They Voted. Then Lenin Opened Fire.

Russia held its first nationwide election under universal suffrage. More than forty million people voted. Lenin’s Bolsheviks did not win. A rival socialist party received the largest share of the vote, and Russia’s newly elected Constituent Assembly prepared to meet in Petrograd. But the Bolsheviks already held the government, the capital, and the armed forces in its streets. When supporters of the Assembly marched to defend the election, armed detachments opened fire. This documentary tells the story of Russia’s 1917 election, Lenin’s rejection of the result, the shooting of demonstrators in Petrograd, and the one-night parliament that became Russia’s last national political alternative before the Civil War. Why did the Bolsheviks allow the election to take place? Why did Lenin refuse to let the Assembly choose a different government? And how did votes lose their power in revolutionary Russia? Subscribe to Imperial Ursus for illustrated documentaries about revolutions, empires, wars, and political collapse. #RussianRevolution #Lenin #HistoryDocumentary