5 Flashcards
what two bodies fill the power gap created after the tsars abdication?
-the provisional government(made up
largely by kadets and other liberal party’s)
-the petrograd soviet(mensheviks and non party socialist intellectuals)
notable members of the pg just after the feb revolution?
-prince lvov(pm)
-karensky(minister of justice(he was socialist))
-milyukov(foreign minister)
what did the soldiers do to the soviet?
on Wednesday the 1st march they went to the soviet to demand representation they gained the famous order number one and the soviet was renamed the soviet of workers and soldiers deputies
what does order one do?
-makes the pg unable to pass laws unless approved by the soviet
-forbade officers from using and being in possession of weaponry
-titles such as “your honour” to become “my general”
what was the soviet like after order one?
-large(had lots of representatives of the different factory’s and regiments)
-they elected an executive committee to make decisions
-they had a large amount of power over the provisional government due to order one and the fact that they were not legitimate (they were self elected) and stopped right wing press to avoid undoing the revolution
-they censored right wing press to stop the pg from undoing the revolution
what were the early accomplishments for the provisional government?
-the release of political prisoners
-recognition of trade unions
-8 hour working day
-replacement of the okrana with the people’s militia
-granted civil and religious freedom
-elections of a constituent assembly
Who headed the bolshevik party before lenin’s return in april 1917?
-stalin and kamenev
-they took an anti lenin approach arguing that they should negotiate a peace in the war and cooperate with the provisional government and that it was ‘possible and desirable’ for the bolshevik’s to restore links with the Mensheviks, this was called accomodationism
-in lenin’s ‘letters from afar’ he urged the conversion from the world war to a class war and that soldiers should turn against their officers
-these orders were ignored
when did lenin return and what was his return like?
-3rd april 1917
-he was greeted at the station with a band, flowers and red flags and banners
-he then made a speech to both the people and the bolshevik party known as the april theses
why was lenin against the soviet?
this would result in cooperation which lenin was against but also it would result in peace which meant that russia would be less likely to have a marxist revolution
why did germany assist lenin’s return?
they hoped that it would agitate the political state of russia and cause them to have to withdraw from the war allowing them to focus on the western front
why was“peace land and bread” and “all power to the soviets” effective?
-3 things that the nation wants that the provisional government failed to provide
-therefore it would sway people’s opinions to become more anti provisional government
what were the opposing views of the war in the pg and ps?
PS-revolutionary defensisism which was invented by Tseriteli which called for the fast negotiation of peace in order to protect the revolution
PG-they wanted to fight until there was a victory due to patriotism and keeping war credits and access to warm water ports promised by the war
what was the milukov crisis?
-Paul Milukov sent a secret telegram to the allies to order them to ignore revolutionary defensivism which was obviously intercepted and then leaked to the public and people started to riot in petrograd
-prince lvov put his foot down and remanded milukov and added revolutionary’s to the pg (victor chenov became minister of agriculture)
what was the effect of the milukov crisis?
it caused the pg and ps to be less likely to willingly collaborate with each other and left those ministers moved into the pg to the “dustbin of history”
what happened in the reshuffle of the cabinet after the milukov crisis after milukovs resignation?
Alexander Karensky became war minister
what did karensky do as was minister?
-he campaigned for russia to embrace the conflict with germany as a crusade to save the revolution
-“forewarn to the battle for freedom. i summon you not to a feast but death”
-the truth was that the war had gone past the point that it was salvageable but karensky persisted
what happened at the june offensive?
-karensky as war minister launched a massive attack on the western front of russia which was a colossal failure
-the soldiers began to disobey orders as they didn’t understand what they were fighting for and they were also encouraged to disobey orders by bolshevik agitators
-heavy losses were inflicted on russia and their economy
what were the causes of the july days?
-karensky because pm in 1917 which angered the kronstadt sailors and workers, who were situated 19 miles west of petrograd, to declare themselves politically separate
-this lead to people thinking that it was an appropriate time to overthrow the provisional government
how did the ukraine provoke the july days?
-it had the largest number of non russians in the empire with 23 million people and it was the largest food producing region in the empire and so the control of it was vital to the economy
-therefore when the kadet ministers learned that in late june that a section of the pg offered independence they resigned arguing that only an all russian consituent assembly has the ability to properly decide such matters
how were the july days a failure?
the disunity of the protesters allowed the provisional government to control the crowds
how did the july days affect the bolsheviks reputations
-a month earlier in the first all russian congress of soviets, lenin had declared that the bolshevik party was ready was ready to take power so it was assumed that the bolsheviks were begind the uprising
-therefore after the failure of the uprising affected their reputation and people began to trust them even less when they attepted to absolve the blame from the bolsheviks
what happened in the pg as a result of the july days?
-karensky was made prime minister due to the provisional government and immediately put pressure on the bolsheviks
-the pravda was closed down and many of the bolsheviks were arrested such as trotsky and kamanev
-lenin fled to finland
how did karensky serve as pm? (land question)
-he initially made it clear of the promises to redistribute land that they will seize from land owners
-they eventually did not do this and many peasants took this into their own hands and took land
-this eventually turned into a full scale peasants revolt
what did lenin do in response to the land question?
-they adapted marxist theory to include the peasantry as a revolutionary force
-they lifted “land to the peasants” from the sr programme making it clear that they viewed the peasantry’s seizure of land as fully legitimate
-this caused the left srs to align with the bolsheviks
what happened during the kornilov affair?
-general kornilov became the new commander in chief
-due to the state of the politics in russia at the time he intended to bring his troops into petrograd to save the pg from being overthrown
-karensky then fired kornilov assuming that he wanted to inforce military rule
-kornilov then assumed that the government had already been taken over and assembled to march on petrograd to defend the pg
-karensky then assumed that he was trying to attack the pg and called for the political prisoners including the bolsheviks to defend the provisional government
-eventually the sides realised that they both wanted the same thing and the conflict died down
how did the kornilov affair affect the bolsheviks?
this would have boosted the reputation for the bolsheviks as they would have been seen as saviors of the provisional government even though very little conflict occurred
what were the other effects of the kornilov affair?
-it allowed the soviet to become more left politically and the pg to the right due to feeling threatened
-thus making the bolsheviks think that its time to take power
what other factors pushed the bolsheviks to want to take power?
-meeting of the all russian congress of soviets in october and the fear that they may take power
-election of the constituent assembly which would make the pg legitimate
what was happening to the petrograd soviets after the kornilov affair?
-bolsheviks maintained their support and enthusiasm in the soviets while others flagged
-they became strong with a majority in the september elections and 200000 members, 41newspapers and the red guard numbering 10,000
how was the provisional government doing after the kornilov affair?
-army was deserting as support for the bolsheviks increased
-peasants were attacking land lords and burning down their houses
-law and order was breaking down
what was lenin up to in september 1917?
-he was still in exile in finland but sent lots of letters over
-on the 12th september he sent a letter stating that “history will not forgive us if we do not assume power”
-these letters were ignored by minor party members in Petrograd(kaminev and zinoviev)
how did kamenev and zinoviev react to lenin returning in 1917?
10/10/1917 they met up and debated for the insurrection as kamenev and zinoviev wanted to wait for a revolution naturally but they were rejected from 10-2 vote but no date was set for the revolution
-this was brought up again 6 days later but again was rejected and kamenev even produced an article in a non bolshevik paper stating lenin’s rashness
what was the mrc?
-an army formed by the ps that was supposedly under the control of the ps but really it was jus the bolsheviks and provides them with more power as they were under the control of trotsky
24/10/17 what happened?
redguard seized key points such as bridges and telephone exchanges and most of petrograd was under b control
25/10/17 what happened?
-karensky left winter palace to seek support from an army unit
-the winter palace was surrounded by the red army and bolshevik soldiers
-lenin announced prematurely the takeover of winter palace to the petrograd soviet
-SCoS began and 300/670 delegates were bolshevik
26/10/17what happened?
bolsheviks announced the formation of a soviet based government and the congress approved this and the bolsheviks had taken power by 5am
27/10/17 what happened?
lenin claimed power in the name of congress of soviets
what was trotsky role in the october revolution?
-he was the one that organised the whole affair with his chairmanship of the Petrograd Soviet
-he was elected to set up the mcr which was used to the bolsheviks advantage as he was accepted as a leader of mrc as a troika
-he also was the one that directed the red guard to seize the key points of petrograd
how was it easy to take the provisional government?
-the pg did not have any military forces to call apon
-desertions of the cavilry regiments (amazons) had left it to several loyal officers
-they expected stiff resistance but there was none
what did karensky do?
he slipped out of petrograd as a female nurse and fled to the us where he became a history professor
what did the bolsheviks do after seizing power?
read out a list of 14 names with at would become the sovnarkom to which some mensheviks and right srs walked out
what did trotsky think to those who walked out of the congress
he said that they were “consigned themselves to the waste basket of history”
