A dark, bloody sunday afternoon ignites a passion inside the souls of the common people of Russia.

The months turns and time passes. The flame burns on. Revolution begins. The day turns red when the people rise up to finally get the representation they want.

The commoners were successful. November 4th is when the October Revolution is celebrated. It is celebrated in November but it actually happened in October, it is like that because the calendars have been switched since then. The holiday is celebrated in Russia. It is a normal working day except for a military parade that celebrates not the Revolution itself, but the parade from 1941 that was held in defiance for the German soldiers that had arrived on the outskirts of Russia.

 Konstantin Mogilevsky said it is not to be a celebration but an aim at “better understanding revolution”. Most ordinary Russians are not even aware of the holiday. Nonetheless it is still an important part of Russia’s history.

The Russian Revolution was actually 2 revolutions, the first of which happened in February and the second of which happened in October. Much had happened before to lead up to all that, starting with 1860 when the Russian population was about 60 million people. Most people were living in rural areas under a system called serfdom. This system was a complete failure and Czar Alexander II had issued the Emancipation Manifesto in 1861 which freed all of the serfs because of all the mortgages that threatened the country’s stability.  After the Emancipation the rural population started moving more toward the cities. The workforce had gotten much larger, but the government was unprepared.

There was a lack of houses and basic necessities, which caused the workers blamed it on the factory owners and the government officials. More problems arrived when the government turn non-russian people into Russians such as the Poles, Finns and Jews. The Jews suffered the most because their property was destroyed and many Jews were killed.In 1904 the Russo-Japanese war had begun.

Everyone expected the Russians to win the war, but the Japanese took Korea and parts of Manchuria. Czar Nicholas II was starting to lose control of the situation. There was lots more strikes and violence happening in Russia, things got so bad that terrorists assassinated the head of police. The secret police were trying to catch revolutionaries and other opposing parties,but it was not enough.A large spark for the October Revolution was the small protest called Bloody Sunday. It was an event that took place on January 22nd 1905. It all started when about 200,000 people went to the czars winter palace with a list of grievances and complaints that they thought he could solve. The czar was not there though and the officials at the palace opened fire.

The revolt ended in a bloody massacre in St. Petersburg. Czar officials say there were around 130 casualties and around 3000 injuries.More and more problems were arising and Czar Nicholas II could not do anything and was losing more and more hope from the people. Things got even worse when Russia completely lost the war to the Japanese and were forced to sign an unfavorable peace treaty.

Nicholas had decided to call a national assembly, but when people found out that it was only to give suggestions they had a general strike. The strike was the most successful in Russia’s history as it shut down railroads and factories. After 8 days the czar published the October Manifesto which gave rights and liberties to people. Most people were satisfied except for the extremists.The revolutions started as a way to remove Nicholas II from his position as Czar.

The Bolsheviks, being led by Vladimir Lenin, were pressing for a new leader. The Bolshevik was the majority movement. Karl Marx’s ideas were the foundation for the revolution.

Much of the revolution was done in exile.  The revolution lasted one day. It was an armed revolt in Petrograd. During the revolution World War 1 was also going on. Czar Nicholas II was replaced with a democratically minded government. The allies had to recognize the new government so that Russia could keep its place in the war.