SUMMER 1917

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SUMMER 1917

• Lenin versus the Provisional Government

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AIMS

• To look at the problems facing the Provisional
  Government.
• To go through some of the thought processes the
  Provisional Government went through.
• To evaluate the Provisional Governments and
  Lenins actions.

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INTRODUCTION

• Following the seizure of power in February 1917,
  the Provisional Government faced a number of
  pressing issues that had to be dealt with.
• But first Lenin returned!

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April, 1917, Finland Station.
April, 1917. Finland Station, Petrograd. Sealed
German train.
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WHAT DID LENIN SAY?

• The April Theses called forA worldwide
  socialist revolution.An immediate end to the
  war.No co-operation with the Provisional
  Govt.The Soviet to take power.Land to be given
  to the peasants.

BREAD, PEACE AND LAND!
ALL POWER TO THE SOVIETS!
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PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT

• Whilst Lenin sloganised, the Provisional
  Government faced four pressing issues
• The war.
• The land.
• National minority demands.
• The deteriorating economic situation.

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TASK

• For your issue, decide what you would do about it
  if you were in the Provisional Government. Use
  pages 39-42.
• Feedback and justify! your decision to the
  rest of the group.
• The see what the Provisional Government really
  did.

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THE WAR

• Summer Offensive, 16-19 June.
• Nationalism, Britain France, German
  negotiations.
• Failure lasted three days, desertion, lives and
  land lost.
• Socialist leaders were involved they lost their
  credibility with the soldiers and workers.

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THE LAND

• Land redistribution to be put off until the
  Constituent Assembly was sitting.
• Compensation, avoid army collapse, organised
  within framework of law and order.
• Land seizures rose.
• Peasant support for the Provisional Government
  fell.

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NATIONAL MINORITY DEMANDS

• Calls for independence (Finland Poland) and
  self-government (Ukraine Caucasus)
• All ignored by the Provisional Government (some
  small concessions to the Ukraine)
• Wanted to keep Russia together as a great power.

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THE ECONOMIC SITUATION

• Food shortages, unemployment high prices.
• Resources being sent to the army.
• Forced grain requisitions failed.
• Provisional Government refused to bring in price
  controls under industrialists influence.
• Provisional Government began to lose support of
  the workers.

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REMEMBER LENIN?

• The Bolsheviks had adopted the April Theses.
• The Bolsheviks had refused to work with the
  Provisional Government unlike the other
  Socialists parties.

How did Lenins actions after April 1917 lead to
a rise in support for the Bolsheviks?