Sep 28, 2025 | In February 1917, workers and women marched for bread, peace, and equality. By October, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, had seized power — claiming to represent the people, but lacking broad support.
With fear of the Tsar’s return and clever propaganda, Lenin and his followers consolidated control. The dream of democracy was crushed almost overnight. What followed was a century of authoritarian rule, the rise of the Soviet Union, and a global Cold War.
Featuring insights from historian Sarah Badcock (University of Nottingham), journalist Ricardo Marquina, and DW historian Jaime González Arguedas, this report uncovers the real story behind 1917. Was it a revolution for the people — or a takeover in disguise?
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Laura Iglesias San Martín
Jaime González Arguedas
The February Revolution (known as such because of Russia's use of the Julian calendar until February 1918) began on March 8, 1917 (or February 23 on the Julian calendar), when demonstrators clamoring for bread took to the streets in the Russian capital of Petrograd (now called St. Petersburg).
The Russian Revolution of 1905 was said to be a major factor to the February Revolutions of 1917. The events of Bloody Sunday triggered a line of protests. A council of workers called the St. Petersburg Soviet was created in all this chaos, and the beginning of a communist political protest had begun.
Overview. The Russian Revolution took place in 1917, during the final phase of World War I. It removed Russia from the war and brought about the transformation of the Russian Empire into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), replacing Russia's traditional monarchy with the world's first Communist state.
1917 Russian Revolution. The 1917 Russian Revolution was not, as many people suppose, one well organised event in which Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown and Lenin and the Bolsheviks took power.
Bolshevik, ( Russian: “One of the Majority”) , plural Bolsheviks, or Bolsheviki, member of a wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party, which, led by Lenin, seized control of the government in Russia (October 1917) and became the dominant political power.
The contradiction of feudalism, military capitalism, and imperial ambitions, along with an unambitious bourgeoisie, were the prelude to the Russian Revolution of 2017, explains Prof. Aleksandr Buzgalin of Moscow State University
