WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.680 Welcome to this custom tailored deep dive. We 00:00:02.680 --> 00:00:04.960 are really thrilled to have you with us today. 00:00:05.219 --> 00:00:07.440 You know, we spend a lot of time unpacking massive 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:09.939 historical events on this show, but today's mission 00:00:09.939 --> 00:00:12.419 is something incredibly special. Yeah, it really 00:00:12.419 --> 00:00:14.779 is. We are exploring the February Revolution 00:00:14.779 --> 00:00:18.039 of 1917, and we're looking at how, in the span 00:00:18.039 --> 00:00:22.379 of just eight chaotic days, a 300 -year -old 00:00:22.460 --> 00:00:26.320 I mean, the mass of Romanov Empire just completely 00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:29.260 collapsed. It's a staggering sequence of events 00:00:29.260 --> 00:00:31.199 when you actually sit down and look at the timeline. 00:00:31.739 --> 00:00:34.399 It's one of those rare historical moments where 00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:36.759 decades of intense pressure suddenly release 00:00:36.759 --> 00:00:39.399 all at once. Exactly. And our goal today isn't 00:00:39.399 --> 00:00:41.560 to give you that dense, overwhelming history 00:00:41.560 --> 00:00:44.439 book feeling. We really want to extract the real 00:00:44.439 --> 00:00:47.700 aha moments about how empires actually collapse 00:00:47.700 --> 00:00:49.799 in practice. Right, the mechanical failure of 00:00:49.799 --> 00:00:53.399 an empire. Yes. all of our insights today from 00:00:53.399 --> 00:00:56.159 a highly comprehensive Wikipedia article on the 00:00:56.159 --> 00:00:59.340 February Revolution. It details everything from 00:00:59.340 --> 00:01:01.780 the street -level protests over bread all the 00:01:01.780 --> 00:01:04.000 way up to the high -level military blunders that 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:06.319 just doomed the monarchy. And what makes this 00:01:06.319 --> 00:01:09.319 particular source material so compelling is that 00:01:09.319 --> 00:01:12.659 it captures the sheer unpredictable chaos of 00:01:12.659 --> 00:01:16.099 those eight days perfectly. It really shows how 00:01:16.099 --> 00:01:18.379 fragile seemingly permanent power structures 00:01:18.379 --> 00:01:21.659 truly are. OK, let's unpack this, because right 00:01:21.659 --> 00:01:24.079 off the bat, we need to set the stage. The event 00:01:24.079 --> 00:01:26.560 is called the February Revolution. But if you 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:28.780 look at a modern calendar, it actually happened 00:01:28.780 --> 00:01:31.129 in March. If we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:01:31.370 --> 00:01:33.549 that naming quirk is actually a perfect metaphor 00:01:33.549 --> 00:01:35.609 for how disconnected Russia was from the rest 00:01:35.609 --> 00:01:38.230 of the world at that time. Oh, how so? Well, 00:01:38.650 --> 00:01:40.829 modern Europe was using the Gregorian calendar, 00:01:40.930 --> 00:01:43.010 which is the one we use today, making the events 00:01:43.010 --> 00:01:45.629 fall in March. But the Russian Empire was still 00:01:45.629 --> 00:01:47.989 stubbornly using the archaic Julian calendar, 00:01:48.430 --> 00:01:50.409 making it February. Just literally living in 00:01:50.409 --> 00:01:53.049 the past. Exactly. And that temporal disconnect 00:01:53.049 --> 00:01:55.629 is just the tip of the iceberg. This isn't just 00:01:55.629 --> 00:01:58.250 a story about a king losing his crown. It is 00:01:58.250 --> 00:02:00.480 a master class and what happens when leadership 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:03.379 becomes fatally disconnected from reality. Let's 00:02:03.379 --> 00:02:05.819 talk about that disconnect starting with the 00:02:05.819 --> 00:02:08.759 deep roots of the conflict. You have imperial 00:02:08.759 --> 00:02:12.719 Russia relying on completely archaic social structures. 00:02:13.259 --> 00:02:15.620 The vast majority of the population were peasants 00:02:15.620 --> 00:02:18.500 who were treated incredibly harshly by a very 00:02:18.500 --> 00:02:21.020 small class of landowners. Right. And then working 00:02:21.020 --> 00:02:24.020 conditions for the rapidly growing number of 00:02:24.020 --> 00:02:26.199 industrial laborers in the cities were just. 00:02:26.469 --> 00:02:30.129 abysmal and all the while you've got western 00:02:30.129 --> 00:02:33.460 democratic ideals. quietly spreading through 00:02:33.460 --> 00:02:35.819 those lower classes. The structural foundation 00:02:35.819 --> 00:02:38.099 of the country was fundamentally incompatible 00:02:38.099 --> 00:02:40.060 with the modern world it was trying to compete 00:02:40.060 --> 00:02:42.879 in. You had this rapidly growing political and 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:45.000 social consciousness among the working class, 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:47.680 the proletariat, that they are trapped in an 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:50.360 autocratic system that stubbornly refused to 00:02:50.360 --> 00:02:52.860 modernize or share any real power. I like to 00:02:52.860 --> 00:02:54.840 think about it for you, the listener, like this. 00:02:55.159 --> 00:02:58.800 Imagine trying to run a sleek, high -demand 20th 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:02.229 century nation using a buggy century operating 00:03:02.229 --> 00:03:04.389 system. That's a great way to put it. It might 00:03:04.389 --> 00:03:05.969 hold together for a little while if you just 00:03:05.969 --> 00:03:08.009 leave it alone, but the moment you put it under 00:03:08.009 --> 00:03:10.710 serious stress, run too many intensive programs 00:03:10.710 --> 00:03:13.129 at once, the whole system is going to crash. 00:03:13.650 --> 00:03:15.870 And that ultimate stress test arrived in the 00:03:15.870 --> 00:03:18.810 form of World War I. And what a devastating catalyst 00:03:18.810 --> 00:03:21.710 it was. When the war started in 1914, there was 00:03:21.710 --> 00:03:25.030 actually a massive surge of nationalism. It temporarily 00:03:25.030 --> 00:03:27.569 united the country. People rallied behind the 00:03:27.569 --> 00:03:29.900 czar. But they didn't last long, did it? Not 00:03:29.900 --> 00:03:32.360 at all. That initial burst of patriotic unity 00:03:32.360 --> 00:03:35.020 evaporated rapidly under the sheer weight of 00:03:35.020 --> 00:03:37.080 the catastrophic losses they began to suffer 00:03:37.080 --> 00:03:39.500 on the Eastern Front. The statistics from the 00:03:39.500 --> 00:03:42.199 source are almost hard to comprehend. By early 00:03:42.199 --> 00:03:45.819 1917, the Russian military had suffered 9 .15 00:03:45.819 --> 00:03:48.479 million casualties. It's just a staggering number. 00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:50.580 I really want that number to sink in for a moment 00:03:50.580 --> 00:03:52.900 for everyone listening. That is 1 .7 million 00:03:52.900 --> 00:03:56.879 killed, almost 5 million wounded. and 2 .5 million 00:03:56.879 --> 00:04:00.159 missing or taken prisoner. 9 .15 million people 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:02.360 removed from the workforce from their families, 00:04:02.419 --> 00:04:05.580 from the economy. With losses on that unimaginable 00:04:05.580 --> 00:04:08.939 scale, morale didn't just dip, it plummeted into 00:04:08.939 --> 00:04:11.840 the abyss. Mutinies became incredibly common, 00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:15.479 largely due to simple, grinding war -weariness. 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:17.560 Because they were just exhausted. Completely 00:04:17.560 --> 00:04:19.259 exhausted. And the troops that were left were 00:04:19.259 --> 00:04:22.220 dealing with incompetent commanders and severe 00:04:22.220 --> 00:04:24.339 logistical failures. I mean, they didn't have 00:04:24.339 --> 00:04:25.699 enough rifles, they didn't have enough boots, 00:04:25.819 --> 00:04:27.779 they didn't even have enough food. By the time 00:04:27.779 --> 00:04:30.040 we get to the eve of the revolution, the desertion 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:33.720 rate was running at around 34 ,000 soldiers every 00:04:33.720 --> 00:04:36.959 single month. So the military is physically fracturing. 00:04:36.980 --> 00:04:39.319 The operating system is crashing. And right at 00:04:39.319 --> 00:04:42.120 this moment, Tsar Nicholas II makes a decision 00:04:42.120 --> 00:04:45.420 in the summer of 1915 that becomes a catastrophic 00:04:45.420 --> 00:04:48.579 PR and strategic blunder. Oh, this was a massive 00:04:48.579 --> 00:04:50.879 mistake. He announces that he is leaving the 00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:53.100 capital to take personal command of the army 00:04:53.100 --> 00:04:55.670 at the front lines. What's fascinating here is 00:04:55.670 --> 00:04:58.129 how universally he was advised against doing 00:04:58.129 --> 00:05:00.569 this by his own ministers. It was disastrous 00:05:00.569 --> 00:05:03.850 on three distinct levels. First, it tied the 00:05:03.850 --> 00:05:06.509 monarchy directly and personally to every single 00:05:06.509 --> 00:05:09.009 unpopular military defeat. Right, before he could 00:05:09.009 --> 00:05:11.930 just blame his generals. Exactly. Now, if the 00:05:11.930 --> 00:05:15.470 army lost, it was explicitly the Tsar's fault. 00:05:15.870 --> 00:05:19.050 Second, he was simply a poor military leader 00:05:19.050 --> 00:05:22.230 who constantly irritated his own commanders by 00:05:22.230 --> 00:05:24.149 interfering with their strategies. And what's 00:05:24.149 --> 00:05:26.350 the third level of that disaster? I mean, he 00:05:26.350 --> 00:05:29.529 physically leaves Petrograd. Precisely. Because 00:05:29.529 --> 00:05:31.790 he was physically away at a military headquarters 00:05:31.790 --> 00:05:34.250 hundreds of miles from the capital, he wasn't 00:05:34.250 --> 00:05:36.009 there to actually govern the country during a 00:05:36.009 --> 00:05:38.589 massive domestic crisis. Leaving a massive power 00:05:38.589 --> 00:05:41.350 vacuum. So who steps in to fill it while he's 00:05:41.350 --> 00:05:43.730 off playing general? That responsibility fell 00:05:43.730 --> 00:05:46.850 to his wife, Zarina Alexandra, and her closest 00:05:46.850 --> 00:05:50.129 confidant, the highly controversial mystic Grigori 00:05:50.129 --> 00:05:52.509 Rasputin. Oh boy. And you have to remember, the 00:05:52.509 --> 00:05:54.930 Tsarina was incredibly unpopular to begin with. 00:05:55.009 --> 00:05:57.509 She was born German and Russia was currently 00:05:57.509 --> 00:06:00.629 fighting a brutal war against Germany. So rumors 00:06:00.629 --> 00:06:02.649 were constantly flying that she was actively 00:06:02.649 --> 00:06:05.509 working as a German spy to sabotage the war effort. 00:06:05.629 --> 00:06:07.689 Which is just a terrible look for a leadership 00:06:07.689 --> 00:06:09.930 team. There's this amazing historical detail 00:06:09.930 --> 00:06:11.670 from the article during her oversight known as 00:06:11.670 --> 00:06:14.230 the ministerial leapfrog. The turnover rate is 00:06:14.230 --> 00:06:17.790 unbelievable. Just listen to this. In 17 months 00:06:17.790 --> 00:06:20.129 of the Tsarina managing the domestic government, 00:06:20.600 --> 00:06:23.759 Russia went through four prime ministers, five 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:26.279 ministers of the interior and three war ministers 00:06:26.279 --> 00:06:29.639 in just 17 months. It's the equivalent of a modern 00:06:29.639 --> 00:06:33.220 corporation completely replacing its entire C 00:06:33.220 --> 00:06:36.319 -suite every few weeks during a bankruptcy. Nobody 00:06:36.319 --> 00:06:38.620 was in office long enough to even learn the basic 00:06:38.620 --> 00:06:41.319 functions of their job, let alone govern effectively 00:06:41.319 --> 00:06:43.879 or solve the mounting logistical nightmares. 00:06:44.420 --> 00:06:47.360 And the domino effect of that incompetence is 00:06:47.360 --> 00:06:50.410 immediate. The railways, which were the lifeline 00:06:50.410 --> 00:06:52.550 of the empire, became completely overstretched 00:06:52.550 --> 00:06:54.629 and disorganized. Because the trains couldn't 00:06:54.629 --> 00:06:57.310 run efficiently, massive food and fuel shortages 00:06:57.310 --> 00:06:59.970 hit the cities. Right. Inflation skyrocketed, 00:06:59.990 --> 00:07:02.069 making the money people did have worthless while 00:07:02.069 --> 00:07:04.730 their wages completely stagnated. The situation 00:07:04.730 --> 00:07:07.189 in the capital Petrograd was becoming an explosive 00:07:07.189 --> 00:07:09.610 powder keg. Which brings us to a moment of warning 00:07:09.610 --> 00:07:11.550 that is honestly hard to look at in hindsight. 00:07:12.449 --> 00:07:14.230 The president of the Duma, which was essentially 00:07:14.230 --> 00:07:16.730 Russia's version of a parliament, a man named 00:07:16.730 --> 00:07:19.720 Mikhail Rodzyanko, sees the writing on the wall. 00:07:20.180 --> 00:07:22.639 He really did. He sends a desperate pleading 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:24.939 telegram directly to the Tsar at the front lines. 00:07:25.160 --> 00:07:27.100 He warns him that the capital is descending into 00:07:27.100 --> 00:07:30.399 total anarchy. The government is paralyzed, transport 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:32.839 and food supplies are completely disrupted, and 00:07:32.839 --> 00:07:34.800 people are freezing and starving in the streets. 00:07:35.560 --> 00:07:37.800 Razyanko ends the telegram by begging the Tsar 00:07:37.800 --> 00:07:39.879 to form a new government immediately, stating, 00:07:40.329 --> 00:07:43.589 Any procrastination is tantamount to death. A 00:07:43.589 --> 00:07:46.550 crystal clear, undeniable red flag from one of 00:07:46.550 --> 00:07:49.110 the highest placed, most loyal officials in the 00:07:49.110 --> 00:07:51.769 empire. So how does the czar react to this dire 00:07:51.769 --> 00:07:54.850 warning? He reads it, gets irritated and says, 00:07:54.990 --> 00:07:58.079 again, This fat Rodzianko has written me lots 00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:00.779 of nonsense to which I shall not even deign to 00:08:00.779 --> 00:08:03.259 reply. He calls him fat and ignores it. He doesn't 00:08:03.259 --> 00:08:05.720 just ignore it. He literally orders the Duma 00:08:05.720 --> 00:08:07.920 to dissolve itself instead of listening to their 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:10.199 advice. It is the ultimate example of a leader 00:08:10.199 --> 00:08:12.920 completely isolated in his own echo chamber. 00:08:13.500 --> 00:08:15.800 He fundamentally misunderstood the reality outside 00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:18.360 of his military headquarters. utterly failing 00:08:18.360 --> 00:08:20.639 to grasp the severity of the crisis happening 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:22.680 in his own streets. I really want you to think 00:08:22.680 --> 00:08:24.920 about that dynamic for a second. Think about 00:08:24.920 --> 00:08:27.259 times in your own life, maybe in your career, 00:08:27.699 --> 00:08:30.100 or in organizations you've been a part of, where 00:08:30.100 --> 00:08:33.500 leadership ignored glaring red flags simply because 00:08:33.500 --> 00:08:35.600 they were too comfortable in their isolated bubbles. 00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:38.080 It happens all the time. When leaders dismiss 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:40.639 the very people trying to save them, it's just 00:08:40.639 --> 00:08:43.240 writing nonsense. Structural collapse isn't just 00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:46.080 a possibility. It becomes inevitable. And that 00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:48.759 collapse finally arrives on the freezing streets 00:08:48.759 --> 00:08:52.279 of Petrograd. So you have this czar isolated 00:08:52.279 --> 00:08:55.899 in his echo chamber, ignoring red flags. But 00:08:55.899 --> 00:08:58.200 you can only ignore starting citizens for so 00:08:58.200 --> 00:09:01.279 long. The breaking point finally arrives on February 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:04.320 23 in the old Russian calendar, which is March 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:07.220 8, International Women's Day. It's crucial to 00:09:07.220 --> 00:09:09.100 note that it was the women of Petrograd who truly 00:09:09.100 --> 00:09:11.480 sparked this revolution. The government had recently 00:09:11.480 --> 00:09:14.190 begun rationing flour and bread. The winter had 00:09:14.190 --> 00:09:16.470 been incredibly harsh, the rail lines were failing, 00:09:16.710 --> 00:09:18.909 and rumors of even worse food shortages were 00:09:18.909 --> 00:09:21.549 rapidly circulating. People were desperate. Women, 00:09:21.889 --> 00:09:24.070 many of whom were exhausted industrial workers 00:09:24.070 --> 00:09:26.870 themselves, had been standing in these endless 00:09:26.870 --> 00:09:30.029 freezing bread lines for hours on end. And on 00:09:30.029 --> 00:09:32.750 that day, they finally had enough. They started 00:09:32.750 --> 00:09:34.940 marching. They protested the bread rationing, 00:09:35.220 --> 00:09:37.539 but they didn't just wander aimlessly. They marched 00:09:37.539 --> 00:09:40.100 directly to the nearby factories. They actively 00:09:40.100 --> 00:09:41.960 called out to the metal workers, the mechanics, 00:09:42.500 --> 00:09:45.360 recruiting over 50 ,000 workers to drop their 00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:47.840 tools and join them in a massive strike. They 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:50.940 were demanding an end to food shortages, an end 00:09:50.940 --> 00:09:53.539 to the brutal war and an end to the autocracy 00:09:53.539 --> 00:09:56.379 entirely. This wasn't a small localized riot 00:09:56.379 --> 00:09:58.080 that the police could easily break up. It was 00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:01.519 an avalanche. Within a single day, nearly 200 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:03.899 ,000 protesters filled the streets of the capital. 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:07.379 The sheer mass of humanity completely overwhelmed 00:10:07.379 --> 00:10:09.740 the local authorities. Faced with this massive 00:10:09.740 --> 00:10:12.539 uprising, the Tsar makes another deeply flawed 00:10:12.539 --> 00:10:15.519 decision from afar. He wires General Khabalov, 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:18.059 the military commander in Petrograd, and orders 00:10:18.059 --> 00:10:20.500 him to suppress the impermissible rioting with 00:10:20.500 --> 00:10:23.700 rifle fire. He decides the solution is to shoot 00:10:23.700 --> 00:10:25.759 his own starving people to clear the streets. 00:10:26.299 --> 00:10:28.240 But there was a massive problem with that order, 00:10:28.360 --> 00:10:31.879 right? A critical logistical problem. The battle 00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:34.379 -hardened, fiercely loyal troops that usually 00:10:34.379 --> 00:10:37.080 enforce the Tsar's will are all away fighting 00:10:37.080 --> 00:10:40.350 at the Eastern Front. The military garrison left 00:10:40.350 --> 00:10:43.950 behind in Petrograd is massive, over 150 ,000 00:10:43.950 --> 00:10:47.070 men, but they are mostly war -weary conscripts. 00:10:47.090 --> 00:10:49.009 Just regular guys. Yeah, these are young men, 00:10:49.309 --> 00:10:51.470 fresh from the villages or older reservists. 00:10:51.850 --> 00:10:54.169 They have zero desire to go to the front lines 00:10:54.169 --> 00:10:56.730 and they have even less desire to fire on their 00:10:56.730 --> 00:10:58.629 own neighbors and fellow citizens protesting 00:10:58.629 --> 00:11:01.529 for bread. Which leads to the critical turning 00:11:01.529 --> 00:11:04.950 point of the entire revolution. On February 26, 00:11:05.389 --> 00:11:07.370 after some initial deadly clashes in the streets 00:11:07.370 --> 00:11:10.570 where soldiers did fire on crowds, the psychological 00:11:10.570 --> 00:11:13.509 toll breaks the military. Specifically, the fourth 00:11:13.509 --> 00:11:15.929 company of the Pavlovsky Reserve Regiment learns 00:11:15.929 --> 00:11:18.730 that another detachment had clashed with demonstrators, 00:11:19.110 --> 00:11:21.809 killing civilians. The realization of what they 00:11:21.809 --> 00:11:24.070 are being asked to do really sets in. And they 00:11:24.070 --> 00:11:26.610 snap. They do. Instead of following orders to 00:11:26.610 --> 00:11:28.250 suppress the crowds, they break out of their 00:11:28.250 --> 00:11:30.250 barracks, they mutiny, and they actually open 00:11:30.250 --> 00:11:32.149 fire on the mounted police who are trying to 00:11:32.149 --> 00:11:34.409 control the protesters. That is the moment the 00:11:34.409 --> 00:11:37.149 power dynamic permanently shifts. The military, 00:11:37.549 --> 00:11:39.929 the ultimate enforcer of the state, had officially 00:11:39.929 --> 00:11:43.570 switched sides. Over the next day, the bulk of 00:11:43.570 --> 00:11:45.909 the entire Petrograd garrisoned mutinies. They 00:11:45.909 --> 00:11:49.429 seized the arsenal. grab 40 ,000 rifles and start 00:11:49.429 --> 00:11:51.730 openly distributing them to the striking workers. 00:11:51.990 --> 00:11:54.269 The police are hunted down, government buildings 00:11:54.269 --> 00:11:56.769 are set on fire, and the authority of the Tsar 00:11:56.769 --> 00:11:59.429 in the capital simply evaporates. Here's where 00:11:59.429 --> 00:12:01.669 it gets really interesting because revolutions 00:12:01.669 --> 00:12:04.289 aren't just about winning chaotic street battles. 00:12:04.629 --> 00:12:06.470 They are about controlling the infrastructure, 00:12:06.629 --> 00:12:09.570 the flow of information and the resources. Absolutely. 00:12:09.850 --> 00:12:13.129 And that brings us to a brilliant, quiet, strategic 00:12:13.129 --> 00:12:16.769 move by a man named Alexander Bublykov. Bubakov 00:12:16.769 --> 00:12:19.049 was acting as a commissar for a newly formed 00:12:19.049 --> 00:12:20.990 group called the Provisional Committee of the 00:12:20.990 --> 00:12:23.929 State Duma. These were the politicians desperately 00:12:23.929 --> 00:12:27.009 trying to establish some semblance of a new government 00:12:27.009 --> 00:12:30.029 amidst the absolute chaos of the mutiny. While 00:12:30.029 --> 00:12:31.690 everyone else is focused on the street fighting, 00:12:31.850 --> 00:12:34.370 Bubakov, with the support of a few mutinied soldiers, 00:12:34.490 --> 00:12:36.309 physically takes over the Ministry of the Ways 00:12:36.309 --> 00:12:39.490 of Communication. The railway ministry. Why is 00:12:39.490 --> 00:12:41.110 the transportation building the most important 00:12:41.110 --> 00:12:43.629 piece on the chessboard right now? Because in 00:12:43.629 --> 00:12:47.259 1917, Russia The railways were the central nervous 00:12:47.259 --> 00:12:49.940 system of the entire empire. Controlling the 00:12:49.940 --> 00:12:52.500 trains meant controlling all military and supply 00:12:52.500 --> 00:12:55.080 transport. But even more importantly, controlling 00:12:55.080 --> 00:12:57.720 the railways meant controlling the railway telegraph 00:12:57.720 --> 00:13:00.580 system. Which is huge. The telegraph was essentially 00:13:00.580 --> 00:13:04.259 the Internet of 1917. It was the only way information 00:13:04.259 --> 00:13:07.419 moved faster than a train or a horse. And Bublikov 00:13:07.419 --> 00:13:09.840 uses that telegraph system to send a message 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:11.820 that literally changes the course of history. 00:13:11.980 --> 00:13:14.820 He broadcasts a telegram to every single railway 00:13:14.820 --> 00:13:18.100 station across the vast Russian Empire from the 00:13:18.100 --> 00:13:20.919 battlefront all the way to Vledovostok. He announces 00:13:20.919 --> 00:13:23.080 that the old government has fallen and the Duma 00:13:23.080 --> 00:13:25.539 is now in charge. There's a brilliant insight 00:13:25.539 --> 00:13:27.940 regarding this moment. By sending this telegram, 00:13:28.159 --> 00:13:30.700 Bobikov basically adjusted reality to fit the 00:13:30.700 --> 00:13:33.080 narrative he wanted. He told the entire country 00:13:33.080 --> 00:13:35.139 that the revolution was already a total success, 00:13:35.379 --> 00:13:37.740 a done deal, before the Tsar had even officially 00:13:37.740 --> 00:13:40.919 abdicated. Fake it till you make it, but on a 00:13:40.919 --> 00:13:44.159 massive geopolitical scale. He forces everyone 00:13:44.159 --> 00:13:47.539 to accept the new reality. And then Bublyakov 00:13:47.539 --> 00:13:49.340 does something even more tactically impactful. 00:13:49.899 --> 00:13:52.620 He issues a strict order prohibiting any trains 00:13:52.620 --> 00:13:55.659 from traveling within 265 kilometers of Petrograd. 00:13:55.850 --> 00:13:59.590 That 265 kilometer exclusion zone is arguably 00:13:59.590 --> 00:14:02.389 the biggest tactical aha moment of this entire 00:14:02.389 --> 00:14:05.370 event. The Tsar, finally realizing the capital 00:14:05.370 --> 00:14:08.049 was actually falling, had dispatched a heavily 00:14:08.049 --> 00:14:10.769 armed loyalist force under General Ivanov to 00:14:10.769 --> 00:14:12.809 crush the rebellion. But he couldn't get there. 00:14:12.970 --> 00:14:15.330 Right. Because Bublikov controlled the rail dispatchers 00:14:15.330 --> 00:14:18.289 and the tracks, Ivanov's troops were literally 00:14:18.289 --> 00:14:20.210 physically blocked from reaching the capital. 00:14:20.570 --> 00:14:23.450 Think about that 265 kilometer exclusion zone. 00:14:23.959 --> 00:14:26.220 General Ivanov has all the guns, all the trained 00:14:26.220 --> 00:14:28.860 soldiers, and all the royal authority. But because 00:14:28.860 --> 00:14:31.120 Bublikov controls the train tracks and the telegraph 00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:34.019 wires, Ivanov is stuck in the mud. His trains 00:14:34.019 --> 00:14:36.059 are diverted, stalled, and left sitting on the 00:14:36.059 --> 00:14:39.179 tracks. It completely redefines what power means 00:14:39.179 --> 00:14:41.840 in a modernizing society. You don't need to defeat 00:14:41.840 --> 00:14:43.840 an army in open battle if you can just cancel 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:46.740 their train ticket. The loyalist army had weapons. 00:14:46.970 --> 00:14:48.769 but they couldn't get to the fight. And with 00:14:48.769 --> 00:14:51.169 his reinforcements completely blocked and his 00:14:51.169 --> 00:14:53.850 own royal train halted and diverted by rebellious 00:14:53.850 --> 00:14:57.210 railway workers, the Tsar was effectively neutralized. 00:14:57.490 --> 00:14:59.970 Which brings us to the surprisingly anti -climactic 00:14:59.970 --> 00:15:02.789 fall of the Romanovs. Stranded on a train in 00:15:02.789 --> 00:15:05.110 the city of Skav, completely cut off from his 00:15:05.110 --> 00:15:07.730 capital and surrounded by generals who realize 00:15:07.730 --> 00:15:10.809 the situation is hopelessly lost, Nicholas II 00:15:10.809 --> 00:15:14.370 finally faces reality. On March 2, he abdicates. 00:15:14.789 --> 00:15:17.580 He steps down. signing away the throne for himself 00:15:17.580 --> 00:15:19.980 and his young son. The next day, the crown is 00:15:19.980 --> 00:15:22.259 offered to his brother, Grand Duke Michael. But 00:15:22.259 --> 00:15:24.639 Michael looks at the absolute chaos, the armed 00:15:24.639 --> 00:15:26.740 workers and the mutinied soldiers, and wisely 00:15:26.740 --> 00:15:29.659 realizes he would have zero support. He refuses 00:15:29.659 --> 00:15:31.879 the crown unless it is offered by a democratically 00:15:31.879 --> 00:15:34.320 elected constituent assembly in the future. And 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:37.940 just like that, it's over. Without a grand final 00:15:37.940 --> 00:15:41.179 battle over a single weekend, a 300 -year -old 00:15:41.179 --> 00:15:44.990 dynasty simply evaporates into thin air. But 00:15:44.990 --> 00:15:47.330 taking down an empire is one thing. Figuring 00:15:47.330 --> 00:15:50.149 out who is actually in charge the day after is 00:15:50.149 --> 00:15:53.309 much messier. And it was incredibly messy. The 00:15:53.309 --> 00:15:55.570 immediate aftermath of the February Revolution 00:15:55.570 --> 00:15:58.629 is defined by a strange political concept known 00:15:58.629 --> 00:16:01.830 as Devoe Evlasti, or dual power. I want to give 00:16:01.830 --> 00:16:03.870 you an analogy for this dual power situation 00:16:03.870 --> 00:16:06.350 because it is a wild way to try and run a country. 00:16:06.789 --> 00:16:08.850 Imagine a massive corporation where the board 00:16:08.850 --> 00:16:11.309 of directors has all the legal titles, the fancy 00:16:11.309 --> 00:16:13.669 corner offices and the checkbooks. Okay. But 00:16:13.669 --> 00:16:15.750 the workers union has actually seized the factory 00:16:15.750 --> 00:16:17.769 floor. They hold the keys to the machinery and 00:16:17.769 --> 00:16:19.750 they control the shipping docks. The board can 00:16:19.750 --> 00:16:21.509 write all the memos they want, but absolutely 00:16:21.509 --> 00:16:23.889 nothing gets built or shipped unless the union 00:16:23.889 --> 00:16:26.889 agrees to it. That is precisely the dynamic that 00:16:26.889 --> 00:16:29.210 took hold in Russia. You had two completely separate 00:16:29.210 --> 00:16:31.789 factions claiming authority, operating in parallel. 00:16:32.149 --> 00:16:33.950 On one side, you had the provisional government. 00:16:34.220 --> 00:16:36.799 They're mostly made up of those bourgeois or 00:16:36.799 --> 00:16:39.399 middle to upper class members of the old Duma. 00:16:39.419 --> 00:16:42.559 The polity. Yes. They held the formal legal titles. 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:44.559 They sat in the government buildings and they 00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:46.919 held the international recognition from Russia's 00:16:46.919 --> 00:16:49.019 allies. The board of directors in our analogy. 00:16:49.159 --> 00:16:51.440 Right. But on the other side, you had the Petrograd 00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:54.799 Soviet. Now a Soviet is essentially a democratically 00:16:54.799 --> 00:16:57.840 elected council. This massive council represented 00:16:57.840 --> 00:17:00.779 the actual workers and the rank -and -file soldiers. 00:17:01.220 --> 00:17:03.580 They didn't want to get bogged down in formal 00:17:03.580 --> 00:17:06.380 government administration, but they held the 00:17:06.380 --> 00:17:09.400 actual practical power on the streets. And the 00:17:09.400 --> 00:17:12.500 Soviet proved exactly who was really boss on 00:17:12.500 --> 00:17:15.440 March 1st by issuing something called Order No. 00:17:15.619 --> 00:17:19.119 1. This is an incredible document. It basically 00:17:19.119 --> 00:17:21.420 commanded the military soldiers to only obey 00:17:21.420 --> 00:17:23.940 the orders of the Provisional Government if those 00:17:23.940 --> 00:17:26.019 orders did not conflict with the Soviets' decisions. 00:17:26.200 --> 00:17:28.880 It was a brilliant paralyzing move. It completely 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:30.759 stripped the formal government of its military 00:17:30.759 --> 00:17:32.839 authority. The Provisional Government had the 00:17:32.839 --> 00:17:35.079 fancy titles, but the Soviet had the loyalty 00:17:35.079 --> 00:17:37.500 of the men with the guns. So you have this incredibly 00:17:37.500 --> 00:17:40.900 fragile balancing act. And the provisional government, 00:17:40.940 --> 00:17:43.000 which eventually comes to be led by a man named 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:46.500 Alexander Kerensky, makes a massive fatal flaw. 00:17:47.119 --> 00:17:50.079 They are trying to balance this impossible dual 00:17:50.079 --> 00:17:52.700 power situation. And what do they decide to do? 00:17:53.019 --> 00:17:55.299 They decide to try and keep Russia in World War 00:17:55.299 --> 00:17:58.859 I. It was political suicide. They chose to honor 00:17:58.859 --> 00:18:01.079 their international alliances rather than listen 00:18:01.079 --> 00:18:03.940 to the desperate cries of their own people. The 00:18:03.940 --> 00:18:06.779 war was the incredibly unpopular, devastating 00:18:06.779 --> 00:18:08.900 catalyst that caused the revolution in the first 00:18:08.900 --> 00:18:11.779 place. And on top of that, they failed to solve 00:18:11.779 --> 00:18:14.380 the domestic food shortages or the land disputes. 00:18:14.539 --> 00:18:16.240 They failed to deliver on the very things the 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:18.339 people had marched and died for in February. 00:18:18.900 --> 00:18:21.019 And by failing to address those root causes, 00:18:21.400 --> 00:18:23.859 peace and bread, they left the door wide open 00:18:23.859 --> 00:18:25.940 for radical elements to exploit the continued 00:18:25.940 --> 00:18:28.539 misery of the population. which sets the stage 00:18:28.539 --> 00:18:30.799 perfectly for a radical Marxist faction known 00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:33.400 as the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin. He 00:18:33.400 --> 00:18:35.619 returns from exile with a simple, incredibly 00:18:35.619 --> 00:18:38.819 effective slogan, peace, bread and land. Very 00:18:38.819 --> 00:18:41.460 catchy. He capitalized entirely on the provisional 00:18:41.460 --> 00:18:43.980 government's failures, ultimately leading to 00:18:43.980 --> 00:18:46.220 the October Revolution later that same year, 00:18:46.700 --> 00:18:49.440 where the Bolsheviks violently seized total control 00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:52.279 and dismantled that fragile dual power system. 00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:55.079 So how do we actually make sense of all this 00:18:55.079 --> 00:18:58.410 chaos? Because history is highly subjective, 00:18:59.009 --> 00:19:01.230 it's really useful to look at how different schools 00:19:01.230 --> 00:19:03.470 of thought view these exact same eight days. 00:19:04.349 --> 00:19:06.569 There are three main lenses historians use to 00:19:06.569 --> 00:19:08.910 make sense of the February Revolution, starting 00:19:08.910 --> 00:19:11.220 with the communist view. This raises an important 00:19:11.220 --> 00:19:13.400 question about how we interpret history. And 00:19:13.400 --> 00:19:15.359 just to be clear, we are simply reporting on 00:19:15.359 --> 00:19:17.799 what the source material outlines here without 00:19:17.799 --> 00:19:19.920 taking any political stance. Absolutely. Just 00:19:19.920 --> 00:19:21.359 laying out the perspectives from the article. 00:19:21.859 --> 00:19:24.619 Right. So communist historians generally interpret 00:19:24.619 --> 00:19:27.539 the February Revolution as an inevitable organized 00:19:27.539 --> 00:19:30.279 movement driven by the modernizing masses and 00:19:30.279 --> 00:19:33.279 the peasants. They see it fundamentally as a 00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:35.940 class struggle. a deliberate push to overthrow 00:19:35.940 --> 00:19:38.319 an oppressive bourgeois and aristocratic class 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:41.319 to bring about an era of industrialization and 00:19:41.319 --> 00:19:44.059 proletarian freedom. In this view, they actually 00:19:44.059 --> 00:19:46.200 place very little emphasis on World War I as 00:19:46.200 --> 00:19:49.180 the main cause. They see the war as incidental 00:19:49.180 --> 00:19:51.500 to the larger class conflict. It's fascinating 00:19:51.500 --> 00:19:54.059 that they downplay the war so much. But if you 00:19:54.059 --> 00:19:56.319 look at the liberal historians, they take almost 00:19:56.319 --> 00:19:59.180 the exact opposite stance. They see the external 00:19:59.180 --> 00:20:02.180 pressure of the war as everything. Exactly. The 00:20:02.180 --> 00:20:04.460 liberal view acknowledges World War I as the 00:20:04.460 --> 00:20:06.640 absolute main catalyst that finally turned public 00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:09.220 opinion completely against the Tsar. They argue 00:20:09.220 --> 00:20:11.299 that the revolution's ultimate driving goal was 00:20:11.299 --> 00:20:13.799 simply to establish a Western -style democracy. 00:20:14.039 --> 00:20:16.180 And it was the profound trauma and logistical 00:20:16.180 --> 00:20:18.819 failure of the war that finally pushed a moderate 00:20:18.819 --> 00:20:20.960 population to demand a new government. And then 00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:22.579 you have the third lens, the revisionist view. 00:20:22.750 --> 00:20:25.049 Revisionist historians take a broader approach. 00:20:25.349 --> 00:20:27.549 They argue that the revolution wasn't just an 00:20:27.549 --> 00:20:29.849 inevitable product of World War I, nor was it 00:20:29.849 --> 00:20:33.730 a sudden, perfectly organized leap toward industrialization. 00:20:34.230 --> 00:20:36.410 They track the pressure much further back. How 00:20:36.410 --> 00:20:39.630 far back? They see it as the boiling over of 00:20:39.630 --> 00:20:42.670 a massive, deep -rooted institutional crisis, 00:20:43.150 --> 00:20:45.890 heavily focused on unresolved land ownership 00:20:45.890 --> 00:20:48.450 issues that stretched all the way back to the 00:20:48.450 --> 00:20:52.430 era of serfdom in the 1800s. To them, the government 00:20:52.430 --> 00:20:55.130 was already rotting from the inside out. The 00:20:55.130 --> 00:20:58.130 war was just the final heavy straw on a camel's 00:20:58.130 --> 00:21:01.029 back that had been breaking for decades. So what 00:21:01.029 --> 00:21:03.069 does this all mean for you? Why does this historical 00:21:03.069 --> 00:21:05.579 debate matter today? When you look at massive 00:21:05.579 --> 00:21:07.720 paradigm shifts, whether it's the fall of a 300 00:21:07.720 --> 00:21:10.180 -year -old empire, a sudden disruption in your 00:21:10.180 --> 00:21:13.279 own industry, or a major shift in a market, they 00:21:13.279 --> 00:21:15.579 almost never have a single simple cause. They 00:21:15.579 --> 00:21:18.019 really don't. They're usually the violent collision 00:21:18.019 --> 00:21:20.039 of long -term structural failures, like those 00:21:20.039 --> 00:21:22.099 archaic social structures or unresolved land 00:21:22.099 --> 00:21:25.079 disputes, meeting a sudden acute crisis like 00:21:25.079 --> 00:21:27.539 the devastation of a global war. When an outdated 00:21:27.539 --> 00:21:31.000 system that stubbornly refuses to adapt is subjected 00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:34.130 to an unprecedented stress test, Collapse isn't 00:21:34.130 --> 00:21:36.849 an anomaly. It's the expected result. To quickly 00:21:36.849 --> 00:21:39.109 summarize this incredible journey, we've gone 00:21:39.109 --> 00:21:41.549 from desperate women protesting freezing bread 00:21:41.549 --> 00:21:44.329 lines to a snowballing strike of hundreds of 00:21:44.329 --> 00:21:46.670 thousands of workers. We watched the military 00:21:46.670 --> 00:21:49.069 fundamentally break and mutiny rather than fire 00:21:49.069 --> 00:21:51.690 on their own people. We saw the brilliant tactical 00:21:51.690 --> 00:21:54.349 seizure of the railway telegraphs that completely 00:21:54.349 --> 00:21:56.990 paralyzed a royal army. An incredible story. 00:21:57.170 --> 00:21:59.329 And all of it was fueled by an isolated leader 00:21:59.329 --> 00:22:02.089 who dismissed his own people's pain as nonsense. 00:22:02.730 --> 00:22:05.589 In just over a week, a dynasty that had ruled 00:22:05.589 --> 00:22:08.450 since the 1600s vanished. But before we wrap 00:22:08.450 --> 00:22:10.430 up today, I want to leave the listener with one 00:22:10.430 --> 00:22:12.930 final, deeply provocative concept from the source 00:22:12.930 --> 00:22:15.470 material to mull over. It goes back to Vladimir 00:22:15.470 --> 00:22:17.509 Lenin's strategy when he returned to Russia during 00:22:17.509 --> 00:22:20.250 that messy period of dual power. The concept 00:22:20.250 --> 00:22:23.690 of revolutionary defeatism? Right. When Lenin 00:22:23.690 --> 00:22:26.250 returned from Switzerland, he didn't just ask 00:22:26.250 --> 00:22:29.339 for a peaceful end to the war. He pushed a highly 00:22:29.339 --> 00:22:32.259 radical idea called revolutionary defeatism. 00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:35.079 He told his followers that the real enemy wasn't 00:22:35.079 --> 00:22:36.920 the foreign German armies they were fighting 00:22:36.920 --> 00:22:39.420 in the freezing trenches. He argued that the 00:22:39.420 --> 00:22:41.940 real enemy was actually their own domestic leaders. 00:22:42.279 --> 00:22:44.240 He was essentially saying the people who govern 00:22:44.240 --> 00:22:46.480 you are more dangerous to you than the people 00:22:46.480 --> 00:22:49.259 shooting at you. Exactly. He argued that the 00:22:49.259 --> 00:22:51.400 domestic leadership was sending the working class 00:22:51.400 --> 00:22:54.460 to die in an imperialist war simply to protect 00:22:54.460 --> 00:22:57.119 the wealth and capital of the elite. Therefore, 00:22:57.099 --> 00:23:00.099 the proletariat's goal shouldn't be to win the 00:23:00.099 --> 00:23:02.619 war for their country. Their goal should be to 00:23:02.619 --> 00:23:05.019 see their own imperialist government defeated 00:23:05.019 --> 00:23:07.599 so that a true socialist revolution could rise 00:23:07.599 --> 00:23:10.619 from the ashes. It completely flips the traditional 00:23:10.619 --> 00:23:13.160 narrative of patriotism and warfare on its head. 00:23:13.500 --> 00:23:16.250 I really want you to ponder that. As you go about 00:23:16.250 --> 00:23:19.269 your day, think about how incredibly profound, 00:23:19.829 --> 00:23:23.269 how deep a societal collapse must be for a population 00:23:23.269 --> 00:23:25.349 to be convinced that their own government, their 00:23:25.349 --> 00:23:28.170 own leaders, are a significantly greater threat 00:23:28.170 --> 00:23:31.569 to their everyday survival than a literal invading 00:23:31.569 --> 00:23:34.369 foreign army. It requires a total fundamental 00:23:34.369 --> 00:23:36.829 breakdown of trust between the governed and those 00:23:36.829 --> 00:23:39.269 governing them. It really does. Thank you so 00:23:39.269 --> 00:23:40.950 much for joining us on this deep dive into the 00:23:40.950 --> 00:23:43.269 February Revolution. We hope you pulled some 00:23:43.269 --> 00:23:45.549 amazing aha moments out of this history to apply 00:23:45.549 --> 00:23:48.009 to the systems, structures, and leadership dynamics 00:23:48.009 --> 00:23:50.769 in your own world. Keep questioning the narratives, 00:23:51.269 --> 00:23:53.230 keep looking for those long -term structural 00:23:53.230 --> 00:23:55.650 cracks, and we will see you on the next deep 00:23:55.650 --> 00:23:55.910 dive.