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Bloody Sunday
It began as an international women's day protest which evolved into an open fiar on the protestors by the guards as ordered by the Tsar. In addition to killing 130 people and wounding hundred, this event demonstrates the Tsarsist regime's sheer lack of ability in dealing with a disgruntled populace. Then workers who had previously supported the Tsar joined the revolutionary groups. -
The naval battle with Japan
At the time, Japan was looking for control of Korea and Manchuria. Russia's attempt to intervene resulted in an anihillation of the Russian navy in the battle by Japan. This was a tragic even for Russia, extremely humiliating as at the time, Japan was considered a weaker country. This loss led to more and more people losing support in the Tsar, as he was viewed as incomptent. -
Stylopin on the scene.
Stylopin becomes the third leader of the Duma. He introduced reforms to gruntle the peasants and improve living conditions. Most importantly, to repress the revolutionaries! A new class of Kulaks was created and now run farms for profit. The cities, thanks to the Kulaks, now have more food and working conditions have improved, however, they still aren't extrodinary. -
So long Stylopin.
Stylopin was assasinated in Keiv and despite being told that it would be very likely for there to be an assasination attempt he traveled without guards or a bullet proof vest. -
Tsar Nicholas II leaves for the front, and it's consequences 1/3
In 1915, Tsar Nicholas the second decides that he would be best suited to take charge of the army. He leaves his palace and ventures off to the front to take charge and command the army, leaving his wife Alexandria, the Tsarina in charge. This was a terrible idea for many reasons. Tsar Nicholas did not have the millitary history to be the the commander, the general, the top dog, in fact, he was merely a field officer during his time. (Probably did not actually occur on March 31st...) -
More consequences for the Tsar... 2/3
Alexandria, the Tsars wife was now to take charge of the government while her husband was away. This upset many people because Alexandria wasn't just the Tsars wife, but a German one at that, her descent if from the same descent of whom their country was fighting with at the time. The already upset populace lost even more faith in the Tsars rule, Alexandria's German heritage made the general population even more suspicious than they already were... (To be continued because I ran out of space...) -
Consequences for the Tsar re: Alexandria and Rasputin 3/3
Alexandria controlled the domestic affaris, but gave the controls of the government to the magical monk Rasputin who supposedly had healing powers that helped with the Tsar's son's hemophilia. One by one, Rasputin managed to swap things around with the existing cabinet ministers until the majority of them had been replaced by his friends. -
20, 000 Steel Workers Strike
AND IT BEGINS! -
Women take to the streets to demonstrate
Womens day parade! -
More than 1/2 of Petrograd is on strike.
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Tsar ordered troops to open fire on protesting crowds.
40 killed. -
Tsar closes the Duma.
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Soldiers revolt and establish the Petrograd Soviet.
The Petrograd Soviet was a starter union of sorts. The parties involved were the workers and sailors. -
Tsar returns to Petrograd
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Tsar loses support of the army
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Russian Marxist Split into 2 Groups.
The Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks -
Tsar abdicates!
More of a forced typed deal... -
Grand Duke Michael refuses the throne.
This means the power is now given to the provisional government. -
The Provisional Government & The Petrograd Soviet
The Provisional Government was a 12 member government led by Alexander Kerensky. The provisional government planned to rule until elections were to be held.
Where as the Petrograd Soviet was a council of 2,500 deputies who were determined to share the power with the provisional government. This resulted in the dual government. -
Germans Return Lenin
In hopes to cause a kerfuffle with their enemy, Russia. -
April Thesis
Upon Lenin's return, he created the April Thesis which argued that all that had been accomplished was the bourgeois revolution and demanded immediate peace, the seizure of the gentry land and factories and power to the soviets.
Out of this set of ideas, Lenin came up with the fabulous slogan of, "Peace. Bread and Land" -
July Days
Mobs and radicals attempted to overthrow the government between the 16th and 18th of July 1917, they failed because the Soviets refused to help. Lenin had to flee the provisional government and continued to lead the Bolsheviks from Finland. Then, Alexander Kerensky now became P.M. and gains were made for the conservative socialists. -
Kornilov Affair
Two groups led the Russian Government, Kerensky and the Socialists that aren't communists and Kornilov and the Constitutional Democrats. A disturbance in Petrograd resulted in both Kerensky and Kornilov sending troops to the disturbance for protection of the government. When suddenly, Kornilov betrayed Kerensky and attempted to try and violently seize and take over. In order to save the day, Kerensky appealed to the working class mass and after this, the Bolsheviks were in a better spot. -
Bolsheviks gained control of Petrograd
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Bolsheviks capture Moscow
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Bolsheviks take over!
Leon Trotsky and the soviets took charge and arrested the provisional government and seized power. Two ideas of the new government would be that the war should be ended immediately and that the pesants should seize the land and then it should be taken in as collective, meaing sharing is caring! -
New Government!
The new government was established under the the Council of People's Comissiars, run by Bolsheviks who found themselves to be very important: Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin an eager party official.
To ease Russia's way into communism, they took these steps: Pesants took the land, factories were under the control of workers committees, all banks were nationalized, private accounts confinscated, foreign trade became a state monopoly, all oppositions group illegal & a counter oppostition established. -
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
An unpopular act by Lenin, opposed by nearly everyone, he opened peace negotiations with Germany believing that a fresh faced goverment should be able to reconcile with nations who they have not gotten along with in the past. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk gave up large chunks of land in order to do so and make peace negotiations with Germany. -
Russia leaves WWI
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War Communism
Nationalization of industry and no private trade, this proved to be a positive for the city dwellers because all of the compulsory labour being introduced meant that more food was being produced and the cities could be fed. But, there was a downside, all of this nationalization meant that peasants that were being forced to work, had little to no motivation because they would receive almost nothing in return. This lead to economic failure and decreased production. -
The Civil War
Bolsheviks known as the Reds and everyone else was known as the whites. Whites gained power from Tsarist army officers, Cossacks, Bourgeosie and outlawed political groups. The whites never did very well because opposed to reds who held there power in a central location, the whites were spread out, surrounding the reds in a very disorganized fashion. In 1918, Japan, U.S.A., Britain, France, Italy, Greece, Czechoslovakia, and Canada sent troops in support of the White army. -
New Economic Policy
Lenin's new economic policy stated that:
Some private trade was now permitted, peasants were allowed to sell surplus goods, and workers in small factories could "purchase" their factory together to return it to a form of private ownership. The significance is that this economic policy shows a large comprimise on Lenin's part, he ditched some of his Marxist ideas to create a productive economy. -
Treaty of Rapallo
The U.S.S.R. and Germany had agreed that the U.S.S.R. would build war materials that were illegal for Germany to posses as stated in the Treaty of Versailles. They agreed that in return, Germany would provid the U.S.S.R. with steel manufacturing technology. -
Lenin Died
Lenin was shot in 1921, but never fully recovered. he died of overworking. Post death, the power struggle grew harder and tension between Stalin and Trotsky grew tighter. -
Stalin wins the power struggle against Trotsky
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Trotsky was exiled.
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Kellog-Briand Pact
The Kellog-Briand pact was the happy go lucky, informal treaty signed by 15 nations, including Germany, U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. The treaty denounced war as a way to solve problems. -
The First Five Year Plan
The first five year plan spanning from 1928-1933 focused mainly on collectivization so that the agriculture industry could be able to facilitates Stalin's goal of an industrialized nation. Peasants were dumped onto collective farms, they were Kolhkhoz and what they produced would be taken to feed cities and sold on foreign markets. By doing this Stalin either, killed or worked to death all of the Kulaks. -
Normalization 1932-1935
The U.S.S.R. began to build up a strong military post WWI and Civil War. She also tried tp join in with the cool kids of the west and participate in their affairs and tried to encourage collective security. In 1934, she joined the League of Nations, as well as signing plenty of treaties with European countries. The U.S.S.R's the Third Internationsl even decided to co-operate with other political groups. In addition, she shared concerns about Japan in the Far-East with Britain. -
The Second Five Year Plan
The second plan that ranged from 1933 to 1937 was created because the first, in Stalin's eyes, was incredibly successful. The U.S.S.R. was now just behind Germany in being as one of the major steel producing countries in the world.This pushed for even more improvements in the communication and transportation sectors. But this plan was not as successful as the first, resulting in the modification in 1934. -
The Purges 1934-1941
Stalin renamed the OGPU to the NKVD and used them to eliminate anyone he didn't like or he saw as a threat. He had show trials where the "enemy", often a revolutionary, were to confess their "wrong doings" and were then evidently found guilty and killed. -
Modifying the Second 5 Year Plan.
The goals set up in 1933 proved to be far too intense and had to be modified. This was the result of a miniature revolt amongst officials within the party who believed Kirov would be better than Stalin. In typical Stalin Fashion, Stalin had him shot Dec. 1934. This was the start of the purges, the OGPU was renamed the NKVD and they were Stalins puppets for slaughter. -
The Nazi-Soviet Pact
The Nazi-Soviet Pact was a non-agression pact signed between Hitler and Stalin. Germany wanted Poland, and their intention by getting the Soviet Union to sign the pact would be that they would not interfere with Germany's business. Germany also wanted the U.S.S.R. to sign the pact so they could avoid a two front war, which would split up their forces.It was intended to last for ten years, however, it lasted for less than two. -
Trotsky Assasinated
He was assasinated while in exile in Mexico with and ice pick to the back of the head. He died of injuries a few days after the attack. -
Surprise Blitzkreig from Germany
Germany ignored the Nazi-Soviet Pact and launched an attack anyways, silly Stalin.
