Was the Russian Revolution of 1917 inevitable? Did it determine the beginning of the civil war? These and other questions were answered by Doctor of Historical Sciences, Leading Researcher at the St. Petersburg Institute of History, Professor at the European University at St. Petersburg, Boris Kolonitsky. wrote down the main points of his speech.

World War I factor

In the year of the centenary of the Russian Revolution of 1917, fierce disputes about its causes and consequences flare up again. Was it accidental or inevitable? How did the First World War affect the events of 1917? I divide those answering these questions into three groups: optimists, pessimists and idiots. Idiots say that everything was fine and wonderful in Russia, but some kind of conspiracy ruined it. Of course, there were indeed various conspiracies, but serious historians do not believe that the Russian revolution was the result of someone's malicious intent.

Optimists say that Russia was doomed to revolution with the outbreak of the First World War. They believe that if our country had lasted until its end and would have been in the camp of the winners, then this would have solved many of its problems. But we now know that not only for the vanquished, but also for the victors, the end of the First World War was a great test.

Take, for example, Italy, which was then called "defeated in the camp of victors." At first there was a big offensive of the left, and the country was on the verge of revolution, but then it came out of the post-war socio-political crisis, establishing a fascist dictatorship in 1922. Or Great Britain - a country that, it would seem, only benefited from the end of the First World War.

But here is a list of events that then seriously shook the British Empire: the crises in India and Egypt, the defeat of the British colonial troops in Afghanistan, the forced recognition of the independence of Ireland. Why do optimists believe that Russia, a country with a much larger set of problems and with much more complexities, would have successfully survived the end of the First World War?

Now as for the pessimists, to whom I include myself. The revolution in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century was inevitable, and it was not even the First World War, from participation in which our country could not avoid due to the difficult geopolitical situation and the mood of the political elite.

Let's imagine a hypothetical situation that Russia, by an incredibly happy coincidence, would have avoided this war. There is a clear historical example showing that serious shocks would have awaited it in any case. Imagine a country that has long been trying to become a constitutional monarchy, where until now great importance have a court and a military elite. The agrarian problem is acute in this country, and millions of peasants believe that only the division of large estates can make them happy. In addition, there are national and colonial issues, there is a young aggressive working class, the process of secularization is painfully going through, and there is a powerful anti-clerical and atheistic movement.

Very reminiscent of Russia, isn't it? But I was just talking about Spain, which did not participate in the First World War, but on the contrary, thanks to military orders, it only benefited from it. Despite this, Spain could not escape the revolution of 1931, after which it broke into the civil war of 1936-1939, one of the bloodiest civil wars in the history of Europe.

Image: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

World wave of revolutions

From this comparison it is clearly seen that the events of the Russian revolution cannot be considered outside the world context. The international situation on the eve of the First World War seems calm to us. But what really happened? In 1905, a constitutional revolution takes place in Persia, in 1908 - a revolution in Ottoman Empire, in 1910 - a revolution in Portugal, in 1911 - a revolution in China. The revolution in Portugal, after which the country became a republic, aroused great enthusiasm among republicans and anticlericals throughout Europe. And then there was the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1917. Mexico may be too far away, but the revolutions in the Ottoman Empire, in Persia and in China took place very close to the borders of Russia. Sometimes the same people participated in the revolutions in Persia, in Turkey and in Russia.

We say that the First World War spawned the revolution. But after all, the revolution in Turkey gave rise to a deep crisis in the Ottoman Empire, against which the Italo-Turkish war of 1911-1912 flared up. The direct consequence of this war was the First Balkan War of 1912-1913 and the Second Balkan War of 1913, which set the stage for the First World War. In fact, sometimes wars breed revolutions, and sometimes revolutions breed wars. At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a whole complex of revolutions and wars in the world, and the Russian revolution was integral part this global process.

We perceive the period of time from 1905 to 1914 in Russia as an exceptionally peaceful period. It seems that everything is fine: it is sitting, the literacy of the population is gradually growing, urbanization processes are underway, modernization is being carried out. But as a result of all this, a young aggressive working class appears, and on the eve of the First World War, strikes shake the whole country, especially in St. Petersburg, where a real small civil war is unfolding on the streets.

Russia was a police state

Could the impending revolution have been prevented by the timely implementation of reforms? I believe that the political choice of the moment of reform is very important. When a political crisis begins, it is sometimes very dangerous to start reforms. And although it is sometimes impossible to do anything else, when they are carried out, special sapper thoroughness is required.

Any reforms begin and pass in the presence of some coalition of reforms or a vector of reforming influence, they require qualified expertise. It is important to create an active reform coalition that would work both to lobby for it and to implement it in practice. The process of lobbying a reform coalition is not always easy and is often accompanied by conflicts, sometimes quite tough.

I am now thinking a lot about the problem of a culture of conflict, which can be very different. Pre-revolutionary Russia was largely a police state, but it had an insufficient number of police officers. Qualified police is an expensive business.

How did you get out of the situation? Firstly, they attracted the population to perform police functions: various sotsky, tenth and other prototypes of the Soviet voluntary people's squads. Secondly, in Russia, the armed forces were often used to solve police problems, primarily the Cossacks, but sometimes the infantry. But the troops, if they are used for police tasks, do what they are trained to do - that is, shoot and kill.

Therefore, political conflicts in Russia often took the form of small civil wars. This feature of the domestic political culture does little to create a favorable political and cultural background for reforms and overcoming crises.

Lenin and brick

It is difficult for me to imagine that Russia could go through this period of its history calmly, without revolutionary upheavals. Another thing is that it was possible to completely do without the Civil War, especially such a bloody and fierce one. From the experience of world history, we know that revolutions are often accompanied by interventions and even more often turn into civil wars.

One of the key questions for Russia after February 1917 was whether a civil war could be avoided. For example, in 1918 there was a revolution in Germany. After that, what was not there: the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919, the Kapp putsch in 1920, "" and the beer putsch in 1923. That is, local civil wars periodically broke out in Germany, sometimes with the use of artillery, armored vehicles and aircraft, but a major civil war was still avoided there.

This happened thanks to the interaction of the social democrats and trade unionists on the one hand and the generals on the other. Personally, they did not tolerate each other, but they had some experience of cooperation during the First World War. And, despite occasional difficulties, this cooperation has stood the test of time.

In Russia, as we know, such a coalition was destroyed after the failure of the so-called Kornilov speech. The point, of course, was not only in the peculiarities of the personal relationship between Kerensky and Kornilov, not in the vanity and envy of one and the dictatorial ambitions of the other. The problem was deeper.

The February Revolution of 1917 in Russia is one of the most controversial moments national history. For a long time it was perceived as the overthrow of the "hated tsarism", but today it is increasingly called a coup d'état.

portent

As early as the end of 1916, there were all the prerequisites for a revolution in Russia: a protracted war, a food crisis, the impoverishment of the population, and the unpopularity of the authorities. Protest moods seethed not only at the bottom, but also at the top.
At this time, rumors of treason began to spread intensively, in which Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and Rasputin were accused. Both were credited with spying for Germany.
Radical members of the State Duma, officers and representatives of the elites believed that with the elimination of Rasputin it would be possible to defuse the situation in society. But the situation after the murder of the "Tobolsk elder" continued to escalate. Some members of the imperial house stood up in opposition to Nicholas II. Especially sharp attacks in the direction of the king were from the Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich (grandson of Nicholas I).
In a letter sent to the emperor, he asks to remove Alexandra Feodorovna from governing the country. Only in this case, in the opinion of the Grand Duke, would the revival of Russia begin and the lost confidence of the subjects would return.

Chairman of the State Duma M.V. Rodzianko in his memoirs claimed that there were attempts to "eliminate, destroy" the Empress. He names the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna as the initiator of such an idea, who allegedly made such a proposal in one of the private conversations.

Messages about the conspiracy are reported to Nikolai regularly.

“Ah, conspiracy again, I thought so. kind, simple people everyone is worried. I know they love me and our mother Russia and, of course, they don’t want any coup, ”the emperor reacted to the fears of the adjutant wing A. A. Mordvinov.

However, information about the conspiracy is becoming more and more real. On February 13, 1917, Rodzianko informs General V.I. Gurko that, according to his information, “a coup has been prepared” and “the mob will carry it out.”

Start

The reason for the riots in Petrograd was the dismissal of about 1000 workers of the Putilov factory. The strike of workers, which began on February 23 (March 8, according to the new style), coincided with a demonstration of many thousands of women organized by the Russian League for the Equality of Women.

“Bread!”, “Down with war!”, “Down with autocracy!” – these were the demands of the protesters.

An eyewitness to the events, poetess Zinaida Gippius, left an entry in her diary: “Today there are riots. Nobody knows for sure, of course. The general version that began on Vyborgskaya, because of the bread.

On the same day, a number of metropolitan factories stopped their work - Old Parviainen, Aivaz, Rosenkranz, Phoenix, Russian Renault, Erikson. By evening, the workers of the Vyborg and Petrograd sides had gathered on Nevsky Prospekt.
The number of demonstrators on the streets of Petrograd grew at an incredible rate. On February 23, there were 128 thousand people, on February 24 - about 214 thousand, and on February 25 - more than 305 thousand. By this time, the work of 421 enterprises of the city had actually stopped. Such a mass movement of workers attracted other sections of society - artisans, employees, intellectuals and students. For a short time the procession was peaceful. Already on the first day of the strike, clashes between demonstrators and the police and Cossacks were recorded in the city center. The capital's mayor A.P. Balk is forced to report to the commander of the Petrograd Military District, General S.S. Khabalov, that the police are not able to "stop the movement and the gathering of people."

Restoring order in the city was complicated by the fact that the military did not want to use force against the demonstrators. Many Cossacks, if not sympathetic to the workers, then kept neutrality.

As the Bolshevik Vasily Kayurov recalls, one of the Cossack patrols smiled at the demonstrators, and some of them even “winked nicely.”
The revolutionary mood of the workers spread to the soldiers. The fourth company of the reserve battalion of the Life Guards Pavlovsky Regiment rebelled. Its soldiers, sent to disperse the demonstration, suddenly opened fire on the police. The rebellion was suppressed by the forces of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, but 20 soldiers with weapons managed to escape.
Events on the streets of Petrograd increasingly turned into an armed confrontation. On Znamennaya Square, the bailiff Krylov, who was trying to crawl into the crowd and tear down the red flag, was brutally killed. The Cossack stabbed him with a saber, and the demonstrators finished him off with shovels.
At the end of the first day of unrest, Rodzianko sends a telegram to the tsar, in which he reports that "in the capital there is anarchy" and "parts of the troops are shooting at each other." But the king does not seem to realize what is happening. “Again, this fat Rodzianko writes all sorts of nonsense to me,” he nonchalantly remarks to the Minister of the Imperial Court, Frederiks.

coup

By the evening of February 27, almost the entire composition of the Petrograd garrison - about 160 thousand people - went over to the side of the rebels. The commander of the Petrograd Military District, General Khabalov, is forced to inform Nicholas II: “I ask you to report to His Imperial Majesty that I could not fulfill the order to restore order in the capital. Most of the units, one after the other, betrayed their duty, refusing to fight against the rebels.

The idea of a “cartel expedition”, which provided for the removal of hotel military units from the front and sending them to rebellious Petrograd, did not continue. All this threatened to turn into a civil war with unpredictable consequences.
Acting in the spirit of revolutionary traditions, the rebels released from prisons not only political prisoners, but also criminals. At first, they easily overcame the resistance of the Kresty guards, and then they took the Peter and Paul Fortress.

The unruly and motley revolutionary masses, not disdaining murders and robberies, plunged the city into chaos.
On February 27, at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the soldiers occupied the Tauride Palace. The State Duma found itself in a dual position: on the one hand, according to the decree of the emperor, it should have dissolved itself, but on the other hand, the pressure of the rebels and the virtual anarchy forced them to take some action. A compromise solution was a meeting under the guise of a "private meeting".
As a result, it was decided to form a body of power - the Provisional Committee.

Later, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government, P. N. Milyukov, recalled:

"Intervention State Duma gave the street and military movement a center, gave it a banner and a slogan, and thus turned the uprising into a revolution that ended with the overthrow of the old regime and dynasty.

The revolutionary movement grew more and more. The soldiers capture the Arsenal, the main post office, telegraph, bridges and train stations. Petrograd was completely in the hands of the rebels. A real tragedy broke out in Kronstadt, which was swept by a wave of lynching, resulting in the murder of more than a hundred officers of the Baltic Fleet.
On March 1, the chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General Alekseev, in a letter implores the emperor "for the sake of saving Russia and the dynasty, put at the head of the government a person whom Russia would trust."

Nicholas declares that by giving rights to others, he deprives himself of the power granted to them by God. The opportunity for a peaceful transformation of the country into a constitutional monarchy had already been lost.

After the abdication of Nicholas II on March 2, a dual power actually developed in the state. Official power was in the hands of the Provisional Government, but real power belonged to the Petrograd Soviet, which controlled the troops, railways, post and telegraph.
Colonel Mordvinov, who was on the royal train at the time of his abdication, recalled Nikolai's plans to move to Livadia. “Your Majesty, leave as soon as possible abroad. Under the current conditions, even in the Crimea there is no life,” Mordvinov tried to convince the king. "No way. I would not want to leave Russia, I love her too much, ”Nikolai objected.

Leon Trotsky noted that the February uprising was spontaneous:

“No one planned in advance the ways of a coup, no one from above called for an uprising. The indignation that had accumulated over the years broke out to a large extent unexpectedly for the masses themselves.

However, Milyukov, in his memoirs, insists that the coup was planned shortly after the start of the war and before "the army was supposed to go on the offensive, the results of which would radically stop all hints of discontent and would cause an explosion of patriotism and jubilation in the country." “History will curse the leaders of the so-called proletarians, but it will also curse us who caused the storm,” wrote the former minister.
The British historian Richard Pipes calls the actions of the tsarist government during the February uprising "fatal weakness of will", noting that "the Bolsheviks in such circumstances did not stop before executions."
Although the February Revolution is called "bloodless", it nevertheless claimed the lives of thousands of soldiers and civilians. In Petrograd alone, more than 300 people died and 1,200 were injured.

The February revolution began an irreversible process of the collapse of the empire and the decentralization of power, accompanied by the activity of separatist movements.

Independence was demanded by Poland and Finland, they started talking about independence in Siberia, and the Central Rada formed in Kyiv proclaimed "autonomous Ukraine".

The events of February 1917 allowed the Bolsheviks to come out of hiding. Thanks to the amnesty announced by the Provisional Government, dozens of revolutionaries returned from exile and political exile, who were already hatching plans for a new coup d'état.

The October Revolution of 1917 took place on October 25 according to the old or November 7 according to the new style. Initiator, ideologist and main actor revolution was the Bolshevik Party (Russian Social Democratic Party of Bolsheviks), led by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (party pseudonym Lenin) and Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Trotsky). As a result, power has changed in Russia. Instead of a bourgeois country, a proletarian government headed.

Goals of the October Revolution of 1917

Building a more just society than capitalist
Ending the exploitation of man by man
Equality of people in rights and duties
The main motto of the socialist revolution of 1917 is "To each according to his needs, from each according to his work"
Fight against wars
world socialist revolution

Revolution slogans

"Power to the Soviets"
"Peace to the nations"
"Land - to the peasants"
"Factories - to workers"

Objective causes of the October Revolution of 1917

Economic difficulties experienced by Russia due to participation in the First World War
Huge human losses from the same
Unsuccessfully developing affairs on the fronts
The mediocre leadership of the country, first by the tsarist, then by the bourgeois (Provisional) government
The unresolved peasant question (the issue of allocating land to the peasants)
Difficult living conditions for workers
Almost complete illiteracy of the people
Unfair national politics

Subjective causes of the October Revolution of 1917

The presence in Russia of a small, but well-organized, disciplined group - the Bolshevik Party
The supremacy in it is great historical person— V. I. Lenin
The absence in the camp of her opponents of a person of the same magnitude
The ideological throwing of the intelligentsia: from Orthodoxy and nationalism to anarchism and support for terrorism
The activities of German intelligence and diplomacy, which had the goal of weakening Russia, as one of Germany's opponents in the war
Passivity of the population

Interesting: the causes of the Russian revolution according to the writer Nikolai Starikov

Methods for building a new society

Nationalization and transfer to state ownership of the means of production and land
Eradication of private property
Physical elimination of political opposition
Concentration of power in the hands of one party
Atheism instead of religion
Marxism-Leninism instead of Orthodoxy

Trotsky led the direct seizure of power by the Bolsheviks.

“By the night of the 24th, the members of the Revolutionary Committee dispersed to the districts. I was left alone. Later came Kamenev. He was opposed to the uprising. But he came to spend this decisive night with me, and we remained together in a small corner room on the third floor, which looked like a captain's bridge on the decisive night of the revolution. There was a telephone booth in the adjoining large and deserted room. They called continuously, about the important and the trifles. The bells emphasized the wary silence even more sharply... Detachments of workers, sailors, and soldiers are awake in the districts. Young proletarians have rifles and machine-gun belts over their shoulders. Street pickets are basking around fires. Two dozen telephones concentrate the spiritual life of the capital, which squeezes its head from one era to another on an autumn night.
In the room on the third floor, news converges from all districts, suburbs and approaches to the capital. As if everything is foreseen, leaders are in place, connections are secured, nothing seems to be forgotten. Let's mentally check again. This night decides.
... I give the order to the commissars to set up reliable military barriers on the roads to Petrograd and send agitators to meet the units called by the government ... "If you don’t keep words, use weapons. You are responsible for this with your head.” I repeat this phrase several times…. The outer guard of Smolny was strengthened by a new machine-gun team. Communication with all parts of the garrison remains uninterrupted. Duty companies are awake in all regiments. Commissioners are in place. Armed detachments move from the districts through the streets, ring the bells at the gates or open them without ringing, and occupy one office after another.
... In the morning I pounce on the bourgeois and compromising press. Not a word about the uprising that had begun.
The government still met in the Winter Palace, but it had already become only a shadow of itself. It no longer existed politically. During October 25, the Winter Palace was gradually cordoned off by our troops from all sides. At one o'clock in the afternoon I reported to the Petrograd Soviet on the state of affairs. Here is how the newspaper report portrays this report:
“On behalf of the Military Revolutionary Committee, I announce that the Provisional Government no longer exists. (Applause.) Individual ministers have been arrested. ("Bravo!") Others will be arrested in the coming days or hours. (Applause.) The revolutionary garrison, at the disposal of the Military Revolutionary Committee, dissolved the meeting of the Pre-Parliament. (Loud applause.) We stayed awake here at night and watched over the telephone wire how detachments of revolutionary soldiers and the workers' guards silently carried out their work. The layman slept peacefully and did not know that at this time one power was being replaced by another. Stations, post office, telegraph, the Petrograd Telegraph Agency, the State Bank are busy. (Loud applause.) The Winter Palace has not yet been taken, but its fate will be decided in the next few minutes. (Applause.)"
This naked report can give the wrong impression of the mood of the meeting. That's what my memory tells me. When I reported on the change of power that had taken place during the night, there was a tense silence for several seconds. Then applause came, but not stormy, but thoughtful ... “Can we overcome it?” – many people asked themselves mentally. Hence a moment of anxious reflection. Let's do it, everyone replied. New dangers loomed in the distant future. And now there was a feeling great victory, and this feeling sang in the blood. It found its way out in a stormy meeting arranged for Lenin, who first appeared at this meeting after an absence of almost four months.(Trotsky "My Life").

Results of the October Revolution of 1917

In Russia, the elite has completely changed. The one that ruled the state for 1000 years, set the tone in politics, economics, public life, was an example to follow and an object of envy and hatred, gave way to others who really “was nothing” before
The Russian Empire fell, but its place was taken by the Soviet Empire, which for several decades became one of the two countries (together with the United States) that led the world community
The tsar was replaced by Stalin, who acquired much more powers than any Russian emperor.
The ideology of Orthodoxy was replaced by communist
Russia (more precisely, the Soviet Union) within a few years has turned from an agrarian into a powerful industrial power
Literacy has become universal
The Soviet Union achieved the withdrawal of education and medical care from the system of commodity-money relations
There was no unemployment in the USSR
In recent decades, the leadership of the USSR has achieved almost complete equality of the population in income and opportunities.
In the Soviet Union there was no division of people into poor and rich
In the numerous wars waged by Russia during the years of Soviet power, as a result of terror, from various economic experiments, tens of millions of people died, the fates of probably the same number of people were broken, distorted, millions left the country, becoming emigrants
The country's gene pool has changed catastrophically
The lack of incentives to work, the absolute centralization of the economy, huge military spending led Russia (USSR) to a significant technological, technical lag behind the developed countries of the world.
In Russia (USSR), in practice, democratic freedoms were completely absent - speech, conscience, demonstrations, rallies, press (although they were declared in the Constitution).
The proletariat of Russia lived materially much worse than the workers of Europe and America.

Causes and character of the February Revolution.
Uprising in Petrograd February 27, 1917
The February Revolution of 1917 in Russia was caused by the same reasons, had the same character, solved the same problems and had the same balance of opposing forces as the revolution of 1905-1907. After the revolution of 1905-1907. the tasks of democratizing the country continued to remain - the overthrow of the autocracy, the introduction of democratic freedoms, the solution of burning issues - agrarian, labor, national. These were the tasks of the bourgeois-democratic transformation of the country, and therefore the February Revolution, like the revolution of 1905-1907, bore a bourgeois-democratic character.

Although the revolution of 1905-1907 and did not solve the fundamental tasks of democratizing the country that it faced and was defeated, however, it served as a political school for all parties and classes and thus was an important prerequisite for the February Revolution and the October Revolution of 1917 that followed it.

But the February Revolution of 1917 took place in a different situation than the revolution of 1905-1907. On the eve of the February Revolution, social and political contradictions sharply aggravated, aggravated by the hardships of a long and exhausting war in which Russia was drawn. The economic devastation generated by the war and, as a result of it, the aggravation of the need and misery of the masses, caused acute social tension in the country, the growth of anti-war sentiments and general dissatisfaction not only of the left and opposition, but also of a significant part of the right forces with the policy of the autocracy. The authority of autocratic power and its bearer, the reigning emperor, fell noticeably in the eyes of all sections of society. The war, unprecedented in its scale, seriously shook the moral foundations of society, introduced an unprecedented bitterness into the consciousness of people's behavior. The millions of front-line soldiers, who daily saw blood and death, easily succumbed to revolutionary propaganda and were ready to take the most extreme measures. They longed for peace, a return to the earth, and the slogan "Down with the war!" was especially popular at the time. The cessation of the war was inevitably associated with the liquidation of the political regime that had dragged the people into the war. So the monarchy lost its support in the army.

By the end of 1916, the country was in a state of deep social, political and moral crisis. Did the ruling circles realize the danger threatening them? Reports of the security department for the end of 1917 - the beginning of 1917. full of anxiety in anticipation of a threatening social explosion. They foresaw a social danger for the Russian monarchy and abroad. Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich, the tsar's cousin, wrote to him in mid-November 1916 from London: "The agents of the Intelligence Service [British intelligence service], usually well-informed, predict a revolution in Russia. I sincerely hope Niki that you will find it possible to satisfy the just demands of the people before it's too late." Those close to Nicholas II with despair told him: "There will be a revolution, we will all be hanged, but it doesn't matter on what lamp." However, Nicholas II stubbornly did not want to see this danger, hoping for the mercy of Providence. A curious conversation took place shortly before the events of February 1917 between the tsar and the chairman of the State Duma, M.V. Rodzianko. "Rodzianko: - I warn you that in less than three weeks a revolution will break out that will sweep you away, and you will no longer reign. Nicholas II: - Well, God will give. Rodzianko: - God will give nothing, the revolution is inevitable" .

Although the factors that prepared the revolutionary explosion in February 1917 had been taking shape for a long time, politicians and publicists, right and left, predicted its inevitability, the revolution was neither "prepared" nor "organized", it broke out spontaneously and suddenly for all parties and for the government. Not a single political party showed itself to be the organizer and leader of the revolution that took them by surprise.

The immediate cause for the revolutionary explosion was the following events that took place in the second half of February 1917 in Petrograd. In mid-February, the supply of food to the capital, especially bread, deteriorated. Bread was in the country and in sufficient quantity, but due to the devastation of transport and the sluggishness of the authorities responsible for the supply, it could not be delivered to the cities in a timely manner. A card system was introduced, but it did not solve the problem. There were long queues at the bakeries, which caused growing discontent among the population. In this situation, any act of the authorities or owners of industrial enterprises that irritates the population could serve as a detonator for a social explosion.

On February 18, the workers of one of the largest factories in Petrograd, Putilovsky, went on strike, demanding an increase in wages due to the increase in the high cost of wages. On February 20, the administration of the plant, under the pretext of interruptions in the supply of raw materials, dismissed the strikers and announced the closure of some workshops for an indefinite period. The Putilovites were supported by workers from other enterprises in the city. On February 23 (according to the new style, March 8 - International Women's Day), it was decided to start a general strike. On the afternoon of February 23, opposition Duma figures also decided to take advantage, who on February 14, from the rostrum of the State Duma, sharply criticized mediocre ministers and demanded their resignation. Duma leaders - Menshevik N.S. Chkheidze and Trudovik A.F. Kerensky - established contact with illegal organizations and created a committee to hold a demonstration on February 23.

On that day, 128 thousand workers from 50 enterprises went on strike - a third of the workers of the capital. There was also a demonstration, which was peaceful. A rally was held in the city center. The authorities, in order to calm the people, announced that there was enough food in the city and there were no grounds for concern.

The next day, 214,000 workers were on strike. The strikes were accompanied by demonstrations: columns of demonstrators with red flags and singing "La Marseillaise" rushed to the city center. Women who took to the streets with the slogans "Bread"!, "Peace"!, "Freedom!", "Return our husbands!" took an active part in them.

Authorities first viewed them as spontaneous food riots. However, the events grew every day and took on a threatening character for the authorities. On February 25, more than 300,000 people went on strike. (80% of city workers). The demonstrators came out with political slogans: "Down with the monarchy!", "Long live the republic!" central squares and city avenues. They managed to overcome the police and military barriers and break through to Znamenskaya Square near the Moscow railway station, where at the monument Alexander III a spontaneous rally began. Rallies and demonstrations took place on the main squares, avenues and streets of the city. Cossack squads sent against them refused to disperse them. Demonstrators threw stones and logs at the mounted policemen. The authorities have already seen that the "riots" are taking on a political character.

On the morning of February 25, columns of workers again rushed to the city center, and on the Vyborg side, police stations were already smashed. The rally began again on Znamenskaya Square. Demonstrators clashed with police, killing and injuring several demonstrators. On the same day, Nicholas II received from the commander of the Petrograd Military District, General S.S. Khabalov a report on the unrest that had begun in Petrograd, and at 9 o’clock in the evening Khabalov received a telegram from him: “I order tomorrow to stop the riots in the capital, which are unacceptable in hard times war with Germany and Austria". Khabalov immediately ordered the police and the commanders of the spare parts to use weapons against the demonstrators. On the night of February 26, the police arrested about a hundred of the most active leaders of the left parties.

February 26 was Sunday. Factories and factories did not work. Masses of demonstrators with red banners and singing revolutionary songs again rushed to the central streets and squares of the city. On Znamenskaya Square and near the Kazan Cathedral, there were continuous rallies. On the orders of Khabalov, the police, who sat on the roofs of houses, opened fire from machine guns on demonstrators and protesters. On Znamenskaya Square, 40 people were killed and the same number were wounded. The police fired at the demonstrators on Sadovaya Street, Liteiny and Vladimirsky avenues. On the night of February 27, new arrests were made: this time 170 people were captured.

The outcome of any revolution depends on which side the army ends up on. The defeat of the revolution of 1905 - 1907 was largely due to the fact that despite a series of uprisings in the army and navy, in general, the army remained loyal to the government and was used by it to suppress peasant and worker riots. In February 1917, a garrison of up to 180,000 soldiers was stationed in Petrograd. Basically, these were spare parts that were to be sent to the front. There were quite a few recruits from cadre workers mobilized for participating in strikes, and quite a few veterans who had recovered from wounds. The concentration in the capital of a mass of soldiers who easily succumbed to the influence of revolutionary propaganda was a major mistake of the authorities.

The execution of demonstrators on February 26 aroused strong indignation among the soldiers of the capital's garrison and had a decisive influence on their going over to the side of the revolution. On the afternoon of February 26, the 4th company of the reserve battalion of the Pavlovsky regiment refused to take the place indicated to it at the outpost and even opened fire on a platoon of mounted police. The company was disarmed, 19 of its "instigators" were sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress. Chairman of the State Duma M.V. Rodzianko telegraphed the tsar that day: "The situation is serious. There is anarchy in the capital. The government is paralyzed. There is indiscriminate shooting in the streets. Parts of the troops are shooting at each other." In conclusion, he asked the king: "Immediately instruct a person who enjoys the confidence of the country to form a new government. It is impossible to delay. Any delay is like death."

Even on the eve of the tsar's departure for Headquarters, two versions of his decree on the State Duma were prepared - the first on its dissolution, the second on a break in its sessions. In response to Rodzianko's telegram, the tsar sent a second version of the decree - on the suspension of the Duma from February 26 to April 1917. At 11 am on February 27, the deputies of the State Duma gathered in the White Hall of the Tauride Palace and silently listened to the tsar's decree on the adjournment of the session of the Duma. The tsar's decree placed the Duma members in a difficult position: on the one hand, they did not dare to disobey the tsar's will, and on the other hand, they could not but reckon with the menacing development of revolutionary events in the capital. Deputies from the left parties proposed not to obey the tsar's decree and to declare themselves the Constituent Assembly in the "appeal to the people", but the majority was against such an action. In the Semicircular Hall of the Tauride Palace, they opened a "private meeting", at which it was decided, in fulfillment of the tsar's order, not to hold official meetings of the Duma, but the deputies not to disperse and remain in their places. By half past three in the afternoon on February 27, crowds of demonstrators approached the Tauride Palace, some of them entered the palace. Then the Duma decided to form from among its members a "Provisional Committee of the State Duma for the Restoration of Order in Petrograd and for Relations with Institutions and Persons." On the same day, a Committee of 12 people chaired by Rodzianko was formed. At first, the Provisional Committee was afraid to take power into its own hands and sought an agreement with the tsar. On the evening of February 27, Rodzianko sent a new telegram to the tsar, in which he suggested that he make concessions - to instruct the Duma to form a ministry responsible to it.

But events unfolded rapidly. On that day, strikes swept almost all the enterprises of the capital, and in fact the uprising had already begun. The troops of the capital's garrison began to go over to the side of the rebels. On the morning of February 27, a training team rebelled, consisting of 600 people from the reserve battalion of the Volynsky regiment. The team leader was killed. Non-commissioned officer T.I., who led the uprising Kirpichnikov raised the entire regiment, which moved towards the Lithuanian and Preobrazhensky regiments and dragged them along.

If on the morning of February 27, 10 thousand soldiers went over to the side of the rebels, then in the evening of the same day - 67 thousand. On the same day, Khabalov telegraphed the tsar that "the troops refuse to go out against the rebels." On February 28, 127 thousand soldiers turned out to be on the side of the rebels, and on March 1 - already 170 thousand soldiers. On February 28, the Winter Palace, the Peter and Paul Fortress were taken, the arsenal was captured, from which 40,000 rifles and 30,000 revolvers were distributed to workers. On Liteiny Prospekt, the building of the District Court and the House of Preliminary Detention were destroyed and set on fire. The police stations were on fire. The gendarmerie and the Okhrana were liquidated. Many policemen and gendarmes were arrested (later the Provisional Government released them and sent them to the front). Prisoners were released from prisons. On March 1, after negotiations, the remnants of the garrison who had settled in the Admiralty, along with Khabalov, surrendered. The Mariinsky Palace was taken and the tsarist ministers and top dignitaries who were in it were arrested. They were brought or brought to the Tauride Palace. Minister of Internal Affairs A.D. Protopopov voluntarily appeared under arrest. The ministers and generals from the Tauride Palace were escorted to the Peter and Paul Fortress, the rest - to the places of detention prepared for them.

Military units from Peterhof and Strelna who had gone over to the side of the revolution arrived in Petrograd through the Baltic Station and along the Peterhof Highway. On March 1, the sailors of the Kronstadt port rebelled. The commander of the Kronstadt port and the military governor of the city of Kronstadt, Rear Admiral R.N. Viren and several senior officers were shot by sailors. Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich (cousin of Nicholas II) brought the sailors of the Guards crew entrusted to him to the Tauride Palace at the disposal of the revolutionary authorities.

On the evening of February 28, in the conditions of the already victorious revolution, Rodzianko proposed announcing that the Provisional Committee of the State Duma would assume government functions. On the night of February 28, the Provisional Committee of the State Duma addressed the peoples of Russia with an appeal that they were taking the initiative to "restore state and social order" and create a new government. As a first step in the ministries, he sent commissars from among the members of the Duma. In order to seize the situation in the capital and stop the further development of revolutionary events, the Provisional Committee of the State Duma tried in vain to return the soldiers to the barracks. But this attempt showed that he was unable to take control of the situation in the capital.

The soviets, which were revived during the revolution, became a more effective revolutionary power. As early as February 26, a number of members of the Union of Workers' Cooperatives of Petrograd, the Social Democratic faction of the State Duma and other working groups put forward the idea of forming Soviets of Workers' Deputies along the lines of 1905. This idea was also supported by the Bolsheviks. On February 27, representatives of the working groups, together with a group of Duma deputies and representatives of the left intelligentsia, gathered in the Taurida Palace and announced the creation of the Provisional Executive Committee of the Petrograd Council of Working People's Deputies. The committee issued an appeal to elect deputies to the Soviet without delay - one deputies from 1,000 workers, and one from a company of soldiers. 250 deputies were elected and gathered in the Tauride Palace. They, in turn, elected the Executive Committee of the Soviet, whose chairman was the leader of the Social Democratic faction of the State Duma, the Menshevik N.S. Chkheidze, and his deputies Trudovik A.F. Kerensky and Menshevik M.I. Skobelev. The majority in the Executive Committee and in the Soviet itself belonged to the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries - at that time the most numerous and influential left parties in Russia. On February 28, the first issue of Izvestia of the Soviet of Workers' Deputies came out (editor Menshevik F.I. Dan).

The Petrograd Soviet began to act as an organ of revolutionary power, taking a number of important decisions. On February 28, on his initiative, district committees of councils were created. He formed military and food commissions, armed militia, established control over printing houses and railways. By decision of the Petrograd Soviet, the financial resources of the tsarist government were withdrawn and control over their spending was established. Commissars from the Soviet were sent to the districts of the capital to establish people's power in them.

On March 1, 1917, the Council issued the famous "Order No. 1", which provided for the creation of elected soldiers' committees in military units, abolished the titles of officers and saluting them outside of service, but most importantly, removed the Petrograd garrison from subordination to the old command. This order in our literature is usually regarded as a deeply democratic act. In fact, by subordinating the unit commanders to soldiers' committees, little competent in military affairs, he violated the principle of unity of command, necessary for any army, and thereby contributed to the decline in military discipline.

The number of victims in Petrograd in the February days of 1917 amounted to about 300 people. killed and up to 1200 wounded.

Formation of the Provisional Government
With the formation of the Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional Committee of the State Duma on February 27, dual power actually began to take shape. Until March 1, 1917, the Council and the Duma Committee acted independently of each other. On the night of March 1-2, negotiations began between representatives of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional Committee of the State Duma on the formation of the Provisional Government. Representatives of the Soviets set the condition for the Provisional Government to immediately proclaim civil liberties, an amnesty for political prisoners, and announce the convocation of a Constituent Assembly. When the Provisional Government fulfilled this condition, the Council decided to support it. The formation of the composition of the Provisional Government was entrusted to the Provisional Committee of the State Duma.

On March 2, it was formed, and on March 3, its composition was made public. The Provisional Government included 12 people - 10 ministers and 2 chief executives of central departments equated to ministers. 9 ministers were deputies of the State Duma.

A large landowner, chairman of the All-Russian Zemstvo Union, Cadet, Prince G.E. became the Chairman of the Provisional Government and at the same time the Minister of the Interior. Lvov, ministers: foreign affairs - the leader of the Cadet Party P.N. Milyukov, military and naval - the leader of the Octobrist party A.I. Guchkov, trade and industry - a major manufacturer, progressive, A.I. Konovalov, communications - "left" cadet N.V. Nekrasov, public education - close to the Cadets, professor of law A.A. Manuilov, agriculture - zemstvo doctor, cadet, A.I. Shingarev, Justice - Trudovik (since March 3 Social Revolutionary, the only socialist in the government) A.F. Kerensky, on the affairs of Finland - cadet V.I. Rodiichev, Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod - Octobrist V.N. Lvov, the state controller - Octobrist I.V. Godnev. Thus, 7 ministerial posts, and the most important ones, ended up in the hands of the Cadets, 3 ministerial posts were received by the Octobrists and 2 representatives of other parties. It was the "finest hour" of the Cadets, who came to power for a short time (two months). The entry into office of ministers of the Provisional Government took place during March 3-5. The provisional government declared itself for a transitional period (until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly) the supreme legislative and executive power in the country.

On March 3, the program of activities of the Provisional Government, agreed with the Petrograd Soviet, was also made public: 1) a complete and immediate amnesty for all political and religious matters; 2) freedom of speech, press, assembly and strikes; 3) the abolition of all class, religious and national restrictions; 4) immediate preparation for elections on the basis of universal, equal, secret and direct voting to the Constituent Assembly; 5) replacement of the police by the people's militia with elected authorities subordinate to local self-government bodies; 6) elections to local self-government bodies; 7) non-disarmament and non-withdrawal from Petrograd of military units that took part in the February 27 uprising; and 8) giving soldiers civil rights. The program laid the broad foundations of constitutionalism and democracy in the country.

However, most of the measures announced in the declaration of the Provisional Government on March 3 were carried out even earlier, as soon as the revolution had won. So, as early as February 28, the police was abolished and the people's militia was formed: instead of 6 thousand policemen, 40 thousand people were employed in the protection of order in Petrograd. people's militia. She took under the protection of enterprises and city blocks. Detachments in the native militia were soon created in other cities. Subsequently, along with the workers' militia, fighting workers' squads (the Red Guard) also appeared. The first detachment of the Red Guard was created in early March at the Sestroretsk plant. The gendarmerie and the Okhrana were liquidated.

Hundreds of prisons were destroyed or burned down. The press organs of the Black Hundred organizations were closed. Trade unions were revived, cultural and educational, women's, youth and other organizations were created. Complete freedom of the press, rallies and demonstrations was won by secret order. Russia has become the freest country in the world.

The initiative to reduce the working day to 8 hours came from the Petrograd entrepreneurs themselves. On March 10, an agreement was concluded between the Petrograd Soviet and the Petrograd Society of Manufacturers about this. Then, through similar private agreements between workers and employers, the 8-hour working day was introduced throughout the country. However, a special decree of the Provisional Government on this was not issued. The agrarian question was referred to the decision of the Constituent Assembly out of fear that the soldiers, having learned about the "division of the land", would abandon the front and move into the countryside. The provisional government declared unauthorized seizures of landlord peasants illegal.

In an effort to "become closer to the people", to study the specific situation in the country on the spot and enlist the support of the population, the ministers of the Provisional Government made frequent trips to cities, army and navy units. At first, they met such support at rallies, meetings, meetings of various kinds, and professional congresses. The ministers often and willingly gave interviews to representatives of the press and held press conferences. The press, in turn, sought to create a favorable public opinion about the Provisional Government.

France and England were the first to recognize the Provisional Government as "the spokesman of the true will of the people and the only government of Russia". In early March, the United States, Italy, Norway, Japan, Belgium, Portugal, Serbia and Iran recognized the Provisional Government.

Abdication of Nicholas II
The defection of the troops of the capital's garrison to the side of the insurgents forced the Stavka to begin taking decisive measures to suppress the revolution in Petrograd. On February 27, Nicholas II, through the chief of staff of the Headquarters, General M.V. Alekseev gave the order to send "reliable" punitive troops to Petrograd. The punitive expedition included the Georgievsky battalion, taken from Mogilev, and several regiments from the Northern, Western and Southwestern fronts. General N.I. was put at the head of the expedition. Ivanov, who was also appointed instead of Khabalov and commander of the Petrograd Military District with the broadest, dictatorial powers - up to the point that all the ministers were at his full disposal. By March 1, it was planned to concentrate 13 infantry battalions, 16 cavalry squadrons and 4 batteries in the Tsarskoye Selo area.

In the early morning of February 28, two letter trains, the royal and the suite, set off from Mogilev via Smolensk, Vyazma, Rzhev, Likhoslavl, Bologoye to Petrograd. Upon their arrival in Bologoye on the night of March 1, news was received that two companies with machine guns had arrived in Lyuban from Petrograd in order to prevent the tsar's trains from entering the capital. When the trains arrived at St. Malaya Vishera (160 km from Petrograd), the railway authorities reported that it was impossible to move on, because the following stations Tosno and Lyuban were occupied by revolutionary troops. Nicholas II ordered that trains be turned to Pskov - to the headquarters of the commander of the Northern Front, General N.V. Ruzsky. The tsarist trains arrived in Pskov at 7 p.m. on March 1. Here Nicholas II learned about the victory of the revolution in Petrograd.

At the same time, the Chief of Staff of the General Headquarters, General M.V. Alekseev decided to abandon the military expedition to Petrograd. Enlisting the support of the commanders-in-chief of the fronts, he ordered Ivanov to refrain from punitive actions. The Georgievsky battalion, which reached Tsarskoye Selo on March 1, withdrew back to the Vyritsa station. After negotiations between the Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Front, Ruzsky, and Rodzianko, Nicholas II agreed to the formation of a government responsible to the Duma. On the night of March 2, Ruzsky conveyed this decision to Rodzianko. However, he said that the publication of the manifesto about this was already "belated", because the course of events put a "certain demand" - the abdication of the king. Without waiting for the answer of the Headquarters, deputies of the Duma A.I. were sent to Pskov. Guchkov and V.V. Shulgin. Meanwhile, Alekseev and Ruzsky requested all the commanders-in-chief of the fronts and fleets: Caucasian - Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, Romanian - General V.V. Sakharov, South-West - General A.A. Brusilov, Western - General A.E. Evert, commanders of the fleets - Baltic - Admiral A.I. Nepenin and Chernomorsky - Admiral A.V. Kolchak. The commanders of the fronts and fleets declared the need for the tsar's abdication "in the name of saving the motherland and the dynasty, agreed with the statement of the chairman of the State Duma, as the only one apparently capable of stopping the revolution and saving Russia from the horrors of anarchy." Those uncle Nikolai Nikolaevich addressed Nicholas II from Tiflis with a plea to abdicate.

On March 2, Nicholas II ordered that a manifesto be drawn up on his abdication in favor of his son Alexei, under the regency of his younger brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. This decision of the king was drawn up in the name of Rodzianko. However, its dispatch was delayed until new messages were received from Petrograd. In addition, the arrival of Guchkov and Shulgin was expected in Pskov, which was reported to the Headquarters.

Guchkov and Shulgin arrived in Pskov on the evening of March 2, reported that there was no military unit in Petrograd that could be relied upon, and confirmed the need for the abdication of the tsar from the throne. Nicholas II stated that he had already made such a decision, but now he is changing it and is already abdicating not only for himself, but also for the heir. This act of Nicholas II violated the coronation manifesto of Paul I of April 5, 1797, which stipulated that the reigning person had the right to abdicate the throne only for himself, and not for his own glaciers.

A new version of the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne was adopted by Guchkov and Shulgin, who only asked him that, before signing the act of renunciation, the tsar approved the decree on the appointment of G.E. Lvov as prime minister of the new government being formed, and Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich again as supreme commander in chief.

When Guchkov and Shulgin returned to Petrograd with the manifesto of the abdicated Nicholas II, they met with strong dissatisfaction among the revolutionary masses with this attempt by the Duma leaders to preserve the monarchy. The toast in honor of "Emperor Michael", proclaimed by Guchkov upon his arrival from Pskov at the Warsaw railway station in Petrograd, aroused such strong indignation among the workers that they threatened him with execution. At the station, Shulgin was searched, who, however, managed to secretly transfer the text of the manifesto on the abdication of Nicholas II to Guchkov. The workers demanded that the text of the manifesto be destroyed, that the tsar be arrested immediately, and that a republic be proclaimed.

On the morning of March 3, members of the Duma Committee and the Provisional Government met with Mikhail in the mansion of Prince. O. Putyatina on Millionnaya. Rodzianko and Kerensky argued the necessity of his renunciation of the throne. Kerensky said that the indignation of the people was too strong, the new tsar might die from the wrath of the people, and with it the Provisional Government would die. However, Milyukov insisted on Mikhail's acceptance of the crown, arguing that strong power was necessary to strengthen the new order, and such power needed support - "a monarchic symbol familiar to the masses." A provisional government without a monarch, said Milyukov, is "a fragile boat that can sink in the ocean of popular unrest"; it will not live to see the Constituent Assembly, as anarchy will reign in the country. Guchkov, who soon arrived at the meeting, supported Miliukov. Miliukov, in a temper, even suggested taking cars and going to Moscow, where to proclaim Michael emperor, to gather troops under his banner and move to Petrograd. Such a proposal clearly threatened civil war and frightened the rest of the meeting. After lengthy discussions, the majority voted for the abdication of Michael. Mikhail agreed with this opinion and at 4 p.m. signed the drafted by V.D. Nabokov and Baron B.E. Nolde's manifesto of his renunciation of the crown. The manifesto, promulgated the next day, said that Michael "made a firm decision only if he assumed supreme power, if such was the will of our great people, who should, by popular vote through their representatives in the Constituent Assembly, establish the form of government and the new basic laws of the state Russian". Michael appealed to the people with an appeal "to obey the Provisional Government, invested with full power." Written statements of support for the Provisional Government and the renunciation of claims to the royal throne were also made by all members of the royal family. On March 3, Nicholas II sent a telegram to Mikhail.

Calling him "Imperial Majesty", he apologized that he "did not warn" him about the transfer of the crown to him. The news of Michael's abdication was received by the abdicated king with bewilderment. “God knows who advised him to sign such a disgusting thing,” Nikolai wrote in his diary.

The abdicated emperor went to Headquarters in Mogilev. A few hours before the signing of the act of abdication, Nikolai again appointed Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich to the post of Supreme Commander of the Russian Army. However, the Provisional Government appointed General A.A. Brusilov. On March 9, Nicholas and his retinue returned to Tsarskoye Selo. By order of the Provisional Government, the royal family was kept under house arrest in Tsarskoye Selo. The Petrograd Soviet demanded a trial of former king and even on March 8 he adopted a resolution to imprison him in the Peter and Paul Fortress, but the Provisional Government refused to comply with it.

In connection with the growth of anti-monarchist sentiments in the country, the deposed tsar asked the Provisional Government to send him and his family to England. The Provisional Government asked the British Ambassador in Petrograd, George Buchanan, to ask the British Cabinet about this. P.N. Miliukov, meeting with the tsar, assured him that the request would be granted and even advised him to prepare for his departure. Buchanan requested his cabinet. He first agreed to provide asylum in England for the deposed Russian tsar and his family. However, a wave of protest arose against this in England and Russia, and the English King George V turned to his government with a proposal to cancel this decision. The provisional government sent a request to the French cabinet to provide asylum to the royal family in France, but was also refused, citing the fact that this would be negatively perceived by French public opinion. Thus, the attempts of the Provisional Government to send the former tsar and his family abroad failed. On August 13, 1917, by order of the Provisional Government, the royal family was sent to Tobolsk.

The essence of dual power
During the transitional period - from the moment of the victory of the revolution to the adoption of the constitution and the formation of permanent bodies of power in accordance with it - the Provisional Revolutionary Government operates, which is entrusted with the duty of breaking the old apparatus of power, consolidating the gains of the revolution by appropriate decrees and convening the Constituent Assembly, which determines the shape of the future state structure country, approves the decrees issued by the Provisional Government, giving them the force of laws, and adopts the constitution.

The provisional government for the transitional period (until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly) has both legislative and executive functions. This was the case, for example, during the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century. The same way of transforming the country after the revolutionary upheaval was envisaged by the Decembrists of the Northern Society in their projects, putting forward the idea of a "Provisional revolutionary government" for the transitional period, and then convening a "Supreme Council" (Constituent Assembly). All the Russian revolutionary parties at the beginning of the 20th century imagined the path of the revolutionary reorganization of the country, the destruction of the old state machine and the formation of new organs of power, having written it down in their programs.

However, the formation process state power in Russia, as a result of the February Revolution of 1917, it followed a different scenario. In Russia, a dual power was created, which has no analogues in history - in the person of the Soviets of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies, on the one hand, and the Provisional Government, on the other.

As already mentioned, the emergence of Soviets - organs of people's power - dates back to the time of the revolution of 1905-1907. and is an important achievement. This tradition immediately revived after the victory of the uprising in Petrograd on February 27, 1917. In addition to the Petrograd Soviet in March 1917, more than 600 local Soviets arose, which elected from their midst permanent authorities - executive committees. These were the chosen people, relying on the support of the broad working masses. The councils performed legislative, administrative, executive and even judicial functions. By October 1917 there were already 1,429 soviets in the country. They arose spontaneously - it was the spontaneous creativity of the masses. Along with this, local committees of the Provisional Government were also created. Thus, dual power was created at the central and local levels.

At that time, representatives of the Menshevik and Socialist-Revolutionary parties, who were guided not by the "victory of socialism", believing that in backward Russia there were no conditions for this, had the predominant influence in the Soviets, both in Petrograd and in the provincial ones, but on the development and consolidation of its bourgeois-democratic conquests. Such a task, they believed, could be performed during the transitional period by the Provisional, bourgeois in composition, government, which, in carrying out the democratic transformations of the country, must be provided with support, and, if necessary, put pressure on it. In fact, even during the period of dual power, real power was in the hands of the Soviets, for the Provisional Government could govern only with their support and carry out its decrees with their sanction.

At first, the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies acted jointly. They even held their meetings in the same building - the Taurida Palace, which then turned into the center of the country's political life.

During March-April 1917, the Provisional Government, with the support and pressure on it from the Petrograd Soviet, carried out a number of democratic reforms, which were mentioned above. At the same time, it postponed the solution of a number of acute problems inherited from the old government until the Constituent Assembly, and among them the agrarian question. Moreover, it issued a number of decrees providing for criminal liability for the unauthorized seizure of landlords, specific and monastic lands. On the question of war and peace, it took a defensive position, remaining faithful to the allied obligations assumed by the old regime. All this caused the growing dissatisfaction of the masses with the policy of the Provisional Government.

Dual power is not a separation of powers, but opposition of one power to another, which inevitably leads to conflicts, to the desire of each power to overthrow the opposing one. Ultimately, dual power leads to paralysis of power, to the absence of any power, to anarchy. With dual power, the growth of centrifugal forces is inevitable, which threatens the collapse of the country, especially if this country is multinational.

The dual power lasted no more than four months - until the beginning of July 1917, when, in the context of the unsuccessful offensive of the Russian troops on the German front, on July 3-4, the Bolsheviks organized a political demonstration and attempted to overthrow the Provisional Government. The demonstration was shot, and the Bolsheviks were subjected to repression. After the July days, the Provisional Government managed to subdue the Soviets, which obediently carried out its will. However, this was a short-term victory for the Provisional Government, whose position was becoming increasingly precarious. Economic ruin deepened in the country: inflation grew rapidly, production fell catastrophically, and the danger of impending famine became real. In the countryside, mass pogroms of landowners' estates began, the peasants seized not only landowners' lands, but also church lands, and information was received about the murders of landlords and even clergymen. The soldiers are tired of the war. At the front, the fraternization of the soldiers of both belligerents became more frequent. The front was essentially falling apart. Desertion increased sharply, entire military units were removed from their positions: the soldiers hurried home in order to be in time for the division of the landlords' lands.

The February Revolution destroyed the old state structures, but failed to create a strong and authoritative power. The provisional government was increasingly losing control over the situation in the country and was no longer able to cope with the growing devastation, the complete breakdown of the financial system, and the collapse of the front. The ministers of the Provisional Government, being highly educated intellectuals, brilliant orators and publicists, turned out to be unimportant politicians and bad administrators, divorced from reality and poorly aware of it.

In a relatively short time, from March to October 1917, four compositions of the Provisional Government were replaced: its first composition lasted about two months (March-April), the next three (coalition, with "socialist ministers") - each no more than a month and a half . It survived two serious power crises (in July and September).

The power of the Provisional Government was weakening every day. It increasingly lost control over the situation in the country. In an atmosphere of political instability in the country, deepening economic ruin, a protracted unpopular war. threats of imminent famine, the masses longed for a "firm government" that could "put things in order." The inconsistency of the behavior of the Russian peasant also worked - his primordially Russian desire for "firm order" and, at the same time, primordially Russian hatred of any really existing order, i.e. a paradoxical combination in the peasant mentality of Caesarism (naive monarchism) and anarchism, humility and rebellion.

By the autumn of 1917, the power of the Provisional Government was virtually paralyzed: its decrees were not implemented or were ignored altogether. In fact, anarchy reigned on the ground. There were fewer and fewer supporters and defenders of the Provisional Government. This largely explains the ease with which it was overthrown by the Bolsheviks on October 25, 1917. They not only easily overthrew the virtually powerless Provisional Government, but also received powerful support from the broad masses of the people, promulgating the most important decrees the very next day after the October Revolution - about the earth and the world. Not abstract, not understandable to the masses, socialist ideas attracted them to the Bolsheviks, and the hope is that they will indeed stop the hated war and once again give the peasants the coveted land.

“V.A. Fedorov. History of Russia 1861-1917.
Bookseller's Regiment Library. http://society.polbu.ru/fedorov_rushistory/ch84_i.html

Large-scale social upheavals do not occur at the behest of one person - or even a group of people. The revolution has been brewing for decades, and the main reason for it was the population explosion.

AT early XIX century population Russian Empire was about 41 million people, and a hundred years later this figure rose to 130 million.

The Russian village was impoverished rapidly: not because some villains increased exploitation, but because the number of mouths grew, and the land in the central part of Russia no longer became. At the same time, the technologies Agriculture were almost the same as under Ivan the Terrible.

Vasily Maksimov. "Auction for arrears". 1881-82

Attempts to solve the problem

The government tried to resettle the peasants, but special success they did not have - there was not enough money for this, and the peasants themselves did not want to leave their native places.

In addition, there was nowhere to relocate: where the land was fertile, there was a local population that hated strangers, and in Siberia the climate and soil were not suitable for agriculture.

Desperate situation

As a result, almost half of able-bodied men found themselves in a hopeless situation: they had neither land, nor property, nor education.

The handicraft could not feed either: to whom did the handicrafts surrender, if the industry provided a cheaper and better quality product? And to reach the level of true masters, time and money were needed.

You can’t get a job in a factory: there were ten applicants for one place of an unskilled worker, and the wages were so low that it was only enough for a corner in a barracks and vodka in a tavern.

The men get guns

When did it start World War, all this mass of restless people ended up in the army and received rifles. The reasons for the war were completely incomprehensible to her: no one wanted to die for some unknown "Slav brothers" and even for the Sovereign Emperor. And when it became clear that the tsarist government was unable to provide the troops with food, weapons, or uniforms, the army crumbled.

V. Serov "Decree on Peace", 1957

The Bolsheviks were in the right place at the right time

The slogan of the Bolsheviks: "Immediate peace, all the land to the peasants, and the factories to the workers" - this was exactly what the deserters, brutalized by blood and hunger, dreamed of. They poured into cities and villages and established Soviet power in them: that is, they arrested the former chiefs and began to run the economy themselves - whoever could.

How did the Bolsheviks solve the problem?

With the original cause of the crisis - the surplus of the rural population, which could not feed itself - the Bolsheviks could not do anything. They began to fight with the fists, thinking that if good things were taken away from the most hard-working and rich, then this would improve the financial situation of the poor. But the population continued to grow: almost every peasant family had five to seven children, and even the land taken from the landlords did not save if it was cultivated in the old-fashioned way.

Restless peasant youth went to the cities, and this further aggravated the plight of food, housing and unemployment.

B. Kustodiev, Bolshevik, 1920

Great Migration

In the 1920s and 1930s, Russia witnessed a great migration of peoples from the countryside to the city. In a sense, it was an invasion of barbarians on our Third Rome. They settled on its ruins and made their own rules in it: you need to live ten people in a hut, reject everything that is incomprehensible, and make sure that your neighbor does not live better than you.

In words, they hated the "masters", but in fact they were in dire need of a master who would show them where to go and what to do. This explains the mass thoughtless worship of leaders.