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The Socialist-Revolutionary Party was founded.
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Kishinev pogrom
A three-day pogrom began which would leave forty-seven Jews dead. A pogrom is a is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes. President Theodore Roosevely protested to the Tsar about it. -
Party splits into two factions
At the second congress of the RSDLP, the party split into two factions: the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, and the less radical Mensheviks. -
Bloody Sunday
was a massacre in St. Petersburg, where unarmed, peaceful demonstrators marching to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II were gunned down by the Imperial Guard while approaching the city center and the Winter Palace from several gathering points. Bloody Sunday was an event with grave consequences for the Tsarist regime, as the disregard for ordinary people shown by the massacre undermined support for the state. This was one of the key events which led to the eventual Russian Revolution of 1917 -
First Duma was called
In the face of increasing tension and opposition, Tsar Nicholas II agrees to call a Duma. A Duma is like a parliament. However, he had no intention of really letting it have control and it was soon abolished. -
First Duma dissolved
Tsar Nicholas II decided the Duma was too radical (even though it had been boycotted by the left) and it is abolished (dissolved). -
Okhrana created
The secret police units of the MVD Department of State Police were unified under the authority of the new Okhrana. -
Second Duma called
The Second Duma began. The Kadets dropped seats, benefiting the RSDLP and the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. -
Second Duma dissolved
Tsar Nicholas abolished the second Duma and changed the electoral law, giving greater electoral value to the votes of nobility and landowners. -
Lena goldfields massacre
Lena MassacreThe Russian army fired on a crowd of striking miners, killing 150. -
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a member of a Bosnian separatist group. -
Start of World War One
World War I: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. -
Russia becomes involved in the war
Russia mobilized its army to defend Serbia. -
Rasputin murdered
Royal adviser Grigori Rasputin was murdered by a group of nobles in the house of Prince Felix Yussupov. -
Commemoration of Bloody Sunday
140,000 strike in Petrograd to commemorate Bloody Sunday; strikes in other cities. -
Start of the February Revolution
The workers at the Putilov Plant in Petrograd went on strike. -
Period: to
February Revolution
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February Revolution continues
A series of demonstrations were held, demanding the end of the Russian autocracy and the end of Russian participation in World War I. -
February Revolution - Provisional Government formed
Nicholas ordered the dissolution of the Fourth Duma. The Duma ignored his order and decreed the establishment of a Provisional Government with Georgy L'vov as Prime Minister. -
February Revolution
The soldiers sent to suppress the protestors defected and joined them. Menshevik leaders were freed from the Peter and Paul Fortress and founded the Petrograd Soviet. -
Nicholas Abdicates
Is this the end of the February Revolution? Nicholas abdicated the throne. -
Start of the July Days
A spontaneous pro-soviet demonstration occurred on the streets of Petrograd. The Bolsheviks tried to provide leadership to the demonstrations. The military attacked the peaceful demonstration and engaged in repression against the Bolsheviks. Lenin went into hiding, while other leaders were arrested. The outcome of the July Days represented a temporary decline in the growth of Bolshevik power and influence in the period before the October Revolution. -
End of July Days
The rebellion was put down. The Provisional Government ordered the arrest of Bolshevik leaders.The result of the events was new protracted crisis in the Provisional Government. "Bourgeois" ministers, belonging to the Constitutional Democratic Party resigned, and no cabinet could be formed to the end of the month. Finally, on August 6 (July 24) 1917, a new coalition cabinet, composed mostly of socialists, was formed with Kerensky (see picture) at its head. -
Kornilov Affair
Kornilov Affair: General Lavr Kornilov ordered an army corps to Petrograd to destroy the soviets. This was an (alleged) attempted coup d'état by the then Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, General Lavr Kornilov, in August 1917 against the Russian Provisional Government (headed by Alexander Kerensky). -
Kornilov Affair
The Provisional Government armed tens of thousands of Red Guards to defend Petrograd. The biggest winners of the Kornilov Affair were the Bolshevik Party, who enjoyed a revival in support. Kerensky released Bolsheviks who had been arrested a few months earlier (including Trotsky - see picture), when Lenin had tried to take power in the July Days, and his plea to the Petrograd Soviet for support meant the Bolsheviks now had weapons. -
October Revolution
This took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd. It followed and capitalized on the February Revolution of the same year. The October Revolution in Petrograd overthrew the Russian Provisional Government and gave the power to the local soviets dominated by Bolsheviks. As the revolution was not universally recognized outside of Petrograd there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War (1917–1922) and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. The revolution was led by the Bolsheviks, -
Lenin died.
Lenin died, which started a power struggle. The contenders to take power can be found in the Power Point for the lesson we studied. See the Power Point page for more information. -
Stalin's 1st 5-Year Plan
The First Five-Year Plan of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a list of economic goals that was designed to strengthen the country's economy between 1928 and 1932, making the nation both militarily and industrially self-sufficient. "We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us," Joseph Stalin - 1931
