Russian Revolution topics

The following pages contain informative but concise summaries of key topics relating to the Russian Revolution. These topic pages have been written by Alpha History authors. If you would like to contribute or suggest a topic for inclusion on this site, please contact us.

The old regime

Introduction to Russia
Reform and reaction in the 1800s
Tsarist government
Enforcing Russian autocracy
Russian society
Tsar Nicholas II

Opposition to tsarism

Revolutionary traditions
Marxism
Bolsheviks and Mensheviks
Other reformist political parties
Vladimir Lenin
Leon Trotsky
Alexander Kerensky

Unrest, promise and betrayal

Russian industrialisation
Russo-Japanese War
‘Bloody Sunday’
The 1905 Revolution
The October Manifesto
Stolypin and the tsarist reaction

War and decay

The Lena River massacre
World War I
Grigori Rasputin
The February Revolution

The Dual Power

The Provisional Government
The July Days
The Kornilov affair
October Revolution

The new society

Soviet government
Soviet social reforms
Bolshevik economic policy
The Constituent Assembly
The CHEKA

A nation divided

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The Left SRs
The Red Terror
The Russian Civil War
The Red Army
The White armies

Trouble within the Party

International revolution
The Great Famine
Alexandra Kollontai
Peasant uprisings
The Kronstadt rebellion

Consolidating power

The New Economic Policy (NEP)
The ‘Scissors Crisis’
The death of Lenin
The rise of Stalin


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