Political authority opposition and the state of Russia in wartime (OCR A-Level History A): Revision Notes

Political authority opposition and the state of Russia in wartime

📌 Who was running Russia after the revolution?

The Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional Government were a dual power force.

Petrograd Soviet

Made up of:

• Workers' and soldiers' representatives
• Socialist intellectuals, mainly Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries

Chairman of the executive committee: Chkheidze Role:

To protect the interests of the working classes and soldiers

• Socialist intellectuals formed the leadership of the Soviet
• Had over 3,000 members
• Had ultimate control over the army – they would not carry out the orders of the Provisional Government unless the Soviet agreed, so this meant that the Soviet ultimately carried the power
• Order No.1: the army was only to answer to the Soviet
• Better represented the people

Made up of:

• Leading figures from the Kadets and other liberal parties

Leader:

Prince Lvov

Role:

To run the country until a Constituent Assembly had been elected

• The Provisional Government had been chosen by a committee of the Duma
• They were popular but it had not been elected by the people
• They greatly over-promised

Constituent Assembly – an elected parliament whose main job is to write a constitution which sets out a new system ofgovernment, including the relationships between the different organs of government, the legal system, and the checks and balances in the system.

📌 Why was the Provisional Government allowed to run Russia?

• Popularly accepted (though not elected by the people)
• The Soviets did not know how to run a government and were inexperienced in politics
• The Petrograd Soviet took a step back and kept an eye on the P.G.
• The Soviets did not want to provide an excuse for counter-revolution
• The Duma politicians were involved in establishing a representative government
• The Socialist intellectuals were unsure on how to run a government and were scared of things getting out of hand – there was already looting, violence and disorder – there was a fear of anarchy
• Vice Chairman of the P.S. and Minister of Justice in the P.G. Alexander Kerensky made sure each group knew what the other was up to – he tried to keep the peace and relationship between them
• The Socialist leaders did not think that the time was right for workers to take control
• In line with the classic Marxist theory, they thought they were going through the bourgeois-democratic revolution

• Tsarist ministers and officials were arrested and imprisoned
• The secret police was disbanded
• The death penalty was abolished
• Political and religious prisoners were granted an amnesty
• Freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and religious freedom were guaranteed
• Elections to the Constituent Assembly were to be by secret ballot and universal suffrage

Additionally:

• Workers secured an eight-hour working day and the right to form trade unions and strike
• It was agreed that soldiers in the Petrograd garrison would not be sent to the Front
• People were optimistic about the future
• Some of the worst aspects of Tsarism were discarded and elections were on the way

Support outside the capital

• Support for the new government flooded in from outside the capital where the Tsarist system was being dismantled
• Signs of imperial power were torn down and destroyed
• Old Tsarist governors were dismissed and replaced with commissars (but they were largely ignored)
• People were setting up their own organisations
• Tended to be non-party bodies run by members of the zemstva, but membership rapidly expanded to take in reps of various workers', soldiers', trade unions and other popular committees at the time
• However, these bodies were being outstripped by the rapid growth of soviets in the cities and towns
• These could be run by non-party socialists, SRs, Mensheviks or individuals of standing in the community
• In many places local control was chaotic
• Peasants also started to set up committees and give voice to their opinions and demands
• Some villages declared themselves autonomous republics
• Lvov encouraged localities to run their own affairs – he was more radical and populist than other liberals in the P.G.
• A great wave of expectation was building up and the new gov. was going to find it hard to meet the hopes and aspirations of all the different groups in Russian society