Russian Revolution

Black-and-white photograph of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin delivering a speech standing at a podium equipped with multiple microphones

20th Century

Why did Stalin commit a robbery? The bloody heist that made the dictator’s name

A mixed group of men and women in early‑20th‑century clothing gather around a table set with dishes, with a bearded man seated at the centre of the group.

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Did Rasputin really bring down the Tsars? The truth behind the dark legend of the Russian mystic. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Black-and-white portrait of a Vladimir Lenin.

20th Century

Why does Putin blame this infamous Russian revolutionary for Ukraine’s independence?

Period

Hotel Lux: the guesthouse of world revolution. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Hammer and sickle on a red flag

20th Century

Why did the Soviet Union adopt the hammer and sickle, and how did it become a symbol of communist revolution?

20th Century

Josef Stalin: the paranoid dictator who forged the Soviet Union into a superpower

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Video podcastThe West’s attempt to crush Bolshevik Russia. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Lenin's body lying in state in 1924

20th Century

The death of Lenin, a century on: the long afterlife of Russia’s pre-emiment revolutionary

Japanese soldiers and sailors disembark at Vladivostok, 22 August 1918. Of all the foreign interventions into the Russian civil war, the one from Japan was by far the largest, growing to 70,000 troops. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

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Britain’s Russian fiasco: Allied intervention in the Russian civil war. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Victims of the February Revolution are carried through the Field of Mars in Petrograd

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Russia's Civil WarWhy the 1917 uprisings descended into disaster. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Antony Beevor on the Russian revolution. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Are revolutions doomed to failure?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The execution of Louis XVI in the Place de la Revolution

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What is a revolution?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulianov

20th Century

Vladimir Lenin and his lust for power

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Editor’s pick: Lenin’s revolutionary train journey. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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The Russian revolution: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The last Russian royal family, Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra and their five children, were shot and bayonetted to death by their Bolshevik guards in the early hours of 17 July 1918. (Photo by Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

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The legacy of the Romanovs: how is the last Russian royal family remembered in Russia?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Lady Sybil Grey, an indomitable Englishwoman who, as a nurse in Russia, led a field hospital and had a grandstand view of the February 1917 revolution that toppled the tsar. (Illustration by Sue Gent for BBC History Magazine)

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The LibraryLady Sybil Grey: a lady in the line of fire. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Romanovs, 1913: Nicholas II with his wife and children. (Photo by Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

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QuizThe Romanovs. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Striking workers carry banners through the streets of Petrograd (St Petersburg) at the start of the February Revolution that brought the fall of the Russian monarchy the next month. (Getty Images)

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Russia’s revolutions: How 1917 shaped a century. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, depicted in an undated Communist poster. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

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The red dawn: the October Revolution. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Czar Nicholas II with family. (Getty Images)

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Books interview with Robert Service: "Nicholas II brought the Russian Revolution upon his own head". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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The Russian revolution and myths of ancient Egypt. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Photograph of Vladimir Lenin, 1901. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

First World War

Books interview with Catherine Merridale: "This was the most important railway journey made in the 20th century"

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Lenin and the Russian revolutions. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The family of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, c1910.

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Books interview with Helen Rappaport: the Romanov sisters. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The statue Worker and Kolkhoz Woman in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Getty Images)

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Communist Moscow. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.