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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