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Alexander III Comes to Power
Alexander II is assassinated by revolutionaries. Alexander III favored autocracy, in which he had total power and anyone who belonged to a different faith, spoke a different language, or questioned the authority of the tsar was labeled as dangerous. Harsh censorship comes into place soon after Alexander III takes power. -
Nicholas II Comes to Power
Nicholas II followed in Alexander III's ways. He raised taxes to help industrialize Russia. Russia becomes a major producer of steel. The Trans-Siberian Railway begins construction. -
Russian Marxists Split
Mensheviks and Bolsheviks; Bolsheviks are led by Vladimir Lenin. He fled to western Europe to avoid arrest by the czarist regime. He remained in contact with his fellow Bolsheviks from there until he returned. -
Bloody Sunday
About 200,000 workers and their families approached the czar's winter palace. They carried a petition asking for better working conditions, more personal freedom, and an elected national legislature. Nicholas II's generals commanded soldiers to fire on the crowd, wounding over 1000 and killing hundreds. -
Japan's Attack on Port Arthur
Russia didn't follow agreements made with Manchuria, Korea, and Japan, so the Russo-Japanese War ensued. Japan retaliated by attacking the Russians at Port Arthur in Manchuria. Continued Russian losses led to unrest at home and led to a revolt in the midst of the war. -
Creation of Duma
Nicholas II approved the creation of the Duma —Russia’s first parliament. The first Duma met in May 1906; its leaders were moderates who wanted Russia to become a constitutional monarchy similar to Britain. But because he was hesitant to share his power, the czar dissolved the Duma after ten weeks. -
World War I
Russia is pulled into WWI but they are unprepared to handle Germany's military might. After less than a year of fighting. over 4 million Russian soldiers had been killed. Food and supplies dwindled back home and people from all classes were clamoring for change and an end to the war. -
Strike in Petrograd
Textile workers led a strike in Petrograd. Nearly 200,000 workers swarmed the streets. Soldiers are commanded to shoot at the people, but they turned on their leaders after a bit. -
Nicholas II Steps Down and Provisional Government Established
Local Protests led to widespread uprisings and Nicholas II was forced to step down; leaders of the Duma step in to create a provisional government, headed by Alexander Kerensky. He kept Russia in the war, which cost him support from the soldiers and the people. Socialist revolutionaries formed soviets, and they gained power in the cities, even becoming more powerful than the provisional government in some cases. -
Lenin Returns
Vladimir Lenin returns to Russia and arrived in Petrograd in April 1917. He gained power of the Petrograd soviet, rallying the people to his side. -
Bolsheviks Takes Control
Bolshevik Red Guards storm the Winter Palace. They took over the government offices and arrested officers of the provisional government. -
Lenin's Reforms
Within days after the Bolshevik takeover, Lenin ordered that all farmland be distributed among the peasants. Lenin and the Bolsheviks gave control of factories to the workers. The Bolshevik government also signed a truce with Germany to stop all fighting and began peace talks. -
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Signed
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. -
Civil War in Russia
The Red Army, made up of Bolsheviks, was faced by the White army, who were many different groups of people who disagreed with Lenin and his policies. In the end, the Red Army crushed all opposition, proving the power of the Bolsheviks. The revolution, as well as the famine that followed, killed about 14 million Russians. -
Lenin Restores Order
Lenin reformed the government. The reforms under the New Economic Policy 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 allowed some factories, businesses, and farms operate under private ownership.
Russia began to recover and by 1928, their farms and factories produced as much as they had before WWI. -
Political Reforms
The Bolsheviks saw nationalism as a threat to unity and so Lenin organized Russia into several self-governing republics under the central government. Russia was renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the Bolsheviks renamed their party the Communist Party, after the writings of Karl Marx. In 1924, the Communists created a constitution based on socialist and democratic policies, but in reality, the Community Party had all the power. -
Stalin Comes to Power
After Lenin suffered a stroke in 1922. This led to competition between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky, two leaders of the Community Party. After exiling Trotsky in 1929, Stalin became the absolute leader of the USSR.
