First World War.com - Primary Documents - Announcement of the First Provisional Government, 3 March 1917

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Prince Georgy Lvov, Minister-President of the first Provisional Government Primary Documents: Announcement of the First Provisional Government, 3 March 1917
Updated - Sunday, 29 December, 2002

Introduction

On 2 March the new Russian Provisional Government was formed on the same day that ousted Tsar Nicholas II formally signed his Decree of Abdication. Reproduced below is the text of the public announcement of the formation of the Provisional Government, and which was published in Izvestiia on the following day.

Public Announcement of the Formation of the
First Provisional Government

The Temporary Committee of the members of the State Duma, with the help and the support of the army and the inhabitants of the capital, has now attained such a large measure of success over the dark forces of the old regime that it is possible for the Committee to undertake the organisation of a more stable executive power.

With this end in mind, the Temporary Committee of the State Duma has appointed the following persons as ministers of the first cabinet representing the public; their past political and public activities assure them the confidence of the country:

Minister-President and Minister of the Interior Prince G.E. L'vov (Non-Party)
Minister of Foreign Affairs P.N. Miliukov (Kadet)
Minister of War and Navy A.I. Guchkov (Octobrist)
Minister of Transport N.V. Nekrasov (Kadet)
Minister of Trade and Industry A.I. Konovalov (Kadet)
Minister of Finance M.I. Tereshchenko (Non-Party)
Minister of Education A.A. Manuilov (Kadet)
Ober-Procurator of the Holy Synod V.N. L'vov (Centrist)
Minister of Agriculture A.I. Shingarev (Kadet)
Minister of Justice A.F. Kerenskii (SR)

The actual work of the cabinet will be guided by the following principles:

An immediate and complete amnesty in all cases of a political and religious nature, including terrorist acts, military revolts and agrarian offences, etc.
Freedom of speech, press, and assembly, and the right to form unions and to strike and the extension of political freedom to persons serving in the armed forces limited only by the demands of military and technical circumstances.
The abolition of all restrictions based on class, religion, and nationality.
The immediate arrangements for the calling on the Constituent Assembly on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage and secret ballot, which will determine the form of government and the constitution of the country.
The substitution of a people's militia for the police, with elective officers responsible to the organs of local self-government.
Elections to the organs of local self-government are to be held on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage and secret ballot.
Those military units which took part in the revolutionary movement shall be neither disarmed nor withdrawn from Petrograd.
While preserving strict military discipline on duty and during military service, the soldiers are to be freed from all restrictions in the exercise of those civil rights which all other citizens enjoy.

The Provisional Government wishes to add that it has no intention whatsoever of taking advantage of the military situation to delay in any way the carrying through of the reforms and the measures outlined above.

A "pal's battalion" was comprised of soldiers raised in the same locality with the promise they would serve with their friends for the duration of the war.