February Revolution and Abdication of Nicholas II
In late February 1917 (early March by the Western calendar), bread riots, strikes, and mutinies in Petrograd escalated within a week into the collapse of the Romanov monarchy: Tsar Nicholas II, his authority destroyed by military catastrophe, food shortages, and the corrosive scandal of Rasputin's influence, abdicated on 2 March (15 March NS), ending three centuries of Romanov rule. Power passed to an uneasy 'dual authority': a liberal Provisional Government, eventually led by Alexander Kerensky, and the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, whose Order No. 1 dissolved traditional military discipline. The Provisional Government's fateful decision to continue the war — including the failed Kerensky Offensive of June 1917 — squandered its legitimacy among soldiers and workers desperate for peace, land, and bread. The February Revolution opened the political space that Lenin's Bolsheviks, returned from exile with German assistance, would exploit eight months later.
- Year: 1917 CE
- Category: Political
