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February revolution 1917 - chap 2 - Coggle Diagram
February revolution 1917 - chap 2
timeline
January 1917 - 150,000 Petrograd workers on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday had a demonstration
monday 14th February - 100,000 workers from 58 different factories on strike in Petrograd - news of bread rationing on 1st march resulted in long queues and violent exchanges
Wednesday 22nd February - 20,000 workers locked out of Putilov steel works by the management after pay talks collapsed - workers went on strike in support
thursday 23rd February (international women's day) - 90,000 workers went on strike and 50 factories closed - striking workers joined the traditional march of women. the city fell into chaos with around 240,000 on the streets
turning point
friday 24th February - 200,000 workers on strike and crowds overturned tsarist statues.
Saturday 25th February - over half Petrograd's workforce were on strike and the city was at a virtual standstill. major factories and shops were closed, no newspapers, no public transport, violence escalated but some cossacks refused to attack a procession of strikers.
sunday 26th February - Rodzianko (president of the Duma) sent the Tsar a telegram warning him of the dangerous situation but Nicholas ignored this and dissolved the duma the next day
monday 27th February - Tsar ordered major-general Khabalov to restore order by military force, soldiers were ordered onto the streets and 40 demonstrators were killed. a mutiny began in the volynskii regiment. Revolutionaries set up a soviet which intended to take over the government and it began to order food supplies for the city.
Tuesday 28th February - Nicholas left the military headquarters and made his way back to Petrograd - abdicated in march
issues of leadership
all major bolshevik leaders were absent at the time of the revolution
emergence of soviets in Petrograd and other cities suggest some sort of organisation by socialist leaders
Petrograd soviet agreed that each regiment should elect committees and send representatives to to the soviet - "order number 1"
Petrograd soviet took the official title of ' soviet of workers and soldiers deputies' and by march 10th it had 3000 members -
most of its work was done by an executive committee which was dominated by socialist intellectuals including Alexander Kerensky
Nicholas IIs train was diverted by rebellious railway workers and was put under pressure to abdicate and did so on march 2nd 1917 - the Petrograd soviet would recognise a provisional government formed by members of the duma and suggested that the Tsar should resign in favour of his son Aleksei with Mikhail acting as regent (although this didn't happen necessarily) - the Tsar and his family were placed under house arrest
Provisional government and Petrograd soviet
PG - convened under Prince Lvov, members represented a cross section of the influential elites (liberals, moderate socialists and kadets), it was the original intention that it would be provisional and that elections would be held for constitutional assembly asap but this didn't happen. It set itself up in the duma chamber of the right wing of the Tauride palace.
PS - the mass of workers, soldiers and peasants regarded the PG as a self appointed committee tainted with their previous associations with the tsar. it was the more democratic organisation, HQ in left wing of taurine palace, comprised of radical socialist intellectuals, Mensheviks and socialist revolutionaries and a small number of bolsheviks
PS - Kerensky was the only member of both the PS and the PG - agreed to work together, laid foundations of dual authority
soviet made no attempt to demand land redistribution or nationalisation of industry but accepted PGs promises of - general amnesty for political prisoners, civil liberties, abolition of legal disabilities based on class, religion and nationality, freedoms to organise trade unions and to strike, the election of the constituent assembly to determine Russias future
dual authority
soviets 'order number 1' stated that soldiers and workers should obey the PG but only when the soviet agreed with the PGs decisions
PG tried to discipline the army deserters and restore order in towns and countryside whereas the PS encouraged peasants and workers to defy authority and assert their 'rights'
PG wanted to continue the war and PS wanted to end the war 'without the annexation of territory by germans' as the price of peace
Milyukov announced in April 1917 that Russia would continue fighting until a 'just peace' had been won unleashed a storm of protest which forced him to resign and was replaced with socialists from the soviet ( Chernov became minister of agriculture and Kerensky became minister of war)
in July 1917 Lvov was replaced as chairman by Kerensky
PG was in difficult position - war was deeply unpopular but were bound by their alliance with Britain and France and relied on French loans for survival.
the PG didn't proceed with elections as it was clear that the socialist revolutionaries would win and by June 1917 the bolsheviks would attract the vote of workers in the cities