The First Coalition¶
Core Argument¶
Digest: The First Coalition
This chapter traces the revolutionary dynamic unleashed by the February Revolution, focusing on the war, the soldiers’ movement, and the formation of the first coalition government as a pivotal moment of betrayal. The core argument is that the masses, having overthrown the old regime, quickly discovered that the Provisional Government and its reformist socialist allies in the Soviet were determined to preserve the bourgeois order, above all by continuing the imperialist war. The celebrated Order Number One, described by Trotsky as “the single worthy document of the February Revolution,” is presented as the authentic voice of the soldiers: a democratic charter demanding elected committees, control of weapons, abolition of officers’ privileges, and obedience only to the Soviet. This document, born from the ranks themselves, struck at the “divine right” of the officer caste and the pillars of bourgeois authority. The reactionary officers, backed by the Mensheviks and SRs, tried to suppress it, but it spread through the army like wildfire.
The chapter draws on the classical Marxist theory of revolution to explain the subsequent trajectory. The initial “democratic illusions” and carnival of liberation inevitably give way to disappointment as the masses realise nothing has fundamentally changed. The advanced guard, grasping this first, instinctively pushes for precipitate action, creating a moment of acute danger: if it breaks away from the mass, it can be isolated and crushed. The duty of a revolutionary party is to restrain the advanced elements until the “reserve battalions” are in place. This theoretical framework is applied to the April demonstrations, the first “sortie” in a series of mass mobilisations that probed the enemy’s defences. The demonstrators, carrying Bolshevik slogans but acting spontaneously, forced a government crisis. The hated bourgeois ministers Guchkov and Milyukov resigned, and the Soviet leaders—Tsereteli, Chernov, Kerensky, and others—entered the government, forming the first coalition.
The chapter’s central polemic is directed against reformism and coalitionism in all its forms. The entry of the “socialist” ministers is denounced as a trap: they accepted portfolios in ministries that would bring them into conflict with workers and peasants, while real power remained with the bourgeoisie. This is compared to Millerandism in France, Lib-Lab politics in Britain, and the People’s Front governments of the 1930s—all justified by the empty slogan of “national unity,” which in reality signifies the “unity of the horse and its rider.” The reformists are exposed as “hostages” and “left cover” for a government preparing counter-reaction. The chapter argues that only the Bolsheviks, under Lenin’s guidance, remained untainted by coalition and thus free to organise opposition. This stance, initially seen as sectarian, proved decisive. The masses, through their own experience, could now compare words and deeds, and the ground was prepared for the reformists’ exposure.
The chapter also addresses the internal dynamics of the Bolshevik Party. The rapid influx of young, raw recruits—the party grew from perhaps 8,000 members nationally in February to 32,000 in Petrograd alone by late June—overwhelmed the conservative “Old Bolsheviks” and transformed the party. Lenin’s rejection of the ultra-left slogan “Down with the Provisional Government” in June-July is highlighted as a masterclass in revolutionary tactics: the slogan of insurrection did not correspond to the real stage of the movement, because the majority of workers and peasants still harboured illusions in the Mensheviks and SRs. The task was not to force a premature confrontation but to “patiently explain” and win the masses through experience. The chapter concludes by emphasising that the Bolsheviks’ success lay in their orientation towards the “deepest, most oppressed millions,” not the parliamentary top layer, and in their ability to distinguish themselves sharply from all factions of the bourgeoisie, including the false socialists who acted as its agents.