On this day in 1917, the "July Days" began in Petrograd, Russia when soldiers, sailors, and workers took up arms against the Russian Provisional Government, chanting "All Power to the Soviets" and holding Viktor Chernov hostage.

The July Days took place in the context of growing discontent against the Provisional Government and increasing support for the Bolsheviks. A few months earlier, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin gave his "April Theses", coming out in support of an armed, proletarian insurrection. By July, rank-and-file Bolsheviks were advocating overthrowing the Provisional Government.

On the morning of July 16th, after a disastrous offensive on World War I's Eastern Front, armed soldiers and workers marched through the streets of Petrograd, to the Tauride Palace. These demonstrators marched under the slogan "All Power to the Soviets", firing their rifles into the air and commandeering vehicles.

The following day at Tauride Palace, the crowd demanded to see a government official, and the Soviet Leaders sent out Viktor Chernov, a prominent member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. When he tried to calm the crowd, they seized him instead, with one protester famously shouting, "Take power, you son of a bitch, when it is handed to you!" He was released upon the urging on Leon Trotsky.

The military authorities sent troops against the demonstrators, leading to many arrests and deaths. The government disarmed workers, disbanded revolutionary military units, destroyed the headquarters of the Bolshevik Central Committee were destroyed, and ordered the arrest of Lenin, Trotsky, and other Bolshevik leaders.

Lenin was able to flee to Finland, while Trotsky was arrested alongside Anatoly Lunacharsky and Lev Kamenev. Although the Bolshevik Party's power was temporarily limited in the crackdown, they came to power in the October Revolution just a few months later.

Timeline of the Russian Revolution (1917)

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  • ElGosso [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    What's your communist origin story

    I worked a bunch of shit jobs and then went on 4chan and read about "Bike Lock Antifa" and was like "actually it's cool and good to hit white supremacists with a bike lock on a chain. What else are these Antifa up to?"

    • CrispyFern [fae/faer, any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I was a liberal because growing up I was taught that "democrat" and "republican" were the only 2 political positions that existed. I liked browsing "extreme" political subreddits mostly out of morbid curiosity, but also because of some misplaced "marketplace of ideology" ideas. Like, "how can I dismiss these people without first hearing them out? who knows, maybe naziism is the correct ideology?" :cringe:

      One day I came across r/completeanarchy. I had never heard of anarchism before and thought it was people who wanted to live in a mad max dystopia. After browsing for a while I realized that anarchism was actually cool as hell and I ended up reading Conquest of Bread during downtime at work. :kropotkin-shining:

      After a while I noticed posters there saying "Don't go to r/chapotraphouse, they're a bunch of redfash tankies", so of course I had to check it out. I realized that they were also cool as hell and ended up reading State and Revolution too. :lenin-shining:

      And that's how I became a communist :left-unity-2:

      • ElGosso [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Same, it was the default position for all contrarians in the early 2000s. Don't feel too bad.

    • JamesConeZone [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I discovered town and country magazine existed for people who own homes in the town and also in the country and immediately turned into Mao

    • zeal0telite [he/him,they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      No one was able to give me a satisfactory answer about why the world is the way it is.

      "Life's not fair"

      Okay? So why reward those who make it less fair? If life is inherently unfair shouldn't the goal be to minimise that unfairness?

      If an answer is not satisfactory as to why reality is reality then I must work to find one that does work.

    • Kanna [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I tried to figure out American electroal politics and it led me to communism after realizing Democrats don't care

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Some kids weren't sharing on the playground and I took that personally. When I was six. It's all been down hill from there.

    • Sandinband [any, comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Found memes that were funny and made sense to me, led to the sub, then the George Floyd uprising and covid happened which solidified that capitalism is awful, now I'm a full time fed

      Also growing up poor (in a weird way) made me more sympathetic but for some reason did the opsite for my siblings :/