Russian Revolution

By shaunditzler

  • Decembrist Revolt

    Decembrist Revolt
    • General discontent among Russians, from peasant and serfs to nobles and the wealthy, began to grow during the early 1800's.
    • A small group of nobles and army officers tried to overthrow Czar Nicholas I on December 14, 1825.
    • The Czar quickly and brutally crushed the revolt, executing its 5 leaders and exiling over 150,000 people to Siberia.
    • The Czar also responded with strict censorship of western books containing liberal ideas that could incite future rebellion.
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    Russian Revolution

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  • Emancipation of the serfs

    Emancipation of the serfs
    • While other European nations were industrializing and becoming powerful, modern nations, Russia was still reliant on serfdom, which impeded them from industrializing and modernizing.
    • The new Czar, Alexander II, emancipated the serfs in 1861 in order to push Russia forward.
    • However, the freed serfs were not given land, but instead forced to buy it at very high prices. They continued to live in poverty.

  • Bloody Sunday

    Bloody Sunday
    • Tired of the poor condition for factory workers, Father Georgi Gapon decided to lead a peaceful march to the palace of Czar Nicholas II at St. Petersberg to demand better working condition and more political freedoms.
    • When the marchers reached the palace, a line of soldiers blocked their way. Father Gapon ordered that they continue forward.
    • The soldiers opened fire and killed hundreds of innocent people.
    • The horrors of Bloody Sunday directly inspired the Revolution of 1905

  • Revolution of 1905

    Revolution of 1905
    • Horrified by the massacre in St. Petersburg, Russians began rioting throughout the countryside and in the cities.
    • Czar Nicholas II created the Duma, an elected assembly suppossedly for the people, to calm the riots.
    • The Duma was not very effective, however, and Russia was still an autocracy. Inequality still flourished.

  • Russia Enters WWI

    Russia Enters WWI
    • Russia joined its allies (Britain and France) in 1914 against the powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
    • All sides expected the war to be a brief one, but they were sadly mistaken and the war dragged on for far longer than they intended.
    • Russia was ill equipped to fight such a drug-out war, and theur resources were stretched thin. Factories and Transportation were not developed enought to supply all their soldiers.
    • This caused a lot of resentment among the Russian people.

  • Rasputin Murdered

    Rasputin Murdered
    • Grigori Rasputin was mysterious man whom many Russian considered to be a mystic. He helped to discredit the czarist government and destroy the Romanov Dynasty.
    • He became the confidant of czarista Alexandra, secretly imposing his own ideas and methods into the government, which eventually collapsed,
    • Mystery shrouds the actual assassination of Rasputin, some stories claiming that he was poisoned, shot, beat, and drowned before he finally died on December 29, 1916.

  • The March Revolution

    The March Revolution
    • After Russia entered WWI to aid Britain and France, resources were spread thin and discontent throughout the country grew. It reached a tipping point in 1917, marking the begginning of what is collectively known as the Russian Revolution.
    • Shouting "Bread and Peace!", protestors began rioting in March 1917 in the Russian capital of Petrograd.
    • News of the riots spread and demontrators throughout Russia began overthrowing czarist official, causing Nicholas II to abdicate soon after.

  • Czar Nicholas II Abdicates

    Czar Nicholas II Abdicates
    • Czar Nicholas II, also known as "Bloody Nicholas" because of his reign during Bloody Sunday and the fall of the czarist Russia, was the last official "emperor" of Russia.
    • After he stepped down, the Provisional Government was temporarily established, which allowed for freedom of speech and religion as well as an assembly to write a Constitution.
    • Unfortunately, the government was ineffective, and socialist revolutionaries took control of Petrograd and began challenging the power of the gov.

  • Bolshevik Revolution

    Bolshevik Revolution
    • The Bolsheviks were a party led by Lenin who won power over the soviets, which were councils made up of workers, soldiers, and peasants.
    • Lenin, a Marxist, convinced the Bolsheviks to overthrow the Provisional Government after they made an order for his arrest in early November.
    • To satisfy the people, Lenin announced that peasants would be allowed to keep the land they had seized after the March Revolution. He also signed a peace treaty with Germany in 1918.

  • Murder of the Romanovs

    Murder of the Romanovs
    • When Czar Nicholas II abdicated in 1917, he and his family fled in search of safety, ending up in Ekateringburg.
    • Lenin knew that while the former czar was still alive, many of his followers would continue to rally to his cause and oppose the new rule. He determined that the entire Romanoc dynasty must be killed so as to eliminate the possibility of an heir threatening his power.
    • The Romanovs were slaughtered in their basement by Red Army soldiers. Rumors of Anastasia escaping still exist.

  • Treaty of Versailles

    Treaty of Versailles
    • The Treaty of Versailles was one of various treaties at the end of World War I that ended the state of between Germany and the Allied Powers.
    • The end of the war meant that Russia no longer had to send their already limited resources to the front lines.
    • However, Russia, along with Germany, Austria, and Hungary, was excluded from negotiations of the treaty because they had made a separate peace agreement with Germany.

  • USSR Formed

    USSR Formed
    • Civil War erupted within Russia between the Communists (the former Bolsheviks) and various other, less organized parties who wanted Russia to be ruled differently.
    • The Communist's Red Army was ruthless, taking anything they needed from peasants, etc., and could not be beaten by the American-, French-, and British-aided White Army.
    • The Communists won control in 1922 and renamed Russia the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or the Soviet Union.

  • Lenin Dies

    Lenin Dies
    • Lenin died before his goal of turning Russia into a completely communist state was achieved.
    • His successor, Joseph Stalin, also tried to achieve this goal.
    • Lenin is remembered infamously as the founder of the Societ Communist Party and the creator of the USSR.

  • Stalin Takes Power/Death of Trotsky

    Stalin Takes Power/Death of Trotsky
    • After Lenin died, he left his power for Joseph Stalin and Leon Trorsky to struggle over.
    • Stalin won the struggle and later forced Trotsky into exile from Russia in February, 1929.
    • Ramon Mercader, an assassin for Stalin, attacked Trotsky in his home in Mexico with an ice axe on August 20, 1940, hospitalizing Trotsky and killing him the next day.