War and Revolution 933Bolshevik soldiers marching at the Kremlin in Moscow, 1917.
and empathy with the demands of the workers for “bread and peace”
explain the massive defection of soldiers. Sailors mutinied on ships of the
Baltic fleet. The capture of the Petrograd arsenal put thousands of rifles as
well as ammunition into the hands of workers. The insurgents controlled
Petrograd, the capital of Russia.
Nicholas, who was away at his seaside resort with his family, now ordered
the Duma to dissolve. Some of its members drawn from privileged society
obeyed, but the majority simply moved to a new meeting place. They voted to
remain in Petrograd—a move not unlike the Tennis Court Oath of the third
estate during the first period of the French Revolution, a precedent of which
they were keenly aware. The Duma then elected a provisional committee,
whose mandate was to restore order. In the meantime, the liberals, who tried
to walk a tightrope between a desire for reform and a fear of the masses, now
were in the position of trying to contain the revolution they had helped set
in motion.
The Russian Revolution of February 1917 was unplanned and its out
come uncertain. But the soil was fertile. Experienced in strikes, Socialist
Revolutionary, Menshevik, and Bolshevik activists helped impart a sense
of direction to the movement. Their goal, unlike that of the liberals, who
wanted only reform, was the overthrow of the tsarist regime. Amid the tur
moil of sudden change effected by groups who did not necessarily agree on
what should happen next, the provisional committee began to function as a
provisional government, organizing a food supply commission and a military