ABSTRACT
Revolution entails a fundamental transformation of political, social, and economic institutions and of dominant myths and values. In this sense, the Russian Revolution was a series of transformations rather than an integrated process. In fact, one interpretation holds that this revolution should be understood principally in terms of the dislocations engendered by the initial stage of industrialization in Russia, which began in earnest in the 1890s and continued through the 1920s. But even if approached with a traditional emphasis on the events of 1917, the Russian Revolution was multifaceted. Politically, it encompassed two major conflagrations: the February Revolution, during which the government of Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown; and the October Revolution, when the Bolshevik (later renamed Communist) Party seized power in the name of the Petrograd Soviet. Socially, the Russian Revolution of 1917 emerged as a conflict between, on the one hand, the aspirations of the various political parties who represented the professional and landholding classes and, on the other, those of the overwhelming majority in the country, the peasants and workers.
