International Women's Day went from bloody revolution to corporate breakfasts

On a winter's morning in Petrograd, women begin streaming onto the streets.

Two million men have died, food is running out, and women have reached breaking point.

By late afternoon, some 100,000 workers walk out of their factories to join them. On their way, women smash windows of stores, raid the shelves for bread and food.

Thousands make a dangerous dash across the frozen river to reach the city centre — police are firing shots at those using the bridges.

Another 50,000 odd workers join them the next day, overturning trams and carriages, occupying the river, and hijacking the enormous statue of Alexander III in Znamenskaya Square.

The sight of strikers scaling this icon of autocracy, nicknamed "the hippopotamus", convinces the crowd the revolution has whirred into action.

The riot continues for four days despite the military opening fire: when it's over, police find the word "hippopotamus" engraved on the statue's plinth.

Seven days after International Women's Day of 1917, the tsar is gone, and women win the right to vote.