Russian Provisional Government

The cabinet arose from an agreement between the Provisional Committee of the Duma and the Petrograd Soviet; because of the Soviet's influence the arrangement was called dual power. It was to govern until a Constituent Assembly met. It introduced civil liberties but carried on the war alongside the Entente. A dispute over war aims in May 1917 brought socialists into the government, and after the failure of the July offensive and the July Days Kerensky became prime minister.

For Poles the key act was the government's proclamation of 30 March 1917, which recognised the right to an independent Polish state bound to Russia by a free military alliance. Kornilov's revolt in September 1917 undermined the cabinet's authority, and on the night of 7–8 November the Bolsheviks took the Winter Palace and arrested the ministers.