Russia Aos1 Content (2nd HALF!)

Dual Authority - Provisional Government and Petrograd Soviet

•  two powers, the workers councils ( Soviets - Petrograd Soviet) and the Provisional Government coexisted with each other and competed for legitimacy. 

SOVIET - Workers and soldiers representatives (therefore supported them!)

P.G - Leading figures from the Kadets and other liberal parties

Provisional Government: Initial Formation

• 2 March 1917 Provisional Committee renamed itself the Provisional Government - Prince Lvov named as Prime Minister. Dominated by Kadets and Octobrists. 

• Declared that they would assume responsibility for governing until Constituent Assembly elections could take place. 

• Authority limited by unofficial partnership with the Petrograd Soviet.

Initial reforms of P.G - Effectiveness!

• Trade unions recognised + 8hr working day

• Okhrana abolished - People’s militia established

• Freedom of speech, assembly and press introduced

• Universal suffrage announced, political prisoners freed

• A commitment to convene a constituent assembly.

Petrograd Soviet: Formation and order no. 1

Formed 13th of October 1905 - workers soldiers sailors

• On March 1 1917 P.S issued ‘Order Number One’, = undermine authority of the P.G

• Advised all workers, soldiers and sailors to refrain from following the orders of the Provisional Government unless they were approved and counter-signed by the Soviet itself.

LENIN - April Theses:

• Returned 3 April 1917, helped by Germany

• Aimed to undermine and destabilize the PG

• Lenin delivered a speech at Finland Station, - became April Theses. It called for:

  • Immediate socialist revolution

  • A transfer of power to Soviets; 

  • Withdrawal of cooperation with PG

• Called the P.G “parliamentary-bourgeois” - declared there should be “no support for the P.G”

• Demanded an end to the “imperialist” war

• Propaganda: “Peace, Bread and Land”, “All power to the Soviets”

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• Theses united Bolshevik party - establish them as the radical opponents of PG.

• Lenin established a power base which enabled the forthcoming October Revolution.  

Provisional Government - What are they doing?

onal Government - What are they doing?

• WWI - Stayed in the War wanted to wait for constituent

• Land seizures - wait and let the Constituent Assembly implement land redistribution - resulted in more seizures and further unrest

• National minorities - Countries - eg: Ukraine demanded self-government, P.G tried to stop it

• Economic situation - Increased payment to peasants for their grain by 100% - ended up sending out punishment brigades to requisition grain - increased hostility towards the PG by peasantry, expectation of reform did not happen.

June offessive

Although committed to a ‘defensive war’- Kerensky (Minister of War) and General Brusilov =major offensive June - drive Austrians and Germans from Russian Territory.

• Kerensky spent time trying to improve the morale of the many regiments through speeches.

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• Beginning on June 18th - June Offensive was a disaster.  

• The Russians were still untrained and without weapons.  

• Over 170,000  soldiers in total deserted - despite action threatened with the death penalty  

• The offensive cost territory with Germany advancing 230 kms - it was a chaotic defeat.

• Believed that a successful offensive would rally the Russian people around patriotism and boost the Provisional Government's legitimacy.

July dayas

2nd July: 

• Meeting held by the 1st Machine Gun Regiment from the Petrograd garrison

• Trotsky (Bolshevik)  - criticised Kerensky’s June Offensive

• The Regiment was furious at the thought of being sent to the front - built opposition

3rd July:

• Thousands took to the streets in protest with signs “Peace, Bread and Land” and “All Power to the Soviets”

4th July:

• The protesters were joined by 20,000 sailors, 20,000 workers from the Putilov Plant. Chaos and agitation. 

• P.G fired upon the crowd. 400 people killed

• Protestors stopped at Bolshevik headquarters - Lenin supported them but urged restraint

• Sailors marched to the Tauride Palace (Petrograd Soviet) demanding they take power (50,000 workers, soldiers and sailors in total) - Bolshevik slogans 

Response of P.G July Days

•  July Days quashed by Kerensky - recalled troops to suppress the uprising.

• The Provisional Government ordered the arrest of 11 key Bolsheviks on 6 July. 

• 800 Bolsheviks arrested. 

• Accused Lenin of being a German spy.

• Bolsheviks were weakened and dispersed.

Kornilov Affair:

• July 18 1917 Kerensky appointed Kornilov as the Supreme Commander of the Russian Army.

• Kerensky dismissed Kornilov and demanded he come to Petrograd by telegram on August 27 1917.

• Kornilov believed that the telegram must be the result of a Bolshevik coup.  As such he ordered his troops to march on the capital to save Russia.

• Kerensky called on the Soviets and Red Guards (Bolshevik militia) to protect the capital. Gave them weapons to help defend the city. Kornilov and his troops never made it to Petrograd. 

• The Kornilov affair isolated the PG while allowing for a revival of Bolshevik power

• By 9 September 1917 - Bolsheviks had increase its membership and gain significant majorities in the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets.

October Revolution: PRE!!

• September 1917, the Bolsheviks had successfully indoctrinated Russia’s soldiers and workers with militant class rhetoric and uncompromising anti-war stance.

• Public believed that only a Soviet Government could deliver ‘Peace, Bread and Land’. 

• October 1917 class tensions, economic hardship, breakdown of law and order in Petrograd saw the Provisional Government’s authority rapidly decline.

• Strikes increased: September 1917 - 700,000 railroad workers strike

• In early October: 300,000 textile factory workers went on strike

• 10th October: Lenin called a meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee (w. Trosky) to demand an insurrection

Military Revolutionary Committee:

RUN BY TROSKY! Military of the takeover. 

The MRC (formed 16 October) —> organise and oversee the Red Guards to defend Petrograd and the Soviet from a military coup or counter-revolution.

October Rev - days before 23/24th

23 October: Kerensky makes a move against the Bolsheviks.

• Shut down printing presses

• Unsuccessfully attempted to arrest members of the MRC (Trosky) + Bolsheviks.

On 24 October Red Guards and the MRC soldiers took over the blockade points established by Kerensky.

• 2pm printing presses back in action.

• Trotsky’s forces had seized control of strategic buildings and offices —> telegraph and post offices, the state bank, the electricity station and the train stations.

• The Provisional Government was blockaded into the Winter Palace.

• At 9am on 25 October, Kerensky fled to rally support from troops at the front.  He never returned.

October rev

Palace Protection:

• 140 Volunteers of the Women’s Death Battalion

• Forty officers

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Winter Palace assault - 25th- 26th October

• At 11pm the canons of the Peter and Paul Fortress opened fire - shattering only one window and breaking a cornice

• The Provisional Government ministers hid under tables 

• Entrances were left unguarded and Soviets slowly wandered in

• At 2.10am Bolshevik forces arrested the ministers.

• At 10.40pm All Russian Congress of Soviets convened - many denounced the actions, other parties walk out of the congress - handing power to the Bolsheviks