Russian Revolutions of 1917

Date

March & November 1917 (February & October Revolutions, O.S.)

Category

Politics & governance

Region

Eastern Europe / Eurasia (Russia)

Era

Modern

Significance

Two revolutions in 1917 transformed Russia and world history.

The February Revolution (March, New Style) erupted amid wartime hardship, military defeats, and food shortages; on 15 March 1917 Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, ending three centuries of Romanov rule, and a Provisional Government took power alongside the Petrograd Soviet. The Provisional Government's decision to continue the war eroded its support. In the October Revolution of 25 October (7 November, New Style) 1917, Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd, establishing the world's first avowedly communist state. The Bolsheviks issued decrees on peace and land, dissolved the Constituent Assembly, and soon plunged the country into a civil war (1918–1922) against anti-Bolshevik 'White' forces and foreign interventionists. The revolution created the Soviet state, inspired communist and anti-colonial movements worldwide, and established an ideological divide that shaped twentieth-century geopolitics.

Empires active in March & November 1917 (February & October Revolutions, O.S.)

• Empire of Japan
  1868 CE – 1947 CE
• French Colonial Empire (Second)
  1830 CE – 1962 CE
• German Empire
  1871 CE – 1918 CE
• Russian Empire
  1721 CE – 1917 CE
• British Empire
  1583 CE – 1997 CE
• Spanish Empire
  1492 CE – 1976 CE

Related politics & governance events

• Sykes-Picot Agreement partitions the Ottoman Middle East
  16 May 1916
• Treaty of Versailles and the founding of the League of Nations
  28 June 1919 (in force 10 January 1920)
• The Xinhai Revolution and the fall of the Qing
  1911–1912 (Wuchang Uprising 10 October 1911; abdication 12 February 1912)
• Hitler's appointment and Nazi consolidation of power
  30 January 1933 – August 1934
• Stalin's Great Purge (Great Terror)
  1936–1938
• The Munich Agreement Cedes the Sudetenland
  1938

Further reading

October: The Story of the Russian Revolution

If you read one book

October: The Story of the Russian Revolution

China Miéville

Vivid, propulsive narrative of the 1917 revolution.

Get it on Amazon →

Also worth reading

• A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924 — Orlando FigesAmazon →
• The Russian Revolution: A New History — Sean McMeekinAmazon →

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