In mid-February 1917, according to the Julian calendar of Russia, the authority of the tsarist autocracy held by a thread, frayed by hundreds of years of oppression of the Russian menu peuple. A chasm existed between the glamorous world of the landed aristocracy and wealthy bourgeoisie who lived well, and peasants and workers who struggled to survive in a merciless world of unremitting toil, sorrow and want, and whose only solace was offered by the Orthodox Church, acting as a shock absorber of the tsarist order. This chasm between the privileged, wealthy elite and the nether classes of the Russian peoples has prompted some historians to speak of two Russias: the one of shining light and culture; the other of darkness, struggle, and smouldering grievances...
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