Tsar Nikolai II of Russia: The late 19th century saw the emergence of a socialist movement in Russia. Alexander II was killed by terrorists in 1881, then was succeeded by his son Alexander III (1881–94). He is less liberal but likes peace. The last Russian Emperor Nikolai II (1894–1917), was unable to prevent the Revolution of 1905, sparked by the failure of the Russo-Japanese War and incidents of demonstrations known as Bloody Sunday. The rebellion was suppressed, but the government was forced to undertake major reforms, including granting freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, legalization of political parties, and the creation of an elected legislature for the Russian Imperial Duma. Stolypin’s agrarian reforms led to a massive migration of peasants and occupation to Siberia. More than 4 million people arrived in the region between 1906 and 1914.
In 1914, Russia participated in World War I in response to Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war on Serbia, which was an ally of Russia. Russia joined the war on several fronts despite being separated from their Triple Entente allies. In 1916, the Brusilov Offensive of
the Russian army nearly destroyed the Austro-Hungarian military. However, massive public distrust combined with rising war costs, large numbers of troops being killed, and rumors of corruption eventually led to the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Revolution and the Russian Republic: The February Revolution forced Nicholas II to abdicate; he and his family were imprisoned and eventually executed in Yekaterinburg during the Russian Civil War. The monarchy was replaced by a coalition of political parties calling itself the Provisional Government.
In addition to the provisional government, a group of socialists set up a separate group called the Petrograd Soviet, uniting forces through a democratically elected council called the Soviet. The new government only exacerbated the country’s crisis rather than solving it. Finally, the October Revolution led by Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin overthrew the Provisional Government and power passed to Soviet rule, establishing the world’s first socialist state.
Soviet Russia and civil war: After the October Revolution, civil war broke out between the anti-communist White movement and the Soviet regime and its Red Army. Bolshevist Russia lost Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic, and Finnish territories by signing the Brest-Litovsk Treaty that ended hostilities with the Central Powers in World War I. The Allied powers launched an unsuccessful military intervention, initially aimed at supporting anti-communist groups.
At the same time, both Bolsheviks and White groups were calling for each other’s campaigns of deportation and execution, known as the Red Terror and White Terror. At the end of the civil war, the country’s economy and infrastructure were completely destroyed. Millions became White émigrants, and the 1921 Povolzhye famine claimed up to 5 million lives.
