The Summer Upheaval

Abstract

The uneasy balance of political forces in Petrograd was upset in April by the war issue. The war aims espoused by Foreign Minister Miliukov in his note of 18 April to the allied governments in which he reaffirmed Russia’s treaty obligations, thereby pledging to remain in the war until final victory was achieved, evoked wide opposition within the ranks of both the government and the Soviet. This opposition also spilled over into the streets, with demonstrations occurring on 20 and 21 April. The dispute over war aims led directly to the question of power in the revolution. In contrast to the situation in March, the approach to this question in late April and early May was characterised by wide agreement in both government and Soviet on the need for the inclusion of members of the Soviet in the ministry.¹ As a result, the ministry that emerged on 5 May from the discussions conducted by Prince Lvov was very different from that which had ruled in the early spring; while the first government was dominated by the right with only one representative of a left-wing party, the first coalition government had five from the left—two SRs (Chernov and Kerensky), two Mensheviks (Tsereteli and Skobelev) and one Popular Socialist (Peshekhonov). Of course the Socialists were still outnumbered by representatives from the right: there were four Kadets (Nekrasov, Shingarev, Manuilov and Shakhovskoi), two Octobrists (V. N. Lvov and Godnev), one Progressive (Konovalov, who joined the Kadets in June), and three non-party (G. E. Lvov, Tereshchenko and Pereverzev) members.