Two months later, on 16 June 1917, the Soviets held their first All-Russian Congress of Soviets. Made up of various parties, it was dominated by the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks; the Bolsheviks being only a minor component. Irakli Tsereteli, a leading Menshevik and Chair of the Petrograd Soviet, emphasizing the point, declared ‘no such party exists in Russia,’ to which, Lenin famously replied: ‘There is such a party!’
