Repudiation of debt at the Russian Revolution II, the last Emperor of Russia, was forced to sign his abdication and the end of the Russian Imperial Government and of the Romanov dynasty. The new government decided to continue the war, which meant more military spending. To increase budget revenues, a state monopoly was introduced on the sales of sugar, tea, matches, tobacco, and other consumer products. Still, the printing press remained the main source of revenues. This was a period of hyperinflation. The Provisional government was overthrown on October 24, 1917, and the Soviet government was created. The amounts of payments in default were enormous. Russian debt
Georgia within the Russian Empire sense that independence was within reach began to grow among the population. In 1917, as the Russian war effort collapsed, the February Revolution broke out in Saint Petersburg. The new Provisional Government established a branch to rule Transcaucasia called Ozakom (Extraordinary Committee for Transcaucasia). There was tension in Tbilisi since the mainly Russian soldiers in the city favoured the Bolsheviks, but as 1917 went on, the soldiers began to desert and head northwards, leaving Georgia virtually free from the Russian army and in the hands of the Mensheviks, who rejected the October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power in