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The two year period starting with Bloody Sunday and subsequent civil unrest, and ending with the Coup of June 1907. 22 (9) January 1905: Bloody Sunday – Troops and police open fire on a peaceful demonstration outside the Winter Palace and elsewhere in St Petersburg, killing and injuring around 1,000 people. The liberal press blames Nicholas II. June 1905: Sailors mutiny on the battleship Potemkin -
30 (17) October 1905: October Manifesto – Tsar Nicholas II issues the October Manifesto, promising civil liberties (such as freedom of speech) and an elected parliament (Duma). As a result, restrictions are implemented on the absolute power of the Russian monarch, and a de facto constitution (the Fundamental Laws of 1906) is issued. -
1 August (19 July) 1914: Germany declares war on Russia, with Russia entering the First World War. 18 (31) August 1914: St Petersburg is renamed Petrograd to make it sound less German. -
A series of public protests begin in Petrograd, which last for eight days and eventually result in abolition of the monarchy in Russia. The total number of killed and injured in clashes with the police and government troops in Petrograd is estimated around 1,300 people. -
8 November (26 October on Russian Calendar) 1917: The Bolsheviks take control of the Winter Palace, the last remaining holdout of the Provisional Government.
8 November 1917: The Decrees on Land (proclaiming abolition of private property and the redistribution of the land amongst the peasantry), and Peace are issued by the new Bolshevik government. -
The first constitution of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic grants equal rights to men and women. -
Beginning of ‘Red Terror’: An assassination attempt on Lenin by the Socialist Revolutionary Fanny Kaplan leaves him seriously wounded. The attempt, together with the murder of Uritskii, sparks a period of mass arrests and executions known as the ‘Red Terror’. -
The Comintern (or Third International) is formed in Moscow, with the aim of spreading revolution all over the world. -
By the beginning of 1921 the rouble has lost 96% of its pre-war value; industrial production has fallen to 10% of its 1913 level. The population of Petrograd has fallen from 2.5 million in 1917 to 600,000 in 1920. -
Lenin dies, leading to a power struggle within the party. Stalin emerges as Party leader. His rival Leon Leon Trotsky is dismissed, then exiled and finally murdered in 1940. -
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