Essay
HOW FAR WAS THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS OWN DOWNFALL IN 1917?
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- PEARSON (PEARSON)
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HOW FAR WAS THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS OWN DOWNFALL IN1917?
The Provisional Government (PG ), formed after Tsar Nicholas II's abdication in February 1917, collapsed in
October 1917 following a revolution led by the Bolshevik Party. However, the Bolsheviks received little
resistance when they stormed the Winter Palace to take control due to the PG's failures, as well as Bolshevik
tactics and underlying problems, resulting in a significant decline in support for the government. This provokes
whether the PG was entirely responsible for its downfall or whether external factors influence its eventual
collapse. The topic at hand is one of a debate; there is plenty of evidence on either side to whether the
provisional government was responsible for its own downfall or whether external factors had more of an impact
in its closure/downfall in 1917. For example, Georgy L'vov said in July 1917 that 'the only way to save the
country now is to close down the Soviet and shoot the people. When answering the question, I will firstly look
at the inbuilt weaknesses the PG faced before then looking at the problems the PG faced, I will then look at
Kerensky and his impact on the functionality of the PG by 1917 followed by looking at events surrounding
Lenin's return before finally looking at the effects of the increasing support for Bolshevism.
At first glance, the provisional government was totally responsible for its own downfall in 1917, especially due
to the in-built weaknesses that the PG faced. The factor that bound these weaknesses together was that the
provisional government's lack of legitimacy. The dual power that the two government bodies (PG & PS) hoped
to be achieved weakened the power of both bodies significantly, with the Petrograd Soviet not being much of a
"watchdog" and instead more of a "control dog" over the Provisional government, taking significant amounts of
time for any pieces of legislation to become law etc. as they had to be 'approved by the PS ( Petrograd Soviet).
Along with this, the huge array of political and economic views present in the PG made a coalition of 'dual
power' near impossible. With some liberal Kadets & intellectuals being opposed to the more conservative
Octobrists who were happy with the level of reform that had already happened in 1905. This made the PG
nearly impossible to do effectively, and its downfall in 1917 was inevitable. It was made particularly inevitable
after Soviet order number 1 was issued on the 1st of March 1917, taking the war commands away from the PG
to the PS. This consequently disturbed the relations between the two bodies and made the provisional
government even more of an illegitimate body that didn't do much, especially as the biggest event at the time,
WW1. They had no longer any control over. This was a certain inbuilt factor that could be very strongly argued
to be the reason for its downfall in 1917. Moreover, during the time of the war the PG saw themselves as a
temporary body now that all war powers were taken away from them in March 1917, they had no active role in
politics and were just waiting for the Constituent Assembly elections to happen before their 'power', they hoped,
would be returned. So, in that regard, they certainly lacked credibility and legitimacy in the way that even the
PG themselves only saw themselves as a temporary body while the PS took over after the Soviet Order Number
1 was issued in March 1917. Although the PG did have many in-built weaknesses that many regarded as the
reason for their own downfall in 1917, other factors such as the problems that the PG faced made their job far
harder and less functionable. However, although there were problems outside of the PG itself the inbuilt
divisions and differences that were present from inside the PG made their job from early 1917 significantly
harder.
Although there were in-built weaknesses within the PG, the government body also faced significant problems
outside, making their job significantly harder. With many of the PG being pro-war, the PG were all for
continuing the war, unlike their counterparts who wanted to find a peace negotiation or end the war entirely.
Although this was the case, the Russian war effort which continued for a while, relied on significant war loans
from countries such as Britain and France. Still, the institution also feared that if Russia did pull out of the
warlike the PS hoped, those loans may be taken away. The PG's decision to continue the war in 1917 was
extremely unpopular. After the note was sent to Russia's allies about continuing the war, implying that the
country would be rewarded land from Turkey in the event of a victory, there were many demonstrations and
plenty of disorder that erupted from within the country. In turn, the job of the PG to keep peace within the
country was made significantly harder. Many felt that because of this the PG was too close of a govt. body to
the Tsar's government. The PG was also faced with disastrous economic problems, with price inflation levels far
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