Disintegration of USSR

7 Pages 1650 Words

territory had been greatly extended but although a force to be reck!
oned with, in the world, Russia was industrially far behind the UK, Germany and the USA. Its bureaucracy had grown unwieldy and oppressive and its Romanov emperors (Tsars) were opposed to any political change. Revolutionary activity began with the Dekabrists conspiracy uncovered in 1825 and although serfdom was abolished in 1861, its abolition was achieved on terms unfavorable to the peasants and served to encourage revolutionaries, a group of whom assassinated Alexander II in 1881.
The first decade of the 20th century witnessed great political unrest in the country. Military defeats in the 1905 war with Japan and in the First Great War resulted in the fall of Tsar rule in Russia. After the abdication of Nicholas II a provisional government set up under Prince Lvov was replaced in may be a second government under Alexander Kerensky. However this government too was overthrown in the October 1917 revolution by communists led by Lenin. The October revolution was followed by a civil war that lasted from 1918 to 1922. The communists came out victorious in this war and Lenin emerged as the strong man of Russia. Lenin’s death in 1924 resu...