Unhappiness In Russia

Unhappiness had been brewing in Russia for a long time, even back in 1861, after the Emancipation of the Serfs. Serfs had been freed thanks to tsar Alexander II's reforms, but even though they were technically free they were forced to keep working to pay off the debts that came along with their freedom. Emancipated serfs also didn't earn much, and they weren't allowed to do what they wanted with their allotted land. Although the Russian population grew immensely in the peasant class during this time up until the First World War, nothing else was keeping up with the sudden population boom. Industrialization was going slow, and the economy was doing terrible. The Russification forced on the people by Alexander II also created ethnic conflicts,
with the government refusing to deal with this growing problem. The working and peasant classes didn't feel like the government was doing anything to help them, and these problems eventually led to the 1905 revolution. 200 000 people formed a precession to present a petition to the current tsar Nikolai II, but when they arrived at the winter palace the imperial troops opened fire against the demonstrating crowds.
A massacre started, and a wave of strikes, unrest and peasant revolutions followed. Eventually Nikolai II created the October Manifesto, which promised constitutional reforms and the introduction of a parliament, or Duma. This didn't last long though, the people in the Duma disagreed with the tsar on several matters which led to Nikolai changing the voting system. The country was becoming more and more oppressive, but it also went through an intense stage of industrialization. Then came Pyotr Stolypin, which created reforms to try to calm down the unrest that was going on, although one way of calming everything down was executing all the opposition via the mobile courts. Stolypin was assassinated in 1911, and his reforms were to be the last real reforms up until the February
revolution. Russia was doing terrible in the war. They lacked good strategies and weapons, and eventually tsar Nikolai took the role of supreme military commander, furthermore adding to the growing discontent with the tsar. The Russian transport system was chaotic which meant food transports weren’t prioritized, and farmers ended keeping their agricultural produce to themselves anyway hoping that the prices would go up, so after a cold winter when the woman of Petrograd came out on the streets and wanted bread there wasn't any to be found. All bakeries had either shut down or didn't have anything since no one would sell them the required products they needed to bake bread with. The women started protesting against the food shortages, soon being joined by navy sailors and industrial workers who were on a strike. Big industries were contacted and asked for a strike. Tsar Nikolai failed to make any decisions to stop the growing unrest, eventually leading him abdicating in March. After the Tsars abdication, a provisional government was set up by liberal parties in the Duma.
They promised to be everything the tsar wasn't; they promised free press, free elections to the duma and several reforms. But they made the mistake of staying in the war. The citizens of Russia weren't happy with this decision, they'd been at war on and off for ages and they didn't want to fund it anymore. After prime ministers Kerensky's failed June offensive in 1917, the Russian army saw a complete collapse. During all this time Lenin has been gathering support from people all over Russia, and after this he escapes to Finland to avoid arrest, but his call for "peace, land and bread" gathered increasing popular support. The Bolsheviks used economic assistance from Germany to deliver propaganda, mainly through the communist newspaper Pravda. This all led to the Bolsheviks winning majority in the Petrograd soviet, which gave them legitimacy for the upcoming overthrow of the provisional
government.

Lenin returned to Russia and the Bolsheviks planned to overthrow the provisional government. It had to be done before the promised elections and before German occupation, which was easily achieved. Leon Trotsky and the Red Guards met no resistance when they took over key positions in the government. The operation went extremely smooth and the people of Petrograd weren't bothered by it, they just considered it to be a new faction taking power in the name of revolution. Once the Bolsheviks had taken control, they established the Cheka which had the task of getting rid of any opposition. Lenin negotiated for peace with Germany, and consequently pulled out of the war. Although he couldn't avoid a civil war. From 1917 to 1922 there was a civil war in Russia between the Red Bolsheviks and the White anti-Bolsheviks. Eventually the Reds won, and they could continue their path to communism. As well as a bloody civil war with thousands of casualties, the former tsar and his family were executed by Bolshevik troops. Finally, in 1922 the Treaty of the Creation of the USSR was signed. It was recognized by the British Empire in 1924, and legitimized by a Soviet constitution in the same year.