2 - Feb/March revolution 1917

conditions before the revolution

food shortages, extreme rationing, high unemployment, strikes common

14th February

100,000 workers on strike, violence against the police

22 February

20,000 workers locked out of Putilov Steel Works

23rd February

90,000 workers on strike and 240,000 people in the streets

24th February

strikes continue

25th February

Petrograd at a standstill with 250,000 workers on strike, leader of the police is shot and the cossacks refuse to shoot at civilians

26th February

Rodzianko (president of the Duma) sends a telegram to the tsar warning him of events in the capital, Tsar dissolves the Duma in response

27th February

Tsar orders military force to be used against the strikers, a mutiny begins in the Volynsky Regiment, more soldiers mutiny, Okhrana HQ attacked and Provisional Committee set up

28th February

the Tsar begins to return to the capital and offers to share his power with the Duma but his train is diverted

other events of the revolution

- poland, finland and ukraine declare their independance

Abdication

2nd March, Nicholas abdicates in favour of his brother Michael, who refuses

who led the revolution?

Unclear.
- bolshevik leaders were in exile and didn't expect the revolution to happen when it did
- liberal politicians were cautious - they didn't want a mass uprising

Petrograd Soviet

politicians were voted in who represented the workers in Petrograd, led by the leading socialists

Order No. 1

the first order passed by the Soviet
- all military units would elect representatives to the soviet
- corporal punishment would end
- all weapons under the control of the soldiers
- honorific titles for officers no longer used

also stopped the PG being able to do anything without the approval of the soviet

All-Russian Congress of Soviets

a country-wide soviet with representatives from all of Russia

Aims of the Soviet

to defend workers' rights

Provisional Government

formed of and by representatives from the Duma, original PM was Prince Lvov

Support for the PG

supported by the heads of the army, the civil service and the police

Aims of the PG

to run the country before elections for the Constituent Assembly could take place

Dual Authority

the arrangement whereby the PG and the PS ran Russia together

Disagreements between the PG and PS

- the PS wanted to end the war but the PG wanted to honour their treaty with the allies
- the PG wanted to hold elections after the war in the hopes to lessen support for the left - the PS wanted elections now
- neither the PG or the PS could decide what to do about land, but they definitely couldn't agree

result of Dual Authority

the russian government was left paralysed and neither side had the will or the organisation to take full control