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The Russo-Japanese War
n the late 1800s, Russia and Japan competed for control of Korea and Manchuria. The two nations signed a series of agreements over the territories,but Russia broke them. Japan retaliated by attacking the Russians at Port Arthur, Manchuria, in February 1904.News of repeated Russian losses sparked unrest at home and led to a revolt in the midst of the war. -
Russia Industrialization
Rapid industrialization changed the face of the Russian economy. The number of factories more than doubled. -
Bloody Sunday
The Revolution of1905On January 22, 1905, about 200,000 workers and their families approached the czar’s Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. They carried a petition asking for better working conditions, more personal freedom,and an elected national legislature. -
World War I
In 1914, Nicholas II made the fateful decision to drag Russia into World War I. Russia was unprepared to handle the military and economic costs. Its weak generals and poorly equipped troops were no match for the German army. German machine guns mowed down advancing Russians by the thousands. -
The March Revolution
n March 1917, women textile workers in Petrograd led a citywide strike. In the next five days, riots flared up over shortages of bread and fuel. Nearly 200,000 workers swarmed the streets shouting, “Down with the autocracy!” and “Down with the war!”At first the soldiers obeyed orders to shoot the rioters but later sided with them. -
The Bolshevik Revolution
Lenin and the Bolsheviks soon gained control of the Petrograd soviet, as well as the soviets in other major Russian cities. By the fall of 1917, people in the cities were rallying to the call, “All power to the soviets.” Lenin’s slogan—“Peace, Land,and Bread”—gained widespread appeal. Lenin decided to take action. -
The Provisional Government Topples
In November 1917, without warning,armed factory workers stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd. Calling themselves the Bolshevik Red Guards, they took over government offices and arrested the leaders of the provisional government.Kerensky and his colleagues as quickly as the czarist regime they had replaced. -
Bolsheviks in Power
In March 1918, Russia and Germany signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Russia surrendered a large part of its territory to Germany and its allies. The humiliating terms of this treaty triggered widespread anger among many Russians. They objected to the Bolsheviks and their policies and to the murder of the royal family. -
Civil War Rages in Russia
The revolutionary leader, Leon Trotsky, expertly commanded the Bolshevik Red Army. From 1918 to 1920, civil war raged in Russia. Several Western nations, including the United States, sent military aid and forces to Russia to help the White Army. However, they were of little help. -
New Economic Policy
n March 1921, Lenin temporarily put aside his plan for a state-controlled economy. Instead, he resorted to a small-scale version of capitalism called the New Economic Policy (NEP). The reforms under the NEP allowed peasants to sell their surplus crops instead of turning them over to the government.The government kept control of major industries, banks, and means of communication, but it let some small factories, businesses, and farms operate under private ownership.
