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 labour. The growing breakdown of supply, made worse by the almost complete isolation of Russia from its pre-war markets, was felt especially in the major cities, which were flooded with refugees from the front. Many Duma leaders felt that Russia would soon be confronted with a new revolutionary crisis. As the tide of discontent mounted, the Duma warned Nicholas II in November 1916 that disaster would overtake the country unless the "dark" (treasonable) elements were removed from the court and a constitutional form of government was instituted. The emperor ignored the warning. And so, the revolution of 1917 grew out of a mounting wave of food and wage strikes in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) during February. On February 23 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.
By February 24, the slogans were bolder: "Down with the war!" "Down with autocracy!" On February 25 the strike became general throughout the capital. The Cossack troops, however, which had been called out to support the police, showed little enthusiasm for breaking up the demonstrations.
On February 26 the troops of the Petrograd garrison were called out to suppress the uprising. However, again, on many occasions 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 February 27 the revolution triumphed. Troop after troop 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 took control of the capital.
The imperial government was quickly dispersed. Effective political power subsequently was exercised by two new bodies, the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies and a Provisional Government formed by the provisional committee of the Duma. The Petrograd Soviet easily could have assumed complete power in the capital, but it failed to do so. The great majority of its members, believing that revolutionary Russia must wage a war of defence against German imperialism, did not want to risk disorganizing the war effort. Taken by surprise, as were all the political parties, by the outbreak of the revolution, the working-class parties were unable to give the workers and soldiers in the Soviet strong political leadership.
The provisional government tried to continue the war and to keep the peasants from taking the land while trying to avoid methods of dictatorship. In so doing they were trying to impose a policy that ran counter to the wishes of the mass of peasants and soldiers and workers. Half hearted attempts to impose this policy by force just further undermined their position. The workers were alienated because the provisional government failed to provide an adequate supply of bread to the cities. Further many workers were facing redundancy as a side effect of the war. Perhaps most militant were the soldiers who were bitter from seeing many comrades die as a result of their general's incompetence. They began to see no sense in giving their lives to fight for a government who could not even provide adequate supplies.
The eight months following the formation of the Provisional Government were marked by bitterness between the government and the Petrograd Soviet that eventually grew to open conflict. In this time the soviets changed, from institutions supporting parliamentary democracy into instruments for revolutionary socialism. Two principal causes of this transformation may be distinguished. The first was the government's policy of postponing for future determination by a constituent assembly the solution of such pressing problems as economic disorganization, the continued food crisis, industrial reforms, redistribution of land to peasants, and the growth of counterrevolutionary forces. The government, instead, devoted most of its energy to a continuation of the war. The second cause, a logical consequence of the first, was the growing conviction of the workers and peasants that their problems could be solved only by the soviets, a conviction that was decisively moulded by Bolshevik propaganda following the April arrival in Petrograd of Lenin.
Returning to Russia on April 3, Lenin arrived in Petrograd during the All-Russian Conference of Bolshevik Party Workers. In his first address to the delegates, he advocated uncompromising opposition to the war and the Provisional Government and irreconcilable hostility toward all supporters of both; he proposed that the party struggle for the establishment of a proletarian dictatorship. At the same time he declared that the Bolsheviks, who were a small minority, confronted a task, not of the immediate seizure of power, but of patient propaganda to convince a majority of the workers of the soundness of Bolshevik policy. Opposed at first by virtually the entire Bolshevik leadership, Lenin quickly succeeded in converting the party to his course. Bolshevik policy was thereafter directed toward the assumption of full power by the soviets; immediate termination of the war planned and organized seizure of the land by the peasants, and control by the workers of industrial production. Bolshevik propaganda themes were exemplified in the slogans "Peace, Land, Bread" and "All Power to the Soviets."
The provisional government were facing a widespread popular movement and, as this included the soldiers, by October the provisional government could not even resort to force to keep power.
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 10 approved Lenin's policy. It was carried out during the night of October 24 to 25 and the following day by the Military Revolutionary Committee under the direction of Trotsky. Armed workers, soldiers, and sailors stormed the Winter Palace, headquarters of the Provisional Government. On the afternoon of October 25 Trotsky announced the end of the Provisional Government. Several of its ministers were arrested later that day.
Thus, Bolsheviks won power, due to the fact that the Bolshevik Party was only significant party to clearly oppose the Provisional Government and to unambiguously support the aims of the soldiers and workers and peasants.
Finally, why were there two revolutions in 1917? It's actually quite a simple question. The cause of the first revolution was simply the long awaited fall of the czarist regime mixed with strain of World War I. And the reason for the second revolution was simply that the Provisional Government didn't give the people of Russia what they wanted. Firstly the Provisional Government was determined to carry on the war effort, which quite frankly the neither the peasants nor the soldiers nor the workers were prepared to do. Secondly, they kept putting aside such important maters such as economic disorganization, the continued food crisis, industrial reforms, redistribution of land to peasants, and the growth of counterrevolutionary forces. Thirdly the Bolshevik Party was only significant party to clearly oppose the Provisional Government and to clearly support the aims of the soldiers and workers and peasants, and so, the people of Russia supported them.
