February 1917 - Consequences

• Nicholas II's abdication had come about unexpectedly and suddenly.
• There was hardly any coordination to the revolutionary activity in February and March 1917.

  • The events happened so quickly that the leaders of all the main opposition groups were playing catch-up with developments rather than shaping them.
• Historian W Chamberlain commented:

  • "The collapse of the Russian autocracy was one of the most leaderless, spontaneous and anonymous revolutions of all time".