During the era of the provisional government, a system of dual sovereignty ruled Russia. The relevance of the dual power concept to the transfer of sovereignty is frequently an intricate process. Dual sovereignty occurs when two factions each organize a de facto government for the same territory. In the Russian situation, these vying groups were the soviets (workers' councils) and the provisional government of Prince Vlov and Aleksandr Kerensky. The district soviets held the allegiance of the proletariat; the bourgeoisie supported the provisional government. This dual sovereignty inevitably resulted in bloody civil strife.
The breakdown of a single ruling authority actually did not begin with the establishment of the soviets; it began with the blatant lack of military discipline when the army diverted its brigades from fighting Germany to restoring order in Petrograd in the name of the tsar. Given the option of standing with the old guard of the government/aristocracy or standing with the Russian "narod" (people), the soldiers en masse took the side of the people. When they aided the revolution, the rivals of the de jure government won an element of legitimacy. Commanding officers were more reluctant to oppose the faltering provisional government and desperately tried to regain control of their troops.
After Nicholass II abdicated and was arrested, liberals controlling the government held philosophical ideals that worked at tremendous cross-purposes with the organized soviet system. In theory both groups sought a democratic Russia, but the tools required to build such a state from the wreckage of the tyrannical tsarist rule were in dispute. Liberals sought a parliamentary form of government and debated at great lengths how and when to hold free and fair elections. The soviets asserted that they should dictate policy for the sake of working-class people.
In April 1917 Leninists seized control of the Petrograd soviet, and the dual power arrangement shifted drasticly. The Bolsheviki gained more prominence and instigated political strikes at many factories. During the inter-revolutionary months Russian workers often labored with guns at their sides. The workers ostensibly opposed the single-manager system that dominated Russian industry. The Bolsheviki claimed the managers operated their factories the same way the old aristocracy operated Russia; they were only the pawns and symbols of a failing mechanism.
