Russia 1918 to now

        Military reverses in the 1905 war with Japan and in World War I led to the breakdown of the Tsarist regime. [6a] The Russian Revolution of 1917 began in March with a series of sporadic strikes for higher wages by factory workers and escalated to the point where [6b] Nicholas II [1868-1917] was forced to abdicate. A temporary government under Prince Georgy L'vov [1861-1925] was established but was quickly followed in May by a second provisional government, led by Alexander Kerensky [1881-1970]. The Kerensky government and the freely-elected Constituent Assembly were then overthrown in a Bolshevik coup led by [6c d] Vladimir Lenin [1870-1924]. On July 16, 1918, after the Communist government was firmly in power, the Tsar, his Empress, the Tsarevich (Crown Prince), and the Tsar's 4 daughters--Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia--were executed in Ekaterinburg and the bodies hidden. A period of civil war continued into 1922 during which about 2 million people died.

        Lenin's death resulted in an internal power struggle from which [7a b] Josef Stalin [1879-1953] eventually emerged on top. Stalin secured his position at first by exiling [7c] Leon Trotsky and other opponents, but from the 1930s to 1953, he resorted to a series of "purge" trials, mass executions, and mass exiles to work camps. These measures resulted in an estimated 10 million deaths.
        Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact Aug. 1939, but on June 22, 1941 Germany launched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union. Thus began Russia's entry into World War II--the Great Patriotic War. One notable heroic episode was the "900 day" siege of Leningrad (=St. Petersburg), lasting to Jan. 1944, and causing a million deaths; the city was never taken. The turning point was the failure of German troops to take and hold Stalingrad (=Volgograd), Sept. 1942 to Feb. 1943. Sustaining great casualties, the Russians drove the German forces from eastern Europe and the Balkans over the next 2 years. When the war ended 10.6 million soldiers and 12.5 million civilians had perished--13.7% of its population and more than 37% of all World War II casualties (Wales, 2006).
        During the war [7d] Igor Kurchatov [1903-1960] was selected to build an atomic bomb for Russia. After Hiroshima the project was greatly expanded and moved to the small town of Sarov, which to protect its secrecy was renamed [7e] Arzamas-16 after a nearby town and a post office box. They exploded the first Russian [7f] atomic bomb on August 29, 1949 in eastern Kazakhstan--code name Pervaya Molniya (First Lightning); their first hydrogen bomb August 12, 1953; and their first thermonuclear bomb November 22, 1955; and on October 30, 1961 at 50 megatons the most powerful nuclear weapon ever built--nicknamed Tsar Bomba.

        After Stalin died [8a] Nikita Khrushchev [1894-] was elected first secretary of the Central Committee. In 1956 he condemned Stalin. "De-Stalinization" of the country was began. [8b] Sergei Korolev, who had been thrown into prison by the Stalin government, was released from prison and continued his work on rockets. He was responsible for the Sputnik program which in 1957 launched the first artificial satellite into orbit.
        Four years later [8c d e f] Yuri Gagarin piloted the Vostok I to become the first person in space. [8g] Valentina Tereshkova [1937-], launched aboard Vostok 6 in 1963, became the first woman to fly in space. The Soviet Lunar program, beginning with the launch of Luna 1 in January 1959 and continuing with the Zond series, had 20 successful missions to the Moon.
        The open antagonism of Poles and Hungarians toward domination by Moscow was brutally suppressed in 1956. Khrushchev advocated peaceful co-existence with the capitalist countries, but continued arming the Soviet Union with nuclear weapons. He aided the Cuban revolution under Fidel Castro but withdrew Soviet missiles from Cuba when confronted by U.S. Pres. Kennedy, Sept.-Oct. 1962.

        Khrushchev was suddenly deposed, Oct. 1964, and replaced by Leonid I. Brezhnev. In Aug. 1968 Russian, Polish, East German, Hungarian, and Bulgarian military forces invaded Czechoslovakia to put a curb on the liberal policies of the Czech government. Massive Soviet military aid to North Vietnam in the late 1960s and early 1970s helped assure Communist victories throughout Indo-China. Soviet arms aid and advisers were sent to several African countries in the 1970s. In 1979, Soviet forces entered Afghanistan to support that government against rebels. But after a futile 8-year war the Soviets withdrew their troops.

        Mikhail Gorbachev [1931-] was chosen General Secretary of the Communist Party, Mar. 1985. America and Russia signed a treaty eliminating intermediate-range nuclear missiles from Europe. Meanwhile on April 26, 1986 the #4 reactor at the V.I. Lenin Nuclear Power Plant near the little-known city of [12a] Chernobyl exploded releasing about 35 times the radioactivity of bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. A 31 km zone around the power plant had to be [12b] evacuated because of extreme contamination. Of the 6.6 million people most highly exposed to the radiation an estimated 9,000 are expected to develope terminal cancers (Wales, 2006).
        In 1987, Gorbachev initiated a program of reforms, including expanded freedoms and the democratization of the political process, through openness (glasnost) and [12c] restructuring (perestroika). The reforms were opposed by some Eastern bloc countries and many old-line Communists in the USSR. Gorbachev faced economic problems as well as ethnic and nationalist unrest in the republics.
        On Aug. 19, 1991, it was announced that Gorbachev's vice president had taken over the country. The Russian republic's pres. Boris Yeltsin [1931-] denounced the coup and called for a general strike. Some 50,000 people demonstrated at the Russian Parliament in support of Yeltsin. By Aug. 21 Gorbachev had been restored as President.

        Three days later Gorbachev resigned as leader of the Communist Party and recommended that its central committee be disbanded. Several republics including Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan declared their independence. The Soviet Union officially broke up Dec. 26, 1991.