The Russian Revolution saw the weakening and overthrow of the Russian monarchy. Facing war fatigue, food shortages, and control by Grigori Rasputin, Czar Nicholas II abdicated his throne. A provisional government refused calls by the growing Petrograd Soviet to end the war and redistribute land, weakening it. Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks gained support calling for communism and defeated loosely organized democratic and monarchist forces in the subsequent civil war, allowing the communists to gain control of Russia.