On the 15^th of March, Russian Tsar Nicholas II stepped down from his throne after the Pertrograd garrison refused to put down the wave of strikes and demonstrations that had been raging for the previous few weeks. The came to be known as the February Revolution as the Russian Julian calendar is 13 days behind. Strikes sparked off by food shortages began among women textile workers on 8 March and quickly spread to other sectors. The Tsar’s authority finally collapsed, ending a thousand years of royal rule in Russia.

A provisional government was formed on 12 March, but it struggled for power with the Pertrograd soviet, a council of delegates chosen by workers and soldiers. The people were strongly against the war being fought together with the Allied powers, in which the army lost millions of troops and suffered a series of defeats. However the provisional government wanted to continue the hugely unpopular war with Germany, provoking mass demonstrations in April. The Bolsheviks tried to overthrow the government, winning popular support with their demand for "peace, land and bread".

On 7 November, the Bolshevik revolutionaries ousted the provisional government and seized power – completing Russia’s second revolution in nine months. A new socialist government, known as the Soviet (Council) of People’s Commissars was set up, with Vladimir Ilyich Lenin as its chairman.

Related link: See Societies in Transit - Russia