Réflexions sur la révolution de Février, par Alexander Solzhenitsyn

In this book, Solzhenitsyn analyzes the toxic mix of conditions that brought about the events and consequences of three fateful days in St. Petersburg, from February 28-March 2, 1917 by the Julian calendar, or March 13-15, 2017 by the Gregorian.  Because of an insurrection in St. Petersburg, Czar Nicholas II abdicated the throne in favor of his brother Grand Duke Michael, who was equally disinclined to fulfill the obligations emperor.  Solzhenitsyn discusses how conditions, which only affected a small number of people, combined to destroy an enormous country, the majority of whose population were still attached to their traditions, their religion, and their way of life.  These include a lack of responsibility and sense of duty on the part of the royal family and government officials, the intelligentsia’s embrace of radical politics and revolutionary ideas, bad management of the military (which led to large numbers of inexperienced new recruits sitting idle in St. Petersburg), and the incompetence of the Kerensky government that replaced the monarchy.  Thus the Russian empire fell, not because of tyranny or high-handedness on the part of the Czar, but from weakness and lack of leadership.