Revolution
On the 25th of October 1917 (Russian calendar) Lenin led a successful coup to overthrow the Czarist government and to establish the beginnings of the Communist era of Russian history.
Excerpt from Memories of Norka by Conrad Brill
"In about 1905, the Russian people were so disillusioned with their government that bands of Bundofschieks (rebels) raided stores owned by Jews in the Russian villages, where they threw the contents out into the streets where others carried the things away. Many Jews were beaten to death or maimed. In another such episode at that time, a Norka family named Hefeneader who owned a mill in a Russian village, were killed and their mill burned by a band of Bundofschieks. A family friend, Adam Schwartz, employed by the Hefeneaders hid in a bedding drawer, which slid under a high bed when the shooting started, so wasn't found. He later related the events to our village elders, who sent wagons of Hessler family, Schnel family, and our family, to go move what was salvageable from the Hefeneader property that was destroyed. The Hesslers, who were neighbors of ours, were related to the Hefeneaders and Garte Krieger’s wife was their daughter.
This was known as the "Bloody Sunday" uprising, or the 1905 revolution. The Russian army was busy fighting the Japanese, in the Russo‑Japanese war, so the troops were gone and the Bolsheviks decided this was the time to get some reforms. General strikes, fires and blood across the countryside, until Nicholas II granted concessions with a manifesto for civil liberties. Nicholas II was known as a timid easy man, who could be led around by the nose, which was probably true, but when he got the troops home from Turkey, he forgot the manifesto. Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until 1917, when he was taken, held prisoner and later killed with his family by a Bolshevik factor. He had married the Princess Alice of Hessen‑Darmstadt and she converted to the Russian Orthodox Church. They married a month after Alexander III died."
On the 25th of October 1917 (Russian calendar) Lenin led a successful coup to overthrow the Czarist government and to establish the beginnings of the Communist era of Russian history.
On the 19th of October 1918, the "Autonomous Commune of Volga German Workers" was established by Lenin, and by 1924 it became the first autonomous ethnic region of the Soviet Union, the "Volga German Autonomous Republic" as part of the RSFSR. The Volga Republic was approximately 18,000 square miles (46,600 square kilometers) in size.