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On November 7, 1917, members of the Bolshevik political party seized power in the capital of Russia, Petrograd (now St. Petersburg). This conflict, ultimately, led to a Bolshevik victory in the Russian civil war that followed, and the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1922. The October Revolution was actually the second Russian revolution of ...
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- Overview
- World War I and the decline of the Russian Empire
Corruption and inefficiency were widespread in the imperial government, and ethnic minorities were eager to escape Russian domination. Peasants, workers, and soldiers finally rose up after the enormous and largely pointless slaughter of World War I destroyed Russia’s economy as well as its prestige as a European power.
Russian Revolution of 1905
Learn about the uprising that laid the foundation for the 1917 revolution.
World War I
Learn about World War I, an important catalyst for the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Why is it called the October Revolution if it took place in November?
Centuries of virtually unchecked Russian expansion in Asia ended with an embarrassing defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05). This military reverse shattered Russia’s dreams of establishing hegemony over the whole of Asia, but it also contributed to a wave of domestic unrest. The Revolution of 1905 compelled Nicholas II to issue the October Manifesto, which ostensibly transformed Russia from an unlimited autocracy into a constitutional monarchy. The tsar’s reactionary policies, including the occasional dissolution of the Duma, or Russian parliament, the chief fruit of the 1905 revolution, had spread dissatisfaction even to moderate elements of the nobility. The Russian Empire’s many ethnic minorities grew increasingly restive under Russian domination.
Despite some reforms that followed the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian army in 1914 was ill-equipped to fight a major war, and neither the political nor the military leadership was up to the standard required. Nevertheless the army fought bravely in World War I, and both soldiers and junior officers showed remarkable qualities. The Russian invasion of East Prussia in August 1914 was defeated by Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff at Tannenberg, but it required the Germans to send reinforcements from the Western Front and so saved France from defeat and made possible the victory on the Marne. The campaigns of 1915 and 1916 on the Eastern Front brought terrible casualties to the Russian forces, which at times did not even have sufficient rifles. As late as July 1916, however, the Russian army was capable of making a successful offensive under Gen. Aleksey Brusilov in Volhynia and Bukovina.
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Feb 9, 2010 · Bolshevik Russia, later renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was the world’s first Marxist state. Born Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov in 1870, Lenin was drawn to the revolutionary ...
Nov 7, 2011 · On Nov. 7, 1917, Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution took place as forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky. The provisional government came to power after the February Revolution resulted in the Russian monarchy being overthrown in March 1917. Weak and unpopular, the provisional government drew ...
What caused the Russian Revolution? By 1917 there was no love lost between the imperial family and the Russian people. The government was rife with corruption, food was scarce, and World War I had devastated both the Russian economy and the country’s reputation as a military powerhouse. Yeah, the Romanov dynasty had lasted 300 years—but ...
- 3 min
Oct 26, 2021 · On 23 February (by the old-style Russian calendar, or 8 March, by the Western calendar) 1917, 90,000 textile workers went on strike. By the next day, half of the industrial workers in St. Petersburg were on strike. By the third day, the number had risen to almost a quarter of a million. Defeats Lead to Disaster.
