The Russian Revolution. What happened? Why was it important?

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Russian Revolution
Introduction
On March 12th 1918 in the Julian calendar, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated. Russia for the first time in 300 years had a person not of the Romanov royal family heading the country. His abdication was not voluntary, rather Nicholas II had been ousted by his people with the help of the parliamentary system he had set up known as duma. The abdication of the king marked the end of the first phase of the Russian revolution. Nearly eight months later, the provisional government which had seized power from the king was overthrown marking the second and the end of the Russian revolution. The Russian revolution is one of the most influential political upheavals of the 20th century was the Russian revolution. It ended the centuries-old Romanov monarchial rule and was replaced by a communist government. Leading to the two major revolutions that instituted the Soviet Union, tensions had been rising for over a decadeCITATION Han15 \p 76 \l 1033 (Dalton 76). This essay will attempt to explicate what caused the revolution, how it happened and its importance to Russian and world history.
What happened
The revolution was decades in the making. First, the monarchy had abolished serfdom which had stifled development in the country and made it lag behind other European countries. Serfdom was the Russian feudalism where the land is owned by nobility and the other landless people are forced to serve the land-owners. Thus, when serfdom was abolished, the country had a new crop of farmers who could now organize themselves and call for reforms. Russia had fallen behind the wave of industrialism and most of its economy was supported by agriculture. However, the machinery and other important factors of production were absent and therefore the monarchy continued to be largely undeveloped and grappling with relatively higher poverty levels compared with her neighbors.
Since the agriculture-based economy could not spearhead development. People flocked into cities to try their luck in the industries. The population of St. Petersburg doubled in this period and other cities across the vast country also experienced a surge in immigrants to their city. Due to overcrowding and low production owing to Russia’s involvement in war such as the Crimean was and poor agricultural production, the people started uprising towards the government. The people in the cities took to the streets to demonstrate due to the frequent food shortages that combed through the empire. The Russian monarchy empire responded by shooting the peaceful demonstrators. Many unarmed people were killed by the Tsar troops and sparked empire-wide strikes and boycotting in solidarity with the killed unarmed citizens in St. Petersburg.
This exacerbated the problem and set the stage for the 1917 revolution. Though the Tsar attempted to form a more representative government and impose some reforms, the tension and approval level amongst his subjects fell sharplyCITATION Han15 \p 76 \l 1033 (Dalton 76). The representative assembly known as duma was tasked with leading the country to reforms. It was however nearly impossible because Tsar maintained a firm grip on power and continued to fire and reshuffle his government officials. Russia entered the world war I in august 1914. This was a major miscalculation by the Tsar as it exacerbated the issues the economy faced and worsened the plight of the common man. Secondly, there was major inflation and food shortages continued to rock the vast empire on unprecedented scale. Thirdly, Russia suffered many casualties in the war. Germany was a stronger opponent and Russia suffered greater number of casualties than those sustained by any nation in any previous war with another countryCITATION Wor07 \p 542 \l 1033 (World Book 542). Tsar left St. Petersburg to go to the frontline. Czarina Alexandra was left at the helm of running the government and he lost favor in the eyes of nobility for she had Germany rootsCITATION Pea03 \p 401 \l 1033 (Pearson Prentice Hall 401). He was killed and in frantic efforts to continue to hold power, Tsar dissolved the duma.
The February revolution
On February 23 1918 (according to Julian calendar it was march 8th in Gregorian calendar), demonstrators took to the streets of Petrograd (St. Petersburg). The police were unable to quell the striking people who were joined by the workers. Troops were unable to quell the uprising and the streets remained occupied. In the intensity and continued uprising of the people, the duma assumed the role of leadership. Duma formed a provisional government on March 12 1918. On March 12th, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated his throne ending centuries of Romanov rule over Russian empire. The new leader of Russia was Alexander Kerensky who tried to impose sweeping reforms to assure the people of better representation and government. He championed many civil rights and opposed socialist revolution. However, Kerensky government made one costly mistake; it kept Russia in the first world war. So, the issues that had plagued the people and prompted them to take to the streets were still existent and he had not addressed them. Later in the course of the year, the strikes did not abate, rather they increased and food shortage was still frequent.
The October revolution
In October, several months into the leadership of Kerensky and the duma, Bolshevik launched coup de tat. It was on Oct 24th and 25 in the Julian calendar. The coup was bloodless and Bolshevik and Vladimir Lenin formed the government founded on different sets of ideals. The duma administration had failed because it was largely a puppet of the monarchy and though it had seized power from him, it was not representative of the Russian people. It was largely made up of the bourgeois class. The new administration under the stewardship of Bolshevik and Vladimir...