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Nicholas II becomes the czar
When Alexander III died from a kidney disease his son Nicholas II took his place as czar. During the transition, there was significant social and political change however he continued autocratic and outdated policies. Nicholas II lacked military strategy and cared little for his people which ultimatley led to his abdication and death during the revolution of 1917. -
The Russo-Japanese War
Near the end of the 1800s Russia and Japan had an agreement over territorial grounds in Korea and Manchuria, however Russia broke these. This resulted in Japanese retaliation, they attacked the Russians at Port Arthur, Manchuria in February of 1904. The news of continued Russian loss created unrest at home and led to a revolt in the middle of the war. -
Bloody Sunday
In 1905 during the winter, about 200,000 workers traveled to the Winter Palace insisting on better working conditions along with freedom. The czar of Russia Nicholas II ordered his soldiers to shoot the pedestrians, resulting in the deaths of hundreds. Because of this more protest broke out and this forced Nicholas II to allow more freedom for Russians. -
Rise of Nicholas II and Rasputin
Nicholas II was not militaristic minded and after extreme defeats, on the battlefield, he temporary left Russia in the hands of his wife in order to rally moral withing his forces. However, back in Moscow Nicholas II's wife was being manipulated by Rasputin into giving him political power by "healing" her hemophiliac son. After this and some struggle, Rasputin was assassinated but the citizens disliked the czar and his family after showing their incapability in solving Russia's problems. -
The March Revolution
Around 128,000 militant women, textile workers participated in a strike in Petrograd. The head of their movement calls for an end to Russia's involvement in WWI, the end to autocracy, and more food. This results in Nicholas II's abdication and his execution. However, this left Russia with a weak provisional government that continued Russia's involvement in WWI along with peasants demanding more land. -
Germany sends Lenin back to Russia
Taking a large gamble and investing around 10 million dollars into returning Lenin to Russia to insight a revolution that would effectively take Russia out of the war. Traveling in a sealed boxcar on his way to Petrograd Lenin called for an end to the Provisional Government with plans to end Russia's involvement in the war. Doing this allowed Germany to close the second front with Russia and focus heavily on their western borders in their fight against Britain, France, and the other Allies. -
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Germany and Russia effectively took Russia out of WWI. However, this treaty also gave up a lot of land to the Germans from Russia and its allies. Russians viewed the treaty as humiliating and fueled resentment towards the Bolsheviks, this lead to the creation of the "White Army" formed from all of the Bolshevik's enemies. -
Russia's Civil War
Bolshevik's rule did not go unchallenged, and many of their opposers formed the White Guard and fought for power against the Red Army. This, a worldwide flu epidemic, and a famine that came with the war resulted in the deaths of over 14 million Russians. This being said the win of the Red Army the Bolsheviks were able to show the people they had the ability to take power and keep it. -
The formation of the Communist Party
A large threat to the Bolsheviks was nationalism, in response, Lenin developed governing republics under the central government and renamed Russia into the USSR. Additionally, the Bolsheviks were now named the Communist Party and created a constitution based on socialist and democratic views. However, the party quickly had total power over Russia and Lenin became its dictator. -
Lenin's Death
In 1922 Lenin suffered a fatal stroke and created a struggle for power in his party. Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin were both fighting for control over the Communist Party, Stalin, who Lenin believed to be a threat to Russia still managed to seize power and exile Trotsky in 1929. This created a danger of Stalin becoming the Russian dictator and achieving absolute power effectively undoing all of their progress.
