July Days expose a crisis of authority in Petrograd

Nicholas II abdicated during the February Revolution (15 March Gregorian; 2 March Julian). The Romanov monarchy, which had ruled a multiethnic empire through autocracy, land dispossession and...

A Provisional Government was formed after the Tsar’s abdication. It promised political freedoms but continued Russia’s participation in the First World War and postponed land redistribution and a...

Vladimir Lenin returned to Petrograd after traveling from Switzerland through Germany and Scandinavia. His return sharpened debate within the Bolshevik Party over whether to support the Provisional...

Lenin presented theses opposing support for the Provisional Government and calling for an end to the war, land transfer, and power to the soviets. The proposal linked domestic revolution to...

The Provisional Government launched a major offensive on the Eastern Front, hoping to sustain the alliance with Britain and France and restore military discipline. The operation collapsed amid war...

General Lavr Kornilov’s movement of troops toward Petrograd was framed by the government as a coup threat. Railway workers, soldiers and political activists helped obstruct the advance. The episode...

Bolshevik-led forces took key sites in Petrograd and arrested the Provisional Government’s remaining ministers. The event, called the October Revolution in the Julian calendar and dated 7 November...

The Second Congress of Soviets approved a new government, the Council of People’s Commissars (Sovnarkom), chaired by Lenin. The structure claimed authority through soviet representation, but political...

The Congress of Soviets issued the Decree on Peace, proposing negotiations without annexations or indemnities and urging peoples and governments to end the war. Its language appealed to soldiers and...

The Land Decree sanctioned the seizure of landed estates and the redistribution of land according to local peasant practice. It drew on peasant resolutions and met a long-standing demand against...