The Trial of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies, 1906

This article is the first to reconstruct the trial of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies that took place over June and September-October 1906. It is rich in narrative detail from surveillance and arrest, indictment, trial, and post-trial events. It corrects Trotskii's autobiographical account of the trial. It demonstrates how Okhrana records and witness statements and court testimony contain new data on the Soviet's social composition. It reflects that post-autocracy some of the trial's main actors, serving in the Russian Provisional Government, sought to abolish political trials while others, joining the Bolsheviks, resorted to political trials to maintain power.