In just a few days, the February Revolution swept away Russian tsarism. After the revolt, the elected Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies stood side by side with the unelected Provisional Government. Its role throughout 1917 couldn’t have been more pivotal.

Militant workers had initiated the first soviet during the mass general strike of 1905. The idea had become so ingrained in the revolutionary movement that, on the second day of the 1917 uprising, some factories began electing representatives in anticipation of the new soviet’s creation.

But, when the Mensheviks convened the group on February 27, moderate socialist Alexander Kerensky promised that it would work to “maintain order.” Unlike the 1905 edition — which had served as an organ of struggle — the Petrograd Soviet almost exclusively elected intellectuals who had not actively participated in the revolution to the executive committee.