Lenin's Argument to the Bolshevik Committee

• Lenin believed that there was a change of a "second Kornilov affair" and that someone would try to bring back autocracy to Russia.
• After the failed July offensive, the Germans were advancing eastwards and could take Petrograd in the foreseeable future.
• Unrest within Germany and their armed forces raised hopes that there was growing working class support for an international communist revolution.
• The next All-Russian Congress of Soviets was set for 26 October when the Bolsheviks could present Soviet power as a fait accompli and thereby undermine the opposition of the Mensheviks and SRs to the Bolshevik's plans.