Land Decree abolishes landlord property rights

Armed demonstrations by workers and soldiers in Petrograd demanded that the soviets take power. The Bolshevik leadership did not consider an insurrection ready, and the demonstrations were...

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 new government declared equality and sovereignty for the peoples of Russia, a right to free self-determination up to separation, abolition of national and religious privilege, and free development...

The Central Rada’s Third Universal proclaimed the Ukrainian People’s Republic in a federal relationship with a future Russian republic. Ukrainian political leaders asserted national agency amid...

Sovnarkom recognized Finland’s independence after its declaration of separation from Russia. The decision gave practical expression to the proclaimed right of national self-determination, although the...

Sovnarkom created the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (Cheka) to combat counterrevolution and sabotage (7 December Julian; 20 December Gregorian). The institution became a tool of political...

The Council of People’s Commissars decreed the organization of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army. The force drew on volunteers and, increasingly, conscription and former imperial officers. Its...