsheviks tried to provide leadership to the demonstrations. The military attacked the peaceful demonstration and engaged in repression against the Bolsheviks. Lenin went into hiding, while other leaders were arrested.^[1][2] The outcome of the July Days represented a temporary decline in the growth of Bolshevik power and influence in the period before the October Revolution.

Causes

The immediate cause of the July Days was in the events of late June and early July. There was an unsuccessful offensive at the front and the disbandment of military units. On 15 July the Cadets walked out of the Provisional Government, threatening the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionares (SR’s) with the breakup of the government coalition. A government crisis was the result.

Alexander Kerensky, then minister of war and navy, ordered a vast Russian offensive against Austro-Hungarian forces on 16 June. Despite initial successes, the Russians were defeated and the operation ended on 2 July, quickly to be followed by a combined counter-offensive by German and Austro-Hungarian forces on 6 July.

Anti-war feelings were rife among the populace at that time. These feelings intensified with the news of the failed offensive. Discontented workers started protests which soon spiraled into violent riots.

Demonstrations

On 16 July spontaneous demonstrations broke out in Petrograd. They were started by the soldiers of the 1st Machine-gun Regiment, who were influenced by the anarchists. At a secret conference on 15 July the anarchists had decided to call the Petrograd workers and soldiers out to an antigovernment demonstration. ^[3]

The machine gunners’ appeal met with a favorable response from the soldiers of the Moscow, Pavlovsky, Grenadiers, and 1st Reserve regiments. These units marched out in a demonstration under the slogans “All Power to the Soviets”. Workers from factories joined them. The leadership of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, dominated by Mensheviks and SRs, forbade the demonstration.

The Bolsheviks decided to provide leadership to the movement in order to give it an organized and peaceful character. On the afternoon of 17 July a peaceful demonstration of 500,000 workers, soldiers, and sailors under the slogan “All Power to the Soviets” was held. Antigovernment demonstrations were also held in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnoiarsk, and other cities.

The military authorities sent troops against the peaceful demonstration, leaving more than 700 people killed and wounded. The SR’s and Mensheviks supported punitive measures against the people. They began to disarm workers, disband revolutionary military units, and carry out arrests. On 18-19 July the offices and printing plant of Pravda and the headquarters of the Bolshevik Central Committee were destroyed. On 19 July the Provisional Government issued an order for the kidnapping of Lenin, who was forced to go underground. On 20 July troops loyal to the regime arrived in Petrograd from the front. ^[4]

Bolshevik involvement

The demands which the workers and soldiers took to the streets with in the July Days were influenced by the Bolshevik Party. 'All Power to the Soviets' and other slogans put forth by the Bolsheviks were taken up by the workers and soldiers on the streets. The demonstration was organized by the Bolshevik Military Organization without authorization from the Central Committee after pressure from rank and file soldiers. During the afternoon of 3 July the Central Committee with the support of Kamenev, Trotsky and Zinoviev decided to take action to restrain the developing situation. Under the pressure of what seemed like a developing mass demonstration of workers and soldiers in the streets, the leadership of the Bolshevik Military Organization, the Petersburg Committee and later on the Central Committee, reversed their decision, coming out in support of the street demonstrations. Both Trotsky and Zinoviev persistently argued that the street protests remain peaceful. After this decision, the Bolshevik Military Organization actively organized and supported the demonstration, mobilizing reinforcements from the front lines and dispatching armored cars to capture key posts including bridges and the Peter and Paul Fortress.

No public record was ever made of the internal debates of the Bolshevik Party around the July Days. There were some within the Bolshevik Party who advocated an intensification of activity on 4 July. Most prominent among those were Nikolai Podvoisky and Vladimir Nevsky, leaders of the Bolshevik Military Organization, Volodarsky a member of the Petersburg Committee and Martin Latis of the Vyborg District Bolshevik Organization, who was highly critical of the Central Committee's decision to hold back the masses. Others in the Bolshevik Party, including V.I. Lenin were split on what to do. On 5 July at two or three o'clock in the morning, after the Provisional Government dispatched a number of loyal troops from the front to the streets of Petrograd and won the support of a number of previously neutral garrisons of troops, the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party decided to call off the street demonstrations.

Consequences

Kerensky ordered the arrest of Lenin and the other leading Bolsheviks, accusing them of inciting revolt with German financial backing. Lenin successfully fled and went into hiding in Finland, but many other Bolshevik leaders were arrested, including Trotsky and Lunacharskii who were apprehended on 22 July. They remained in prison until Kerensky released them in response to the Kornilov Affair.

The government crisis was intensified by the resignation of Prime Minister Lvov. On 21 July Kerensky became prime minister. The SR-Menshevik leadership of the Soviets proclaimed the Provisional Government acknowledged it to have “unlimited powers.” The soviets became a powerless appendage of the government. The suppression of the demonstrations marked the end of dual power. The peaceful development of the revolution was seen as impossible.

References

Further reading

• Trotsky, Leon (1980). The History of the Russian Revolution. Pathfinder Press. ISBN 978-0873488297. 
• Cliff, Tony (2004). All Power to the Soviets: Lenin, 1914-1917. Haymarket Books. ISBN 978-1931859103. 
• Le Blanc, Paul (1993). Lenin and the Revolutionary Party. Humanity Books. ISBN 978-1573924276.