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Abolishment of Serfdom (1)
Tzar Alexander II was unable to compete and save Russia from military failure against Western European countries. This was because Russia was living in a feudal society which limited their industralization. -
Abolishment of Serfdom (2)
In 1861 the Emancipation Manifesto was passed. All serfs were given the right to become free citizens, to marry freely, own land and businesses. Nevertheless, peasants had to pay for their new property, they received land in which nearly nothing could be grown and the government urged peasants to remain in their localities. The mir (village commune) provide an effective organisation for the collection of taxes and kept order in the countryside. -
Abolishment of Serfdom (3)
Russia´s economy grew and it was industrialized. Narodnism, socialist movement at that time, focused upon the growing conflict between the peasantry and the landowners. The Narodniks wanted to destroy the Russian monarchy and distributing land fairly among the peasantry. -
Alexander III (1)
(10 March 1845 – 1 November 1894)
He was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Prince of Finland. Alexander III succeeded his father Alexander II and abolished all reforms as he believed in the principles of aristocracy as his grandfather Nicholas I did: "There should be a form of government in which Tzars had all the power". -
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Alexander III (2)
Those who questioned his authority, spoke another language instead of Russian and worshiped outside the Russian Orthodox Church were labeled as dangerous. Moreover, he imposed censorship on all types of written documents. To establish a uniform Russian culture he oppressed other national groups, made Russian the official language and persecuted Jews. -
Trans-Siberian Railway (2)
The whole project was hampered by harsh climactic and geographical conditions. The cost of construction was enormous, and the supply of man power problematic. Despite these challenges, up to 600 km of railway road were laid each year. It was completed in just 12 years. With the help of 7500 kilometers of railroad, Europe was finally connected to the Pacific Ocean. -
Trans-Siberian Railway (3)
The Trans-Siberian had a significant impact on economic development, and contributed to the acceleration and growth of the circulation of goods. During the Russo-Japanese War and CIvil War they wanted to increase capacity s6 wooden rails were changed to metal ones and the size of carriages was increased. A huge part of the Trans-Siberian was destroyed by the war but reconstruction began immediately. In March 1925 services recommenced, and have continued without a break until the present. -
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Trans-Siberian Railway (1)
'http://www.tubechop.com/watch/5792811' >Trans-Siberian Railways in the 19th century
Alexander III instructed his son, Nicholas II, to start the building of the greatest railroad through Siberia "in order to unite the rich yields of Siberian nature with the network of Russian railways”. Nicholas II accomplished his father's order and put the first rock and the silver plate into the ground himself. -
Nicholas II (1)
(18 May 1868 – 17 July 1918)
He succeeded his father, Alexander III, and ruled from 1 November 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March 1917. Alexandra, his wife, was the dominant personality in their relationship and encouraged the weaker Nicholas's autocratic tendencies. He mistrusted most of his ministers and yet was incapable of carrying out the task of ruling the vast Russian Empire alone. -
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Nicholas II (2)
In 1915, Nicholas made the disastrous decision to take direct command of the Russian armies. From then on, every military failure was directly associated with him. Russia was a chaos. In February 1917, Nicholas lost the support of the army and had no alternative but to abdicate. The Tsar and his family were imprisoned in Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. On 17 July 1918, Nicholas and his family were executed. This was almost certainly on the orders of the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. -
Division of Marxists into two groups
The party was split into two groups: Bolsheviks (‘majority’) and Mensheviks (‘minority’). Bolsheviks were more radical, relied on Lenin, did not trust masses and started socialist revolutions. Mensheviks, led by Martov, favoured a large, loosely organised democratic party whose members could agree to differ on many points and were prepared to work with the liberals in Russia without violence. Both groups were enthusiasts for the destruction of capitalism and the overthrow of the Tsarist regime. -
Russo Japanese War (1)
Russia and Japan were disputing for Manchuria and Korea territories as they were very rich in coal and other resources. -
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Russo Japanese War (2)
Finally, Japan defeated Russia. The Treaty they signed gave Japan control of Korea and much of South Manchuria, including Port Arthur and the railway that connected it with the rest of the region, along with the southern half of Sakhalin Island. Russian power was curtailed in the region, but they were not required to pay Japan’s reparations. It was the first time an Asian country had defeated an European country along history. -
Bloody Sunday (1)
'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlpE5sFOePs' >Nicholas II and Bloody Sunday.
200,000 workers and their families approached the Tzar´s Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. They demanded for better working conditions, elected national legislatures and more personal freedom. Nicholas II ordered his soldiers to fire the crowd. Many people was killed and as a consequence waves of strikes and violence spread across Russia. -
Bloody Sunday (2)
In October 1905, Nicholas reluctantly promised more freedom and approved the creation of the Duma (first Russian Parliament)which first met in May 1906. The Tzar dissolved the parliament after ten weeks because of their democratic ideas. During this period the firsts soviets (committee of workers and peasants) were formed. -
World War I (2)
Russia had to leave the war after three years because they were defeated by Germans and they had to control the uprisings in Russia which finally led to the Civil War. On 11 November 1918 a ceasefire was agreed. The war ended. All counties met in order to talk about the peace treaties but the Central Powers countries were not allowed to decide anything. They lost lots of territories and had to pay reparations. -
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World War I (1)
It started on 28 June 1914 when a Serbian student called Gavrilo Princip shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, who was visiting Sarajevo. On 28 July 1914 Austria-Hungary declared the war on Serbia. Both countries had different treaties with other countries. As a consequence, two alliances were formed: Triple Entente (winners): Great Britain, France , Russia and Italy and Central Powers (losers): Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria and Ottoman Empire. -
Murder of Rasputin
(21 January 1869 – 30 December 1916)
He lived as a peasant and was uneducated. He gained Romanov´s confidence because of his 'power' to heal the heir to the throne, Alexis, who was hemophiliac. When WWI broke out, the Tsar, Nicholas II, left his family to join his troops at the front. Alexandra allowed Rasputin to make key political decisions which were disastrous. In December 1916, he was poisoned and then shoot by those he had angered the most, the noble. -
March (February) Revolution
There was a general strike because of shortages of bread and fuel. At first soldiers obey orders to shoot the rioters but later they sided with them. This made Tzar Nicholas II abdicate. It succeed in bringing down the Tzar but it failed to set up a strong government to replace the regime. The Provisional Government was set up. -
Provisional Government (2)
Soldiers, workers in the factories and sailors took to the streets of Petrograd on 16 and 17 July 1917 against the Provisional Government. Finally, Lenin took control of the government. -
Lenin (1)
'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzf3FRSbEUk' >Lenin Speech "The Middle Peasants"
(1870 – 21 January 1924)
Lenin´s real name was Vladimir Illych Ulyanov. He changed it to Lenin while on the run from the secret police to avoid arrest. In January 1889, Lenin declared himself a Marxist. In December 1895 Lenin and several other Marxist leaders were arrested because of revolutionary issues. Lenin was exiled to Siberia for three years. After his release he went into exile to Munich. -
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Provisional Government (1)
After the March (February) Revolution leaders of the Duma established a Provisional Government. By July,Alexander Kerensky became Prime Minister but he commit two errors: He decided to keep Russia in the WWI and refused to give land to the poor peasants in the rural areas. This caused the July Days in which Russians continued to do badly in the war and food remained scarce and expensive. -
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Lenin (2)
On April 1917 Lenin came back to Russia as Germans thought that Bolsheviks could hurt the Russian war effort against Germany.He promoted reforms in which economy was changed (NEP), Russia was organized in self-governing republics under the control of the central government (soviets) and the country was named as USSR. The Bolsheviks renamed their party the Communist Party. He established a dictatorship of the Communist Party and not a dictatorship of the proletariat as he stated at first. -
October Revolution (1)
As a result of the bad organization of the provisional government, Lenin decided to take action. In November (October) armed factory workers stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd without warning. They called themselves the Bolsheviks Red Guards and they arrested all the leaders of the Provisional Government. -
October Revolution (2)
Bolsheviks took control of the government led by Lenin. They expropriated lands and distributed them among peasants, gave control of the companies and factories to the workers, self-determination in form of soviets was established. The Tzarist regime had been replaced. -
Civil War in Russia (2)
Many millions of people died and a famine took place after the war.However, the Red Army crushed all opposition. They remained the power. -
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Civil War in Russia (1)
After the humiliating defeat against Germans, Russians were furious. Anti-Bolsheviks formed the White army which fought against the Bolsheviks called the Red Army. The White Army was made up of different groups: two groups which supported the return of the Tzar´s rule, others who wanted democratic government and socialist who opposed Lenin´s style of socialism. They did not cooperate with each other so finally there were three different White Armies fighting against the Red Army. -
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
After Russia was defeat in WWI it signed a treaty in which Russia had to give a large part of its territory to Germany and its allies. By the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Russia recognized the independence of Ukraine, Georgia and Finland. It gave up Poland and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to Germany and Austria-Hungary and ceded Kars, Ardahan and Batum to Turkey. -
NEP
Lenin established and economic reforms which were a small-scale version of capitalism joined with communism. Their reforms permit peasants sells their surplus for profit, foreign investment and the government controlled the key sectors but they let some small private businesses. By 1928 Russia´s factories and farms were producing as much as they did before WWI. Many old Bolsheviks said Lenin had sold out to capitalism, and left the party. -
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NEP (New Economy Policy)
Lenin established and economic reforms which were a small-scale version of capitalism joined with communism. Their reforms permit peasants sells their surplus for profit, foreign investment and the government controlled the key sectors but they let some small private businesses. By 1928 Russia´s factories and farms were producing as much as they did before WWI. Many old Bolsheviks said Lenin had sold out to capitalism, and left the party. -
USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) (1)
'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yDrtNEr_5M' >USSR Anthem
In 1922 the country was named USSR in honor of the councils that helped launch the Bolshevik Revolution and was recognised as a communist country. In December of 1991 USSR was officially dissolved. It was part of the Comitern which was an international communist organization funded by Lenin. -
USSR (2)
From it emerged Russia (the Russian Federation), Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. The countries which freed from Soviet domination: Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania, East Germany was reunited with West Germany, Czechoslovakia was split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia and Yugoslavia disintegrated into Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia. -
Stalin (1)
(18 December 1878– 5 March 1953)
When he started as a Bolshevik he changed his name to Joseph Stalin which means “man of steal” in Russian. Stalin was cold, hard and impersonal. -
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Stalin (2)
After Lenin suffered a stroke in 1922 Stalin tried to seized the power of the Communist Party before Leon Trotsky could. He worked behind the scenes in order to move his supporters into positions of power. As a result, Lenin thought Stalin was a dangerous man. In 1922 he became general secretary on the Communist Party and by 1928 Stalin had total control of Russia. He was more powerful than any Tzar had been. -
Trotsky into exile (1)
(Born 7 November 1879, died 21 August 1940)
His real name was Lev Davidovich Bronshtein. Trotsky played a leading role in the Bolsheviks’ seizure of power before Lenin’s triumphant return in November 1917. Appointed Lenin’s secretary of foreign affairs and in 1918 he became War Commissioner and set about building up the Red Army, which succeeded in defeating anti-Communist opposition in the Russian Civil War. -
Trotsky into exile (2)
There were two notable men competing for heading up the Communist Party when Lenin suffered a stroke: Leon Trotsky and Joshep Stalin. By 1928 Stalin was in total command of the communist party and in 1929 Trotsky was forced into exile to Alma-Ata in remote Soviet Central Asia so that he was no longer a threat.
