Search Terms:
If you know anything about the year 1917, you know that it was a little more complicated than the name “Russian revolution” suggests. The name actually refers to a pair of events: first, there was the “February revolution” in which the Russian monarchy fell to the provisional government and later that year there was the “October revolution” in which the provisional government fell to the Bolsheviks who installed a new Soviet government.
Both of these events have multiple names and you should consider including the alternative names when conducting advanced searches online. An example of an effective boolean search would be “october revolution” OR “bolshevik revolution” AND “parade marches.”
Be aware that Soviet historiography has very specific terms for events so if you are searching for information published in the Soviet Union, you should consider including the official Soviet name for the event. For example “february revolution” OR “february bourgeois democratic revolution” AND “parade marches.” See information below on searching in foreign languages.
Foreign-language searching:
To browse or search for materials in in most online discovery systems, convert your search terms to Library of Congress Transliteration before conducting your search. One of the best online transliteration tools can be found here. This site offers Russian language transliteration as well as transliteration into other Slavic languages. Be sure to select “ALA-LC” from the drop-down menu on the right-hand side to perform a Library of Congress transliteration conversion.
Example: Don’t search: “Уличные фестивали” AND “Октябрьская революция”
Instead search: “Ulichnye festivali” AND “Okti͡abrʹskai͡a revoli͡ut͡sii͡a”
Dealing with pesky pay walls:
Consider downloading the Open Access Button. By adding this extension to your browser, you can check for open access versions of articles when you hit a pay wall. If an open access version doesn't exist, you can request a copy. Volunteers will contact the author for you to ask for an open access version.