The Beginning of Preparations for the Bolshevik Uprising: Voronezh Soldiers’ and Workers’ Activities after the Kornilov Action (September 1917)

Abstract

This article analyses the key changes that occurred in the early autumn of 1917 in the political life of Voronezh Province. The main factor of the changes was the failed Kornilov action, which led to tangible shifts in public and political moods. In the days of the action, an extraordinary body of power ("The Committee of Five") was created, and the mobilization of soldiers and proletarian activists was carried out for the first time. The uprising of September 1917 finally revealed the antagonism of the soldiers towards the officer corps, their preference for the Bolsheviks and their inclination to a radical solution to the question of power. Another consequence of the Kornilov action was the creation of armed detachments of workers in the industrial enterprises of the city. In the struggle for power, enterprise workers' detachments and the city-wide workers' squadron became the Bolsheviks' second, forceful resource after the soldiers. The Bolshevik mobilization of soldiers and some workers can be considered a key process in the political life of Voronezh in the months preceding the armed uprising.