(1917) Period in the Russian Revolution of 1917 during which Petrograd workers and soldiers staged armed demonstrations against the provisional government that resulted in a temporary decline of Bolshevik influence and in the formation of a new provisional government headed by Aleksandr Kerensky .
To undermine Bolshevik popularity, the government produced evidence that Vladimir Ilich Lenin had ties with the German government. The public reacted against the Bolsheviks, Lenin fled to Finland, and Leon Trotsky and other leaders were jailed. The reorganized government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in October.