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Nicholas II becomes Czar of Russia
When Nicholas II became Czar in 1894, he continued the Russian tradition of autocracy which kept him from changing conditions of his times. -
Russia industrializes
The number of facotires doubled from 1863 to the 1900's yet Russia still lagged behind the industrial nations of western Europe. After raising taxes Russia became the fourth-ranking steel producer. This also created new problems such as horrific working conditions, extremely low wages and child labor. -
Development of Revolutionary Groups
A group formed that followed the thoughts of Karl Marx, they believed the industrial class of workers would overthrow the Czar and form a proletarait (the workers would rule the country). The Marxists then split into two groups, the moderate Mensheviks and the raidcal Bolsheviks. -
bloody sunday
200,000 workers and their families went to St. Petersburg and carried a petition asking for more personal freedom, an elected national legislature and better working conditions. In return czar Nicholas II's generals orders soldiers to fire on the crowd leaving more than 1,000 wounded and several hundred dead. -
World War I
Russia was unprepared to handle military and economic costs and its weak generals and poorly equipped troops were no match for the German army. Germany defeated Russia over and over again, before a year had passed, more than 4 million Russians were killed, injured, or taken prisoner. -
The March Revolution
Women textlie workers in Petrograd led a citywide strike which turned to riots over bread in fuel within 5 days. Soon enough, nearly 200.000 workers swarmed the streets shouting, "down with autocracy! down with the war!" -
Czar Nicholas II steps down
Eventually the soldiers joined the protesters and czar Nicholas the II had no choice but to back down. Russia had failed to replace him with a strong government so the leaders of Duma established a provisional government. -
The Bolshevik Revolution
Lenin and the Bolsheviks soon took power of the Petrograd soviet, by the fall of 1917 people were rallying to the call "All power to the soviets." In november, suddenly, armed factory workers stormed the Winter Palace calling themselves the Bolshevik Red Guards. They took over government offices and arrested the leaders of the provisional government. -
Lenin Takes Over
Lenin created a slogan- "Peace, Land, and Bread" which gained widespread appeal. Just a few days after the Bolsheviks took control he ordered that all farmland to be distributed among the peasants and gave control of factories to the workers. He also signed a treaty with Germany to stop the fighting and began peace talks. -
Stalin Becomes Dictator
Stalin began his climb to the top of the government shortly after Lenin died of a stroke. He started as a general secretary of the Communist Party and worked behind the scenes to moce his supporters into important positions of power. by 1928 Stalin was in complete control of the Communist Party and now stood poised to wield absolute power as a dictator.
