Petrograd Soviet
| Formation | March 12, 1917 |
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| Extinction | 1924 (succeeded by Lensoviet) |
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The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies (Russian: Петроградский Совет рабочих и солдатских депутатов, Petrogradskiy soviet rabochikh i soldatskikh deputatov) was a city council of Petrograd (Saint Petersburg), the capital of the Russian Empire. For brevity, it is usually called the Petrograd Soviet (Russian: Петроградский совет, Petrogradskiy soviet). During the revolutionary days, the council tried to extend its jurisdiction nationwide as a rival power center to the Provisional Government, creating what in the Soviet historiography is known as the Dvoyevlastiye (Dual power). Its committees were key components during the Russian Revolution and some of them led the armed revolt of October Revolution. The soviet was established in March 1917 after the February Revolution as a representative body of the city's workers and soldiers, while the city already had its well established city council, the (Central Duma).
Before 1914, Petrograd was known as Saint Petersburg, and in 1905 the workers' soviet called the St Petersburg Soviet was created. But the main precursor to the 1917 Petrograd Soviet was the Central Workers' Group (Центральная Рабочая Группа, Tsentral'naya Rabochaya Gruppa), founded in November 1915 by the Mensheviks to mediate between workers and the new Central Military-Industrial Committee in Petrograd. The group became increasingly radical as World War I progressed and the economic situation worsened, encouraging street demonstrations and issuing revolutionary proclamations.
On January 27, 1917 (all dates Old Style) the entire leadership of the Central Workers' Group was arrested and taken to the Peter and Paul Fortress on the orders of Alexander Protopopov, the Minister of the Interior in Imperial Russia. They were freed by a crowd of disaffected soldiers on the morning of February 27, the beginning of the February Revolution, and the chairman convened a meeting to organize and elect a Soviet of Workers' Deputies that day.
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