Lenin proposed new economic policy to prevent the collapse of the Russian economy.

It allowed some private ventures, meaning small businesses or shops, to reopen for private profit while the state continued to control banks, foreign trade and large industries. Lenin was confronted with a terrible array of obstacles to the maintenance of Bolshevik power. Instead of a universal revolution fuelled by the collapse of international capitalism, they faced resistance from a variety of Russian opponents, from liberals and radicals of rival tendencies, as well as Tsarists, often supported by foreign capitalist powers. Bolshevik success in this war resulted from the effectiveness of their organisation, and the committed support that they received from some portions of the population, as well as from the diversity of aims, the poor leadership and inadequate organisation of their 'White' opponents.

He promised the bulk of the population exactly what they desired: an immediate end to the war and a rapid resolution to the land question. By these promises, he had already formed a strong basis of support among Russian workers, before he cast aside electoral niceties and seized power by a daring coup d'etat in October/November 1917. Although the Russian army consisted of more than 5.3 million men, they were worse armed, worse treated and worse led. It was still not unusual in 1915 for Russian artillery to be limited to two or three shells a day, and after mobilisation in 1914 the infantry had only two rifles for every three soldiers. The First World War sped the process of alienating the rulers from the people. The people started demanding a government who'd possess the confidence of the public. The government, in return, suspended the sittings of the duma. Hungry people were on the streets and brought thousands of women on the streets and when this coincided with a wage strike, the number of demonstrators grew to a whopping 240k. The shooting of 40 demonstrators on march 11 broke the morale of many soldiers and regiment after regiment started supporting the strikers. By the end of 12 march, petersburh was in the hands of a bunch of pissed off people who didn't have a leader. many members of the duma gave advice to nicholas to abdicate only so that maybe they'd find a more popular tsar. Having originally dismissed the Duma's pleas for last-ditch reforms as some nonsense from that fatty Rodzianko', Nicholas then toyed with the idea of a military assault upon his own capital. He was dissuaded by the pleas of his generals, notably Brusilov and Ruzsky, who wanted constitu-tional reform. However, Nicholas was unable to compromise his own autocracy, and agreed to abdicate (15 March). The following day his brother, the Grand Duke Michael, refused the crown, leaving Russia a republic after 304 years of Romanov rule.