Photo: Егор Журавлёв(Flickr); License: CC BY-SA 2.0

 7 November 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of that fateful day in Russian history when Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Party seized power from the Provisional Government and embarked on a bold new experiment to create a socialist utopia. The consequences of this experiment are well known, but the events of 1917 and their causes continue to be debated among historians all round the world.