The Provisional Government Flashcards
Main domestic policies of the Provisional Government
The Provisional Government attempted to halt social unrest by imposing a number of liberal measures:
■The police department was disbanded and all policing was to be carried out by local militias.
■ Old-style regional governors and officials were replaced with a new wave of administrators.
■ Many political prisoners (for example, Trotsky) were released or given an amnesty to return to Russia.
■Newspapers, books and pamphlets increased in circulation. The net effect
was to allow Russian people to voice their opinions more strongly about how they wanted their country to be run in the future.
■From the beginning, the Provisional Government had promised and planned for the creation of a democratically elected Constituent Assembly. In the end, their promises did little to appease agitators and the new liberal climate simply allowed dissent to mount.
The inherent weaknesses of the government plus the context in which it was operating provided an opportunity for the Bolsheviks to take over.
The nature of the government
Challenges
Although the Provisional Government was only ever intended to be a
temporary arrangement, it could not disguise the fact that it was unelected,
unrepresentative and essentially the ‘old guard’ in disguise. From the beginning
it was also pushed into accepting a power share with the Petrograd soviet. This meant that the Provisional Government had to rely on members of the soviet to provide support if reforms were to be pushed through. The two biggest problems it faced were demands for fairer land distribution and Russia’s war performance. Neither was tackled with any confidence, which led to the opposition gaining momentum and eventually taking over.
Methods of repression and enforcement
They focussed on wartime security, establishing the Counter Espionage Bureau of the Petrograd Military District, designed to weed out those who were undermining the war effort, including the Bolsheviks.
The extent and impact of reform
The Provisional Government passed liberal reforms such as the dismantling of the Okhrana, hoping to create stability, though this was unsuccessful. They had a more positive attitude to change, aiming to set up a Constituent Assembly, but the principles that guided this establishment contributed to its downfall, for example releasing political prisoners, as this allowed opposition forums to gather momentum, but ultimately was it their poor decision making or the Bolshevik determination which led to the October Revolution.
The extent and effectiveness of opposition
They faced a similar level of opposition to the Tsars. They struggled to deal with its opponents from March to September 1917. There were a number of reasons for this:
The majority of members of other parties wanted a short-term government based on consensus, with the main aim of creating a Constituent Assembly. The leading Bolsheviks rejected this since it would favour ‘old interests’ to the detriment of workers and peasants.
Changes made by the Provisional Government facilitated the revival of political groups such as the Bolsheviks whose leaders had been in exile. Stalin moved back to Petrograd from exile in Siberia in March 1917, and Lenin from Switzerland in April. Lenin moved quickly to publish his April Theses, in which he condemned the Provisional Government for being bourgeois, and called for a seizure of power by the soviet.
Bolshevik leaders used propaganda to appeal for support from both workers and peasants
The growing strength of worker’s committees, especially in Petrograd, was worrying. These members were mainly opposed to the interim government, and it was probably this groundswell of opposition from workers that paved the way for the Bolshevik coup.
The Provisional Government struggled to deal with the Bolsheviks directly. Although leading Bolsheviks were exiled or imprisoned after the disturbances of the July Days, Kerensky strengthened their position by involving them in the resolution of the Kornilov affair.
Changes in urban and rural living and working conditions
Limitations on personal / political / religious freedom
The rest of the period was dominated by leaders, who, whenever they felt their authority, was being challenged, restricted personal and political freedoms. The provisional government was the only exception to this with a more tolerant approach adopted towards grassroots, political activism.
Extent of economic and social changes
The impact of the continuing war
WW1
Optimists believe that the continuation of the war made it impossible for the temporary government to deal with the burning issues of land reform, the modernisation of industry and the call for a Constituent Assembly. Thus, the war gave an opportunity to revolutionaries to overthrow the government completely and install their own form of direct rule.
The Bolsheviks took German money to finance their propaganda machine and to give payments to worker supporters who otherwise would not have afforded to be full-time political activists. Germany also fought hard to repel the Provisional Government’s summer offensive in 1917, agreed to a ceasefire in December 1917 allowed Lenin free rein to win the Civil War and then agreed to a trade deal in 1922 that averted Bolshevik bankruptcy. Hence, the war can be seen as an event that was skilfully exploited by the Bolsheviks and which allowed them to consolidate power.
Reasons for the overthrow of the Provisional Government
