The History Faculty

The Russian Provisional Government is discussed by historians as a failure. It is presented as not taking decisive action on a range of pressing issues. It therefore lost popular support and was easily removed from power by the Bolsheviks in October 1917. This talk gives a more sympathetic account of the range of problems confronting the Provisional Government, arguing that it was undermined largely by factors outside its control: the war, a revolution in the countryside, the lack of equilibrium in exchange between town and countryside; an urban economic crisis; the break-up of the late imperial state through national movements; a lack of international backing; and the unique environment of Petrograd. The main failing of the Provisional Government was during Kerensky’s leadership, most notably the disastrous Kornilov Affair. We should also note the great success of the Provisional Government – the fact that it did arrange elections to the Constituent Assembly in very trying and difficult conditions.

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