The Left SRs had entered the Bolshevik government of Soviet Russia after the October Revolution of 1917, but resigned from the Council of People's Commissars in March 1918 in protest of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

[1] The rebels occupied the Cheka headquarters and took its leader Felix Dzerzhinsky hostage, seized the telephone exchange and telegraph office, and issued manifestos.

Several of the main reasons the population supported the Bolsheviks were to end the war and have a social revolution, exemplified by the slogan "Peace, Land, Bread".

[2] The Left SRs still diverged with the Bolsheviks on the issue of the war and were dismayed that the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk gave up large amounts of territory in Eastern Europe to the Central Powers.

In Finland, where the soviet government had pledged by the treaty not to intervene, the landing of German troops significantly helped the "white" (counter-revolutionary) forces to crush the Finnish Revolution.

In early July, the Third Congress of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party was held, in its resolution to the present moment sharply condemned the policy of the Bolsheviks: Increased centralization, crowning the system of bureaucratic bodies with a dictatorship, the use of requisition units operating outside the control and leadership of local Soviets, the cultivation of poor committees – all these measures create a campaign on the Soviets of peasant deputies, disorganize workers' Soviets, and confuse class relations in the countryside, creating a disastrous front between the cities and villages.According to Richard Pipes, [...] the Left Socialist Revolutionaries suddenly discovered that they were cooperating with a regime of prudent politicians who make deals with Germany and the countries of the Fourth Accord and again called on the "bourgeoisie" to manage factories and command the army.

Left SR speakers fiercely attacked the policy of the Bolsheviks, from the requisitioning of grain and suppression of opposition parties, to the institution of the death penalty.

The Left SRs also called for proportional representation in the elections of the Soviets, due to the sharp vote disparity between rural and city-dwelling workers.

The vast Bolshevik majority thwarted the socialist-revolutionary plans to change government policy in Congress, which was now firmly in the hands of Lenin's party.

[12] In their meeting on 24 June, the Central Committee of the Left SR internationalists, having discussed the present political situation of the Republic, found that in the interests of the Russian and international revolution it was necessary to put an end to the so-called “respite”, which was created due to the ratification of the Brest-Litovsk treaty by the Bolshevik government.

To this end, to coincide with terrorist acts, an announcement was published in the newspapers of the Left SR’s participation in recent Ukrainian events, such as agitation and the destruction of weapons arsenals.

[9]On 25 June 1918, Count Mirbach informed his boss, State Secretary of the German Foreign Ministry Richard von Kühlmann about the deep political crisis of the Bolshevik government: “Today, after more than 2 months of careful observation, I don’t think I can make a more favorable diagnosis of Bolshevism: we, no doubt, are at the bedside of a seriously ill patient; and although moments of apparent improvement are possible, ultimately it is doomed."

In May, he sent a telegraph to Berlin saying “the Entente allegedly spends huge sums to bring the right wing of the Socialist Revolutionary Party to power and resume the war...

They made many mistakes during the assassination: they left a briefcase at the scene containing certificates in the name of Blumkin and Andreyev; Riezler and Mueller, witnesses to the murder, also survived.

[11] A few weeks later, on 30 July, the commander of German occupation forces Hermann von Eichhorn was assassinated in Kiev, by the Left SR Boris Donskoy.

Subsequently, in 1921, during interrogation at the Cheka, Popov claimed that: “I didn’t take part in the preparation of the alleged uprising against the state, the armed clash in Trekhsvyatitelsky Lane was an act of self-defense.”[15] In total, during the mutiny, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries took 27 Bolshevik functionaries hostage, including the deputy chairman of the Cheka Martin Latsis and the chairman of the Moscow City Council Pyotr Smidovich.

Another appeal stated that "... the executioner Mirbach was killed ... German spies and armed provocateurs have invaded Moscow, demanding the death of the left-wing socialist revolutionaries.

[9] In the midst of events, Lenin doubted the loyalty of the commander of the Latvian Riflemen, Jukums Vācietis, and expressed his readiness to “accept his services” only by assigning four commissioners to him.

[11] Lenin accused the SRs of trying to overthrow the Soviet Government and charged Trotsky with crushing the rebellion who, in turn, put Ivar Smilga in command of the forces faithful to the Bolsheviks.

Also unsuccessful was Trotsky's attempt to prevent the rebels from seizing the central telegraph; the two companies of Latvian riflemen sent to them there were disarmed by the group of Left Socialist Revolutionaries led by Prosh Proshian.

Without attempting to seize power, they declared the Bolsheviks “agents of German imperialism” who established the regime of “commissar rule” and smeared all other socialists as “counterrevolutionaries”.

[17]Shortly after the assassination, Lenin ordered Yakov Peters to put under guard the whole Left SR faction of the Fifth Congress of Soviets (approximately 450 people).

[20] Aleksandrovich, captured shortly thereafter at a nearby railway station, was executed the next day, along with twelve Chekists from Popov's unit who had participated in the uprising.

[21] The night before, the few Bolshevik leaders who had remained in the city and had not attended the Fifth Soviet Congress in Moscow received the order to prepare for an uprising of the Left SRs and they immediately formed a revolutionary military committee.

[12] Thirteen of the four hundred and fifty delegates - including Spiridonova - were transferred on the morning of 8 July from the theater to the Kremlin dungeons; ten of them were released the next day.

[30] Grigory Petrovsky, Commissioner of the Interior, nevertheless ordered the expulsion of the Social Revolutionaries from all local soviets, regardless of whether or not they condemned the actions approved by the PSRI central committee.

[32] Mirbach's assassination was attempted, in vain, to force the Bolsheviks to resume the fight against Germany,[19] once the impossibility of having a majority in Congress that allowed them to change the government's policy in a peaceful way was clear.

[32] Much the same conclusions have also been reached by British historian Orlando Figes, who generally holds up to ridicule the Left SRs' naive tendency 'to play at revolution'.

As their own party comrade Steinberg put it, they were beaten 'not because their leaders were not brave enough, but because it was not at all their purpose to overthrow the government'.The assassination of the ambassador led to a serious but short-lived crisis between the Lenin government and the German Empire.

[21] As the Bolshevik leaders feared, on 14 July the acting ambassador demanded the sending of troops to Moscow on the pretext of protecting the embassy, which would have placed the Sovnarkom under the control of the German high command.