Russian Revolutions of 1917

In his diary "Chief Censor Nikitenko...thought by 1867 that 'our most dangerous enemies' were 'the lack of sincerity and good faith of the authorities.' He was 'convinced that it was our fate to begin fine deeds, but not to carry them through to their conclusion.'" Most notably herein was Tsar Alexander II's failure to "crown the reforms of the [eighteen] sixties by some modification of the central imperial autocracy which would enable the moderate, liberal supporters of those reforms, to participate in public life" upon the emancipation of serfs in 1861. Leapfroging to Nov/Dec of 1904, Russian society began more visibly evincing its stress as a difficult war with Japan began nearing its one year anniversary. The autocracy itself then provided the spark to set this stress aflame: An attempt on Jan 9 1905 by many thousands of marching Petersburg workers to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II was fired upon---96 people were killed. The "turmoil of rebellion" continued "for the whole of 1905." "An ever-increasing wave of strikes culminated in October in a general strike." "The goverment floundered." Strike committees sprang up in many cities of Russia, and the Petersburg one "for a short time acted as a kind of substitute government in the midst of the chaos of the general strike, maintaining order, ensuring food distribution and the like." Tsar Nicholas in the face of this signed the Manifesto of 17 October, promising to create genuine civil freedom as he attempted to pacify the disaffected. But the tsar failed to realize that the former was not simply an avenue to accomplish the latter. Thus, whence World War I erupted & continued to drag on the Tsar was forced to confront similarly inspired frustration. Emergency "soviets" (simply the Russian term for councils) sprang up yet again in response. But Nicholas II failed to engage the consultantive body, or Duma, he himself created (albeit under duress) to any degree which would have made the war effort more inclusive; as well as forestalling the need for emergency soviets to reappear. So, it was an unpopular and costly war which brought Russia to the brink again as tsarist inattention to societal stresses was brought to the fore for all to acknowledge; made blatant this time by the Tsarina's dogged refusal to counternance any inkling of what most thought to be blatantly apparent: That Rasputin was a charlatan & his advice worthless. That the tsar himself not only refused to defuse this situation, but often permitted this "mystic" to influence policy (through the tsarina's entreaties) showed that he was in over his head, when it came to running a government at war. Thus Nicholas II squandered what goodwill he still engendered. Lenin, however, "played no part in Feb 1917 when the monarchy collapsed." "Before long popular enthusiasm became centered on the soviets, rather than on the Provisional Government [PG]" which dithered; taking "no effective step to bring to an end a war which it could not