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February, 1904
The Revolutionaries realized their visions and between 1904 and 1917 Russia faced a series of crises and the events showed that czar’s weakness and made the path for revolution. -
January 22, 1905
Bloody Sunday: Revolution of 1905
About 200,000 workers and families approached the czar’s Winter palace in St. Petersburg. They had a petition for better working conditions and more personal freedom. Nicholas II ordered soldiers to fire into the crowds. Hundreds were killed and more than a thousand people were injured. -
May, 1906
The first Duma met and the leaders were moderates who wanted to become a constitutional monarchy similar to Britain. But because he didn't want to share his power, he dissolved the Duma after ten weeks. -
August, 1914
Nicholas II made the decision to bring Russia into WW1. Russia wasn’t prepared to go into war with their military and economical cost. The Germans killed, captured, and wounded over 4 million Russian troops. This again showed the weakness to the czar. -
March, 1917
Women textile workers led a citywide strike. Over the days, there were shortages of fuel and bread. There were about 200,000 workers in this riot as well as soldiers who disobeyed orders to side with the protestors. The march revolution forced czar to leave the throne and a year later the people killed him and his family. But they failed to set up a solid government. The leaders of Duma set up a provisional government. -
November, 1917
Armed factory workers stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd. They called themselves the Bolshevik Red Guards and they took over government officers and arrested the leaders of the provisional government. Within the days, Lenin was in control and he ordered that all farmlands be distributed among the peasants. Also Lenin gave the factories to the the workers . and they also signed a truce with the Germans to stop all fighting and began peace talks. -
March, 1918
Russia and Germany signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Russia gave the Germans a large part of their territory to the Germans and its allies. The treaty angered many Russians and they threatened to kill the royal family. The white army also formed to take down lenin and the Bolsheviks. -
October, 1920
During 1918 through 1920, civil war spread through Russia . Several western countries sent military supplies and advisors to help the Russians defeat the white army. Around 14 million Russians died within the war and a three year famine followed. All the loss of human life left Russia in chaos. But the red army ended up crushing all opposition and the victory showed that the Bolsheviks were able to keep and maintain power. -
March, 1921
Lenin temporarily put his plan for state controlled economy to resort to a small scale version of capitalism called the New Economics policy. It allowed peasants to sell their crops instead of giving them to the government and the government kept control over major industries, banks, and communication. By 1928, the Russians were producing as much as they had before WW1. -
December, 1922
Lenin had a stroke and survived, but it started a competition to heading up the communist party. Joseph Stalin stands for “man of steel” in Russian. Stalin began to climb the climb to the top of the political ladder and in 1922 became the genera secretary of the communist party. Lenin believed that Stalin was a dangerous man and should not be in control of Russia. By 1929, Stalin was in full control and he had Trotsky exiled so he wasn’t a threat to Stalin.
