In most revolutions, where events are drawn out, particularly after the initial flush of victory, the masses can feel the gains of the revolution slipping from their hands. The advanced sections of the proletariat, realizing the dangerous situation, begin to become impatient and attempt to recapture the initiative. Such was the situation in late December 1918 and early January 1919 in Germany.
Similar parallels can be seen in the Russian Revolution, where in June and early July 1917, advanced layers of workers, particularly in Petrograd, moved towards the overthrow of the Provisional Government. In the “July Days”, workers in revolutionary Petrograd organized armed mass demonstrations against Kerensky, in response to the attempt by the Provisional Government to provocatively move out the Machine Gun Regiment to the front. Lenin saw the dangers of a premature move to seize power:
We must be especially attentive and careful, so as not to be drawn into a provocation…one wrong move on our part can wreck everything…
The Bolsheviks, however, did not stand aside from the revolutionary workers of Petrograd but, on the contrary, intervened at the head of the demonstrations in order to ensure their peaceful and organized character. That did not prevent reaction moving against the Bolshevik Party in July, but at least it was able to maintain intact the advance guard of the Russian proletariat. The Bolshevik Party’s actions won it enormous prestige amongst the working class, and prepared the ground for winning the majority of workers and peasants to the side of the party and preparing the ground for the success of the October Revolution.
Again similar occurrences can be seen in the Spanish Revolution during May 1937 in Barcelona. There the Republican government, under the pressure of the Stalinists who acted as a counter-revolutionary force, attempted to seize back the Barcelona telegraph exchange from the anarchists. This provocation resulted in a prolonged armed clash with the Republican government, and ended with the bloody suppression of the revolt and the banning of the workers’ organization, the POUM. This time, because there was no strong Bolshevik Party, the defeat in May was a crushing blow to the advanced revolutionary sections of the Spanish proletariat. It was to lay the basis for the defeat of the Spanish Revolution and the final victory of Franco in 1939.