The army was badly led and poorly equipped. Russia entered the first world war with the largest army in the world, standing at 1,400,000 soldiers; when fully mobilized the Russian army expanded to over 5,000,000 soldiersThe loses Russia suffered in the world war were catastrophic. Between 900,000 and 2,500,000 Russians were killed. The Duma was created by the ruling Tsarist regime in 1905, when the government was desperate to divide opposition during an uprisin. After the announcement, hopes were high that the Duma would bring democracy, but it was soon revealed that the Tsar retained ‘Supreme Autocratic Power’. In 1917 the workers of Russia carried out the first victorious socialist revolution. It was the first example of workers taking power consciously as a class. The war took 15 million men from the farms and trains had to be used for the war (so they could not bring food to the cities) so there were food shortages and food prices rose, all of which created anger and unrest in Petrograd. Rasputin, who styled himself a holy man, became the confidant of the Tsar and Tsarina of Russia. His growing influence separated the Tsar from his people - his notorious affairs with aristocratic women, and rumors that he was having an affair with the Tsarina herself, convinced many that he was a disgrace to the court, and must go. In their efforts to carry out the tsar’s order, several troops of a local guard regiment fired upon the crowds on February 26. The regiment fell into chaos, as many soldiers felt more empathy for the crowds than for the tsar. The next day, more than 80,000 troops mutinied and joined with the crowds, in many cases directly fighting the police. most, such as Vladimir Lenin, were out of the country. Afterward, many political groups competed for power, but they did so relatively peacefully. The two main groups, the provisional government and the Petrograd Soviet, disagreed completely about the direction
The army was badly led and poorly equipped. Russia entered the first world war with the largest army in the world, standing at 1,400,000 soldiers; when fully mobilized the Russian army expanded to over 5,000,000 soldiersThe loses Russia suffered in the world war were catastrophic. Between 900,000 and 2,500,000 Russians were killed. The Duma was created by the ruling Tsarist regime in 1905, when the government was desperate to divide opposition during an uprisin. After the announcement, hopes were high that the Duma would bring democracy, but it was soon revealed that the Tsar retained ‘Supreme Autocratic Power’. In 1917 the workers of Russia carried out the first victorious socialist revolution. It was the first example of workers taking power consciously as a class. The war took 15 million men from the farms and trains had to be used for the war (so they could not bring food to the cities) so there were food shortages and food prices rose, all of which created anger and unrest in Petrograd. Rasputin, who styled himself a holy man, became the confidant of the Tsar and Tsarina of Russia. His growing influence separated the Tsar from his people - his notorious affairs with aristocratic women, and rumors that he was having an affair with the Tsarina herself, convinced many that he was a disgrace to the court, and must go. In their efforts to carry out the tsar’s order, several troops of a local guard regiment fired upon the crowds on February 26. The regiment fell into chaos, as many soldiers felt more empathy for the crowds than for the tsar. The next day, more than 80,000 troops mutinied and joined with the crowds, in many cases directly fighting the police. most, such as Vladimir Lenin, were out of the country. Afterward, many political groups competed for power, but they did so relatively peacefully. The two main groups, the provisional government and the Petrograd Soviet, disagreed completely about the direction