-
Alexander II came to throne in 1855 in the middle of conflict, and was unable to save Russia from military failure. The humiliation of the Crimean War convinced him that, if his nation was to have peace and stability, military and domestic reforms were necessary. He abolished serfdom for reform.
-
The Russian Revolution of 1905 was a wave of mass political and social unease that spread through large areas of the Russian Empire. There were worker strikes, peasant unrest, and military mutinies directed at the government.
-
the Progressive Bloc was an alliance of political forces that occupied 236 of 442 seats in the Imperial Duma.
-
First Duma wanted continuing reform, including electoral reform and especially land reform. Nicholas II was getting scared of liberalism, so he dissolved the First Duma.
-
Prime minister Pyotr Stolypin accused Social Democrats of preparing an armed uprising against the Tsarist government. He demanded that the Duma exclude 55 Social Democrats from Duma sessions and strip 16 of their parliamentary immunity. They refused the ultimatum, and consequently, Nicholas II dissolved the Second Duma.
-
Citizens were striking in Petrograd because Russian soldiers were ill-equipped for WWI, Russian casualties were greater than any nation in any previous year, Russia's economy was disrupted by costly war efforts, and moderates joined Russian radicals in calling for the overthrow of the czar.
-
Soviet Order No. 1 was the first official decree of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. The issue was ordered through the Military Commission of the Duma calling on soldiers to return to their barracks and obey their officers. Duma ordered this in worries of soldiers revolting in Petrograd.
-
The Russian Provisional Government was established immediately after the abdication of Nicholas II. Their intention was to organize elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly and its convention.
-
Czar Nicholas II abdicates, including his sons. The next day, Nicholas' brother, Mikhail refused to accept the throne. Provisional government formed.
-
The Russian Republic was a short-lived state that took control after the abdication of Nicholas II. The Republic's government was the Provisional Government.
-
Bolsheviks leader Vladimir Lenin issues a series of ten directives after he returned to Petrograd from exile in Switzerland. He called for soviets to take power, denounced liberals and socialist revolutionaries in the Provisional Government, called for Bolsheviks not to cooperate with Provisional Government, and called for new communist policies.
-
After widespread unrest in Petrograd and suppression of the Bolsheviks, Kerensky succeeded Prince Lvov as Russia's prime minister. Following the Kornilov Affair at the end of August, he also appointed himself Supreme Commander-in-Chief.
-
Bolshevik majority in Petrograd Soviet elects Bolshevik Presidium and Trotsky as chairman.
-
Also known as the October Revolution, was led by the Bolsheviks who used their influence in the Petrograd Soviet to organize armed forces. The Red Guards began seizing government buildings, including the Winter Palace (seat of Provisional Government). This is when the Bolsheviks seized power.
-
The Council of People's Commisionars was a government formed after the October Revolution. The council focused on restructuring the nation to form the Soviet Union. Being the chairman of the council, Lenin had the highest authority of executive power in the Soviet Union.
-
The White Army was a confederation of Anti-Communist forces that fought the Bolsheviks(Reds). They had a stated goal of bringing about law and order and the salvation of Russia.
-
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed between the Bolshevik Government of Soviet Russian and the Central Powers, that stated the withdraw of Russia's participation in World War I.
-
Fanya Yefimovna Kaplan was a Russian revolutionary who attempted assassination of Vladimir Lenin. As a Socialist revolutionary, Kaplan seen Lenin as a 'traitor to the revolution', when the Bolsheviks banned her party. She approached Lenin at a Moscow factory and shot him three times.
-
A multi-national military expedition was launched by the allies to aid the Czechoslovakia Legion, secure supplies in Russian ports, and re-establish the Eastern Front. the Allies fought alongside the anti-Bolshevik White forces in Russia.
-
The Russian Imperial Romanov family were shot, bayoneted and clubbed to death. The Tsar and his family were killed by Bolshevik troops, worried he would inspire conservative reign of Russia. Their bodies were mutilated, burned, and buried in a filed called Porosenkov Log in the Koptyaki forest.
-
The city of Kazan was captured from the Reds by the White Army. The Reds tried to stop the Whites, but they were not prepared and they were poorly organized.
-
The Simbirsk Operation was the Red Army's offensive against the People Army of Komuch.
-
The New Economic Policy was proposed by Lenin, and was described as a progression towards "state capitalism" within the worker's state of the USSR.
-
The USSR starts an anti-religious campaign, especially targeted at the Orthodox Church. They tried to reverse religious beliefs and replace them with atheism. The state conducted anti-religious persecutions against believers that were made to hurt and destroy religion.
-
The White Movement is permanently defeated by the Bolsheviks. The anti-Bolsheviks went into exile all around Europe and established military and cultural networks that lasted through the Second World War.
-
Vladimir Lenin dies of a brain hemorrhage at 54. Stalin will become his successor.
