A Level Tsarist and Communist Russia

1861

Serfdom abolished in Russia
-Serfs were technically freed but vastly limited-49 year redemption payments-Some serfs not even freed until 1881-Nobles given state bonds but gambled them away-Created 4% Kulaks

1860

St Petersburg Women's Circle est

April 1861

Petrov leads the Golden Charters Revolt

Zemstva make-up

Nobility made up 42% of Zemstva members in districts and 74% in provincial council

1862

Unis could self-govern, 50% of staff left

1863-1864

Polish revolt

1862 CHERNYSHEVKSY

Chernyshevsky publishes "What is to be Done?" calls for a peasant based uprising

1865

Number of children in school doubled

Reutern growth

6% annual growth rate

Government expenditure on loans under Alexander ii

1/3

1866

Assassination attempt on Alexander II carried out by Karakazov of Hell

Shuvalov's reactionary reforms

made sure conservatives gained posts
tightened up censorship
tighter control of students and their organisations
made use of military courts
HOWEVER, TRAIL OF THE 153

1870

women allowed to attend university

1873

The Narodniks go to the countryside to try and convince the peasants to rise up but the peasants call the police on them, led by Lavrov

1874 military reforms

conscription reduced by 10 years and extended to all classes but later restricted high level military training to the nobility

1878 (Zasulich)

Vera Zasulich is aquited under the new jury system despite shooting the brutal Polish governer, Trepov

1878

Land and Liberty assassinate the head of the third section

1878 (ECONOMY)

only 50% of peasants could produce a surplus

1879

Naphtha Extraction Company established

1880

Land and Liberty bomb kills 12 at the Winter palace

rail growth under alex ii and reuturn

500%

1881

Assassination of Alexander II by The People's Will
okhrana established
nationwide police offensive led to 100,000 arrests

1881 Law

Statute on State Security
prosecute any individual for political crimes
special courts outside of the legal system

1881-91

18% grain export increase

May 1882

May Laws restricting Jews from living in the Countryside

1882 Okhrana

Prominent people's will member turned into informant

1883

Peasant Land Bank created, helped peasants buy their own land
Postitive Bungian reform
2% grain increase by year

1884

University Statute (police control over university discipline; centralised curriculum control)

1885

Nobles' Land Bank; abolition of poll tax

1885 Plekhanov

Socialism and Struggle

1887

The more progressive Bunge removed under pressure from conservative ministers (pobedonostsev says he's wasting resources)

1889

Land Captains established, state appointed, could override zemstvo elections and decisions-responsible for law enforcement and could overturn court judgements
JUDICIAL INDEPNDENCE REMOVED

1890 law

Zemstvo Act
peasants' vote reduced, zemstvo placed under strict controls

1891

duty on raw materials up to 30%

Muslim Tartars

Over 100,000 forcibly converted under Alex III's rule

1891-2

famine,350,000 deaths, caused by Vysnegradksy grain exports, Vysnegradksy removed and replaced by Witte

1892

BUDGET IN SURPLUS

1893

French Loan

1894

Alexander III dies, Tsar Nicholas II takes the throne

1897

Russia adopts the Gold Standard
4th largest economy in the world

1895

Senseless Dreams

1898

Social Democratic Worker's Party founded (split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks in 1903

1899-1900

recession

1900

a 1/3 of investment in state companies from foreign investorsx

1903

only 23/35 blast furnaces working in the donbass region working

1903-4

Years of the Red Cockerel

1904

Russo-Japanese War begins (Russian ships sail for 6 weeks and are immediately routed at Tsushima and forced to withdraw)

1904 ECONOMY

8% growth rate over past decade

1905 censorship

"Silver age" of culture emerges from relaxation of censorship (i.e Black Square)

July 1905

Bloody Sunday Massacre, 130 murdered
400,000 person strike
800 person Estonian congress call for greater self determination

June 1905

Potemkin Mutiny but failed to spark unrest on other ships

1905-9

2000 SRs executed

1905 Revolution

Civil unrest that followed the failed Russo-Japanese War and the massacre of Bloody Sunday. Forced Tsar Nicholas to issue the October Manifesto in which he promised to create a Duma.

October Manifesto

(1905), issued by Nich. II, attempted to quiet strikes, local revolts, promised freedom of speech and assembly, called the Duma into session
Appeasement to liberals

April 1906

Fundamental Laws, Nicholas wanted to assert that supreme authority was vested in him and could veto laws

April 1906 (Witte)

forced to resign the premiership after it became clear that he could not work with the duma

1906-09

300 people killed via Stolypin's necktie

First Duma (April-June 1906)

Closed after just 10 weeks
200 kadets fled to Finland and urged Russians not to pay their taxes

Novemeber 1906

Peasants allowed to leave the Mir

January 1907

Redemption payments abolished

Second Duma (Feb - June 1907)

Ministers were often interrupted while speaking, and the dominance of the Trudoviks (SRs breakaway) created a hostile enviroment

1907

Stolypin alters electoral laws to advantage the right

Third Duma (1907-1912)

Very subservient, "lords and lackies" but still passed 2200/2500 of tsars laws, relationship still broke down in 1912

1908

rearmament boosted heavy industry ; growth at 6% until 1914

1910

All communes not redistributed since 1861 dissolved

1911

SRs assassinate Stolypin
(Prov gov later let their leader, Chernov, sit with them)

1912

Lena Goldfields Massacre

1912-14

3000 strikes

1913 celeberations

Tercentenary Celebrations

1913

Peasants owned 66% of arable land because of land bank

1914 farming

90% of farms still strip farming

1914

Russia enters WWI,
300% cost of living increase

1914 rasputin

An orthodox peasant woman, Guesva, attempts to kill Rasputin

June 1915

Zemgor formed

August 1915

Progressive bloc formed, tried to pressure the Tsar into forming a government of public confidence

1914-16

food prices quadrupled, wages only doubled

September 1915

Nicholas begins commanding the front, associated with the 1 million wartime casualties 1915-16

1916

Rasputin murdered by Prince Yusupov

1916 war deserters

1.5 mullion

State and Revolution

1917 a book by Vladimir Lenin which expresses Russian revolutionist philosophies: industrialization increases class divide and is unnecessary for class because peasant farmers already make up the proletariat, a violent uprising will be good for Russia's future, communism can only exist when people stop calculating the amount they work and earn, and freedom is only possible when the government/state completely disappears

February 1917 Revolution

A social upheaval in Petrograd, government ordered troops to fire. Provisional Government formed, dual power

April Theses

'Peace, Bread, Land!' 'All Power to the Soviets!'

February 23rd

Marchers gathered for International Women's Day are joined by striking workers and socialist agitators, Daily protests against the regime from then onwards

March 1917

Soviet Order No. 1

Milyukov 1917

PG foreign minister forced to resign

1914-1917

Price of firewood increased 1100%
100,000 jobs lost under prov govv

July Days

A huge demonstration and riot on the streets of Petrograd on July 16-17, 1917. Kerensky had just launched a disastrous offensive in the war. Soldiers, sailors and workers poured into the streets demanding an end to the war. Because the Bolsheviks were the only anti-war party, they called on the Bolsheviks to take power. The Bolsheviks were not yet ready. Troops suppressed the protests and Lenin had to flee to Finland to avoid arrest as a German agent.

Korinlov affair, August 1917

Kerensky invites Tsarist army officer, Korinlov to launch a coup but is resisted by the bolsheviks

April 1917

Lenin issues the April Theses demanding that all power should be transferred to the soviets, the war should end immediately and all land should be redistributed to the peasants by the state

June 1917

First All-Russian Congress of Soviets
Vote that they have confidence in the prov gov

September 1917

The Bolshevik Central Committee refuses to back Lenin's proposal to the launch a revolution, Zinoviev and Kamenev fear that Russia is not economically ready for revolution

10th October 1917

The Bolshevik Central Committee approves the motion to declare a revolution

24th October 1917

Kerensky raises the bridges to the working class areas in Petrograd and attempts to close two Bolshevik papers, a provocation that gives the Bolsheviks an excuse to act

25th October

Kerensky leaves for the front and the Bolsheviks seize the Winter Palace
Support had evaporated to the point they were only met with the Women's Death Battalion

26th October

Second Congress, the other parties walked out, leaving the Bolsheviks with control of the organs of government
2 SRs added to Sovknarkom

Initial Decrees

Decree on Peace, Land, Worker's Control (+ 8 hr working days), Sex Discrimination, Separation of church and state, Banks Nationalised (Dec)

November 1917

Constituent Assembly elections, SR factions win 53% of the vote so Lenin promptly closes it down

7th December 1917

Cheka established, SR justice minister calls for an inquiry but is ignored

1918

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Factions had divided into Left Communists (Bukharin's revolutionary war)
Trots (Neither war nor peace on German terms)

May 1918

NEP launched with grain requistioning via food supplies dictatorship
Bukharian; "Economincs of the transition days"