The Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ Deputies (from March 1 – Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies) was established during the February Revolution on February 27, 1917.

In the middle of the day on February 27, the Mensheviks’ leaders and the members of the Working Group under the Central Military-Industrial Committee (Kuzma Gvozdev, Nikolay Chkheidze, Mikhail Skobelev, and others) released from the Kresty prison formed the Provisional Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet in the Tauride Palace. The committee published an appeal to the workers and soldiers to elect 1 deputy from 1,000 workers and 1 deputy from a company of soldiers and to send them by 7 pm to the Tauride Palace for the first meeting of the Petrograd Soviet.

The first meeting of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ Deputies took place on February 27 at 9 pm, it elected an Executive Committee of 15 people, with the Menshevik Nikolay Chkheidze as the Chairman, and the Menshevik Mikhail Skobelev and the Socialist Revolutionary (SR) Alexander Kerensky as Deputy Chairmen. At the first meeting of the Executive Committee on the night of February 28, the Bolshevik, the Menshevik, and Socialist Revolutionary parties obtained the right to additionally delegate three representatives with a decisive vote each.

The leading positions in the Executive Committee, the main working body of the Soviet, were held by representatives of moderate socialist parties, primarily, the leaders of the Mensheviks and SRs. Based on the postulate that after the bourgeois-democratic revolution the power should belong to the bourgeoisie, the Soviet’s leaders during negotiations with the Provisional Committee of the State Duma agreed that the power should belong to the Provisional Government. At the same time, on March 1, the Executive Committee decided against entering the Soviet’s representatives in the future cabinet (despite this, Alexander Kerensky took over as Minister of Justice).

However, it was the Petrograd Soviet that the workers and soldiers in the capital considered their organ of power. Under pressure from the revolutionary soldier masses, on March 1, the Soviet decided against the disarmament and withdrawal of Petrograd garrison troops and issued the Order No. 1 on the democratization of the army. Thus, the Soviet participated in the adoption of power decisions, which resulted in a state of dual power involving the Soviet and the Provisional Government.