Legendary director Sergei Eisenstein's silent film which recreates the Russian Revolution of 1917. Nikolai Padvolsky and other leaders of the uprising served as consultants on the film.

In a documentary style, events in Petrograd are re-enacted from the end of the monarchy in February of 1917, to the end of the provisional government and the decrees of peace and land at the end of the year in November. In July, counter-revolutionaries put down a spontaneous revolt, and Lenin's arrest is ordered. By late October, the Bolsheviks are ready to strike: ten days which will shake the world. While the Mensheviks vacillate, an advance guard infiltrates the palace. Anatov-Oveyenko leads the attack and signs the proclamation dissolving the provisional government.