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Russia Industrializes
During this period Russian factories double in number, leading to more Russians working in industry. Russian investment and taxes increase. With more people laboring under poor conditions and with low pay, discontent and a desire for change grew in the Russian working class. -
Russian Marxists Split
Russian communists divide over the strategy of how to achieve socioeconomic change. The moderate Mensheviks hoped to improve workers' lives through modest reforms, while the radical Bolsheviks under Lenin were committed to change through violent revolution. This event helps to ensure the influence of radical, violent communist revolutionaries in the future. -
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Russo-Japanese War
Fought due to disagreements regarding the occupation of Manchuria and Korea, this war marked the first time an Asian power would defeat a European. Japan's power would continue to increase after the war, while Russia's damaged prestige led to Germany plotting against it for WWI. After suffering decisive losses at the Battles of Mukden and Tsushima, the Russian people continued to lose confidence in the czar's ability to rule and encouraged their demand for sociopolitical change. -
Bloody Sunday
Russian workers attempted to petition Czar Nicholas II for better working conditions, freedoms, and a representative government. The czar's troops fire on the petitioners and kill several hundred. This event demonstrated the socioeconomic problems suffered by average Russians and the unwillingness of the monarchy to reform. -
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Russia in World War I
The human and economic costs of the war, as well as poor progress for the Russian army, led to mass desertion and calls for major governmental change. Rasputin's influence in the government while the czar was at war brought widespread concern about the strength of the monarchy. This event caused worsening socioeconomic conditions for the average Russian and an erosion of support for the czar. -
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February Revolution
What began as a textile worker's strike in Petrograd turned into five days of riots over bread and fuel shortages. Soldiers who initially tried to put down the riots eventually joined the protestors calling for an end to the monarchy and the war. This local uprising spread across the country as the March Revolution, forcing the czar to abdicate. -
Army Troops Fire on Protestors
The Petrograd garrison is called upon to put down the Russian protestors during the February Revolution, killing many people. The protestors refused to disperse and even the soldiers began to falter in their support of the Czar. -
Duma Forms Provisional Government
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Nicholas II Abdicates
Due to overwhelming social and political pressure for reform and an end to the war, Czar Nicholas II surrenders his and his family's claim to the throne. This formally established the legitimacy of the Petrograd Provisional Government under Alexander Kerensky. -
Lenin Arrives in Petrograd
The German government sends the exiled Lenin back to Russia in an effort to use the political chaos there to undermine the Russian war effort. Lenin quickly gains control of the local Petrograd soviets, eventually winning broad national support under his "Peace, Land, and Bread" slogan. Lenin's return to Russia and popularity dooms the nation to return to an autocratic government, albeit socialist. -
October Revolution
Due to a lack of general support for Alexander Kerensky's moderate provisional government in Petrograd, it is toppled by Lenin's Bolsheviks. Kerensky and his associates flee as Lenin's new government is formed. This event ensured that new government of Russia would be radically Marxist and there would be no input by other political parties henceforth. -
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Russian Civil War
Various Russian groups (monarchists, capitalists, moderate socialists) who opposed Lenin's Bolshevik brand of socialism formed a loose coalition as the White Army. The Whites battled the Leninist Reds for control of various parts of the old Russian empire, ultimately resulting in Bolshevik control of all European Russia by 1922. The Reds' victory ensures an end to internal opposition and the beginning of Russian isolationism. -
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Lenin's Bolshevik government, deciding to focus on collectivization of farms and factories, signed an armistice with Germany. Although the war ends for Russia, its cedes considerable land to Germany in exchange. The territorial losses as well as the Bolsheviks' execution of the royal family anger many Russians, leading to civil war.
