Russia 1881-1928

Alex III

Mar 13, 1881

He clung to the principles to create an autocracy, a form of government in which he had total power. Anyone who questioned the absolute authority of the czar, worshiped outside the Russian Orthodox Church, or spoke a language other than Russian was labeled dangerous.

Trans-siberian Railway

Mar 12, 1891

Workers began to work on the world’s longest continuous rail line—the Trans-Siberian Railway.the railway was not completed until 1916. It connected European Russia in the west with Russian ports on the Pacific Ocean in the east.

Russian Marxists

Mar 12, 1903

Russian Marxists split into two groups over revolutionary tactics. The more moderate Mensheviks wanted a broad base of popular support for the revolution. The more radical Bolsheviks supported a small number of committed revolutionaries willing to sacrifice everything for change.

Bloody Sunday:

Mar 13, 1905

On January 22, 1905, about 200,000 workers and their families approached the czar’s Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.

Duma

Mar 13, 1906

The first Duma met

WW1

Mar 13, 1914

Nicholas II made the fateful decision to drag Russia into World War I.

WAR FRONT

Mar 13, 1915

Nicholas moved his headquarters to the war front. From there, he hoped to rally his discouraged troops to victory.

murder of Rasputin

Mar 13, 1916

a group of nobles murdered Rasputin. They feared his increasing role in government affairs.

Lenins return

Apr 13, 1917

They arranged Lenin’s return to Russia after many years of exile. Traveling in a sealed railway boxcar, Lenin reached Petrograd

Petrograd

Nov 13, 1917

without warning, armed factory workers stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

Mar 13, 1918

Russia and Germany signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

Lenin

Mar 13, 1921

Lenin temporarily put aside his plan for a state-controlled economy. Instead, he resorted to a small-scale version of capitalism called the New Economic Policy (NEP). The reforms under the NEP allowed peasants to sell their surplus crops instead of turning them over to the government.

Stroke

Mar 13, 1922

Lenin suffered a stroke

Lenin death

Mar 13, 1924

Lenin dies but before he died he wrote, “Comrade Stalin . . . has concentrated enormous power in his hands, and I am not sure that he always knows how to use that power with sufficient caution.”

Russia’s farm

Mar 13, 1928

Russia’s farms and factories were producing as much as they had before World War I.

Stalin

Mar 13, 1928

Stalin was in total command of the Communist Party.

Trostsky

Mar 13, 1929

Trotsky was forced into exile.