Abdication of the Tsar/ (Feb)March Revolution
- Began with riots and strikes in Petrograd
- Feb.(March) revolution ousted the Tsar abdication (was abdicated because he wanted to stop the war)
- Aimed to replace him with a Provisional Government
- Diarchy ensues
- Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional government the two strong factions
- Provisional government led by Prince Lvov
- Replaced by Alexander Kerensky
- Both try to keep Russia in WWI
- Unopopular
- Vladimir Lenin returns from exile in April
- Germans helped assist him by giving him a train and passage through Finland
- States April thesis denouncing the war "Peace Land and Bread"
- The Kronstadt Mutiny
- 20,000 armed sailors took control of Petrograd and demanded the Soviet take power
- Kornilov affair- The Bolsheviks are seen as defenders of Petrograd
- Kornilov threatened to attack the city
- Bolsheviks led by Trotsky (Military side)
- Lenin led the Petrograd uprising and it was bloodless
- Cruiser Aurora fired one blank shot at Winter palace
- Winter Palace defended by Cossacks, Women's Battalion of Death and cadets
- Power now belonged to the Soviets
- Mensheviks and the Centre-right believed the Bolsheviks gained power illegally
- They walked out of the Second Congress of SOviets
- Decree on land allowed peasants to seize private land and redistribute it
- Decree on Peace proposed a withdrawal fron WWI (Treaty of Brest-Litovsk)