Russia 1 timeline

14th may 1896

tsar is coronated

8th feb 1904

japanese attack on port Arthur sparks russo-japanese war

2nd jan 1905

russia surrenders port arthur to japan

8th jan 1905

Georgiy Gapon (Founder of the Assembly of Russian Factory Workers) met with Minister for Justice, who then met with Mirskii + Military Head of St Petersburg, to inform of their plan

9th jan 1905

• “Bloody Sunday” Gapon set the date for a peaceful protest march and petition for workers reforms across St Petersburg

  • 10am 150 000 began marching peacefully to the Winter Palace

  • Warning shots were fired, crowds panicked, and Cossacks charged; govt claims 96 died, recent figures claim 500-1000

  • The people lost faith in the tsar

march 1905

nicholas agrees to first duma

may 1905

Eight long months after setting sail, the 28 battleships arrived in May 1905 at Tsushima. It was defeated in less than 24 hours. The Russian navy was almost entirely destroyed

may 27th 1905

the Baltic Fleet arrives in Japan, Battle of Tsushima begins, they’re decimated in 24 hours

june 27th 1905

Mutiny on the Potemkin after being served maggot infested food

july 5th 1905

the Potemkin lands at Odessa, crows gather and are violently dispersed by Cossacks

17th oct 1905

October Manifesto was published with promises of civil liberties, State Duma, universal male suffrage, confirmed no law could be passed w/out Duma’s approval

march 1906

first election for duma

april 23rd 1906

fundamentalist laws published

april 27th 1906

1st state duma

july 1905

first duma shut down after kadets and peasants produce ‘address to the throne’

from August 1906 to April 1907

Pyotr STolypin streamlined justice system; from August 1906 to April 1907 1144 were executed by military courts, and 2000 by civilian courts

20th feb - 3rd june 1907

Second Duma is formed, (with more Socialist Democrats, and Social Revolutionaries) and is more radical 

november 3rd 1907

third duma, more conservative

sep 18th 1911

stolypin is assasinated

17th april 1912

lena gold feild massacre, 270 deaths

november - augest 1913-14

4th duma

26th-30th augest 1914

26th-30th Battle of Tannenberg; Russia’s first battle of WW1 70 000 Russians died

jan 1917

Food shortages in St Petersburg were severe (only received 6 556 of the 120 000+ railway wagons of supplies needed per month

feb 18th 1917

Strike began at Putilov factories in Petrograd

feb 21 1917

nii returns from the frount after spending christmas in Tsarkeo Selo

feb 23 1917

international women's day demonstration organised by socialist groups

feb 25 1917

general strike begins

feb 26 1917

desertion of Petrograd garrison

feb 27 1917

members of the Duma break away to form a Provisional Committee; Petrograd soviet forms

feb 28 1917

nii prevented from entering petro grad

march 2nd 1917

Provisional Committee declared itself a Provisional Government ; Tsar signed an abdication decree

april 17 1917

lenins april thesis is announced condemns the Provisional Government as bourgeois, denounces WW1 as imperialistic

• Russia is "passing from the first stage of the revolution—to place power in the hands of the poor and the proletariat

• recognises that the Bolsheviks are a minority in most of the soviets(and must fight against them)

• calls for a parliamentary republic not to be established

• calls for "abolition of the police, the army, and the bureaucracy"

• nationalisation of all lands in the country, the land to be disposed of by the local Soviets of Agricultural Labourers' and Peasants' Deputies.

• immediate union of all banks in the country into a single national bank

• calls for a new "revolutionary International

june 1917

• The June offensive (Kerensky offensive) to take Galicia led to 40,000 deaths and multiple mutinies, 170,000 soldiers deserted

  • General Brusilov was replaced by General Kornilov, Prince Lvov resigned as PM and was replaced by Kerensky (who still returned to the front)

3rd july 1917

• Riots broke out; ½ First Machine Gun regiment joined and 20,000 Kronstadt sailors, 20,000 (ex) Putilov Steel workers

  • Govt response killed 7000, arrested 1000+ Bolsheviks + supporters, raids revealed Bolshevik's german funding

10th october 1917

• 10th Bolshevik leaders met to discuss seizure of power

  • Kamenev and Zinoviev publicly condemned this, making the plans public

16th october 1917

Soviet moved to defend Petrograd by establishing a Milrevcom, after the military left

24th october 1917

the Red Guard and Milrevcom mobilise to take over check points

25th october 1917

• Bolsheviks assault the winter palace, the Second All Russian Congress of Soviets leads to a mass walkout over illegal seizure of power

  • Bolsheviks have control of the state bank, post offices, electricity stations, railways