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January 1905
A peaceful protest of the Tsar turns deadly after the Imperial Guard begins shooting protesters. This becomes known as Bloody Sunday. -
March 1917
The monarchy starts to collape due to disasters on the battlefield and food and fuel shortages. In St. Petersburg, workers go on strike and protests demanding more food arise. Soldiers defect, and so the government is helpless. Finally, Tsar Nicholas II abdicates, thereby ending the Romanov dynasty. -
July 1917
Alexander Kerensky is appointed by the Duma as prime minister of the provisional government. -
September 1917
The Duma declares Russia a republic. -
November 1917
Revolutionary socialist groups arise in cities, and set up soviets. A radical socialist group, the Bolsheviks, become very powerful. The Bolsheviks overthrow the Kerensky government and install Vladimir I. Lenin as a leader of Russia. Lenin is a determined revolutionary. -
December 1917
Lenin uses terror to control the "Whites", and his own people. He creates the secret police, the Cheka.The Cheka executes ordinary citizens just because they are suspected of going against the revolution. -
March 1918
Russia drifts toward Communism. The Bolsheviks end private ownership of land and distribute land to the peasants. Millions of people became happy with the changes. Lenin changes the name of the Bolshevik party to the Communist Party. -
March 1918
Lenin wants peace with Germany and to leave the war, so he can focus on the problems within Russia. So, the Communist government signs the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany. Russia must accept territorial losses for leaving World War 1. -
July 1918
Nicholas II, his wife and their children are killed by the police. Bolshevik troops kill the Romanov family in Yekaterinburg. They are burned and buried in a forest. -
January 1921
The Civil war between the "Reds", or the Communists, and the "Whites", or the counterrevolutionaries, lasts 3 years. The "Whites" desired to defeat the Bolsheviks and many nationalist groups from non-Russian regions joined them. Britain, France, and Germany sent troops to help the "Whites". The war ends with the "Reds" defeating the "Whites". -
April 1922
Joseph Stalin is appointed general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. -
May 1922
Lenin suffers the first of three strokes. -
March 1923
Lenin suffers a third stroke and is removed from power, opening a power struggle. -
January 1924
Lenin dies and a power struggle between Stalin and Trotsky begins. Trotsky was a brilliant Marx thinker, a skill speaker, and an architect of the Bolshevik Revolution. He urged for a world-wide Revolution against capitalism. On the other hand, Stalin was not a scholar, but he was a shrewd politician. He wanted to concentrate on building socialism at home first. -
January 1928
Eventually, Stalin isolates Trotsky within the party and strips him of party membership.Trotsky is exiled, leaving Stalin in charge. Lenin warns that Stalin will be a ruthless leader. -
April 1929
The Soviet Union launches the first Five-Year Plan for rapid industrialization of the Soviet Union. -
April 1930
The GULAG is established. GULAG is the government agency that controlled the Soviet forced-labor camps. During Stalin's rule, there were many forced-labor camps in Russia. -
1930s
Throughout the Soviet Union millions die due to a famine caused by Stalin's forced collectivization. -
August 1939
Stalin and Hitler sign a non-aggression pact with one another. -
August 1940
Stalin has Trotsky executed in Mexico.
