Question

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTION
Why did the Kerenskii government fall in Russia?

Answer 1

(i) There was severe conflict between Kerenskii's provisional government and the Bolsheviks. Lenin feared that Kerenskii would set up a dictatorship. In September, he began discussions for an uprising against the government. Bolshevik supporters in the army, soviets and factories were brought together.

(ii)On 16 October 1917, Lenin persuaded the Petrograd Soviet and the Bolshevik Party to agree to a socialist seizure of power. A military revolutionary committee was appointed by the Soviet under Leon Trotskii to organise the seizure. The date of the event was kept a secret.

(iii)The uprising began on 24 October. Military men loyal to Kerenskii's government seized the buildings of two Bolshevik newspapers. They were sent to take over telephone and telegraph offices and protect the Winter Palace.

(iv)The Military Revolutionary Committee acted swiftly. It ordered its supporters to seize government offices and arrest ministers. Late in the day, the ship Aurora shelled the Winter Palace Other vessels sailed down the Neva and took over various military points. By nightfall, the city was under the committee's control and ministers had surrendered.

(v)The Bolshevik action was approved by the All Russian Congress of Soviets in Petrograd. Uprisings took place in other cities too. And by December, the Bolsheviks controlled the Moscow-Petrograd area.