Much of this was also due to the possibility that if the Populists did not act soon they would lose their chance of revolution to the capitalists. The last group of the intelligentsia was the Marxists, from which the Bolshevik party eventually evolved. Although they were socialist, they did not agree that Russia's rareness would allow them to skip the capitalist step on the path to socialism. The Marxists felt that through the development of capitalism a dictatorship of the proletariat could be formed. Eventually socialism would emerge, but not unless there was a long prosperous era of capitalism before hand.
In the late nineteenth century, at the time of the industrial revolution, a Populist Party known as the "Peoples Will" appeared. This party, fueled with frustration with the Tsarist regime, started to use terrorism in an effort to overthrow the Tsar and gain power. In 1881, the Tsar Alexander the II was assassinated. This assassination causes the regime to increase their control and suppression on the Populists and the intelligentsia all together. Then in 1905, there is a massive revolution which forces Tsar Nicholas II to forfeit his power over political parties, trade unions, and a representative assembly known as the Duma. This is known as the October Manifesto, and it granted civil rights, allowed a limited constitution, and a parliament (Duma). Another faction which arises from this is the Petrograd Soviet, which consisted of workers, soldiers, sailors, and peasants. It is here that open political activity is also legalized. During this period the Marxists split into two rival factions: the Bolsheviks, headed by Lenin, and the Mensheviks, a group of orthodox Marxists who believed capitalism and social democracy must develop on their own. As World War I picks up steam across the European continent, Tsar Nicholas II takes command of the Russian army. He is placed under a lot of pressure, as the public sees the war as an unnecessary imperialistic attempt to gain more land.
