This article by Trotsky was written in the immediate aftermath of
the July Days, following the (temporary) defeat of the spontaneous
demonstrations of the Petrograd workers. 95 Years on the revolutionary
movements in the Arab world over the past 18 months and the turmoil in
Spain and pre-revolutionary situation in Greece demonstrate that the
events of 1917 are worthy of study for more than academic interest.
This article by Trotsky was written in the immediate aftermath of
the "July Days," following the (temporary) defeat of the spontaneous
demonstrations of the Petrograd workers. 95 Years on the revolutionary
movements in the Arab world over the past 18 months and the turmoil in
Spain and prerevolutionary situation in Greece demonstrate that the
events of 1917 are worthy of study for more than academic interest. With
acknowledgements to the Marxist Internet Archive
Blood has flowed in the streets of Petrograd. A tragic
chapter has been added to the Russian Revolution. Who is to blame? “The
Bolsheviks,” says the man in the street, repeating what his newspapers
tell him. The sum total of these tragic happenings is exhausted, as far
as the bourgeoisie and the time-serving politicians are concerned, in
the words: Arrest the ringleaders and disarm the masses. And the object
of this action is to establish “revolutionary order”. The
Social-Revolutionists and the Mensheviks, in arresting and disarming the
Bolsheviks, are prepared to establish “order”. There is only one
question: What kind of order, and for whom?
The Revolution aroused great hopes in the masses. Among the masses of
Petrograd, who played a leading role in the Revolution, these hopes and
expectations were cherished with exceptional earnestness. It was the
task of the Social-Democratic Party to transform these hopes and
expectations into clearly-defined political programmes to direct the
revolutionary impatience of the masses in the channel of a planful
political action. The Revolution was brought face to face with the
question of state power. We, as well as the Bolshevik
organization, stood for a handing over of all power to the Central
Committee of the Councils of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’
Delegates. The upper classes, and among them we must include the
Social-Revolutionists and the Mensheviks, exhorted the masses to support
the Miliukov-Guchkov government. Up to the last moment, that is, up to
the time when these more distinctly imperialist figures of the first
Provisional Government resigned, both the above-mentioned parties were
firmly united with the government all along the line. Only after the
reconstruction of the government did the masses learn from their own
newspapers that they had not been told the whole truth, that they had
been deceived. They were then told they must trust the new “coalition”
government. The revolutionary Social Democracy predicted that the new
government would not differ essentially from the old, that it would not
make any concessions to the Revolution and would again betray the hopes
of the masses. And so it came to pass. After two months of a policy of
weakness, of demands for confidence, of verbose exhortations, the
government’s position of beclouding the issues could no longer be
concealed. It became clear that the masses had once more – and this time
more cruelly than ever before – been deceived.
The impatience and the mistrust of the great body of workers and
soldiers in Petrograd was increasing, not day by day, but hour by hour.
These feelings, fed by the prolonged war, so hopeless for all
participating in it, by economic disorganization, by an invisible
setting up of a general cessation of the most important branches of
production, found their immediate political expression in the slogan:
“All Power to the Soviets!” The retirement of the Cadets and the
definite proof of the internal bankruptcy of the Provisional Government
convinced the masses still more thoroughly that they were in the right
as opposed to the official leaders of the Soviets. The vacillations of
the Social-Revolutionists and the Mensheviks simply added oil to the
flames. The demands, almost persecution, addressed to the Petrograd
garrison, requiring them to inaugurate an offensive, had a similar
effect. An explosion became inevitable.
All parties, including the Bolsheviks, took every step to prevent the
masses from making the demonstration of July 16; but the masses did
demonstrate, and with weapons in their hands, moreover. All the
agitators, all the district representatives declared on the evening of
July 16 that the July 17 demonstration, since the question of power
remained unsettled, was bound to take place, and that no measures could
hold back the people. That is the only reason why the Bolshevik Party,
and with it our organization, decided not to stand aloof and wash its
hands of the consequences, but to do everything in its power to change
the July 17 affair into a peaceful mass demonstration. No other was the
meaning of the July 17 appeal. It was, of course, clear, in view of the
certain intervention of counter-revolutionary gangs, that bloody
conflicts would arise. It would have been possible, it is true, to
deprive the masses of any political guidance, to decapitate them
politically, as it were, and, by refusing to direct them, to leave them
to their fate. But we, being the Workers’ Party, neither could nor would
follow Pilate’s tactics: we decided to join in with the masses and to
stick to them, in order to introduce into their elemental turmoil the
greatest measure of organization attainable under the circumstances, and
thus to reduce to a minimum the number of probable victims. The facts
are well known. Blood has been spilled. And now the “influential” press
of the bourgeoisie, and other newspapers serving the bourgeoisie, are
attempting to put on our shoulders the entire burden of responsibility
for the consequences – for the poverty, the exhaustion, the disaffection
and the rebelliousness of the masses. To accomplish this end, to
complete this labour of counter-revolutionary mobilization against the
party of the proletariat, there issue forth rascals of anonymous,
semi-anonymous or publicly branded varieties, who circulate accusations
of bribery: blood has flowed because of the Bolsheviks, and the
Bolsheviks were acting under the orders of Wilhelm.
We are at present passing through days of trial. The steadfastness of
the masses, their self-control, the fidelity of their “friends”, all
these things are being put to the acid-test. We are also being subjected
to this test, and we shall emerge from it more strengthened, more
united, than from any previous trial. Life is with us and fighting for
us. The new reconstruction of power, dictated by an inescapable
situation, and by the miserable half-heartedness of the ruling parties,
will change nothing and will solve nothing. We must have a radical
change of the whole system. We need revolutionary power.
The Tseretelli-Kerensky policy is directly intended to disarm and
weaken the left wing of the Revolution. If, with the aid of these
methods, they succeed in establishing “order”, they will be the first –
after us, of course – to fall victims of this “order”. But they will not
succeed. The contradiction is too profound, the problems are too
enormous to be disposed of by mere police measures.
After the days of trial will come the days of progress and victory.
