Russian Revolution
Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd, establishing the world's first communist government
November 07, 1917
Ten Days That Shook the World
On the night of October 25 to 26, 1917, using the old Russian calendar, Bolshevik forces led by Vladimir Lenin seized power in Petrograd, the capital of Russia. This event, known as the October Revolution, overthrew the Provisional Government that had ruled Russia since Tsar Nicholas II's abdication in February 1917. The Bolsheviks, a faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, had been planning the seizure for weeks under the direction of Leon Trotsky, who organized the Military Revolutionary Committee. Soldiers and sailors loyal to the Bolsheviks occupied key locations across the city, including the telegraph office, railway stations, and bridges. The Winter Palace, where the Provisional Government met, fell with little resistance.
Why the Revolution Happened
Russia in 1917 was in a state of profound crisis. World War I had killed millions of Russian soldiers and caused widespread hunger and economic collapse on the home front. The February Revolution had overthrown the tsar, but the Provisional Government made the fatal decision to continue the war. The Bolsheviks offered a simple and powerful message: immediate peace, land for the peasants, and bread for the workers. Lenin returned from exile in a sealed train provided by Germany, which correctly calculated that a Bolshevik revolution would take Russia out of the war. The Bolsheviks won significant support in the Soviets, the workers' and soldiers' councils that had sprung up across the country.
The Soviet Union and Its Global Impact
The Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in March 1918, ending Russian participation in World War I at enormous territorial cost. A brutal civil war followed, lasting until 1922, when the Bolsheviks had defeated their opponents and founded the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The Soviet Union became the world's first communist state and remained a global superpower until its dissolution in 1991. The 1917 revolution inspired communist movements worldwide and was the central fact around which the Cold War was organized. Its legacy, including both its utopian aspirations and its catastrophic human costs under Stalin's rule, remains deeply debated by historians and political thinkers.