"History of Russia in 100 Minutes" is a crash course for beginners. Here you will find the complete history summarized and retold in simple language with accurate dates, the most relevant names and essential concepts. After finishing the course, you will know:

- The basic characteristics of Russian history in different epochs
- The 54 most important rulers and 106 historical persons in Russian history
- 126 key dates and events in Russian history
- The basic terms and concepts of Russian history

The text is accompanied by numerous online resources:
- 20,000 pictures
- 700 videos
- 3,500 songs
- 100 podcast episodes

All that is available via the smarthistories.com website.


[ Ссылка ]


Narrated by: Sammi Bold
Written by: Tanel Vahisalu
Edited by: Madis Maasing and Kerry Kubilius
Proofread by: Tony Burnett
Graphic Art by: Mehak Zaib Suddle

Video:
"The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty” by Esfir Shub (1927)
"Battleship Potemkin” by Sergey Eisenstein (1925)
“Strike" by Sergey Eisenstein (1924)
"Three Songs About Lenin” by Dziga Vertov (1934)

Music:
"Tchaikovsky (Part II)" and "Crocodile Ghena's Song" (1995) by J.M.K.E.
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NICHOLAS II

The reign of the last Emperor, Nicholas II was a chain of disasters and miscalculations that took the country closer to revolution, and to the end of autocratic monarchy in Russia.

BACKGROUND
The last Tsar, Nicholas II, sincerely believed in his divine right to govern, and had no intention of allowing the introduction of a constitution, or of making any liberal reforms.

He had a tendency to take questionable advice from the likes of his wife, Alexandra Fyodorovna, and the religious healer, Grigory Rasputin, who was later killed by members of the Romanov family in 1916.

1905
The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 was expected to be a short, triumphant campaign, but turned out to be a disastrous defeat for Russia, a cause of international shame, and the loss of the greater part of the imperial fleet.

The Revolution of 1905 was triggered by the Tsar’s armed troops opening fire on peaceful demonstrators near the Winter Palace. Those people had tried to present the Tsar with a petition to improve their living conditions. The event is, even today, known as Bloody Sunday.

The Bloody Sunday events resulted in a wave of strikes and mutiny, and Nicholas was forced to grant people their basic civil rights, as well as to create the Imperial Parliament (Duma). The document was prepared by Prime Minister, Sergey Witte, and is known as the, “October Manifesto,” of 1905.

STOLYPIN'S REFORMS
Nicholas II deeply distrusted the parliament. In 1907, after finally establishing the Tsar’s control over the Duma, the newly appointed young Prime Minister, Pyotr Stolypin, enacted the Agrarian Reform. It was about dismantling the system of rural communities and creating independent farms in the countryside. These progressive reforms produced promising effects, but also created a lot of tensions, and were left unfinished. Stolypin himself was killed by a radical leftist in 1911.

ABDICATION IN 1917
The catastrophic results of World War I brought about the February Revolution in 1917. Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate in favor of the Provisional Government. Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, their four daughters Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and son, Alexey, were put under house arrest at Tsarskoye Selo, then Tobolsk and finally in Yekaterinburg. A year later, they were all executed by the Bolsheviks.

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