One of Kerensky’s main mistakes was releasing all political opponents that the Tsar exiled, one of them being Lenin the former Bolshevik leader. During his time in exile Lenin plotted and schemed for the uprising of the working class and the downfall of the upper. Lenin and other political opponents of the Tsarist Russia did not care that Nicholas the II was gone, they wanted more reform and the Provisional Government weren’t going to stop them.
Kerensky made a big mistake by keeping Russia in the war. Russia itself was already war torn and was suffering from the losses. Not only did the war affect the people economically and physically. People were mentally tired and fed up of hearing about great losses. People wanted change which the Provisional Government weren’t providing.
This was where the Bolsheviks came in; they came with their slogans, promises and propaganda. They promised Russian people all the Provisional Government could not – Peace, Bread and Land. Inevitably this was an war of propaganda and politics that the Provisional Government could not win. With the help of great speakers like Trotsky the Bolsheviks soon gained support of the people.
The Government also had two other problems which they never successfully dealt with – one was the inability to end the food shortages which for so long plagued Russia. It was hard to see a government successfully rule a country that suffered from massive food shortages. And once again the underlying cause for this was the war which Kerensky stayed part of. Many of the original workers were shipped off to the front and Kerensky failed to compensate for the lack of peasant farmers and subsequently the lack of food. The other major problem was Kerensky’s promise of more land to farmers which he did not keep to. Kerensky told the people of Russia to wait until a real government was implemented before these large changes would happen. However people could not wait, peasants alike forcibly took land from the upper and middle class landlords and in many cases killing them in the process. This was where Kerensky and his government loss the support of the upper and middle classes who he failed to protect. They expected him to restore order and peace however by this time the real power for this lay in the Petrograd soviet of which had taken control of the main city, Petrograd. Even due to the control that the Petrograd Soviet had people still blamed the Provisional Government for the lack of change.
As well as this, Kerensky mistakenly armed the Bolsheviks and the Petrograd Soviet when trying to defend from General Kornilov and his attempted military coup. This was the last straw of hope for Kerensky and his democratic government. Losing the support of the army and its leaders was the main short term cause of downfall. And whhen it came down to the actual revolution, the Provisional Government had no troops to defend itself.
