Russian top
In the Russian elite, torn apart by various contradictions and interests, there was only one consensus. The entire top was eager for the fall of tsarism. Generals and dignitaries, members of the State Duma and the highest hierarchs of the church, leaders of leading parties and aristocrats, bankers and rulers of the minds of the intelligentsia.
Almost the entire Russian elite opposed Nicholas II or remained neutral, in essence, supporting the revolution. Thus, during the Revolution of 1905–1907, broad strata of the population came out in defense of the autocracy. Conservative intelligentsia (traditionalist Black Hundreds), church hierarchs, brave generals who were not afraid to shed little blood in order to avoid big. The army was loyal, the police and the Cossacks actively fought against the revolutionaries. Broad masses of the people - the so-called "Black Hundreds", peasants, part of the townspeople and workers rose up against the rioters.
In February 1917, it was the other way around. Almost complete indifference of the masses in the provinces to the situation in the capital. Even the great dukes, aristocracy and churchmen were captured by the revolutionary spirit. And the generals devoted to the throne, who were ready to lead their units to the aid of the sovereign, were simply skillfully cut off from information and communication channels. Left without the Supreme Commander and without receiving an order, they could not do anything.
The industrial and financial elite (capitalists, bourgeoisie), most of the political, part of the military and administrative elite united against the tsar. Many members of the elite adhered to pro-Western, liberal sentiments, went to Masonic clubs and lodges. Freemasons in Europe and Russia were closed clubs in which the interests of various groups of the ruling elite were coordinated. At the same time, Russian Freemasons disciplined themselves to the directives of their older "brothers" from Europe. All of them sought to complete the Westernization of Russia, which was hindered by the Russian autocracy. The Russian tsar, with his sacred, traditional and absolute power, prevented the creation of a matrix of a Western-type society in Russia.
Dream of "sweet Europe"
The Russian elite had capital, financial and economic power, controlled most of the press, but it did not have genuine conceptual and ideological power. She was with the autocrat. The Westerners wanted to complete the construction of a Western-style society in Russia. Russia's archaic political system thwarted their plans. They wanted to live in Europe, so "nice and civilized." What they did, they lived there for years, decades. They came to Russia on business, to "work". On the whole, the current Russian elite has completely repeated this matrix. Therefore, the current Russian dignitaries often talk with enthusiasm about the order of pre-revolutionary Russia.
Our Westernizers wanted a "market", complete control over property and lands (including the royal estates). Hierarchical "democracy", where real power belongs to the rich, the well-to-do (plutocracy). "Freedom", which is not bound by the royal power. They believed that if they led Russia, they would quickly put things in order, and Russia would be as good as it was in Western Europe.
The revolution, in fact a palace coup, was staged by the Western Februaryists at a time when Russia was already close to victory in the world war, and Germany was falling from exhaustion, Austria-Hungary and Turkey were defeated by the Russian army.
Why at this moment?
Liberal democrats wanted to take away the laurels of the victor from tsarism and, in the wake of victory, "rebuild" Russia in their own way.
Thus, lacking supreme political power, various detachments and groups of the Russian elite, including financial, industrial and commercial capital, the liberal intelligentsia, some of the higher officers, court circles and church hierarchs, wanted to come to power, direct Russia along the western path of development, orienting to France and England. However, instead of a triumphant victory, the "elite" received a civilizational, state catastrophe. Trying to seize power again, after October 1917, the Februaryists unleashed the Civil War.
External forces
It is clear that the West was extremely interested in the fall of the Russian Empire.
Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey had to cause an internal explosion in Russia in order to simply survive. Use the collapse and collapse of Russia to transfer troops and resources to other fronts. If possible, rob Russia, use its rich resources to continue the war against the Entente. In the wake of success in the East, try to win, or at least agree on peace on more or less favorable terms.
Therefore, the Quadruple Alliance relied on various revolutionary, nationalist and separatist forces in the Russian Empire. He financed and supported various social democratic parties and groups (Socialist-Revolutionaries, Bolsheviks, etc.), Ukrainian, Polish, Baltic and Finnish nationalists. Turkey tried to provoke uprisings in the Caucasus and Turkestan. Thus, the Germans and Turks needed a revolution in Russia for reasons of their own survival.
“Allies” of Russia - France, Great Britain and the United States - were solving long-term problems. The West did not want Russia to emerge victorious from the war. So that the Russians get the Polish regions in Austria, Germany, completing the construction of the Kingdom of Poland under their control. Carpathian and Galician Rus, completing the unification of historical Kievan Rus (Little Russia-Rus). They were afraid that the Russians would capture the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, Constantinople, again turning the Black Sea into the Russian one. That the Russians, after the defeat of Turkey and Austria-Hungary, will be complete masters in the Balkans, relying on Great Serbia. That the Russians will complete the unification of historical Georgia and Armenia. Russia, in the case of appropriate reforms within the country (industrialization, the elimination of illiteracy, the accelerated development of science, technology and education), and while maintaining the existing rate of population growth (then we were second only to China and India in terms of population), became a superpower. Therefore, Russia had to be killed before it was too late.
Plus the crisis of capitalism, the Western world, because of which, in fact, the world war was unleashed. Western predators had to destroy and plunder opponents - the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman empires, and the noble and simple-minded "partner" - Russia. Looting allowed Western civilization to survive the crisis of capitalism, to build a "new world order" in which there would be no Germans and Russians.
Intellectuals, revolutionaries and nationalists
One of the features of the Russian revolution is the destructive and at the same time suicidal role of the intelligentsia. The Russian intelligentsia, which was dominated by liberal sentiments, hated tsarism and played a huge role in its downfall.
She set the stage. She caused the revolution, and she herself became its victim. It turns out that it was during the autocracy that culture and art flourished, and the Russian intelligentsia. She flourished under tsarism. The intelligentsia was closest to the West, adhered to the Western way of life. She found herself terribly far from the rest of the Russian people and fell victim to chaos.
Dreaming of the West, idealizing its values and orders, the Russian intelligentsia copied Western political theories, ideologies and utopias (including Marxism). Part of the intelligentsia was in the liberal-democratic ranks, the other part joined the radical revolutionaries, socialists and nationalists. By 1917, the empire's supporters (traditionalists-Black Hundreds) were almost gone, or they simply drowned in the sea of revolutionaries, Western liberals. The intelligentsia was fascinated by the West, dreamed of dragging Russia and the people into the Western world by force.
It is interesting that the current Russian bohemia completely repeats the same mistakes. The result of her aspirations was the absolute collapse of old Russia. Most of the Russian intelligentsia perished under its rubble. A small part joined the creation of a new Soviet statehood, the other fled to the West and groaned "about the lost Russia" for several decades.
Many representatives of the intelligentsia became members of various revolutionary and nationalist groups. There were many Jews among them. They dreamed of destroying the autocracy, the "prison of peoples," the old world to its foundations. They rejected the world of their day, dreamed of creating a new world that would be better and happier than the previous one. These people possessed great energy, passion (charisma), will and determination. They were not afraid of imprisonment and prison, emigration and the gallows, they went to death in the name of their ideals. Although among them there were a lot of adventurers, sociopaths, various shady businessmen and personalities who were looking for their personal profit in the troubled waters of the revolution. Among them were people from all estates and social groups, nobles and workers, commoners and intellectuals. Professional revolutionaries, Finnish, Georgian, Polish and Ukrainian nationalists were eager to destroy the empire and destroy tsarism. Then build a new world on the ruins of Russia. Nationalists did not pretend to the whole of Russia: the Finns, at the expense of Russian lands (Karelia, Ingria, the Kola Peninsula, etc.) dreamed of "Great Finland", Georgians - about "Great Georgia", Poles - about Poland "from sea to sea", etc..d.
People
The entire people also acted as a powerful revolutionary force. True, he joined the revolution after the Februaryists had overthrown the tsar. The peasants immediately began their war (it began even before October 1917), began to seize and divide the landlord's lands, property, and burn the estates. The city "bottom" after the dispersal of the police and gendarmerie and destruction of archives, began a criminal revolution. The soldiers threw units and went home. On the whole, the people decided that there was no more power. You can not pay taxes, not go to the army, not fight, disobey officials, seize the land of the nobles.
After the fall of the sacred power of the tsar, the Russian people opposed power in general.
The Russian elite (intelligentsia, "gentlemen-bar") was largely Westernized, lost its Russianness. The people perceived the masters as a foreign, alien force. Hence the cruel outbursts of violence against officers, representatives of the intelligentsia, "bourgeois". Expensive, very expensive for Russia "crunch of a French roll."
The people created their own project for the future of Russia - "people's freemen". The White and Red Army, the nationalists in Ukraine had to fight against him. This project was drowned in blood, the people paid a great price for it. But this project had no future. Free communities of townspeople and peasants could not resist the industrial powers of the West and East. Russia would inevitably perish.
The "deep people" - Old Believers - Old Believers also spoke out against tsarist Russia. They made up most of the Russian national capital. In 1917, there were about 30 million Old Believers in Russia. They considered the regime of the Romanovs to be antichrist, planting various Western abominations in Russia. Therefore, the Old Believers' capital supported and financed the anti-government opposition. The revolution destroyed the Old Believers as well as the liberal intelligentsia. If before the revolution they represented a large and prosperous part of Russia, then after the revolution they are almost gone.
Thus, by the beginning of 1917, almost all of Russia had come out against the autocracy. However, it was the Russian elite who staged a coup, destroyed the Russian statehood (old Russia) and launched the Troubles process.
