property was seized and often given to the lower-classes.

At that time, the vast majority of the Soviet population lived in the countryside, and it was there that the Communists' radical leveling of society was most keenly felt. Wealthier peasants had their land broken up to be handed over to state-controlled farms. Prior to the Revolution, the Bolsheviks had gained much support for their policy of breaking up large parcels of land and giving them to poorer peasants. Yet, having achieved power, they cynically went back on their promise and instead nationalized the land, which from now on would be run by the state. Many peasants resisted the new policy, and not just those with most to lose. The Cheka responded with the ruthless application of terror, executing opponents of the regime, both real and imagined, and forcibly seizing grain and other produce, which led to the first of the USSR's many man-made famines.

Life in Russia before the October Revolution was one of hard work and censorship.  After the revolution in 1917, the hard work and censorship remained with governmental cruelty as well.

Prior to the Bolshevik Revolution, land ownership was maintained by government-connected wealthy individuals, much like the feudal system in Europe.  Freedom of the press was non-existent, and the economy struggled to maintain any stability.  The disastrous losses of World War I haunted the country and ensured dismal morale throughout the populace.

After the October Revolution, which actually occurred in November 1917, there was little change in Russian society as a whole.  The press was still tightly regulated, and the economy struggled.  One of the major changes was the re-distribution of land.  Peasants were given de facto permission from the new government to divide the land previously owned by large landlords amongst themselves.  This allowed the peasants to farm the land as their own.  However, the poor economy failed to support them, leading in part to the Civil War.  Independence and criticism of the young government were not tolerated.  The Kronstadt Soviet Republic was a naval station traditionally serving as a revolutionary sector.  The Bolsheviks crushed the Republic and reintegrated it into greater Russia.

The communist regime put into place by the Bolsheviks remained until the fall of the USSR.  Average Russian citizens remained largely isolated from the advancements of Western societies.  Party officials and black markets allowed for some exposure to Western comforts.

Strictly speaking, the events of October 1917 constituted an insurrection rather than a revolution. Since February, Russia had been ruled by a dual power arrangement consisting of a predominantly liberal Provisional Government, and the Soviets, revolutionary councils representing groups such as workers, peasants and soldiers.

Most of those within the Russian political system were committed to the establishment of a Constituent Assembly, which was set to provide the country with its first ever democratically-elected government. However, the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Lenin, had other ideas. When the results of the Constituent Assembly elections came in, the Bolsheviks found that they had finished in second place behind the Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs).

Initially, the Bolsheviks had supported the Constituent Assembly, but their position changed over the course of 1917. They became increasingly radical, calling for all power to be given to the Soviets, where they had majority support. If this were to happen, then the Constituent Assembly, and the "bourgeois democracy" it represented, would effectively be superfluous. After the Assembly convened, it lasted for all of thirteen hours before it was formally dissolved at gunpoint by troops loyal to the Bolsheviks.

In the aftermath of the forced dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, power was formally transferred to the All-Russia Congress of Soviets. In fact, however, power gradually became concentrated in the hands of the Council of People's Commissars, or Sovnarkom, headed by Lenin, and consisting of a coalition of Bolsheviks and Left SRs. Over time, Sovnarkom became the most powerful organ of executive power in Russia. Gradually, the Left SRs were eased out of government as the Bolsheviks turned Russia into a one-party state.

After the October insurrection, the Russian system of government became more repressive, and the Bolsheviks under Lenin unleashed a campaign of terror against anyone perceived to be a threat to the regime. The extensive program of civil rights enacted after the February Revolution was systematically dismantled as the Bolsheviks consolidated their dictatorship. The growing centralization of power, combined with heightened repression, set the tone for Russia's subsequent political, social and economic development until the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.