The Russian Revolution: How the Romanovs Fell and the Soviet Union Was Born

In 1917, one of the world's largest empires collapsed with astonishing speed. The Romanov dynasty, which had ruled Russia for more than three centuries, was swept away by war, economic crisis, political unrest, and the breakdown of military loyalty.

In this episode, we explore the deeper causes of the Russian Revolution, from inequality and peasant land hunger to the Revolution of 1905 and the devastating impact of World War I. We follow the fall of Tsar Nicholas II, the rise and failure of the Provisional Government, Lenin's return to Russia, the Bolshevik seizure of power, and the brutal civil war that followed.

Finally, we examine how the revolutionary struggle transformed the former Russian Empire into the Soviet Union—and why the events of 1917 reshaped global politics for the rest of the twentieth century.