Women Lead Revolution: St. Petersburg Protests Topple the Tsar
Thousands of women textile workers marched through the streets of Petrograd on March 8, 1917, demanding bread and an end to the war. Their protest, which began on International Women's Day, triggered a chain reaction that no one anticipated. Male factory workers joined the next day. Soldiers from the Petrograd garrison refused orders to fire on the crowds. Within a week, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, ending 304 years of Romanov rule. The February Revolution, as it is known under the Julian calendar Russia still used, was not organized by any political party. The Bolsheviks were caught off guard. Lenin was in exile in Switzerland. The Provisional Government that replaced the Tsar lasted only eight months before the Bolsheviks seized power in October. But the initial spark came from working women who were simply hungry and exhausted by three years of war. Their march became one of the most consequential spontaneous protests in human history.
March 8, 1917
109 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on March 8
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