1917: Russia’s year of revolution

A century ago the Russian Revolution – an attempt to create a more just nation –  sealed the fate of the Romanov dynasty, formed the Soviet Union and led to more than 70 years of communist rule. Today, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin’s embalmed body lies in a Moscow mausoleum

FEBRUARY REVOLUTION
Jan-Feb: Food riots and protests in capital Petrograd (St Petersburg) demand end of autocracy and of Russian participation in World War I

Feb 26-27: Soldiers mutiny after Tsar orders use of force to quell riots 

Duma (parliament) refuses Tsar’s order to disband, setting up Provisional Government led by liberals and moderate socialists 

Petrograd Soviet (elected council of workers and soldiers) created

Mar 2: Tsar forced to abdicate – ending 300- year-old Romanov dynasty

Aug: Army chief General Kornilov mounts coup to restore order and crush radicals in government


BOLSHEVIK RISE

Mar-Apr: Revolution gives rise to short-lived national unity across Russia

Apr: Lenin returns from exile, galvanizing small Bolshevik party into action with demands for bread, land, worker control and end to war

Jun: New government war offensive against Germany fails – troops desert en masse to join revolution

Coup put down after Red Guards (Bolshevik militia) come to aid of government led by Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky (right)

Sep: Bolsheviks gain majority in ruling committees of Petrograd and Moscow Soviets – Lenin urges Bolsheviks to seize power


OCTOBER REVOLUTION

Oct 24-25: Bolshevik forces stage coup engineered by Leon Trotsky (right), chairman of Petrograd Soviet

Signalled by blank shot from cruiser Aurora, Bolsheviks assault Winter Palace – seat of government – with little resistance. Kerensky flees

Oct 26: Council of People’s Commissars set up with Lenin as chairman, Trotsky as foreign commissar and Joseph Stalin (right) as commissar of nationalities


AFTERMATH

1918: Russia exits World War I, giving up vast tracts of territory under humiliating Treaty of Brest-Litovsk 

Treaty unleashes civil war between outraged anti-Bolshevik “White” Russians – backed by Western Allies – and Red Army. Bolsheviks execute Tsar and his family (left), fearing they will be liberated by insurgents

1922: Bolshevik victory brings end to civil war – conflict, disease and starvation claim around 10 million lives. Soviet Union declared

Cruiser Aurora 
Winter Palace
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Tsar Nicholas II

Note: All dates old style – Russia switched to Gregorian calendar in 1918.

Pictures: Getty Images
Source: Oxford University Press