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Period: to
Russo Japanese War
War with Japan over Manchuria (northern China) is a disaster for Russia -
The Dumas created
Czar Nicholas II agrees to form a legislative elected assembly – Duma -
Period: to
WW1
Russia entered World War I on August 1, 1914, when Germany declared war on it. Germany ignored Russia and moved first against France—declaring war on August 3 and sending its main armies through Belgium to attack Paris from the north. -
Duma becomes Provisional Government
The Provisional Government was unable to end the shortages of food and fuel in Petrograd. This was because it continued the war, which was causing the shortages. The workers came to hate the Provisional Government. The Provisional Government did nothing to solve the land problem. -
Period: to
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution across the territory of the Russian Empire which started with the abolishment of monarchy in 1917 and concluded in 1923 after the Bolshevik establishment of the Soviet Union, including national states of Ukraine, Azerbaijan and others, and the end of the civil war. -
Czar Abdicates
Public opinion turns negative about the war
and the Czar. • Nicholas II was forced to resign. Duma
becomes the Provisional Government. -
Period: to
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire immediately after the two Russian Revolutions of 1917, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. -
Stalin Takes Over
Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953. In the years following the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, Stalin rose to become the leader of the Soviet Union. -
Lenin dies
He died of a Hemorrhagic stroke -
Period: to
5 Year Plan
Gosplan, the state planning committee, created the Five-Year Plans, outlining goals for the Soviet economy to meet, beginning in 1928. The main feature of the first Five-Year Plan called for the rapid industrialization of the Soviet economy. The Soviet Union's economy was primarily based on agriculture. -
Period: to
Stalin’s “Great Purge”
A brutal political campaign led by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin to eliminate dissenting members of the Communist Party and anyone else he considered a threat. -
Period: to
WW2
Sparked by the 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland, the war dragged on for six bloody years until the Allies defeated Nazi Germany and Japan in 1945. -
Period: to
Cold War
During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union fought together as allies against the Axis powers. However, the relationship between the two nations was a tense one. Americans had long been wary of Soviet communism and concerned about Russian leader Joseph Stalin’s tyrannical rule of his own country. -
Stalins Death
He died of a massive heart attack -
De stalinization
The policy of eradicating the memory or influence of Joseph Stalin and Stalinism, especially after 1956. -
Nixon/Khrushchev “Kitchen Debate”
A series of impromptu exchanges through interpreters between U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev at the opening of the American National Exhibition at Sokolniki Park in Moscow on July 24, 1959. -
Gorbachev Takes Over
Shortly after Chernenko's death, the Politburo unanimously elected Gorbachev as his successor; they wanted him over another elderly leader. He thus became the eighth leader of the Soviet Union. Few in the government imagined that he would be as radical a reformer as he proved. -
Period: to
Perestroika
A series of political and economic reforms meant to kick-start the stagnant 1980s economy of the Soviet Union. -
Glasnost
The policy or practice of more open consultative government and wider dissemination of information, initiated by leader Mikhail Gorbachev from 1985. -
End of Soviet Union
Gorbachev's decision to loosen the Soviet yoke on the countries of Eastern Europe created an independent, democratic momentum that led to the collapse of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, and then the overthrow of Communist rule throughout Eastern Europe.