The Russian Revolution and Civil War

The Russian Revolution and Civil War (1917—1922) was the defining event of the twentieth century: it destroyed the Russian Empire and gave the world its first communist regime. It began on 23 February 1917 with demonstrations by Petrograd women workers; within a week Tsar Nicholas II abdicated. In October Lenin's Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government by storming the Winter Palace; in March 1918 they signed the "obscene" Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany. The four-year Civil War ended with Bolshevik victory over the White armies of Kolchak, Denikin, Yudenich and Wrangel. In 1922 the Soviet Union was formed.