From the time of Peter I, Tsardom increasingly became an autocratic bureaucracy that imposed its will on the people by force. As Western technology was adopted by the Tsars, Western humanitarian ideals were acquired by a group of educated Russians. Among this growing number of intellectuals, there were also those who were politically radical and even revolutionary. The university became a seat of revolutionary activity; nihilism, anarchism, and later Marxism were supported and encouraged. The reforms of Alexander II brought the emancipation of the serfs and opened the way for industrial development. However, emancipation imposed harsh economic conditions on the peasants and did not satisfy their need for farmland. Industrialisation concentrated people in urban centres, where the working class was a receptive audience for radical ideas. A reactionary clergy kept religion static and persecuted religious dissenters. Non-Russian nationalities in the empire were repressed. By 1903, Russia was divided into several political groups. The autocracy was upheld by the landed nobility and the higher clergy. The capitalists desired a constitutional monarchy. The liberal bourgeoisie made up the bulk of the group that later became the Constitutional Democratic Party. Peasants and intellectuals were incorporated into the Socialist Revolutionary party and the workers, influenced by Marxism, were represented in the Bolshevik and Menshevik wings of the Social Democratic Labour party. The number of illegal political parties suggests that the political system was wrong in many people's eyes and this was used against the Tsar in February 1917 and then against the provisional government in October.
The Russian Revolution of 1905 began in St. Petersburg when troops fired on a defenceless crowd of workers, who, led by a priest, were marching to the Winter Palace to petition to Tsar Nicholas II. This “bloody Sunday” was followed in succeeding months by a series of strikes, riots, assassinations, naval mutinies, and peasant outbreaks. These disorders, combined with the disaster of the Russo-Japanese War, which revealed the corruption and incompetence of the Tsarist regime, forced the government to promise the establishment of a consultative Duma. Nonetheless, unsatisfied popular demands provoked a general strike, and in a manifesto issued in October, the Tsar granted civil liberties and a representative Duma to be elected democratically. The manifesto split the groups that collectively had brought about the revolution. Those who were satisfied with the manifesto formed the Octobrist party. The liberals who wanted more power for the Duma consolidated in the Constitutional Democratic Party. The Social Democrats, who had organised a soviet, or workers' council, at St. Petersburg, attempted to continue the strike movement and compel social reforms. The government arrested the soviet and put down workers' insurrection in Moscow. The manifesto that Nicholas produced succeeded in preventing a revolution that would overthrow the Romanov dynasty. The changes he made had little affect on the way the county was governed and in essence did little but delay the inevitable revolution that would follow.
When war broke out in 1914, the country was hit by a wave of enthusiasm and patriotism. At the start public opinion supported entry into the war but one group, the Bolsheviks were firmly against getting involved. After the initial enthusiasm, morale began to fall after several military defeats at the hands of the Germans. In a move that proved to be a disastrous mistake, the Tsar left Petrograd to take over the Russian army. This was a fatal mistake as he received the blame personally for Russia’s defeats and he lost control of his troops. It also meant leaving his German wife, Tsarina Alexandra and her adviser, Rasputin to rule Russia. The Russian people were losing trust in the Tsarina, as she was German and as they did not trust Rasputin due to his rebellious background. They considered the Tsar very naive to leave Rasputin and the Tsarina to rule Russia after he had gone toe command the Russian armies. The Russian army consisted of millions of peasants but they had bad equipment to fight with. In December 1916, workers in Petrograd starved due to lack of workers. Not only the soldiers but also the civilian population became angry. In January 1917, Russian armies were driven out of Poland and Romania. The Tsar was ignoring the Duma’s advice regarding Russia’s demand for a change in government so consequently more strikes broke out. The Russians blamed the Tsar and did not support him anymore, which contributed to the Tsars abdication from the throne in 1917. As the war continued fewer people were supporting it and the population started to support the Bolsheviks after their continuing effort to pull out of the war.
By February 1917, most of the workers in Petrograd and Moscow were striking and rioting for higher food rations. Many of the soldiers refused to suppress the strike; military disobedience and mutiny spread. Nicholas II tried to put down the workers by force and also dissolve the Duma with little success. The Duma refused to obey, and the Petrograd rebels took over the capital. Nicholas was forced to abdicate after the Duma had appointed a provisional government composed mainly of upper and middle class men. It was headed by Prince Lvov and later Alexander Kerensky.
