March 2017

The year 2017 marks the 100and anniversary of the russian revolutionone of the key events of the 20and century. The Russian Revolution “shook the world”, as the radical American journalist John Reed so aptly put it, because it led to the establishment of the Soviet Union, the world’s first socialistRead More →

On March 15, 1917, the day of his abdication, Tsar Nicholas II noted sadly and very briefly in his diary: “Around us there is betrayal, cowardice and deceit. “What is now happening in Russia,” wrote Leon Trotsky the next day, “will forever go down in history as one of itsRead More →

Women played a central role in the Russian Revolution, but their importance was largely erased from history after the Bolsheviks seized power. Historian Rochelle Ruthchild wants to change that. “Women took to the streets on International Women’s Day to protest. And that actually sparked the Russian Revolution which led toRead More →

What would have happened if the Mensheviks had come to power in Russia, instead of the Bolsheviks, 100 years ago? It is reasonable to ask. And there is a reasonable way to find an answer – a partial answer, perhaps, but truly an answer. The question is reasonable because inRead More →

The many people writing about the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution this year usually have to stop early in their work to explain why the February Revolution took place in March and the October Revolution in November. The reason is simple – Russia was on a different timeline atRead More →

Story Highlights The Russian Revolution began on International Women’s Day in 1917 A liberal government ruled for 8 months before communism took hold Moscow CNN — A hundred years ago, on Wednesday, a food shortage in Russia sparked riots in the streets of the capital Petrograd and sparked the RussianRead More →

The first day of the Russian Revolution – March 8 (February 23 in the old Russian calendar) – was International Women’s Day, an important day on the socialist calendar. At noon that day in 1917, tens of thousands of women, mostly women, were gathering on Nevsky Prospekt, the main avenueRead More →

On a damp night in July 1917, American journalist Arno Dosch-Fleurot joined protesters marching along Petrograd’s Nevsky Prospekt when shots suddenly rang out. Banners pleading for freedom and liberty crashed to the ground as blood stained the Russian capital’s hottest thoroughfare. After diving to hide in a gutter, the NewRead More →

The February Russian Revolution began on March 8, according to the New Style calendar, and ironically coincided with International Women’s Day. Russia Direct features eight revolutionary women who made history. Pictured: Inessa Armand, feminist and communist, figure of the revolutionary movement, Moscow, 1904. Photo: Wikimedia Commons The start of theRead More →

Jhe Russian revolution consisted of two revolutions in 1917 that ended the tsarist regime and eventually replaced it with a communist state. The first revolution was mainly centered in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) and overthrew Tsar Nicholas II. The second revolution was led by Vladimir Lenin and his Bolshevik party.Read More →

One hundred years ago, working women in St. Petersburg, Russia, began a strike on International Women’s Day that opened the struggle that quickly ended the 370-year reign of the Tsars and led in eight months to the first socialist state. A key factor was the change in consciousness of theRead More →