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The Decembrist Revolt
An uprising of about 3,000 Russian army soilders in protests to Nicolas I taking the throne after his brother stepped down. The uprising took place in Senate Sqaure in St. Petersburg and was crushed by Nicolas I. -
Emancipation of the Serfs
Czar Alexander II implemented the Emancipation Reform of 1861, giving 23 million serfs their freedom as citizens of Russia. They gained the rights to marry without having to gain consent, to own property and to own a business. -
Bloody Sunday
In Jan. 1905 over 300,000 russians gathered in St. Petersburg in protest against the horrible working conditions and against the Tsars government. The crowd began to move towards the Czars home, the Winter Palace, and some of the police force, believing the protesters were armed, fired on the crowd. Modern estimates say that about 1,000 people were killed or injured that day and this added fuel to the fire of the 1905 Revolution. -
Revolution of 1905
Widespread political unrest spread like wildfire through Russia. The results of which included terrorism, worker strikes, peasant unrest, and military mutinies. It caused Russia to establish a limited constituional monarchy and draft the Russian Constitution of 1906. -
Russia Enters WWI
In 1907, Russia joined the Triple Entente with Britain and France against the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy because they felt threatened by Germany's increasing power. On August 1st. 1914, Germany declared war on Russia. Russia entered the war with the worlds largest army but it's poor roads made its deployment difficult. -
Rasputin Murdered
Grigory Efimovich Rasputin, a peasant who became a very close advisor to the Romanov family, was murdered on December 16, 1916 by aristocrats attempting to save the Russian Empire. Rasputin was fed pastry and wine laced with cyanide but showed no sign of dying. They then shot him but he lived. They then put him in a sack and beat him. He was still alive. Then they threw him into the frozen river, breaking through the ice, several days later, Rasputin's lifeless body was recovered. -
March Revoltuion
On March 7 1917, workers at St. Petersburg's largest factory went on strike and soon just about every factory in St. Petersburg shut down and riots began taking place. Czar Nicolas II then sent 180,000 troops to quell the riots, but many, not wanting to fire into a large crowd began to mutiny. These events led to Czar Nicolas II abdicating his throne. -
Czar Nicolas II Abdicates
The March Revolution had put Nicolas II in a tight spot. When he arrived back in St. Petersburg, all of his army chiefs and remaining ministers advised that he abdicate at once. He did so on March 15, 1917 and was afterward placed under house arrest by the Russian Provisional Government. -
Bolshevik (October) Revolution
In October of 1917, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladmir Lenin, overthrew the Provisional Government and put their own officials into place, essentially ending the old Russian government and beginning the U.S.S.R. or the Soviet Union. Civil war then followed for several years between the Bolshevik (Red) Army and the anti-Bolshevik (White) Army eventually resulting in the White Amry's defeat. -
Murder of the Romanovs
At about 1:30AM on July 16, 1918 Nicholas, Alexandra, their children, their physician, and several servants were taken into the basement and killed. The order cam directly from Vladmir Lenin in Moscow. This event officially ended the era of the czars in Russia. -
Treaty of Versailles
In late June of 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed, ending WWI, with Britain, the U.S. and France on the winning side. Russia was excluded from the treaty because they had individually negotiated peace with Germany in March of 1918 with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk because they couldn't continue the war with civil war raging throughout the country. -
Lenin Dies/USSR Formed
On Jan. 24, 1922, Soviet Russa and several other federations met and signed the Treaty of the Creation of the USSR. Britain officially recognized the USSR on Feb. 1, 1924.Lenin suffered then from three separate strokes. One in May of 1922, one December that same year and one in March of the next year. After the last stroke he remained bed-ridden until his death on Jan. 21, 1924. -
Stalin Takes Power/Death of Trotsky
While in exile in Mexico, Trotsky was assasinated by an undercover NKVD agent under orders from Joseph Stalin. After his death, Stalin became the first of the Council of Ministers, exercising complete control over the Soviet Union.
