The swiftly changing political landscape of Russia in 1917 gave way to the rise of the Bolshevik party at the helm of the Russian government. The Provisional Government's transitory presence is littered with examples of exceedingly apparent ineptitude in making way for change and an adherence to prior Imperial policies despite the abdication of Nicolas II in March of 1917. Seven months after the Provisional Government's formation, the Bolsheviks took command of Petrograd and disbanded the Provisional Government with the popular support of the Russian people, especially the soldiers and factory workers, whom the Bolsheviks empowered in unity. "Extensive popular support for the Bolsheviks and Soviet power, especially in the urban centers and the army, was a reality of 1917, without moral implications pro or con for regimes created later in different circumstances."" The reality of popular support is what gave the Bolsheviks the power to overthrow the Provisional Government in the October Revolution of 1917.
The support of Bolsheviks can be attributed to the Provisional Government's lack of effective policy change and unfulfilled promises, such as their inability to withdraw Russian troops from war and also, a lack of progress in social and economic issues domestically. After a failed attempt to bring international peace among the Allies, Russian Defensist leaders applied an idea of using military offensive to force an end to the peace "stalemate- in an attempt to increase Russia's diplomatic sway with the Allies using a display of military force. This idea was supported by most Soviet army commanders, left and right parties, and the moderate socialists of the Petrograd Soviet. The sole opposition of this proposition was the Bolshevik party and select radical leftist Social Revolutionaries, who quickly gained the support of Russian soldiers who disparaged at the thought of returning to the front after promises from the Provisional Government after their ascension to power that the war would be brought to an end and the troops returned to their homeland.
