included the appointment of commissars in the army to handle soldiers councils, but the councils issued orders contradicting the commanders and thus undermined the officer corps. Literature was distributed on a massive scale by radical socialists and Bolshevik agents and fraternization with the enemy hit the military ranks hard.5) The attempted revolutions in 1905 began for many reasons. Russia had just lost a war with the Japan after the Japanese captured Port Arthur. The government was going through a crisis, the war was started to unite Russia but it only served to further divide them.In January several hundred workers went to the tsar with a petition to improve industrial conditions. But as they came to the palace the guards opened fire on them, almost 100 innocent protesters were killed in cold blood. Over the next year many other disturbances plagued Russia including: peasant revolts, mutinies, assassinations, and strikes.In late 1905 Russia was promised a constitutional government by the October Manifesto which was issued by Nicholas II. In this new government Nicholas II was in charge of ministerial appointment, financial polocy, foreign affairs, and military matters. This revolution did not exactly change the people in power but just changed their titles. The Duma was to represent the people of Russia and was formed in 1905 after the revolution. It was a representative body that was elected into power. But the elections in April put many radicals into power and the tsar disbanded that Duma. He then disbanded the one after that too, in turn he formed a much more conservative Duma that was mostly under his control. He had regained all of the power that he had lost due to the revolution of 1905.6) The March Revolution: Food riots broke out in Petrograd, and when the Czar ordered the Duma to dissolve and they did not obey. Soldiers were not able to stop rioting in the cities. Workers and soldiers in Petrograd organized radical leg...
