This article is part of the
History of Russia series.
 Early Russian East Slavs
 Kievan Rus'
 Khazaria
 Muscovy
 Mongol invasion of Russia
 Imperial Russia
 Russian Revolution
 Russian Civil War
 History of the Soviet Union: Part I
 History of the Soviet Union: Part II
 Collapse of the Soviet Union
 Commonwealth of Independent States
 History of post-communist Russia
 List of famous Russians

The Russian Revolution (the final stage also known as October Revolution) was a political movement in Russia that climaxed in 1917 with the overthrow of the provisional government that had replaced the Russian Tsar system and led to the establishment of the Soviet Union, which lasted until the Russian Revolution of 1991. The Russian Revolution was led by Vladimir Lenin based upon the ideas of Karl Marx and marked the beginning of the spread of communism in the twentieth century.

On November 7, 1917, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin led his leftist revolutionaries in a nearly bloodless coup d'état against the ineffective Kerensky Provisional Government (Russia was still using the Julian Calendar at the time, so period references show an October 25 date).

Table of contents
1 Brief Chronology leading to Revolution of 1917
2 Bibliography

Brief Chronology leading to Revolution of 1917

Dates are correct for the Julian calendar, which was used in Russia until 1918. It was twelve days behind the Gregorian calendar during the 19th century and a day further behind during the 20th century.

*1881 - Alexander II assassinated; start of reign of Alexander III January - Bloody Sunday in St Petersburg.
June - Battleship Potemkin uprising at Odessa on the Black Sea (see movieThe Battleship Potemkin)
October - general strike, St Petersburg Soviet formed
- Imperial agreement on elections to the State Duma - October Manifesto

More detailed but still brief chronology of Revolution of 1917

January

Strikes and unrest in Petrograd

February

The February Revolution
26th -- 50 demonstrators killed in Znamenskaya Square
27th -- Troops refuse to fire on demonstrators, desertions. Prison, court and
Okhranka buildings set on fire. Garrison joins revolutionaries.
Petrograd Soviet formed.

March

1st -- Order No.1 of the Petrograd Soviet
2nd -- Nicholas II abdicates. Provisional Government formed under Prime Minister Prince Lvov
April

3rd -- Return of Lenin to Russia. He publishes his April Theses.
20th -- Miliukov's note published. Provisional Government falls

May

5th -- New Provisional Government formed. Kerensky minister of war and navy

June

3rd -- First All-Russian Congress of Soviets in Petrograd. Closed on 24th
16th -- Kerensky orders offensive against Austro-Hungarian forces. Initial success

July

2nd -- Russian offensive ends. Trotsky joins Bolsheviks
4th -- Anti-government demonstrations in Petrograd
6th -- German and Austro-Hungarian counter-attack. Russians retreat in panic, sacking the town of Tarnopol. Arrest of Bolshevik leaders ordered
7th -- Lvov resigns. Kerensky is new PM
22nd -- Trotsky and Lunacharskii arrested

August

26th -- Second coalition government ends
27th -- General Lavr Kornilov failed coup. Kornilov arrested and imprisoned

September

1st -- Russia declared a republic
4th -- Trotsky and others freed. Trotsky becomes head of Petrograd Soviet
25th -- Third coalition government formed

October


Vladimir Lenin, leader of the October Bolshevik Revolution

10th -- Bolshevik Central Committee meeting approves armed uprising
11th -- Congress of Soviets of the Northern Region, until 13th
20th -- First meeting of the Military Revolutionary Committee of Petrograd
25th -- MRC directs armed workers and soldiers to capture key buidings in Petrograd. Winter Palace attacked at 9.40pm. Kerensky flees Petrograd
26th -- Second Congress of Soviets. Mensheviks and right SR delegates walk-out in protest at coup. Decrees on peace and land reform. Soviet government declared - the Council of People's Commissars; Bolshevik dominated with Lenin as chairman

Bibliography