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Succeeding his father on November 1, 1894, he was crowned tsar in Moscow on May 26, 1896. Neither by upbringing nor by temperament was Nicholas fitted for the complex tasks that awaited him as autocratic ruler of a vast empire.
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jan 1, 1905 - Revolutionary movements begin and compete for power.
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Up to 200 people were killed by rifle fire and Cossack charges. This event became known as Bloody Sunday and is seen as one of the key causes of the 1905 Revolution. The aftermath brought about a short-lived revolution in which the Tsar lost control of large areas of Russia.
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In March 1917, the army garrison at Petrograd joined striking workers in demanding socialist reforms, and Czar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate. Nicholas and his family were first held at the Czarskoye Selo palace, then in the Yekaterinburg palace near Tobolsk.
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On April 16, 1917, Vladimir Lenin, leader of the revolutionary Bolshevik Party, returns to Petrograd after a decade of exile to take the reins of the Russian Revolution.
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During the Russian Revolution of 1917, Bolshevik revolutionaries toppled the monarchy, ending the Romanov dynasty. Czar Nicholas II and his entire family—including his young children—were later executed by Bolshevik troops.
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Introduced by Vladimir Lenin in 1921, the New Economic Policy (or NEP) was a radical shift in Bolshevik economic strategy. It eased the harsh restrictions of war communism, the Bolshevik economic policy during the Civil War, and allowed the return of markets and petty trade.
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Lenin died on 21 January 1924. Stalin was given the honour of organizing his funeral. Upon Lenin's death, Stalin was officially hailed as his successor as the leader of the ruling Communist Party and of the Soviet Union itself.