11. The Provisional Government inadvertently laid the foundations of the Bolshevik dictatorship
Stemming the political fallout from defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, which had triggered the Russian Revolution of 1905, with the October Manifesto, Tsar Nicholas II gradually attempted to claw back ceded autocratic power in the years preceding the First World War. However, following a disastrous performance in the conflict, leaving the Russian Army in a pitiful condition, the February Revolution was launched on March 8, 1817, to seek redress. Compelling the abdication and abolition of the Russian monarchy, the Imperial Parliament, the Duma, which had been formed following the 1905 Revolution, assumed control and formed a provisional government.
Resulting in a fractured peace, with the Provisional Government holding state power and a network of socialist Soviets controlling the lower classes, the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin demanded an end to Russia’s involvement in the war. With the Provisional Government electing to continuing fighting, on November 7 the militant arm of Bolsheviks – the Red Guards – launched an insurrection. Overthrowing the republican government and signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the oppressive authoritarianism of the new regime precipitated the onset of the Russian Civil War soon after, out of which the Bolsheviks would emerge ultimately victorious to institute the Soviet Union.