One of the reasons why there was no food for peasants and other poorly paid workers, was because of the poor transport system in Russia. Russia is a huge country, and due to the poor transport system at the time, food was often left to rot in some places when it was desperately needed by poor people. This just aggravated the need for a new government, in the eyes of the population.
Then there was the First World War that was ongoing in the revolutions of 1917. Russia was allied with two capitalist nations, but other countries such as Poland were eager to overthrow the Tsar. At first, the First World War helped Nicholas the Second. All the country tried to unify behind the Tsar and looked up to the Tsar for leadership. This, at first worked, but soon opinion towards the war was not positive, and after the defeat of the Russian army at Tannenburg, there was much discontent towards the First World War.
Gregory Rasputin was also one of the causes of the first revolution in 1917. He was a monk of the Orthodox Church, and was left to rule Russia with the Tsarina in the First World War. This was greeted with much scepticism by the public as the Tsarina was German, and Russia was supposed to be fighting a war against Germany. Rasputin and the Tsarina did not help the situation, and they removed able ministers replacing them with more hopeless ones. This increased the public annoyance with the Tsar.
The outbreak of the First World War came to be probably the most important reason for the first revolution in Russia 1917. The Tsar was concentrating much of Russia’s power and money into the Russian army due to Russia fighting the First World War. This was one of the reasons why there was barely and money to feed the poor and give the poor decent wages.
In January 1917 Russia was suffering defeats from both Poland and Rumania. The Duma was advising the Tsar to change the government, but the Tsar was ignoring this. As a result of all this there were strikes in Russia. The people of Russia were losing the little trust they already had in the Tsar.
The Tsar abdicated from the throne in early 1917. This was a surprise, as, although things were deteriorating in Russia quickly, it was not expected that Nicholas the Second would abdicate. Then, on March the 7th, a food riot broke out in St. Petersburg. 40,000 workers went on strike for higher wages, and women also joined in due to lack of food. This showed that they wanted improvements in Russia, and were not only rioting against Nicholas the Second, as he had abdicated earlier that year. The Tsar subsequently asked the Army to stop the riots, but instead the army joined in with the rioters. This showed the poor quality of troops Russia had, possibly due to all the good troops being used up fighting the War.
This just shows how the First World War aggravated all the problems Russia was facing before the first revolution in Russia in 1917. Peasants were forced to fight in the War, which meant that there was left food being produced.
After the first revolution in Russia in 1917 a provisional government was put in place. This was controlled by the Duma, but, as will be explained later, they did not have much control over the country, as they could not rely on the army to help their cause.
After the first revolution in Russia in 1917, a provisional government was set up due to the constitutional vacuum. The provisional government was devised from revolutionary Duma members who refused to disband at the Tsars request. It was not an elected body, and therefore did not represent the people of Russia. This provisional government was made up of bankers, lawyers, industrialists, and capitalists. The provisional government was very weak and failed to live up to its promise of ending Russia's involvement in the war. They kept Russia in the war and just made things worse for themselves and for Russia.
The other big party, which re-emerged after the first revolution, was the Petrograd Soviets. This formed a dual power between the Petrograd Soviets and the provisional government. The lack of co-operation between these two ‘powers’ was one of the weaknesses of the provisional government.
The provisional government tended to support the middle classed Russians, not the poor peasants. The Petrograd Soviets, however, were a party who worked for the Russian people.
The major flaw in the provisional government was the fact that it could not control the military without the authorisation of the Petrograd Soviets. This meant that the provisional government had no real power, which could back up their policies. The provisional government was often referred to as the ‘authority without power’.
As 1917 progressed, the provisional government started to move to the right of the political spectrum whilst the Petrograd Soviets moved to the left. This meant that communication between the two started to break down, which resulted in a confusion of who was really in power.
The Bolshevik party had not made itself heard in the first revolution in 1917, yet after the first revolution it made itself clear. The reason why it was not really heard before the first revolution may have been due to most of its leaders being in exile, due to the harsh attitude the Tsar had had against people who opposed his ideas. In 1917, Germany helped Lenin travel back to Russia safely. Germany did this because Hitler believed that the resurrection of the Bolshevik party (led by Lenin) would undermine Russia’s attitude towards the war.
After the first revolution in Russia, Russia was in need of a leader. The government was in confusion, no one had real control over Russia, and the situation was unstable. Lenin came with the message ‘Peace, Bread, Land’, which targeted a large population of Russia. By continuing with the war the provisional government was contradicting the Bolshevik tack on the situation, which was against what a lot of the Russian population thought.
The Bolshevik party was also funded by the German government, as Hitler thought that if the Bolshevik party came to power it would stop Russia going to war with Germany. This paid for many forms of propaganda, especially slogans reading thing like ‘Peace, Bread, Land’, and ‘Al Power To The Soviets’. The Bolsheviks were behind the Petrograd Soviets, and used them to get a foothold of the public support. The Bolshevik party also ran its own magazine which was name ‘The Truth’ (in Russian), which conveyed Bolshevik ideas across to the Public.
Soldiers and Peasants wanted their own land. Peasants were working on land, which was owned by rich landlords, which meant that the profit gained by the peasants was minimal. When the provisional government declined the suggestion of handing out land fairly to the peasants, the peasants started to take land by themselves. The Bolsheviks of course, supported this.
Workers started to rise against the provisional government, but his failed. The leader of the rising was jailed, and Lenin was forced to go into hiding. This seemed to be the decline of the Bolshevik party, and it may have been, if it weren’t for the two things that succeeded this. Firstly, the provisional government launched a war offensive, which failed and ended up with thousands of Russians killed. This aggravated the anger towards the provisional government for continuing with the war. Then, the army started to lose its support from the provisional government and started to support the Russian workers. The army was adopting a radical left attitude, similar to that of the Bolshevik party.
The Kornilov affair was also a major cause of the downfall of the provisional government. Kornilov was a Russian general pro - Tsarist, but who was supposed to be fighting on the western front for Russia. Instead, he led a group of soldiers to the east to the capital of Russia, to try and overturn the current government and establish himself as the ruler of Russia. This, of course, failed, and he was defeated in Petrograd. Although this may seem insignificant, the Petrograd Soviets manipulated propaganda so that the provisional government was made to seem weak and dishonest.
The Red guards were the Bolshevik army, which was small but gave the Bolsheviks a weapon.
The unpopularity of the provisional government gave the population the opportunity to revolt. This, of course, led to the second revolution in Russia in 1917.
Lenin was essential to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, but he alone could not have done it. The unique dual power system was a major contributing factor to the weakness and thus unpopularity of the provisional government.
The First World War was also a major contributing factor. Due to WW1, Lenin could be sent back to Russia with the help of the Germans. Also, due to WW1 the Germans funded the Bolshevik party.
