1. dual authority

• Feb. 14th-22nd

  Many workers including those at the large ‘Putilov Steel Works’   went on strike (Approximately 120,000).More and more strikers join as days go on.
• Feb.23rd

    International Women’s Day – Women in Petrograd      went on strike for bread and peace and the end of Tsarism –  

  Approx 240,000 on the streets.

  Kerensky ordered troops to fire into crowds of demonstrators killing hundreds.
• Feb. 26th

    Rodzianko sent a telegram to Nicholas warning him of the situation –  

  Nicholas ignored the warning and abandoned the Duma
• Feb. 24th - Feb. 25th 

  200,000 + workers on strike singing ‘La Marseilles” Petrograd wide strike (250,000) for bread – half the working population on strike. Some protestors were killed but later in the day Army/ Cossacks told to fire but refused! Shalfeev (chief of police) killed.
• Feb. 27th  

  The Tsar was informed that 66,000 soldiers at the Volynskii regiment   (Petrograd) had mutinied.

    12 members of the Duma set up a Provisional Government Committee

    The Petrograd Soviet (Workers Council) was formed and organised food   supplies.
• Feb. 28th  

  Nicholas offered Rodzianko shared power but he said the Tsar was too late.

    Izvestiya published by the Petrograd Soviet; demanded constituent

    assembly & universal suffrage
• March 1st

    Kronstadt naval base organised mutiny and Soviet Order number 1

    Nicholas was unable to return and was advised to abdicate by his   Generals
• March 2nd  

  Nicholas abdicated on behalf of himself and his son,   nominating his brother Michael as Tsar. Michael refused the crown and the 300 year Romanov rule was over
• In March 1917
• "Provisional Government" is dominated by Kadets and has appointed itself to run things until elections for a constituent assembly can be arranged
• "Provisional Government" has granted lots of initial freedoms
• "Petrograd Soviet" has also formed: this is an elected committee of workers and soldiers
• "Petrograd Soviet" is politically dominated by

  • Mensheviks
  • SRs
• "Soldiers have pledged loyalty to the Petrograd Soviet"
• "Committees of Public Organisations" have set up in many places, initially led by middle class zemstvo members but also involving workers, soldiers and trade unionists
• "Soviets" have been formed in many towns & cities
• Peasant committees are also being set up in rural areas to campaign for peasants’ interests
• Provisional Government (PG) & Petrograd Soviet (PS) were established: a "Dual Authority" emerged in the capital city


  March
• Lenin returned from abroad to organise Bolsheviks

  April
• PG's 1st crisis occurred: the PG split with the PS over whether to continue the War – the PG opted to continue; the PS opted to stop

  April
• Trotsky (previously a Menshevik) arrived from the USA & joined the Bolsheviks


  May
• Kerensky launched a disastrous military offensive in the War


  June
• PG's 2nd crisis occurred: mass demonstrations & protests erupted in the "July Days" – the Bolsheviks supported these protests but the PG defeated them & arrested Bolsheviks


  July
• PG's 3rd crisis occurred: PG released & armed Bolsheviks to defend Petrograd against General Kornilov, who was marching on the capital to "restore order" / take power. Bolsheviks had 10,000 red guards


  August
• Bolsheviks win majority in Petrograd and Moscow Soviets and Trotsky elected as chairman of the executive committee of the PS


  September
• PS established a Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC) to protect Petrograd from threats; Bolsheviks & Trotsky took control of MRC as the "saviours of Petrograd"


  October
• A large crowd came to the Tauride Palace - the seat of the Duma - looking for political leaders

  27 February
• Following the precedent of 1905, a Petrograd Soviet of workers' and soldiers' deputies was elected


  1. They passed Order Number 1

  2. A list of the soldiers' demands and conditions for their return to the garrisons

  3. Including a declaration that they would recognize only the authority of the Petrograd Soviet
• The majority of the Soviet leaders had no intention of taking power
• Bourgeois-democratic revolution


  In a backward peasant country such as Russia there would have to be a 'bourgeois-democratic revolution' before the transition to a socialist order
• What was needed now was freedom for the masses to organize themselves politically
• The Duma leaders were initially reluctant to place themselves at the head of a revolutionary government
• Provisional Government


  Led by Prince Lvov, contained just one socialist, the Minister of Justice, Alexander Kerensky. Saw itself as a wartime government of national confidence and salvation, above class or party interests, whose purpose was to see the country through to the ending of the war and the election of a Constituent Assembly, which alone could give a legal sanction to social and political reforms.
• The Duma leaders were concerned to stop the fighting in the streets descending into anarchy
• Reforms passed by Provisional Government in spring 1917


  1. Freedoms of assembly, press and speech were granted

  2. Legal restrictions of religion, class, race and gender were removed

  3. Universal adult suffrage was introduced
• The Duma leaders agreed to form a Provisional Government


  1 March
• The Provisional Government's reforms established a new culture of democracy
• The Soviet would support the Provisional Government as long as it adhered to a comprehensive list of democratic principles
• The abstract language of political democracy was soon absorbed into ideas of social class
• This dual power framework was to paralyse the Provisional Government: it could do nothing without the support of the Soviet