History

Important Personalities :
1. Lenin : The leader of the Bolshevik Party who led the Russian Revolution in 1917. As a result of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany, he withdrew Russia from the First World War and took various measures to make Russia a socialist state.
2. Nicholas II : The Tsar of Russia whose Policies precipitated the Russian Revolution.
3. Kerenskii : He leader of the Mensheviks party who wanted to establish a parliamentary form of government in Russia.
4. Leon Trotsky : He headed the Petrograd Soviet and played a leading role in the Russian Revolution and was later assassinated by Stalin.
5. Rasputin : An unscrupulous monk whose influence over the royal family was resented by the Russian people.
6. Engels : Frederick Engels in association with Karl Marx published the Communist Manifesto that was the guiding spirit of the Russian Revolution.
7. Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht : Leaders of the German revolutionary movement, they tried a revolution in 1919. But the army crushed the revolution. Both were captured and shot.
8. Joseph Stalin : He emerged as the leader of the Communist Party after the death of Lenin in 1924. He assumed complete control of Russian government and its policies till his death in 1953.
Important Dates and Events :
1861 : The Tsar abolished Serfdom.
1883 : George Plekhanov formed the Russian Social Democratic Party.
1898 : The Russian Social Democratic Party split into two – the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks.
1904 : Outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war. Russia was defeated by Japan.
1905 : (a) Bloody Sunday – On 22nd January, a mass of people were fired at in St. Petersburg while on their way to present a petition to the Tsar.
(b) The Tsar introduced the October Manifesto which granted freedom of speech, press and association and conferred upon an elected body called the ‘Duma’ the power to make laws.
1914 : Outbreak of the First World War.
1917 : (a) 8th March : Bread riots broke out.
(b) 15th March : The Romanove dynasty ended with the abdication of the Tsar. Mensheviks under Kerensky came to power. Fall of the Tsar is known as the February Revolution because according to the old Russian calender, it occurred on 27th February.
(c) 7th November : The Bolsheviks under Lenin’s leadership overthrew Kerensky’s government. This is known as the October Revolution because according to the Russian Calendar, it took place on 25h October.
1917-20 : Civil war breaks out in Russia - The Red Army is opposed by the White Army. The former is victorious.
1924 : A new consitution gives equality to non-Russina nationalities.
1928 : First Five Year Plan started in U.S.S.R.
1929 : Beginning of collectivisation.
1991 : Breakup of the Soviet Union.