A photographic highlight selected by the picture desk. On this day in 1917, a series of rallies held for Women's Day in Petrograd, now St Petersburg, gradually turned into a large political protest. The female workers marched to factories where 50,000 workers joined them, going on strike. By 10 March, virtually all industry had closed down and eventually the the tsarist ministers were put under arrest. Lenin arrived in Petrograd from exile in Switzerland on 3 April.
