what were the causes of the russian revolution in 1917?
World War I
contradiction
 Revolution had been the goal of the radical left since the loss of the political power in July and October 1917 , and November 1917 offered momentum for an uprising . At this phase , Lenin and Joseph Stalin , under threat in Petrograd , urged the Social Democrats to seize power in Finland . The majority of Finnish socialists were moderate and preferred parliamentary methods , prompting Lenin to label them " reluctant revolutionaries . " The reluctance diminished as the General strike appeared to offer a major power for the workers in southern Finland . The strike leadership voted by a narrow majority to seize power on 16 November , but the proposed revolution had to be called off the same day , due to lack of true revolutionaries for executing the decision . 

contradiction
 Revolution broke out in St. Petersburg in the spring of 1917 . At the height of the chaos , Maria and her siblings were stricken with measles . The Tsarina was reluctant to move the children to the safety of the imperial residence at Gatchina , even though she was advised to do so . Maria was the last of the five to fall ill and , while she was still healthy , was a major source of support to her mother . Maria went outside with her mother on the night of March 13 , 1917 to plead with the soldiers to remain loyal to the imperial family . Shortly afterwards , the seventeen @-@ year @-@ old fell ill with measles and virulent pneumonia and nearly died . She was not told that her father had abdicated the throne until after she began to recover . 

contradiction
 Public unrest over the Russo @-@ Japanese War and demands for political reform increased in the early years of the twentieth century . At Epiphany 1905 , a band of revolutionaries fired live rounds at the Winter Palace from the Peter and Paul Fortress . Olga and the Dowager Empress were showered with glass splinters from a smashed window , but were unharmed . Three weeks later , on " Bloody Sunday " , at least 92 people were killed by Cossack troops during a demonstration , and a month later Olga 's uncle , Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia , was assassinated . Uprisings occurred throughout the country , and parts of the navy mutinied . Olga supported the appointment of the liberal Pyotr Stolypin as prime minister , and he embarked on a programme of gradual reform , but in 1911 he was assassinated . The public unrest , Michael 's elopement , and Olga 's sham marriage placed her under strain , and in 1912 , while visiting England with her mother , she suffered a nervous breakdown . Tsarina Alexandra was also unwell with fatigue , concerned by the poor health of her hemophiliac son , Alexei . Olga stood in for the Tsarina at public events , and accompanied her brother on a tour of the interior , while the Tsarina remained at home . 

contradiction
 The victory of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution and the resulting Russian Civil War did serious damage to anarchist movements internationally . Many workers and activists saw Bolshevik success as setting an example ; Communist parties grew at the expense of anarchism and other socialist movements . In France and the United States , for example , members of the major syndicalist movements of the CGT and IWW left the organisations and joined the Communist International . 

contradiction
 The Russian revolutions split the Russian army officers politically and their attitude toward the Finnish civil war varied ; Mikhail Svechnikov led Finnish Red troops in western Finland in February and Konstantin Yeremejev the Russian forces in the Karelian Isthmus , while other officers were mistrustful of their revolutionary underlings and co @-@ operated with their former colleague General Mannerheim , assisting the Whites in the disarmament of the Russian garrisons in Finland . On 30 January 1918 Mannerheim proclaimed to Russian soldiers in Finland that the White army did not fight against Russia : the goal of the White campaign was to beat the Finnish Red rebels and the Russian troops supporting them . 
