What happened in February 1917 and why did Nicholas abdicate

the railways and the army’s first claim right) and thousands of workers were laid off. They and other workers (protesting at rumours of a shortage of bread) swelled the masses of the strike. 23rd February: National Women’s Day brought thousand of women out onto the streets to protest about the lack of food and an end to the war. They joined with the rest of the strikers (their position aided by a spell of mild weather) so that the city of St.Petersburg on the 24th February had over 300,000 workers on strike. 26th February: Cossacks sent to disperse the crowds shot on them: by nightfall order seemed to have returned to the city, although they’re had been a small mutiny in the Petrograd garrison. This event inflamed workers however, who saw the shooting into the crowds as an echo of Bloody Sunday, which was the catalyst for the last ‘revolution’. 4) Lynch says that the revolution was between the 18th February to 4th March (according to the Julian calendar used in Russia at the time) in the city of Petrograd (renamed from St.Petersburg after the war had started). 5) The tsar returned to the Front the day after the strikes began at the Putilov Steel Works, on the 22nd of February. 6) He kept in touch with events back home by way of letter with his wife Tsarina Alexandra, who informed him of news from the capital. 7) Military control of Petrograd was made the responsibility of the Cossack General Khabolov on the 27th January. 8) On International Women’s Day, thousands of women came out onto the streets to join the masses protesting about the shortages of food due to the privations of the war (they were helped by a bout of mild weather which meant more people turned up) they called for the end of the war and a new government. Nicholas, away at the front was unaware of the seriousness of the situation and ordered that order be reinstated by military force. Cossack troops fired into the crowds in a dark reminder of how troops had shot at women and children on Bloody Sunday. Order was restored in the sense that the crowds were dispersed, but the mutiny of a small group of soldiers at the Petrograd garrison was merely an ominous foreshadowing of what was about to come. 9) Kahbolov found responding to Nicholas’ command to restore order as difficult as along with the complete insubordination of his own troops, other militia and the Police were either too busy fighting each other or siding with the demonstrators. 10) On 26th February the situation became even more serious as all but a thousand of the Petrograd’s garrison of 150,000 troops deserted to join in with the protests; this made the situation in the city more dangerous as well as seriously depleting the front line of men to fight under general Ivanov. 11) On the 27th February the mutinous soldiers joined with the striking workers and all hell broke loose: prisoners were released from the Peter and Paul fortress; the Ministry of the interior was sacked; the Okhrana headquarters were overrun; The Winter Palace was occupied and arsenals were seized. Of the 160,000 troops at the garrison, half were in full mutiny while the rest simply looked on, refusing to fight under their superiors. 12) On behalf of the Duma, Rodzyanko advised the Tsar that only a major concession in power, such as the one made in the October Manifesto could hope to preserve imperial power. The Tsar however, determined never to make the same ‘mistake’ as he viewed it as the October manifesto stubbornly ordered the Duma to dissolve instead. 13) The Duma’s first constitutional act of defiance was not to properly dissolve as the Tsar ordered. Instead 12 of them remained in session, calling themselves the ‘Provisional Committee’. One of their boldest moves in the revolution came from the lawyer and S.R member Alexander Kerensky, who called for the tsar to stand down or be deposed. 14) Another organisation revived on the 27th February was the Petrograd Soviet (of soldiers’ and workers’ deputies in full) that was primarily set up by the Mensheviks, who had grown in influence during the war. 15) Both these self-appointed political bodies gathered to meet and discuss issues at the Tauride Place. The Petrograd soviet represented the striking workers and mutinous soldiers while the provisional Committee spoke for the reformist elements of the old Duma. 16) The establishment, terrified by the might of the masses, pledged loyalty now to the Provisional Committee instead of the old regime. 17) Nicholas was prevented from returning to Petrograd by a band of mutinous troops who forced his train to divert to Pskov, 100 miles away where he arrived on 1st March. 18) It was in Pskov that Nicholas met up with some of his leading generals and representatives of the old Duma. They advised him not to return to Petrograd saying the situation had become so serious that the act would be both futile and dangerous. Along with Rodzyanko, they advised him to abdicate his throne, which the masses were crying out for, so that the monarchy would have a chance of survival. This they hoped would prevent a full-scale revolution. 19) Deciding to renounce his son Alexei as his successor due to his haemophilia, Nicholas appointed his brother, the Grand Duke Michael instead. He hoped with him removed and with his brother in his place, the monarchy would remain intact. 20) By default then, the Provisional Committee renamed “Provisional Government’ became responsible for governing all of Russia.  The Petrograd Soviet remained in the background however as the unofficial voice of the striking workers, a mighty group in number. 21) The Provisional Government represented the propertied classes, and was populated with ministers who wished to usher in a government modelled on the European constitutionalism. They wished to improve the lot of the people of Russia. The Petrograd Soviet on the other hand represented the striking workers and had left wing tendencies. Their primary interest at the start was to ensure that the Provisional Government noticed the proletariat.