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Imperial guards fired on a peaceful workers' procession in St. Petersburg, sparking national unrest and shattering the Tsar's benevolent image. -
Sailors aboard the Russian battleship Potemkin mutinied over poor conditions and a maggot-infested meal, seizing control of the ship. -
Tsar Nicholas II issued the October Manifesto, promising civil liberties and the establishment of a legislative body, the State Duma. -
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo by Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip. -
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, initiating the July Crisis. -
The German Empire formally declared war on the Russian Empire, following the latter's mobilization in support of Serbia. -
Faced with the February Revolution and the loss of military support, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated the throne for himself and his son. -
The Bolsheviks moved swiftly to consolidate power, dissolving the Constituent Assembly in January 1918. -
Mass strikes and bread riots in Petrograd escalated into a general uprising and military mutiny. -
Vladimir Lenin returned to Petrograd from exile in Switzerland via a sealed German train. -
The Congress of Soviets convened as Bolsheviks seized power, endorsing the new government and its revolutionary decrees. -
Bolshevik forces stormed and captured the Winter Palace, overthrowing the Provisional Government. -
The Red Army fought a multi-front civil war against the Whites, nationalist movements, and peasant Green armies to secure Bolshevik control. -
Soviet Russia signed a separate peace with the Central Powers, ceding vast western territories to exit World War I. -
The Czechoslovak Legion revolted along the Trans-Siberian Railway, creating a major anti-Bolshevik front and marking the civil war's escalation. -
The former Tsar Nicholas II, his family, and servants were shot by Bolshevik forces in Yekaterinburg. -
The Armistice of Compiègne halted fighting on the Western Front, effectively ending World War I. -
It was a strategic retreat from War Communism that allowed private trade and small-scale capitalism to rebuild the shattered economy. -
The Treaty on the Creation of the USSR formally united Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Transcaucasia into a new federal state. -
Lenin died from a series of strokes on January 21, 1924, leading to a protracted succession struggle between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky.