1917 Russian revolutions ; 1917 Russian revolutions: Success, collapse and today’s consequences

International audience ; This contribution proposes a narrative and an analysis of the 1917 Russian revolution, as the first and only proletarian revolution in the world history that succeeded – temporarily. We will use an historical and class perspective with several references from Marxist authors, including actors in the event, with the idea that late Marx and Engels started to consider the idea that Russia could achieve socialism. As a long preamble, we present the variety of the conceptions of the Russian revolution, and we discuss how Russia was situated within the international power relationships, as a weak power comparing to Britain, France or the United States. The paper is divided in two parts. First we discuss the February revolution with the collapse of Czarism and the establishment of a dual power. We analyze how the Bolshevik party stood for transforming the war into revolution, and how this happened when the workers overthrew Czarism. This led to a paradox with a dual power: the provisional government and the Soviets. Second we discuss how the revolution was achieved from September to November, with the majority won by the Bolshevik party in Petrograd soviet, with the democratic conference of the government, with the insurrection that gave the power to the Soviets and then to the Bolshevik party, and finally with the first measures of the new government. We will conclude that this revolution was finally defeated, and that it is due both to international events, which include the failure of European revolutions, and to internal issues, which include the bureaucratization of the power.