ABSTRACT
November 7, 1917, marked a great victory for the Bolsheviks. With major discontent working in his favor, Lenin had successfully guided the Bolsheviks, a handful of men, to power. In March 1917 the Bolsheviks had only scattered support among the workers. Denied by the Tsar, the right to strike, like fee right to organize, was held to be a matter of principle, and the legislation of 1917 legitimatizing strikes was viewed as a major victory of the March Revolution. The First Trade Union Congress convened in Petrograd in January 1918. The issue of union power was raised at the Second Trade Union Congress, which convened in January 1919. Like the First Congress, it was dominated by the Bolsheviks. In the final analysis, the Bolsheviks had won a major victory and could breathe more easily. In a major sense, the threat of a labor movement advocating independent trade unions, which would have jeopardized their regime, had been successfully met.
