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Russia’s Year Zero: The true story behind the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917

By Oleg Yegorov, RBTH

 

In the space of just nine months in 1917 Russia underwent two revolutions, changing the country’s destiny forever. In February the Russian monarchy collapsed.

In October, squeezing out the moderate forces, the Bolsheviks seized power, leading to a bloody civil war. Subsequently, the Soviet government steered the country for 70 years.

“Once again that fatso Rodzianko wrote me some nonsense, to which I will not even respond.” This is how Russian Emperor Nicholas II reacted to troubling news delivered by Chairman of the State Duma Mikhail Rodzianko, who on Feb. 26, according to the Old Style calendar (March 11, according to the New Style), wrote that the situation in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) was critical: The capital was seized by popular revolt.

Rodzianko beseeched Nicholas, who was supreme commander (Russia was fighting in WWI and the emperor was the commander-in-chief), to introduce a constitutional monarchy, create a government responsible to the Duma and thus appease the protestors. The tsar, certain that the Petrograd garrison would suppress the revolt, ignored his requests. It would prove to be a fatal mistake.

 

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