Slate refers to March 17, 1917, when Russian Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, and a Provisional Government was formed in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) during World War 1. It is followed by a few scenes from what appears to be a staged film enactment of a mob storming a palace. Soldiers and citizens, carrying sticks and clubs, rush up a stairway inside, while others are seen charging an entrance and beating on palace gates. A statue of the Russian Imperial Seal is seen with one eagle head broken. Next, actual footage shows a prison courtyard littered with debris. Bars on the doors and windows are bent and broken. Several persons are seen moving about in the debris. Later a group of people are seen at work cleaning up debris, placing it into a horse-drawn wagon. Slate compares this event to the fall of the Bastille during the French revolution. Russian soldiers loyal to the Bolsheviks and the Soviet cheer in streets of Petrograd. Armored cars and an artillery field piece are manned by the revolutionary Russian soldiers. A street is filled with Russian soldiers and some civilians.
Steamers on the frozen River Neva deliver food supplies sent by foreign relief organization to Petrograd, Russia during period of Russian Revolution and World War I. Soviet Russian children stand next to ship 'Marcus' from Newark, New Jersey, USA. Men unload food supplies. American relief administrator Colonel Haskall looks at a map. Food sacks being transported along snowy streets by horse drawn sled and sleigh. Civilians walk in snow covered streets, bundled in warm winter clothing. People gathered together in the cold eat hot food in the streets of Russia.
Men conversing in a hall in Leningrad, Russia. Books on the table. Buildings and houses in the city. Scenes from automobiles driving along the city streets. Cars parked on the street. Trams on the street. People in a public park. Interesting view of Mikhailovsky Palace (Inzhenernaya St, 4/2, St Petersburg, Russia, 191011) being renovated, with scaffolding in place, and statue of Lenin (no longer there) in the courtyard. Commuters waiting for buses and streetcars. Pedestrians walking across bridges.
Christmas preparation in Petrograd (Saint Petersburg), very soon after the Russian Revolution (or "October Revolution") brought Lenin, the Bolsheviks, and Soviets regime in control in Russia. People move goods on the snow covered streets using sleds. Facing shortages of fuel, people collect and carry wood to burn from a dock. Citizens stacking and carrying timbers for fuel. With men involved in revolution and in World War I, women workers clean roads of city, working together in a group with brooms.
Scenes of October revolution in Petrograd, Russia, during World War 1. Bolshevik Red Guards forces, waving red flags, charge across a square in military vehicles, followed by numerous others running to take over government buildings. on 24 October 1917.
The October, 1917 revolution in Russia, during World War 1. Opening scene shows an explosion at the base of a tall column topped by a winged figure with outstretched arms. The column and statue teeter and then fall in a crash to the ground. Within the same scenes another similar collumn stands, but any statue it contained is gone. Next, a Bolshevik rioter is seen on a ladder, prying a large bas relief statue of Romanov double eagle from face of a building. It falls and breaks into many pieces on the ground.