Russia in Revolution 1915-1921
A Chronology
1915: Russia enters the Weltkrieg on the side of the Marseilles Compact, honoring the Franco-Russian Entente. Despite successful initial offensives in Galicia, Russian forces are dealt a decisive blow at the Battle of Tannenburg.
1916: The Imperial Alliance launches a major Eastern offensive, pushing the Russians out of Galicia and securing all of Poland by the end of the year, forming a front-line from Riga to Ternopol in Western Ukraine. Despite pressure, Tsar Nicholas II retains his cousin, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, as Commander-in-Chief at STAVKA, although he increases his personal involvement all the same.
1917: The Brusilov Offensive marks the high-point of Russian wartime success, with the Austro-German forces pushed back in a dramatic summer offensive. The offensive convinces Romania to join the war on the Entente's side, but is quickly stalled and the front-line stalemate resumed. In December, Rasputin is murdered by a conspiracy of officers and nobles led by Prince Felix Yusupov, who feared the cleric's influence on the government was undermining the war effort.
1918: Reacting to Rasputin's murder, Nicholas II comes to terms with the 'Progressive Bloc' in the Duma, which had been instigating for a more intensified war effort. Guchkov is appointed Premier, and organizes a major revitalization of war industry. Nevertheless, Grand Duke Nikolai resists his calls for a renewed offensive on the front.
1919:
February - When Nicholas II adds his voice to the growing calls for an offensive, Grand Duke Nikolai is no longer able to resist. The subsequent 'February Offensive' is a complete disaster, and results in the collapse of a great portion of the Imperial Russian Army. Riga is lost, and the Germans push into Belarus, Ukraine, and the Baltics.
March - The German Offensive continues as Kiev and Minsk falls to the Imperial Alliance. By the end of the month Narva, the last obstacle before St. Petersburg, has fallen.
April - Nicholas II, having fled the capital to his palace at Tsarkoye Selo, resolves to seek terms upon the advice of Grand Duke Nikolai. The front somewhat stabilizes, but the Russian position is clearly untenable. An armistice is concluded on 24th April, and is condemned by Russia's wartime allies.
May - As negotiations commence in Brest-Livtosk, government authority begins to unravel. Labour Day Riots occur in St. Petersburg and Moscow, with troops deployed to the streets. Peasant uprisings commence as veterans return from the front, speaking of their wartime horrors and the defeat of Russia on the front-line. As in 1905, workers and soldiers Soviets emerge.
June - When the negotiations for peace break down at Brest-Livtosk, a brief resumption of hostilities, the 'June Offensive', sees German forces reach the outskirts of St. Petersburg. During this period, the German government permits the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin to return to Russia in the hope of weakening the Tsarist government further, arriving on the 21st. By the end of the month, Nicholas II gives in and consents to the harsher German terms.
July - On July 8, The Treaty of Brest-Livtosk is officially signed and announced. On the same day, Lenin leads a vast force of striking workers on the Winter Palace, demanding All Power to the Soviets. The Cossacks guarding the Palace side with the workers, and the Palace is stormed. Thus the July Revolution begins. Over the following days, the workers seize much of the rest of St. Petersburg, with only a Tsarist garrison in the Peter and Paul Fortress holding out, while the sailors at Kronstadt would mutiny and join the Revolution. Rebellions commence in Moscow, Kazan and other major cities, while the peasant insurgency in the countryside reaches new heights. In the Caucasus, the Mensheviks rise to secure Georgia, long a hotbed of Menshevik activity.
August - As Nicholas II deliberates on how to deal with the crisis, the Tsarevich Alexis catches a major injury while in the gardens of Tsarkoye Selo. The boy, afflicted with hemophilia, swiftly perishes from the fatal wound. Distraught and grief-stricken, the Tsar resolves to abdicate and pass power to the new heir, his brother Grand Duke Michael. On 15 August he signs an Instrument of Abdication, and on the following day a Duma deputation meets with the Grand Duke. At the urging of Duma Speaker Rodzianko, Michael accepts the throne (he had wished to wait for a constituent assembly, but the Duma feared such a delay would hand power to the Soviets). Issuing a August Manifesto to mark his accession, Michael II pledges constitutional monarchy and broad civil and social rights for all Russians. Rodzianko is appointed Premier of a Government of National Unity, including the Kadet Pavel Miliukov as Foreign Minister and General Wrangel, soon to earn the moniker 'The Black Baron', as Minister of War.
September - Faced with growing revolutionary disunity over the August Manifesto, and opposition to his dictatorial style of organization and narrow political programme, Lenin resolves to purge his Menshevik and SR allies from the St. Petersburg Soviet. The September Days go down in infamy along international socialist circles as the Bolsheviks undertake a brutal purge of their socialist comrades, with street battles raging across the city between their rival militias. The Bolsheviks secure the city and much of the surrounding territory, while the Mensheviks retreat to Georgia and the SRs to Samarra, where the local Soviets had aligned with them.
October – After a three-month battle, the Tsarists regain full control in Moscow, during which the Bolshevik commander, Joseph Stalin, is killed. The Counter-Revolution, buoyed by the abdication and the August Manifesto, is now in full swing. In St. Petersburg, Lenin is assassinated by an SR, Fanya Kaplan, in retaliation for the September Days. Bolshevik leadership devolves to a triumvirate of Trotsky, Kamenev and Zionviev, in a fractious and tense coalition.
November-January – Fighting rages between the Tsarist government and the various rebel movements, albeit at a low ebb thanks to the winter. The fighting cuts of food supplies, and consequentially a famine occurs, killing several million.
1920:
February – The 'Wrangel Offensive' in the Russian New Year sees Tsarist forces make major advances. The SR Government at Samarra is quashed, and by the end of the month government troops are on the outskirts of St. Petersburg.
March – A Bolshevik offensive on March 8 fails to counter Tsarist advances. Government forces continue their push into the capital.
April – St. Petersburg finally falls to the Tsarists, with the Bolshevik leadership taking flight to Kronstadt. There the sailors organize the 'Red Flotilla', which escorts them to exile in Mexico. With that, the 1919 Revolution is decisively defeated, although the work of suppressing workerand peasant uprisings would continue into 1921.
