-
The Industrial Revolution
-
Period: to
The Industrial Revolution
The rapid industrialization over these 30-40 years more than doubled the amount of factories in the country. This also allowed Russia to be much more productive and become a stronger country. It was an incredible new force in Russia that helped them do things such as produce more resources and provide new jobs. -
Alexander III Succeeded his Father
He continued the policy of Autocracy, which is one person in absolute power. It made it almost impossible to speak out against him, because he could have you killed or thrown in jail. This helped cause the revolution because it made many people dislike him and the system of government in place. -
Growth of Factories
Though industrialization brought benefits, it had many negative impacts as well. It had poor working conditions in most factories, brought about child labor, had low wages, and much more. This all combined to lower morale because of the horrible conditions workers were asked to work under. -
Marxist Movements Come About
Many people were very tired of the Autocratic government at this point, so new revolutionary groups began forming. These included Marxist-style communist movements. This was another important event in starting the revolution because it gave citizens someone to rally behind. -
Bloody Sunday
Somewhere around 200,000 people gathered at the Winter Palace with a petition to try and improve working conditions, get more freedom, and add an elected national legislature. Nicholas II ordered his soldiers to fire on the crowd, more than 1,000 were wounded, and hundreds more were killed. This showed the citizens of Russia that the government was unwilling to change, and helped fuel the fire of the coming rebellion. It led to more random strikes across Russia as well. -
Russia Entered WWI
Russia was dragged into WWI by Nicholas II, and millions of troops were killed. This happened because of the bad military strategies from the Russian generals, and poor fighting skills in their army. This revealed a large weakness in the czarist government that they currently had, and set even more people against this government. -
The March Revolution
200,000 workers rebelled and stopped working, so soldiers shot at them at first. Eventually they stopped shooting the works and joined them to rebel against the government. The czar resigned, and new government was chosen but it was not effective either. -
Lenin Took Control
Armed factory workers stormed the Winter Palace without warning in November 1917, and took over the government and arrested all of the previous members. Within days of this event, Lenin made all farmland divided between peasants, and the factories were run by the people. He also began peace talks, the communist government was now in place, and the government had been overthrown.
