The Soviet was very powerful, even though it was not the official government. It seemed that the Petrogard Soviet had started a new trend, and Soviets emerged all over the country. This was bad news for the Provisional Government because they were not in control.
Lenin had a small problem with the Soviet, he believed that the Social Revolutionaries, especially Bolsheviks who were a part of the Soviet, were being too co-operative with the government, this obviously disappointed him.
The whole Dual Power system was obviously not going to work: in a way it was like the situation in Germany in 1919. The Kaiser had abdicated and a new government was set up – but it was a coalition government, and it took a long time for everyone to agree on anything, therefore it took a long time for laws and motions to be passed.
For example if the Provisional Government wanted to pass a law that the Soviet didn’t agree on, it would not be passed. This would cause arguments, and it would take a long time to do anything. The Weimar Government was overthrown, much like the Provisional government. It had no real power due to the Dual Power situation, and this made it very easy for Lenin, when the time was right, to break the government down. This was quite an important factor, because without the Soviet, the Provisional Government would have had a lot more power, and may not have been as week as it was. However, it was not the most important factor, it just played its part.
The new government now had to make some drastic decisions. In hindsight we can see that these decisions dramatically changed the way people looked upon the Provisional Government and the way that life turned out for the people of Russia.
The first thing that they had to make a decision on, was the War. Both the Soviet and the Provisional Government decided that they should stay in the War. No one wanted the Germans’ to defeat them as not only would this be embarrassing, but if they tried to surrender, the Germans’ would take everything that they had, they would be relentless. The Provisional Government also thought that it would be a good idea if they remained allies with Britain and France, as in the future they would be there if Russia needed them.
At the time everyone was in favor with these decisions, but as the War continued people started to think that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all. Whenever something goes wrong, especially to the degree that it did in Russia, the people want and need someone to pass the blame onto, to scapegoat, and in most cases they blame the people in an authoritative position, in this case the Government. Life was tough – there was little food or fuel, the war had consumed all of the countries’ resources, and on top of all of this, soldiers were leaving the army. Everyone realized that the war had to end. However, it wasn’t all as simple as this. In order to keep France and Britain on Russias’ side, Russia could not surrender as they had been lent money that would be jeopardized if they decided to surrender. So the war had to continue. This made the Provisional Government increasingly unpopular – workers went on strike and almost refused to obey anything that the Government told them to do. In their eyes they had complete freedom. This was really bad for the Government, but good for Lenin and the Bolsheviks as conditions in Russia deteriorated daily, weakening the people and the government. The majority of people in Russia had already put the blame onto the government, and so needed someone to turn to; someone that would make everything better for them, Lenin was this person. He used all of the sufferings in Russia as part of his campaign, promising them better lives. He said that he would put an end to the Provisional Government, he didn’t want the people of Russia to co-operate with the government at all. Unlike every other political party, the Bolsheviks wanted an immediate end to the war, which grabbed peoples’ attention. He was the solution to their problems; at least that’s what it seemed like to the people of Russia at the time.
Another issue that needed to be addressed was the abundance of land. For after the Tsar had abdicated his thrown, the peasants, who had previously owned no land of their own, decided that they should now be allowed to. However, the Provisional government was very set in doing things properly, and thought it better to wait until a permanent government or ruler was in power before the land was distributed. This gave the Provisional government a bad reputation, and people began to dislike them, on top of their unpopularity regarding the war. So all in all things weren’t looking too good for the Provisional Government. However, for Lenin and the Bolsheviks, this ‘feud’ between the government and the peasants, allowed them to add more onto their campaign, after all, they wanted to make the people vote for them. Their slogan became ‘Bread, peace and land’, exactly what the people wanted to hear.
But this wasn’t all. At the time soldiers in the army were mainly peasants, and when they heard of the ‘free’ land, they abandoned the army to claim their share. This meant that the Russian army was rapidly decreasing and weakening, meaning that the Russians were getting closer to defeat against Germany, arousing all sorts of fears within the government. For it was them who were meant to be in control, but it seemed that they had no control, even over the peasants. For they had told the peasants that the land would be distributed evenly when a permanent ruler was in power, but the peasants didn’t really care, and took the land anyway.
So the Government was not only being blamed for the poor condition that Russia and the Russian people were in, but for potentially loosing the war.
This opened all sorts of doors for Lenin, and provided him with a weak and desperate public, who were willing to do almost anything, if it would get them out of poverty, depression and starvation. It also turned the public more and more against the Provisional Government. Both the war and the land issues played major roles in allowing the Bolsheviks to take power, as they showed the people of Russia how unprepared and out of touch the Provisional Government was when it came to ruling over a country, and making important decisions.
There was a period, the ‘July Days’, during which events seemed to work against Lenin and the Bolshevik party. Lenin fled to Finland, whilst other leaders of the Bolshevik party were arrested. Even after all of the events that had been going their way, the Bolsheviks’ missed their opportunity, or so it seemed.
In the autumn of 1917, Kerensky, the Prime Minister at the time, who had suffered a humiliating defeat against the Germans’, appointed a new general, Kornilov, to be the head of the Russian army.
Kornilov wanted his own government, a strong and powerful government. He tried to achieve this by attempting to get rid of all of the revolutionaries. So he ordered his troops to ‘march on Petrogard.’
This caused a lot of panic not only amongst the people of Petrogard, but also alarmed Kerensky. Kerensky then turned to the Bolsheviks for help. Conveniently, the Bolshevik Red guards who were groups of workers, trained in secrecy, were given rifles in order to defend Petrogard. He did not realise it at the time, but this was an extremely big mistake.
Kornilovs’ troops never reached Petrogard because the railway workers had stopped the trains carrying Kornilovs’ troops, who were persuaded not to fight their ‘fellow Russians’. The Bolshevik Red Guard kept their rifles. This is where it all went wrong for the Provisional Government, and was one of the key incidents that caused their downfall, and the uprising of the Bolsheviks, as they now had weapons to use to take over the city.
But more came out of this incident, because the government was so weak and had little control over the people it governed and this was the opposite to what Kerensky wanted, he tried to change it. For example, when peasants started to seize land for themselves, Kerensky sent out ‘punishment brigades’ to prevent any more land being taken against the Provisional Government’s wishes. This increased hatred towards the Provisional Government, on top of their already established unpopularity.
As I have previously stated, soldiers were leaving the army in order to return home and claim land, especially after the defeat that Russia suffered at the hands of Kornilov. But there was more: with everything that was going on, all the hatred and unpopularity. All of the problems that Russia was facing politically, economically, socially and on top of that the war that was still continuing, the Provisional Government had to cope with extreme amounts of pressure, that they obviously couldn’t handle.
However, this was good for the Bolsheviks as the increasing weakness of the Provisional Government, and lack of support gained Lenin and the Bolsheviks more recognition and more support. Also, when Kornilovs’ troops tried to attack Petrogard, the people of Petrogard saw the Bolsheivks as heroes, after all it was Lenin and the Bolsheviks that saved them from getting killed, or so it seemed.
So in conclusion, each factor caused the Provisional Government to become increasingly unpopular with the public. Each one showed the Provisional Governments’ weaknesses, and made the Bolsheviks look like the people of Petrogards’ knights in shining armor, there to save them from their depressing and unfortunate lives.