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Reign of Czar Alexander III (1881-1894)
Czar Alexander III was very anti-semitic, and he encouraged violence against Russian Jews in acts called pogroms. He enforced one-man rule (Autocracy), Russian Orthodox Christianity, and a single Russian race. -
Reign of Czar Nicholas II (1894-1917)
Czar Nicholas II encouraged many of the same policies as Czar Alexander III, which infuriated many Russians. The nation had also been humiliated in WWI and the Russo-Japanese War, and been angered by Bloody Sunday. Nicholas attempted to pacify the populace by creating the Duma, but this did not work, and in 1917, Czar Nicholas II left the leadership to a temporary provisional government. -
Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)
This humiliating (for Russia) war against Japan began due to disagreements about land in Manchuria, and since Japan was better industrialized and had a strong naval presence, they defeated Russia. Many Russian citizens were angry at Czar Nicholas II for this loss, and organized strikes. -
Bloody Sunday
This was supposed to be a peaceful protest at the Winter Palace of Czar Nicholas II in order to gain better living and working conditions, but he was not at the palace, and the police stationed there fired on the crowd, killing 100 and injuring 3000. This made the Russians even more furious at their Czar, so Nicholas created the Duma, an elected legislature, to appease them 9 months later. -
Creation of the Duma
After defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, shock on Bloody Sunday, and strikes and protest across Russia, Czar Nicholas attempted to calm the Russian populace by giving some of his power to an elected legislature called the Duma. However, the people saw this as insincere and the internal strife within the empire intensified. -
Russia in WWI (1914-1918)
Czar Nicholas II was an avid military strategist, and when World War One arrived, he personally took control of his troops. When Russia was pushed back due to less and lower quality weapons, in turn due to lacking industrialization, Czar Nicholas was blamed for this loss, mounting ever more pressure on the Russian leader. -
The Death of Rasputin
Grigori Rasputin was a mystic who, according to the Czarina, healed her son Alexei, so he had a large amount of influence over her, especially after Nicholas left to the front in WWI. A group of nobles feared how much power Rasputin had, so they attempted to assassinate him, and failed the first two times, succeeding by throwing his twice-poisoned and shot body into a river. -
The Bolshevik Revolution (1917-1920)
This was the revolution that overthrew the provisional government put in place after the abdication of Tsar Nicholas, and put in place a Bolshevik-led dictatorship. This uprising allowed Communism to truly take hold in Russia, leading to the establishment of the Soviet Union, and decades later, causing the Cold War. -
Abdication of Czar Nicholas II/Establishment of Provisional Government
In March, many workers in the city of Petrograd led a strike, and riots over food and fuel sparked even more hostility towards the Czar. Soldiers then sided with the workers, the protest became a revolution. Nicholas, noticing the situation abdicated his throne, and a year later, he and his family were executed. After the revolution, the Duma created a temporary government led by Alexander Kerensky, but this provisional government made a mistake by continuing participation in World War One. -
Russian Civil War (1918-1920)
The Russian Civil War was fought between the Whites, supporters of the Tsar and capitalism, and the Reds, supporters of the Bolsheviks and communism. The eventual victory of the Reds secured the future of the Soviet Union and allowed the communist ideology to dominate the country. -
USSR Established
This event displayed to the rest of the world, especially the capitalist world, that communism could be a viable alternative to the prevailing economic system. The establishment of the Soviet Union also gave hope to the Russian people that their country could once again be a superpower. -
Death of Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin's death in 1924 created a power vacuum in the leadership of the new country which was fought over by Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. The victory of Stalin over Trotsky signaled that the regime would not promote the ideals of communism in Russia, but it would instead oppress the population as much as possible. -
Stalin's Rise to Power
This was when Joseph Stalin had finally gained control of the Communist party, and he began to tighten control over the Russian population. His control over Russia allowed him to enrich party officials at the expense of the working class and peasants, later leading to the decline and fall of the Soviet Union. -
Leon Trotsky Exiled
After Joseph Stalin gained command of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union, he sent away Leon Trotsky, the man who had competed with him for leadership of the USSR. This deportation of political opponents set the stage for the dictatorial regime that Stalin would put in place in the Soviet Union.