and its Impact · Part 4

of , Rasputin, a domineering influence over the Tsar and the Tsarina, was murdered creating a crisis in the palace. Members of the St. Petersburg Soviet were arrested. Popular Uprisings As late as on February , when the socialists celebrated International Working Women’s Day, the Tsar seemed unchallengeable. But he had to abdicate on the morning of March. Though none called for strikes, the bread shortages among women textile workers, with their husbands in the army, forced them to go on strike anyway and march through the factory areas of Petrograd. Masses of women workers in a militant frame of mind demanding “Bread for workers” waved their arms towards factory workers and shouted “Come out!” “Stop work!” The city’s , workers joined the movement the next day ( February). Abdication of Tsar The government used the military to break the strike. But on the fourth day of strikes and demonstrations mutinies broke out even in the barracks. The Tsar declared martial law. But his order was not broadcast in the city, as there was no one to do this job. The Tsar then tried to return to Petrograd. The railway workers stopped his train on the way. Frightened by these developments, the generals at the front and some leaders in Petrograd, pleaded with the Tsar to abdicate. On March, a week after the popular uprisings, Nicholas II abdicated. Provisional Government There were two parallel bodies to take on government functions. One consisted of bourgeois politicians of the old state Duma, representing the propertied classes. On the other were the workers’ delegates drawn together in a workers’ council, or Soviet. The soviets were influenced by the underground left-wingers. Those in the Duma were able to form a provincial government with the consent Imperialism and its Onslaught of the soviets. The soviets were dominated by Mensheviks and the minority Bolsheviks were undecided. The situation changed with the arrival of Lenin. Failure of Provisional Government Lenin was in Switzerland when the revolution broke out. Lenin wanted continued revolution. His