I'm simply trying to understand in a date-by-date fashion, the specific events around the abdication of Nicholas II, and then from that event onwards to whatever point in time the USSR was a stable entity with a generally accepted structure of power. Wikipedia is not always clear on whether something is an old or a new style date, there are a number of entities involved that may or may not be legitimately considered the government at any one point, and generally it seems as though everything was happening at once throughout this period.
I mostly understand the following tiny segment, but after this point I run into trouble - for example Wikipedia states that "At the same time, the Petrograd Soviet (or workers' council) began organizing and was officially formed on 27 February. ", in their article on the February Revolution, but it mentions this after discussing the formation of the Russian Provisional Government, doesn't clarify if that's an old style date, and even if it is, that would still be prior to the abdication, while the text seems to imply that the organisation of the Petrograd Soviet was some sort of response to the insufficiency of the Russian Provisional Government's manifesto.
| Dates | Event | State In Operation at the Time | Clarification Needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 June 1907 - 14th March 1917 | Generalised unrest leading to the February revolution, and the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II on 15th March 1917 | Russian Empire | |
| 15th March 1917 | Abdication of Nicholas II, suggestion of Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich to succeed him. | ? | What nation is considered to exist at this time? Does Imperial Russia continue until the declaration of the Russian Republic in September? |
| 16th March 1917 | Grand Duke Michael, knowing that he will not enjoy popular support of the people if he accepts power, announces he will not accept the crown unless by consensus of democratic action by the Russian Constituent Assembly, which shall define the form of government for Russia. | ? | |
| 16th March 1917 | The Provisional Committee of the State Duma announces the formation of the Russian Provisional Government, whose intentions are to organise elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly | ? | |
| 16th March 1917 - 14th September 1917 | Dual Powers Period, with Petrograd Soviet and Russian Provisional Government competing with each other to declare legitimate governmental authority | ? | How did these organisations compete? |
I won't continue on with this table beyond this point because it becomes impossible to keep things clear to myself. I don't recall ever being taught any part of this in school so my knowledge of even the basics is minimal, hence my desire to do this chronologically, and understand the sequence of events rather than end up confused by a description that involves too much parallelism.
Is there anywhere that can make this simple?
You're right that the Petrograd Soviet was formed on March 12 N.S., the same day as the Duma's Provisional Committee and Military Commission. So the article garbles or compresses the sequence by implying that the Soviet was in these first days in competition with a yet-to-be-formed Provisional Government when until the 15th it was instead the Provisional Committee under Duma president Rodzianko that in effect constituted the constitutionalist and non-bolshevik left parties' embryo government-in-waiting, assisted by the Military Commission created to restore some semblance of order following the Petrograd outbreak.
So from Golitsyn's resignation on the 12th to Lvov's appointment on the 15th it's the Committee that represents the nearest thing to a legal government, with the by now minor complication of having been constituted by a notionally dismissed body following the Tsar's decree of the 11th.
When did the Empire end? My understanding is that from March to September the regime merely styled itself "Provisional Government of Russia", implying that the formal character of the state remained indeterminate for the duration.
I've looked in vain for a thorough reliable chronology, and there's a surprising shortage of material on the day-by-day evolution of such an important episode: scouring contemporary newspaper reports may be helpful in disentangling the events and gleaning a more-or-less detached impression of the day-to-day situation on the ground.