¡ Early 1900s: Lenin goes into exile in Europe ¡ 1903: Russian Marxists split into two factions ¡ 1904: Trans‐Siberian railroad complete ¡ 1904‐05: Russo‐Japanese War ¡ 1905: Bloody Sunday
¡ 1906: First Duma meets ¡ 1914: Russia enters World War I ¡ 1915: Czar Nicholas goes to war front to rally troops ¡ 1916: Rasputin is murdered
¡ March 1917: Petrograd strike and riots ¡ March 1917 Czar Nicholas abdicates ¡ March 1917: Kerensky establishes provisional government ¡ April 1917: Lenin returns to Russia
¡ Nov. 1917: Bolshevik Revolution ¡ 1918 Czar Nicholas and family executed ¡ 1918‐1920: Civil war in Russia ¡ 1921: New Economic Policy launches ¡ 1922: Russian empire renamed U.S.S.R. ¡ 1924: Lenin dies ¡ 1928: Stalin launches first Five‐Year Plan
¡ By 1920‐ Lenin realized changes needed to be made § Peasants were not growing enough food ¡ N.E.P. allowed some private ownership in agriculture and small factories ¡ N.E. P. slowly increased production