Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 26 - From Marx to Mao

532 NOTESoffensive which proved a fiasco. It started on July 3 (16) witha demonstration by the First Machine- Gun Regiment in the VyborgDistrict, and threatened to develop into an armed revoltagainst the Provisional Government.The Bolshevik Party was opposed to insurrection at that timebecause it believed that the revolutionary crisis had not yet cometo a head. The Central Committee, meeting at 4.00 p.m. on July3 (16), decided to refrain from taking action, and a similardecision was adopted by the Second Petrograd City Conference ofBolsheviks which was just then in session. Its delegates wentto the factories and the districts to stop the masses from goinginto action, but the movement had already got underway andnothing could be done to stop it.Late that night, the Central Committee, together with thePetrograd Committee and the Military Organisation, took accountof the mood of the masses and decided to take part in the demonstrationto lend it a peaceful and organised character. Lenin wasaway on a short holiday after an exhausting stretch of work.Being informed of the events, he returned to Petrograd on themorning of July 4 (17) and assumed leadership.More than 500,000 persons took part in the demonstration onJuly 4 (17). The demonstrators carried Bolshevik slogans, suchas “All Power to the Soviets”, and demanded that the All- RussiaCentral Executive Committee of the Soviet should take power.But the Socialist- Revolutionary and Menshevik leaders refusedto do so. The Provisional Government, with the knowledge andconsent of the Central Executive Committee, which was dominatedby the Mensheviks and Socialist- Revolutionaries, sent detachmentsof officer cadets and Cossacks to attack and shoot down the peacefuldemonstrators. Counter- revolutionary troops were brought infrom the front to disperse the demonstrations.That night, Lenin presided at a meeting of members of theCentral Committee and the Petrograd Committee, which adopteda decision to stop the demonstrations in an organised manner.This was a wise step, for it helped to save the main revolutionaryforce from defeat. The Mensheviks and Socialist- Revolutionariesacted in a manner which helped the counter- revolutionaries: theyjoined the bourgeoisie in attacking the Bolshevik Party. The Bolsheviknewspapers, Pravda, Soldatskaya Pravda (Soldiers’ Truth ) andothers were closed down by the Provisional Government, whilethe Trud Printing House, operated on funds donated by the workers,was destroyed. The workers were disarmed and arrested,and searches and persecution were started. The revolutionary unitsof the Petrograd garrison were withdrawn from the capital andsent to the front.After the July events, power in the country passed into thehands of the counter- revolutionary Provisional Government, withthe Soviet an impotent appendage. The period of dual power wasat an end, and so was the revolution’s peaceful stage. The Bolshevikswere faced with the task of preparing an armed insurrectionto overthrow the Provisional Government. p. 23