Last Updated 1/26/2008 1/14/2008
Emerging Russia
1584 Time after Ivan the Terrible called "Time of Troubles."
1613 Romanov dynasty begins in Russia
Peter the Great
1672, born innside the walls of the Kremlin.
1682, Peter the Great, adopted Western ways.
Built new capital at St Petersburg, an ice-free port.
Revised the alphabet.
Set up schools for the Upper Class.
Trained an army and built a navy.
Ordered people to adopt European-style clothes.
Made people cut their beards, or pay a beard tax.
1725 January 28, died of urinary problems.
Catherine the Great
1745, married to Peter the son of Empress Elizabeth f Russia.
1762 January 5, Peter III takes the throne.
1762 July 13-14, Peter is away, the personal guard of the emperor revolts.
The guard proclaims Catherine the ruler of Russia.
1762 July 17, Peter III is killed by one of the coup leaders.
She also removed other possible claimants to the throne, Ivan VI and Princess Tarakanova.
1762, Catherine the Great considers ending serfdom.
A revolt and the French revolution changed her mind.
She extended Russia's borders east, west, and south through wars.
She obtained access to the Black Sea.
1796 Novemeber 5, died of a stroke.
The Road to Revolution
30 million serfs support 500,000 nobles and clergy.
1825 Russian army officers rebel. It was put down.
Ideas of freedom and reform spread.
Czar Alexander II
1818, born.
1855, Alexander becomes czar.
1861, Czar Alexander II freed the serfs.
1863-1864, put down the Polish revolution.
Thousands of Poles were executed.
All territories of Poland-Lithuania were excluded from liberal policies.
1863, marshall law was declared in Lithuania which lasted 50 years.
Native languages Lithuanian, Ukranian, and Belarusian were banned from printed texts.
Polish was outlawed in oral and written form.
1863, established the diet of Finland.
Finland was allowed to print their own money.
Reforms were easier to test in small countries.
1864, a new administration.
He abolished capital punishment.
1866 April 4, assasination attempt.
1879 April 20, 33 year old former student shoots five times, but misses.
He was sentenced to death and hanged.
1879 December, revolutionaries try to blow up the czar's train.
1880 February 5, explosion under the dining room of the winter palace.
1881 March 13, a bomb is thrown under the czars's carriage.
He is unhurt.
While looking at the damage, another bomber throws one at the czars' feet.
It explodes.
He is seriously injured in the legs.
He died at 3:30 PM.
The next day the people were going to be told of an elected parliament.
Alexander III
Married his dead brother's wife.
From 1855-1881, he was heir apparent.
After his father's assasination Alexander III reduces liberal policies.
He rips up the plan for the elected parliament.
Since one of the bombers was Jewish, anti-jewish programs and legislation came about.
Suspension of civil liberties and police brutatlity returned.
1887, revolutionaries plot to kill Alexander III.
One of the cospirators who was hanged was the brother of Lenin.
1894 Novemebr 1, Alexander III dies.
Nicholas II
1868 May 19, Nicholas II was born.
1881 March 1, Nicholas II becomes heir apparent after the death of his grandfather, Alexander II.
1894 Novemeber 1, Nicholas I becomes czar.
1894 November 26, Nicholas I marries Alxi of Hese.
1904, Russo-Japanese War.
The Russian Navy was destroyed by Japan.
Russia's self-esteem received a severe blow>
The Imperial government collapsed, with the ensuing revolutionary outbreaks of 1905-1906.
Many demonstrators were shot in front of the Winter Palace in St.Petersburg.
The Emperor's Uncle, Grand Duke Sergei, was blown up by a revolutionary's bomb in Moscow as he left the Kremlin.
1905 January 19, a ceremonial cannon fires at the czar and his family.
1915 January 21, Gapon, a priest, informs the government of a march planned for the 22nd.
1905 January 22, Russian people are bringing demands to the palace.
Soldiers meet them and several hundred are killed and wounded.
General strike breaks out.
Czar Nicholas II agrees to some worker demands.
9 million Russian soldiers killed in WWI
1917, Russian people revolted.
Revolution led by textile workers and military.
1917 March, Czar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate.
1918 July 16-17, Czar Nicholas, his wife and children were executed by the Bolsheviks.
Lenin
1917 Lenin and Bolsheviks seize power from temporary government.
Lenin signs treaty with Germany.
1918-1920, Russian Civil War between Reds and Whites.
1921 Reds defeat the Whites
1922 Soviet Union formed.
1924 Communist Party controls the Soviet Union.
1924 Lenin dies, buried in glass coffin in Kremlin.
Stalin
1928 Stalin takes control of government and Communist Party.
Stalin set up 5-Year Plans to build up heavy industry.
Factories were built and run by the government.
Collective farms were created.
Many farmers resisted by killing their animals.
Farmers were shot or sent to Siberia.
The World Economy
Depression of 1929 did not affect the Soviet Union.
Factories closed and millions lost their jobs.
Money brought so little in Germany people burned it instead of wood.
Democracy to Dictatorship
President Franklin Roosevelt set up "New Deal."
CCC Civilian Conservation Corps; planted trees and built dams
WPA, Works Progress Adm. built roads, bridges, airports, hospitals
TVA, Tennessee Valley Auth.; built dams that provided cheap power
Hitler
1933 Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.
Hitler did away with all political parties except the Nazis.
Hitler set up a secret police called the "Gestapo."
Nazis took away Jews businesses and jobs.
Jews could not go to school or get medical care.
Jews could not vote and had to wear a yellow star.
Jews had to be off the streets by 8:00 PM
The Road to War
1935, Hitler announces his goal is to unite all German people
1936 Hitler moves into the Rhineland
1937 Japan invades China and signs a treaty with Germany & Italy.
March 1938 Hitler invades Austria
March 1939 Czechoslovakia becomes part of Hitler's Germany
Aug 1939 Germany & Soviet Union sign non-aggression pact
Sept 1, 1939 Germany attacks Poland.