‘The Commander-in-Chief’s Parliament’: The Practice of Dual Power in the Petrograd Garrison in 1917

Abstract

This article examines the functioning of military power in the Petrograd garrison during the revolution of 1917. This problem is viewed as part of a study of the dual power system. Formally, all power over the soldiers in Petrograd belonged to the Commander-in-Chief and the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District. However, the conditions of the revolution created a new contact body between the Commander and the Petrograd Soviet called the Commander's Council. This body solved a wide range of issues, but mainly controlled the withdrawal of military units from the city. The history of the Council demonstrates the periodisation of dual power from February to October. At the beginning, mistrust, then cooperation, then an attempt by the military command to take all power into their own hands, and, finally, the struggle of the Soviet for complete control over the garrison, which ended with the October uprising. The article concludes that dual power in this period of political instability reduced distrust in the decisions of the military authorities. However, it took an effort on both sides to keep the system in balance; attempts to assume complete power led to an open struggle.