Explanation: The Democratic-Socialist leaning Provisional Government of Russia after the February Revolution in 1917, which overthrew the Tsar, had actually imprisoned a number of Bolsheviks for attempting to overthrow the Provisional Government before elections were held.*
However, during a short-lived scare about a right-wing military coup (which, in a comedy of errors, may have been miscommunication all the way down), the socialist-leaning Provisional Government freed many Bolshevik leaders and even distributed government arms and ammunitions to Bolshevik supporters. Ultimately, this would prove unneeded, as once the troops realized they were being brought along for (what seemed like) a coup march on the government, they abandoned their leader long before any real clash happened.
Alexander Kerensky, (in)famously, would pursue a policy of “No enemies to the left” in domestic politiking from that point on… leading to the 1917 November Revolution, where the Bolsheviks couped the Provisional government, and the dissolution of the Russian Constituent Assembly in January 1918, wherein the Bolsheviks removed the elected officials of Russia’s only free and fair elections, in a legislature that had successfully returned a socialist (but not Bolshevik) supermajority.
*It’s actually disputed how involved the Bolshevik leadership was with the attempt, but the Bolshevik-leaning Soviet councils blamed the Bolshevik leadership, so arrests were probably inevitable.
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Explanation: The Democratic-Socialist leaning Provisional Government of Russia after the February Revolution in 1917, which overthrew the Tsar, had actually imprisoned a number of Bolsheviks for attempting to overthrow the Provisional Government before elections were held.*
However, during a short-lived scare about a right-wing military coup (which, in a comedy of errors, may have been miscommunication all the way down), the socialist-leaning Provisional Government freed many Bolshevik leaders and even distributed government arms and ammunitions to Bolshevik supporters. Ultimately, this would prove unneeded, as once the troops realized they were being brought along for (what seemed like) a coup march on the government, they abandoned their leader long before any real clash happened.
Alexander Kerensky, (in)famously, would pursue a policy of “No enemies to the left” in domestic politiking from that point on… leading to the 1917 November Revolution, where the Bolsheviks couped the Provisional government, and the dissolution of the Russian Constituent Assembly in January 1918, wherein the Bolsheviks removed the elected officials of Russia’s only free and fair elections, in a legislature that had successfully returned a socialist (but not Bolshevik) supermajority.
*It’s actually disputed how involved the Bolshevik leadership was with the attempt, but the Bolshevik-leaning Soviet councils blamed the Bolshevik leadership, so arrests were probably inevitable.