Russian February Revolution

Bread riots and strikes in Petrograd escalated into a revolution that swept away the Romanov dynasty. Troops refused orders to fire on protesters and joined the uprising. Tsar Nicholas II abdicated on March 15 (March 2 Old Style). The Provisional Government, led initially by Prince Lvov and later by Alexander Kerensky, pledged to continue the war effort, a fatally unpopular decision that would seal its fate when the Bolsheviks seized power eight months later.