Was Vladimir Lenin a member of the Bolshevik Political Party or the Petrograd Soviet Party?
There was no soviet party. The soviets were councils that were spontaneously springing up across the country as the Provisional Government lost legitimacy and authority. They were running everything from factories to city districts. Lenin realised that by controlling a few key posts on the important soviets the Bolsheviks could control the soviet. The Bolsheviks organised a meeting of representatives of the major soviets – the Supreme Soviet – and demanded, through their slogan “all power to the soviets” that the Provisional Government hand over power to this body. Lenin was the founder of the the Bolshevik party.
