Progressive Bloc

▪ Russian political coalition

Russian  Progressivnyi Blok,  

      coalition of moderate conservatives and liberals in the fourth Russian Duma (elected legislative body) that tried to pressure the imperial government into adopting a series of reforms aimed at inspiring public confidence in the government and at improving the management of Russia's effort in World War I. The bloc was formed in August 1915 under the leadership of Pavel N. Milyukov (Milyukov, Pavel Nikolayevich). On September 7 its members issued a program that called upon Emperor Nicholas II to appoint ministers who enjoyed the nation's confidence and who would cooperate with the legislature. It urged that the government curtail its practices that discriminated against national and religious minority groups and that it cooperate with private organizations that had formed to promote the war effort.

      The bloc, which included about half of the Duma membership, received support from several political factions in the State Council (the upper house of the legislature) as well as from some ministers and organizations representing local governments. But the emperor responded on Sept. 16, 1915, by suspending the session of the Duma (which had begun on August 1).

      Throughout 1916 the bloc became increasingly dissatisfied with the administration; in November 1916 Milyukov delivered a scathing criticism of it to the Duma. When the February Revolution broke out, members of the bloc (with two left-wing Duma members) formed the Provisional Committee of the Duma (March 12, 1917), which appointed the first Provisional Government, which in turn assumed official power in Russia on March 15, 1917.

* * *