The Russian Revolution
Food shortages and war losses brought crowds into the streets of Petrograd in February 1917 and forced Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate. In October the Bolsheviks under Lenin seized power, setting off a civil war and leading to the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922.
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What happened
Three years of war had brought Russia defeat at the front, inflation and bread queues at home. In February 1917 (March in the Western calendar) strikes and food riots in Petrograd, the capital, turned into revolution when soldiers refused to fire on the crowds and joined them instead. Within days Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, ending more than 300 years of Romanov rule.
Power was split between a liberal Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet of workers' and soldiers' deputies. The government's decision to keep fighting the war cost it support, while Vladimir Lenin, back from exile, promised 'peace, land and bread'.
On 25 October (7 November) 1917 the Bolsheviks seized the Winter Palace and key points of the city in a largely bloodless coup. They pulled Russia out of the war, nationalised land and industry, and banned rival parties. A brutal civil war followed until 1922, ending in Bolshevik victory and the founding of the Soviet Union, the world's first communist state, which would shape global politics for most of the century.
Part of a collection
- Communist revolutions and coups. How communist parties came to power around the world: in mass uprisings, after long civil wars, and in quiet coups backed by the army.
Around the same time
- The Battle of the Somme, Somme, France, 1916
- The Panama Canal opens, Panama Canal Zone, 1904 to 1914
- The Golden Twenties, Berlin, Germany, 1924 to 1929
- The San Francisco earthquake and fire, San Francisco, USA, 1906
Earlier: The Battle of the Somme, 1916 · Later: The Golden Twenties, 1924 to 1929
Further reading
Encyclopedia article: Russian Revolution (en.wikipedia.org)