The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval in Russia that began in 1917. It was led by Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and the BOLSHEVIK Party. Lenin was a Marxist revolutionary and the leader of the BOLSHEVIK Party, which seized power in the October Revolution of 1917. Trotsky was a Marxist theorist and revolutionary who played a key role in the October Revolution and was later appointed as the first People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. The Bolsheviks were a radical Marxist party that sought to overthrow the existing government and establish a socialist state.