4. In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?
The first part of the revolution began in February 1917. Lack of food caused riots in Petrograd on February 24 and culminated in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II on March 2. The return on November 7, 1917 of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin started a nearly bloodless uprising against the ineffective provisional government.
So why call it the October Revolution? At the time Russia was still using the Julian Calendar, instead of the Gregorian Calendar that the rest of Europe had been adopting since 1582. There is a ten day difference between the two calendars.
