Demanding Needs Of The Russian People example essay topic

The Provisional Government was only able to satisfy the demanding needs of the Russian people to a small extend. The Provisional Government was not an effective representation of the Russian people, and was nearly as out of touch as the Czar had been, which might explain why it seemed incapable of satisfying the Russian people. The great expectations of Russian people of all different walks of life were hardly met. The soldiers had to continue fighting, the peasants gained no control over land, the urban workers were still not satisfied with their working conditions and almost no national minorities gained complete autonomy. It seems that the only group of people whose needs had been met were the opposing political groups, which eventually perpetuated not to be in the Provisional Government's best interests. Even the eight-point plan that was meant to satisfy a large range of people and was released in 1917 created some hope but generally did not have a big enough impact on the lives of the common Russian people.

Any major changes that the people felt they needed so badly were postponed to when the Provisional Government had set up a Constitutional Assembly. This constant procrastination for any major decisions continued to increase the dissatisfaction already present amongst the people of Russia. The soldiers who had suffered so greatly during the war had one last surge of patriotism when the Provisional Government chose to continue the country's involvement in the war and ignore the soldiers' plead for peace with Germany. However, this initial support waned when the high scale of casualties continued to rise. Especially after Kersenksy's "October Offensive" was a miserable failure and cost a great deal of human lives.

The only satisfaction that the soldiers gained from the Provisional Government's reign was the introduction of 'soldier unions'. The elections by the soldiers within the unions saw the Soviets gaining authority and the troops becoming a secondary force. Other demands usually mirrored the demands of the peasants, as most soldiers were originally peasants. The peasants made a significant request for land reforms, which was neglected as the Provisional Government, wanted to fully investigate the land situation before making any permanent decisions. The need for land amongst the peasants was so big however, that eventually they started to claim land illegally.

Special land committees were employed to appease any land disputes. These actions were unsuccessful and the lack of satisfaction amongst the peasants was so great that armed forces were sent to control resulting conflicts. There was also a great need for fair grain distribution to satisfy the severe demands of the peasant's customers. The government's response to this appeal was to monopolise Russia's grain industry. Special food committees set prices 60 percent beyond that of the old regime, which saw peasants unmotivated to assist in the monopoly.

The government utilize local authority leaders to control rural industry, however the detachment of these authorities caused alienation and therefore misunderstanding between them and the peasants, therefore the system was ineffective. All this caused a great deal of frustration and disappointment of the effectiveness of the Provisional Government amongst the peasants as they felt it had only increased their problems. The urban worker's need was for better working and living conditions, which were problems caused by major and rash industrialisation. The Russian proletariat's had some of their needs satisfied such as the introduction of the eight-hour working day, which had been their aim for a long time, even stemming back to Bloody Sunday in 1905. This great policy which was stated in the eight-point plan turned out be more of an ideal than a reality, as the government was unwilling to enforce the policy on factory owners.

This meant that not much of the urban worker's living conditions were changed positively as was expected. The urban workers were also keen to receive wage increases, which the Provisional Government failed to deliver. Even providing committees to allow the workers more say on their situation turned out to be a quick fix to satisfy their needs. In reality the Provisional Government still had the largest authorities voice and not much needs of the Russian people had been met since the fall of the Czarist regime. Many more change were needed to satisfy the people, and the situation deteriorated when the urban workers' workload kept rising due to the continuation of Russia's involvement in the war. The national minorities, which had despised the 'Russification' policy, that had been strong in the Czarist regime, were keen to gain their national independence.

The demands were that if this were not possibly they would at least like to gain greater autonomy. The Provisional Government met none of these needs. Only Poland gained independence and thus satisfaction from the Provisional Government rule, other national minorities were told to wait until the establishment of the Constitutional Assembly. Other political groups benefited more from the rule of the Provisional Government than the Russian people itself. One of the policies of the eight-point plan was that all political prisoners were to be forgiven and released immediately from prisons.

Freedom of speech was another point in the plan, which further satisfied revolutionaries. This allowed important political groups such as the Soviets to openly publicize their policies, spreading their message to a wider variety of people. The lack of satisfaction that the Provisional Government provided the Russian people with were also the gains of opposing political groups, and were used feverishly in the Soviet campaigns. Eventually the popularity of the Bolsheviks increased to the point where the government felt the need to use repression, therefore going against policy one and two in the eight-point plan. The Soviets pointed out the three most important requirements that had to be met immediately for the Provisional Government's survival which were "Bread, Peace, Land". Which reflected the general public's need for food, the soldier's and the general public's need for peace and the peasant's need for land.

The successful Soviet revolution in later years would show that these requirements were not met.