In March 1917 a spontaneous uprising of Russia’s long-oppressed people overthrew a corrupt autocracy led by Czar Nicholas II. No one planned or expected the sudden end of the three hundred year rule by the House of Romanov. Yet ominous signs of unrest were clearly visible.

By the first weeks of 1917 workers in Petrograd (modern St. Petersburg) were in a dangerous mood. For over two years Russia had been at war with Germany, and most people were sick of it. Yet a revolution that stood a chance of success seemed unlikely.

Then the unexpected happened. On a cold Thursday morning of March 8, a number of women who had been waiting in long lines in front of bakeries grew angry when they were told there was no more bread. Thousands of striking metal workers soon joined them. The discontented workers carried banners with two simple but powerful demands: “We want bread,” and “No to war!”

The next day nervous authorities called in mounted Cossacks to punish the striking workers. Normally the fierce saber-wielding Cossacks used a galloping charge to disperse a crowd. But not this time. The soldiers hated the war and sympathized with the workers and their demands for bread and peace. On March 9, 1917 mounted Cossacks winked at the demonstrators instead of arresting them.

The winks marked the end of Nicholas II’s reign. The isolated and inept czar did not understand the revolutionary force that would soon lead to his abrupt fall from power.

Fast forward to March 2022. Russians are beginning to discover that President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian forces to invade Ukraine. Russia’s official propaganda machine is calling the invasion a small “special operation” limited to eastern Ukraine. But the truth is beginning to seep thru Putin’s wall of lies.