Provisional Government Policy in the “National Question” Solution: the Approaches and Methods of Implementation of the Regional Options

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the “national policy” of the Provisional Government. The events of the February Revolution exacerbated a number of problems associated with the national question in the state, and these events led the new government to necessity to develop and implement policies to meet the requirements of the time. The national policy of the Provisional Government was based on the party ideology of the Cadets, the Octobrists, the Socialist-Revolutionaries, and was an eclectic approach to solve the “national question.” The Provisional Government defended the idea of the indivisibility of Russia, so in the very first policy documents abandoned the idea of the empire’s disintegration on the national basis, and the solution of the “national question” was seen in the provision of cultural autonomy, the development of language and ethnic identity of the peoples from the national borderlands. The Provisional Government sought to develop the variability approach to the national question in large ethnic regions: Poland, Finland, Ukraine, Central Asia and Kazakhstan. However, the rise of nationalism in the borderlands of the Russian State, the spread of the ideas of regionalism required more fundamental changes. Therefore, the course chosen by the Provisional Government, did not find support in the society, and democratic initiatives were not enough in the time of difficult inter-revolutionary period. The confidence in the preservation of Russia undivided, the inertia of the control system, the loss of control over the national situation in the state led to the failure of the Provisional Government’s policy in the national sphere.

DOI 10.14258/izvasu(2016)2-01