Bolshevik organizations of the Vyatka province in spring and autumn of 1917: a new reading of sources

The paper analyzes the social conditions for the Bolshevik organizations' formation in the Vyatka province in 1917. The state of the Bolshevik organizations of the Vyatka province in spring and autumn of 1917 is under investigation. On the base of archival sources and the critical analysis of the previously published materials, the author demonstrates the process of the emergence and development of the Bolshevik party organizations. The Vyatka Bolshevik organizations in 1917 were not able to form as a unified whole. Three almost independent centers in Vyatka, Glazov and Izhevsk and Votkinsk continued to exist, and there was a noticeable rivalry between them. The Vyatka organization was distinguished by its small number, general weakness, frequent change of composition, and limited number of activists. Analysis of the results of the first provincial party conference shows that the Vyatka organization had failed to get stronger, to gain the majority in the Vyatka Council and to ensure the capture of political power by October of 1917. During the Bolshevik revolution (November of 1917), the Vyatka Bolsheviks led by Mikhail Popov relied exclusively on the emerging Soviet apparatus and the armed forces sailors, red guards, and Latvians. That position was typical for Popov in January-March of 1918 as well, when he was the head of the Executive Committee of the Soviets. His policy therefore determined the mass anti-Bolshevik uprisings in 1918. The paper shows a valid role of Mikhail Popov in the life of the provincial Bolsheviks in 1917 and reveals some aspects of his political personality.