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Army officers revolted
The cruel, oppressive rule of most 19th-century czars caused widespread social unrest for decades.
Army officers revolted in 1825. -
Serfdom in Russia
Finally, serfdom was abolished by a decree issued by Tsar Alexander II in 1861. Scholars have proposed multiple overlapping reasons to account for the abolition, including fear of a large-scale revolt by the serfs, the government's financial needs, evolving cultural sensibilities and the military's need for soldiers. -
Serfdom in Russia
Serfdom became the dominant form of relation between peasants and nobility in the 17th century. Serfdom only existed in central and southern areas of the Russian Empire. It was never established in the North, in the Urals, and in Siberia. Tsar Alexander I of Russia wanted to reform the system but was stymied. New laws allowed all classes to own land, the privilege that was previously confined to the nobility. -
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Russia Industrializes
It changed the face of the Russian economy. The number of factories doubled in 1863 and 1900. To finance the buildup of Russian industries, the government raised taxes. -
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Russia Industrializes
These steps boosted the grotwth of heavy industry particularly steel. By around 1900, Russia had become the world´s fourth-ranking producer of steel. -
Lenin
In 1887, when he was 17, Lenin´s brother, was hanged for plotting to kill the czar. Legend has it thet this event turned Lenin into a revolutionary. -
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Lenin
Lenin was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He served as head of government of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1917, and of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death. -
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Lenin
Under his administration, the Russian Empire was replaced by the Soviet Union; all wealth including land, industry and business was confiscated. Based in Marxism, his political theories are known as Leninism. -
Alexander III succeeded his father, Alexander II
During the reign of Alexander III Russia’s prestige abroad rose to unbelievably new heights and his country thrived in peace and order. During all the years of his rule, Russia was not involved in a single major war. For this he was dubbed “The Peacemaker.” He was considered the most Russian, the most austere and the most serene Tsar. He took the throne when Russia was at its worse, when revolutionary terror raged, and passed it onto his successors perfectly pacified. -
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Alexander III
In 1881, Alexander III succeeded his father, Alexander II, and halted all reforms in Russia.
Alexander III form a goverment in which he had total power. Anyone who questiooned the absolute authority of the czar, worshiped outside the Russian Church, or spoke a language other than Russian was labeled dangerous.
To wipe out revolutionaries, Alexander III used harsh measures. He imposed strict censorship codes on published materials and written documents, including private letters. -
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Alexander III
Political prisioners were sent to Siberia, a remote region of eastern Russia.
To establish a uniform Russian culture, Alexander III oppressed other national groups within Russia. He made Russian the official language of the empire.
Police and soldiers stood by and watched Russian citizens loot and destroy Jewish homes, stores, and synagogues. -
Alexander II assassination
In 1881, revolutionaries angry over the slow pace of political change assassinated the reform-minded czar, Alexander II. -
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Trans-Siberian Railway
Whit the help of British and French investors, work began on the world´s longest continuous rail line.
Begun in 1891, the railway was not completed until 1916. It connected European Russia in the west with Russian ports on the Pacific Ocean in the east. -
Nicholas II becames czar
Nicholas II was born on May 18, 1868, in Pushkin, Russia. He inherited the throne when his father, Alexander III, died in 1894. Although he believed in autocracy, he was eventually forced to create an elected legislature. Nicholas II’s handling of Bloody Sunday and World War I incensed his subjects and led to his abdication. Bolsheviks executed him on July 17, 1918, in Yekaterinburg, Russia. -
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Nicholas II
When Nicholas III became czar in 1894, he continued the tradition of Russian autocracy.
Unfortunately, it blinded him to the changing conditions of his times. -
Division of Marxists into two groups
In 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 member of committed revolutionaries willing to sacrifice everything for change. -
Russo-Japanese War
Was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea.Russia suffered numerous defeats to Japan, but Tsar Nicholas II was convinced that Russia would win and chose to remain engaged in the war; certain naval battles, and later to preserve the dignity of Russia by averting a "humiliating peace". -
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Crises at home and Abroad
Between 1904 and 1917, Russia faced a series of crises. These events showed the czar´s weakness and paved the way for revolution. -
Bloody Sunday
On January 22, 1905, workers and their families approached the czar´s Winter Palace in St.Petesburg.
They were asking for better working conditions, more personal freedom, and an elected national legislature.
Nicholas II´s generals orderes soldiers to fire the crowd. -
Bloody Sunday
More than 1,000 were wounded and several hundred were killed. Russians quickly named the event " Bloody Sunday" -
The first Duma
The first Duma met in May 1906. Its leaders wanted Russia to become a constitutional monarchy similar to Britain. But Nicholas II didn´t want to share his power and he disolved the Duma after ten weeks. -
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World War I
In 1914, Nicholas II made the fateful decision to drag Russiainto World Ward I, Russia was unprepared to handle the military and economic cost. Poorly equipped troops were no match for the German army.
Before a yer had passed, more than 4 million Russian soldiers had been killed, wouden or taken prisoner.
In 1915, Nicholas moved his headquarters to the war front. -
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Worl War I
From threre he hoped to rally his discouraged troops to victory. -
Murder of Rasputin
When Nicholas II moved his headquarters to the war front. His wife, Czarina Alexandra, ran the government while he was away. She ignored the czar´s chief advisers. Instead she fell under the influence of Rasputin, he claimed to have magical healing powers. -
Murder of Rasputin
Nicholas and Alexandra´s son, Alexis, sufferes from hemophilia. Rasputin seemed to ease the boy´s symptoms. To show her gratitude, Alexandra allowed Rasputin to make key political decisions. He opposed reform measures and obtained powerful positions for his fiiends. -
Murder of Rasputin
In 1916, a group of nobles murdered Rasputin. They feared his increasing role in government. -
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Provisional Goverment
was a provisional government of the Russian Republic immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. The government replaced the institution of the Council of Ministers of Russia, members of which after the February Revolution presided in the Chief Office of Admiralty. The intention of the provisional government was the organization of elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly and its convention. -
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Provisional Goverment
The government was initially composed of the Kadet coalition led by Prince Georgy Lvov, which was replaced by the Socialist coalition led by Alexander Kerensky.On September 16, 1917, the country's legislature was officially dissolved by the newly created Directorate and the country was officially declared the Russian Republic -
The March Revolution
In March 1917, women textile workers in Petrograd led a citywide strke. At first the soldiers obeyed orders to shoot the rioters but later sided with them.The March Revolution forced the Czar Nicholas II abdicate his throne. A year later revolutionaries executed Nicholas and his family. -
October Revolution
The October Revolution (also called the Bolshevik Revolution) overturned the interim provisional government and established the Soviet Union. The Bolsheviks, who led this coup, were generally viewed as an extremist group and had very little popular support. -
October Revolution
After October, the Bolsheviks realized that they couldn´t maintain power in an election-based system without sharing power with other parties. As a result, they abandoned the democratic process and declared themselves the representatives of a dictatorship of the proletariat. -
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The Bolshevik government signed a truce with Germany to stop all fighting and began peace talks.
In March 1918, Russia and Germany signed the Threaty of Brest-Litovsk. Russia surrended a large part of its territory to Germany and its allies. -
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Civil War in Russia
The Bolsheviks now faced a new challenge.
Their opponents formed a White Army.
They were those groups who suported the return to rule by the czar, others who wanted democratic goverment, and even socialists who opposed Lenin´s style of socialism. -
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Civil War in Russia
Only the desire to defeat the Bolsheviks united the White Army.
The revolutionary leader, Trotsky, expertly commanded the Bolshevik Red Army. From 1918 to 1920, civil war raged in Russia.
United States, sent military aid and forces to Russia to help the White Army. -
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New Economic Policy (NEP)
In Marcha 1921, Lenin temporarily put aside his plan for a state-controlled economy.
The NEP allowed peasants to sell their surplus crops instead of turning them over to the goverment. The goverment kept control of major industries, but it let some small factories operate under private ownership. -
Stalin
18 December 1878– 5 March 1953) was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. -
USSR
In 1922, the country was named the Union of Soviet Socialist Respublics (USSR), in honor of the councils that helped launch the Bolshevik Revolution. -
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Stalin
Lenin suffered a stroke in 1922. He survived, but he incident set in motion competition for heading up the Communist Party.
Stalin began his ruthless between 1922 and 1927. In 1922 he moved his supporters into positions of power. -
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Stalin
Lenin believed that Stalin was a dangerous man.
By 1928, Stalin was in total command of the Communist Part. Stalin now stood poised to weild absolute power as a dictator. -
Trotsky into exile
Trotsky went into internal exile in 1927.
In 1929, Trotsky was forced to leave the USSR forever.
He was murdered in Mexico on August 21st, 1940.
Stalin considered him dangerous and put him into exile.
