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Bolsheviks overthrow government
Bolsheviks overthrow provisional government led by Alexander Kerensky, with workers and sailors capturing government buildings and the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, and eventually taking over Moscow. -
Policy of war-communism
Policy of "war communism" enunciated, with the state taking control of the whole economy; millions of peasants in the Don region starve to death as the army confiscates grain for its own needs and the needs of urban dwellers. -
Soviet Union adopts new Constitution
Soviet Union adopts constitution based on the dictatorship of the proletariat and stipulating the public ownership of land and the means of production; Lenin dies and is replaced by Joseph Stalin. -
Beginning of anti-religious campaigns in Soviet Union
The suppression of religion was one of the key parts in Stalin's 5-year plan. Religious property is confiscated, believers are harassed, and religion was ridiculed while atheism was propagated in schools. -
Adoption of 5-year plan
Adoption of first Five-Year Plan, with the state setting goals and priorities for the whole economy, signifies the end of the New Economic Policy. Collectivisation of agriculture begins; numerous relatively prosperous peasants, or Kulaks, killed; millions of peasant households eliminated and their property confiscated. -
Severe reduction in the practice of religion
Many believers of the Russian Orthodox Church had been killed or sent to labour camps. The number of churches had therefore reduced from 29,584 to fewer than 500.