The Provisional Government

Question 1

What were the terms of the eight-point programme?

Answer 1

• Freedom of speech, assembly and strike
• Abolition of religious, national or social privileges,
• promise of elections to a constitutional assembly and local councils

Question 2

How did the PG want to deal with the issue of land redistribution?

Answer 2

They wanted to leave the concern of land redistribution until when there was an elected constitutional assembly after the war as they feared desertion in the military

Question 3

What opposition was there to the PG’s policy on land redistribution?

Answer 3

• The peasants were hungry for land and demanded urgent fundamental land reform
• 237 cases of land seizures were reported in July 1917

Question 4

What economic problems faced the PG?

Answer 4

• A continuation of food shortages, unemployment and high prices
• Shortages of fuel and raw materials causing over 500 factories to close In Petrograd (100,000 Jobs lost)
• Peasants were unwilling to sell their grain, causing grain prices to double and punishment brigades sent out to the countryside to requisition grain

Question 5

What social problems were there under the PG?

Answer 5

• Workers expected social reform, much of which had been set out in the eight point programme which led to antagonism when they were not met
• Strikes began to increase and workers committees began to take over factories