Story Highlights
- historical event: It is called the October Revolution because, according to the Julian calendar which was then in use in Russia, today’s date corresponds with 25 October.
This day in 1917 marked the beginning of the October Revolution in Russia. It is called the October Revolution because, according to the Julian calendar which was then in use in Russia, today’s date corresponds with 25 October. It followed after the February Revolution of the same year. That revolution was of a bourgeois type, and brought to power a provisional government headed by Kerensky.
The October Revolution was started by Bolsheviks, a communist faction, who on this day seized the Winter Palace in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), the seat of the provisional government. The signal for the beginning of the revolution was a shot from the cruiser Aurora, moored at the Petrograd harbor. Although Soviet historiography developed a dramatic story about the beginning of the revolution, there was actually no major fighting. The Bolsheviks did not encounter any substantial resistance.
