HomeThemesChronicleForumSearchAbout Us
I HOME I CHRONICLE I INTERACTIVE I SEARCH I---Themes: I Societies Main I South Africa I Russia I Japan I

20th Century Russia

Introduction
Russia has undergone many upheavals in the course of the century. It has moved from being a backward country with a huge empire ruled by a centuries-old monarchy to a Communist superpower which shaped world politics for decades until the Union collapsed and Russia became a post-industrial, post-modern nation, much weakened and struggling to achieve a semblance of its former glory.

In 1894, the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II was attended by so many of his subjects that a thousand of them were crushed to death. The Russian Empire covered over one-sixth of the world’s land but was one of the most backward in Europe. Decisions were all made by the Tsar before being acted on by a grindingly slow and complicated bureaucracy. Russian even followed the Julian calendar, which was 13 days behind the Gregorian one, which had been adopted by most of Europe since 1582.

Continue 1905: Growing Unrest

Sections under Russia:
  1. Introduction
  2. 1905: Growing Unrest
  3. 1910-1920: Growing opposition
  4. The First World War: Tsarist rule grows less popular still
  5. Tsar killed, USSR formed
  6. Stalin's USSR
  7. Economic Revolution
  8. Propaganda
  9. Russia and World War II, Cold War
  10. Life in the Communist bloc 1945 – 1989,
    Hungary Revolution, East Germany
  11. The Prague Spring
  12. Bulgaria, Romania and Poland
  13. Stalin and the USSR
  14. Stagnation
  15. Decline of Communism

  16. The Collapse of Communism

  17. Soviet coup d’etat