The Observer of 18 March 1917 included a remarkable piece about Tsar Nicholas II’s abdication as part of wider coverage of the momentous events in Russia.
Resistance towards the Tsar and his family had been growing since Russia’s entry into the first world war, which had resulted in huge losses for the army and a desperate lack of food on the home front.
Nicholas was returning from his military headquarters to Petrograd in response to news of strikes and demonstrations in the capital, as well as calls for him to give up power. His train was diverted and held in Pskov by insurgent troops and he was forced to abdicate on 15 March 1917.
The Tsar initially named his 13-year-old son Alexei as successor, with his brother, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, as Regent. This is what the Guardian reported on 16 March.
The midnight interview featured two days later in the Observer shows Nicholas’s late-night change of heart, in which he named Michael as the new Tsar, fearing what might happen to his haemophiliac son if he and his wife were exiled.
Michael did not immediately accept the tsarship and never became emperor.
Mikhail Rodzianko, president of the Duma - the elected legislative assembly which had met intermittently since it was formed after the revolution in 1905 - became head of the provisional government. He had been instrumental in the abdication, sending telegrams to the Tsar warning him that he no longer had the power to stop a revolution.
The Manchester Guardian and the Observer both devoted several pages to the news and a dissection of how events unfolded. Full pages of coverage from which the articles above are taken are available to download below:
Manchester Guardian 16 March 1917, p5
Several Russian correspondents were employed by the Manchester Guardian during the period of revolution, including Arthur Ransome, Michael Farbman, (who wrote The Russian Revolution and the War after his experience as Petrograd correspondent), David Soskice and Morgan Phillips Price. Some of their letters are held in the GNM Archive and the University of Manchester Library.
Further reading
The Russian Revolution: then and now
From the archive, 16 March 1917: The story of the Russian Revolution
From the archive, 16 March 1917: The Tsar and the Russian People
Revolution in Russia 1917: speeches by Tsar Nicholas II and Vladimir Lenin
Tsar Nicholas II - a picture from the past
From the archive pages relating to Russia
Teacher Network: Learning through role play - Russian Revolution
The Guardian view on 1917: the joy of 100
Previous archive teaching resources
More teaching resources can be found on our resources for teachers page
