In both Grace's post and Danielle's post, they argue that the Bolsheviks were able to take power by taking advantage of the chaos that gripped the land. I would definitely have to agree. As Danielle pointed out, the Russian army was making minimal progress against the Germans considering their death toll—this led to many deserters and a feeling amongst the soldiers that they were underappreciated by their governments, which they were. Sentiments were low at home as well—Nicholas II was busy trying to forcefully assimilate non Russian peoples under his rule. As a result of this Russification the Finns lost their constitution, the poles had nothing to call a home, and during all of this there were waves of violent anti-Semitism that were ignored by the government. In 1903 the Social Democratic Party split, yielding the majority party of the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin. Then in 1905 after “Bloody Sunday” the tsar pledged individual liberties, and a more democratic Duma. This was revoked less than two years later. By the time of the Great War the Russian peasants had been convinced that they needed to overthrow the tsar.