Revolutionaries in February Revolution

Question 1

Petrograd Soviet in dual power

Answer 1

• 27 Feb = first meeting
• Mensheviks main force, ld by Alexander Shylyapnikov, Chkeidze elected as chairman
• 28 February proclamation that wanted universal suffrage + CA
  Soviet Order No 1
• March 1
• all political activity is ‘subordinated to the Soviet’
• any military ordergiven by the PG ‘shall be executed only in such cases as they do not conflict with the orders and resolutions of the Soviet’
• all arms under the control of the company and batallion commanders and must in no case be turned over to officers, even at their demand

Question 2

Provisional govt in dual power

Answer 2

liberals and moderates
‘We were appointed by the rev itself’ Milyukov
‘exists only so long as it is permitted by the Soviet’ Guchkov

Question 3

Bolsheviks in feb

Answer 3

3000 in Petrograd
10,000 overall
biggest and most militant strikes of 1916 at the New Lessner factory largely due to leadership of Bols

Question 4

Role of people in feb

Answer 4

“real strike leaders were the skilled and literate workers on the shop floor” Figes (no party)
by and large a spontaneous reaction to the repressions of the 26th and an expression of the people’s hatred for the old regime

Question 5

Role of parties in Feb

Answer 5

• ‘The revolution found us, party members asleep’ Sergei Mstislavsky SR leader
• it was only on the 27th, when the revolution had become an established fact that the party leaders sprang into action
• Prov Com = private body of Duma members to help restore order in the capital
• former director of the okhrana stated that the revolution was “a purely spontaneous phenomenon, and not at all the fruit of party agitation.”

Question 6

Soviet in Feb

Answer 6

• 3000 deputies, no factory one
• soldiers more in control (2/3 = servicemen, better organised)
• platoon of 12 delegates = 1000 workers