On the same day, a rally took place at Blagoveschenskaya Square (now Minin Square) Square, drawing up to 30,000 residents.
Sirotkin congratulated the rally participants on the victory over the "rotted autocracy" and called on them to support the decisions of the City Duma.
The demonstrators demanded freedom for political prisoners and marched to the jail, where they threw open its cells and released everyone, including common criminals. On that same day, March 1, a second power emerged in the city — the Soviet of Workers' Deputies.
The decisive events took place on March 2, when the local garrison went over to the side of the revolution. Its regiments marched through the city streets in formation, with bands playing, drew up on the main square, and solemnly declared their commitment to the cause of the revolution; the soldiers fraternized with the workers.
A general rally was held, at which it was decided to disarm the police and arrest representatives of the tsarist authority.
Splitting into groups, workers and soldiers made their way to the Kremlin and to the police precincts. Governor A.F. Girs, Vice-Governor Nenarokov, Police Chief Tsitseroshin, and Prosecutor Chernyavsky were arrested.
The head of the gendarmerie directorate, Colonel Mazurin, attempted to flee but was caught in Balakhna.
In place of the governor, a commissioner of the Provisional Government was appointed on that same day, March 2. He was P.A. Demidov, a Kadet and chairman of the provincial zemstvo board.
Thus dual power was established in Nizhny Novgorod.
(D.Sc. (History), Prof. A.V. Sedov History of the City of Gorky. Gorky, 1971. Nizhny Novgorod Region: Facts, Events, People. N. Novgorod, 1997)