1917 was a big year for Russia.

It would endure hunger, World War, Revolution, and two government takeovers.

The result was Civil War, and eventually, Communism.

Prior to the 1900’s, the majority of Russia’s population were poor, peasant farmers.

Russia was a monarchy, ruled by Tsars, who had absolute power.

The monarchy failed to address the persistent poverty and hunger affecting the peasants and the emerging working class.

Writings by Karl Marx, supporting a classless society, inspired revolutionary ideas among protestors.

Russia entered World War I in 1914, which disrupted its fragile economy and strained infrastructure.

As the war dragged on, Russia suffered a series of major defeats, sapping morale on the home front.

When February 1917 arrives, the citizens of the Russian capital, Petrograd, have had enough.

Protests spreads across the city, with government soldiers eventually joining in.

On March 2, 1917 Tsar Nicholas II, of the Romanov dynasty, has no choice but to step down.

People celebrate the end of the monarchy by destroying symbols of power.

Tsarist statues are toppled and the Romanov family’s double-headed eagles are torn down.

A provisional government is formed, made up of various political parties plan to hold democratic elections.

In Petrograd, a workers’ council, or “soviet,” is formed as well, and serves as a watchdog over the Provisional Government. The two bodies share power.

The Bolshevik Party, consisting of radical Socialists, appeals to the working class’s need for land and food, and it promises to end the War.

Led by the charismatic Vladimir Lenin, the Bolsheviks don’t believe the Provisional Government represents the majority of the people.

In April 1917, Lenin returns to Petrograd after years of exile in Switzerland.

Chaos builds across Russia.

Peasants seize land, workers take control of factories, and soldiers desert the war front.

Lenin and the Bolsheviks take advantage of the chaos and call for the overthrow the government.

On October 26, the Bolsheviks storm the government’s Winter Palace in Petrograd, and seize power.

Lenin and his supporters take control without sharing power across political parties, and the Bolsheviks eventually become the Communist Party.

The 1917 Revolutions lead to the creation of the Soviet Union, the world’s first Communist State.

The Soviet Union becomes an ideological and political adversary to the United States and the democracies of Western Europe until its dissolution in 1991.