October 1917 Revolution

How Effective Was the Provisional Government?
   1.  Decisions
A. What to do about the war?
--  When the Provisional Government took its power, upon asking the peasants to wait to take over land until after elections were held the government also made statements to its allies that they would be continuing the war, regardless of what happened in Russia. This was the opposite to the Petrograd Soviet, who wanted to end the war with Germany and bring their soldiers home. The result to this was the war effort failing, many soldiers backed out of their service and upon German counter-attack they decided to pack it in and head home.
B. What to do about land?
-- As I mentioned earlier, it was the idea of the Provisional Government to stop the peasants from " gobbling" up too much land before the elections were held, therefore they announced and asked the peasants that they hold off from acquiring any land until after elections were held. The result to this was that the peasants ignored what the government had told them and quickly moved to acquire land, this also impacted the soldiers, because the mostly peasant-army all headed home quickly not wanting to miss out on their share of the land.
C. What to do about food?
-- The Provisional Government struggled with what to do about getting food to the workers in the cities, the basic idea was that the peasants would help to feed the workers in the city. But with the recent Bolshevik down fall, and the Kernesky vs. Kornilov fights this could not happen and the people in the cities continued to starve, the Petrograd Soviets promise of bread was beginning to look better and better.

2.Harm by the opponents to the Provisional Government.
A. Members of the Soviets
-- The Provisional Governments choices were battered by the counter arguments by the Petrograd Soviet, when the Pro. Gov. tried to find a solution to the hunger, the soviet promised bread, when the Pro. Gov promised to their allies that they were going to continue the war, the Soviet promised peace. Everything that the Provisional Government tried to instate, the soviet tried to break down with more appealing promises.
B. Bolsheviks
-- The Bolshevik party was able to weaken the Provisional Government by becoming more favorable to the workers, and more favorable to the soldiers, they offered them food, chances at land, and to end the war. All the opposites of what the provisional government were offering.
C. General Kornilov
-- This showed how easily the Provisional Government could be weakened, they quickly needed to call on the Soviet military power to help defend them against General Kornilov, this showed the lack of support for the government, and the strength of the Soviet.

3.
Based off of the answers above I believe that there are two major reasons for the ineffectiveness of the Provisional Government. The first major reason for the lack of effectiveness would be that they're plans  were weakly supported by the majority. Most of the people living in Petrograd at the time were workers and soldiers, these were the people who were in support of the Soviet as well as the people who were gearing up to start a revolution and support the Bolshevik-Soviet party.

A second reason for the Provisional Government's major weakness would be their inability to control the peasants, and since the peasants controlled the food, this was a major problem. The peasants controlled the land in the countryside that they had recently captured for themselves, therefore the food that they grew there would be the same food that would nourish the people of the cities, without the support and favorability of the Provisional Government, they allowed the city people to starve.

The Appeal of Lenin and Trotsky
1. Add extra details to the appeal of Lenin
Lenin appealed to people because he was able to promise them the things that they wanted the most, such as food, peace, and land all things that under the Tsar they could not have. He also, was vindictive, and incredibly persuasive, he was able to empower his audiences and persuade them that they needed a " professional revolutionary".

3. The two Men, Trotsky and Lenin were exceedingly important to the success of the Bolsheviks in 1917. The main component that the two men shared, and implemented was their abilities to motivate the people of their party to empower them, and trust them to lead them into the revolution.  They explained to the people of the soviet power when they came to take over, that they were going to be " professional revolutionaries" and that they would be able to help lead the Bolsheviks into the the revolution where they could come out on top and gain power to the government.