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Lenin's contribution
- Lenin nationalizes the factories, collectivizes the farms and outlaws the church.
- Changes the name of the Bolshevik Party => Russian Communist Party
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Volunteer Army
General Lavr Kornilov started a volunteer army with over 3000 men in it. They were counter revolutionary groups who fought against the Bolshevik, Red Army. Admiral Alexander Kolchak’s army was in the east. Pytro Wrangel became the leader of the southern army force after Kornilov died. Nikolai Yudenich was the leader of the north western army. -
Period: to
Russian Civil War
Civil war erupts between the Red Army of the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks (helped by Britain, Japan, USA) -
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Lenin signs a truce with Germany and accepts territorial losses. It also ended Russia's participation in WWI. -
Decossackization
The Bolshevik government enacts a policy of extermination of the Cossacks (8000 are excuted in the next 2 months) and the elimination of the Cossacks as a separate ethnic, political, economic entity,. -
Period: to
Comintern
The Comintern (or "Third International") is founded in Moscow with the aim of spreading the revolution all over the world. It ended when Stalin shut it down to avoid antagonizing its allies: the US and the UK. -
Losing money
The ruble has lost 96% of its pre-war value; Industrial production has fallen to 10% of its 1913 level -
Victory to Lenin!
The civil war ends with Lenin's victory (millions have died of starvation, the population of Petrograd has dropped from 2.5 million in 1917 to 0.6 in 1920) -
New Policy
Lenin enacts the New Economic Policy (sometimes called “state capitalism”) -
Famine + Anti-religious campaign
Five million people have died during two years of famine, mostly in the lower Volga; the anti-religious campaign has killed 2691 priests, 1962 monks and 3447 nuns -
Formation of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union is created by uniting Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Transcaucasus (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbajan). -
Proletariat
The Soviet Union adopts a constitution based on the dictatorship of the Proletariat -
Lenin's death
Lenin dies and is succeeded by Joseph Stalin, who was officially hailed as his successor and as the leader of the ruling Communist Party and of the Soviet Union itself. -
Five-Year Plan
Stalin enacts the 1st Five-Year Plan for rapid industrialization of the Soviet Union -
Heap of Crime
1,778,000 people are convicted of crimes -
Dekulakization
Stalin calls for full collectivization and orders the persecution of "kulaks" (rich farmers), 15 million peasants are deported to the Arctic regions and 6.5 million die -
Huge death sentence
More than 20,000 people are sentenced to death in the Soviet Union. -
Death by collectivization
One million people in Kazakhstan die of famine (caused by forced collectivization) -
Death by collectivization (again)
Five million people in Ukraine die of famine (caused by forced collectivization) -
The Great Purge
Stalin's main advisor, Sergei Kirov, is assassinated, prompting Stalin to begin the "Great Purge" of the Communist Party (thousands of communists are deported to "gulags"); 2.5 million Soviet citizens are arrested and 700,000 are executed over the next three years -
Gulag Prison
The Gulag has 800,000 prisoners in camps and 300,000 in work colonies -
Moscow Trial
The first show trial against communist leaders is held in Moscow (the defendants "confess") -
Red Army Purge
A Soviet military court sentenced a group of some of the most senior officers in the Red Army to execution. Accused of working for Nazi Germany and coordinating a so-called 'military-fascist plot', the group were charged with sabotage, espionage, and planning to overthrow the Stalinist regime. -
German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Nonaggression Pact, in which the two countries won't take military action against each other for the next 10 years. (But it was broken when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union surprisingly during WW2) -
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s.
