Provisional Committee of the State Duma of 1917

formed on February 27 (March 12), in Petrograd, on the day of the victory of the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution of 1917 in Russia, by the Council of Elders of the Fourth State Duma, according to the instructions of a private conference of its members.

The Provisional Committee included representatives of most factions in the State Duma. It was led by M. V. Rodzianko. Fearing that the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies—which was created on the same day and was in fact the master of the situation—would declare itself the new state power, the committee decided to proclaim that it was taking power. It appointed 24 commissars to direct the ministries and established military, provisions, and other commissions. On March 1 (14) the committee received de facto recognition from the governments of Great Britain and France.

The Provisional Committee attempted to stop the popular revolution and save the monarchy. It sent V. V. Shul’gin and A. I. Guchkov to General Headquarters for negotiations with Tsar Nicholas II on March 2 (15), and it attempted to establish control over the soldiers of the Petrograd garrison. On March 1 (14), the committee reached an agreement with the Socialist Revolutionary-Menshevik leadership of the executive committee of the Petrograd soviet on the establishment of a new government for Russia. The bourgeois Provisional Government headed by Prince G. E. L’vov was formed on March 2 (15); it included many members of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma. The committee’s political role became negligible. However, remaining the directing body of the private conference of the State Duma, it became one of the centers of the counterrevolution. On September 6 (19), the Provisional Government proclaimed the dissolution of the State Duma, after which members of the former Provisional Committee joined the Preparliament.