Evaluate the reasons for the collapse of the Provisional Government in November 1917.

To begin, we have to unpack the question. The operative word of the question, evaluate, means you’re going to want to think of a few individual factors and unpack them each individually, probably devoting a paragraph to each one. It is also note that the question is not asking about the causes of the October Revolution, and therefore wants you to focus on problems that the Provisional Government suffered under, which led to the success of the Bolshevik takeover. As always, you’re going to want to come up with a thesis, a coherent line of argument that you’re going to build you’re essay around. You can go many ways with this question, but I would probably argue that the absolute key factor was the failure of the Provisional Government to acquire legitimacy vis-a-vis the All-Russian Soviet, in the eyes of the people. The factors that led to this failure to acquire legitimacy would be my key paragraphs. There is a laundry list of factors here, but the easiest would probably be the failure to extradite themselves from the war, failure to distance themselves from tsarist and noble traditions and finally the weakness in the face of the Kornilov Affair. Each of these factors should be briefly explained, but the focus should really be on how it weakened the government in the eyes of the people, granting more legitimacy to the Soviets, from which the Bolsheviks tapped their own legitimacy. Knowing the chronological timeline of 1917 would be very useful here, as well as specific details such as the July Days and the use of the Red Guards against the Kornilovite troops upon the request of the Kerensky Government. I would also include a counter-argument paragraph, centering on the ‘Bolshevik Coup’ interpretation, which holds that it was simply by force of arms that the Bolsheviks destroyed the Provisional Government, and their was no popular legitimacy to the revolution whatsoever. This also highlights the key historiographical debate, which you have to constantly weave through for the 7, and I would recommend contrasting the Liberal with the Libertarian and Soviet view, and use some handy quotations from Richard Pipes and John Reed to further this idea. It would also be possible to challenge the question here, though not completely necessary, arguing that the Provisional Government did not collapse of its own accord, but never truly held any power among the soldiers and the people and was always a front for Soviet power. Finally, it is very important that throughout your essay you refer back to your original argument, which is key to making your essay stylistically coherent and argumentatively sound.