July Days

For the diplomatic crisis that preceded World War I, see July Crisis.
Not to be confused with June Days.
July Days
Part of the Russian Revolution

Rioters on the Nevsky Prospect come
under machine gun fire, 17 July
Date16–20 July [O.S. 3–7 July] 1917
Location
Petrograd, Russia
Result

Government victory

  • Dispersion of demonstrations and strikes
  • Arrest of Bolshevik leaders
Belligerents
Bolsheviks
Supported by:
Anarchists
Socialist Revolutionaries (Left)		 Russia Provisional Government
Supported by:
Mensheviks
Socialist Revolutionaries (Right)
Commanders and leaders
Vladimir Lenin
Leon Trotsky
Grigory Zinoviev
Lev Kamenev
Fyodor Raskolnikov		 Russia Georgy Lvov
Russia Alexander Kerensky
Russia Lavr Kornilov
Strength
500,000 demonstrators,[1] 4,000–5,000 Red Guard soldiers, few hundred anarchist sailors, and 12,000 soldiers Several thousand police and soldiers

The July Days (Russian: Июльские дни) were a period of unrest in Petrograd, Russia, between 16–20 July [O.S. 3–7 July] 1917. It was characterised by spontaneous armed demonstrations by soldiers, sailors, and industrial workers engaged against the Russian Provisional Government.[2] The demonstrations were angrier and more violent than those during the February Revolution months earlier.[3]

The Provisional Government blamed the Bolsheviks for the violence brought about by the July Days and in a subsequent crackdown on the Bolshevik Party, the party was dispersed, many of the leadership arrested.[4] Vladimir Lenin fled to Finland, while Leon Trotsky was among those arrested.[5]

The outcome of the July Days represented a temporary decline in the growth of Bolshevik power and influence in the period before the October Revolution.[4]

  1. ^ Trotsky, Leon (1934). The History of the Russian Revolution. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd. p. 573.
  2. ^ Steinberg, Mark D. (2017). The Russian Revolution 1905-1921. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-19-922763-1.
  3. ^ Steinberg, Mark D. (2001). Voices of Revolution, 1917. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 152. ISBN 978-0-300-09016-1.
  4. ^ a b Steinberg, Mark D. (2001). Voices of Revolution, 1917. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 154–155. ISBN 978-0-300-09016-1.
  5. ^ Sauvain, Philip (1996). Key Themes of the Twentieth Century. United Kingdom: Stanley Thornes. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-7487-2549-6.