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The Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) meeting in which the Party splits into two factions: Mensheviks ("minority") and Bolsheviks ("majority")
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Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg begins the 1905 Russian Revolution
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The October Manifesto, issued by Czar Nicholas II, brings an end to the 1905 Russian Revolution by promising civil liberties and an elected parliament (Duma)
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Czar Nicholas II assumes supreme command of the Russian Army
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Rasputin is murdered
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The February Revolution begins with strikes, demonstrations, and mutinies in Petrograd
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Czar Nicholas II abdicates and includes his son. The following day, Nicholas' brother, Mikhail announced his refusal to accept the throne. Provisional Government formed
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The July Days begin in Petrograd with spontaneous protests against the Provisional Government; after the Bolsheviks unsuccessfully try to direct these protests into a coup, Lenin is forced into hiding
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Alexander Kerensky becomes Prime Minister of the Provisional Government
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The October Revolution - the Bolsheviks take over Petrograd
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The Winter Palace, the last holdout of the Provisional Government, is taken by the Bolsheviks; the Council of People's Commissars (abbreviated as Sovnarkom), led by Lenin, is now in control of Russia
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The Bolshevik Party changes its name to the Communist Party
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Russian civil war begins
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The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) established
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Lenin dies; Stalin will become his successor