The Great War, which brought forth the Russian Revolution, continues to rage. In one moment on the Western Front, some 10,000 men and boys are killed or buried alive when the British detonate explosives under German trenches at Messines. Even more are dying in intense and strategically meaningless mountain fighting between Italy and Austria on the Southern Front.
Meanwhile, the United States is mobilizing to join the inter-imperialist struggle, subjecting millions of men to conscription. It will take the Americans many more months to train, equip and transport this force to France. In the meantime, the Allies fear that Russia, driven by the demand for peace among its workers and peasants, will withdraw from the fighting, ending the Eastern Front, thereby allowing Germany to bring its full force down on Britain and France before the US arrives. To forestall this, Wilson issues a public appeal to the Provisional Government, demanding that Germany be defeated before conditions of a “just” peace—supposedly without annexations—can be implemented.
In Petrograd, the differences between the various social forces involved in the revolution are sharpening. The Provisional Government, backed by the opportunist, populist, and “socialist” leaders in the Petrograd Soviet, confronts defiant Kronstadt sailors who refuse to recognize its authority.
Kronstadt, June 5 (May 23 OS): Kronstadt Soviet accepts ultimatum by the Provisional Government
As its conflict with the Provisional Government escalates, the Kronstadt Soviet holds an extraordinary session. Following the resolution of the Kronstadt Soviet from May 26 (May 13, O.S.), which declared that the Soviet holds all power in Kronstadt and will not answer to the Provisional Government, the Petrograd Soviet sent a high-ranking delegation to Kronstadt on June 1 (May 19, O.S.),…