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The Bolsheviks entered the Petrograd (Saint Petersburg), where they started an armed takeover of the city. They started to take control of the government buildings, and they even managed to takeover the Winter Palace. This event helped kick off the Russian Civil War.
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Began with the October Revolution. It was a ton of battles between the Reds (the Bolsheviks) and the Whites (Tsarists). Many were left dead, including the Tsar and his family. Prisoners were taken and tortured on both sides, making the conflict all the more atrocious. The Reds win, and Lenin takes control of Russia to try and fix the problems that the civil war caused.
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The Fasci di Combattimento was formed, which would eventually turn into a more unified party a few years later. Fascism, a one party political system, would end up controlling Italy.
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Hitler was sent on a mission for the army to learn more about this party. He went to one of the meetings and really wanted to be apart of it, yet fix some areas he did not like.
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NEP was the New Economic Policy put forth by Lenin, which stated that small businesses can run independently. Banks, corporations, and various international trades would still be controlled by the country, however. This plan caused a small bit of capitalism to seep into a communist nation.
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Benito Mussolini and many of his supporters of fascism marched onto Rome and seized power of Italy from King Emmanuel II, making Mussolini the dictator of Italy.
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Hitler and fellow Nazis tried to initiate a revolution inside a beer hall. It was a failure; Germany's leadership didn't change and Hitler was imprisoned.
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While in prison from the beer hall "putsch", Hitler wrote his book Mein Kampf, which talked both about his political beliefs as well as chronicling his life.
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Lenin suffered from past battle wounds (like a bullet to the neck), an assassination attempt, three strokes, and the mental strain of running a nation in turmoil. They caught up to him, leading to his inevitable death at the beginning of 1924.
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Stalin created the 5 Year Plans in order to strengthen the country's economy. The main focus initially was to improve the country's big industries, causing industrialization which would help the economy.
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Stalin wanted to bring together all the invididual small farms and privately owned land into massive farms. This allowed much cheaper supplies for the big industries, cheaper and more food for the public, and more available opprotunities for export.
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The Japanese army wanted to gain Manchuria, an area in China. To do this, they created the Mukden Incident. Dynamite was to be placed near some train tracks in Japan (by the Japanese), have it explode, then blame the Chinese. This "allowed" Japan to invade China and claim Manchuria.
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The Nazis promised a new economic policy, the eventual "cleansing" of Germany of the Jews, gaining more territory (which would be in violation of the Treaty of Versailles), and many more policies. On election day, these new policies convinced the nation enough to give the Nazi party the majority in Parliament.
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President Hindenburg originally did not want Hitler to become chancellor. He tried to initiate a fight between the communists and the Nazis by appointing General Schleicher as chancellor. Through a series of agreements, the old chancellor, Franz von Papen become in favor as Hitler as chancellor, and he was appointed.
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The Italian army invaded Ethiopia. They won a small war fought between the two nations and took the land as part of Italy, expanding their borders into Africa.
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Germany invades the Rhineland, which conflicted with their agreement in the Treaty of Versailles. This angered the rest of Europe, which would help cause the outbreak of the war a few years later.
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Stalin wanted to secure his power, which was in danger due to growing opposition to communism. The initial purges in the early 1930s were not as extreme; few executions took place and not many were imprisoned. But in 1937, the intensity of the Purges increased. He masacred hundreds of those who stood in his path of control, leaving many dead and putting communism as the supreme governmental system in Russia.
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Japan captured Nanjing, which used to be the capital of China. There, for more than a month, they raped and brutally slaughtered the Chinese citizens, resulting in over 250,000 deaths, which included people of every age and gender.
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Germany invaded Austria, then eventually took the country as it's own, expanding Germany's borders. This caused yet another issue with Germany's agreements made in the Treaty of Versailles, yet the rest of the world did not really do anything, allowing Germany to expand without any problems from other nations.
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England, France, Germany, and Italy had representatives meet in Munich. Hitler demanded Sudentenland in Czechoslovakia, or he might start a war. The other nations attempted to talk him out of it, but they failed. Once again, Hitler got his way without many problems.
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After the negotiations of the Munich Conference, Hitler and his army invaded Sudetenland, claiming it as a part of Germany without many issues.
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The Soviet Union and Germany made a pact saying that each would remain neutral if the other was attacked. This was broken when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.
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The Tripartite Treaty was formed in Berlin. This created the Axis Powers, which included Germany, Japan, and Italy, the three major powers that the Allies would fight in WWII.
