Russian Provisional Government

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The Russian Provisional Government (Russian: Временное правительство России, tr. Vremennoye pravitel'stvo Rossii) was established immediately following the abdication of Nicholas II. The intention of the provisional government was the organization of elections to a Russian Constituent Assembly who would be tasked with writing a new constitution and deciding a new form of government. The Provisional Government was initially composed of the liberal Kadet coalition led by Prince Georgy Lvov, based on their position within the last Duma. As 1917 drug on and elections kept getting delayed, soldiers and workers in Petersburg became more radicalized. The Kadet led government was replaced by the Socialist coalition led by Alexander Kerensky. The provisional government lasted approximately eight months.

For most of the life of the Provisional Government, the status of the monarchy remained unresolved. Its status was finally clarified on September 1 [September 14, N.S.], when the Russian Republic was proclaimed, in a decree signed by Kerensky as Minister-President and Zarudny as Minister of Justice. The republic lasted a scant two months before it was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution.

Background

After the 1905 Russian Revolution, Tsar Nicholas was forced into a power-sharing arrangement. A new constitution was passed in 1906, a legislative body, the Duma, was created and a Prime Minister appointed. Nicholas regretted the reforms almost as soon as they were enacted, and they did not serve to modernize Russian society and the economy. The authority of the Tsar's government, already weakened by its participation in World War I, began disintegrating on November 1, 1916.

Alexander Kerensky, a leader of the Social Revolutionary Party (SRs) and Pavel Milyukov, founder and leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets) attacked Prime Minister Boris Stürmer's government in the Duma. After the government collapsed Stürmer was succeeded by Alexander Trepov and then Nikolai Golitsyn, but both were Prime Ministers for only a few weeks. By February, conditions had worsened to the point that the government was ready to collapse.

February Revolution

The main events of the February Revolution took place in and near Petrograd (present-day Saint Petersburg), the then-capital of Russia, where long-standing discontent with the monarchy erupted into mass protests against food rationing on February 23 Old Style (8 March New Style). Disaffected soldiers from the city's garrison joined bread rioters, primarily women in bread lines, and industrial strikers on the streets. As more and more troops deserted, and with loyal troops away at the Front, the city fell into chaos.

Revolutionary activity lasted about eight days, involving mass demonstrations and violent armed clashes with police and gendarmes, the last loyal forces of the Russian monarchy. On February 27 O.S. (March 12 N.S.) mutinous Russian Army forces sided with the revolutionaries. Three days later Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, ending Romanov dynastic rule and the Russian Empire. A Russian Provisional Government under Prince Georgy Lvov replaced the Council of Ministers of Russia.

After Nicholas abdicated, Milyukov announced the committee's decision to offer the Regency to his brother, Grand Duke Michael, as the next Tsar.^[1] Grand Duke Michael, realizing that there was little support for continuing the autocracy,^[2] deferred to the election of a Russian Constituent Assembly to decide the form of the next government. The Provisional Government was designed to set up elections to the Assembly while maintaining essential government services.

Formation

The Provisional Government was formed in Petrograd in 1917 by the Provisional Committee of the State Duma. The State Duma was the lower chamber in the Russian parliament established after the Revolution of 1905. It was led first in the new post-Tsarist era by Prince Georgy Lvov (1861–1925) and later by Alexander Kerensky (1881–1970). It replaced the Imperial institution of the Council of Ministers of Russia.

After the 1917 February Revolution and Tsar Nicholas II's abdication, the Provisional Government's members primarily consisted of former State Duma members under Nicholas II's reign. Its members were mainly members of the Constitutional Democratic Party (known as the Kadets party), as the Kadets were the only formal political party functioning in the Provisional Government at its conception. The Kadet Party (see Constitutional Democratic Party), composed mostly of liberal intellectuals, formed the greatest opposition to the tsarist regime leading up to the February Revolution. The Kadets transformed from an opposition force into a role of established leadership, as the former opposition party held most of the power in the new Provisional Government.

Although ideological and political ideas differed wildly throughout the Kadet party's leadership and members, most were moderate democrats. The Kadets and the Provisional Government alike pushed for new policies including the release of political prisoners, a decree of freedom of press, cessation of the Okhrana (secret police), abolition of the death penalty, and rights for minorities. The Provisional Government and the Kadets also wanted Russia to continue to be involved in World War I, much to the dismay of the Soviets.

Announcement

Public announcement of the formation of the Provisional Government was published in Izvestia the day after its formation.^[3] The announcement called for sweeping changes that included:

• Full and immediate amnesty on all issues political and religious, including: terrorist acts, military uprisings, and agrarian crimes etc.
• Freedom of word, press, unions, assemblies, and strikes with spread of political freedoms to military servicemen within the restrictions allowed by military-technical conditions.
• Abolition of all hereditary, religious, and national class restrictions.
• Immediate preparations for the convocation on basis of universal, equal, secret, and direct vote for the Constituent Assembly which will determine the form of government and the constitution.
• Replacement of the police with a public militsiya and its elected chairmanship subordinated to the local authorities.
• Elections to the authorities of local self-government on basis of universal, direct, equal, and secret vote.
• Non-disarmament and non-withdrawal from Petrograd of the military units participating in the revolution movement.
• Under preservation of strict discipline in ranks and performing a military service - elimination of all restrictions for soldiers in the use of public rights granted to all other citizens.

It also said, "The provisional government feels obliged to add that it is not intended to take advantage of military circumstances for any delay in implementing the above reforms and measures."

Initial composition

Russian Provisional Government
Date Formed	2 March [15 March, N.S.] 1917
Date Dissolved	July 1917
People and organizations
Head of State	Alexis II (unproclaimed) Michael II (conditionally) Georgy Lvov (de facto)
Head of government	Georgy Lvov
Member party	Progressive Bloc
Status in Legislature	Coalition
Opposition Cabinet	Executive Committee of Petrograd Soviet
Opposition party	Socialist coalition
Opposition leader	Nikolay Chkheidze
History
Incoming Formation	Golitsyn
Outgoing Formation	Kerensky I
Predecessor	Nikolay Golitsyn
Successor	Alexander Kerensky

Initial composition of the Provisional Government:

Post	Name	Party	Time of appointment
Prime minister and Minister of the Interior	Georgy Lvov		March 1917
Minister of Foreign Affairs	Pavel Milyukov	Kadet	March 1917
	Mikhail Tereshchenko	Non-Party	April 1917
Minister of War and Navy	Alexander Guchkov	Octobrist	March 1917
	Alexander Kerensky	Socialist-Revolutionary Party	April 1917
Minister of Transport	Nikolai Nekrasov	Kadet	March 1917
Minister of Trade and Industry	Aleksandr Konovalov	Progressist	March 1917
Minister of Justice	Alexander Kerensky	Socialist-Revolutionary Party	March 1917
	Pavel Pereverzev	Socialist-Revolutionary Party	April 1917
Minister of Finance	Mikhail Tereshchenko	Non-Party	March 1917
	Andrei Shingarev	Kadet	April 1917
Minister of Education	Andrei Manuilov	Kadet	March 1917
Minister of Agriculture	Andrei Shingarev	Kadet	March 1917
	Victor Chernov	Socialist-Revolutionary Party	April 1917
Minister of Labour	Matvey Skobelev	Menshevik	April 1917
Minister of Food	Alexey Peshekhonov	Popular Socialists (Russia)	April 1917
Minister of Post and Telegraph	Irakli Tsereteli	Menshevik	April 1917
Ober-Procurator of the Most Holy Synod	Vladimir Lvov	Progressist	March 1917

World recognition

Country	Date
United States	22 March 1917
United Kingdom	24 March 1917
France
Italy

April Crisis

On April 18 (May 1, N.S.) 1917 Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavel Milyukov sent a note to the Allied governments, promising to continue the war to "its glorious conclusion." On April 20-21, 1917 massive demonstrations of workers and soldiers erupted against the continuation of war. Demonstrations demanded the resignation of Milyukov. They were soon met by the counter-demonstrations organized in his support. General Lavr Kornilov, commander of the Petrograd military district, wished to suppress the disorder, but premier Georgy Lvov refused to resort to violence.

The Provisional Government accepted the resignation of Foreign Minister Milyukov and War Minister Guchkov and made a proposal to the Petrograd Soviet to form a coalition government. As a result of negotiations, on April 22, 1917 an agreement was reached and six socialist ministers joined the cabinet.

During this period the Provisional Government largely reflected the will of the Soviet, which increasingly meant the will of the Bolsheviks. Socialist ministers, coming under fire from their left-wing Soviet associates, were compelled to pursue a policy to appeal to both sides. The Provisional Government was unable to make decisive policy decisions due to political factionalism and a breakdown of state structures.^[4]

Kerensky's June Offensive

In the summer of 1917 the liberals persuaded the socialists that the Provisional Government needed to launch an offensive against Germany. Britain and France requested help to take the pressure off their forces in the West. Russia also sought to avoid national humiliation of a defeat in the war. The government agreed that a "successful military offensive" was required to unite the people and restore morale to the Russian army. Alexander Kerensky, Minister for War, embarked on a "whirlwind tour" of the Russian forces at the fronts, giving passionate speeches, calling on troops to act heroically, stating "we revolutionaries, have the right to death." This worked for a time until Kerensky left and the effect on the troops waned.^[5]

The June Offensive, which started on June 16, lasted for just three days before falling apart. During the offensive, the rate of desertion was high and soldiers began to mutiny, with some even killing their commanding officers instead of fighting.^[6]

The offensive resulted in the death of thousands of Russian soldiers and great loss of territory. This failed military offensive produced an immediate effect in Petrograd, a spontaneous armed uprising of soldiers and workers known as the July Days.

July crisis and second coalition government

Kerensky First Government
Date Formed	July 1917 (see July Days)
Date Dissolved	1 September 1917
People and organizations
Head of State	Grand Duke Michael (conditionally) Alexander Kerensky (de facto)
Head of government	Alexander Kerensky
Member party	Socialist Revolutionary Party
Status in Legislature	Coalition
Opposition Cabinet	Executive Committee of Petrograd Soviet
Opposition party	RSDLP
Opposition leader	Chkheidze/Trotsky
History
Incoming Formation	Lvov
Outgoing Formation	Kerensky II
Predecessor	Georgy Lvov
Successor	Alexander Kerensky

On July 2 (July 15 N.S.), in response to the government's compromises with Ukrainian nationalists, the Kadet members of the cabinet resigned, leaving Prince Lvov's government in disarray.^[7] This prompted further urban demonstrations, as workers demanded "all power to the Soviets."^[8]

On the morning of July 3 (July 16), the machine-gun regiment voted in favor of an armed demonstration. The demonstrators planned to march peacefully to the front of the Tauride palace and elect delegates to "present their demands to the Executive Committee of the Soviet." The following day, July 4 (July 17), around 20,000 armed sailors from the Kronstadt naval base arrived in Petrograd. The mass of soldiers and workers then went to the Bolshevik Headquarters to find Lenin, who addressed the crowd and promised them that, ultimately, all power would go to the Soviets. However, Lenin was rather reluctant about these developments. His speech was uncertain, barely lasting a minute.

Violence escalated in the streets. The mob looted shops, houses, and attacked well-dressed civilians. Cossacks and Kadets stationed atop the buildings of Liteyny Avenue began to fire upon the crowds, causing the marchers to scatter in panic as dozens were killed.

At around 7 pm, soldiers and a group of workers from the Putilov iron plant broke into the palace and, brandishing their rifles, demanded full power to the Soviets. When Socialist Revolutionary Minister Chernov attempted to calm them down, he was taken outside as a hostage until Trotsky appeared from the Soviet assembly and intervened with a speech praising the “Comrade Kronstadter’s, pride and glory of the Russian revolution.”  

The Menshevik Chairman of the Soviet, Nikoloz (Karlo) Chkheidze, spoke to the demonstrators in an "imperious tone," calmly handing their leader a Soviet manifesto, and ordered them to return home or be condemned as traitors to the revolution; they quickly dispersed.

The Ministry of Justice released leaflets accusing the Bolsheviks of treason on the charge of inciting armed rebellion with German financial support, and published warrants for the arrest of the party's main leaders. Troops cleared the party's Headquarters in the Kshesinskaya Mansion. The mood in the capital turned anti-Bolshevik. Hundreds of Bolsheviks were arrested and known or suspected Bolsheviks were attacked in the streets by Black Hundred elements.

Trotsky was captured a few days later and imprisoned, while Lenin fled to Finland. Lenin had refused to stand trial for "treason" as he argued that the state was in the hands of a "counter-revolutionary military dictatorship," which was already engaged in a civil war against the proletariat. Lenin believed that these events were “an episode in the civil war” and described how “all hopes for a peaceful development of the Russian revolution have vanished for good." While the Provisional Government survived the uprising, their pro-war position meant that moderate socialist government leaders lost their credibility among the soldiers and workers.^[9]

These developments presented the Provisional Government with a new crisis. Prince Lvov and the bourgeois ministers, belonging to the Constitutional Democratic Party resigned, and no cabinet could be formed until the end of the month.

Radicalization and splintering

While the Provisional Government lacked enforcement ability, prominent members within the Government encouraged bottom-up rule. Politicians such as Prime Minister Georgy Lvov favored devolution of power to decentralized organizations. The Provisional Government did not desire the complete decentralization of power, but certain members advocated for more political participation by the masses in the form of grassroots mobilization.

The February Revolution was also accompanied by further politicization of the masses. The rise of local organizations, such as trade unions and rural institutions, and the devolution of power within Russian government gave rise to increasing radicalization over the course of 1917.

Special interest groups also developed throughout 1917. The rise of special interest organizations gave people the means to mobilize and play a role in the democratic process. While groups such as trade unions formed to represent the needs of the working classes, professional organizations were also developed.^[10] Professional organizations quickly developed a political side to represent member's interests. The political involvement of these groups represents a form of democratic participation as the government listened to such groups when formulating policy. Such interest groups played a negligible role in politics before February 1917 and after October 1917.

While professional special interest groups were on the rise, so too were worker organizations, especially in the cities. Beyond the formation of trade unions, factory committees of workers rapidly developed on the plant level of industrial centers. The factory committees represented the most radical viewpoints of the time period. The Bolsheviks gained their popularity within these institutions. Nonetheless, these committees represented the most democratic element of 1917 Russia. However, this form of democracy differed from and went beyond the political democracy advocated by the liberal intellectual elites and moderate socialists of the Provisional Government. Workers established economic democracy, as employees gained managerial power and direct control over their workplace. Worker self-management became a common practice throughout industrial enterprises.^[11] As workers became more militant and gained more economic power, they supported the radical Bolshevik party and lifted the Bolsheviks into power in October 1917.

Many urban workers supported the socialist Menshevik Party while some, though a small minority in February, favored the more radical Bolshevik Party. The Mensheviks often supported the actions of the Provisional Government and believed that the existence of such a government was a necessary step to achieve Communism. The Bolsheviks violently opposed the Provisional Government and desired a more rapid transition to Communism. In the countryside, political ideology also shifted leftward, with many peasants supporting the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRs). The SRs advocated a form of agrarian socialism and land policy that the peasantry overwhelmingly supported. For the most part, urban workers supported the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks (with greater numbers supporting the Bolsheviks as 1917 progressed), while the peasants supported the Socialist Revolutionaries. Over the course of 1917, the rapid development and popularity of these leftist parties turned moderate-liberal parties, such as the Kadets, into the more conservative party within both the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet.^[12] The Provisional Government was more conservative and faced tremendous opposition from the left.

Alexander Kerensky

After the July Days, Alexander Kerensky, a former member of the Fourth Duma and a chairmen of the Soviet Executive Committee, became the Prime Minister of the Provisional Government. He was brought into the Provisional Government as a way to gain support from left-wing parties and the Petrograd Soviet. When Kerensky became Prime Minister, he tried to work with the Soviets. Kerensky was a moderate socialist, who believed that cooperation with the Provisional Government was necessary. A new coalition cabinet, composed mostly of socialists, was formed days later. Kerensky was chosen for his close association with the Soviets, and thought to be in a strong position to lead.^[13]

Second coalition:

Post	Name	Party
Minister-President and Minister of War and Navy	Alexander Kerensky	Socialist-Revolutionary Party
Vice-president, Minister of Finance	Nikolai Nekrasov	Kadet
Minister of Foreign Affairs	Mikhail Tereshchenko	Non-party
Minister of Internal Affairs	Nikolai Avksentiev	Socialist-Revolutionary Party
Minister of Transport	Piotr Yurenev	Kadet
Minister of the Interior	Irakli Tsereteli	Menshevik
Minister of Trade and Industry	Sergei Prokopovich	Non-party
Minister of Justice	Alexander Zarudny	Popular Socialists (Russia)
Minister of Education	Sergey Oldenburg	Kadet
Minister of Agriculture	Victor Chernov	Socialist-Revolutionary Party
Minister of Labour	Matvey Skobelev	Menshevik
Minister of Food	Alexey Peshekhonov	Popular Socialists (Russia)
Minister of Health Care	Ivan Efremov	Progressive Party (Russia)
Minister of Post and Telegraph	Alexey Nikitin	Menshevik
Ober-Procurator of the Most Holy Synod	Vladimir Lvov	Progressist

The problem of the Provisional Government was its inability to enforce and administer their legislative policies. The Provisional Government was unable to make decisive policy decisions due to political factionalism and a breakdown of state structures.^[14] Real enforcement power was in the hands of these local institutions and the Soviets. While the Provisional Government retained the formal authority to rule over Russia, the Petrograd Soviet maintained actual power. With its control over the army and the railroads, the Petrograd Soviet had the means to enforce policies.^[15] Institutions that held power in rural areas were quick to implement national laws regarding the peasantry's use of idle land.

This weakness left the government open to strong challenges from both the right and the left. The Provisional Government's chief adversary on the left was the Petrograd Soviet, a Communist committee then taking over and ruling Russia's most important port city, which tentatively cooperated with the government at first, but gradually gained control of the Imperial Army, local factories, and the Russian Railway.^[16]

Unfortunately for Kerensky the result of his courting of the Petrograd Soviet only served to strengthen the position of the Soviet at the expense of the government. It ushered in a period of "dual power," "an institutional arrangement under which the Provisional Government enjoyed formal authority, but where the Soviet Executive Committee had real power."^[17] This sentiment was echoed by Minister of War Alexander Guchkov: "We (the Provisional Government) do not have authority, but only the appearance of authority; the real power lies with the Soviet".^[18] The Provisional Government feared the Soviets immense growing power, attempting to appease them as much as possible.

The period of competition for authority would last until late October 1917. The weakness of the Provisional Government is perhaps best reflected in the derisive nickname given to Kerensky: "persuader-in-chief."^[19]

Kornilov affair

When Kerensky became Prime Minister, he made Lavr Kornilov his commander-in-chief of the armed forces. In September 1917 General Lavr Kornilov, the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, attempted a military coup d'état that became known as the Kornilov affair ^[20] (August old style). Due to the weakness of the government, there was talk among the elites of bolstering its power by including Kornilov as a military dictator on the side of Kerensky. The extent to which this deal had indeed been accepted by all parties is still unclear, however, when Kornilov's troops approached Petrograd, Kerensky branded them as counter-revolutionaries and demanded their arrest. Kerensky's denunciation had terrible consequences, as his move was seen in the army as a betrayal of Kornilov, making them finally disloyal to the Provisional Government. Kornilov's troops were arrested by the now armed Red Guard, further undermining the government in favor of the Soviet. In order to defend himself and Petrograd, Kerensky provided the Bolsheviks with arms as he had little support from the army.

End of the Autocracy

The status of the monarchy still remained unresolved. This was clarified on September 1 [September 14, N.S.], when the Russian Republic (Российская республика, Rossiyskaya respublika) was proclaimed, in a decree signed by Kerensky as Minister-President and Zarudny as Minister of Justice.

The Decree read as follows:

The Coup of General Kornilov is suppressed. But the turmoil that he spread in the ranks of the army and in the country is great. Once again, a great danger threatens the fate of the country and its freedom. Considering it necessary to put an end to the uncertainty in the political system, and keeping in mind the unanimous and enthusiastic recognition of Republican ideas, which affected the Moscow State Conference, the Provisional Government announces that the state system of the Russian state is the republican system and proclaims the Russian Republic. Urgent need for immediate and decisive action to restore the shocked state system has prompted the Provisional Government to pass the power of government to five individuals from its staff, headed by the Prime Minister. The Provisional Government considers its main objective to be the restoration of public order and the fighting efficiency of the armed forces. Believing that only the concentration of all the surviving forces of the country can help the Motherland out of the difficulty in which it now finds itself, the Provisional Government will seek to expand its membership by attracting to its ranks all those who consider the eternal and general interests of the country more important than the short-term and particular needs of certain parties or classes. The Provisional Government has no doubt that it will succeed in this task in the days ahead.^[21]

On September 12 [25, N.S] an All-Russian Democratic Conference was convened, and its presidium decided to create a Pre-Parliament and a Special Constituent Assembly, which was to elaborate the future Constitution of Russia. This Constitutional Assembly was to be chaired by Professor N. I. Lazarev and the historian V. M. Gessen. The Provisional Government was expected to continue to administer Russia until the Constituent Assembly had determined the future form of government, but it would not be long lived. On September 16, 1917, the Duma was dissolved by the newly created Directorate.

From February on, the hope for a democratic Russia hinged on the election of a Constituent Assembly. Their intention was to create the freest and fairest elections possible, but the challenged that they faced during the course of the year, from their ongoing participation in World War I, to the struggles between the Soviet and the government, and finally the aborted coup attempt rendered the election a moot point. The following month, the Bolsheviks would deliver the final blow.^[22]

Third coalition

Kerensky Second Government
Date Formed	14 September 1917
Date Dissolved	7 November 1917
People and organizations
Head of State	Grand Duke Michael (conditionally) Alexander Kerensky (de facto)
Head of government	Alexander Kerensky
Member party	Socialist-Revolutionaries
Status in Legislature	Coalition
Opposition Cabinet	Executive Committee of Petrograd Soviet
Opposition party	RSDLP
Opposition leader	Nikolay Chkheidze / Leon Trotsky
History
Incoming Formation	Kerensky I
Outgoing Formation	Lenin
Predecessor	Alexander Kerensky
Successor	Vladimir Lenin

From September 25 [October 8, N.S.] 1917.

Post	Name	Party
Minister-President	Alexander Kerensky	Socialist-Revolutionary Party
Vice-president, Minister of Trade and Industry	Aleksandr Konovalov	Kadets
Minister of Foreign Affairs	Mikhail Tereshchenko	Non-party
Minister of Internal Affairs, Post and Telegraph	Alexei Nikitin	Menshevik
Minister of War	Alexander Verkhovsky
Minister of Navy	Dmitry Verderevsky	–
Minister of Finance	Mikhail Bernatsky
Minister of Justice	Pavel Malyantovitch	Menshevik
Minister of Transport	Alexander Liverovsky	Non-party
Minister of Education	Sergei Salazkin	Non-party
Minister of Agriculture	Semen Maslov	Socialist-Revolutionary Party
Minister of Labour	Kuzma Gvozdev	Menshevik
Minister of Food	Sergei Prokopovich	Non-party
Minister of Health Care	Nikolai Kishkin	Kadet
Minister of Post and Telegraph	Alexey Nikitin	Menshevik
Minister of Religion	Anton Kartashev	Kadet
Minister of Public Charities	Nikolai Kishkin	Kadet

October Revolution

Main articles: October Revolution and Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

On October 24-26 Red Guard forces under the leadership of Bolshevik commanders launched their final attack on the ineffectual Provisional Government. For the most part, the revolt in Petrograd was bloodless, with the Red Guards led by the Bolsheviks taking over major government facilities with little opposition before finally launching an assault on the Winter Palace on the night of October 25. The assault led by Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko was launched at 9:45 p.m., signaled by a blank shot from the cruiser Aurora. The Winter Palace was guarded by Cossacks, Women's Batallion, and cadets (military students) corps. It was taken at about 2:00 a.m. Most government offices were occupied and controlled by Bolshevik soldiers on the 25th; the last holdout of the Provisional Ministers, the Tsar's Winter Palace on the Neva River bank, was captured on the 26th. The insurrection was timed and organized by Leon Trotsky to hand state power to the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies which began on October 26. On October 26, 1917, the All-Russian Congress of Soviets met and handed power over to a Soviet Council of People's Commissars with Lenin as chairman, Trotsky as commissar of the Red Army and minister of foreign affairs, and Bolsheviks taking positions in what was to be the new government.

Kerensky escaped the Winter Palace raid and fled to Pskov, where he rallied some loyal troops for an attempt to retake the capital. His troops managed to capture Tsarskoe Selo but were beaten the next day at Pulkovo. Kerensky spent the next few weeks in hiding before fleeing the country. He went into exile in France and eventually emigrated to the United States.

The Bolsheviks then replaced the government with their own. The Little Council (or Underground Provisional Government) met at the house of Sofia Panina briefly in an attempt to resist the Bolsheviks. However, this initiative ended on November 28 with the arrest of Panina, Fyodor Kokoshkin, Andrei Ivanovich Shingarev and Prince Pavel Dolgorukov.^[23]

Legacy

The Provisional Government was a brief and largely unsuccessful attempt to create a democratic government in a country that had never experienced it. Russian historian W.E. Mosse argues that this time period represented "the only time in modern Russian history when the Russian people were able to play a significant part in the shaping of their destinies."^[24] Despite its short reign of power and implementation shortcomings, the Provisional Government passed important reforms, including independence of Church from state, the emphasis on rural self-governance, and the affirmation of fundamental civil rights (such as freedom of speech, press, and assembly). Other policies included the abolition of capital punishment and economic redistribution in the countryside. The Provisional Government also granted more freedoms to previously suppressed regions of the Russian Empire. Poland was granted independence and Lithuania and Ukraine became more autonomous.^[25] Foreign policy was the one area in which the Provisional Government was able to exercise its discretion to a greater extent. However, the continuation of an aggressive foreign policy, like the Kerensky Offensive), only increased opposition to the government.

In the end, the experiment ended in failure. Riasanovsky argued that the Provisional Government made perhaps its "worst mistake" by not holding elections to the Constituent Assembly soon enough. They wasted time fine-tuning details of the election law, while Russia slipped further into anarchy and economic chaos. By the time the Assembly finally met, Riasanovsky noted, "the Bolsheviks had already gained control of Russia."^[26] According to Harold Whitmore Williams the history of eight months during which Russia was ruled by the Provisional Government was the history of the steady and systematic disorganization of the army.^[27] As government institutions collapsed and civil unrest grew, the Provisional Government proved incapable of meeting these challenges effectively. Their failures encouraged Lenin and the Bolsheviks to undertake their coup d'etat that ended the Russian experiment with democracy for over 70 years.

Notes

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Cash, Anthony. The Russian Revolution: A Collection of Contemporary Documents. Essex, England: The Book Service Ltd., 1967. ISBN 978-1566960601
• Faulkner, Neil. A People's History of the Russian Revolution. London, England: Pluto Press, 2017. ISBN 978-0745399041
• Figes, Orlando. A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1996. ISBN 0224041622
• Fitzpatrick, Sheila. The Russian Revolution 4th. ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017. ISBN 978-0198806707
• Kerensky, Alexander. The Catastrophe— Kerensky's Own Story of the Russian Revolution. New York, NY: D. Appleton and Company, 1927. ISBN 0527491004
• Lynch, Michael. Reaction and Revolution: Russia 1894-1924 (3rd ed.). London, UK: Hodder Murray, 2005. ISBN 0340885890
• Rendle, Matthew. "The Officer Corps, Professionalism, And Democracy In The Russian Revolution," The Historical Journal 51(4), December 2008, 922.
• Riasanovsky, Nicholas. A History of Russia. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 6th ed., 2000. ISBN 0195121791
• Smith, S. A. Russia in Revolution: An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2017. ISBN 978-0198734826
• Steinberg, Mark D. The Russian Revolution, 1905 - 1921. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2017. ISBN 9780199227624
• Wade, Rex A. The Russian Revolution, 1917. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0521602426

Further reading

• Abraham, Richard, Kerensky: First Love of the Revolution. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1987, ISBN 0231061080
• Acton, Edward, et al. eds. Critical companion to the Russian Revolution, 1914-1921 London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic, 2001, ISBN 978-0340763650.
• Hickey, Michael C. "The Provisional Government and Local Administration in Smolensk in 1917," Journal of Modern Russian History and Historiography 9(1), 2016, 251–274.
• Lipatova, Nadezhda V. "On the Verge of the Collapse of Empire: Images of Alexander Kerensky and Mikhail Gorbachev." Europe-Asia Studies 65(2), 2013, 264–289.
• Orlovsky, Daniel. "Corporatism or democracy: the Russian Provisional Government of 1917," The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review 24(1), 1997, 15–25.
• Thatcher, Ian D. "Post-Soviet Russian Historians and the Russian Provisional Government of 1917," Slavonic & East European Review 93(2), 2015, 315–337.
• Thatcher, Ian D. "Historiography of the Russian Provisional Government 1917 in the USSR." Twentieth Century Communism Issue 8, 2018, 108-132.
• Thatcher, Ian D. "Memoirs of the Russian Provisional Government 1917." Revolutionary Russia 27(1), 2014, 1-21.
• Thatcher, Ian D. "The ‘broad centrist’ political parties and the first provisional government, 3 March–5 May 1917." Revolutionary Russia 33(2) 2020, 197-220.
• Wade, Rex A. "The Revolution at One Hundred: Issues and Trends in the English Language Historiography of the Russian Revolution of 1917." Journal of Modern Russian History and Historiography 9(1), 2016, 9-38.

Primary sources

• Browder, Robert P. and Alexander F. Kerensky (eds.). The Russian Provisional Government 1917 3 vols. Stanford University Press, 1961. ISBN 0804700230