1917 Russian Revolutions in Newspaper Reports

2017 marked the centenary of one of the most important historical events of the twentieth century: the Russian revolutionary year of 1917. The so-called "February Revolution" (according to the Julian and Gregorian calendars starting on 23 February and 8 March respectively) meant the end of centuries of tsarist rule in Russia. Only a few months later, the “October Revolution” (25 October  and 7 November) first led to the communist grasp for power in Russia, the Russian capitulation in the Great War and, finally, the Russian Civil War. The politics of both the Soviet and the post-Soviet eras continue to have a decisive influence on world affairs to this day.

The political and social changes and upheavals in Russia in 1917 are particularly well reflected in international newspaper reports. The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek therefore took the anniversary of 2017 as an opportunity to digitise a newspaper article every day on the revolutionary events of 100 years ago and to publish it in the former Virtual Library for Eastern Europe (ViFaOst). The complete collection of articles can be found there, sorted according to months.

The collected articles come from the following newspapers: Izvestija (Russia), Le Temps (France), Münchner Neueste Nachrichten (Germany), Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland), Novoe Vremja (Russia), Pravda (Russia), The Times (Great Britain), Vorwärts (Germany) etc.

The thematic dossier "The 1917 Russian Revolutions in Newspaper Reports" is supervised by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. If you have any queries or comments, please do not hesitate to contact the editorial staff!

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The thematic dossier "The 1917 Russian Revolutions in Newspaper Reports" is intended as a newspaper review that deliberately does not seek to provide any historical interpretations or approaches to research, etc. Rather, the reading of valuable source material is intended to encourage people to think for themselves. For this purpose, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek provides Russian and international newspaper articles, in a representative selection and without claiming completeness.

The service is supported by the company East View Information Services which kindly approved the supply of individual pages of Izvestia and Pravda in free Open Access mode. Within Germany, both newspapers are fully accessible via the national licensing system.

East View Information Services

National licenses (in German)