February Revolution

In March 1917 bread protests and a garrison mutiny in Petrograd toppled Nicholas II in eight days of largely unplanned revolution.

Overview

War losses, inflation, transport breakdown, food shortages, and scandals at a court associated with Rasputin destroyed the legitimacy of the regime. International Women Day marches on 23 February old style became a general strike, and the soldiers ordered to restore order shot their officers and joined the crowds instead. By 2 March Nicholas had abdicated, ending three centuries of Romanov rule. A Provisional Government formed under the Duma committee alongside the Petrograd Soviet of workers and soldiers deputies, a system of dual power that legalized parties and freed political prisoners but kept Russia in the war. Its authority drained month by month, opening the way for the Bolsheviks.