The Russian Revolution had two distinct phases in 1917 — one in spring that overthrew the Tsar, one in autumn that brought the Bolsheviks to power. Their conventional names refer to old-calendar dates that don't match the actual months. The two phases are conventionally called?
Russia in 1917 still used the Julian calendar, which was 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar used in the rest of Europe. So the *February Revolution* actually occurred 8–16 March on our calendar; the *October Revolution* was on 7 November. The names stuck because that's what contemporary Russian newspapers called them. The Bolsheviks switched Russia to the Gregorian calendar in February 1918, which created a single fourteen-day jump in the recorded date when the new system took effect.
Read the full facts →The Russian Revolution was the political upheaval of 1917 that ended the Romanov dynasty, established the world's first communist state, and reshaped 20th-century global politics. Two distinct revolutions in February and October 1917 first overthrew the tsarist autocracy and then transferred power to the Bolshevik Party under Vladimir Lenin.
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