But naturally the first aim of the revolution was
to extend its ideas to the rest of the country, for the actual overthrow of
the old order had been largely the work of Petrograd. The two tasks were
closely associated with one another, because one could not reorganize the
country for the war until the new ideas had taken root.
The first parliamentary leaders wished to use as the basis for carrying out
both tasks the old institutions, the municipal and provincial councils,
and the cooeperative societies, at the same time taking steps gradually
to democratize them. But the strictly revolutionary leaders wished to
democratize immediately, and put this forward as the first object to be
accomplished. So they demanded and promoted the organizing of revolutionary
democracy all over the country, through councils of workmen, soldiers, and
peasants, through army committees, land committees, professional unions,
and so forth. The champions of this immediate democratization policy were
almost exclusively members of the various socialist parties, some of
them representing the most extreme views. The majority of them were
not consciously striving to undermine the authority of the Provisional
Government. They recognized and in fact advocated the compromise
represented in the first group of leaders. They trusted most of them,
but wished at the same time to organize revolutionary democracy, for
self-protection for the moment, and perhaps for self-assertion at a
later date.
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