Key Dates

Question 1

the death of Tsar Nicholas I + accession of Alexander II

Answer 1

1855

Question 2

Russian defeat in the crimean war => Treaty of Paris

Answer 2

1856

Question 3

Emancipation of the Serfs

Answer 3

1861

Question 4

Creation of the municipal council (Dumas)

Answer 4

1870

Question 5

Alexander II assassinated by the Peoples Will => accession of Alexander III

Answer 5

1881

Question 6

Nicholas II accedes to the throne following the death of Alexander III

Answer 6

1894

Question 7

Coronation of Tsar Nicholas II; Khodynka Tragedy

Answer 7

1896

Question 8

Social Democratic Workers’ Party founded in Minsk, influenced by Marxist theory

Answer 8

1998

Question 9

SDs split producing internal factionalism: Bolsheviks and Mensheviks

Answer 9

1903

Question 10

Russo-Japanese War breaks out

Answer 10

1904

Question 11

Battle of Tsushima; Russian defeat concluded in the Treaty of Portsmouth
▪ Social Revolutionaries split: radical left-wing, moderate right-wing
▪ 1905 Revolution; October Manifesto issued by Tsar Nicholas II.
▪ Foundation of the Constitutional Democrats (Kadets)
▪ First Russian State Duma elected; Sergei Witte appointed Prime Minister

Answer 11

1905

Question 12

▪ Fundamental Laws published, cancelling out much of the concessions of the 1905 Manifesto
▪ Stolypin appointed Prime Minister

Answer 12

1906

Question 13

▪ Second Duma elected
▪ Anglo-Russian Entente signed in Saint Petersburg; Triple Entente extended to France

Answer 13

1907

Question 14

Strikes break out across Russia; Stolypin assassinated at the Kiev
1

Answer 14

1911

Question 15

▪ Prague Conference: Bolsheviks break away from the Russian Social Democrats
▪ Strikes reach 725,000; Lena Goldfields Massacre

Answer 15

1912

Question 16

Romanovs celebrate 300th anniversary amidst an outpouring of monarchist feeling in Russia

Answer 16

1913

Question 17

▪ Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo; Full Russian mobilisation
▪ Germany and Austria-Hungary declare war on Russia
▪ Russian defeats at Battle of Tannenberg and Battle of the Masurian Lakes

Answer 17

1914

Question 18

▪ Tsar Nicholas II takes personal command of Russian forces on the Eastern Front
▪ Fourth Duma organise the ‘Progressive Bloc’ and demand reform but are refused

Answer 18

1915

Question 19

Collapse of the Russian government; Rasputin murdered in Petrograd

Answer 19

1916

Question 20

▪ February Revolution; Petrograd riots; Duma declares a Provisional Government
▪ Tsar Nicholas II abdicates the throne; Romanov dynasty falls
▪ Lenin arrives in Petrograd and publishes April Theses
▪ July Days; Bolsheviks outlawed; Lenin exiled to Finland and Trotsky arrested in Petrograd
▪ New Provisional Government assembled, appointing leaders of the Soviet to government
positions. Alexander Kerensky becomes Prime Minister.
▪ Russian offensive in Galicia fails
▪ Kornilov Affair prompts release of Bolshevik prisoners who fortify Petrograd
▪ Trotsky elected Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet
▪ October Revolution; Bolshevik coup in Petrograd, seizure of the Winter Palace and removal of
the Kerensky Provisional Government.
▪ Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets Central Committee and Sovnarkom elected. Lenin
elected as chairman / head of the government.
▪ Decrees on: Workers, Peace, Land (Oct); Nationality; Workers Control; Judicial (Nov); Banks,
Military, Church (Dec)
▪ Constituent Assembly elected, with Bolsheviks polling second
▪ Censorship introduced and anti-Bolshevik newspaper supressed. Civil Service purged (Nov)
▪ Bolsheviks agree armistice with Germany (28 Nov)
▪ Russian Civil War begins
▪ Finland, Estonia and Ukraine recognised as independent of Russia (Dec)
▪ Cheka established (Dec)

Answer 20

1917