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World War 1
The Imperial Russian army was fairly ineffective during the first world war, and it was becoming increasingly clear that it wasn't able to keep up with the losses inflicted by the German and Austro-Hungarian empires. This was one of many causes for discontent within the Russian empire and one reason why the Russian people rose up against the Tsar, who was seen as responsible for Russia's failure against the Central Powers. -
Febuary Revolution
The February revolution was the first of two revolutions in 1917, and the first deposed the Tsar and created the Provisional Government, lead by Alexander Kerensky. Leading communists, such as Leon Trotsky and Vladmir Lenin, were also kept from power, at least temporarily. -
October Revolution
The second revolution of 1917 saw the return of the Bolsheviks, and this time this overthrow of the current government was to be violent. The winter palace was seized by the communists and Kerensky fled the country, defeated. Shortly after, Lenin declared the communists were in charge and Trotsky dismissed any political opponents. -
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Russian Civil War
This bloody and vital war saw counter revolutionaries attempt to retake Russia from the Soviets and place Tsar Nicholas back in charge. The two factions, the Reds (The Soviets and their supporters) and the Whites (Counterrevolutionaries) both committed acts of terror and millions died of starvation as well as combat. This was due to grain requisition and cutting of supply lines, which left peasants in the countryside with almost no food as the military was prioritised, especially by the Reds. -
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The signing of the treaty of Brest-Litovsk ended the war for the Russian empire, fulfilling one of Lenin's promises to the Russian people. The treaty gave a large and industrialised part of the Russian empire to the German Empire, although they themselves would return this territory in alignment with the treaty of Versailles. Finland's independence was also recognised by the communist government. -
Tsar Nicholas assasinated
The Whites performed very well as the war broke out, with foreign support. They advanced quickly and looked to capture the Tsar's homestead where the royal family lived. To prevent the Tsar being seen as a sign of resistance to the Bolshevik cause, The Red Army assassinated the Tsar, his wife and their six children before the Whites advanced and rescued them from their captors. -
Soviet Union formed
Following the Victory of the Red Army in 1921, the Soviet Union was formed, merging the Russian Empire and fifteen of its surrounding states. The Bolshevik party was made its only party and Lenin was made Head of State, surrounding himself with his allies and cracking down on political dissent. -
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The Power Struggle
Lenin's death left a power vacuum which only two men could fill, either the commissar for foreign affairs, Leon Trotsky, or General Secretary of the Communist party, Joseph Stalin. A four year clash of interests saw the downfall of politicians, namely Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin and Even Trotsky himself, all at the hands of Stalin. Trotsky was expelled from the party and deported in 1928. Kamenev, Zinoviev and Bukharin were executed between 1936 and 1938, leaving Stalin unopposed. -
Lenin's Death
After a series of strokes, the first of which occurring during 1922, Lenin's health began to deteriorate and his time as an active politician began to decline. He had less and less of a say in the Kremlin and after a final stroke in 1924, he never recovered. There was an open casket funeral and the people of the USSR were invited to his funeral as the main figurehead behind the October revolution was put to rest at the age of fifty three. -
Stalin's Economic Policies
Starting in 1928, Stalin began forced collectivisation and rapid industrialisation, which aimed to transform Russia from a largely agricultural society into an industrial powerhouse. This was done through five year plans, which set targets for each sector of the economy that were to be met or exceeded within fixed periods of time. These reforms were successful in many areas, particularly in Light industry. -
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The Great Purge
The 1930s were a dark period for the Soviet Union as millions were executed, many on trumped up charges of betraying the communist leadership. The NKVD were given lists of people to be arrested and exiled or executed to root out traitors. Millions of innocent people were killed, including intellectuals, doctors, military generals and even some members of the Communist party. Stalin's paranoia and brutality caused the deaths of even the most prominent political leaders, and millions more. -
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World War 2
The Second world War was a mixed story of failure followed by sucess for the USSR, both in the north and after 1941. The purging of generals lead to early disasters, however the battle of Kursk and the survival of Leningrad after a three year siege were examples of Russian determination, despite earlier failings. The Red Army was vital regarding the fall of the Nazi regime, having singlehandedly pushed the Wehrmacht all the way back to Berlin by 1945 and being the first ones to reach Germany. -
The Winter War
With the non-aggression pact with Germany in effect, the USSR turned its attention North to Finland, demanding it cede substantial land borders for security reasons, namely Leningrad. After Finland refused, the Soviets invaded. What should have been an easy victory turned into a humiliating struggle as the Finnish repulsed multiple attacks and inflicted heavy losses on the USSR. The Soviets reorganised and eventually secured a peace treaty with Finland, but not getting as much as they wanted. -
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The Cold war
The infamous period immediately following the second world war, starting with the Truman doctrine, saw wartime alliances deteriorate as the Warsaw pact and NATO strained tensions between East and West even further. The USA and USSR carried out spying missions as well nuclear armament while proxy wars took place all around the world. Crises such as the Cuban missile crisis and the Vietnam war Had a profound impact around the world and some feared World War Three was on the horizon. -
The Berlin blockade
With Berlin 100 miles from the border between East and West Germany, the West was cut off from the west part of Berlin which it occupied. When the Communist government blockaded the supply lines that sustained West Berlin, the allies carried out the Berlin airlift shortly after to counter the blockade. This eventually resulted in the Communists withdrawing the blockade, giving the allies a minor morale boost early on in the Cold War. -
Stalin's Death
After ruling the USSR for roughly twenty five years, Stalin suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and died shortly after. Similar to Lenin, he was given a public funeral and his body was displayed for the Soviet people to see. Immediately following his death, three potential successors settled the question of who would rule the USSR after the feared yet revered leader had ruled alone for two and a half decades without question. -
Khrushchev's rise to power
With some political manoeuvring similar to Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, with the help of the Red Army, managed to keep his opponents from power while acquiring it for himself. He assumed the two highest roles in the Communist party, making him the next leader of the USSR. -
The Hungarian Revolution
Following a student revolt, the Hungarian government promised to pass reforms demanded by the protestors. They also promised more political freedoms and eventually independence from the USSR. The Communists invaded to crush the revolt, and the Hungarians revolted in retaliation. The Red Army crushed the revolution and tightened its control over Hungary, arresting the leaders of the revolt and replacing them with sympathetic communists. This ended any hope of Hungarian independence. -
The Secret Speech
At the 20th party congress, Khrushchev openly denounced Stalin and announced the start of the 'destalinization' process, looking to undo many of Stalin's policies and moving toward a true communist Soviet Union instead of a state ruled by individuals. Very little was recorded about the speech, and initially it was met with great hostility within the party. -
The Berlin wall
Outraged by the number of people migrating from east to west Germany, the Communist government constructed the Berlin wall to prevent further decline in people, and therefore workers, in East Germany. Made of concrete and guarded by members of the Red Army, anyone attempting to pass over the wall was shot on sight. The wall separated families and many people would risk their lives trying to pass over it. -
The Cuban Missile Crisis
With Fidel Castro's Communist government taking control of Cuba, He invited the USSR to import long range missiles. The USA was deeply worried about having these arms so close to the homeland, and negotiations to remove them broke down. The world braced for World War Three as tensions rose drastically, but a last minute agreement that saw the USA remove missiles from Turkey quickly defused the situation. -
Khrushchev ousted from power
After ten years of ruling the Soviet Union, Khrushchev was overthrown and toppled from power by the communist party, who disapproved of his consistent reforms and decentralisation of power. Khrushchev was the only leader of the Soviet Union to live after being deposed, as he spent his last years in his dacha before dying in 1971. Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin were his immediate successors as General Secretary of the Communist Party and Premier of the Soviet Union respectively. -
The Sino-Soviet Split
By the mid 1960s, the Soviet Union and People's Republic of China had grown further apart and eventually the leaders of both nations decided to end political relations outright. The disagreements between the two governments left them more bitter toward each other, and Chairman Mao Zedong accused to Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev of deviating from the Communist path. From this moment onward, both the PRC and USSR acted as distinctly different entities, neither interfering with the other. -
Invasion of Afghanistan
The Soviet Union sent troops into Afghanistan to support the Communist government there, and this was condemned by the West. The result was a ten year long war in which the USA helped the anti-communists rebel against the Soviet backed Communist forces. Eventually, the Soviets would withdraw their troops, giving the West yet another victory against Communist expansion in Asia and the Middle East. -
Brezhnev's death
Brezhnev was General Secretary of the Communist party for eighteen years, the second longest period of any Soviet leader, bested only by Joseph Stalin. Brezhnev was almost senile after 1975, but the stabilising reforms he had brought to the party kept him from retiring. Brezhnev himself had asked to resign, only to be refused and used as an icon rather than an active politician. His last appearance at an anniversary parade of the October Revolution took place just three days before his death. -
Gorbachev's Rise to power
After the brief Premiership of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, Mikhail Gorbachev became the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union. By this time, the Soviet Union was in economic decline and the government was torn between new radicals and old hardliners on how to solve the issue. It was up to Gorbachev and his government to repair the damage done by the stagnation of the Brezhnev period while there was still time to save the declining Soviet Union. -
The fall of the Berlin Wall
Combined with increased political freedoms and openness to the Soviet people, the Berlin wall was converged on and brought down in 1989, uniting East and West Berlin once more. News of the event was spread across the world and glorified as a historic moment of people coming together to unite their city, breaking away from the people who had sought to keep them apart. -
Collapse of Communism in the USSR
After allowing elections and with states of the union declaring independence, it was clear that the Soviet Union was falling apart. Boris Yeltsin promoted the idea of Russian sovereignty, winning elections against Gorbachev for his seat in the Communist party. On Christmas day 1991, Gorbachev resigned as leader of the Communist party, and Russia became a federation. The other states of the union broke away and achieved independence, marking the fall of the Soviet Union after sixty nine years.
