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For a few years in a row the Russian writer, philosopher and revolutionary

Boris Yakovenko had been living in Italy.

News from Russia were reaching it with delays;

however, he paid great attention to the events at his Motherland

gathering materials for his future book.

His “History of the Great Russian Revolution” was only published in 1924.

At that time, neither Yakovenko nor his companions and opponents knew

that the Russian Empire would last for just two months…

The History of the Russian Revolution. February. Episode Two

The dramatic 1916 was followed by 1917.

It was destined to bring victory in the war for Russia and its allies

as a large-scale decisive attack of the Russian troops was planned for 1917.

The success of the Russian army permitted to save the English,

French and Italian troops from annihilation.

All the hopes of England and France laid with Russia now.

The allies even signed an agreement with Russia

according to which the Russian government was to get what it had been fighting for

for many centuries in a row – after the war,

Russia would gain control not only over the Black Sea Straits

but also over Constantinople, a capital of Turkey (Istanbul) at that time.

The hopes for the quick victory were well-grounded.

Germany’s situation worsened with each passing day.

Squeezed between the fronts and blocked buy military and navy,

the German Empire turned into a country where hunger became the way of life.

There was shortage of food.

Almost everything was sold by the cards – bread, butter, meat and clothes.

Germans nicknamed the winter of 1916-1917 “the swede winter”.

That vegetable was the only meal many Germans were eating.

The German propaganda was working at full steam.

It tried to convince the Germans that the situation wasn’t so dire

and that they could replace a chicken with a roasted crow as it tasted the same.

However, even the front started to feel the shortage of food.

By that time, the Russian economy had overcome the shock.

The heavy manufacturing was now producing three times more goods

than before the war and the production at the military orders increased 20-fold.

Cars, armored cars and airplanes were manufactured in Russia.

Electric and radio industries were established.

There was no more shortage of arms and ammunition.

The country was supplying the front with everything it needed.

However,the price of these successes was high.

The state debt increased. The prices grew…

Italy, 1917

Living in Italy, Boris Yakovenko was following

what was going on in his native land with attention.

From the book of Boris Yakovenko

“The History of the Great Russian Revolution”:

“By the start of 1916, Russia lost almost 300 sq. versts of the richest lands

with population of 25 mln people;

huge adjucent lands were in a state of deep economic paralysis.

The enemy seized about 8,000 versts of railways.

A lot of factories and plants were ruined during the battles

and about two dozens of provinces were ravaged”.

15 mln men served in the army; "

each new day of the war was taking away hundreds of human lives.

The First World War (1914-1918) resulted in colossal human losses

of all participating countries. According to different estimates,

the Russian army lost about 1.5 mln people dead and about 4-5 mln wounded.

During the first years of the war, the professional officers’ corps

was almost completely annihilated.

Officers with professional military training were replaced with people

trained in a rush. It suffices to say that in the course of 3 years of the war

more members of the Russian army were primited to officers

than during all the history of the Russian army

before the start of the First World War.

In just a few months, an acute shortage of professional military men

will lead to a situation when the armed forces prove unable

to suppress the internal revolts in the Russian state.

There was also a shortage of working hands in the country.

2.5 mln horses were requisitioned for the army’s needs.

The agriculture stalled.

In 1916, significant areas of fertile lands remained out of crop.

The life of a peasant was getting harder by the day.

The concept of the surplus-appropriation system was born in 1916,

before the Bolsheviks came to power.

After the authorities announced the fixed prices for the food,

peasants started to hide the supplies trying to sell them for more.

In answer to that, the government introduced the so-called

“surplus-appropriation system” in some provinces.

It meant that the peasants were forced to sell the bread and other food

at the fixed prices; that fueled dissatisfaction in the villages.

Still, big cities, especially the capital, didn’t care for those problems.

The changes! Petrograd strove for the changes.

The majority of the population was aware of the difficulties of the war times.

Almost nobody doubted the need to win over the enemy,

and the expectations of a fast victory were well-grounded.

The liberal intelligentsia as well the oppositional politicians

and large entrepreneurs who supported them were an exception.

They claimed that the victory was only possible

through the most decisive changes of the Russian political life.

Their activities were directed against the Tsar’s government.

The views among the opposition differed.

Some believed that it was enough to perform a coup d’état

and enthrone a liberal monarch.

The leader of the October Party and deputy of the Duma Alexander Guchkov

was organizing a conspiracy against the Tsar

with the involvement of the military forces.

The others stated that only revolution was able to save the country.

The oppositional deputies of the Duma were meeting with radical revolutionaries,

employees of the foreign embassies and secret services.

Many of them were ready for anything to overthrow the Tsar in Russia.

Nobody thought that it would ruin the millennium-old state.

They believed that Russia was undefeatable and strong,

capable of withstanding any trials.

“No matter how much you beat it, it’ll survived”, they said about it.

Everybody waited to something to happen.

However, nobody knew what scale the events would take

and what consequences would be.

On January 1 of the new 1917, a reception took place in the Winter Palace

attended by the entire elite of the Empire.

The Minister of Internal Affairs Protopopov

approached the chairman of the State Duma Mikhail Rodzyanko.

Alexander Dmitriyevitch Protopopov graduated from the cavalry college

and the General Headquarters Academy but soon resigned.

A large manufacturer and landowner.

The deputy of the 3rd and 4th State Dumas from the October Party.

Visited England as a part of the Duma delegation.

The British King George V praised him highly in his letter to Nicolay II.

Some of his peers had doubts about Protopopov’s mental health.

However, opinion of King George V and the recommendation

of the chairman of the Duma Rodzyanko and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Sazonov

were so important that the Emperor appointed Protopopov

the Minister of Internal Affairs.

Just recently, Protopopov was Rodzyanko’s deputy in the Duma.

However, his move from the opposition to the government changed everything.

The liberal politicians perceived it as a betrayal.

Protopopov just wanted to congratulate Rodzyanko on the New Year

but he didn’t even turn his head and shouted:

“Get out! Don’t you dare touch me!”

The scandal at the reception in the Palace!

The scandal at the reception in the Palace!

The chairman of the Duma showed the Minister his place!

The entire Petrograd was discussing that situation.

The liberal audience was excited – Rodzyanko entered into an open conflict

with the Tsar’s minister and became the opposition’s idol at once.

Protopopov didn’t swallow the offence and challenged Rodzyanko to a duel.

He accepted. The capital froze awaiting an incredible sight –

amidst the most difficult war, the Minister of the Internal Affairs

was going to duel with the chairman of the parliament!

Emperor Nicolay II had to interfere in the conflict.

The Tsar simply ordered the Minister to renounce the duel,

and it was cancelled.

Alexander Dmitriyevitch...

However, the peace wasn’t achieved.

January 9 was approaching, the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday.

You may go.

”The Bloody Sunday” was the execution of the demonstration

of the workers of Petrograd who went to the Tsar

with a petition on January 9, 1905.

The troops used firearms against the participants of the meeting,

in a result of what over a thousand of people died.

The bloody drama was a result of political intrigues and open provocations

of secret services and revolutionaries and pushed the masses

to support the First Russian Revolution of 1905-1907.

On January 9, annual demonstrations of the workers and mass unrest took place.

The authorities expected the same in 1917. They were waiting and getting ready.

It’s interesting that the mass unrest was organised

not so much by the radical revolutionaries but by the legal politicians

who were meeting at the Duma,

the liberals from the so called Working Group

of the Central Military and Industrial Committee.

Besides, the opposition was preparing to hold meetings

of the military and economic committees and the organizations of the Zemgor.

Amidst the mass manifestation, the session of the State Duma was to open.

The opposition planned to join forces to attack the authorities.

The military and economic committees and the Zemgor

were founded as public organizations to assist the front

by collecting the money from individuals.

However, by 1917 they were financed solely by the state

despite the fact that they were mostly controlled by the leaders of the opposition.

It’s hard to believe in it, but the establishments that existed

at the state’s expense were preparing active actions

against the Tsar and his government.

The liberals were stirring the situation up as much as they could.

But that time, nothing happened. The authorities prohibited the meetings.

Some active participants were arrested

and the opening of the Duma was delayed for a later term.

To mark the Bloody Sunday, the workers held a strike

but it didn’t lead to a social outburst.

The government won that round of the political battle.

However, it turned out that it was its last victory.

From 8 a.m. and up to the present moment everything is relatively calm.

The meetings are mostly peaceful…

The anniversary of the Bloody Sunday was relatively peaceful.

The Minister of the Internal Affairs Protopopov even decided

that the revolution was nipped in the bud. That was what he reported to the Tsar.

Many revolutionaries agreed with the Minister of the Internal Affairs.

Among them was Vladimir Ulyanov, better known by one of his aliases – Lenin.

Vladimir Ilyitch Ulyanov (Lenin), a son of an inspector of people’s colleges

who was awarded with a rank of hereditary noble.

As a student, he joined a revolutionary movement,

was arrested many times and sent to exile in Siberia.

One of the leaders of the Social-Democratic Party.

After the division of the Party into the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks

headed the Bolsheviks’ wing.

During the Russian-Japanese war he actively cooperated with the Japanese government

and smuggled arms and propagandistic literature into Russia,

what led to the beginning of the First Russian Revolution.

After it ended, he emigrated. He actively supported the policy of terror.

In secret from the members of the party, he organized a group

called “the Bolsheviks Centre” inside the Central Committee of the party

which was raising funds for Lenin’s fraction

through thefts, murders and blackmailing.

According to some data, during the years of the First World War

he cooperated with the German secret services

through figureheads and got huge amounts of money from the Germans

for sabotage and agitation in Russia.

At the beginning of 1917, Lenin was in Switzerland.

On the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday,

he was delivering a speech to the working youth of Zurich.

Lenin was talking about the reasons

behind the failure of the First Russian Revolution

and dreamt of a new revolution that he expected to take place in distant future.

Lenin told his audience:

“We’re the old-timers and probably won’t witness the battles

which will determine the fate of that future revolution”.

Vladimir Ulyanov had been living abroad for 17 years

and had quite a blurry notion of what was happening in Russia.

His party wasn’t very numerous.

The liberal parties that were meeting at the Duma

(the constitutional democrats, cadets for short,

supported by the city bourgeois and intelligentsia,

as well as the October Party representing large landowners and progressists,

representatives of the businessmen and bankers) were much more influential.

It seemed that in 1917 the ghost of the revolution retreated.

Some optimists believed that it was defeated forever.

However, the clouds were thickening over Russia.

The growing unrest, endless conspiracies at the top,

dissatisfaction of the people who were exhausted by the war

could erupt as a violent tempest at any given moment.

The head of the Petrograd Security Department Globachev reported:

“The mood in the capital is alarming.

The wildest rumours circulate both about the intentions of the authorities

(concerning the introduction of different reactional measures)

and about the views of groups and layers of the society opposing the authorities

(regarding possible revolutionary actions and accidents).

Everybody is waiting for some extraordinary events and actions from both sides.

They are apprehensive of both different revolutionary outbursts and coup d’?tat”…

The atmosphere was growing tenser.

The so-called working group of the military and economic committee

went on with the organization of the strikes.

On February 14, when the Duma convened for a session,

about 100,000 people were striking in Petrograd.

The workers were fighting with the police.

That was when the revolutionary red banners first appeared.

Slogans “Enough of the War”, “Long Live the Republic” were heard.

For the first time, another slogan was heard: “Bread!”

though no hunger was expected at that point.

It was calm at the Duma and around it.

Emperor Nicolay II openly told its chairman Mikhail Rodzyanko

that should the open confrontation with the government begin,

the Tsar would simply disband the Duma.

Rodzyanko decided not to exacerbate the relations with the powers;

speaking at the opening of the parliamentary session,

he was talking about the bravery of the Russian army.

However, another deputy delivered a much more radical speech.

His name was Alexander Kerenskiy.

Alexander Fedorovitch Kerenskiy, a son of the director of a gymnasium

in a town of Simbirsk. It’s interesting that Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin)

studied in that gymnasium when Kerenskiy’s father was its director.

Alexander Kerenskiy graduated

from the law faculty of the St.-Petersburg University.

He cooperated with the revolutionary editions, was arrested

but then released for the lack of evidence.

He was well-known as a lawyer defending revolutionaries and rebellious peasants.

He was under secret supervision of the Security Department

under the nickname of Fast which was given to him

because of his habit to run about the streets jumping in trams on the run.

One of the leaders of the Russian political masonry.

Kerenskiy was a brilliant speaker. On ascending the chair, he said the words

the Tavria Palace had never heard before:

“Let me ask you something, respected members of the State Duma.

Do you realize that the historical task of the Russian nation

at the present moment is the immediate destruction of the medieval regime,

by any means? How may one use the legal means to fight those

who had turned the law into a weapon of torture for the nation?

There is only one way to deal with those who violate the law –

their physical elimination”.

The chairman asked what Kerenskiy meant, and he replied:

“What Brut did at the times of the Ancient Rome”.

Marcus Junius Brut murdered Julius Caesar, the Roman Emperor.

Kerenskiy’s hint was clear.

In fact, he called upon the physical elimination of the Emperor.

That was unheard of.

Italy, 1917

“Kerenskiy’s speech reflected the enormous incredible crisis

more than any other speeches and public appeals –

the crisis that had been developing in Russia’s giant body

since the first days of the war and by 1917had grown in all directions

and was destined to break out in a form of a terrible catastrophe”.

Kerenskiy’s speech went viral.

Alexander Fedorovitch? You may come in.

In any other country, especially during such a difficult war

a person who delivered a similar speech would be immediately arrested.

The Ministry of Justice prepared a petition to relieve him of his deputy’s immunity.

But when the chairman of the Duma Rodzyanko received the paper

from the Ministry of Justice, he summoned Kerenskiy to his office

and told him: “Don’t worry, the Duma would never give you up”.

And so it happened.

The authorities tried to hold Kerenskiy responsible

for his words but in vain.

The shocking speech of the deputy was deleted

from the official minutes of the session

but he remained the deputy of the State Duma.

Guchkov had already been drafting the plan of arrest of Nicolay II.

The conspirators were waiting for the Emperor to leave for the front

to capture the Tsar’s train.

People said that when Empress Alexandra Fedorovna found out

about Kerenskiy’s speech at the Duma,

she said that Kerenskiy deserved to be hanged.

Some claim that her wording was a bit different:

“Kerenskiy deserves to be hung together with Guchkov”.

Anticipating the oncoming revolt, the authorities were trying to avoid it.

The working group of the Military and Economic Committee

that was organizing the strikes was arrested.

Lieutenant General Sergey Khabalov was appointed

the head of the Petrograd Military District.

He was entrusted with extraordinary competence

to suppress mass unrest without any bureaucratic delays.

Sergey Semenovitch Khabalov,

the Russian Lieutenant General of the Ossetic descend.

He graduated from the Mikhailov Artillery college

and the General Headquarters Academy.

He served at the headquarters as well as the director of different military colleges.

Since 1914, he had been the military governor of the Ural province.

He had never taken part in military actions.

In 1916, he was appointed the head of the Petrograd Military District.

Khabalov had served in the rear all his life

and was neither a military commander nor an experienced administrator.

The lack of experience and decisiveness played a fateful part

in the events that followed.

The first task that the General had to deal with

was the dispatching of the reserve battalions to the front.

They amounted to 12-15,000 of soldiers;

that was dozens of times more than there should have been.

The personnel of those units spared no efforts

to avoid being sent to the frontline and was sitting in the rear

at the expense of the state’s money.

For that, they were contemptuously called the “Petrograd Running Society”.

Khabalov failed to dispatch them to the front and postponed it until the spring.

In a result of that, huge hordes of armed soldiers

were wandering about the capital,

where the situation was already quite tense.

The failure to solve that problem could cost the general his post.

However, the Minister of the Internal Affairs Protopopov

talked the Tsar into not firing Khabalov.

Protopopov himself had earned Empress’s complete trust by that time

and remained at his post too,

despite all the demands of the oppositional politicians to dismiss him.

The atmosphere was electrifying,

and at that point the weather interfered into the course of events.

That factor proved to be fateful for Russia.

In the middle of February snowstorms started in Petrograd

and the temperate plummeted to minus 30. The trains couldn’t move;

because of the snowdrifts the railroads were struggling.

About 6,000 wagons got stuck at different stations.

In a result of that, some deliveries of bread into Petrograd were delayed.

Instead of 450 wagons that were delivering supplies to the capital every day

a little more than a hundred broke through the snowdrifts.

The reserves of flour in Petrograd decreased threefold.

During the war years, it was the first ever shortage of bread.

However, it wasn’t a catastrophe yet. As opposed to Germany,

the Russian Empire wasn’t suffering from the lack of food.

It was the irrational use of it that posed a problem.

A significant share of harvest of 1916 was simply held by the peasants

who were waiting for a convenient moment to sell the bread for more.

The effect was unexpected. In autumn, rumours spread all over Russia

that the bread would be ten times more expensive.

The common folk was scaring each other

with stories of the introduction of the ration cards.

By that time, the cards had already been introduced in Moscow, Kharkov, Odessa

and some other cities.

However, only deficit supplies like sugar were rationed.

There were some problems with food supplies in the provinces

but none on Petrograd. However, it was the capital that burst out.

The interruptions of deliveries incited a new wave of rumours

including those that the bread would be soon only sold with the cards.

Amidst that electrified atmosphere, a new strike started

at the largest plant of the city – Putilov.

Petrograd, 1917

The main city of the Empire Petrograd was a large production centre.

The main plants of the capital included the factories of Putilov, Obukhov, Izhor,

Alexandrov and the arsenal named after Peter the Great;

they were the leading enterprises of world class.

At the Putilov plant alone, 36,000 people were working.

At 902 plants of the capital about 400,000 people were working,

amounting to the fifth of the 2 mln Petrograd population.

The political sympathies of the majority of the working class of the capital

belonged to the different revolutionary parties and the opposition.

The workers of the stamping workshop of the Putilov plant demanded

that the administration should increase their wages by 50%.

The administration of the plant agreed to the 20%-increase

in return of the immediate resumption of the works.

The strikers didn’t accept such terms.

Then the management of the plant announced the closure of the workshop.

In answer to that, the other workshops stopped the work too.

The reaction was severe: the administration claimed

that the Putilov plant would stop for undefined term.

All the workers would be fired.

Dozens of the workers faced dim prospects of losing their means of living.

Besides, the exemption from the military service

would then be immediately lifted from them,

and the workers could get into the trenches any time.

At that time, queues were forming by Petrograd’s groceries.

The reserves of the bread were intact, no hunger was expected.

The capital only lacked rye bread.

It was cheaper so most working families were buying it.

To buy it, the queues formed. The situation wasn’t critical.

In the worst-case scenario, army reserves could be used.

Still, the people were getting more and more irritated.

The Ambassador of France in Russia Maurice Paleologue

remembered about those days:

“Today by the bread shop at the Lyteiniy I was taken aback

by the mean expression that I saw on the faces of all the poor people

who were queueing, as some of them had already spent the entire night there”.

Every hour spent in the freezing cold intensified the anger of the people.

One spark was enough to start the outburst.

-There is no bread. -When will it be delivered?

There is no bread. We’re out of it for today.

There is no bread. We’re out of it. It’s all at the front.

No Bread

Who can read? What does it say?

Even illiterate may understand. It says that there is no bread.

Here is the bread! He hid it!

What a bastard!

Here you go!

On February 21, the enraged crowds started to attack groceries and bakeries

demanding the bread. Nobody reported to the Tsar about that.

The next day the Emperor left the capital and went to Mogilev,

to the Headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief.

The preparation of the decisive spring advance was nearing its end,

and Nicolay decided that his presence was necessary in Mogilev.

The Emperor concentrated on the military affairs.

He planned to turn to the solving of Russia’s internal problems

after the victory over the external enemy.

The conspirators headed by Guchkov had been waiting

for the Emperor to leave for a long time.

They plotted to capture the Tsar’s train and make Nicolay II abdicate

in favour of his son Prince Alexei.

Guchkov had supporters even at the top of the Russian army:

the head of the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief General Alexeyev,

commander-in-chief of the armies of the North-Western Front General Ruzskiy,

ex-military minister General Polivanov and the others were all for him.

The conspirators had no doubts in their success.

However, the rush departure of the Tsar to the front

came as a surprise for them and spoiled their hand.

The Empress who was in a state of a severe psychological crisis

stayed at the Tsarskoye Selo.

In Petrograd the authorities were represented

by the Prime-Minister Prince Golitsin, Minister of the Internal Affairs Protopopov

and the commander of the Petrograd Military District General Khabalov.

They were the first to receive the future blow.

In his train, Nicolay II wrote in his diary:

“The day was sunny and cold.

I read, was bored and had rest”.

The diary didn’t mention the unrest in the capital –

nobody reported to the Emperor about the attacks at the bakeries.

He also had no idea about the failed plan of capturing the Tsar’s train.

In a decisive moment of the Russian history

the Tsar was almost completely unaware of what was going on.

Italy, 1917

From the book of Boris Yakovenko"The History of the Great Russian Revolution":

“The revolution started with an insignificant pretext

and then accelerated with incredible force and speed,

and in this respect, it was unexpected.

Everybody felt the incredible political and social tension

but nobody thought that the explosion would be so abrupt

and that the events would develop lightning-fast”.

It was February 23. After the change of the calendar, it became March 8.

As now, at that time Russia celebrated the International Women’s Day

that was also called “the Day of Female Workers”.

It was first celebrated in 1913 and hadn’t become a national holiday yet.

First of all, it was a holiday of the women working

at the plants and factories.

The day of the female workers was always noisy,

with loud manifestations and mass meetings. It was the case in 1917 too.

The female workers of the textile factory of the Vyborg district of Petrograd

announced a strike.

Besides, in the centre of the capital a mass demonstration

was demanding the improvement of the conditions of work for the women.

The men followed suit.

Among them there were a lot of workers from the Putilov plant.

Soon the strike was supported by a dozen enterprises of Petrograd.

The participants of the strike wanted bread

and also shouted political slogans like “Enough of the War”

and “Let’s Get Rid of the Monarchy”.

According to the police reports,

87,534 people from 50 enterprises attended the strike.

At first, the strikes in the centre of Petrograd were peaceful

but at the working suburbs the marchers had already started to attack

police departments and shops and turning trams upside down. The day was clear.

Thanks to that, a lot of people were outside,

and the crowds of the rebels snowballed. They included teenagers,

students, angry commoners, city tramps and the onlookers.

The unrest threatened to encompass the central districts of Petrograd.

The police weren’t ready for that.

Often only a handful of policemen was facing thousands of workers.

The city officers couldn’t contain the crowd of enraged and excited people.

Sometimes the police threatened the protesters with weapons

but it only worsened the situation. The workers were beating the policemen

and stealing their arms. However, such cases of violence were rare.

In most cases, the protestors weren’t aggressive.

The demonstrations were mostly peaceful.

In some districts of Petrograd, the Kazaks were alerted.

They were considered to be reliable supporters of the Tsar’s throne.

For many dozens of years, the authorities engaged the Kazaks

into suppressing mass unrest and disband public demonstrations.

It was the case during the First Russian Revolution,

and the same happened in 1917.

In some places, the Kazaks and the police

managed to push the crows behind.

But the protestors were much more numerous.

Under the blows of the Kazak whips, some workers ran aside but stayed close.

More and more often the appeals to go to the Neva Avenue were heard.

At the time of the demonstration, the State Duma convened for a meeting.

Before leaving for Mogilev,

Tsar handed his order to disband the Duma

over to the Prime-Minister Prince Golitsin. No date was stated in the document –

Golitsin had to choose it himself.

The Russian parliament didn’t know that it was one step away

from closing, and so went on with its work.

The Duma didn’t react to the events in Petrograd

despite the fact that the deputies knew about the demonstrations –

the phone calls had been heard in the Duma since the morning.

However, the Duma wasn’t discussing the restoration of the order in the city.

The deputies only used the reports about the unrest

to attack the Tsar’s government some more.

The main issue of the agenda was the food supplies.

A peasant Kozma Egorovitch Gorodilov was invited

to deliver a speech in the Duma.

He started with criticizing the fixed prices:

“Low prices for the bread are ruining the country,

they killed the trade and all the agriculture.

The peasants are being made serfs again.

They are forced to sow the fields and sell bread for low fixed prices”.

Gorodilov’s speech was interrupted with the shouts of “Bravo!”

Deputy Andrey Shingaryov, on the contrary,

demanded some concessions from the peasants:

“The bread must be delivered to the army, population,

workers who work for the defence and the cities.

We shall say from this high chair:

“We shall bring the bread, we shall hand it over.”

The State Duma shall tell everybody who has the bread: “Hand it over!”

Passions flied when the deputies discussed the mass strikes

and especially the strike at the Putilov plant.

Deputy Matvey Skobelev started his speech

by saying that the country was moving towards incomprehensible

and alarming events with lightning-fast speed.

Skobelev also appealed not to the peasants

but to the government and demanded bread for the hungry workers.

In his speech, he asked a question: “What is going on in the streets?”

The streets were rumbling. The police and Kazaks were pushed away.

The crowd poured into the centre and soon filled the two main avenues

of the capital – Neva and Liteyniy.

To clear the Neva and Lyteyniy Avenues from the protestors,

the authorities gathered significant quantity

of police officers and Kazaks in the centre of Petrograd.

In two hours, the crowds were pushed out of the both avenues.

While the police officers and the Kazaks went on disbanding the crowds,

the State Duma went on with their discussions.

Deputy Shingaryov claimed that the parliament should request the government

to finally solve the problem of the food supplies or,

as Shingaryov put it, “get out of this state”.

The session of the Duma finished with adopting a resolution

in which the government was offered to improve the food supplies

and engage representatives of the workers into decision-making process.

The session closed, and the deputies went home.

Almost nobody could guess that the demonstrations

and fights with the police were the beginning of a new revolution.

In the evening of February 23, the top military

and police management of Petrograd

convened for a meeting under the head of General Khabalov.

The military was now responsible for the order in the city.

The Minister of the Internal Affairs Protopopov read the reports of his subordinates

but demonstrated no anxiety;

he decided that the reason behind the unrest was food shortage.

The Minister even suggested that Khabalov should print appeals to the population

saying that the city had enough reserves of bread.

Protopopov got into the car and personally rode around the city.

The trip convinced the Minister that the situation calmed down –

the streets were empty and reinforced police units were patrolling the city.

It was calm in Petrograd. The Ministry of the Internal Affairs

drew the following report on the previous day:

“By the evening of February 23, thanks to the joint efforts of the police

and the military officers the order was fully restored everywhere in the capital.”

The Emperor who was heading for Mogilev

didn’t get any reports about the mass unrest again.

The head of the state was still unaware of what was going on in the capital

and had no means to somehow influence the oncoming events.

“Everything was ready for the resistance.

However, the revolution was ready to burst out

in the most unbridled and victorious way ever”.

-Vanya? -Yes?

-Tie the mittens in front of you. -Why? What for?

So that nobody could catch you from behind.

Three of our people were strangled tonight.

Hello again.

Run!

Freeze!