The Rise Of Australasia

These common people were easily influenced by these small welfare policies and food distribution measures. If the Soviet regime had no proper response, the provisional government's advantages would grow bigger and bigger.

At this time, Germany obviously couldn't offer the same generous conditions as the Allies. Germans were severely depleted by the war and naturally couldn't afford to use huge amounts of funds and resources to support Russia.

This indirectly strengthened the Russians' confidence in continuing the war since there is financial and material support from Britain and France, while Russia can just maintain a defensive posture on the front line.

Since the Soviet regime couldn't offer the same welfare benefits as the provisional government, the public's sentiment has visibly shifted in favor of the provisional government.

In order not to lose support from the working class and common people, the Soviet regime could only criticize the provisional government's reluctance to withdraw from the war.

Because most Russians had received tangible benefits, their desire to withdraw from the war wasn't as strong.

Actually, the public didn't oppose the war itself, but the Tsarist regime's disregard for the lives of the Russian civilians for the sake of the war.

If Nicholas II could provide supplies to the workers and common people earlier and effectively control Russian prices, perhaps the great revolution would not have happened.

Unable to offer actual material benefits, the Soviet regime had to find other ways, like implementing the eight-hour work system, which the working class cared about.

Of course, it wasn't exactly an implementation since Tsarist Russia already had an eight-hour work system as well.

But the eight-hour work system in Tsarist Russia was more of a formality. Before the war, the average work time for Russian workers had already exceeded ten hours, and after the war broke out, it widely surpassed twelve hours.

The Soviet regime announced the protection of the eight-hour work system and strictly implemented it in the Moscow region, eliminating all demands for unpaid overtime.

If more than eight hours were required, double overtime pay for the additional work hours was needed, and the total work hours shouldn't exceed ten hours per day or sixty hours per week.

This system did win the favor of many workers, after all, work hours and wages were the top concerns for workers collectively.

Besides the eight-hour work system, the Soviet regime also established a food distribution system, centralizing the distribution of food, livestock, and various supplies in the Moscow region, ensuring that all common people could get a fair share of resources.

The war had a tremendous impact on Russia.

One significant reason for the bourgeoisie's provisional government to eventually gain power was that a large number of rural populations and working-class people were conscripted into the military and sent to the frontlines.

Those who remained in Saint Petersburg and Moscow were mainly factory owners, nobility, and the upper-middle class, who smoothly gained power in the revolutionary government.

Due to the massive conscription of rural population and workers, Russian agricultural production was severely affected.

According to the previous Russian government's statistics, Russia's cultivated land area had decreased by at least 10 million acres, livestock numbers had dropped from 18 million to about 13 million, and total grain income had decreased by about a quarter.

The establishment of the centralized distribution system by the Soviet regime was also a last resort. If the Moscow region's resources were not centrally distributed, a large number of common people wouldn't be able to access supplies and wouldn't firmly support the Soviet regime.