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Only true autocracy left in Europe. No type of representative political institutions. Nicholas II became tsar in 1884
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Defeat for Russia in this war led to political instability. Fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea.
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Tsar paid no attention to the Duma; it was harassed and political parties suppressed – only token land reform was passed.
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Rapid growth of (discontented) working class. Vast majority of workers concentrated in St. Petersburg and Moscow.
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In 1913, Tsar Nicholas II celebrated the tercentenary of Romanov rule in Russia. He and his dynasty ruled over a huge empire, stretching from central Europe to the Pacific Ocean and from the Arctic to the borders of Afghanistan.
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Battle of Tannenberg (August, 1914) – massive defeat at hands of Hindenburg and Ger
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ill-trained, ineffective officers, poorly equipped (Russ. was not ready for ind. war) – the result was mass desertions and 2 million casualties by 1915.
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Nicholas left for the Front—September, 1915, Alexandra and Rasputin throw the government into chaos, Alexandra and other high government officials accused of treason.
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Rasputin assassinated in December of 1916, Complete mismanagement of the wartime economy, Ind. production plummeted, inflation and starvation were rampant, and the cities were overflowing w/ refugees.
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Nicholas was personally a very weak man; he became increasingly remote as a ruler.
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Duma declared itself a Provisional Government on March 12, Tsar ordered soldiers to intervene; instead they joined the rebellion…the Tsar thus abdicated on March 17.
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this was the ideological aspect of the rev., w/ the coup itself planned by Leon Trotsky, who had gained the confidence of the army (= the “Red Miracle”)
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Political Police organized: CHEKA, Revolutionary army created with Trotsky in charge = “Red Army”, Bolshevik Party renamed Communist Party in March of 1918.
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Officially renamed the Communist Party in March 1918. Wanted to spread the Communist revolution throughout the world.