One of the reasons the Provisional Government lasted only eight months was because of the peasants’ unhappiness and lost faith in it.
The continuation of the war created more divisions between the already weak Provisional Government, and it also used the equipment and materials needed for a quick improvement in living conditions.
To the peasants and workers, already enduring bad conditions, the war seemed to be taking all the hardships they already had, and made them worse. Food and equipment were confiscated for the army and as a result the prices went up, living conditions were made no better. The workers in the cities were forced to work overtime for less money, and yet conditions for the soldiers were just as bad.
The soldiers were made to continue fighting, and had to watch their comrades die as they were slaughtered battle after battle. They were too badly equipped and trained to beat the efficient, well equipped and trained German army. The soldiers began to contemplate; why were they fighting a war for a government that could not even provide basic supplies? Soldiers began to desert, having lost all faith in the Provisional Government, and when Kerensky took over as War Minister and rallied the army for a giant offensive on the Germans in June 1917, the Russian army was once again slaughtered.
After the initial celebration and unification of the people under the Tsar at the announcement of war, to the peasants and soldiers alike, it seemed the perfect solution to Russia’s problems to end the war. After the defeats under the Tsar, the people presumed that the Provisional Government would pull out of the war.
The weary Russian people now wanted peace, and the Provisional government heavily debated the matter. However, the Provisional Government looked at the long term factors concerning the war and the results it would have for Russia. It would have two main effects. Firstly, the Germans would demand that Russia pay and give land to them in exchange for a peace treaty. And secondly, the Provisional Government knew that to rebuild Russia, they could only do so by borrowing money from richer countries like Britain or France (France had already lent great amounts of money to Russia), and if the Russians pulled out of the war allowing all of the German troops on the Eastern Front to move to the West, the British and the French, Russia’s allies would no doubt lend Russia no more money.
The Provisional Government promised Russia’s allies that it would continue the war, while it desperately tried to address the problems at home. Pro-war propaganda was created and displayed, yet no significant and adequate answer to Russia’s internal problems could be found.
The Provisional Government had tried to continue the war and had failed. For the Russian people, the war was making all their original hardships worse. For the Russian army, it was slaughter. To the Russian people it seemed that to end the war was the perfect solution to Russia’s problems. Yet the Provisional Government failed to do this, and in continuing the war not only increased Russia’s economic problems, but it lost all of the army’s support. Like the Tsar, without the support of the Army, the Provisional Government had no way to maintain order and keep control, and so this is why the continuation of war resulted in the Provisional Government lasting only eight months.
The difference between the rich landlords and the poor peasants in the Tsars’ regime was land. The rich owned the land, the poor worked and died on the land, and so after the revolution, the peasants wanted to take the land for themselves. With more land, there could be more improvements in living conditions, more food could be produced, and so the war wouldn’t seem so bad, even after food had been taken from the army, there would be some left.
Peasants began to tear across the countryside, tearing down landlords’ mansions, and claiming the land for their own. Yet the weak Provisional Government did not know what to do. Divided, they eventually decided, and urged the people to wait for the elections before taking the land.
Yet some of the people were still cautious of the Provisional Government; when were the elections going to be? The Provisional Government was delivering a very dangerous message considering the people had just gone through a revolution and had so far seen little change from the old regime. Having the extra land would make so much of a difference, and so why not take it? Combined with the sufferings of war, and the army, mostly made up of peasants, not going to stop them – indeed going to take their share of the land to, the peasants in the countryside had had enough, and this was the final straw.
The Provisional Government only lasted for eight months as when it told the peasants not to take the land, it lost their support as well as the army’s.
The shortage of food in the towns and cities had several causes; much of the food was needed for the war, there was an incredible problem trying to transport the food from the countryside into the city on Russia’s backward transport system, and the fact that the Provisional Government had lost the support and cooperation from the peasants in the countryside who produced the food.
The lack of food was a serious issue for the Russian people; indeed, the March Revolution was sparked off by workers, and women demanding that the government provide bread. There was no way that the divided Provisional Government could get enough food to the starving workers in the city. Without food, the urban workers’ morale decreased, and their output decreased, which resulted in terrible consequences for the army. Food prices rose, the contract made even worse by the low wages of the workers due to the war, and manufactured goods became dearer as less were produced by the poor and starving workers.
One of the reasons the Provisional Government lasted for only eight months was that it could not get food to the urban workers, which led to a chain reaction of high prices, low production and wages, and thus it lost the support of the urban workers.
The Petrograd Soviet was made up of elected urban workers in the capital of Petrograd, and was the head of all the Soviets in Russia. Throughout its’ time in power, the Provisional Government virtually shared power with the Petrograd Soviet. Unlike the un-elected Provisional Government of Middle classes, the Soviets were elected by the people and made up of the working class, and thus, was extremely influential. After the Provisional Government lost the support of the army, the Petrograd Soviet had the only means of enforcement – the workers and peasants would listen to them over anyone else.
The Petrograd Soviet did not contest the Provisional Government unless it did not agree, and thus only laws the Petrograd Soviet agreed with could be passed by the P.G. They worked on the whole together, but as the Provisional Government began to loose support, the Petrograd Soviet gained power.
Anyone in charge of the Petrograd Soviet had the ability to become a dictator, and could undoubtedly contest the Provisional Government. The Petrograd soviet was a reason the Provisional Government lasted only eight months; it was an alternative government, and had more real power than the Provisional Government, and so the PG could not enforce all the laws it wished to, and now, without the army, even had the ability to keep control.
The Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, were more popular than the P.G. as a result of many causes, and like all the reasons, linked to all the others. The Bolsheviks, after splitting with the Mensheviks were not a divided party, and knew exactly what they wanted, unlike the Provisional Government, and were therefore stronger. The Bolsheviks made many promises to the people, and as they were working class themselves, the Bolsheviks knew what the people would want, unlike the middle-class P.G. The Bolsheviks were also from the Petrograd Soviet – where the real power of Russia lay, unlike the Provisional Government.
The Provisional Government lost the support of the 3 groups of people in Russia; the army by continuing the war, the peasants by condemning the taking of land, and the urban workers, by not getting them food. In response to this, Lenin created the ‘April Theses’ and created the slogan, and thus their aims: ‘Peace, Land, Bread’, and ‘All Power to the Soviets’. This was exactly what the people wanted, and soon there was a rebellion in July started by Bolshevik protests against the war. However, the rebellion ended after Kerensky gave proof that Lenin was helped by the Germans, and Lenin fled the country in disguise. Kerensky took over the government, and crushed the rebellion using troops.
But the dominance of the Bolsheviks seemed inevitable. With the middle and upper classes wanting Kerensky to restore order, the real power of Russia lay with the Soviets. However, the Petrograd had both a Bolshevik chairman and majority.
When General Kornilov marched with the Russian Army to Petrograd to restore order and remove both the Provisional Government and the Bolsheviks, Kerensky had no choice. The troops he commanded was no match for the whole Russian army, and so he turned to the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks organised themselves, and created an army called the Red Guards. When Kornilov reached Petrograd, his men refused to fight the Red Guard as it was the army of the Petrograd Soviet.
The final reason the Provisional Government lasted for only eight months, was the more popular Bolshevik party. It had just defeated Kornilov. By the end of September 1914, the Petrograd, Moscow, and most of the Soviets in the other major towns and cities had Bolshevik majorities. The Provisional Government only lasted eight months as there was the November Revolution in which the Bolsheviks took over Petrograd and took control from the now unpopular and powerless Provisional Government.
