Remains to be answered. What seems to be clear though is that Ukrainian blood has less slave genes than Russian one. Ukrainians are prepared to die for their freedom.
Depends if the cossacks stay loyal to the Tsar or not. If the cossacks side with the demonstrators, it's game over and the Bolsheviks occupy the Winter Palace and form a new government.
Like all revolutions the questions posed by the Russian Revolution are fascinating, particularly when one looks at post Soviet Russia. For example the Cossacks are very much back after decades of repression - indeed the Government has drafted in Cossacks to aid in Sochi.
They never went away. There's a vid on YouTube about the Kuban which tells proudly how the cossack host still identifies strongly with its military role. One of the occasional themes of the Figes book I mentioned was that the cossacks did not identify with the ordinary Russian peasants whom they considered lesser cattle. Explains a lot.
