As said above, the increasing and poor proletarian class, the inability of the autocracy to solve the Land Problem, the existence of an entrenched class structure with no possibility of social mobility, and the defeat suffered by the antiquated Russian army against the Japanese troops, together with the characteristic lack of freedom and rights of an absolutist monarchy, established a very likely to revolution and unstable condition for the Russian Empire, which has usually been referred by historians as a “giant with feet of clay” during this period.
In addition to those long-term causes, it is also possible to address the causes that more directly triggered the February Revolution of 1917 which took place in Petrograd. The most obvious was the great impact that the First World War had over the country. From the beginning, conditions at the front did not look well for Russian’s interests. One of the main difficulties that they confronted was the lack of sufficient supplies. This was not caused by a low production of weapons, but by a poor transportation within Russia’s territory. The Russian Army also lacked of organization and structure, provoking disastrous results during two battles which happened in German territory, the Masunian Lake and the Tannenberg Battles. Even if the Galician campaign against Austria-Hungary was much more successful and some degree of satisfaction among the soldiers was achieved, it was not enough because of the immensity of the conflict. As a conservative leader, Nicholas II decided to become the commander-in-chief of the army. Consequently, he was the first responsible of Russia’s defeats in the war. Moreover, the war also created a home front, where things were not going any better. In the Tsar’s absence, Alexandra, his wife, was put in charge of domestic affairs. Her German nationality and the bad influence Rasputin had on her made her a very unpopular monarch. Nevertheless, the war was not the only royal family’s problem. There were terrible food and fuel shortages in the cities, partially because of the war, particularly in the hard winter of 1916-17. All this resulted in labour unrest in Petrograd, where people were protesting the conditions in the streets, as well as in workers strikes and bread riots because of its high price. The International Women’s Day protests against the government were just another demonstration of the dissatisfaction of the majority of the Russian population. On the other hand, many political organizations which were against the monarchy, such as the Social Revolutionaries and other socialist groups, took advantage of the situation and joined the protests. The decisive anti-tsarist factor was probably the armed forces: the Tsar had lost their support, weakening his power extremely. When Nicholas II realized that the situation was untenable, he first thought about the idea of a military assault upon his own capital. However, his generals, who supported constitutional reform, dissuaded him. Finally, the Tsar was unable to compromise with his own autocracy, and abdicated on 15 March, ending with the Russian Empire and the Romanov Dynasty. A new government was formed to replace the Tsar: the Provisional Government, an alliance between liberals and socialists who wanted a political reform. Thus, we can clearly see how the conditions in Russia led to the February Revolution and to a change in the government of the country.
Lastly, the conditions after the abdication of the Tsar did not become more stable. The Provisional Government was unable to solve the problems that confronted it in 1917. The new republic was actually managed by a Dual Power: the Provisional Government wanted to rule the country, whereas the Soviet, a group of Russian socialists had most of the power and the support of the people. This lack of absolute power prevented the Provisional Government from really controlling the situation after the abdication of the Tsar. One of the decisions that undermined their popularity was the prosecution of the war. After June 1917, soldiers started deserting, as they were losing at the front and also wanted to return home because of the land seizures. In fact, in the July Days, soldiers marched to the Soviet and demanded that they took power. On the other hand, the Soviet was progressively increasing its popularity, influence and power in the cities. In April 1917, Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik party, returns to Russia from the exile, and makes an appeal to all the Russian people with his April Theses: “Peace, Land, Bread”, in which he stated: “Down with the Provisional Government. All Power to the Soviets!”. The reputation of the Bolsheviks increased even more when Trotsky decided to joined their group. However, in the July Days, Kerensky, member of both Soviet and Provisional Government, and head of the government by June 1917, blamed the Bolsheviks for an attempted revolution, and many of them were arrested, while Lenin had to flee to Finland. Nevertheless, this situation changed completely when Kornilov’s army marched on Petrograd: Kerensky feared he was trying to overthrow the Provisional Government, so he decided to release the Bolsheviks, who were able to get armed, as the armories in the city had being opened. The Kornilov Affair came to its end when the Soviet used propaganda and their influence on the railway workers to stop Kornilov’s army, who finally was arrested. After this incident, Kerensky announced that Russia would hold Constituent Assembly elections in November 1917. The Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, who had increased their power and were now armed, felt they had to act before the elections. And so they did: they acted on 29/30 October, and took Petrograd overnight and Moscow in a week. The conditions of Russia after the Tsar’s abdication, characterized by the failure of the Provisional Government and the Bolshevik appeal, enabled Lenin and his party to take power.
As can be seen, the conditions of Russia since the 1890s were likely to become a revolution as eventually happened. At the same time, there were very specific situations to each revolution which explain why and how those revolts took place. However, the conflicts were not over after the October Revolution. Shortly after, the Russian Civil War broke out between the 'Reds' (Communists) and the 'Whites' (Nationalists, Conservatives, Imperialists and other anti-Bolshevik groups). After a bloody four year struggle Lenin and the Reds won, establishing the Soviet Union in 1922. A long time of changes which had started in the 19th century was finally over, with an unexpected and surprising result: the Russian Empire had turned into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), beginning a new period in history which would last until 1991, when it dissolved.