Greens=connected/ Reds=connected

Rasputin:
*debauched adventurer and self proclaimed holy man (aka crazy
creep)
* hired by the tsarina Alexandra. She wanted to urge her husband
into absolute rule so she unseated top ministers and replaced them
with her "most trusted advisor" (Grigori Rasputin of Siberia)
*noted for his "mixing sexual orgies with religious ecstasies, and
healing powers"
*Alexandra's fifth child, Alexis, suffered from hemophilia. (blood cell
disease) Rasputin miraculously stopped the bleeding (possibly
through hypnosis)
*3 members of the Romanov family murdered Rasputin in December
1916, in order to stop rumors that Rasputin was the empress's lover.
*his prophecy "If I die or you desert me, in six months you will lose
your son and your throne"
*came true: food shortages caused riots that spread and then the
Duma declared Russia a provisional Gov. on March 12, 1917 (three
days later Nicholas abdicates)

Alexander Kerensky: Russian

*”fiery agrarian socialist”, patriotic moderate socialist to be exact
*part of the reorganized government formed in May 1917
*refused to confiscate large land holdings to give to peasants
(believed that such drastic measures would complete the
disintegration of Russia's peasant army)
*became prime minister in July 1917
Larv Kornilov: Russian
*Kerensky's commander in chief, a popular war hero. “heart of a
lion, brains of a sheep”
*led a feeble attack against the ProvGov
*Kerensky thus lost all street cred with him Army home-slices. (only
gangstas who could save the democratic gov in Russia : / )

Provisional Government (of Russia):

*shared power with the Petrograd Soviet (or council)
*after years of arbitrary authoritarianism, ProvGov(provisional
government) established equality before law, freedom of religion,
speech, and assembly, the right of unions to organize strike
*liberal and moderate socialist leaders of prov gov rejected social
revolution
*formed in May 1917 (Kerensky took part)
*wanted to save land reform for later to focus on war efforts but the
human suffering and war-weariness grew, sapping the limited
 strength of the ProvGov

Petrograd Soviet (of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies):

*was a huge fluctuating mass meeting of 2000-3000 workers,
soldiers and socialist intellectuals (so pretty much the commys)
*saw itself as the true roots of democracy. To counter ProvGov they
issued radical orders that weakened the ProvGov
*most famous was Army Order No. 1 -stripped officers of their
authority and placed power in the hands of elected committees of
common soldiers. Led to the total collapse of army discipline

Bolsheviks and Mansheviks:

*Marxian socialists split into two rival factions
Bolsheviks-majority (Lenin's party) (more detail-see Lenin and
Trotsky)
appeal to workers and soldiers of Petrograd
-Party members soared from 50,000 to 240,000
-strengthened due to Lenin's better half, Trotsky. (yes, they
were the parents of the Bolsheviks)
-Came to power for three reasons:
~Democracy gives way to Anarchy by late 1917
~Lenin and Trotsky held the superior leadership the tsarist
gov and ProvGov lacked
~in 1917 the Bolsheviks succeeded in appealing to many
soldiers and urban workers
-”war communism” -the application of the total war concept to
a civil conflict (maintains labor discipline and keeps the red
army supplied)
Mansheviks-minority
*At Petrograd's Finland Station on April 3, Lenin attacked bourgeois.
Slogans were “All power to the Soviets” and “Stop the war now”
*Lenin became too greedy and took it too far. In July his attempt to
seize power failed and he went into hiding.
Vladimir Lenin: Russian
*from his youth he dedicated his life to the cause of revolution
*became an implacable enemy of imperial Russia when his brother
was executed for plotting to kill the tsar in 1887 (Runaround Volta
from chapter 26)
*law student, searching for a revolutionary faith- Marxian Socialism
*exiled to Siberia for 3 years because of socialist agitation (he
pissed them off, so on a train to the permafrost of Russia's most
baron lands he went)
*lived in western Europe afterwards, for 17 years, developing his
own revolutionary interpretation of the body of Marxian Thought
*Three central ideas:
~used the Communist Manifesto and Marx of 1848 as inspiration
 -capitalism only destroyed only by by violent revolution
-denounces all theories of revisionist theories
~Under certain conditions, a socialist revolution was possible,
even in Russia
-poor peasants = good potential revolutionaries
~Necessity of a highly disciplined workers' party
-an elite that would not be “seduced” by short-term
gains(not stopping till the revolution is brought to power)

Leon Trotsky: (1879-1940) Russian

*executed the successful Bolshevik seizure of power
*convinced Petrograd Soviets to form a military-revolutionary
committee in October 1917 to make him their leader (this caused
military power to fall into the hands of the Bolsheviks)
*Insists that the Bolsheviks reduce opposition to their coup by
taking power in the name of the democratic soviets (which were
more popular)
*November 6th they took over the gov using Bolshevik majority and
declared that all powers had passed to the soviets and Lenin was
the new head of the government

Joseph Stalin: Russian

*Joseph Stalin (December 18, 1878 - March 5, 1953) was General Secretary
of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922
until his death in 1953. During that time he established the regime
now known as Stalinism. As one of several Central Committee
Secretariats, Stalin's formal position was originally limited in scope,
but through increasing control of the Party from 1928 onwards, he
became the de facto party leader and ruler of the Soviet Union[1]. His
crash programs of industrialization and collectivization in the 1930s and
his campaigns of political repression cost the lives of millions of people.
However, it helped to make the Soviet Union the second largest
industrial nation by 1937.
During Stalin's reign, the Soviet Union played a major role in the defeat
of Nazi Germany in the Second World War (1939–1945) (more commonly
known in Russia and post-Soviet republics as the Great Patriotic War).
Under Stalin's leadership, the Soviet Union went on to achieve
recognition as one of just two superpowers in the post-war era, a status
that lasted for nearly four decades after his death.
(wikipedia, because I couldn't find it in chapter 27)

The Cheka:
*the old tsarist secret police was reestablished as the cheka
* hunted down and executed thousands of real or supposed foes,
such as the tsar and his family and other “class enemies.”
 *in Moscow in March 1918, a circus clown to an appreciative
audience was shot by chekists (laughing people were also shot)
*Cheka sowed fear, and fear silenced opposition

General Ludendorff:
*accomplished a victory in the east, quieting German Moderates
*attacked France in “the great spring offensive of 1918”
*Germany came within 35 miles of France, but Ludendorff's forces
were exhausted and never broke through
*They were decisively stopped at the second battle of Marne
(Americans beat em up when they joined the war effort)
*Ludendorff knew he lost the war but insisted that the moderate
politicians take the blame. This caused mutiny in Germany

League of Nations:
*Woodrow Wilson's dream, he believed only a permanent
international organization that could protect member states from
aggression and avert future wars.

(sorry it's short...but I couldn't find stuff)