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The March Revolution.
The immediate cause of the March Revolution of 1917 was the collapse of the czarist regime under the gigantic strain of World War I. The underlying cause was the backward economic condition of the country, which made it unable to sustain the war effort against powerful, industrialized Germany. Russian manpower was virtually inexhaustible. Russian industry, however, lacked the capacity to arm, equip, and supply the some 15 million men who were put into the field. Factories were few and insufficiently productive, and the railroad network was inadequate. Repeated mobilizations, moreover, disrupted industrial and agricultural production. The food supply decreased, and the transportation system became disorganized. In the trenches, the soldiers went hungry and frequently lacked shoes or munitions, sometimes even weapons. Russian casualties were greater than those sustained by any army in any previous war. Behind the front, goods became scarce, prices skyrocketed, and by 1917 famine threatened the larger cities. Discontent became rife, and the morale of the army suffered, finally to be undermined by a succession of military defeats. These reverses were attributed by many to the alleged treachery of Empress Alexandra (1872–1918), and her circle, in which the peasant monk Rasputin was the dominant influence. When the Duma (parliament) protested against the inefficient conduct of the war and the arbitrary policies of the imperial government, the czar and his ministers simply brushed it aside.

Mounting crisis.
At first all parties except a small group within the Social Democratic party supported the war. The government received much aid in the war effort from voluntary committees, including representatives of business and labor. The growing breakdown of supply, made worse by the almost complete isolation of Russia from its prewar markets, was felt especially in the major cities, which were flooded with refugees from the front. Despite an outward calm, many Duma leaders felt that Russia would soon be confronted with a new revolutionary crisis. By 1915 the liberal parties had formed a progressive bloc, which gained a majority in the Duma.
As the tide of discontent mounted, the Duma warned Emperor Nicholas II in November 1916 that disaster would overtake the country unless the “dark,” or treasonable, elements were removed from the court and a constitutional form of government was instituted. The emperor ignored the warning. Late in December a group of aristocrats, led by Prince Feliks Yusupov (1887–1967), assassinated Rasputin in the hope that the emperor would then change his course. He responded by showing favor to Rasputin’s followers at court. Talk of a palace revolution in order to avert a greater impending upheaval became widespread, especially among the upper ranks.

Strikes and demonstrations.
The Revolution of 1917 grew out of a mounting wave of food and wage strikes in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) during February. On March 8 meetings and demonstrations in which the principal slogan was a demand for bread were held, supported by the 90,000 men and women on strike in the national capital. Encounters with the police were numerous; the workers refused to disperse and continued to occupy the streets; tension steadily increased but no casualties resulted.
Agitation grew the following day, March 9, until it involved about half the workers of Petrograd. The slogans now were bolder: “Down with the war!” “Down with autocracy!” On March 10 the strike became general throughout the capital. During these two days violent encounters took place with the police, with casualties on both sides. The dreaded cossack troops, however, which had been called out to support the police, showed little enthusiasm for breaking up the demonstrations. The workers captured several police stations, seized the small arms inside, and then burned the stations to the ground; the police went into hiding. The first elections to a Petrograd Soviet, or Council, of Workers’ Deputies were held in several factories, on the model of the Soviet of 1905, which had been formed during a revolution at the end of the Russo-Japanese War.

Confrontation with troops.
On March 11 the troops of the Petrograd garrison were called out to suppress the uprising. When the workers and soldiers came face to face in the streets, the workers tried to fraternize with the soldiers. In some of these encounters the troops were hostile and, on orders, fired, killing a number of workers. The workers fled, but did not abandon the streets. As soon as the firing ceased, they returned to confront the soldiers again. In subsequent encounters the troops wavered when ordered to fire, allowing the workers to pass through their lines. Nicholas dissolved the Duma; the deputies accepted the decree but reassembled privately and elected a provisional committee of the state duma to act in its place. On March 12 the Revolution triumphed. Regiment after regiment of the Petrograd garrison went over to the people. Within 24 hours the entire garrison, approximately 150,000 men, joined the Revolution, and the united workers and soldiers became the masters of the capital. The uprising claimed about 1500 victims.

The November Revolution.
Foreseeing the course of events, Lenin, from about the end of September, pressed the central committee of the Bolshevik party to organize an armed insurrection and seize power. After some resistance, the committee on October 23 approved Lenin’s policy. It is generally believed that the insurrection was planned by the military organization of the party to coincide with the opening of the second Congress of Soviets. It was carried out during the night of November 6–7 and the following day by the Military Revolutionary Committee under the direction of Trotsky. Armed workers, soldiers, and sailors stormed the Winter Palace, head-quarters of the provisional government. Although the seizure of power involved tens of thousands of men and women, it was virtually bloodless. On the afternoon of November 7, Trotsky announced the end of the provisional government. Several of its ministers were arrested later that day; Kerensky escaped and subsequently went into exile.
On November 7, while the insurrection was in progress, the second Congress of Soviets began its deliberation. Of the 650 delegates, representing local soviets, 390 (60 percent) were Bolsheviks. The opening session, its speeches punctuated by rifle fire in the streets, was the scene of a stormy debate over the legality of the Congress and the character of the insurrection. Most of the Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary delegates withdrew from the Congress, which continuously received declarations of support from workers’ organizations and military groups; the left wing of the Socialist Revolutionaries remained in the Congress and formed a short-lived coalition government with the Bolsheviks.