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Bloody Sunday
Workers march on the Winter palace of the Czar to make their demands known, they are led by a priest known as Father Gapon. Eventually the protesters are shot, and some are klled as a result. -
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Civil unrest
Civil unrest caused by the Bloody Sunday event spreads throughout Russia Picture of Civil unrest -
Labor issues and political strife
Issues with the people involving labor problems and political dissent are subdued for the time being by the Czar agreeing to the formation of a representative parliment. These issues are arose from the events of Bloody Sunday -
1914
War breaks out in Europe. Meanwhile within Russia civil unrest has returned. -
Duma gains power
The Russian Duma (parliment) becomes the new power in the country after most high ranking Czarist officals go into hiding. The Duma establishes the provisional government. -
Czar abdicates throne to Russia
Czar Nicolas II abdicates the throne, and hands it over to his brother Michael. Michael refuses the crown, and Russia becomes a state of the people. -
Lenin returns and publishes his April Thesis
Lenin returns to Russia with aid from the Germans seeking to spark a revolution in Russia to cause Russia to leave the war. Lenin publishes his famous April Thesis. -
New government forned
New government formed after collapse of the first provisional government. The First Coalition, as it's named, is formed by all the major parties of Russia except the Bosheviks. The major people in this government were Kerensky and Lvov. -
Kerensky becomes Prime Minister
Lvov resigns as Prime Minister of the provisional government, asks Kerensky to form a new government. The new government formed on July 25th -
Growing fear caused by rising Bolshevik popularity.
The government becomes fearful of the Bolsheviks. It accuses Lenin of being a German Agent, Lenin is exiled from Russia and goes into hiding once again, and Trotsky is imprisoned. -
Kornilov Affair
Commander-in chief of the Russian army Lavr Kornilov attempts a coup d'état to remove Kerensky from power. Kerensky appeals to the people and removes Kornilov with the aid of the Bolsheviks and their red army. -
Bolshevik Revolution
The Bolsheviks led by Lenin, taking advantage of the turmoil left by the coup, march on Petrgrad. This is the Bolshevik revolution. The Bolsheviks then proceeded to arrest members of the provisional government, and a new Soviet government is formed. -
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First four years of Lenin
Lenin's first four years of power are marked by constant civil wat between the reds and whites. The reds being the red army headed by trotsky, and the whites being a loose organization of former Czarist supporters, the polish, and western nations.
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Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Lenin signs the treaty of Brest-Litovsk taking Russia out of the war and in the process losing many Russians to Germany, and musch of Russia's important land for industry is also lost. Nonetheless this is a victory for Lenin, for it saved Russia from further war. -
War Communism
Lenin institutes War Communism. War Communism is his new economic policy which does away with the whole private sector of the economy. Banks are nationalized, private accounts confiscated, labor camps are formed, and "upper class" peasants, known as Kulaks, lose their land which is handed over to "working class" peasants. -
League of Nations formed
After the end of World War I the League of Nations was formed as a result of the treaty of Versailles. Russia did not join the league along with the United States. The international community saw this as a Russian attempt towards isoaltion, and alienated the Soviets from the international stage. -
New Economic Policy
Lenin seeing that Russia was falling apart due to western nations not having marxist revolutions, and the economy failing due to in part by his War Communism, implements the "New Economic Policy", known as the NEP. The NEP permits some degree of private trade, allowed peasants to sell their surplus of food and resources, and allows small factories to be privately owned. This was controversioal within his party, but was eventually accepted. -
Treaty of Rapallo
The Treaty of Rapallo allowed Russia to recieve industrial manufacturing technology from the Germans, and allowed the Germans to train and recieve weapons from the Russians. This helped both countries tremendously, as they were both outcasts in the eyes of western nations, and helped save their respective economies from total collapse. -
Death of Lenin
After being shot in an assassination attempt in 1921, Lenin's health was rapidly deteriorating. He suffered three strokes within months of each other all in the time leading up to his death. He never stopped working through these times. In essence he worked himself to death trying to keep the revolution successful and give his country a brighter future. -
Trotsky vs. Stalin
After Lenin's death a raging power struggle between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stlain ensued. During this power struggle two factions formed in the Communist party; the left wing led by trotsky which wanted to spread the revolution across the world, the moderates led by Stalin. Although Stalin pretended to be a moderate he was just the opposite. -
Trotsky loses
After the power struggle Stalin emerged victorious. Trotsky was expelled from the communist party and shipped off into exile in Siberia. Stalin, becoming ever more paranoid, decided that exile in Siberia wasn't enough and deported him the Soviet Union. -
Kellogg-Briand pact
The Kellogg-Briand pact was a treaty by the world powers that outlawed war as a means for national policy. All major world powers signed this treaty, except Russia. This further alienated Russia in the international community's eyes. -
The Five Year Plans
Stalin now being the leader of the Soviet Union removes Lenin's NEP, and installs his own "Five Year Plan". The plan forced heavy industrialization through a command economy headed by the government. -
The Purges
Stalin, fearing opposition within his own party begins to purge it of opeople who could potentially oppose him. He staged public trials, got forged evidence, and began executing anyone who could potentially oppose him. The most noted of these people were old revolutionary heroes. But anybody could be executed from the lowest peasant to the highest officials. Essentailly he started a witch hunt. -
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was a treaty of non-aggression between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Along with also being a non-aggression pact, it also outlined the division of Poland between the Nazia and the Soviets. Stalin agreed to this pact, even though he hated the fascists, because he wanted buy time in orer to rebuild his military after the purges. -
Soviet Invasion of Poland
Promptly after the Nazi invasion of Poland on September 1st the Soviet Union invaded poland from the east. This was outlined in the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. -
Assassination of Leon Trotsky
Trotsky is assassinated by Ramón Mercader, and agent of the NKVD. Trotsky is killed with an ice axe and survives a die before dying from his injuries. Stalin has managed to remove the last remnants of opposition on the other side of the world. -
Operation Barbossa
Nazi Germany invades Soviet Russia with 4.5 million troops over an 1,800 mile long front, the largest in the history of warfare. This invasion by Hitler breaks the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. This act infuriates Stalin and wakes the sleeping giant that is the Soviet Union.
