The Provisional Government and Local Administration in Smolensk in 1917

Archival evidence suggests that in Smolensk the February Revolution and the subsequent democratization of local government did not significantly alter the staffing or routines of state administrative agencies, and that therefore the state's ability to govern the localities did not suffer from loss of administrative expertise and associated disruption of administrative practices. The evidence also indicates an expansion of administrative duties in 1917: local government agencies not only inherited existing tasks from the tsarist regime, primary among which were matters related to the war, but also took on new concerns reflecting socialist conceptions of the revolution's aims. Increased administrative work loads added to the factors taxing the state's capacity and straining its ability to act locally in 1917.