ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the period from February to October 1917, and examines the story of the locations of power in 1917, based on the case studies of Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan provinces. It draws on three key areas – structures of power in 1917, people on the margins of power, and aspects of the food crisis. The model of so-called “dual power” articulated for Petrograd has dominated scholarly understandings of revolutionary power structures. The Provisional Government devolved power and authority to newly elected local government bodies in a process often referred to as democratisation. Multiple and overlapping seats of power developed in the regions. Political elites represented the actions of the rural population as “disorder” and “misunderstandings.” The political elites were unable to grasp that the rural population were rational and empowered actors. The democratic process diffused power from the centre to the peripheries and from the urban political elites to local working people.
