Provisional Government Collapse Reasons Flashcards
how was the Provisional government looking at the beginning?
from the outset, the provisional government was in a troubled position, even the petrograd soviet didnt want to take charge after the state russia was in after the fall of the autocracy.
what did Mstislavsky say?
Mstislavsky, a socialist revolutionary leader, stated “oh how they feared the masses” highlighting the state of unrest within Russia. a new government faced with an unstable country is doomed to fail, but the exact reson is up for debate.
who beleives what?
where people like pipes beleive the kornilov affair is to blame, others such as Service, Read or Howard beleive it was due to other reasons such as the government itself, the war and july days or Lenin and the Bolsheviks.
what did people think Kerensky would do?
when Alexander Kerensky became prime minister in 1917, he was viewed as the man who would unite and fix Russia due to his connections to both the soviet and Provisional government.
what was he really like?
however, he was very vain and held himself too highly, therefore he was prone to making terrible decisions, most notable of which was appointing Kornolov as the new supreme commander of the Russian forces.
how did this backfire?
Kerensky’s trust in Kornolov backfired dramatically when Kornolov used this opportunity to establish a military control within Russia. Worried that he would lose power, Kerensky denounced Kornolov attempting to appeal to the Soviet for help, but this only served to expose Kerensky’s weakness
how did this end up benefiting the Bolsheviks?
By supplying the Red Guard with weapons to solve his problems, Kerensky inadvertently helped restore the Bolsheviks’ reputation from their previous blunders in the July days. They were now viewed as saviours of the revolution and were elected in large numbers to the Petrograd soviet, gaining overall control in September 1917. This Bolshevik dominated soviet would ultimately approve plans for the Bolshevik seizure in October.
what did Kowalski say?
Kowalski noted that the system was merely victim to “a number of unpredictable accidents and improbable coincidences… such as the attempted Coup by general Kornolov.” suggesting that Kerensky’s mistakes were not the reason for the fall of the Provisional Government and the October revolution.
how did this ruin his career and end his reign within the government and impact the events in October?
However, with his reputation in tatters, the Government no longer respected or trusted him and anyone associated with him were discredited. He was loathed by the left and distrusted by the right. Consequentially, they were not prepared to defend Kerensky and the Provisional Government in October resulting in the Bolshevik takeover.
how was it doomed from the beginning?
From the very beginning, the Provisional Government was doomed as it took control during a time of extreme hardship for Russia due to an incompetent Tsar, an unstable country and WW1 still raging on.
why did many not like or trust the PG?
Many people opposed the Provisional government outright as they were not elected by the people and filled with members of the middle class and therefore the working class and soldiers felt that it was more directed at the middle class and they were going to be left out, much like it was during the Tsar’s reign.
how did they attempt to appeal to everyone? how did this create problems?
In attempts to keep the people content, the Provisional Government decided to work with the Soviet and Alexander Kerensky acting as their buffer. This provided its own, new, set of issues as both bodies operated differently, where the Provisional government was made up of only leading figures from the Kadets and other liberal Parties, the Petrograd soviet was made up of workers and soldiers representatives and socialist intellectuals mainly Mensheviks and socialist revolutionaries resulting in hundreds of people being a part of the soviet.
how did this impact decision making?
This made decision making between the two an extremely long and difficult process proving that the new government was weak to begin with as it was disliked by the largest section of the population and in that extremely unstable and revolution prone country, that was an extremely dangerous thing.
what was the ‘honeymoon’ period?
The ‘honeymoon’ period proved fruitful however as both bodies had very little conflict and achieved much. Together they placed Tsarist ministers and officials under arrest, disbanded the secret police, granted an amnesty for political and religious prisoners, established freedom of the press and speech and abolished the death penalty.
how did this change? what did service say?
The governments appeared to be working fine together but from those two months, the state they were in went downhill very quickly. Robert Service stated “for most of the year the Provisional Government survived on guile and rhetoric.” Highlighting their inadequacy as they weren’t there through good work or through the will of the people, but out of being sly and persuasive which could only last so long.
