At about this
time, the Provisional Committee of the State Duma passes a resolution
denouncing the “Government of Salvation.” The State Duma was an institutional
relic of tsarism; though it had been democratically elected, it had no official
role in the dual government. Nevertheless the resolution was enough to bring
the cabinet down. All the ministers handed in their portfolios to Kerensky, who
now became the sole focal point of the government.
Kerensky
apparently suffered the ministers to continue in their posts for the time
being, but took advantage of the situation to negotiate with the Cadets for the
formation of a new governing coalition. The Cadets, guided by Miliukov, laid
down four conditions in their opening position:
·
Ministers responsible only “to their own
conscience”
·
Unity with the Entente
·
Discipline in the armies
·
Social reforms to be decided by the Constituent
Assembly, that is, only after it had been convened
While this was
going on, the right-socialist Ministers Tseretilli, of Interior, and
Peshekhonov, of Food Supply, took action, or at any rate made pronouncements,
designed to protect landlords from the peasants who wanted their lands. Chernov,
the Social Revolutionary Minister of Agriculture, resigned when accusations of
German contacts shifted to him.
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