IB History Reasons for the October/november Revolution and Rise to Power of the Bolsheviks Key Definitions

The programme Lenin announced on his return to Petrograd in April 1917, calling for no cooperation with the Provisional Government, an end to the war, transfer of land to the peasants, and all power to the soviets. It broke sharply with Bolsheviks who had supported the Provisional Government and reoriented the party toward seizing power.

The arrangement after February 1917 in which the Provisional Government held formal state authority while the Petrograd Soviet controlled the loyalty of soldiers and workers through Order No. 1. Neither body could govern effectively without the other's cooperation, which produced paralysis rather than shared rule.

The elected national assembly created by Nicholas II in 1906 after the 1905 Revolution. It had limited legislative power because the tsar retained the right to veto laws, dissolve the Duma, and rule by decree, so it never became a genuine check on autocratic authority.

Spontaneous armed demonstrations by soldiers, sailors, and workers in Petrograd in July 1917 demanding the soviets take power. The Bolsheviks, caught between restraining the crowds and being blamed for the unrest, were discredited when the government published evidence of Lenin's German funding and drove the party underground.

A failed march on Petrograd in late August 1917 by General Lavr Kornilov, commander in chief of the army, which Kerensky first appeared to support before turning against him. Kerensky armed the Bolshevik-led Red Guards to stop Kornilov, which rebuilt Bolshevik credibility and gave the party weapons it kept.

A directive issued by the Petrograd Soviet on 1 March 1917 instructing soldiers to obey the Provisional Government only when its orders did not contradict the Soviet's own decisions, and to form elected committees in every military unit. It broke the officer corps' control over the army and gave the Soviet real coercive power.

The temporary administration formed by Duma politicians after Nicholas II abdicated in February 1917. It promised to govern until a Constituent Assembly could decide Russia's future, but it shared power uneasily with the Petrograd Soviet and collapsed when the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917.

An elected council modelled on similar organisations in the Soviet Union, especially during the revolution, in which decisions and responsibilities are generally determined collectively. The Chinese Communist Party established soviets in areas it controlled, such as the Jiangxi Soviet.

The Council of People's Commissars, the Bolshevik government formed in October 1917 with Lenin as chairman. It replaced the Provisional Government's ministries and issued the first decrees on land, peace, and workers' control.