ABSTRACT
The Russian Revolution had two causes. One was the misery of the people, especially in the towns; the other was the small group of well-organized revolutionaries, driven underground or abroad, whose plans to take advantage of this situation were well prepared in advance. The hardships of the soldiers, mostly peasants, had become intolerable. Ill-led and equipped they had been thrown into badly organized offensives, causing appalling losses. The shortage of food produced riots and a general transport strike in Petrograd at the beginning of 1917. On March 12th the soldiers of the garrison, themselves raw recruits, mutinied and refused to move against the crowd; and without the army, government collapsed. A ‘Soviet of Workers and Peasants’ had been formed in Petrograd, and very quickly – owing particularly to the help of the railwaymen – soviets were established in Moscow and many other towns and among the deserting soldiers.
