- cross-posted to:
- tankiejerk@piefed.social
- cross-posted to:
- tankiejerk@piefed.social
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Explanation: The Democratic-Socialist leaning Provisional Government of Russia after the February Revolution in 1917, which overthrew the Tsar, had actually imprisoned a number of Bolsheviks for attempting to overthrow the Provisional Government before elections were held.*
However, during a short-lived scare about a right-wing military coup (which, in a comedy of errors, may have been miscommunication all the way down), the socialist-leaning Provisional Government freed many Bolshevik leaders and even distributed government arms and ammunitions to Bolshevik supporters. Ultimately, this would prove unneeded, as once the troops realized they were being brought along for (what seemed like) a coup march on the government, they abandoned their leader long before any real clash happened.
Alexander Kerensky, (in)famously, would pursue a policy of “No enemies to the left” in domestic politiking from that point on… leading to the 1917 November Revolution, where the Bolsheviks couped the Provisional government, and the dissolution of the Russian Constituent Assembly in January 1918, wherein the Bolsheviks removed the elected officials of Russia’s only free and fair elections, in a legislature that had successfully returned a socialist (but not Bolshevik) supermajority.
*It’s actually disputed how involved the Bolshevik leadership was with the attempt, but the Bolshevik-leaning Soviet councils blamed the Bolshevik leadership, so arrests were probably inevitable.
Damn, so Russia could have been a Democratic Socialist country if it weren’t for this error?
Literal US state propaganda at the time, welcoming the socialist-aligned Provisional Government replacing Tsarist Russia.
Assuming they stayed on the path they were on (which is far from guaranteed, considering how… wild history can be)? Yeah.
Not only that, but the democratic socialist government was aligned with the USA, UK, and France, as none of them had particularly liked the bizarre Tsarist autocracy, and were willing to ‘play ball’ with a socialist government that was willing to act like a normal country. This was before the first Red Scare, mind - a socialist had garnered 6% of the vote in the fucking USA in 1912. So while the capitalist countries were certainly wary towards socialists, they were not automatically interested in becoming national foes on ideological grounds.
Unfortunately, the West’s willingness to ‘play ball’ was conditional on the Provisional Government remaining in the war, as France, the UK, and the USA didn’t want to fight Imperial Germany et co alone… but WW1 was immensely unpopular in Russia. So the West threatened to remove economic aid if the Provisional Government pulled out of WW1… but Russia was already financially ruined, and could not withstand the withdrawal of economic aid.
So that kept Russia in WW1, which boosted the popularity of the previously-fringe Bolsheviks from something like 5% to 25% as they ran on “Land, bread, peace!” (none of which would ultimately be delivered)… which put them in position to coup the Provisional Government and then dissolve the newly-elected Constituent Assembly the Provisional Government had worked so hard to arrange elections for… which kicked off a four-year civil war in Russia.
History’s fucked, man. Hah.
This is wild, Russian history is kind of crazy
Probably not, Kerensky’s government arguably wasn’t very competent, he was printing a lot of paper money, launched a doomed offensive in WWI, and accidentally turned the military into a democracy. Although he was arguably in an impossible position that was doomed no matter how competent he was.
The Provisional Government would’ve lasted until the seating of the Constituent Assembly were it not for the Bolsheviks, which was all it was supposed to do. Hence ‘provisional’.
What do you mean “turned the military into a democracy”?
