Production became increasingly limited, and prices for grain and livestock soared. The ministry of Agriculture's attempt to control inflation by fixing prices only aggravated the producers and traders, who opposed selling their wares at fixed prices. Since so many of the peasants were enlisted in the war, casualties hit them especially hard. The refugees and the soldiers letters home painted a picture of the war as "the handy work of cunning persons in power who don't know how to use it (sic) but instead pursue their selfish ends" (Keep 40). The peasants directed their resentment and suspicion towards Nicholas II
and the military. Though individually peasant uprisings could be suppressed by the government, and frequently were, in combination with the unrest felt in the rest of Russia, it made for a setting ripe for change (Keep 41).
As the demand for war time production increased, the working conditions in the factories worsened. The government required 24-hour production. Managements and local authorities had less money to spend on housing, and illness increased due to fatigue and poor living conditions. The war caused an overall decline in the standard of living. As disturbances grew over lack of food, and strikes became common place, the government responded with arrests and further repression (Keep 41).
On February 18th, a few hundred workers in the Putilov plant quit after their claim for higher wages was rejected. After other members of the plant joined them in sympathy, the factory closed its gates in hopes of averting strike. This action forced thousands of men out into the streets where they were joined by nearly 66,000 mutinous soldiers (who were made up primarily of peasants) a week later. The tow groups met at the Winter Palace where they proceeded in overthrowing the monarchy (Keep 58-60). Admittedly this is a highly abbreviated version of what happened, but the details are such that it is difficult to document them all, and this version, in short, gives a rough sketch of what happened.
On February 25th, thirty of so labor leaders met to set up an organized body that would establish the new government. They were arrested as a result. On being released two days later, this organization summoned a meeting that evening and invited soldiers and workers to send representatives (approximately one for every 1,000) to attend it. There a new organization was set up whose aims were to "organize the people's forces and to struggle to consolidate political liberty and popular government". That body went on to organize itself as the Provisional Government (Keep 62).