On 22 February, at Petrograd, Paul Milyukov appealed to workers not to fall into a police trap in procession to the Duma on the 27th. The workers decided not march on the Duma.

On 23 February, at Tsarskoe Selo, the Tsar rejected the advice of the Grand Dukes and others who hoped to hold the monarchy together; name a responsible ministry; summon the Duma into session; proclaim a general amnesty, and appoint Prince G.Ya. Lvov as Prime Minister. The Tsar gave them the feeling that whatever happened was up to God.

Grand Duke Aleksandr Mikhailovich met with the Tsar and told him, “Who (the Grand Dukes) is telling you this? People expect you to do the right thing. Act. Do not be so passive.” But the Tsar appeared ready for his fate. In the presence of the Grand Duke and his brother Grand Duke Mikhail Aleksandrovich, the Tsar rejected the advice of Rodzianko to remove Protopopov. Rodzianko had posed to the Tsar the prospect of a “revolution and a state of anarchy which no one will be able to control.” Nicholas II curtly bade him farewell.

At Petrograd, revolutionaries (some believed to be German agents) passed out literature in the Putilov Works, the Baltic yards, and the Vyborg quarter, preaching general strikes as a protest against the government, food shortages and the war. General Khabalov, the Military Governor of Petrograd, issued notices prohibiting public meetings and stating that all resistance to authority would immediately be put down by force of arms. The Petrograd Chief of Police, Vasiliev, knew who all the revolutionary ringleaders were, but did not have enough funds to bride them.

In North Russia, Admiral Katalinskiy, naval commander at Murmansk, was reported to have been murdered by revolutionary sailors. He was later replaced by Kapitan Vassilago.

On 24 February, at Petrograd, French Ambassador Paleologue met with Italian Ambassador Carlotti, informing him that “… automatic reconstruction is impossible in a country like Russia, where no manifestation of political or social activity escapes the interference, supervision or strangling grip of the central authority, and the whole life of a nation is the slave of an omnipotent bureaucracy …”

On the Romanian Front, the Germans took the heights of Magyaros, northwest of Ocna in Moldavia, capturing 1,000 Russians prisoners.

On 26 February, at Petrograd, there were small scale disturbances throughout the city. Minister of War, General M.A. Belyaev, and General S.S. Khabalov, commanding troops in the capital, began organizing the defense of the city by the use of 3,500 police and 3,200 mounted Cossacks. There were more than 300,000 troops quartered in and around the city, most of whom had nothing to do except listen to anti-government propaganda.

On the Romanian Front, the Germans took Russian positions and 1,300 prisoners near Jakobeny. The food situation in Moldavia was becoming critical. The Romanian army was rationed below subsistence level. There was starvation among the civilian population and an epidemic of typhus.

On 27 February, at Petrograd, opening of the Fifth State Duma. The opening sessions were filled with vicious attacks on Interior Minister Protopopov. Agriculture Minister A.A. Rittikh reported that the food supply organization was in a state of chaos. The Tsar had decided to attend the Duma and proclaim his will to grant a responsible Ministry, but appears to have changed his mind and left for Stavka before doing so.

If the Tsar had spoken some meaningful words to the Duma, he may have been able to save the Romanov dynasty, but the moral and political isolation of the Tsar and the Empress made it impossible for them to grant such rights to the common people. In their minds the monarchy and autocracy was ordained by God. In Petrograd, students demonstrated in the streets, over 89,000 workers in fifty six key factories went out on strike.

On 28 February, General A.F. Ragoza took his 4th Army Staff from his Western Front command to form a new Russian 4th Army, placed between the 9th and 6th Armies on the Romanian Front.

At Petrograd, workers re-established a factory defense force (known as Red Guards) by a vote at a secret meeting of the Workers' and Soldiers' Soviets (Councils).

During February, there have been increases in Russian food prices since December 1916, with sausage up 50%, milk by 40%, potatoes by 25% and bread up by 15%.

In North Russia, the Arkhangelsk to Vologda railway line averaged forty trains daily, with seventeen wagons per train prior to March. After November 1917, the daily average was only ten trains per day, with eleven cars per train.

During March, arrival of British airmen and aircraft at the Moscow Aviation School. In April-May they moved to Kiev, where they formed an aviation detachment, with a reconnaissance section with five Sopwith 1½ Strutters, an artillery section with five B.E.2c types, and a fighter section with five Vickers F.B.19s.

On 2 March, on the Northern Front, the Germans claimed successes around Riga.

On the Southwest Front, heavy fighting continued in Bukowina. French General Berthelot left Odessa for Jasi in Romania.