How far was the Provisional Government of Russia doomed from the start?

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How Far was the Provisional Government doomed from the start?

In February 1917 a revolution took place in Russia, which resulted in the abdication of the Tsar and the creation of a new provisional government. This new government only lasted a few months and it is arguable that its downfall was due to the haphazard and chaotic nature of the takeover and it was doomed from the start but it is also possible to blame the actions of the government as the reason that they fell this is especially important in the case of land reforms and ending the war.

The first fault with the provisional government was that it was made up of the third and final duma, this duma was made up of the Tsars supporters who agreed with many of his actions. As well as being followers of the Tsar these men had very little experience at running a country as previously they merely followed the wishes of the Tsar. The Provisional Government was made up of upper class aristocrats and they were perceived to have little care for the normal people of Russia, so due to the middle class nature and the former affiliation with the Tsar the Provisional government were weak when they came into power and were met with a mixed introduction to the people.

The provisional government were also faced with the problem the sheer size of Russia and the diversity of different people, in Russia there were lots of different ethnic minority’s all expecting and campaigning for different things, there were large class boundaries that divided the people and due to the release from repression political party’s were cropping up that expanded from the far left to the far right, it would be very difficult for a government to control these people without legitimate leadership or repression.

A key issue that was faced by the provisional government was its legitimacy, they had not been elected into power by the whole nation and therefore were not seen as the rightful leaders of Russia, and this problem they would contend with till their downfall. Liberals dominated the Provisional government but in the government there were two groups the Octobrists who were slightly right wing and the Kadets who were lead by Milyukov who were leaning right, then there was a break off from the kadets, the left-leaning Kadets. All these parties wanted different thing the left-leaning kadets wanted social reform and more power to be transferred to local and regional centres while the right leaning members of government campaigned for a constitutional democracy to be set up.

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The government made arguably their biggest blunder in committing themselves to continue the war alongside Britain and France, they wished to maintain and increase Russias role as a superpower and they hoped that their relationship with the west would help their failing economy when the war ended. This decision was very much opposed by the Socialist who believed that they should fight a defensive war as opposed to the offensive on the provisional government was persuing.

The Russian people and the soldiers were also very much against the war as millions of Russian men had been conscripted into ...

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