Dual Authority March-October 1917 Flashcards
How was Russia organised following the tsar’s abdication?
PG - ex-Duma members, mainly Mensheviks and Kadets. Popularly accepted but unelected.
Soviet - workers/sailors/soldiers, wanted to achieve increased rights for their groups/classes.
Kerensky acted as mediator between them.
Why did the PG need the Soviet’s support?
The Soviet controlled:
Railways
Power supplies
Factories
Telegraph stations
Soldiers
Soviet Order Number 1 (issued on 28th February) meant decrees of the PG weren’t binding unless they were approved by the Petrograd Soviet. Soviet had control of military.
What were the PG’s early progressive measures and what was the main limitation?
Amnesty of political prisoners.
Legal recognition for trade unions.
8 hour work day for industrial workers.
Replacement of tsarist police with a ‘people’s militia’.
Full civil and religious freedoms.
Preparations for the election of a constituent assembly.
HOWEVER the measures didn’t touch on the critical issues of the war and land.
Why did most peasants fail to support the PG?
- Agitators encouraged peasant resistance - PG forced to use armed forces to control peasant activities.
- Peasants believed PG was a middle class government which favoured the landowners - Mir and Volost became centres of rural activity.
- Most peasants were poor, uneducated and only concerned about their own livelihoods, not matters of national importance.
- Peasants resented heavy grain requisitioning - offered higher payments that tsarist times but still provided less than they needed/felt they were entitled to.
- PG was slow to set up land committees to investigate issues of land ownership - considered itself ‘temporary’ until elections for Constituent Assembly occurred so reluctant to pass reforms.
- Peasants weren’t granted the land they believed rightfully belonged to them - peasants affected local officials and made their wishes clear through their peasant representatives, refused to hand over grain and seized landlords’ property, livestock and machinery.
- PG wanted Russian people to wait for a new elected constituent assembly before major legislation was enacted.
- Conscription for the war continued - low morale after 1916 as 9 million dead/captured in first 3 years of war.
What did the PG do to try to win over the peasants?
Set up land committees in April to collect information on land-holding prior to a reform but months of waiting was frustrating for peasants.
When did Lenin return to Petrograd and how?
April 1917.
German government arranged for Lenin to return via a sealed train through occupied Europe, in the hope that the tsar’s fall would be the prelude to the collapse of Russian armies.
What did Lenin do upon his return to Petrograd and why was it important?
Published his April Theses: readjusted Marxism, appealed to peasantry with the promise of land redistribution (‘peace, bread and land’), realised desperate desire for food in both cities and countryside and desire to end the war. ‘All power to the Soviet’ diverted attention towards the Soviet as the representative voice of the people.
This was crucial in building support for the Bolsheviks within the Soviet.
How did Germany support the Bolsheviks in 1917?
1914-1917 the German Foreign Office gave regular financial support to the Bolsheviks in the hope that if Revolution occurred, they’d pull Russia out of the war.
Why did Kerensky’s decision to continue with the war end up generating more support for the Bolsheviks?
Kerensky continued with the war as the PG relief upon war credits from Western allies as stardom had left Russia virtually bankrupt.
The Soviet called for an immediate peace - 14th March called for ‘peace without annexations or indemnities’. After June, protests broke out in the capital with many demonstrators adopting Bolshevik slogans and demanding that the Soviet take power.
How did the PG undermine itself with its war promises?
Milyukov (Foreign Minister) made a pledge to the Allies that Russia would continue fighting until Germany was defeated, despite the PG accepting the Soviet’s approach. Milyukov resigned in early May along with War Minisyer Guchkov as a result of violent demonstrations in Petrograd against them. Kerensky became war minister instead.
What were the July Days (3rd-6th)?
Sailors and workers at Kronstadt (naval base 15 miles west from Petrograd) set up their own separate government which gave many revolutionaries in Petrograd the idea that the opportunity to bring down the PG had come. However disunity made it relatively easy for the PG to crush the rising.
What did the July Days (3rd-6th) prove?
The failure proved that:
Opposition was disunited.
Bolsheviks were far from being the dominant revolutionary party.
The PG still had sufficient strength to put down an armed insurrection.
What was the Kornilov Affair, August 1917?
Kornilov attempted to seize power in Petrograd and instate martial law. Kerensky was forced to call upon Soviet and Bolshevik support. Imprisoned Bolshevik leaders were freed and arms were handed over to them. Railway workers stopped Kornilov’s trains and telegraph operators stopped his messages. The Bolshevik Red Guard appeared on the streets, armed by Kerensky. Kornilov was arrested.
What were the consequences of the August 1917 Kornilov Affair?
Kerensky’s reputation was irretrievably damaged - his wife wrote that ‘he was left almost without supporters’. Mensheviks and SR leaders were discredited by their association with Kerensky. Majority of people distrusted the Kadets and other liberals as the agents of industrialists and large landowners. The Bolsheviks became very popular, known as the ‘Defenders of Petrograd’ and were elected in huge numbers to the soviets.
Kerensky himself said it was ‘the prelude to the October Revolution’.
Williams (‘Daily Chronicle’) said that afterwards, Kerensky was ‘not actively supported either by the left or right’.
What happened to Bolshevik membership February-October 1917?
Grew from 10,000 to 250,000 members, mainly in Petrograd.
What happened to the Bolsheviks in September 1917?
9th September - gained overall control of the Petrograd Soviet.
25th September - Trotsky was elected president of the Petrograd Soviet. Bolsheviks also took control of the Moscow Soviet and dominated the executive committees of soviets throughout Russia.
When was the MRC set up and what did it do?
9th October - Petrograd Soviet set up the MRC to organise the defence of Petrograd against a possible German attack or Kornilov-type assault from inside Russia.
Trotsky used his influence to have himself accepted as 1 of the 3-man inner team appointed to run it. Trotsky was now in a position to draft the plans for the overthrow of the PG. The capital fell 3 days later, with only around 6 deaths.
