ABSTRACT
After the Revolution of 1905-1907 and the Counter-Revolution of 1907-1914, some great stimulus was necessary to reawaken the revolutionary spirit. The date of the beginning of the Revolution of 1917 may be regarded as February 23rd and March 8th, when riots occurred in Petrograd. The Provisional Government, according to the interpretation of Lenin, 'was not an accidental meeting of persons, it really represented a new class that had attained political power in Russia, the class of capitalist landowners and bourgeoisie which had for a long time been ruling the country in the economic sphere'. Lenin also says that the crisis of February-March 1917 was brought about by the defeats to which 'Russia and her Allies' had been subjected, that the defeats shook the mechanism and the organization of the Government, and produced anger against the Government on the part of all classes of the population, including the army.
