When the envoys
of the Machine Gun regiment arrived at Bolshevik headquarters in the former
palace of the ballerina Kshesinskaia that afternoon, the Central Committee
could not immediately decide whether the regiment’s armed manifestation was a
threat or an opportunity. The party had been calling for restraint, saying that
the press of events would offer a better time for action of this kind. The
reaction would be weaker if the government were weaker.
On the other hand
was the opportunity. Tomsky expounded what Lenin, who was absent in Finland,
might have thought, “It is impossible to talk of a manifestation at this moment
unless we want a new revolution.” That is, a proletarian revolution to overthrow the bourgeois-liberal
Provisional Government. But the risks of premature action appeared too great. Volodarsky
told the regimental envoys that the machine gunners “must submit to the
decisions of the party”; they were sent back to the regiment. An appeal for
restraint was prepared for front page of Pravda
the next morning.
The meeting broke up at about 4:00 p.m. and those attending
dispersed to the workers’ neighborhoods and the factories with the same
message. Stalin was dispatched to the headquarters of the Petrograd Soviet with
the news. He remained the party’s liaison with the Executive Committee
throughout the July Days.
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