The Provisional Government set up by the Duma in March 1917 was only partly successful in the short term and ultimately a clear failure by October 1917. It managed an orderly transfer of power from the tsar and introduced some democratic freedoms, but it failed on the key issues that mattered most to Russians: peace, land, and bread, which allowed the Bolsheviks to overthrow it within eight months.

What it did well

  • It provided an immediate, recognized authority after the collapse of tsarism in the February Revolution, preventing Russia from falling into complete administrative chaos.
  • It accepted the abdication of Nicholas II and presented itself as a legal successor, helping to legitimize the new post-tsarist order in the eyes of many liberals and Allies.
  • It introduced or tolerated civil liberties such as freedom of speech, press, and association, which were a sharp break from autocratic rule.

Major weaknesses and failures

  • It decided to keep Russia in the First World War, continuing a deeply unpopular and ruinous conflict that drained resources and morale and led to mounting opposition.
  • It postponed land reform, insisting that only a future Constituent Assembly could settle the land question, which alienated peasants who wanted immediate redistribution of estates.
  • It shared power uneasily with the Petrograd Soviet in a “Dual Power” situation, which meant it lacked real control over soldiers, workers, and much of the street.

Growing crises in 1917

  • The July Days unrest and the later Kornilov Affair exposed how little control the government had over both radical workers and the army leadership, damaging its credibility from both left and right.
  • Economic problems—food shortages, inflation, breakdown of transport—worsened through 1917, and the government failed to reverse or even halt this decline, reinforcing the sense of incompetence.
  • Support shifted steadily toward parties promising decisive action, especially the Bolsheviks, who used the government’s failures over war and land to win influence in the soviets.

Overall historical verdict

  • Historians often argue that the Provisional Government inherited an almost impossible situation—war, economic collapse, and social unrest—but also that its own choices, especially staying in the war, made things worse.
  • By October 1917 it had lost authority in the capital, the army, and countryside, enabling the Bolsheviks to seize power with relatively limited resistance.
  • In exam terms, it can be described as superficially successful in establishing a liberal government in March, but largely unsuccessful in solving Russia’s core crises and therefore a failure by October.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.