ABSTRACT
The society was changing as Europe seemingly was pulling Russia, inch by inch, across the Urals in a social, cultural, and economic sense. The remarkable thing about the revolution that put an end to the 300-year-old Romanov dynasty and the even older Russian autocracy is the relative ease and speed with which it all finally happened. The revolution that ended the Romanov dynasty was nonetheless often a violent event. Armed gangs that included hardened criminals freed from prison looted shops and broke into the houses of the well-to-do to pillage and rape. The removal of the Romanovs created a tremendous power vacuum. The Russian people established a great variety of mass organizations in which they participated directly and through which they projected considerable political power. The new government drew most of its support from Russia’s professional classes and the progressive elements of the nobility and business community, a thin and fragile layer of Russian society.
