Pretty drastic transformation of the political landscape in a very short amount of time. World War I was going badly for Russia, they were losing a lot of Galacian territories, as well as a lot of territories that they had pre-War. While Tsar Nicholas the second was in control of the army and fighting, political and social turmoil back in Petrograd, what used to be Saint Petersburg, the military and political elite decide to Set up a constitutional monarchy and demand Nicholas’s resignation. Nicolas ultimately resigned and decided his brother would take his place, but it turns out the Russian people wanted representative government and didn’t want either Romanov Tsar. The Duma serves as a provisional government while the constitutional democracy was being organized. In a very short span of time Polish independence was recognized, although the Polish lands had already been lost to the Germans, and the fins, Ukrainians, and Belarusian‘s, demanded autonomy as well. The political system in Russia is now very new, experimental, and volatile. Leaders of different nationalist groups and political parties within Russia are clamoring for influence as a power vacuum remains following the departure of a monarchy.
