2.  On Feb. 23 rd 1917, working-class women gather in Petrograd to ask for “bread and peace”  Men join them and Nicholas II soon orders his troops to fire on them  The troops refuse and 80,000 of them join the protestors

3.  The Duma and other political parties secretly say Nicholas II must go  Nicholas II abdicates; his brother Michael abdicates  The Duma becomes the provisional government  Alexander Kerensky becomes temporary prime minister; keeps Russia in WW I

5.  Lenin had been living in exile in Switzerland  Germany helps him get to Petrograd by train  Arrives April 3 rd, 1917  Lenin’s speeches are published, become known as “April Theses”

7.  Lenin’s Goal: place Russia under Bolshevik control (Communist)  Anti-Provisional Gov’t  Tries to organize massive street demonstrations

8.  Bolsheviks gain more power over the summer of 1917  However, Kerensky is calling for new elections to take place on Nov.12 th  Lenin knows it will be much harder to overthrow a government that is legitimately elected

11.  Lenin organizes a Bolshevik army  On October 24 th, revolutionaries occupy key posts in Petrograd: telegraph offices, banks, railroad stations, bridges  By October 25 th, the Winter Palace was the only gov’t building not taken

12.  Kerensky flees morning of Oct. 25 th  His officials stay, thinking he’ll return with troops  The palace is surrounded, but revolutionaries refuse to fire on Russians  The officials are persuaded to give up and are arrested

14.  Kerensky flees to Europe, then eventually becomes a professor of history in the U.S.  Stanford University in California  Lenin declares Decree of Peace (Russia will leave WW I)  Decree on Land (Land will be redistributed among peasants)  Russia was still on the Julian Calendar; November 7 th everywhere else