Account for the success of the Bolsheviks in gaining power in Russia by 1922.

... Account for the success of the Bolsheviks in gaining power in Russia by 1922. In February 1917, the Bolshevik party was small and irrelevant. The leadership was abroad and there was little consistency of purpose among the party in Russia. However, by the summer of 1922, the Bolsheviks had become the dominant force, and a new communist state had emerged from their success. The purpose of this essay is to explain this transformation. The abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the collapse of the Romanov dynasty threw Russia into a state of turmoil. The elites had withdrawn their support for the Tsar after a series of disastrous defeats in the war and continued social and economic problems. In the wake of the Tsarist collapse, a power vacuum was left behind. The Provisional Government, a government that was fundamentally unstable and unsure how to govern, temporarily filled this space. The Provisional Government

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