Political Protest, Reforms, and Revolution 1900 to Present - AP World History: Modern

The Russian Revolution of 1917 was caused by widespread anger among among the Russian populace towards the Czarist government due to frustration with the conduct of World War I and mass famine. The Czar abdicated and a Provisional Government under Alexander Kerensky took control of the state. However, the Provisional Government refused to end the war with Germany, which dramatically weakened its popularity and helped to allow the Bolsheviks under Lenin to take control in 1918.

Mao Zedong, widely considered the founding father of modern Communist China, came to power June 19, 1945 and was the first chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. He came to official power after defeating the Kuomintang in the Chinese civil war and forcing Chiang Kai-Shek onto the island of Formosa (Taiwan).

The Young Turks that revolted in Iraq in 1908 were seeking both a new Iraqi identity and the use of European models of government and society. They challenged the Ottoman Empire's monarchy, and were influenced deeply by the European presence during and after World War I.

The Young Turks were young reformist military leaders who saw the Ottoman Empire's weakness as a chance to reinvent their society and identity.

The Saur Revolution in Afghanistan overthrow the self-proclaimed President of Afghanistan, Mohammed Daoud Khan, who had overthrown the king, his cousin, five years previous.

The King of Afghanistan, Mohammed Zahir Shah, was overthrown by Khan in 1973 when the King was in Italy for eye surgery.

The Taliban did not coalesce as a movement until the early 1990s, long after the Saur Revolution.

The Mujahideen eventually defeated the Soviet forces and Communist government of Afghanistan; essentially they were enemies of the Saur Revolution.

The British were forced to leave Afghanistan due to the world wars, fighting in Europe, and American pressure to withdraw; they were not overthrown by any revolution.

The Arab Spring originated on December 17, 2010 in Tunisia, where widespread protests led to the overthrowing of long-time dictator and President Ben-Ali. From there the revolution spread to Egypt, Yemen, and Algeria before moving across the entirety of North Africa and the Middle East.

Apartheid was the system of racial segregation used in South African society and was enforced through legislation passed by the National Party (NP) from 1948 until 1994. Minority rule by whites was maintained by this system while rights movements of the majority black population were oppressed. The system was eliminated with multi-racial election in 1994, in which Nelson Mandela came to power with the African National Congress party.

Russia had a longstanding, but small, revolutionary socialist movement at the turn of the twentieth century. The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) was the main party of this movement in 1900. However, the RDSLP split into two different factions (Bolsheviks and Mensheviks) in 1904 due to a dispute over whether the party should attempt to broaden its support or remain a small tight-knit movement. The tight organization of the Bolsheviks helped them to overcome their rivals and take control of the Russian state after the 1917 Russian Revolution.

The Solidarity Movement in Poland was led by Lech Walesa. The Solidarity Movement was a widespread labor movement that took place in Soviet-controlled Poland in the 1980s. It was a large factor in Poland’s struggle for independence and somewhat influential in the downfall of the Soviet Union.

Iran experienced a revolution in 1979 that led to the expulsion of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the western-minded and West-backed leader. Economic and political crises mounted in the 1970s, and Iran's two identities—the western, secular identity and the traditional, Islamic-based identity—collided. Iran turned towards Islam and eventually established a theocracy with shades of democracy after the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

The Arab Spring was a historic wave of protests and government reformations throughout Northern Africa and the Middle East. In an unprecedented chain of events, protests in one country seemed to set off more protests in a different country.

The Arab Spring started in Tunisia, in December 2010. Very few countries in the region were immune from these protests, and social media played a critical role (even in countries that clamped down hard with media and communication restrictions).

Perestroika, which literally translates to 'restructuring' in Russian, was the policy of wide-ranging internal reforms within Soviet society under Mikhail Gorbachev and included both political and economic reforms.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 was caused by widespread anger among among the Russian populace towards the Czarist government due to frustration with the conduct of World War I and mass famine. The Czar abdicated and a Provisional Government under Alexander Kerensky took control of the state. However, the Provisional Government refused to end the war with Germany, which dramatically weakened its popularity and helped to allow the Bolsheviks under Lenin to take control in 1918.

After the First World War President Ataturk of Turkey and the Shah of Iran laid out aggressive policies for the modernization of their two nations. These policies moved away from the religiously governed law codes, and enforced western culture, business, and legal practices.

Gandhi became famous for leading a revolution completely peacefully. His work began with the Salt March of 1930 which opposed harsh British tax practices. He insistent that change could be possible without mass violence.

Mao's Great Leap Forward was a policy designed to industrialize China in a few short years, but it resulted in tens, if not hundreds, of millions of deaths because the Chinese countryside was left without sustenance.

Numerous ancient Chinese emperors directed their populations to build the Great Wall as a buffer between China and the dangerous nomadic tribes who lived in what is today Mongolia, but Mao's Great Leap Forward was about industrialization; it had nothing to do with the wall or Mongolian nomads.

Mahatma Gandhi lived in a self-sustainable commune called an ashram; Mao's Great Leap Forward policy was actually a step away from such an agricultural type of community.

President Thomas Jefferson organized the purchase of the Louisiana territory from France which doubled the size of the United States; while Mao oversaw the invasion of nearby regions such as Tibet, this policy was not a part of the Great Leap Forward.

President Abraham Lincoln sought to end the US Civil War, in part, by destroying enemy infrastructure; Mao also destroyed enemy infrastructure in China's Civil War, but by the time of the Great Leap Forward the Chinese civil war was already over.

While Marx is primarily known for his writings that formed the philosophical basis for communism, he was also a supporter of the women's suffrage movement (if not particularly sensitive in his language on that subject).

Bloody Sunday took place in Russia in 1905, during the first Russian Revolution. It involved the massacre of peaceful demonstrators in St. Petersburg by forces associated with the Russian Tsar Nicholas II. It contributed to the decline of the ruling Romanov dynasty.

Vladimir I. Lenin was the leader of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian revolutionary socialists. He was in exile from Russia at the outbreak of World War I, but he returned to Russia with the help of the Germans after the Russian Revolution in January 1917. Lenin's Bolsheviks immediately became a strong rival to the Provisional Government led by Alexander Kerensky. Lenin advocated in his 1917 political program (quoted in the question) for an immediate end of the devastating war with Germany. He also wanted power to be transferred from the Provisional Government to the soviets-or workers councils-which had popped up in major Russian cities after the 1917 Revolution.

The devastating Russian Civil War (1918-1922) was fought between the Bolsheviks and the various Russian groups which opposed them (known collectively as the White Russians). The Bolsheviks possessed many advantages over their rivals in the war, but one advantage they did not possess was support from any foreign power. The Western powers and Japan hoped to defeat the Bolsheviks because they feared that a Soviet Russia would inspire revolutionary socialist movements in their own countries. The Bolshevik victory in 1922 established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) as the new government of Russia.