Editing History of Russia (section)

===Russian Revolution===
{{Main|Russian Revolution}}

{{multiple image
 | align = left
 | total_width = 300
 | image1 = Lenin in 1920 (cropped).jpg
 | caption1 = [[Vladimir Lenin]], founder of the [[Soviet Union]] and the leader of the [[Bolshevik party]].
 | image2 = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R15068, Leo Dawidowitsch Trotzki.jpg
 | caption2 = [[Leon Trotsky]], founder of the [[Red Army]] and a key figure in the [[October Revolution]].
}}

In late February (3 March 1917), a strike occurred in a factory in the capital [[Petrograd]] (Saint Petersburg). On 23 February (8 March) 1917, thousands of female textile workers walked out of their factories protesting the lack of food and calling on other workers to join them. Within days, nearly all the workers in the city were idle, and street fighting broke out. The tsar ordered the Duma to disband, ordered strikers to return to work, and ordered troops to shoot at demonstrators in the streets. His orders triggered the [[February Revolution]], especially when soldiers sided with the strikers. On 2 March, Nicholas II abdicated.<ref>{{cite book|author=Rex A. Wade|title=The Russian Revolution, 1917|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uBfnjdxFUkUC&pg=PA29|year=2005|publisher=Cambridge U.P.|pages=29–50|isbn=9780521841559|access-date=25 October 2015|archive-date=22 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230122071934/https://books.google.com/books?id=uBfnjdxFUkUC&pg=PA29|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Riasanovsky, ''A History of Russia'' (4th ed. 1984) pp. 455–56</ref>

To fill the vacuum of authority, the Duma declared a [[Russian Provisional Government|Provisional Government]], headed by [[Georgy Lvov|Prince Lvov]], which was collectively known as the [[Russian Republic]].<ref name=HistoryC>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927175125/http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=221104 The Russian Revolution] in the [[History (U.S. TV channel)|History Channel]] Encyclopedia.</ref> Meanwhile, the socialists in Petrograd organized elections among workers and soldiers to form a soviet (council) of workers' and soldiers' deputies, as an organ of popular power that could pressure the "bourgeois" Provisional Government.<ref name=HistoryC/>
[[File:Protección del Palacio Tauride durante el Segundo Congreso Regional de los Soviets.jpg|thumb|The dissolution of the [[Russian Constituent Assembly|Constituent Assembly]] on 6 January 1918. The [[Tauride Palace]] is locked and guarded by [[Leon Trotsky|Trotsky]], [[Yakov Sverdlov|Sverdlov]], [[Grigory Zinoviev|Zinoviev]] and [[Mikhail Lashevich|Lashevich]].]]
In July, following a series of crises that undermined their authority with the public, the head of the Provisional Government resigned and was succeeded by [[Alexander Kerensky]], who was more progressive than his predecessor but not radical enough for the Bolsheviks or many Russians discontented with the deepening economic crisis and the war. The socialist-led soviet in Petrograd joined with soviets that formed throughout the country to create a national movement.<ref>Riasanovsky, ''A History of Russia'' (4th ed. 1984) pp. 456–460</ref>

The German government provided over 40 million gold marks to subsidize Bolshevik publications and activities subversive of the tsarist government, especially focusing on disgruntled soldiers and workers.<ref>{{cite book|author=Richard Pipes|title=The Russian Revolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XtE54LuhFzEC&pg=PA411|year=2011|page=411|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing |isbn=9780307788573}}</ref> In April 1917 Germany provided a special sealed train to carry [[Vladimir Lenin]] back to Russia from his exile in Switzerland. After many behind-the-scenes maneuvers, the soviets seized control of the government in November 1917 and drove Kerensky and his moderate provisional government into exile, in the events that would become known as the [[October Revolution]].<ref>Riasanovsky, ''A History of Russia'' (4th ed. 1984) pp. 460–461</ref>

Bolshevik figures such as [[Anatoly Lunacharsky]], [[Moisei Uritsky]] and [[Dmitry Manuilsky]] agreed that Lenin’s influence on the Bolshevik party was decisive but the October insurrection was carried out according to Trotsky’s, not to Lenin’s plan.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |page=1283|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YGznDwAAQBAJ&q=isaac+deutscher+trotsky+the+prophet |language=en}}</ref>

When the [[Russian Constituent Assembly|national Constituent Assembly]] (elected in December 1917) refused to become a rubber stamp of the Bolsheviks, it was dissolved by Lenin's troops and all vestiges of democracy were removed. With the handicap of the moderate opposition removed, Lenin was able to free his regime from the war problem by the harsh [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Russia–Central Powers)|Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]] (1918) with Germany. Russia lost much of her western borderlands. However, when Germany was defeated the Soviet government repudiated the Treaty.<ref name=redvictory>W. Bruce Lincoln, ''Red Victory: A History of the Russian Civil War, 1918–1921'' (1999)</ref>