The Revolutionary Movement Grows 
When Nicholas II became czar in 1894, he continued the tradition of Russian autocracy. Unfortunately, it blinded him to the changing conditions of his times. Russia was undergoing rapid industrialization. The number of factories more than doubled between 1863 and 1900. The grueling working conditions, low wages, and child labor that accompanied industrialization stirred discontent. The government outlawed trade unions. Unhappy workers organized strikes. 
Revolutionary movements began to grow and compete for power. A group that followed the views of Karl Marx successfully established a following in Russia. The Marxists believed that industrial workers would overthrow the czar. These workers would then form "a dictatorship of the proletariat." This meant that the proletariat-the workers-would rule the country. In 1903, Russian Marxists split into two groups over revolutionary tactics. The more moderate Mensheviks (MEHN-shuh-vihks) wanted a broad base of popular support for the revolution. The Bolsheviks (BOHL-shuh-vihks), who were more radical, supported a small number of committed revolutionaries willing to sacrifice everything for change. The major leader of the Bolsheviks was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (OOL-YAH-nuhf), who adopted the name of Lenin. In the early 1900s, Lenin fled to Western Europe to avoid arrest by the czarist regime. 
The Revolution of 1905 Tensions continued to mount. On January 22, 1905, about 200,000 workers and their families approached the czar's Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. They carried a petition asking for better working conditions, - more personal freedom, and an elected national legislature. Nicholas II's generals ordered soldiers to fire on the crowd. More than 1,000 were wounded and several hundred were killed. Russians quickly named the, event "Bloody Sunday." Bloody Sunday provoked a wave of strikes and violence that spread across the country. 
In October 1905, Nicholas reluctantly promised more freedom and approved the creation of the Duma (Doo-muh)-Russia's first parliament. The first Duma met in May 1906. Its leaders were moderates who wanted Russia to become a constitutional monarchy similar to Britain. Hesitant to share his power, the czar dissolved the Duma after ten weeks. 
The March Revolution In March 1917, women textile workers in Petrograd led a citywide strike. Riots flared up over shortages of bread and fuel brought on by World War I. Nearly 200,000 workers swarmed the streets shouting, "Down with the autocracy!" and "Down with the war!" At first the soldiers obeyed orders to shoot the rioters but later sided with them. The local protest exploded into a general uprising-the March Revolution. It forced Czar Nicholas II to abdicate his throne. A year later revolutionaries executed Nicholas and his family. 
The Duma established a provisional government, or temporary government, headed by Alexander Kerensky. Kerensky's decision to continue fighting in World War I cost him the support of both soldiers and civilians. Angry peasants demanded land. City workers grew more radical. Competing for power, socialist revolutionaries formed soviets-local councils consisting of workers, peasants, and soldiers. In many cities, the soviets had more influence than the government. 
The Bolshevik Revolution and Civil War Lenin returned from exile in April 1917. He and the Bolsheviks soon gained control of the Petrograd soviet, as well as the soviets in other major Russian cities. By the fall of 1917, people in the cities were rallying to the call, "All power to the soviets." Lenin's slogan.,--"Peace, Land, and Bread"-gained widespread appeal. 
Lenin decided to take action. In November 1917, without warning, armed factory workers stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd. Calling themselves the Bolshevik Red Guards, they took over government offices and arrested the leaders of the provisional government.
 Within days after the Bolshevik takeover, Lenin ordered that all farmland be distributed among the peasants and that control of the factories be given to workers. The Bolshevik government also ended Russia's involvement in World War I. The treaty of Brest-Litvosk, which Russia and Germany signed in March 19l8, surrendered a large part of Russia's territory to Germany and its allies. The humiliating terms of the treaty triggered widespread anger among many Russians. They objected to the Bolsheviks and their policies and to the murder of the royal family. 
The Bolsheviks' opponents formed the White Army, which was made up of a variety of groups united only by their desire to defeat the Bolsheviks. The revolutionary leader, Leon Trotsky, expertly commanded the Bolshevik Red Army. From 1918 to 1920, civil war raged in Russia. In the end, the Red Army crushed all opposition. The victory showed that the Bolsheviks were able both to seize power and to maintain it. But the cost was heavy. Around 14 million Russians died in the struggle and in the famine that followed. 
Lenin Rules Russia 
War and revolution destroyed the Russian economy. Trade was at a standstill, industrial production dropped, and many skilled workers fled to other countries. Lenin turned to reviving the economy and restructuring the government. In March 1921, he temporarily put aside his plan for a state-controlled economy and launched the New Economic Policy (NEP), a small-scale version of capitalism. NEP reforms allowed peasants to sell their surplus crops instead of turning them over to the government. The government kept control of major industries, banks, and means of communication, but it let some small factories, businesses, and farms operate under private ownership. The government also encouraged foreign investment. The country slowly recovered. By 1928, Russia's farms and factories were producing as much as they had before World War I.  
Bolshevik leaders saw nationalism as a threat to unity and party loyalty. To keep nationalism in check, Lenin organized Russia into several self-governing republics under the central government. In 1922, the country was named the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), in honor of the councils that helped launch the revolution. The Bolsheviks renamed their party the Communist Party. The name came from the writings of Karl Marx. In 1924, the Communists created a constitution based on socialist and democratic principles. In reality, the Communist Party held all the power. Lenin had established a dictatorship of the party, not "a dictatorship of the proletariat," as Marx had promoted. 
Stalin and the Rise of Totalitarianism 
Lenin suffered a stroke in 1922. He survived, but the incident set in motion competition for heading up the Communist Party. By 1928, Joseph Stalin was in total command of the Communist Party. Stalin now stood poised to wield absolute power as a dictator. 
Stalin and Human Rights Stalin aimed to create a perfect Communist state in Russia. To realize his vision, he planned to transform the Soviet Union into a totalitarian state. The term totalitarianism describes a government that takes total, centralized, state control over every aspect of public and private life. 
Stalin built a police state to maintain his power. His secret police (KGB, or Komitet Gosudarstvenoi Bezopasnosti) His monitored telephone lines, read mail, planted informers everywhere, and used tanks and armored cars to stop riots. In 1937, he launched the Great Purge, a campaign of terror designed to eliminate anyone who threatened his power, including Communist Party members. By the time the purge ended in 1938, millions had died. 
Stalin's government controlled all newspapers, motion pictures, radio, and other sources of information. Many Soviet writers, composers, and other artists faced official censorship. The government also controlled all education, from nursery schools through the universities. Party leaders lectured workers and peasants on the ideals of communism. Communists also worked to replace religious teachings with the ideals of communism. The Russian Orthodox Church was the main target of persecution. 
Stalin and the Economy Stalin also worked to, overhaul the economy. His plan called for a command economy, a system in which the government made all economic decisions. Under this system, political leaders identify the country's economic needs and determine how to fulfill them. In 1928, Stalin outlined the first of several Five-Year Plans for economic development. The Five-Year Plans set impossibly high targets for the output of steel, coal, oil, and electricity. To reach these targets, the government limited production of consumer goods. As a result, people faced severe shortages of housing, food, clothing, and other necessary goods. Stalin's tough methods produced impressive economic results. Although most of the targets of the first Five-Year Plan fell short, the Soviets made substantial gains. A second plan, launched in 1933, proved equally successful. Stalin also worked to reform agriculture. In 1928, the government began to seize over 25 million privately owned farms in the USSR. It combined them into large, government-owned farms, called collective farms, or collectives. Hundreds of families worked on these collectives, producing food for the state. The government expected that the collectives' modem machinery would boost food production and reduce the number of workers. Resistance was strong, especially among Ukrainian kulaks, a class of wealthy peasants. The government decided to eliminate them. More than 3 million Ukrainians were shot, exiled, or imprisoned. Some 6 million people died in the government-engineered famine that resulted from the destruction of crops and animals. By 1935, the kulaks had been eliminated, and by 1938, more than 90 percent of all peasants lived on collective farms. 
By the mid-1930s, Stalin had forcibly transformed the Soviet Union into a totalitarian regime and an industrial and political power. He stood unopposed as dictator and maintained his authority over the Communist Party.