Activities of the Provisional Government Bodies of the Dagestan Oblast

The aim of the study is to show the work of the executive committees and commissars of the Dagestan Oblast, who were the local authorities of the Provisional Government. This topic has not become the subject of a special study and has not received an adequate coverage in the historical literature. Archival documents and materials of the Central State Archive of the Republic of Dagestan became the sources for the research. The author also used the memoirs of the participants of those events, the works of Russian researchers on the history of the revolutions and the civil war in Dagestan. The methodology of the research included methods of modern historical science: the principle of historicism, which allowed to consider the analyzed events and phenomena from a historical point of view, the principle of objectivity, and general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis and description. The activity of local bodies that replaced the Tsarist power was reviewed in the study. The author comes to the conclusion that while the Provisional Government bodies were functioning in Dagestan, their main activity was to stabilize the situation in the region in various directions, but it was not always successful. The population of the region did not initially trust the new authorities. The new local bodies monitored the implementation of mandatory orders of the Provisional Government, the violation of which entailed a penalty of fines; controlled the food supply of the region, which deteriorated every day, etc. Town, district and village executive committees also dealt with issues of maintaining order in their area, providing the population with food (necessities), etc.; they were subordinate to the Dagestan Regional Executive Committee. The news of the October Revolution and the overthrow of the Provisional Government did not lead to the same result in the Dagestan Oblast. Archival data show that the situation in the region was tense during this period. The Dagestan Regional Executive Committee faced an urgent problem of maintaining order in the region in connection with the frequent cases of robberies, murders, raids, arson, etc. The disarmament and the evacuation of the military units at the end of 1917 caused concern among the region's population, which required the local authorities to take additional measures to maintain calm among the population. Established in March-April 1917, the bodies of the Provisional Government of the Dagestan Oblast existed until April-May 1918, although in fact in March 1918 they were already a fictitious organization, which had no support among the people.

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