The collapse of Tsarist Russia in 1917 and the Bolshevik seizure of power — producing, after a devastating civil war, the Soviet Union, the world's first communist state, and reshaping global politics for the remainder of the 20th century.
The Russian Revolution happened twice in 1917, and the second time was a coup dressed as a revolution. The February Revolution that overthrew the Tsar was genuinely popular — bread riots, mutinous soldiers, a dynasty that had exhausted its legitimacy. The October Revolution that brought Lenin and the Bolsheviks to power was something more specific: a disciplined minority seizing the state in the name of a majority they claimed to represent. Understanding both events, and the civil war that followed, is essential for understanding why the 20th century took the shape it did.