The Twilight of the Romanovs (1896–1916)
German-born granddaughter of Queen Victoria who married Tsar Nicholas II and fell under the deep influence of Grigori Rasputin.
Who was Tsarina Alexandra (Alexandra Feodorovna)?
The international holiday on 23 February 1917 marked by female textile workers marching through Petrograd shouting demands for bread and peace.
What was International Women’s Day?
The charismatic Marxist revolutionary who served as Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet and masterminded the military insurrection of October 1917.
Who was Leon Trotsky?
The elite armed fighting force organized, disciplined, and directed across 65,000 miles of track by Leon Trotsky’s armored train.
What was the Red Army?
The Polish aristocrat-turned-revolutionary known as "Iron Felix," who directed the Cheka throughout the Red Terror.
Who was Felix Dzerzhinsky?
The radical priest who led thousands of peaceful, petition-carrying workers toward the Winter Palace on 9 January 1905, culminating in Bloody Sunday.
Who was Father Georgy Gapon?
The radical directive issued by the Petrograd Soviet on 1 March 1917 that stripped military officers of their authority and placed weapons under the control of elected soldiers’ committees.
What was Soviet Order No. 1?
The acronym for the all-Bolshevik executive cabinet established in late October 1917, formally known as the Council of People’s Commissars.
What was Sovnarkom?
The Russian term for the forced grain requisitioning policy under War Communism that dispatched armed detachments to seize grain supplies from the peasantry.
What was Prodrazverstka?
The March 1921 mutiny by Baltic Fleet sailors—once hailed as the "pride and glory of the revolution"—who demanded freedom of speech, an end to requisitioning, and "Soviets without Bolsheviks."
What was the Kronstadt Rebellion?
The landmark concession drafted by Count Sergei Witte in October 1905 that granted basic civil liberties and created Russia's first elected parliament.
What was the October Manifesto?
The industrial complex in Petrograd whose workers went on strike and were locked out in mid-February 1917, triggering the mass street demonstrations of the February Revolution.
What was the Putilov Steelworks?
The November 1917 decree that officially abolished private landownership without financial compensation, legally validating the peasants' spontaneous seizures of noble estates.
What was the Decree on Land?
The "voluntary" unpaid weekend labor days that urban workers were pressured to undertake to clear train tracks, unload freight, and support the Red war effort.
What were Subbotniks
The capitalistic economic policy of 1921 that ended forced grain seizures, instituted a fixed tax in kind, and legalized small private businesses and markets.
What was the New Economic Policy (NEP)?
The conservative Prime Minister who implemented agrarian land reforms to create a loyal class of prosperous peasant landowners, while executing thousands of suspected terrorists with a noose dubbed his "necktie."
Who was Pyotr Stolypin?
The flamboyant Socialist Revolutionary lawyer who served as Justice Minister, War Minister, and eventually Minister-President of the Provisional Government.
Who was Alexander Kerensky?
The democratically elected parliamentary body that convened for just one day in January 1918 before being dispersed at gunpoint by Bolshevik Red Guards.
What was the Constituent Assembly?
The massive rural guerrilla revolt between 1920 and 1921 in central Russia led by Alexander Antonov, which forced the Red Army to deploy poison gas and heavy artillery to crush peasant resistance.
What was the Tambov Rebellion?
The Women's Department of the Bolshevik Central Committee, headed successively by Inessa Armand and Alexandra Kollontai, aimed at educating and mobilizing working women.
What was the Zhenotdel?
The catastrophic military encounter in May 1905 where the Russian Baltic Fleet was virtually annihilated by the Japanese Navy after an epic eight-month voyage.
What was the Battle of Tsushima?
The August 1917 attempted military advance on Petrograd led by the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, which forced Kerensky to arm the Bolshevik Red Guards.
What was the Kornilov Affair
Lenin’s early-1918 transitional economic framework that retained private business owners and technical managers under state supervision before the onset of the Civil War.
What was State Capitalism?
The stranded foreign military force of roughly 40,000 Allied POWs that rebelled in May 1918 and seized control of the Trans-Siberian Railway.
What was the Czechoslovak Legion
The landmark March 1921 party gathering where Lenin announced the New Economic Policy and passed the secret "Resolution on Party Unity" banning internal factions.
What was the Tenth Party Congress?