War and Revolution 937

Alexander Kerensky (front center) head of the provisional government, with troops

in Petrograd, 1917.

nationalist movements competed with Socialist Revolutionaries, Menshe­
viks, and Bolsheviks for allegiance.
Kerensky’s provisional government announced that Poland, which had
been an independent state until the Third Partition by Russia, Prussia, and
Austria in 1795, would again become independent, in the hope of under­
mining German and Austro-Hungarian troops who occupied most of Poland.
In neighboring Belarus—like Poland, a battleground—a national commit­
tee led by Socialist Revolutionaries demanded autonomy and established a
Rada (council).
The situation in Ukraine was particularly complicated. The provisional
government feared that if it granted Ukrainian autonomy, other nationalities
would demand similar treatment. Shortly after the tsar’s abdication, Ukrain­
ian socialists had formed a soviet. On March 4, 1917, nationalists and
socialists established the Ukrainian Central Council. Centuries-old resent­

ment of Russia, based on cultural and linguistic differences, rose to the sur­
face. As more radical nationalists gathered in Kiev, the Rada convoked a
Ukrainian National Congress, which began to draft a statute for autonomy.
Ukrainian soldiers formed their own military units. Serving as a de facto pro­
visional government in Ukraine, the Rada broadened its social and national
base by including non-Ukrainian residents. In the meantime, nationalism
began to grip Ukrainian peasants, and many of them occupied lands owned
by Russian or Polish landlords.
In regions with sizable Muslim populations, national movements were
divided between religious conservatives, Western-looking liberals, and leftist
Socialist Revolutionaries. The first All-Russian Muslim Congress, which
began on May 1, 1917, reflected these divisions. Islamic conservatives
attempted to shout down speakers advocating rights for women, but