The Soviets (the term itself is Russian for ‘council’) were groups of critical importance in 1917. The Soviets were committees of representatives, elected by workers, soldiers and sailors – so by the nature of their membership they were militant, protective of working-class interests and hostile to both tsarist and bourgeois governments. The very first soviet had formed in St Petersburg in late 1905, as an umbrella group representing five different trade unions, 96 factories and more than 200,000 workers. Since the majority of these workers were not educated or politically informed, existing political parties encouraged their members to stand for election to the Soviet. The actions of the St Petersburg Soviet in 1905 ranged between organising and promoting strikes to defiance of government policy (one Soviet measure encouraged workers to refuse to pay income tax). The Soviet’s power in the capitol continued to increase throughout 1905 until chief minister Stolypin used troops to disperse the Soviet and arrest its leaders, including Trotsky. The soviets ceased to exist for a decade, though many recognised their revolutionary potential, Trotsky writing that “…the Soviet was the axis of all events, every thread ran towards it, every call to action emanated from it.

In late 1915 a Menshevik-dominated organisation called the Central Workers’ Group (CWG) was formed. As the war continued in 1916-17 this group radicalised to the extent where it was leading protests and promoting revolutionary ideas and slogans. After its leaders were arrested on the morning of February 27 the CWG decided to organise another Soviet of Workers’ Deputies, which they did the following day, electing more than 3,000 representatives, most from the military. Once again Mensheviks were in the majority amongst delegates, though other socialist groups were also represented. The reborn Soviet held a number of crowded, noisy but intense meetings (see picture) where many speakers were heard and the decrees and actions of the Provisional Government were scrutinised. On March 2 the Petrograd Soviet issued its famous ‘Order Number One’, which would come to undermine the authority of the Provisional Government. The order advised all workers, soldiers and sailors to abandon the use titles and ranks, to avoid surrendering weapons to officers and (more importantly) to refrain from following the orders of the Provisional Government unless they were approved and counter-signed by the Soviet itself. Much of Order Number One was driven by paranoia, especially the fear that tsarist officers would stage a right-wing counter-revolution.

In declaring itself a body with the power to review, approve or veto Provisional Government decisions, the Soviet laid the foundations for a diarchy or ‘dual power’ throughout much of 1917. Whereas the Provisional Government had assumed legitimate constitutional power through the elected Duma and the abdication of Nicholas II, the Soviet lacked legitimacy but possessed the trappings of real power: a broad membership, elected delegates, popular support, close ties with soldiers and workers which gave it control of the military, factories, postal services, telegraphs, railway infrastructure and so forth. In contrast the Provisional Government had no authority over these things unless its ‘orders’ were rubber-stamped by the Soviet leadership. Kerensky would later write that the Provisional Government had “authority without power” while the Soviet possessed “power without authority”; Trotsky suggested they had de jure and de facto power respectively. While this weakened the Provisional Government’s position considerably there was little danger of a second revolution while the Soviet was dominated by the more moderate Mensheviks. The events of 1917, however, would see a shift in this majority which would offer Lenin and the Bolsheviks a possible route to power.