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March (Feburary) Revolution
The first Russian revolution centered on Petrograd, the revolution broke out due to increasing strikes and food shortages. It involved the citizens of Petrograd trying to overthrow the Tsar. The Cossacks (army) was ordered to stop the revolution, but instead joined the protesters. This revolution led to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the creation of the the Provisional Government. -
Period: to
Russia to 1941
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The Provisional Government
The Provisional Government of Russia was created in March 1917 after the March Revolution. It centered on a dual power system between the Liberals, who wanted to end the revolution, and the Marxists, who wanted to continue fighting. The government had many flaws itself in their inability to recognize the condition and mindsets of the Russian people. The Bolsheviks took control in power in October of 1917 and overthrew the Provisional Government. -
April Thesis
The April Thesis was prompted by Lenin which called for an immediate peace, the seizure of all gentry land, all power to the soviets and the seizure of factories. Out of these points came Lenin's famous slogan "Peace, Bread and Land". -
Kornilov Affair
After the fall of the Provisional Government, an alliance of two groups now ran Russia, led by both Kerensky and Kornilov. They both agreed to threaaten the government by sending troops through Petrograd. Kornilov betrayed Kerensky in a greed for power, Kerensky in turn asked the Bolsheviks for help. This showed how Lenin's reign was strengthening as he controlled the Bolsheviks. -
Bolshevik Revolution
On October 13th, the Bolsheviks took control of Petrograd, and soon after Moscow aswell. The Bolsheviks arrested and collapsed the Provisional Govenment along with the Soviets and Trotsky. The Bolsheviks was now in power and resistance was futile. -
New Government
After the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin began to establish a new government to replace the Provisional Governemnt. The governement was ruled strictly with Lenin's personality (Marxism) with Trotsky and Stalin as main players. This new government effectively ended the war that was going on in Russia at the time and also officially claimed Russia under communism. -
Civil War
The Russian civil war was between the Reds (Bolsheviks) and the Whites (Opposition). The Whites wanted to keep fighting in WWI but due to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk they turned their attention towards the Reds. The Whites had support from the allies in this civil war (Japan etc...) but however didn't actually recieve help from them and therefore lost to the Reds. This showed that western countries had no respect for Lenin's government -
Treaty of Bel-Litovsk
The Treaty of Bel-Litovsk was Lenin's idea (against the word of everyone else) to open a negotiation towards Germany as a way for Russia to formally withdraw from WWI. The treaty was inevitable as such a young government couldn't deal with all the major problems of Russia at the time while still going to war. The treaty relieved Russia of war pressures, however at the same time it also drove the secret opposition of the Bolsheviks to hate Lenin's control even more than before. -
War Communism
War communism occured in Russia after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as an economic recovery method from WWI. A key point of war communism was the nationalization of industry, and the rationing and government distribution of food; which caused private industries to almost fade away completely. It's seen here again Lenin trying to invoke the idea of collectivization. However it doesn't work as no one agrees and eventually fails. -
New Economic Policy
Due to the failure of war communism in the role of recovering the USSR economically, Lenin had to show some flexibility in his rulings. He proclaimed the New Economic Policy in which some private trade was permitted along with the selling of surplus and small factories. The NEP did have some capitalistic ideals and it showed the first time a compromise was successful in any Russian government. -
Treaty of Rapallo
The Treaty of Rapallo was a treaty between Germany and the USSR. This was a mutual agreement in which Germany would be allowed to secretly build up it's military on USSR land, which the Treaty of Versailles forbids. And in return the USSR would recieve technological advances from Germany. This marks the changing of the Bolsheviks party to the Communist party and from Russia to the United Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) -
First Five Year Plan
The Five Year Plans were economic goals set by the USSR in order to catch up to other major world powers in a short span of time. The first plan relied heavily on the idea of "Collectivization" in which the government would take ownership of all farm land and harvest, which would then be distributed evenly. However this idea ultimately failed due to non-participation. The eventual failure of the first plan cause forced labour camps (Gulags) to become a permanent settlement in Russia -
Kellogg-Briand Pact
The Kellogg-Briand pact was the USSR's first participation in western affairs, thus ushering the stage of Normalization. It's main purpose was to denouce warfare as a method of solving disputes. -
Normalization
Normalization was the period in which the USSR was recovering from both WWI and the civil war. The USSR joined the rest of the world slowly as they began to get involved in foreign affairs, joining the League of Nations and signed treaties with European countries. -
Second Five Year Plan
The failure of the first plan, the second one was especially brutal due to some party officials against the plan, because of the harshness of the first. Kirov was shot by Stalin;s secret police because of a threat in the balance of power. This marked the start of the Purges in which Stalin's secret police killed off his enemies. Stalin executed many Red Army generals/officers, a mistake which would be dearly regreted come WWII. -
League of Nations
On September 18th of 1934, the USSR joined the League of Nations. This was a pivotal step in showing that they are back on track economically and is ready to join the rest of the world and participate in world affairs. -
The Purges
Stalin used his secret police as a form of eliminating all of his possible "enemies". Anyone that had anything to do with the revolution or spoke of defiance were either tried and executed or murdered by the secret police. Stalin went so far as to execute his army generals for fear of rebellion. This would weaken the russian army and make them extremely vulnerable to attack. -
Nazi-Soviet Pact
The Nazi-Soviet Pact was a treaty of non aggression between the two countries. This was more of an excuse for the Soviet Union to buy time so they could build up their army for warfare. The pact however was eventually broken on June 22nd 1941 when Germany made their attack.
