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When Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in February/March 1917, it felt like a new dawn for Russia. The Provisional Government, made up of liberal politicians from the old Duma, took charge, and Russia was declared the “freest country in the world.” Yet, just eight months later, this new government was swept away with barely a whimper, overthrown by the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution. How did it all go so wrong, so fast? The answer is that the Provisional Government, faced with an impossible situation, made a series of catastrophic and avoidable mistakes. It failed to address the key demands of…