The Russian Revolution began months before Lenin arrived in Russia. In February 1917, strikes broke out in Petrograd to protest the hunger people were feeling and the authoritarian regime's policies (Crucible by Charles Emmerson, pp 24-28). This revolution caused the abdication of Tsar Nicholas and his brother, Grand Duke Michael. It was their abdications that caused the power vacuum on which the Bolsheviks capitalized to gain power. The Soviets were not directly responsible for the outbreak of the February Revolution, unlike the October Revolution of the same year.

Lenin was initially surprised by the outbreak of the February Revolution. He called it "staggering" and " incredibly unexpected" (A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924 by Orlando Figes, p.185). He hadn't expected the revolution to come so soon because it broke with Marx's theory.

The Soviet leaders debate whether, following Marist dogma that bourgeois democracy precedes socialism, they should now take power themselves. To forestall that eventuality, a provisional committee of the Duma declares itself in charge of restoring order. Sheer anarchy reigns outside (Emmerson, p. 26).

For a brief period, power was shared between the various political parties in the Duma. However, the Soviets jumped at the chance to seize power in October of the same year. They voted for insurrection against the provisional government and launched the October Revolution (Emmerson, p. 67).

Lenin only participated in the February Revolution from afar. He wrote frequently to Bolshevik leaders in Moscow and Petrograd, but he himself did not instigate the initial uprising. The Russian Revolution began without him, but it was his later influence that galvanized the Bolsheviks into insurrection and civil war.