The people unwilling to let the Tsar continue his rule, that was nearing dictatorship, formed various opposition parties in Russia. The main group was the Socialist Revolutionaries, and they gained much support from the peasants who sought a radical solution in Russia. Another was the Russian Social Democratic party, founded in 1898, it appealed to many town workers but then split in 1903 to the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. Both groups followed Marxist ideology but had different approaches to challenging the Tsarist system. The Bolsheviks only accepted committed members to the party and favoured a radical approach. The Mensheviks were more cooperative and stood for election in the Duma, they also issued propaganda and organised strikes against the Tsar. The Tsar's government had a secret police, the 'Okhana' that attempted to suppress the revolutionary opposition. Its main methods of removing rivals were exile from Russia and execution, but like most of the Russian institution it was disorganised, and not very effective at intimidating the determined opposing parties.
In July 1914 Russia entered the First World War on the side of Britain and France, fighting Germany and Austro-Hungaria. At first the conflict helped the Tsar. The natural rallying together of all the classes occurred, and the Tsar was looked towards for leadership that was needed in the conflict. But after the first defeat at Tannenburg, the initial nationalistic enthusiasm was lost, and the Tsar was to make some fatal mistakes that lost much support of the Russian people.
In August 1915 the Tsar left St Petersburg to command the Russian army, and this meant the people held him to blame for the subsequent defeats it suffered. The army was made up of poor, starving peasants with bad equipment, few supplies and little training. When in 1916 two million soldiers were killed or wounded, and one third of a million taken prisoner, the civilian population was horrified. The Tsar was considered to be irresponsible as a leader and he was blamed for the disastrous outcome. In Russia at the time the Tsarina and Rasputin were left in charge, and further worsened the situation. People distrusted both of them, some thought the Tsarina was ruling Russia deliberately ineffectively to let Germany win (she was German of birth), and rumours circulated that her and Rasputin were lovers. Furthermore, they dismissed able ministers, replacing them with hopeless ones, and leaving Russia on the verge of breaking point.
Soldiers fighting in the war saw how futile the slaughter was, and became unwilling to give their lives so readily. They were starving on the front line and got angry at how the Tsar failed to address the important problems. Factories in Russia were desperate for workers as so many men were being recruited, and wages got lower and lower so the factory owners could afford to employ the men. In December 1916 workers in St Petersburg starved due to the lack of food, that was caused by the loss of so many of the workforce. On his return from the front line, the Tsar was halted by revolutionaries, and quickly abdicated.
The Duma formed a provisional government in the turmoil, headed by twelve representatives. It held little political strength or authority however, with ministers that had not been voted in and no Tsar to head it. The committee also promised a 'Constituent Assembly' that would restore peace and order in Russia, but which had not been planned and would not have been established for some time. With the fall of the Tsar, the 'Petrograd Soviet' reformed in St Petersburg, in the style of the earlier 1905 Soviet. It represented the general opinions and demands of the workers and soldiers; as well as the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries.
Order No.1, posted by the Soviet, effectively put the armed forces under Soviet supervision and removed all influence that the Provisional Government had over the military force; meaning that politically the Soviets had a major advantage over the government. The army had natural swaying towards the Soviet cause after it had witnessed the first revolution and the failure of the Tsar and accepted Order #1, with this significant further backing the Soviets were starting to seriously threaten the government's position. The Provisional government was increasingly being viewed, by the majority of the Russian population, as the tool of the middle-class to delay the inevitable victory of socialism in Russia.
When Lenin returned to Russia in April 1917 he gave a strong argument against the Provisional Government with his 'April Thesis', and encouraged the idea of Bolshevik separatism from the government, and started a campaign for the Bolsheviks to take over the Soviet. Lenin addressed the wishes of the people and got their support in return for his radical stance. His plea to withdraw from the war gathered much support.
Bolshevik propaganda and Order #1 turned the army against Kerensky himself by giving him the image of a war mongerer, and the army mutinied in face of the Russian defeat. Now the Bolsheviks had a real chance to overthrow the government, especially in St Petersburg with an excess of discontent workers and soldiers, but loyal government troops arrived from the front lines to quell the rising and it lost its momentum. There was a crackdown on the Bolsheviks by the government in July 1917, which resulted in a slight lull in support for the party and the arrest of Trotsky, but not nearly enough disruption to causes the abandonment of the whole movement.
The conflict of government ministers Kerensky and Kornilov over the issue of the power held by the Petrograd Soviet led to a leadership crisis when the Germans were launching offensives on Russian territory. Kornilov, the radical right-wing minister, ordered an advance on St Petersburg in an attempt to overthrow the Soviet. When Kerensky turned to the Bolsheviks for support, he released and rearmed Bolshevik supporters to protect St Petersburg. This move allowed the Bolshevik party to re-form and recover from the damage done to its reputation in July.
Kerensky's erratic action had weakened his position, and Lenin's treatise that he wrote in Finland while in exile and sent back to Russia consisted of instructions for Bolshevik action against the government while it was vulnerable. This reassured Bolsheviks that they should be continuing their struggle against the government, and helped to prompt a surge in the Bolsheviks' campaign for control of Russia.
Elections were going to be held on 25th of November for the predicted constituent Assembly, announced by Kerensky. On hearing of these Lenin returned to Russia and arranged for the Bolshevik delegates to walk out of the pre-parliamentary meeting, which would prepare for the seizure of power. At this point the other delegates underestimated the scale of the Bolshevik threat, and the decision to avoid a pre-emptive armed uprising allowed the Bolsheviks to continue with their plans for taking power. The Bolsheviks timed their attack on the government perfectly, when it was in the most turmoil and when the government was in the middle of the change over process from the provisional to full time government. Before this point the government was too stable to have fallen to the Bolsheviks, and after the change over it would have had a solidarity to it that would also have made a coup far more challenging.
The government palace where Kerensky and his ministers worked was besieged, and a shot fired over the palace from the ship Aurora. The palace was stormed easily (since only cadets were guarding it) and the ministers arrested, signalling the end for the Provisional Government. That evening Lenin appeared in public to make a speech declaring that Russia belonged to the Soviets and the deputies of the workers, soldiers and peasants. In all large towns and cities in Russia power was soon in the hands of the soviets.
The Bolsheviks had reached their success through the manipulation of both the unrest created by the Tsars abdication and the failure of the Provincial Government to establish power effectively. The first revolution should have been the last, and would have been had both the chance events, and initiative on the part of the Bolshevik party and leaders not led to a coup and second revolution in Russia. Failings of governments and policies, the impact of the First World War and chaos in Russia in 1917 led to one of the most complex and erratic revolutions in history.
