This section covers the events from February to July 1917. In it we will be asking why and how the protests against shortages of bread turned into a full-scale revolution in February 1917? How did people react to the downfall of the Tsar? What were the aims of the Provsional Government and the Soviet? How did their Dual Power system work in the spring of 1917? How far did either represent the hopes and expectations of the peasants, workers, national minorities, sailor and soldiers? How should we account for the popular appeal of Lenin's April Theses among those who rallied to the Bolsheviks? And why did the authority of the Provisional Government collpase so quickly in the summer months of 1917? You will find some answers to these question in this sectiom, which also contains extracts from my books and photographs from 1917. Register here to get information on accessing more materials including my responses to exam questions on these themes.
Demonstration in St Petersburg, International Women's Day, 23 February 1917
Today the Russian Revolution is linked in people's minds to the events of October 1917. But the Bolshevik seizure of power was a coup d'état which depended on the social forces unleashed by the February Revolution, the real revolution of 1917.