Provisional Government

• How many years did the romanov family reign

  Over 300
• There was no serious attempt to reinstate the Tsar, not even by Nicholas himself
• It proved difficult to create a new order which satisfied all Russian
• The new provisional government had to face those same problems, exacerbated by Russia’s involvement in the war, that the Tsarist government failed to solve, as well as meeting the expectations of 160 million people.
• The Provisional Government was seen as a product of the old bourgeois Tsarist regime and unrepresentative of the Russian people.
• Perhaps it would have been impossible for any government to succeed in the circumstances it inherited.
• Who approved the provisional government 


  • Provisional committee of the Duma
  • members of the Petrograd soviet
• When were the minsters of the Provisional Government elected to the Duma

  1912
• Most of the ministers were members of the provisional committee set up when the. Tsar dissolved the Duma on 26 February
• The eight principles of the programme of the provisional government 4/8


  • Immediate amnesty for all political prisoners, including terrorists
  • immediate freedom of speech, assembly, and the right to strike
  • immediate abolition of religious, national or social privilege
  • immediate preparations for a constituent assembly, where everyone could vote.
• The eight principles of the programme of the provisional government 8/8

  • abolition of all police units and their replacement by a local militia
  • elections for all local councils and zemstva, all can vote
  • All military units which joined the revolution were to keep weapons and not join the front
  • Maintenance of military discipline
• Trotsky was given free passage from America
• ’freer than any other country even at peace’

  Wartime Russia
• How many people joined trade unions, previously banned by the tsar

  2 million
• what was the strongest threat to the provisional government

  Petrograd soviet
• Soviet Order Number One


  • All military units were to elect committees from their members
  • all military units were to elect representatives to the Petrograd soviet
  • The orders of the Petrograd soviet were to take priority of the orders of the Provisional Government
  • All weapons were to be controlled by the military committees and not to be given to officers
• The Key Political issues faced by the Provisional Government

  • Lack of authority
  • the land question
  • Urban discontent
  • the war
• PG’s Lack of authority

  • They had not been elected
  • The election by all Russians assembly would have provided Russia with a strong, legitimate government
  • The government delayed elections because there was no accurate electoral register
  • Russians knew that the PG would be replaced after elections, so they saw it’s delay as an attempt by the bourgeois ministers to maintain power
  • the existence of the Petrograd Soviet
• The Land Question 


  • Had been central to Russian politics for years
  • after the revolution, the peasants expected their land
  • the government set up a committee to advise on future policy. This committee recommended that only the expected constituent assembly could make policy.
• Urban discontent

  • The February revolution had sprung out of poverty
  • inflation shot up in 1917, wages could not keep pace, despite the activity of unions and factory committees
  • The government tried to appease them with the eight hour working day
• Which party held the majority in the PG

  Kadets
• revolutionary defensism 


  A war of defence to preserve the revolutions gains, but without costly attacks on the enemy
• The War

  • The Petrograd soviet called for peace without annexations or indemnities
  • A policy of revolutionary defensism was agreed on
  • However, Miliukov, foreign minister, promised the allies that the government would honour the promise to fight till decisive victory
  • there were storms of protest in Petrograd, Miliukov and Guchkov, war minister, were forced to resign
  • Prince Lvov, set up a new government. He now recognised the importance of the Petrograd soviet, so he invited six soviet leaders into government
• What was the role of Tsereteli, in effect 


  minister of the Petrograd soviet
• Consequences of the first coalition government, 1917


  • It delayed national elections to a constituent assembly
  • It failed to address the immediate demands of peasant land, even with an SR as minister of agriculture
  • It continued the unpopular war
• In June, a public demostration was organised by the soviets to demonstrate public support for their new involement in the government. However, most posters carried the Bolshevik slogan, stating ‘all power to the soviets’
• Who was Kerensky

  Minister of War
• Kerensky believed that only a successful war would stop the complete disintegration of Russia
• Who was the Kerensky offensive towards

  Austria
• how many desertions took place before the Kerensky offensive, alongside low morale and inadequate equipment

  170,000
• How high were Russian losses in the Kerensky offensive

  400,000
• The July days

  • The Kadet ministers resigned from government on the 3rd of July
  • protests against the war became increasingly serious, mass protests dominated the streets of Petrograd
  • Bolshevik slogans were chanted
  • No leadership was given by lenin, who Likely thought it was too premature for a rising
• Bolshevik slogans chanted in The July Days

  ‘Peace, Bread, Land. All Power to the Soviets’’
• The protests in July called for the petrograd soviet to take power, but the Mensheviks and SRs who controlled it refuses
• Outcome of The July Days


  • The government was saved with the arrival of loyal troops
  • Bolshevik newspapers banned and party leaders were arrested
  • 800 bolsheviks arrested
  • Lenin escaped to finland
  • The government published documents seized from Bolshevik headquarters, showing that they were receiving money from Germany. This discredited leadership as traitors and spies
• • On 8th July, Kerensky became prime minister
  • moving into the Tsar apartments in the winter palace did not help his image as a man of the people
• Who was Kornilov

  commander in chief of the army
• The Kornilov Coup


  • Kornilov ordered troops to march on the capitol to close down the soviet and suppress left wing revolutionary activity
  • Kornilov’s army was was unable to advance because because the railway workers refused to move his train, he quickly gave himself up
  • The attempted coup showed the workers and soldiers that there still was a real threat to the revolution from the right wing army officers
  • these evens likely caused Lenin to begin to demand that his party seizes power
• The elections for the constituent assembly, promised in February, were finally fixed for November
• • Bolshevik propaganda was increasingly influential among the armed forces, most of whom wanted peace.
  • Petrograd was full of deserting solders.
  • the command structure of the army had collapsed