Dual Authority Flashcards
Who was the provisional committee initially made up of?
Middle and upper-class liberals chaired by Prince Lvov
What were the 8 main works/principles of the provisional government?
1) Amnesty for political prisoners
2) Freedom of speech and the right to strike
3) Abolish religious national privileges
4) Set up a constituent assembly
5) Create a local militia with elected officers
6) Hold elections for councils and zemstvo
7) Assure that military units who joined the revolution wouldn’t get sent to the front
8) Maintain military discipline
List the key problems facing the provisional government at the start of March
- Order Number One undermined their authority over the Petrograd garrison
- They lacked mass popular support and legitimacy
- They relied on cooperation from the PS
- They didn’t control telegraph stations, railways, power supplies and many factories
- There were divides within the PG itself e.g. Kerensky was an SR whereas Lvov was more conservatively liberal
What part of the Petrograd Soviet was formed on the 27th February?
The executive committee
What proportion of the soviet were soldiers? How did this compare to the soldier-worker ratio in the city?
2/3 of the Soviet were soldiers whereas the worker-soldier ratio in the city was 4:1
How did the PS view its role in government?
As a watchdog/supervisory body
What important things did the PS control?
Telegraph stations, railways, power supplies and many factories
What were the main problems with the PS?
- It was too chaotic and poorly organised
- It lacked political experience
- Lacked support in the countryside
- The executive committee made most the decisions and was split by Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and the SRs
What similar objectives between the PS and PG led to accomodationism?
- They both wanted amnesty for political prisoners
- They both wanted freedom of expression, religion etc.
- They both wanted to abolish the Tsarist police and Okhrana
- They wanted to enforce an 8 hour working day
- Hold elections for a CA
What factors prevented the Petrograd Soviet from seizing power?
- Fear of a counter revolution (from generals and upper-class)
- Ideology - Marxist doctrine believed that a period of democracy was required before the transition to socialism
- Inexperience within the civil service and government
- Revolutionary leaders were still in exile at this point
- The intellectuals in the executive committee prefered to talk than take such concrete actions
- The common interests between the PG and PS
Why were the PG viewed as illegitimate? What did they do to solve this? Why was this ineffective?
- They were not voted for
- They promised to hold elections for a CA with universal suffrage
- However, these elections kept getting delayed and hence the problem of illegitimacy remained
What was the advantage/disadvantage of 5 SRs and Mensheviks joining the PG in May?
Advantage - gave PG more authority because it now had members of the parties from the Soviet in the government
Disadvantage - it meant the SRs and Mensheviks became associated with the failings of the PG which helped the Bolsheviks
What was the paradox of the war for the PG?
- The war was the principal cause of socio-economic grievances in the populace
- Yet the continuation of war was necessary to keep receiving French war credit which was keeping the Russian economy afloat and a victory would grant economic and status benefits to the new government
What two approaches did the PG take which failed to solve the food shortage issue?
- They offered to pay peasants double the price for their grain. However, this was irrelevant due to the high inflation and lack of goods for the peasants to then buy with the extra money
- They then reverted to grain requistioning with punishment brigades but this angered peasants into hoarding grain and subsistence farming
How many factories closed between February and July? How many jobs were lost? Why?
568 factories closed
100,000 jobs lost
The lack of fuel and raw materials made production impossible in some places and it had to be scaled down in others
