The Provisional Government and its problems

The Tsar abdicated on 15 March, the system that he had presided over in ruins. An alliance of people such as the Kadets and other political groups set up a Provisional Government. However, the Soviets that were set up by workers and soldiers continued to exist. Russia was being run by two governments at the same time! The Provisional Government was run more by the middle-classes who wanted to reform Russia to be more like western European countries, whereas the Soviets were in the hands of the working classes and parties such as the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.

The system of Dual Government didn’t really work out. The Provisional Government made some reforms, such as abolishing the secret police and allowing political parties to publish their own newspapers. But all this did was allow their opponents such as the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks to criticise and attack the Provisional Government. In their view, the Provisional Government just wanted to continue with the same sort of unfair system that the Tsar had run and, worse still, they didn’t seem to want to pull Russia out of the war. The Provisional Government’s insistence on keeping Russia in the war, along with its inability to solve problems such as the food shortage, was really its downfall.