Question

Why did the provisional government of Russia resume fighting in 1917?How was this decision received by the Russian army and by the people?How did this situation set the stage for the rise of the Bolsheviks?

Answer 1

1) Western Allied pressure. Russia was being kept afloat by Allied money and investments - if Russia withdrew from the war the west would pull out its money and the country would collapse economically. The provisional government's hands were tied.

During a mass demonstration of women workers in February of 1917, the czar's officials called out the army to squelch the protesters. The women convinced the soldiers to put their guns away and help them in their cause. Czar Nicholas II was dethroned in Russia during this, the "February Revolution." The Provisional Government was formed to replace the void left by the deposed czar. This provisional government was made up of bankers, lawyers, industrialists, and capitalists. The provisional government was very weak and failed to live up to its promise of ending Russia's involvement in the war. They kept Russia in the war and just made things worse for themselves and for Russia.

2) Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov (Russian: ?????????? ??????????? ???????; born c. 1939) is a retired lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defence Forces. On September 26, 1983, he was the duty officer at the command center for the Oko nuclear early-warning system when the system reported that a missile was being launched from the United States. Petrov judged the report to be a false alarm,^[1] and his decision is credited with having prevented an erroneous retaliatory nuclear attack on the United States and itsNATO allies that could have resulted in large-scale nuclear war. Investigation later confirmed that the satellite warning system had indeed malfunctioned

3) The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917 was initiated by millions of people who would change the history of the world as we know it. When Czar Nicholas II dragged 11 million peasants into World War I, the Russian people became discouraged with their injuries and the loss of life they sustained. The country of Russia was in ruins, ripe for revolution.

The Provisional Government was opposed right away by the soviets, or councils of workers and peasants, who wanted the right to make their own decisions. When V. I. Lenin arrived from exile in the spring of 1917, he joined the Bolshevik Party in Russia whose goal was to overthrow the Provisional Government and set up a government for the proletariat. The soldiers began to ask for land, just as their fellow peasants were. When the Provisional Government refused to distribute the land fairly, the peasants took matters into their own hands by taking the land themselves. The Bolshevik party went on the offensive and tried to educate the workers and soldiers, convincing them to seize power and land for themselves. In July 1917, the workers challenged the Provisional Government and ended up defeated, with their leader jailed and Lenin going into hiding. At the point when everything looked very bad for the Bolsheviks, two very good things happened. First, the Provisional Government ordered a big war offensive that ended up in ruin, with thousands being either killed or injured. Late in August, the soldiers of the Provisional Government began to fall away from their support of the Provisional Government and began to support the workers. They were becoming closer and closer to being Bolsheviks themselves. Secondly, in September, during the so-called Kornilov Affair, a pro-czar section of the military threatened Petrograd, which was the city occupied by the Bolsheviks and the Provisional Government. The Bolsheviks had established themselves as the only party which stood in opposition to continuing the war effort. The Bolshevik workers had to unite and fight as one against the military. Now that the Bolsheviks had the support of the workers, they were able to win the important elections in early September in important Russian industrial centers. By the middle of September, the Bolsheviks had formally acquired a majority in the St. Petersburg Soviet.

Answer 2

The Provisional Government was deeply unpopular with the workers due to its empty promises and the fact that it was continuing the war, which was bleeding Russia white. This was really bad because the Russians had very little money anyway and the war was costing them a huge amount.
The Bolsheviks had the support of the majority of the Army, especially the troops garrisoned in cities. The Bolsheviks were well-armed following the Kornilov Revolt, when the PG had given the Bolsheviks weapons to drive back the right-wing revolutionary general Kornilov. This was a major mistake as it gave the Bolsheviks the means to start a revolution and gave them experience of fighting.

Answer 3

What Was the Russian Revolution of 1917?

In 1917, two revolutions completely changed the fabric of Russia. First, the February Russian Revolution toppled the Russian monarchy and established a Provisional Government. Then in October, a second Russian Revolution placed the Bolsheviks as the leaders of Russia, resulting in the creation of the world's firstcommunist country.

Russian World History
many wanted a revolution, no one expected it to happen when it did and how it did. On Thursday, February 23, 1917, women workers in Petrograd left their factories and entered the streets to protest. It wasInternational Women's Day and the women of Russia were ready to be heard.

An estimated 90,000 women marched through the streets, shouting "Bread" and "Down With the Autocracy!" and "Stop the War!" These women were tired, hungry, and angry. They worked long hours in miserable conditions in order to feed their families because their husbands and fathers were at the front, fighting in World War I. They wanted change. They weren't the only ones.

The following day, more than 150,000 men and women took to the streets to protest. Soon more people joined them and by Saturday,

February 25, the city of Petrograd was basically shut down -- no one was working.

Although there were a few incidents of police and soldiers firing into the crowds, those groups soon mutinied and joined the protesters.

Czar Nicholas II, who was not in Petrograd during the revolution, heard reports of the protests but did not take them seriously.

By March 1, it was obvious to everyone except the czar himself that the czar's rule was over. On March 2 it was made official when Czar Nicholas II abdicated.

Without a monarchy, the question remained as to who would next lead the country.

Provisional Government vs. The Petrograd Soviet

Two contending groups emerged out of the chaos to claim leadership of Russia. The first was made up of former Duma members and the second was the Petrograd Soviet. The former Duma members represented the middle and upper classes while the Soviet represented workers and soldiers.

In the end, the former Duma members formed a Provisional Government which officially ran the country. The Petrograd Soviet allowed this because they felt that Russia was not economically advanced enough to undergo a true socialist revolution.

Within the first few weeks after the February Revolution, the Provisional Government abolished the death penalty, granted amnesty for all political prisoners and those in exile, ended religious and ethnic discrimination, and granted civil liberties.

What they did not deal with was an end to the war, land reform, or better quality of life for the Russian people. The Provisional Government believed Russia should honor its commitments to its allies in World War I and continue fighting. V.I. Lenin did not agree.

Lenin Returns From Exile

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks, was living in exile when the February Revolution transformed Russia. Once the Provisional Government allowed back political exiles, Lenin boarded a train in Zurich, Switzerland and headed home.

On April 3, 1917, Lenin arrived in Petrograd at the Finland Station. Tens of thousands of workers and soldiers had come to the station to greet Lenin. There were cheers and a sea of red, waving flags. Not able to get through, Lenin jumped on top of a car and gave a speech. Lenin at first congratulated the Russian people for their successful revolution.

However, Lenin had more to say. In a speech made just hours later, Lenin shocked everyone by denouncing the Provisional Government and calling for a new revolution. He reminded the people that the country was still at war and that the Provisional Government had done nothing to give the people bread and land.

At first, Lenin was a lone voice in his condemnation of the Provisional Government. But Lenin worked ceaselessly over the following few months and eventually people began to really listen. Soon many wanted "Peace, Land, Bread!"

The October 1917 Revolution

By September 1917, Lenin believed the Russian people were ready for another revolution. However, other Bolshevik leaders were not yet quite convinced. On October 10, a secret meeting of the Bolshevik party leaders was held. Lenin used all his powers of persuasion to convince the others that it was time for an armed insurrection. Having debated through the night, a vote was taken the following morning -- it was ten to two in favor of a revolution.

The people themselves were ready. In the very early hours of October 25, 1917, the revolution began. Troops loyal to the Bolsheviks took control of the telegraph, power station, strategic bridges, post office, train stations, and state bank. Control of these and other posts within the city were handed over to the Bolsheviks with barely a shot fired.

By late that morning, Petrograd was in the hands of the Bolsheviks -- all except the Winter Palace where the leaders of the Provisional Government remained. Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky successfully fled but by the following day, troops loyal to the Bolsheviks infiltrated the Winter Palace.

After nearly a bloodless coup, the Bolsheviks were the new leaders of Russia. Nearly immediately, Lenin announced that the new regime would end the war, abolish all private land ownership, and would create a system for workers' control of factories.

Civil War

Unfortunately, as well intended as Lenin's promises might have been, they proved disastrous. After Russia pulled out of World War I, millions of Russian soldiers filtered home. They were hungry, tired, and wanted their jobs back.

Yet there was no extra food. Without private land ownership, farmers began to grow just enough produce for themselves; there was no incentive to grow more.

There were also no jobs to be had. Without a war to support, factories no longer had vast orders to fill.

None of the people's real problems were fixed; instead, their lives became much worse.

In June 1918, Russia broke out in civil war. It was the Whites (those against the Soviets, which included monarchists, liberals, and other socialists) against the Reds (the Bolshevik regime).

Near the beginning of the Russian Civil War, the Reds were worried that the Whites would free the czar and his family, which would not only have given the Whites a psychological boost but might have led to the restoration of the monarchy in Russia. The Reds were not going to let that happen.

On the night of July 16-17, 1918, Czar Nicholas, his wife, their children, the family dog, three servants, and the family doctor were all woken up, taken to the basement, and shot.

The Civil War lasted over two years and was bloody, brutal, and cruel. The Reds won but at the expense of millions of people killed.

The Russian Civil War dramatically changed the fabric of Russia. The moderates were gone. What was left was an extreme, vicious regime that was to rule Russia until the fall of theSoviet Union in 1991.