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Russia enters the First World War
Despite entering WW1, Russia's economy was incapable of providing necessary equipment and food to fight the war -
Lenin returns from exile
Lenin returns from exile and demands an immediate end to the First World War and the redistribution of land to the peasants. Lenin's demands were summarised in his slogan 'Peace, Land and Bread' -
Meeting of All-Russian Congress of Soviets
Local soviets sent representatives to the All Russian Congress of Soviets to discuss Russia's future. Lenin later argued that this should be the basis of the new russian government. The October Revolution handed over power to the All Russian Congress -
February Revolution & establishment of Provisional Government
The economic chaos, military defeat and political mismanagement led to a popular uprising in Petrograd, which overthrew the Tsar and established the provisional Government. -
October Revolution
Lenin's increasingly popular message garnered enough support to overthrow the Provisional Government and organised a coup d'etat which allowed the Bolsheviks to take power -
Decree on Land (October)
Gave peasants the right to seize land from the nobility and the Church -
Decree on Peace (October)
Committed the new government to withdrawing from the First World War and seeking peace -
Worker's Decree (November)
Established an eight-hour maximum working day and a minimum wage -
November Election
A nationwide election was held in November 1917, and Lenin here started to reveal his true colors, as he widely ignored the results of the election, indicating that he was turning against democracy. This election created the Constituent Assembly -
Creation of the Cheka
Lenin created the All-Russian Emergency Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage (Cheka). Which was a secret political police force which defended the revolution. They were notorious for being willing to imprison, torture or kill anyone viewed as a threat. -
Meeting of the Constituent Assembly and their Fall
In January, the November election of 1917 created the Constituent Assembly which met together. Lenin closed down the CA after one night claiming it posed a threat to the power of the soviets -
Introduction of War Communism
The introduction of War Communism during the war was done so that the Communist party could work efficiently and pragmatically through the time of war. However this meant that some previous decrees had to be backtracked for example the Worker's decree, in which working days were now extended to 11 hours and to people form 16 to 50 years of age. -
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Civil War
Russian Civil War led to the creation of a 'party-state' and therefore made the party more authoritarian and centralised. -
Lenin signs the Treaty Of Brest-Litovsk
Lenin was willing to disregard the soviets and he signed the Treaty which gave away a significant proportion of Russian territory to Central Powers in order to end involvement in the First World War. This proved very unpopular for the Bolsheviks. -
Decree of Worker's Control (April)
Allowed workers to elect committees to run factories -
The Crisis of 1921
The crisis was a result of the victory of the Civil War, due to the fact that the communist's wilingness to dominate the government made them extremely unpopular. This crisis included rebellion among the peasants, workers' strikes and military mutiny. which showed the extent of opposition to Lenin's government. As a result however, Lenin decided to show reform. -
1921 Party Congress
Lenin, albeit against the rebellions, recognised the unrest and dissatisfaction with the regime and therefore pushed through a new series of reforms in the 1921 Party Congress, including the NEP and the ban on factions. Lenin's Resolution 'On Party Unity', banned factions inside the party strengthened his control and position within the party. -
Lenin authorisation of destruction
Lenin authorised the Cheka to destroy opposition political parties. By the end fo February, all Mensheviks in Petrograd and Moscow were arrested. The same happened to the SRs. The communists' dominance was mostly aided by the crushing of their opponents. -
Kronstadt Naval Revolt
In early 1921, sailors from the Kronstadt naval base rebelled after seeing the horrifying methods of suppression by Communists on strikes. They demanded a series of reforms such as free and fiar election of new soviets, abolition of Cheka, end to War communism, restoration of free speech, and release of political prisoners -
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Crushing of Kronstadt Uprising
The Red Army quickly crushed the Kronstadt uprising, as well as in the Peasant rebellions in Tambov. They suppressed the rebellion by deporting 100000 people to labour camps and attacking peasant villages with poisoned gas.