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The Great Northern War
The reason Sweden and Russia were fighting is because Russia (Peter the Great) wanted more land west, towards the Baltic Sea. He thought that Charles XII was an easy target because he had been ruling for more than fifteen years.In the end Russia had won and Peter the Great took supremacy over the Baltic Region. Later in 1718 Charles XII was killed in Fredriksheld. -
The Decembrist Revolt
The Decembrist Revolt is when a group of nobles and army officers tried to overthrow the czar's government. Czar Nicholas executed five leaders and exiled hundreds more to Siberia. The decembrists' plan failed, but they became heroes to people in later generations. Nicholas then started strict censorship, and got rid of books from the west that might contain liberal ideas, and that targeted schools and universities as centers of unrest. -
Czar Alexander II Emancipates the Serfs
After commitees had considered the matter of freeing the serfs, it soon became a law. All serfs then had the right to be free citizens, free to marry, free to own land, and free to own businesses.Until 1907 when they were finally abolished, the serfs had to pay almost double the market rate for their land. Some serfs sold the land so they could get rid of their debt. Emancipation of the serfs lead to increase in agriculture, and increase in Russian population. -
The Assassination of Alexander II
Alexander II was killed on the streets of St. Petersburg when a member of the revolutionary "People's Will" group threw a bomb.The People's Will group employed terrorism and assassination to overthrow csars autocracy. Before they had actually assissinated the csar, they had made attempts too, and also killed officials. His assassins were arrested and hanged. From that day forward the People's Will group was suppresed. -
The Russo-Japanese War
The war was fought in the far eastern region of the country. This war was devastating for Russia. In January of 1905 Russia's only all year naval base was captured. Since information was passed slow across the country, once it got to Moscow and St. Petersburg, the countries people were unrested. People believed that this meant the military campaign failed. Later, Mirsky, who had very little political experience called for a national meeting and caused autocracy to be challenged. -
Bloody Sunday
A group of workers lead by the priest Georgy Apollonovich Gapon marched through the winter palace in St. Petersburg to state their demands. Forces fired on the people killing and wounding hundreds. Riots broke out throughout the country in response to the masacre.Nicholas then responded, promising the formation of representative assemblies to work towards reform.Tension continued to build, but the regime changed its ways and became stronger. -
The Revolution of 1905
Bloody Sunday was the event that lead to the Revolution of 1905. Riots and strikes were breaking out in the cities, along with peasants burned the homes of landoweners. To stop this Czar Nicholas II agreed to make an elected assembly called the Duma, and also making other reforms. The reforms failed and the Duma had very little power. Inequality and repression remained because an autocratic ruler was in power. -
World War I (Russian Involvement)
The Russian army marched straight into Germany. Russia began off with succes, but once the Batlle of Tannenberg came they had a great deal of losses. Germany gave a hard push towards Russia and it was a success for them, but a devastating loss for Russia. Back in Russia, Nicholas II had to take charge of the Army and leave Alexandra with Rasputin. At the end of the war Russia had heavy losses but the line of resistance held. Also, the people in Russia had become unrested all over the country. -
The March Revolution
There are riots and strikes over the scarcity of food. When the police came the protesters refused to leave the streets. By March 10th the strike spread among Petrograd's workers and mobs of workers then destroyed police stations. On March 11th, Nicholas again dissolved the Dumas, When the Russian army unexpectedly switched their support to the demonstrators the imperial government was forced to resign and a provisional government was established. -
Czar Nicholas II abdicates the Russian throne
Nicholas is forced to abdicate because of strikes and revolts breaking out in Petrograd, which is now St. Petersburg. The army garrison joined striking workers in demanding socialist reforms. Once he was forced to abdicate, him and his family were held at Czarskoye Selo Palace. Then they were moved to Yekaterinburg Palace where they stayed the remainder of the time. After a secret meeting, the soviet killed the family on July 16,1918.
