The October Revolution (November 7, 1917). The Day Russia Changed Its Century

Petrograd, late autumn 1917. The city lies in anxious silence. The streets are cold, dark, and tense. Ice drifts along the Neva River, and on the horizon stands the cruiser Aurora. Its guns are loaded not for battle — but for a signal that will mark the beginning of a new era.

The Last Days of the Old World

By 1917, the Russian Empire had already ceased to exist. In February, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, and the Provisional Government took power. But the country was collapsing. The First World War had drained the army and the economy, food was scarce, and in the countryside peasants began seizing land.

In Petrograd, power was divided between two forces — the liberal Provisional Government and the Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, where the Bolsheviks were gaining influence. The capital became a powder keg, waiting for a spark.

“All Power to the Soviets”

On November 7 (October 25, Old Style), the Bolsheviks launched an uprising. The assault on the Winter Palace would later become legend, though in reality it was brief and almost bloodless. The Provisional Government, meeting inside the palace, was surrounded and arrested by the Red Guards. The cruiser Aurora fired a blank shot — the signal for the storm to begin.

That night, the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets declared that power had passed to the Soviets. A new government was formed — the Council of People’s Commissars, headed by Vladimir Lenin.

The Beginning of a New Era

From that moment, a new state was born — Soviet Russia. Lenin issued the Decrees on Peace and Land, promising soldiers an end to war and peasants their own soil. Yet peace did not come. Instead, civil war erupted, tearing the country apart and claiming millions of lives.

The October Revolution divided Russia and the world. For some, it became a symbol of liberation and social justice; for others — the beginning of dictatorship and terror. But one fact is certain: on November 7, 1917, the old world of empires and monarchs ended.

The Symbol of the 20th Century

The revolution in Petrograd did not just change Russia — it changed history. It created the first socialist state in the world, inspired movements across continents, and set the course of the entire twentieth century — from Europe to China to Cuba.

From the frozen bridges of Petrograd, where workers and soldiers marched with red flags, began a story that would last more than seventy years. On that night, no one could know that the blank shot from Aurora would divide history into “before” and “after.”

November 7, 1917 — the day Russia did not merely change its government.It changed its destiny.