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Marxist revolutionaries disagree over revolutionary topics. The more radical Bolsheviks are ready to risk everything. The charismatic Vladimir Lenin becomes leader.
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The Russo-Japanese war creates weakness in Russia's government allowing revolutionary action to take place.
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Bloody Sunday, Russian massacre in St. Petersburg, Russia, of peaceful demonstrators marking the beginning of the violent phase of the Russian Revolution of 1905.
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The Duma calls on the tsarist government to ratify democratic reforms; Goremykin, the tsar's prime minister, says the Duma has no authority to make such demands.
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The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo precipitated the crisis that erupted into World War I.
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The February Revolution was a revolution focused around Saint Petersburg, then capital of Russia. Members of the Imperial parliament or Duma assumed control of the country, forming the Russian Provisional Government.
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Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin overthrow the Provisional Government in what comes to be known as the October Revolution.
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The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is signed between Russia and the Central Powers, ending WW1 in the East; Russia concedes a massive amount of land, people and resources.
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October 1920: The Treaty of Riga brings most fighting in the Russo-Polish War to a halt.
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-The tenth Party Congress of the Communist Party. Lenin announces the New Economic Policy (NEP) and demands an end to factionalism in the party.
-Red Army troops enter the streets of Kronstadt and arrest the last rebel sailors. -
Lenin dictates his ‘political testament’, a series of letters containing his views about the future of Soviet Russia, the Communist Party and its potential leaders.