-
Period: to
20th Century Russia
-
Creation of the Communist Party
Developed from the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin. The party led the 1917 October Revolution that overthrew the Russian Provisional Government and established the world's first socialist state. Given the central role under the Constitution of the Soviet Union, the party controlled all tiers of government in the Soviet Union and tolerated no opposition. -
The Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917. In the second revolution, during October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a Bolshevik (Communist) government. -
The Bolshevik Revolution
The Bolshevik Revolution was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917. It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd. The revolution in Petrograd overthrew the Russian Provisional Government and gave the power to the local soviets dominated by Bolsheviks. As the revolution was not universally recognized outside of Petrograd there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War (1917–1922) and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. -
Lenin's New Economic Policy
The New Economic Policy (NEP) was an economic policy proposed by Vladimir Lenin, who called it state capitalism. Allowing some private ventures, the NEP allowed small businesses or smoke shops, for instance, to reopen for private profit while the state continued to control banks, foreign trade, and large industries. It was made official by decree on 21 March 1921, The decree required the farmers to give the government a specified amount of raw agricultural product as a tax in kind. The New Econo -
Establishment of the U.S.S.R.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics existed from 1922 to 1991. The Russian Revolution of 1917 caused the downfall of the Russian Empire, and in the struggle for power that followed, Vladimir Lenin led the Bolshevik party against the anti-communist faction. In December of 1922, the Bolsheviks won the civil war, and formed an official union of 15 subnational republics. -
Stalin's Five Year Plans
Five-Year Plans for the National Economy of the Soviet Union were a series of nation-wide, centralized economic plans in the Soviet Union. The plans were developed by a state planning committee based on the Theory of Productive Forces that was part of the general guidelines of the Communist Party. Fulfilling the plan became the watchword of Soviet bureaucracy. The first plan was implemented in 1928, and the last in 1991. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis (known as the October Crisis in Cuba or the Caribbean Crisis in the USSR) was a confrontation between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side and the United States on the other in October 1962, during the Cold War, lasting two weeks. It is one of the major confrontations of the Cold War and is generally regarded as the moment in which the Cold War came closest to turning into a nuclear conflict. -
Glasnost / Perestroika
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s. It is often thought of in reference to Perestroika, another term that is interpreted as Restructioning. Glasnost can also refer to the period in the history of the USSR during the 1980s when there was less censorship and greater freedom of information. -
End of the Russian Communist Party
The fall of the Russian Communist party was caused by the failed August 1991 coup d'état attempt led by authoritarian hardliners of the party. The coup failed after massive public demonstrations pushed Boris Yeltsin into power. The communist party is succeeded by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in Russia and the communist parties of the now-independent former Soviet republics. -
Democracy in Russia
The 1993 constitution declares Russia a democratic, federal law-based state with a republican form of government similar to ours. State power is divided among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Diversity of religions is sanctioned, and a state ideology may not be adopted. The right to a multiparty political system is upheld, along with other rights given to the people. This system has proven stable in the years following it's implementation. -
The Russian Financial Crisis
The Russian financial crisis ("Ruble crisis") hit Russia on the 17th of August 1998. It resulted in the Russian government devaluing the ruble and defaulting on its debt. Declining productivity, a decievingly high exchange rate between the ruble and foreign currencies to avoid public turmoil, and a fiscal deficit were the background to the failure. The economic cost of the first war in Chechnya is estimated at $5.5 billion, and it played a role in the collapse of the Ruble.
