The first of two revolutions in 1917 began in February and established the end of the Romanov dynasty and an uncertain course for Russian politics. The February revolution main goal was to overthrow the power of the Tsar and establish a new political system in Russia. Although the Tsar unpopularity with his people made the first part of this mission easy, the form of government to follow centuries of absolute autocratic rule would be much more debatable. The provisional government put into place after was called The Duma. The Duma was a democratically-based government system meant to uphold peace while a more permanent government system was decided on. The Duma consisted of both socialists and liberals, later to be known as the Bolsheviks. The provisional government continued to fight in world war one and was unable to solve the economic difficulties that Russia was facing in 1917.
The Duma lasted for 8 months yet made no progress towards a more stable government system. The Bolshevik party had grown and their leader, Vladimir Lenin, used the chaos of the revolution to his advantage. Lenin used the oppression of the masses to lead them towards his strong Marxist ideas and brought popular support to the Bolshevik party. In October of 1917 the Bolshevik party executed a revolt against the provisional government and instated a "police state" that carried out Marxists ideas to create the first communist run government system. Although the Bolshevik regime was not ideal for everyone, many enemies of the party would "disappear", Lenin's control of Russia did improve the economic and social standing of Russia. The Bolshevik's attempted to lead Russia to a fully communist state by running the economy with a mix of capitalist and communists policies and gradually taking away the capitalist policies. The economic system worked and in the late 1910's and early 1920's Russia's economy worked smoothly. Once Stalin took control after Lenin's death in the mid-1920's the harsh industrialization and purges increased the Russian output but the living standard and Russian livelihood decreased. Socially, Lenin's policies increased the standards of living for women and rewarded them equal rights to men. Women were expected to work along side men and daycare was provided for children. The other social and economic difference was the reduction of private party and the introduction of collective farming. The theory behind collective farming was that everyone would work his share and receive the same amount of pay, food and treatment while providing some of the crops to the government who owned the land. In reality, collective farming produced lazy workers and inefficient management on all levels. The collective farming also did not increase the standard of living for peasants in Russia as they were no longer able to support themselves and became completely dependent on government owned farming.