Russian Revolution

American  

[ruhsh-uhn rev-uh-loo-shuhn] / ˈrʌʃ ən ˌrɛv əˈlu ʃən /

noun

1. Also called February Revolution.  the uprising in Russia in March 1917 (February,Old Style ) in which the czarist government collapsed and a provisional government was established.

2. Also called October Revolution.  a coup d'état in November 1917 (October,Old Style ), which overthrew the provisional Russian government established eight months earlier, and which resulted in the formation of the Soviet government.

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Russian Revolution British  

noun

1. Also called (reckoned by the Julian calendar): February Revolution.  the uprising in Russia in March 1917, during which the tsar abdicated and a provisional government was set up

2. Also called (reckoned by the Julian calendar): October Revolution.  the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks under Lenin in November 1917, transforming the uprising into a socialist revolution. This was followed by a period of civil war against counter-revolutionary armies (1918–22), which ended in eventual victory for the Bolsheviks

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Russian Revolution Cultural  

1. A revolution in Russia in 1917–1918, also called the October Revolution, that overthrew the czar and brought the Bolsheviks, a Communist party led by Lenin, to power. The revolution was encouraged by Russian setbacks in World War I.

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Example Sentences

At the same time, he believes Jewish assimilation is a fantasy, as improbable as the socialism that, he contends, revealed its true nature in the Russian Revolution.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 16, 2026

He compared our present moment to what was happening a century ago in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution.

From Salon • Oct. 5, 2025

When he penned his eyewitness account of the 1917 Russian Revolution, American journalist John Reed famously titled it Ten Days That Shook The World.

From BBC • Feb. 19, 2025

An adaptation of Amor Towles’s novel, it stars McGregor as Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, a mustached aristocrat sentenced to house arrest in a luxury hotel in the years following the Russian Revolution.

From New York Times • Mar. 31, 2024

The economic, political, and social forces that unloosed themselves on the streets of Petrograd and launched the Russian Revolution were vastly more complex than Alexei’s hemophilia or Rasputin’s machinations.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee