- February Revolution
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(1848) Rioting in France that led to the overthrow of the July Monarchy and precipitated the Revolutions of 1848.In 1840–49 there was a flowering of socialist thought begun by Charles Fourier, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and others that fueled urban workers' discontent. A major recession in 1846–47 added to popular unrest, as did the increasing arbitrariness of King Louis-Philippe. An opposition campaign brought police action, and crowds of students and workers gathered in the streets and clashed with police. The king tried to appease the demonstrators, but, when an army unit killed 40 of them, he abdicated rather than face civil war.
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(March 8–12 [Feb. 24–28, old style], 1917), the first stage of the Russian Revolution of 1917, in which the monarchy was overthrown and replaced by the Provisional Government. This government, intended as an interim stage in the creation of a permanent democratic-parliamentary polity for Russia, was in turn overthrown by the Bolsheviks in October (November, new style) of the same year. The October (November) Revolution, sometimes called the Bolshevik Revolution, established the Soviet Communist government in Russia. See Russian Revolution of 1917. (Russian Revolution of 1917)* * *
Universalium. 2010.