Why Was There Another Revolution in 1917?

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Kerri Waters

Why Was There Another Revolution in 1917?

In February 1917 the Tsar was overthrown in the first revolution of that year. This was due to the loss in confidence by the middle and upper classes. This created the Provisional Government, led by Prince Lvov, and Petrograd Soviet which was designed to act on behalf of the people and solve the problems brought about by the war. However later on, in October a second revolution took place led by Lenin to overthrow the Provisional government. Another revolution so soon after the deposition of the leaders of the first and so sudden a change after the oppression of the Tsarist regime seem strange. Yet many factors show how conflicting interests and individual forces in Russia at the time led to the overthrow of the Provisional government.

The crucial failure of the first revolution was to deal with the problems of economic hardship and social unrest. The Provisional Government carried on Russian involvement in the war promoting unrest and identifying itself with Tsarist policy. This breed further conditions of defeats, death food shortage and inflation. It seemed the Provisional Government was serving the interests of the upper and middle classes and the Tsarist regime under a different name. The mean the peasants were still in the same position as before and the land reform they were promised never happened as the government kept postponing it. They feared losing support of the land owning classes and were worried that peasants would desert the army to claim land. The Provisional government never had a chance to stabilise itself and create its own identity from the Tsar.

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The undermining of the Provisional government was mainly due to its inability to appease both concerns of the left and the right. The left represented by the Petrograd Soviet controlled the railways and communications services. They also held control of army rank and file, restricting any influence of the Provisional government. As well as this grass roots extremism was on the increase with peasants taking the law into their own hands over the land reforms. They began seizing land and factory soviets overtook the running of factories. The main problem with appeasing the left was the demands and lack of ...

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