THE FEBRUARY REVOLUTION

In the third year of the First World War disturbances in Petrograd, caused by exaggerated rumours of impending food shortages and by the disaffection of battle-shy troops, prompted a handful of liberal politicians to overthrow the tsar and declare themselves the ‘Provisional Government’. The ‘February Revolution’ was accomplished with remarkable ease: Russia shrugged off an autocracy which commanded neither the affection of the people at large, nor the confidence of the educated middle class, nor yet – and this was decisive – the loyalty of its generals. The tsar had fatally weakened his position by assuming personally the command of the armies in the field, thus simultaneously identifying himself with Russia's defeats, putting himself in the hands of the generals, and depriving his ministers in Petrograd of effective authority. The belief of the liberal politicians and the generals that with the tsar out of the way Russia would prosecute the war more efficiently was shared by her western allies. And so, in February 1917, Nicholas II found himself completely isolated, and renounced the throne for himself and for his invalid son.

The fall of the tsar left three potential centres of authority: the military high command, the Provisional Government, and the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. The generals, preoccupied with the war, at first looked to the liberal politicians to stabilize the home front, but the task was to prove beyond their powers: they had been thrust into prominence by an electoral system that disfranchised wide sections of the population, and their names held no magic for the masses.