The February Revolution was the first phase of the Russian Revolution, occurring from 8 to 15 March 1917 when striking factory workers, starving civilians, women's rights activists, and defecting soldiers overthrew the czarist government of Nicholas II of Russia in Petrograd. The revolution began on 8 March 1917 when demonstrators celebrating International Women's Day were joined by strikers, and they protested the shortage of bread. By 11 March, the demonstrators numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and most of the soldiers in the Petrograd garrison deserted to the demonstrators rather than suppress the protests. Czar Nicholas II abdicated in favor of his brother, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, on 15 March 1917, but the Grand Duke refused to take the throne until a new constitution was enacted. Nicholas was held under house arrest at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, and Prince Georgy Lvov and the State Duma formed the Russian Provisional Government at the Tauride Palace; in the same building, the Petrograd Soviet was proclaimed by communist workers. The revolution succeeded in overthrowing the autocracy ruled by Czar Nicholas, but it would leave Russia in a debilitated state as it fought the German Empire during World War I and internal factions during the ensuing "Russian Revolution" era.
Background[]
At the start of the war, Russia's social and political problems were briefly forgotten, but divisions reopened as military disasters and economic hardship unfolded. Russia suffered a series of military setbacks from its defeat at Tannenberg in August 1914 to the Great Retreat from Poland in summer 1915. Although the Brusilov Offensive in summer 1916 was initially a major victory, it did not bring an end to the war any closer.
Distrust of Russia's rulers centered on alleged treachery at court. With Czar Nicholas II away at the front commanding the Imperial Russian Army, suspicions fell on his German-born wife Alexandra and her associate, the mystic Rasputin. In December 1916, Rasputin was murdered by noblemen trying to restore the reputation of the monarchy.
History[]
By early 1917, popular hostility toward the czarist regime was widespread. In the army and navy, morale was poor and there were several mutinies. In the factories, workers staged strikes as wages fell behind the rapidly rising prices. In the countryside, peasants hoarded food and coveted the estates of landowners. Educated Russians also resented the regime. Middle-class politicians in the State Duma despaired of the incompetence of the czarist administration, which made fighting an effective war impossible.
The people revolt[]
The Russian capital, Petrograd (St. Petersburg), was especially hard hit by shortages of food and fuel. Its population had expanded rapidly during the war and keeping the urban masses supplied was beyond the capacity of the railroad system, which was crippled by a lack of coal. On 8 March 1917 (23 February, according to the Julian calendar, then in use in Russia), demonstrators celebrating International Women's Day were joined on the streets of the capital by striking factory workers. Protests focused on the shortage of bread.
By 11 March, the city's factories were at a standstill and demonstrators numbered hundreds of thousands. When soldiers garrisoning Petrograd were ordered to suppress the protests, most refused and joined the revolt. Czar Nicholas II, who had left Petrograd for military headquarters just before the uprising, attempted to return to the capital. But on 15 March, on the advice of his senior generals and ministers, he abdicated in favor of his brother, Grand Duke Michael. The Grand Duke, however, declined to take the throne until a new constitution was established.
In effect, Russia's monarchy was at an end. Nicholas sought exile in Britain, but King George V was advised that the former czar's presence might provoke unrest among the British working class, and so refused to receive him. Nicholas thus remained under house arrest with his family at the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo. In the absence of a tsar, a group of politicians from the Duma, led by Prince Georgy Lvov, formed the Provisional Government to restore order and prepare democratic elections to a Constituent Assembly. At the same time - and in the same building, the Tauride Palace - a Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, elected in Petrograd's factories and barracks, was established as a rival center of authority to the new government.
Impact on the war[]
The Provisional Government was dominated by conservatives and liberals, the Soviet by socialists. Neither intended to abandon the war. In fact, the members of the Provisional Government had become disillusioned with the czarist regime because of its failure to pursue the war effort with proper vigor. The Petrograd Soviet voted in favor of a "just peace" and sought links with German socialists, but was also opposed to German militarism. Joseph Stalin, a member of the extreme socialist Bolsheviks, wrote that "revolutionary soldiers and officers who have overthrown the yoke of czarism" would not leave their trenches while German soldiers were "still obeying their emperor."
Initially, soldier ssreving at the front were not involved in the revolution. But reverberations of the political upheaval inevitably reached the trenches. The Petrograd Soviet's first act was to circulate an order on military discipline. Order No. 1 called on soldiers to elect committees to represent their units and attacked Russian military practice, such as the requirement to address senior officers as "your excellency."
The order was intended just for Petrograd and explicitly upheld officers' authority at the front. But that authority was called into question as soldiers' committees asserted their rights to be consulted. In a well-meaning gesture of liberalism, the Provisional Government abolished the death penalty, removing an important deterrent to mutiny and desertion. Instead of being fired with a fresh determination to fight in defense of the revolution, soldiers succumbed to war weariness. Insubordination and even attacks on officers were common, and the rate of desertion rose sharply.
At first, the fall of the czar was welcomed by Russia's allies in the war. It removed the political embarrassment of being tied to an illiberal regime and potentially promised a reinvigoration of the Russian war effort. For the Central Powers, it increased the difficulty of maintaining support for the war. Liberals and socialists in Germany and Austria-Hungary had backed the war chiefly because of their fear of czarist Russia. Now they saw no reason for the conflict to continue.
The return of Lenin[]
Germany's military leaders responded cautiously to the developments in Russia. They held back from launching offensives on the Eastern Front, where an unofficial truce mostly prevailed through spring 1917, and sought a political victory through encouraging Russian antiwar sentiment. As part of this policy, the Germans provided a train to carry antiwar Russian revolutionary socialists living in exile in Switzerland back to Petrograd. They also gave them money. Among those transported across Germany in the "sealed train" - a train not subject to passport or customs controls - was exiled Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. Arriving in Petrograd on 16 April, Lenin shocked even his extremist followers by declaring the imminent transformation of the "imperialist war" into a "worldwide socialist revolution." For the moment, Lenin was isolated, but the failure of the Provisional Government to carry out political and land reforms or end food shortages and inflation left it dangerously short of popular support.
Aftermath[]
Further military losses brought a Bolshevik government to power in Russia. By the end of 1917, it had agreed to an armistice with Germany. Alexander Kerensky dominated Russia's Provisional Government from May 1917, but the Kerensky Offensive, launched in July, was a disaster. The Russian army disintegrated and in November the Bolsheviks seized power.
The Bolsheviks agreed to an armistice in December 1917 and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918. Russia was then devastated by a civil war. The tsar and his family were executed by the Bolshevik secret police, Cheka, in July 1918.