Provisional government

• The Provisional Government took over the running of the government after the abdication of the Tsar in March 1917.
• The Provisional Government's main priority was to set up elections for a new constituent assembly.
• The Petrograd Soviet was seen as a more democratic organization by many workers, soldiers, and peasants.
• The Provisional Government decided to continue fighting in the war until a new elected government could make an official decision.
• Lenin and the Bolsheviks gained support quickly, particularly in the soviets and the army, with their slogans of "peace, land, and bread" and "all power to the Soviets."
• The April thesis demanded the transfer of power to the Soviets, the immediate end of the war, and the state takeover of all land for redistribution to peasants.
• By October 1917, the Provisional Government lost support from the army, peasants, and town workers, while the Bolsheviks promised bread, peace, and land.
• In July 1917, the Bolsheviks led protests against the war, which turned into a rebellion but ultimately failed.
• The Provisional Government's authority started to collapse in the second half of 1917 due to the failing war effort, desertion of soldiers, and peasants seizing land.
• In September 1917, Kornilov marched his troops towards Petrograd to get rid of the Bolsheviks and the Provisional Government, but Kerensky turned to the Bolsheviks for help.
• The abdication of Tsar Nicholas II was the most significant event of the February Revolution.
• The political consequences of the February Revolution went far deeper than the abdication of the Tsar.
• Two new political bodies were formed on 28 February: the Provisional Government, which was the official authority with formal power, and the Petrograd Soviet, which had the genuine power in the eyes of the people.
• A meeting in the Putilov Steel Works in Petrograd in early 1917 was a significant event in the lead-up to the February Revolution.
• Worker unrest contributed greatly to the February Revolution.
• In a symbolic image of the downfall of the old regime, Russian children pose with the bronze head of a ruined statue of Tsar Alexander III (father of Nicholas II).
• Russia entered a period of dual government, with both the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet playing crucial roles for eight months until the Bolshevik takeover in October.
• The first phase of dual government, from February to April, was when the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet generally worked together and were supported by the main revolutionary parties, including the Bolsheviks.
• The second phase of dual government, from Lenin’s return on 3 April, was when the Bolsheviks launched a rivalry campaign that separated the Soviet and the Bolshevik Party from the Provisional Government and their supporters.
• Lenin’s return in April infused a radical Marxist mindset into the Bolshevik Party.
• The failed revolt of July seemed to signal the victory of Kerensky and the Provisional Government, as the Bolshevik leadership, organisation and offices were utterly destroyed.
• The protests resulted in the Tsar abdicating.
• There was a central committee of the Bolshevik Party.
• The Provisional Government was in our sights after the failed June Offensive and the demoralisation of the army.
• There were 200 000 people on the streets during the protests.
• As the Bolshevik leader Lenin said, ‘No amount of political freedom will satisfy the hungry masses.’
• As Lenin once said, ‘sometimes, history needs a push.’
• The failed June Offensive at the war front demoralised us all and Petrograd was falling.
• Over two million people were now in the Bolshevik Party.
• The Tsar never promised improvements and his horrible German wife called us a ‘hooligan movement’.
• Natalya joined the new Women’s Bureau formed by the Bolshevik Party.
• The central committee sent orders to the local Soviets who gave orders to the factories.
• Newspapers reported that 568 factories had closed down since March, with 104 000 workers now newly unemployed.
• Vasily joined the Bolshevik Party.
• Vasily and I were convinced that enough was enough after the failed June Offensive and the demoralisation of the army.
• Vasily was able to join me at Putilov due to the strikes the previous week.
• Yet a turn of affairs, with General Kornilov’s threatening march on Petrograd, reinvented the Bolsheviks, as within two months they were able to overthrow the Provisional Government.
• The term ‘dual government’ is given to the eight-month period between February and October 1917.
• What was so revolutionary about his speech and subsequent April Theses was the immediacy with which he demanded the transition from the Provisional Government’s upper-class democracy to a revolutionary dictatorship of workers and peasants.
• The April Theses were most damaging to the Provisional Government.