Historians are still arguing whether autocratic power could have survived in Russia. There are different points of view and assessments of what happened. One thing is indisputable: the previously powerful state, weakened by the war, collapsed due to an unfavorable combination of circumstances and the actions of specific people. At the beginning of 1917, there were several alternatives for social development: a monarchy, a military dictatorship, the disintegration of the country into different states, a bourgeois or socialist republic. However, history decided in its own way: the Provisional Government came to power.
Temporary workers in power
It so happened that in Russian history there are still many inaccuracies and white spots. Among what was later blamed on the Bolsheviks, in reality, it was often the work of completely different people and political parties. For example, already in March, the Provisional Government appointed its commissars in departments, public organizations and in the field. On March 1, the Commissioner of the Provisional Government for the management of the Moscow province was appointed, and on March 6, N. I. Kishkin. Commissars appeared not only at the provincial level. They were assigned to the commanders of the fronts, sent to large enterprises and institutions. So the commissars were not invented by the Bolsheviks. These ideas were born in the minds of the "temporary".
With the advent of the new government in the country, the system of law and order was immediately eliminated, the police and gendarmerie were disbanded. Note that, since 1904, the gendarmes have been performing counterintelligence functions, which was important for the belligerent country. At the same time, a massive amnesty was carried out and tens of thousands of criminals were released. "Kerensky's chicks", as the people defined the amnestied criminals, immediately took up the old. The created people's militia was not organized, had no experience and trained employees. She could not resist the rampant crime. The judicial system was replaced by "temporary judges" appointed by provincial commissars. An Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry was created to investigate the crimes of the top leadership of the empire. So the "emergency" is also an invention of the "temporary".
The death penalty was abolished, which was reinstated 4 months later in connection with the mass flight from the front. Rumors about the imminent "division of land" led to an increase in the desertion of soldiers, among whom the peasants made up the majority. Soldiers' committees were legalized in the army, and councils of soldiers' and workers' deputies took power in the cities. The factories were led by factory committees. Thus, the Provisional Government had neither the fullness of power in the country, nor the necessary financial, material, human and other resources to carry out the declared democratic reforms.
In August, the IV State Duma was dissolved again (formally, the tsar had already dissolved it at the end of February 1917). Without waiting for the decisions of the Constituent Assembly, on September 1, Russia was declared a republic. A new state emblem was also approved - the same two-headed eagle, but without the royal symbols of power. And for some reason the proud bird became with its wings lowered. Popular rumor called the coat of arms "plucked chicken".
Introduction of state charity
The former imperial system of public charity was not ready to help the huge mass of the wounded, disadvantaged, refugees, widows and orphans who appeared as a result of hostilities during the First World War. The emerging social tension in Russian society engulfed the European part of the empire, a significant part of which turned into theaters of military operations. In the conditions of an impending socio-economic catastrophe, it was decided in May 1917 to accept all those in need for state charity. For this, the Kerensky government created the Ministry of State Charity (IHL). All institutions, public organizations and committees of the former system of public charity and charity formally passed into his jurisdiction. In fact, everything remained the same both in the capitals and in the provinces. Of course, in the conditions of war, the primary task remained to work to increase assistance to the wounded, crippled and the families of dead soldiers.
The tasks of IHL have proven to be very difficult. For example, it turned out that the country did not actually keep records of injured military personnel and civilian victims of the war. In addition, there was no data on the place of their permanent location and their real financial situation. It should be noted here that the All-Russian Zemstvo Union and the All-Russian Union of Cities provided all possible assistance in this work. In the second half of June, the All-Russian Congress of crippled soldiers was held in the capital, in which more than a hundred disabled war veterans took part. At the same time, it is believed that over the years of the war, more than 1.5 million servicemen were discharged from the army as crippled or chronically ill.
In a war-torn country, the standard of living of the population was rapidly falling. In 1917 alone, prices for bread and milk increased threefold. Sugar, butter, flour, tea and many manufactured goods have practically disappeared from the market. In the month of March, the government, in fact, introduced a surplus appropriation system and began the seizure of bread and other products in rural areas of the former empire. At the same time, strict economy regimes were introduced. For example, in order to reduce the consumption of meat by the population, the government's decision of March 17 from Tuesday to Friday (4 days a week!) Prohibited the sale of meat and meat products. On these days, canteens, taverns and even restaurants did not have the right to prepare meat dishes. And there was nothing to buy. Galloping inflation quickly turned money into beautiful bills that had no purchasing power. Thus, the issue of depreciated money on behalf of the Provisional Government in denominations of 20 and 40 rubles only aggravated the financial crisis. "Kerenki" did not even have numbers on banknotes and were often printed with errors.
Ministry on paper
Already the events of the first days after the announcement of the creation of IHL showed that the Provisional Government and the new minister, Prince D. I. Shakhovsky, there are almost no finances, administrative resources and experienced managers familiar with the social sphere of life. Hopes for help from former officials were quickly dispelled. They did not recognize the new government and in every possible way sabotaged the work of public charity institutions.
And the Provisional Government itself, by its decisions, created obstacles to work. For example, the new ministry was assigned several basic functions. In their meaning, they were more limited to control, joining the efforts of institutions and individuals, monitoring their activities and providing assistance. Obviously, there are no functions for the development of the system in order to maximize coverage of the needy, there is no task of registering according to the degree of material need, there are no measures to expropriate empty houses and estates under war conditions to accommodate the wounded and crippled. There were no directions for work with the families of the victims, with street children and for expanding the training of lower-level medical personnel to provide first aid.
All the work of IHL for the period from May to September 1917 was reduced to the development of staff structures and the search for authorized ministries to control on the ground. As a result, the staff of the ministry itself increased by leaps and bounds. Now the Minister of State Inspection was subordinate to the Deputy Minister (his deputies), the Council of State Charity and 8 independent structural divisions. In 5 months, 3 ministers were replaced, but the actual work of IHL has not begun. And it could not have begun - after all, the staff of the ministry itself as of October 10, there were only 19 people, including the minister himself.
Pensions from the Provisional Government
In the very first days after coming to power, the Provisional Government announced "to the general public" that all the previously assigned pensions for the civil service would remain. It was especially emphasized that no one can be deprived of a previously assigned pension except by a court decision. This was an important statement, thanks to which the pension system continued to function in one form or another for some time. The plans of the new government included the development and implementation of a new pension charter, but it never came to that. Pensions were assigned according to the statutes and rules that existed in the empire.
As for the appointment of pensions "outside the rules", so to speak, "in manual mode", the Cabinet of Ministers at almost every meeting considered the submissions of the respective ministers, agreed with the Ministry of Finance or the State Comptroller. Basically, in these cases, it was about pensions to former tsarist dignitaries, civilian ranks of I-V classes and generals. Often at a government meeting, the question of the resignation of generals and officials was decided. At the same time, a significant part of the highest civil and military ranks went on vacation "with a uniform and a pension." Some of them received a pension immediately with an indication of its size: retired nobles in the range from 5 to 10 thousand rubles a year, and their widows - from 3 to 6 thousand rubles.
For example, according to the presentation of the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod to the retired Moscow Metropolitan Macarius, from April 1, a life sentence was established in the amount of 6,000 rubles. in year. And the former chief manager of the office for the acceptance of petitions, V. I. On the same day, the widow of a member of the State Council Senator N. A. Zverev was given a pension in the amount of 5,000 rubles from the date of her husband's death. For the less eminent, the size of the pension was determined by the state controller or the Ministry of Finance.
In connection with the decision of the Provisional Government to recruit women to lower positions in the civil service, as well as taking into account the ongoing mobilization of women doctors to replenish the staff of military medical trains, hospitals and other military medical institutions, the rules for assigning them a seniority pension were considered and approved.
In conditions of devastation and rising prices for the most essential products and manufactured goods, it was decided to introduce percentage allowances to pensions for those who received them from the Treasury. For this purpose, the territory of the country was divided into 3 regions, and for each of them, certain allowances were introduced, taking into account the restrictions on the maximum amounts. Of course, all these measures were one-off and did not solve the systemic problems of pension provision even for those groups of the population that have already been recipients of pensions since the old days. As a rule, the measures taken were belated. So, when the size of pensions was increased more than 2 times on October 11, 1917, this did not significantly affect the situation. Inflation devalued any pension premiums even before the money fell into the hands of retirees. All good intentions remained only on paper. The country's former pension system was in its last days. The October coup drastically changed the lives of Russian pensioners.
The fate is not easy for ministers
The Ministry of State Inspection has not yet begun work. Frequent personnel changes only exacerbated the situation. From May to September, 3 ministers were replaced. Initially, IHL was headed by the Decembrist's grandson, Prince D. I. Shakhovsky. At that time he was 56 years old. The new minister was full of strength, plans and desire to organize a new ministry. He had experience in political activity, being one of the co-founders of the Cadet Party. He even supervised elementary schools in the vicinity of his estate. However, he had no organizational experience in the social sphere. The prince held out as minister from early May to early July. In other words, a little over 2 months. Resigned. During the Soviet era, he was engaged in literary work. Lived in Moscow. At the age of about 70, he retired on a disability pension with a monthly payment of 75 rubles. After that he was deprived of his pension and food cards. And in the summer of 1938, the NKVD arrested him and placed him in an internal prison on the Lubyanka. Here, a 77-year-old man could not stand the interrogations and incriminated himself. But he did not give any other surname. In mid-April 1939, he was sentenced to the highest measure of social protection and was shot the next day. Rehabilitated in 1957.
From the beginning of July to the end of September, the post of minister was held by the court adviser from the hereditary Don Cossacks I. N. Efremov. He was elected to the State Duma, was engaged in political activities on the Don and in the capital. He worked as a magistrate. Before the war he joined the Masonic lodge. Then he joined the group of Kerensky and his supporters, who called for vigorous efforts to reorganize the state. Even for 2 weeks he became the Minister of Justice in the Kerensky government. Then he moved to the post of Minister of State Inspection. At the end of September 1917, he received the post of Ambassador Extraordinary of the Provisional Government to the Swiss Republic and successfully went abroad. There he was engaged in literary work and social activities. He was one of all three ministers who had a chance to die a natural death in France in January 1945 (there is another date - 1933).
In the last, fourth in a row, the composition of the Provisional Government, one of the leaders of the Cadet Party, a Moscow public figure and a doctor by education N. I. Kishkin. This personality is quite famous in Russian history. Since the fall of 1914, he was on the Main Committee of the Union of Cities and at the same time was in charge of its evacuation department. He was also in charge of the recruiting of sanitary detachments and trains. From March 1917 he was the Commissar of the Provisional Government in Moscow. He was a supporter of decisive action and fundamental reforms in the country. He enjoyed the special confidence of Kerensky, who repeatedly offered him various posts in the government. At the end of September, he gave his consent to the post of Minister of State Inspection. He stayed in this position for exactly one month - from September 25 to October 25, 1917. From the beginning of October, he was engaged in preparations for the move of the Provisional Government to Moscow, being the head of the Special Conference on the "unloading" of Petrograd.
On the night of the October coup, having received full power from Kerensky, who had left the Winter Palace, he tried to organize the defense of the palace. After his arrest, together with other ministers of the Provisional Government, he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Released in the spring of 1918. He refused the opportunity to emigrate abroad and continued to engage in social activities. He became one of the organizers of the All-Russian Committee for Aid to the Hungry and the League for the Salvation of Children.
Judging by the published materials, Kishkin was one of the founders of the Union for the Renaissance of Russia and a member of the underground "Tactical Center". In August 1920 he was convicted. He was released under an amnesty and again joined the struggle against the power of the Bolsheviks. A year later he was arrested again. During a search, the Chekists found a plan for the political transformation of Russia written in his hand. He was again convicted and exiled to Solikamsk, and later transferred to Vologda. He was released again under an amnesty. After that, he retired from politics and social work. In 1923 he became a part-time employee. He worked in the sanatorium department of the People's Commissariat for Health. He retired safely. However, in 1929, as a "former", he was deprived of his pension and food cards. A few months later, in March 1930, he died and was buried in Moscow.
And the idea of a state grant continued to live after the fall of the Provisional Government. In Soviet Russia, the People's Commissariat of State Inspection was created, however, it did not last long either. But that's a completely different story.
