Today is International Women’s Day. Learn how women started the Russian Revolution 109 years ago.
While pretty much everyone knows about International Women’s Day, it’s not so widely known that the Russian February Revolution also started on March 8 (February 23 on the Julian calendar).
Strikes were a core revolutionary strategy. At the pre-arranged time workers would abandon their job sites and assemble at “meetings” in the street to wave signs, listen to speeches and participate in political chants. Socialist strikes like this served both to disrupt the tsarist economy and mobilize support for their own cause. The 1905 revolution had also started with strikes which escalated to open warfare. It failed, but the second major attempt succeeded.
Women workers in the capital Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) assembled in the streets to oppose rationing and demand an end to the deeply unpopular war. Popular opposition escalated into a general strike and armed militancy and, eight days later, Nicholas II abdicated.
I am three chapters into translating a 1947 biography of Stalin, which explains (from an apologists’s standpoint) the bolshevik methods. You can read it here.
As for what we did in the present day? Spazz got to spend most of the weekend playing in the yard while we cleaned and gardened.
With some naps in between, of course.
Last night I cooked steaks, and Spazz was right there to remind me that he’s my best friend.
For the holiday celebration itself, I booked a reservation at our favorite restaurant in Feodosia. We went out a couple of ours early to see the town center and the waterfront.
Military Updates
On Friday night Russia launched a massive attack on the Ukrainian military complex and dual-purpose energy infrastructure. In the past 24 hours there have been Russian long range strikes against 143 locations, including Ukrainian drone launch sites and assembly areas for their armed forces and foreign mercenaries.
Last night the Russian Ministry of Defense claims to have destroyed 72 incoming Ukrainian drones. A fire broke out at the Armavir oil facility as a result of the attack.
Today Putin called the conflict with Ukraine a “consequence of a systemic mistake by western countries.”
Other News
There are two new articles on my blog about the situation in Iran which you can read here and here.
Like I mentioned already, the third chapter of the Stalin biography is finished – Rokossovsky is coming along too and I hope to have that finished probably Tuesday, thank you for your patience.
This is a post shared from my Substack. Click here for more Russia News Reports
Ian Kummer
I now have a new YouTube channel that I will use to upload videos from my travels around Russia. Expect new content there soon. Please give me a follow here.
Also feel free to connect with me on Quora (I sometimes share unique articles there).
