Opposition and government Flashcards
What was the Provisional Government?
1) Prime Minister: Prince Lvov
2) Mainly composed of Liberals from the Duma
3) Not elected by the people, and only a temporary measure
4) Held legitimate power
What was the Petrograd Soviet?
1) The people elected radicals, esp. SRs and Mensheviks
2) Acted in the interest of the workers and soldiers
3) Order No. 1 – soldiers and workers should obey PV but only when the soviet
agreed with the PG
Who was Alexander Kerensky?
1) Sat on executive committee of the Petrograd soviet – Vice-Chariman
2) Only socialist in the Prov-Gov – Minister of Justice
How did war affect the Provisional Government?
1) April: Milyukov announced the govt would continue fighting -> massive
demonstration in Petrograd -> Milyukov quits job as Minister of War and is
replaced by an SR
2) Continuation of the war was unpopular, as it placed a strain on society, prevented
the Provisional Government from reform. Army discipline was breaking down
3) Embarrassment for PG + demonstrations in Petrograd
4) Peasant disturbances increased in July as war was not popular
5) Death penalty reinstated in the army as the only way of controlling the troops
What was the July offensive?
1) Last offensive against the Germans
2) Lead to an armed uprising in July which demanded the Soviet take power
3) Army disintegrated
What was the Kornilov affair?
1) August: General Kornilov ordered his troops to march on Petrograd to attempt to
perform a military coup
2) Kerenskey released imprisoned bolshies and provided the soviet with weapons to
slow Kornilov
What other issues did the Provisional Government face?
1) Food supplies were chaotic and inflation occurred
2) Land. The Government wanted to wait for an elected govt, who had real authority,
but peasants began seizing land for themselves
3) Releasing political exiles and prisoners allowed for revolutionaries to return to
Russia, like Lenin, and create unrest
What did the Provisional Government decree?
1) Freedom of religion and press
2) Abolishment of death penalty for the army
3) Tsarist police disbanded
4) Provincial governors dismissed
What were the April Theses?
1) 3rd April 1917: Lenin arrives in Petrograd
2) Origin of ‘bread, peace and land’
3) Appealed to the workers whose needs were not being met by the PG, and the
peasants who wanted land
How did Lenin justify the April These?
1) Working classes had already taken power via the Soviet
2) Peasants could be treated as the proletariat as they had class consciousness
3) Russian middle class was too weak to carry out a revolution
How did the Bolsheviks react to the April Theses?
1) Bolsheviks feared Lenin was out of touch and too radical
2) Lenin was seen to be in the pay of the Germans
3) Bolsheviks only had 26k members so calls to oppose PG was unrealistic
What were the July Days?
1) Demonstrations against the PG as a reaction to the June Offensive
2) 3-4th: demonstrations by the army in Petrograd, demanding soviet power
3) 5-7th: The Bolsheviks were blamed for the demonstrations, and their leaders
arrested
4) 8th: Kerensky replaced Lvov as PM
What was the Kornilov affair?
1) 27th-30th August: General Kornilov, commander-in-chief, marched on Petrograd
2) Kerensky armed workers to fight Kerensky off, making it obvious the PG had no
power or authority on its own
3) The Bolshevik leaders were released from prison, and the weapons they were
given were later used in the October Revolution
What was the character of the Bolshevik party in 1917 before October?
1) Bolshevik membership by October was 200k
2) Produced 41 newspapers
3) Sept: Won the majority in the Petrograd Soviet, and controlled the Moscow Soviet
4) Mid-September: Lenin, in Finland, sent letters to the party to demand a revolution
staging and a seizure of power, which were ignored
How did the October revolution take place?
1) 10th October: A call for revolution is agreed at a Bolshevik party meeting
2) 17th October: Kerensky removed radical army units from the capital, after finding
out the Bolsheviks planned on seizing power.
3) 20th October – the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet
meets for first time, claiming Kerensky was abandoning the capital to the
Germans
4) 25th-26th October– the Bolsheviks seize Petrograd
