Category: 2nd Weekly Edition

Mounting tensions cause setbacks for the Bolsheviks

1917 was characterized by massive change within Russia. Two revolutions took place in this year: the February revolution and the October Revolution. The February Revolution was triggered by riots over food shortages and bread prices on International Women’s Day. The revolution resulted in Tsar Nicolas II’s abdication, which officially put an end to the Romanov …

Continue reading Mounting tensions cause setbacks for the Bolsheviks

The “Opium of the People”

And then there were two… February 1917: Bolshevik law separates church and state. Starting with the February Revolution, the contention between the Orthodox Church and the Bolsheviks escalated. The Bolsheviks who came into power after the 1917 October Revolution were atheists who considered religion to be “opium of the people,” working against the interests of […]

It all started with bread

Female protesters in Petrograd (now St Petersburg) on 8 March 1917. Photograph: Fototeca Storica Nazionale/Getty Images Don’t mess with women’s bread.  From the beginning, the Tsar was warned that war would not be good for the republic. The state was fragile since the 1905 revolution. But Tsar had something to prove, he wanted the other…

It was the Best of Times and it was the Worst of Times

The revolution in Russia was the beginning and end of a lot of things but it truly is the events leading up and the fallout that hold great importance. Mass culture in particular was one of the areas that suffered greatly in the violence and sudden change of the revolution. Russia mass culture, including music, … Continue reading It was the Best of Times and it was the Worst of Times

The Conspiracy of General Kornilov

  This image features General Lavr Kornilov (August 18, 1870 – April 13 1918) who was a military intelligence officer, explorer, and general in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and the ensuing Russian Civil War. However, he is most notably remembered for his attempted coup d’état of Alexander Kerensky’s Provisional Government. Alexander Kerensky (May 4, 1881 – June 11, 1970) himself had planned … Continue reading The Conspiracy of General Kornilov