La Domenica del Corriere (The Sunday Courier) of March 25 to April 1, 1917, an illustrated weekly supplement to Corriere della Sera, published in Milan, Italy. The front and back covers are full-page illustrations by the great Italian illustrator Achille Beltrame. The front cover depicts Russian troops cheering the deputies entering the Duma after what the paper calls, 'the Russian revolt for freedom and the war.' The secondary story was on the fall of Baghdad to British troops.

a Domenica del Corriere

25 Marzo — 1 Aprile 1917.

L'insurrezione russa per la libertà e la guerra. Le truppe acclamano i deputati che entrano alla Duma.

The Russian revolt for freedom and the war. The troops cheer the deputies entering the Duma.

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The assassination of Rasputin in December of 1916 by nobles and rightwing members of the Duma had demonstrated the isolation of Tsar Nicholas and his family. At the beginning of 1917, the army was better equipped than it had been, but discipline was breaking down.

Food riots and strikes led to mass demonstrations in Petrograd on March 8 (February 23 Old Style) and 9, 1917, and to a three-day general strike the next day. After 60 marchers were killed by soldiers on March 10, the Volinsk Regiment came out in favor of the demonstrators. Nearly all Petrograd garrisons joined the revolt, which grew from 660 soldiers on March 11 to 170,000 on the 14th. Seeking leadership, demonstrators and soldiers marched to the Duma, which formed a provisional government.

As the government was shaped, socialists, Bolsheviks, and other leftists formed a Soviet. Duma and Soviet would share and dispute power in the coming months, but in March they agreed on freedom for minorities and the press, and that the Tsar must abdicate. By then powerless, he did so on March 15.

That same day, the Petrograd Soviet had issued Order Number One, democratizing the army, providing amnesty for deserters, and providing for the creation of soviets within the military, effectively giving itself command of much of the army. The government remained committed to the war, but when it reaffirmed its treaty obligations to the Allies on May 1, mass demonstrations forced a change that brought Justice Minister Alexander Kerensky to the position of Minister of War.

The governmental and Soviet military measures were instrumental in one million soldiers leaving the front. What fight was left in the army was destroyed in Kerensky's Offensive that began on July 1 and collapsed before the German and Austro-Hungarian counter-attack of July 19. 40,000 Russians were killed in Russia's last offensive of the war.

Start Date: 1917-03-08

February Russian Revolution (March N.S.) is part of The Russian Revolution.

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