There were many causes behind the Russian Revolution of 1917, ranging from the unpopular authoritarian rule of Tsar Nicholas II (reign 1894 to 1917) to the radical mobilisation of the working class, who wanted better working conditions and more political representation. Actually a double revolution, the first revolution brought about the abdication of the tsar in March, then, after the ineffective rule of the Provisional Government of 1917, a second revolution occurred in November. The latter is often called the Bolshevik Revolution because it saw the Bolsheviks (later called the Communist Party) led by Vladimir Lenin (1870 to 1924) seize power and establish Soviet Russia.

The main causes of the Russian Revolution of 1917 were:

Tsar Nicholas II's reputation amongst his people as a wise and just ruler spiralled downwards from 1905. An economic slump, defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (1904 to 5), the massacre of peaceful and unarmed protestors on Bloody Sunday in 1905, and the failure to deliver promised reforms all made people question if the tsar really was the best person to lead the nation. Nicholas seemed oblivious to the societal changes in 20th-century Russia. He once confided to a relative: "I'll never agree to a representative form of government because I consider it harmful to the people whom God has entrusted to me" (Montefiore, 521). The tsar believed autocracy was really the best form of governance. Nicholas ruthlessly repressed any dissent to his rule. Protests were violently quashed by the army and police, and countless arrests were made.

Exiled, imprisoned, and temporarily subdued, perhaps, but those who called for change would not go away. Radical underground parties were formed that worked for either a constitutional monarchy or even a republic. The tsar's position began to weaken further following unsavoury and persistent rumours about just how much influence the odd self-proclaimed holy man Grigori Rasputin (1869 to 1916) had on the royal family and politics. Rasputin had first gained access to the halls of power because he could seemingly bring relief to the tsar's heir, Alexei, who suffered from haemophilia. Rasputin may have had no more real effect than a psychological one of calmness on his patient, but the empress was particularly impressed by Rasputin, and he soon became a seemingly indispensable part of the royal entourage. Rumours spread that the 'holy man' was really a drunk who indulged in sexual activities with anyone he could get his hands on. Scurrilous magazines and less reputable newspapers published unflattering cartoons and even speculated on whether Rasputin was having an affair with the empress. Nicholas refused to react to the rumours but, as the historian T. Hasegawa notes, "More than anything else, the Rasputin affair contributed to the catastrophic erosion of the autocracy's prestige" (39).

Another blow to the tsar's prestige was his vigorous support of ultra-reactionary nationalist and anti-Semitic organisations such as the Union of Russian People, which carried out vicious attacks on Jewish people and other traditional scapegoats. These pogroms and Bloody Sunday effectively erased the long-held belief that the Tsar of Russia, chosen by God, was by definition a just and fair ruler. The final blow to the tsar's prestige was his decision to make himself commander-in-chief of the armed forces in September 1915 during the First World War (1914 to 18). Completely unqualified for such a role, the end result was only that the army's defeats became closely associated with the country's ruler rather than its generals.

Perhaps even worse for Nicholas, while he was at the front playing soldier, the government was essentially left under the guidance of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (1872 to 1918), and for many, this really meant Rasputin. Certainly, there was a whirlwind of ministerial sackings and appointments, many of which were paid for, it was said. Royalists saw the damage Rasputin was doing – or, more precisely, the rumours concerning Rasputin were doing – to the reputation of the tsar. The most damaging rumour was that Rasputin and the empress were forming some sort of pro-German government, the only evidence of which was that the empress was herself German, her title prior to her marriage being Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt. One group of royalists hatched a plot to assassinate Rasputin, and his body – beaten and shot – was discovered in a river in early January 1917.

The tsar had created an assembly, the Duma, but voting for it was weighted in favour of the upper classes, and it had very little power. Significantly, the tsar could veto any new legislation the Duma passed. The tsar also had the exclusive right to appoint and dismiss ministers, and Nicholas persistently promoted those politicians who were deferential to his own personal views. In addition to the political arena, the tsar kept absolute control of the military, the state bureaucracy, foreign policy, and the church. The tsar's secret police, the Okhrana, seemed to be involved in every facet of life. With the level of education rising, more and more of the tsar's subjects were becoming highly dissatisfied with this state of affairs. As other nations considered the issues of a wide political franchise and extolled the virtues of freedom of speech, association, and press, Russia seemed to be a long way behind. The workers and peasants were becoming increasingly self-aware of what they were missing out on. At the same time, a burgeoning middle class of professionals and students was equally determined to bring about change.

Since 1905, the working classes had grown significantly as Russia went through the process of industrialisation. By 1917, there were around 18.5 million workers, some 10% of the population. Workers were concentrated in the larger cities and certain regions. "This concentration of the industrial labour force was critical in facilitating its mobilization in 1917, and gave the working class a political weight out of proportion to its rather small numbers" (Shukman, 19). The working class also grew thanks to WWI, when conscription removed workers to fight in the armed forces, and then their jobs were filled by peasants and women.

Workers wanted better pay, a limit on working hours (8 hours a day), and safer working environments. They wanted unrestricted trade unions without interference from the secret police. They wanted an improvement on the often slum-like housing they were provided with. Some workers wanted political representation in a genuinely popular assembly that influenced the making of new laws. Increasingly, workers used strikes to bring these demands to the attention of the tsar.

Factory workers formed soviets, or councils, firstly to organise strikes but then more widely to represent general workers' interests. The Petrograd (the name of St. Petersburg from 1914) Soviet was formed in February 1917, but soviets popped up everywhere. By May 1917, there were 400 worker soviets across Russia, and by October that year, the number had risen to around 950. Even the army began to have soviets, which caused a weakening of the traditional hierarchy of officer ranks and privates. In short, the soviets became "organs of mass self-expression" (Read, 144).

The executive committees of the soviets came to be dominated by a radical socialist intelligentsia. Over time, this leadership was itself dominated by the Bolsheviks, a radical branch of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). The RSDLP and other socialists were heavily influenced by the ideas of the German philosopher Karl Marx (1818 to 1883), which called for a fairer redistribution of wealth and political power.

After the fall of the tsar in March 1917 (see below), the Bolsheviks, unlike the more moderate socialists, wanted an immediate proletarian revolution, where workers ran the state. Certainly, there was a political vacuum following the end of Tsarist rule at a local level, where the tsar's old bureaucracy was replaced by "a bewildering collection and variety of people's councils, soviets, factory committees, peasants' collectives and other organs of popular control" (Alan Wood, 48). The Bolsheviks saw this chaos as an opportunity to seize power.

The idea of a second and much deeper revolution began to appeal to more and more workers as 1917 progressed. Many workers were increasingly frustrated by the worsening economic conditions through the summer of 1917. As the soviets became more militant so the number of strikes greatly increased.

Ever since the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, Russian peasants had been suffering from a chronic land shortage and the refusal of the tsar to redistribute the vast estates of the aristocracy. As far as the peasants were concerned, one should only hold land if one worked on it. Peasants also suffered from high taxes, and they wanted more say in local councils. In fairness to the tsar, some reforms had been attempted. The prime minister, Pyotr Stolypin (1862 to 1911), had created a series of changes, which became known as the Stolypin Reforms. The reforms were well-intentioned, but ultimately, they were not wholly successful. The education and health sectors improved, some richer, land-owning peasants (kulaks) were better off, but the situation of most peasants remained as frustrating as it had been in 1905. In addition, these reforms, slight though they may have been, angered the tsar's upper-class supporters because they regarded them as a weakening of the authoritarian system they wished to keep going. Another disgruntled class was the growing urban middle class. As peasants flocked to the cities to try and find work, the state did little to accommodate them, and crime was rife. There were also tensions as ethnic groups mixed in the great cities across the empire.

The first revolution of 1917 began with bread riots in Petrograd in March 1917 and quickly escalated when troops of the Petrograd garrison joined the rioters. The revolution and the lack of support for the tsar amongst the political elite forced Nicholas' hand, and he was advised to abdicate, which he did on 2 March. The Tsar's replacement was the Provisional Government, but this body of ex-Duma ministers could claim no legitimacy since there had been no election for it.

The Provisional Government had to share power with the Petrograd Soviet in a system that became known as 'dual power'. The Petrograd Soviet remained the most influential soviet; even before the abdication, it had declared (Order No. 1 and 2) that within the armed forces in Petrograd, soldier committees should take over decision-making, casting aside the traditional hierarchy of officer ranks. The soviet had also insisted that they approve all general orders given to these armed forces. When these orders were extended to the Russian Army as a whole, the result was that discipline plummeted and desertions rocketed. In addition, the food crisis of 1917 necessitated the reduction of daily rations for soldiers from 4,000 to 2,000 calories a day. As Lenin put it, the soldiers were rejecting traditional sources of authority and "voting with their feet" (Alan Wood, 56).

The Provisional Government, really a series of unstable coalitions, struggled to cope with the thorny issue of should or how or when could Russia withdraw from WWI. There was the question of Russia's crumbling empire and how to face the rise of nationalist movements almost everywhere. The economy and rampant inflation were catastrophes. War industries were doing well, but at the cost of greatly reducing the availability of consumer goods and even such essentials as agricultural tools. Civil unrest was becoming more frequent and more violent. Nor could the Provisional Government rely on force since the army had, in most part, become indoctrinated with Bolshevism. The government did promise a general election, but ministers thought it prudent to wait until WWI was over. There was also the logistical problem that millions of voters were fighting on the various fronts, and so to organise such an election would be very difficult.

Simply withdrawing from WWI would break Russia's treaty obligations to its allies, Britain and France. Russia needed Western money if it had any hope of rebuilding itself in peacetime. In addition, a separate peace with Germany looked like it would be a very harsh one, since Russia was doing so badly in the conflict. Some right-wing militarists wanted to install a military dictatorship and continue the war. In contrast, workers marched in protest over the continuation of the war on 23 to 24 April in Petrograd. The war was crippling the economy, and over 2.5 million Russians had died in the fighting. Peasants likewise wanted an end to it all, but they, just as the government did, feared a civil war over the issue.

The middle classes, upper classes, the Russian Orthodox Church (which benefitted from a new separation of state and church), Jewish Russians, and other minority groups did all support the Provisional Government. There were also those, regardless of class or political persuasion, who saw it as a patriotic duty to support whatever government was in place during the war. Even some radical socialists, like the Mensheviks, supported the government. And there were some notable achievements. Women were given equal rights to men by a new law, passed on 20 March, which made all adult citizens equal. There was a new freedom of the press and speech. August saw democratic elections for local councils in towns and rural areas.

In the hope of winning some glory and widening its support, the Provisional Government, led by Alexander Kerensky (1881 to 1971), launched the June Offensive, as it became known. This quickly turned into a disaster with 150,000 Russian Army soldiers killed and many units refusing to fight at all. The Provisional Government was, like the old tsar, greatly discredited by its distinct lack of military success.

Through the summer of 1917, there were yet more problems to be faced, this time economic, with bread shortages and Russian paper money halving in value. A worker demonstration in Petrograd against certain capitalist ministers in the Provisional Government on 16 to 20 July ended in bloodshed and the death or injury of 400 of the demonstrators, an infamous incident known as 'the July Days'. The government blamed the Bolsheviks for the demonstrations and made many arrests. The soviets responded by greatly increasing the number of strikes. The summer of 1917 "witnessed 1,019 strikes involving 2,441,850 workers and employees" (Freeze, 284).

The Provisional Government faced another crisis in August. This was the Kornilov Affair. General Lavr Kornilov (1870 to 1918) was the head of Russia's armed forces from 18 July, and he demanded freedom of action from government interference. Kornilov attempted to stage a coup, but this fell completely flat from the lack of support. Kerensky then formed a smaller nucleus of government ministers in August, but he was damaged by the Kornilov affair in two ways: he was blamed for having appointed Kornilov in the first place, and the arming of the soviets as a countermeasure to the possible coup meant they became even more dangerous if they could be persuaded to launch an attack on the government.

The support for the Bolsheviks amongst the workers and peasants grew as people became increasingly frustrated with the Provisional Government's lethargy and constant stalling on when elections would be held for a Constituent Assembly. The Bolsheviks promised immediate change. The Bolsheviks and other revolutionary groups were not short of funds since they received regular payments from the German government, the intention being to undermine the enemy from within. The Bolsheviks could organise countless meetings and rallies. Lenin deliberately instructed Bolshevik orators at public meetings not to waste time on complicated arguments, which the audience had no hope of following, but stick to simple slogans like "Land to the working people!" and "Nationalization of plants and factories!" (Beevor, 93). The Bolsheviks eventually gained the upper hand in the various worker organisations compared to other socialist groups like the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries.

The soviets organised strikes across Russia throughout the summer 1917, and these caused severe problems for the government, limiting industrial and arms production, and severely disrupting transport and food supplies. Inflation was running at 200%. The peasantry, too, still wanted change. Grievances included the government's requisitioning of grain surpluses, the absence of any effective local administration to represent and solve peasant concerns, and the feeling that peasants were being conscripted en masse to fight in the war while citizens in cities received exemptions because of their work or social status. Peasant revolts through the summer of 1917 saw land seized, the crops and the property of richer farmers destroyed, and the richer farmers themselves were beaten or killed. The government seemed helpless to respond to this disruption, and both the production and distribution of foodstuffs went into decline, causing even worse shortages in the cities.

As events turned out, the Bolsheviks effectively bypassed their support base in the soviets when Lenin ordered his Red Guards militia to seize power by force. The pretext was the Provisional Government's announcement that the Petrograd garrison was to be moved out of the city. The Bolsheviks assumed this was in order to allow the government to take control of the soviet. Lenin decided to move first.

The Bolsheviks arrested key members of the Provisional Government, occupied telegraph offices and railway stations, took over the central bank, and, if only symbolically, attacked the Winter Palace. The Provisional Government attempted to call troops from the Northern Front, but this was not successful. In the end, it was an almost bloodless coup. The Bolsheviks had effectively launched an entirely opportunistic revolution. "It was by no means a smooth, surgically executed operation," but it was also true that "it was the Bolsheviks who most clearly reflected, voiced and implemented the will of the revolutionary-minded workers and peasants" (Alan Wood, 62).

A national election was then held for a Constituent Assembly, but the results revealed that the Bolsheviks were not as popular as they had hoped to be; they received less than a quarter of the votes. In January 1918, Lenin's Red Guards closed down the Constituent Assembly. Lenin was able to keep the soviets at least nominally on board with his revolution since they had already voted to create the Sovnarkom, the Council of People's Commissars. Lenin was the head of this council, and he greatly increased his popularity by declaring the long-sought-for 8-hour maximum working day. Lenin also shrewdly issued a decree that workers would henceforth control all aspects of production, and, more concretely, he promised to withdraw Russia from WWI, which would save lives and revive the economy. Russia formally withdrew from WWI with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed on 3 March 1918. The murder of the Romanov family took place on 17 July 1918. There was no going back.

The Bolsheviks had to next win the Russian Civil War against reactionary forces aided by foreign powers, but they did this by 1922. Lenin's new state was given the name the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), but this had little to do with the workers' soviets, organisations which were turned into local agents of Lenin's central and largely authoritarian government, where the Bolsheviks, now called the Communist Party, were the only party. Lenin nationalised all heavy industry, mines, and the railways, and he rejected the idea that individual land-owning farmers could bring greater prosperity for everyone. Many of the worker and peasant grievances that had caused the revolutions of 1917 would remain so for some time yet.