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Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits Bolsheviks (led by Lenin) and Mensheviks.
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Period: to
Russo-Japanese War.
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Russian Revolution of 1905.
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Start of World War I.
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Murder of royal adviser Grigori Rasputin.
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February Revolution leads to abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and to rule by a provisional government
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October Revolution led by the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin
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Period: to
Russian civil war between the Reds (Bolsheviks) and Whites, with foreign aid supplied to White.
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Lenin orders the executions of Nicholas II and his family.
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USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or simply the Soviet Union), officially established.
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Death of Vladimir Lenin