Establishment Of The Dual Authority Flashcards
Who were the provisional government?
•A part of the temporary government that rules Russia
•Led by Prince Lvov (March-July 1917) then by Alexander Kerensky (July-October 1917)
•Its members represents a cross-section of the influential elites and comprised of those who formerly favored constitutional monarchy such as liberals, moderate socialists and Kadets
What were the provisional governments intentions?
•That it would, as the name suggests, be temporary and that the elections would be held as soon as possible for a new constituent assembly which would draw up a new constitution for Russia
Why was the provisional government accepted?
•Was seen as legitimate thanks to Mikhail’s blessing who was grand duke and relinquished his authority to the provisional government
Who accepted the provisional government
•Old tsarist civil service, army officers and the police
Where did PG set itself up?
•In the Duma chamber in the right wing of the Tauride Palace in Petrograd
Who were the Petrograd Soviet?
•They were the workers council
•Had 3000 members by mid March 1917
•Members: 800 workers and the remainder were from various army units
Why did the Petrograd Soviet need an executive committee?
•Because of it many members
•The committee was dominated by socialist intellectuals
Why did some people like the Petrograd Soviet over the provisional government?
•The mass of workers, soldiers and peasants rehearsed the PG as a self appointed committee of the wealthy, tainted by their previous associations with tsardom
•For the the PS was the more democratic organization
Where did it establish its headquarters?
•In the left wing of the Tauride Palace
What were the Petrograd Soviet primarily composed of?
•Of radical socialist, intellectuals, Mensheviks and social revolutionaries but also a small number of Bolshevik’s
What did the Petrograd Soviet lack?
•Seemed to lack the confidence needed to assume direct control
How was the dual authority first created?
•Thanks to delicate negotiations by kerensky and agreement was reached to work together
•He was the only member of both the PG and the PS
•This laid the foundations for a period of “Dual authority” or dvoevlastie
What was the Dual authority meant to me?
•A government whereby Russia was governed by an alliance of the Provisional Government and the Soviet
Who were the only party separated from government?
•The Bolsheviks
Who were seen as more powerful and why?
•The Petrograd Soviet were seen as more powerful
•This was due to the Soviet’s control over local army garrisons, factories and railways
•Without Soviet’s the government was impotent in the face of the clamor for gland reform from peasants and soldiers
•The controlled actual levers of power
What promises did the Soviet accept from the Provisional government?
•A general amnesty for political prisoners
•Civil liberties
•the abolition of legal disabilities based on class, religion and nationality
•freedom to organize trade unions and to strike
•the election of a constituent assembly to determine Russias future
What further statements and actions did the provisional government make?
•they said “ the power of the state should be based, not on violence or coercion, but on the consent of free citizens to the power they themselves created”
•The new government gave freedom of religion and the press, abolished the death penalty at the front, replaced the tsarist police force with a “people’s militia” and dismissed provincial governors, gives their work to the elected zemstva (new government)
What made the dual authority challenging?
•The mixture of liberals and radicals was never going to be easy
What was the Soviets “order No. 1”
•It was a rule that said that soldiers and workers should obey the provisional government
•But only when the Soviet agreed with the PG’s decisions
What was wrong with the Soviets ‘Order No.1’?
•Counterproductive as there were many points of disagreement between the two sides
What are some examples of the Provisional Government and Petrograd Soviet publicly disagreeing?
•While the PG tried to discipline army deserters and restore order in towns and the countryside the Soviet encouraged peasants and workers to defy authority and assert their “rights”
•While the PG believed that the change of regime should mean to an all-out effort to “win” the war, The Soviet view was that the war should be ended as quickly as possible “without annexation” of territory by the Hermans as the price of peace
What statement by Milyukov in April 1917 caused protest?
•Announcement that the government will continue fighting until a “just peace” had had won unleashed a storm of protest
• This forced milyukov and Guchkov to resign under pressure from Petrograd soviets in may
Who weee Milyukov and Guchkov replaced with?
•They were replaced with socialists from the Soviet
•Aleksandr Kerensky became minister of war and two further Mensheviks were added to the cabinet
•In July 1917, Lvov was resolved as chairman by Kerensky
What complications did war pose for the Provisional Government?
•The was was deeply unpopular
•Yet they found themselves in a near impossible situation as they felt bound by their alliance with Britain and France
•They also relied on French loans for survival
Why did the Provisional Government resist elections?
•Although committed to elections for a constituent assembly, they dared not proceed since it was clear that the social revolutionaries would win the support of the peasants
•Elections were therefore constantly postponed
Why was elections being postponed bad for key policy changes?
•Key policy changes such as land redistribution to the peasants were meant to await a constituent assembly
•Since they weren’t holding elections for one little got done
Overall how were the workings of the dual authority?
•since the Soviets offered no alternative leadership as it was largely made up of Social revolutionaries and Mensheviks leadership
•Didn’t have the confidence to gain full control
•The result was complete paralysis
