Bloodless Coup - Nicholas II Abdicates

Soldiers and sailors at Kronstadt, on an island off St Petersburg (called Petrograd at the time), were growing agitated as the Great War continued to drain Russian resources. The sailors (mostly educated men who were often subject to harsh punishment for minor infractions) were particularly upset. They had seen little action during World War I, and were ready for a fight.

The Kronstadt sailors began to hear about the people's revolutionary attitudes in Petrograd and, in March of 1917, they formed their own revolutionary council. The men began to "pay back" their superiors for the hardships they had endured, killing the man they hated most: their admiral. Other officers were also killed or imprisoned.

The Tsar, on his way back from the front, had lost all control. When his train was held up, not even his own conductor listened to Nicholas anymore. Three hundred years of Romanov rule in Russia was coming to and end. With little choice but to abdicate, Nicholas brought three centuries of family rule to "an ignominious end."

Moderates and socialists joined together. For a time, it appeared that a mostly bloodless change had taken place. But the situation would not remain that way.