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its students later came to staff numerous posi-
tions in the Russian clergy and state.
Joseph was involved in two important reli-
gious controversies of his time. In the 1490s he
took a leading role in the church's attack on a
religious current that arose in
NOVGOROD
that
questioned basic Christian dogmas such as the
Trinity and the divinity of Christ as well as the
existing structure of the Orthodox Church.
Known by the inflammatory and misleading
name of “Judaizers,” these religious dissidents
were eventually condemned in 1504 as heretics.
Some of their leaders were executed and others
were imprisoned. Joseph is also known for his
role in the controversy between “possessors” and
“non-possessors” that embroiled the church in
the early 16th century. The “non-possessors,”
led by
NIL SORSKY
, argued that the church should
not only divest itself of its landholdings and
other forms of wealth but should also be inde-
pendent of the state. Joseph of Volotsk and his
followers (also known as Josephites) defended
the more traditional position that the church
should be rich and powerful and closely allied to
the secular ruler. The Church Council of 1503
decided in favor of Joseph's position. At the time
of his death, the legacy of Joseph and the
Volokolamsk Monastery as defenders of religious
orthodoxy was solidly established. Joseph was
canonized in 1578.
cessful military offensive that the Provisional
Government had launched on July 1 in Galicia,
but which had faltered after almost two weeks.
Echoing the slogans used by the Bolsheviks since
LENIN
's return to Russia in April 1917, the
demonstrators called for the Petrograd Soviet of
Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies to seize power
from the Provisional Government. The Petro-
grad Soviet, controlled by the moderate socialist
Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary Parties,
refused to heed the demonstrators. The follow-
ing day, Petrograd civilians and sailors from the
Kronstadt naval base, a Bolshevik stronghold,
joined the ranks of demonstrators, swelling their
number to over 400,000. Random shooting
throughout the city resulted in the deaths of
close to 50 people. Pressured by the situation
and their own rank-and-file, Lenin and the Bol-
shevik leadership agreed to assume the direction
of the protests, with some reluctance since they
considered the attempt to seize power to be pre-
mature. By the morning of July 18, the demon-
strations lost their force as news spread of the
arrival of troops to defend the government and
the Provisional Government's attempt to portray
Lenin as a German agent took root. Two days
later, Alexander
KERENSKY
became prime minis-
ter and the cabinet of the Provisional Govern-
ment gained more moderate socialists.
The immediate consequence of the July Days
was a temporary weakening of the Bolshevik
Party in the form of government reprisals that led
to the arrest of prominent leaders, including Leon
TROTSKY
, and Lenin's quick escape to Finland,
shorn of his trademark goatee to avoid detection.
In the short-term, the Provisional Government
gained support among liberal and conservative
sectors worried about the rapid deterioration of
the situation and the growing power of workers
and soldiers. But by late August, with the failure
of the
KORNILOV
putsch, the Provisional Govern-
ment had squandered what little political capital
it had left and Bolshevik popularity was again on
the rise, opening the way for their successful
insurrection on November 7, 1917.
July Days
A failed uprising against the Provisional Govern-
ment in Petrograd (St. Petersburg), the July Days
of 1917 marked an important turning point in
the convoluted politics of Russia's revolutionary
year. Although the
BOLSHEVIKS
did not organize
the uprising, as the Provisional Government
later charged, they did support it once it had
started and suffered the brunt of the reprisals
that followed.
The uprising began on July 16, 1917, when a
regiment of machine gun troops took to the
streets of Petrograd to protest against the unsuc-
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