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The Failure of Liberal Reform
Czar Alexander ll finally freed the serfs, and, over the next 20 years, he introduced a series of liberal reforms. Eg. He abolished capital punishment and created local governments that included representives from all classes -
Assasination of Czar Alexander ll
After several attempts to assassinate Czar Alexander ll they finally succeed. After the assassination, many of czars liberal reforms were reserved, and the freedoms of the Russian people were greatly restricted by the new czar, Alexander lll -
The Rise of Socialism
A group of Marxists decided to form the Socialist Democratic Labour Party (SDLP), but the Russian czar banned the political group. The members of the SDLP were forced into exile in other European countries, but they kept up their revolutionary spirit by working on an illegal newspaper called Iskra (Spark). Among the members of the SDLP were Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and joseph Stalin. -
First Russian Revolution
In January, workers march on the royal Winter Palace to deliver a petition calling for improved working conditions. Soldiers open fire on the crowd, leaving over 90 people dead in what became known as Bloody Sunday. Later, under the pressure of revolutionary forces, Czar Nicholas ll signs the October Manifesto, giving Russians such rights as freedom of speech, assembly, association, and religion. -
Second Russian Revolution
The Russian people take to the streets, desperate for food and demoralized by war. Even soldiers join the revolution, and Czar Nicholas ll is fored to abdicate. A temporary liberal democratic government is established but is overthrown by the communist Bolsheviks, led by revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. The next year, Nicholas ll and his family are murdered by the Bolsheviks. -
Russian Civil War (1918-1921)
Between the Bolshevik Red Army and th Anti-Bolsheviks White Army. Approximately 15 000 000 soldiers and civilians died during the war. The Red Army defeats the White Army. -
Creation of the Soviet Union
Bolshevik governments in several republics including the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic, the largest of them all join to form the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which is led by Lenin. -
Death of Lenin
His death and the struggle for power between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin results in Stalin's victory and Trotsky's exile and assassination. -
Stalin becomes the leader of the Soviet government
Between 1928 and 1940, Stalin uses violence and fear to force rapid industrialization of the country and the consolidation of private land into collective farms. He claimed to be a Marxist-Leninist, his own interpretation of communism was influenced by his desire to maintain absolute power and control. -
Holodomor (1932-1933)
Ukraine experienced both sever drought as well as the effects of what some now refer to as a planned famine by Stalin and his plans for industrialization, higher agricultural output, and government ownership of land. This famine is known as the Holodomor and resulted largely from Stalin's collectivization policies, which were designed in part to spperss Ukrainian nationalism. -
The Purges (1936-1939)
The purges of 1936 and 1939 during which Stalin eliminated his opponents within the Communist Party and the Soviet armed forces.
