The soldiers of the Petrograd garrison played the key role in the victory of the February revolution in 1917. Everyday life hardships in barracks, cruel treatment by officers, unwillingness to carry on the war resulted in their active participation in the armed uprising on February 27.

On the night of February 28, 1917, the Chairman of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma Mikhail Rodzyanko ordered all the lower ranks and military units of the Petrograd garrison to return to their barracks and officers to restore order. At the Petrograd Soviet meeting on February 28, most of the workers’ and soldiers’ deputies condemned this order as counter-revolutionary and insisted on summarizing their requirements in a special document.

The commission chaired by a Social Democrat Nikolay Sokolov, a member of the Soviet Executive Committee together with the Bolshevik soldiers prepared the draft order, which was adopted at the meeting of the Soviet on March 1, 1917 as the Order No. 1. The Order addressed to the garrison of Petrograd Military District. All the soldiers of the guard, the army, the artillery and the fleet were to carry out the order immediately and precisely, the workers of Petrograd were to be informed.

The main purpose of the document was the fixation and intensification of the revolutionary changes in the army. The order stated to form the elective committees of the lower ranks in all units with giving them control over the armament, elect the units delegates to the Petrograd Soviet, submit the garrison to the Soviet. The order provided the lower ranks when out of service and duty with rights equal to all other citizens in their political, civil and private lives, cancelled the formal army rules which irritated the soldiers most of all (e.g. compulsory saluting to the officers when out of duty), forbad officers harshness to soldiers.

On March 2, 1917, the Order No. 1 was published in the Izvestia [news] of the Petrograd Soviet. Its influence spread far beyond the district and affected the army immensely, having undermined the authority of the officers and reduced the combat effectiveness of the troops.