clashed with the armed police , and raised the slogans like : “ down with the tsar ”; “ Down with War ”; “ We want bread ”. They armed themselves . The troops refused to fire at the striking workers . By Feb 27 evening , 60000 soldiers had joined the ranks of struggling workers . The workers and soldiers went on arresting the tsarist Ministers and Generals . They freed the revolutionaries and the political prisoners from the jails . They had joined the revolutionary struggle .
The February Bourgeois Revolution had won . There arose the Soviets of Workers and Soldiers Deputies on the very first day of revolution .
While the Bolsheviks were leading the masses in the struggle , the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks were busy in seizing the seats in the Soviets and building the majority there . The people believed that the Soviets would carry out all the revolutionary demands and conclude peace . But the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries secretly arrived at an agreement to form a Bourg eois Provisional Govt . Thus they had surrendered the power to the bourgeoisie . Dual Power
There emerged a state of “ dual power ” in Russia : I ) The Provisional Govt . ii ) The Soviets of Workers Deputies . But the millions of workers still stood undecided between the Bourgeois and proletariat . As a result , the majority of the Soviets were still in control of the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries who had surrendered the power to the bourgeoisie . The Bolsheviks , therefore , had to patiently explain the nature of Provisional Govt ; expose the treachery of the compromising parties to the workers and prepare them for a decisive battle for a Soviet Govt . At this time , the people were destroying the Monarchy roots and branch , but the bourgeois wanted to transfer the power to the tsar Michael Romanov . The people wanted the immediate termination of war , but the Provisional Govt . wanted to continue it . The people hoped to have full democratic liberties , but the Govt . was intensifying its assault on the rights in the name of restoring the discipline and order . These conditions had provided a fertile soil for the Bolsheviks to explain their policy to the workers .
In his historic April Thesis , Lenin had set the guide lines for the transformation of bourgeois revolution to socialist revolution . Noting that the Bolsheviks were in minority in the Soviets of Workers Deputies , Lenin said : “ As long as we are in minority we carry on the work of criticising and exposing the errors and at the same time we preach the necessity of transferring the state to theSoviets of Workers Deputies .” It only meant that the Bolsheviks were not aiming at immediate overthrow of the Provisional Govt ., but to muster strength by winning a majority in
10 the Soviets . The Bolsheviks called this as a “ peaceful development of revolution .”
The Bolsheviks organised and led series of massive protest demonstrations of workers . Hundreds of thousands of workers had participated in them raising the slogans like ‘ down with the war ’, ‘ publish all the secret treaties ’, ‘ all powers to the Soviets .’ The Provisional govt . sought to brutally suppress them . But , on many occasions , the govt . found its troops refusing to fire on the protesting workers . The crisis in the provisional govt . had intensified . A Coalition govt . was floated including the representatives of the bourgeoisie , Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries ( Kerensky , etc .).
The Bolsheviks had decided to further intensify the struggle . The slogans came to the fore : -End the Dual Power ; All Powers to the Soviets !; Confiscate all the landed estates of landlords !! ; The right of National Self determination to the Nations !!! The Bolsheviks had done an intensive and unrelenting work in the trade unions , army , navy and the soviets to strengthen themselves and prepare the working class for major and decisive battles in future .
On July 18 th , 1917 , the Mensheviks and Socialist revolutionaries called for a workers ’ demonstration hoping to strengthen their hold on workers and turn the workers against the Bolsheviks . But , knowing this design well , the Bolsheviks had worked energetically to make the demonstration a big success . 400 thousands of w orkers had participated in the demonstration raising the slogans like ‘ down with war ,’ ‘ down with 10 capitalist Ministers ’, ‘ all powers to the Soviets .’ The slogans of Mensheviks and socialist revolutionaries were simply lost in the sea of the revolutionary slogans of the Bolsheviks . At the end the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries found themselves in a great fiasco .
Yet , the majority of the Soviets remained with the Mensheviks and Socialist revolutionaries . The Bolsheviks needed to work more and wait more to win over the Soviets and to go in for a final revolutionary assault . As a result of tireless work of the Bolsheviks , the separate demonstrations of workers grew into general armed demonstrations . A few impetuous and left adventurist elements in the Bolshevik Party sought to provoke premature armed actions whom the leadership of the Party firmly admonished and averted . On another occasion , when a demonstration appeared to go out of control , the Bolshevik leaders had participated in it with a view to lend it a peaceful and orderly character . Hundreds of thousands of men and women marched to the Petrograd Head Quarters of the Soviets and raised their demands . The demonstration was peaceful and orderly despite heavy repression . The streets were full of workers and soldiers blood .
Class Struggle