HOW THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION CHANGED THE WORLD.

• Author: Majerol, Veronica
• Position: TIME PAST 1917

One hundred years ago, a peasant uprising toppled an empire, with far-reaching consequences. A look at how it transformed history.

It was a defining event of the 20th century.

One hundred years ago, in the fall of 1917, Communists known as Bolsheviks seized power in Russia, ending 1,100 years of imperial rule in the world's largest nation.

Russia had long been run by despotic czars, and in the early 1900s, peasants began to revolt. When Russia's economy, military, and government collapsed under the pressures of World War I (1914-18), Russia's final czar, Nicholas II, was forced to abdicate his throne in March 1917. That created an opening for the charismatic Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin to seize power by November, soon establishing the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also known as the Soviet Union.

Within decades, Soviet rulers--including the infamous Joseph Stalin, who killed millions of Soviets as part of a political purge--transformed the country into a fearsome military power. It engaged the U.S. in a decades-long struggle for global dominance--a "Cold War" not just over territory, but also the very survival of Western democracy. For much of the 20th century, the Soviet threat loomed over every aspect of American life, from politics to technology to pop culture, until it collapsed in 1991.

"To try to understand the 20th century without the Russian Revolution is like one hand clapping," says Lewis Siegelbaum, a Russia expert at Michigan State University.

With that in mind, here's a look at seven ways the Russian Revolution changed the world.

1 The Cold War

Though Communism ran contrary to America's values, the U.S. and the Soviet Union joined forces during World War II (1939-45) to defeat Germany. But after the war, it became clear that Moscow was intent on taking over vast sections of Eastern Europe and installing Communist puppet regimes. What followed was the Cold War--a decades-long competition pitting capitalism and democracy, embraced by the U.S. and its allies, against Soviet authoritarianism and Communist rule.

When some countries began to "fall" to Communism, as China did in 1949, the U.S. grew more concerned about the "domino effect," the idea that if one country becomes Communist, others will follow. There was also fear of infiltration by an "enemy within"--foreign spies and American Communists--heightened by Senator Joseph McCarthy's overheated witch hunts in the 1950s for alleged Communists in the State Department and Hollywood. Movie stars and others were summoned before congressional committees and ordered to name colleagues who were Communists. Many suspected of Communist sympathies were "blacklisted" and lost their jobs.

"The idea that actors and some workers could get together and overthrow the United States government--some people took that seriously," says Andrew Straw, a Russia scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, "because there was a clear example of it in 1917."

2 Nuclear Buildup

The U.S. became the first country to successfully develop and use a nuclear bomb in war, in 1945 (see "The Manhattan Project," Nov. 20, 2017), but its nuclear monopoly abruptly ended in 1949, when it became clear that the Soviet Union had tested an atom bomb of its own. Thus began the nuclear arms race between the Soviet Union and the U.S., with each side determined to have a bigger and stronger nuclear arsenal.

"Duck and cover" drills became standard in schools, with children practicing huddling under their desks in case of a Soviet attack (as if a school desk could shield someone from a nuclear bomb). Ironically, the idea of "mutually assured destruction," or MAD, kept each side from ever using their nuclear weapons on each other for fear of being wiped out in retaliation. But the nuclear buildup continued, in these two countries and elsewhere: Today, nine nations have nuclear weapons, including North Korea, led by the rogue dictator Kim Jong Un (see No. 4).

3 Space Race

Though America was the first to develop the nuclear bomb, the Soviet Union soon celebrated its own first, which stunned--and frightened--the U.S.: In 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik, the world's first unmanned artificial satellite, ushering in the space age. The next year, America followed suit with its own satellite, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower created NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration), which was dedicated to space exploration. Then, in 1961, the Soviets led the way again, putting a man into space for the first time and returning him home unharmed.

In 1962, in a speech at Rice Stadium in Houston, Texas, President John F. Kennedy declared America's commitment to being the best and doing something the Soviets hadn't yet done. "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things [that challenge us], not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

Kennedy's promise was fulfilled in 1969, when U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon, giving America the victory in the space race--and bragging rights in the Cold War. Today, the spirit of the space race continues, with NASA preparing to send humans to Mars by the 2030s.

4 Vietnam & Korean Wars

The U.S. and the Soviet Union never actually engaged in direct combat during the Cold War. But they fought a number of "proxy wars"--contributing weapons, money, or soldiers to military efforts that aligned with their values.

That was the case during the Korean War (1950-53), when the U.S. fought alongside the South against Communist forces in the North, supported by the Soviet Union. America lost 34,000 soldiers in the Korean...