February 1917 - Events

• 9 January 1917

  • 150,000 Petrograd workers join a demonstration to commemorate the 12th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
  • In this, we see a connection back to earlier problems faced by the regime connecting to the problems caused by the war.
• 14 February 1917

  • 100,000 workers go on strike in response to the news that bread is to be rationed from 1 March.
  • This highlighted the struggle that ordinary Russians faced to meet their basic needs.
• 23 February 1917

  • Striking workers from the Putilov Arms Factory are joined by tens of thousands of women marching on International Women's Day.
  • They demanded food and the ending of the war.
• 25 February 1917

  • Around 250,000 people are on strike and demonstrating on the streets of Petrograd.
  • The city is at a standstill and the police struggle to maintain order.
  • Commander of the Petrograd garrison, General Khabalov was ordered to restore order with his 150,000 troops.
  • Almost all had deserted by 26 February as had a battalion of men sent form the front and he couldn't even get a declaration of martial law printed.
• 27 February 1917

  • 40 demonstrators are shot by soldiers of the Volynsky regiment but this proves to be the decisive turning point as the soldiers' morale is broke and they refuse to obey subsequent orders to shoot on the demonstrators.
  • Increasing numbers of soldiers side with the protestors.
  • SR members of the Duma, Kerensky, called for the Tsar to abdicate.
• 27 February 1917

  • The Duma had been ordered to stop meeting by the Tsar.
  • However, they formed a Provisional Committee to take over the government instead.
  • Army generals, who had ordered loyal troops to march on the city to restore control, changed their orders and gave their support to the new Provisional Committee.
  • Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and SRs set up the Petrograd Soviet with the intention of also forming a new government.
• 28 February 1917

  • The start of Dual Authority with the PG and Petrograd Soviet effectively becoming the government of Russia as the Tsar's ministers abandoned their posts following an electricity failure and left the capital.
  • Rodzyanko again tells the Tsar to abdicate.
• 28 February 1917

  • Nicholas II leaves his headquarters at Mogilev to make his way back to Petrograd.
  • However, his train never reached the capital as it was diverted by revolutionary railway workers and forced to stop at Pskov, 200 miles away from Petrograd.
• 2 March 1917

  • Under pressure from his leading army generals, Nicholas II agreed that he would abdicate in favour of his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail.
  • The generals hoped that Mikhail would agree to form a new constitutional monarchy in conjunction with the Duma.
  • Mikhail refused the offer and therefore with Nicholas II's abdication, 304 years of tsarist rule in Russia had come to an end.