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A brief yet comprehensive documentary overview of the downfall of the Romanov dynasty and the evolution of Lenin's Ulyanov family, from the terrible acts and subsequent hanging of his brother to his own hunger for a revolution.

Russian Revolution made the world's first communist state. The mighty Romanov dynasty that ruled for 300 yrs fell to a group of rag tag revolutionaries, who brought Joseph Stalin. Lenin's strategy was to paralyze the country by occupying the key points and then take over.

The Tsars were autocrats and liked to rule by force. but the Tsar Nicholas II was utterly useless. His mistakes brought Russia to its knees and allowed Lenin to rise and seize power. Mar 13th, 1881. Alexander II is the Tsar in command. He is travelling by bullet proof carriage (gifted to him by Napoleon III) to St Petersburg. There have been many attempts on his life due to invention of dynamite and firearms, which allow normal people to become assassins. A bomb explodes before Alexander can get into the carriage and his body is torn apart. He is succeeded by Alexander III, his son.

The group responsible was Narodnaya Volya (the People's will), who is later joined by Aleksandr Ulyanov (Sasha). He is eldest son of the Ulyanov family and the elder brother to Lenin. There is tremendous unrest in society, but the assassination fails to ignite the revolution and autocratic rule of the Tsars continues. Alexander III was a brutal ruler. He was a huge man. He undermined his son, Nicolas II. But he appointed competent ministers, never declared new wars and made the Russian railways and postal services, the best in Europe.

The defeat in the Crimean wars at the hands of the French and the Brits laid bare that Russia had to industrialize to survive and compete at the world stage. But other European nations were democratic by now, unlike Russia. The Russian middle class had no way to get engaged politically Alexander was brutal against all opposition to the Tsarist rule.

Mar 13th, 1887, Sasha makes a bomb and tries to kill Alexander III, when he attends his father's death anniversary ceremony. Sasha was a follower of Karl Marx. He believed that if you remove the top, the system crumbles and a peasant uprising create a new system. But the plot is discovered, and Sasha is hanged on 20th May 1887. Post this, the entire liberal class turned against the Ulyanovs (a family of civil servants), and this turned Lenin against the liberals. Lenin joins the revolutionary group. He was tracked by the Russian spy service, the Okhrana. He spends the next 16 yrs hiding from them by frequently shifting bases.

In this time, Nicholas II, the heir to the throne was also travelling around Europe. His father has put him in charge of the Trans-Siberian railway. He traveled to Vladivostok and from there on a mission to Japan. Mar 11th, 1981, Nicholas II is attacked in Japan by a rouge policeman, who slashed his forehead. He has headaches from then on and prejudiced him against the Japanese. Couple of yrs later, Alexander III falls ill and dies at the age of 49. Nicholas II was not yet prepared to govern Russia. A week later Nicholas marries Alix of Hesse, a German princess. May 26th, 1896. On the day of his coronation, there was a stampede in the crowd to receive royal gifts and 1500 people died as a result. Nicholas was dictated by his wife, who was the real ruler behind the throne.

In Feb 1897, Lenin was captured and sent to exile in Siberia for 3 years. It was not a bad life, he had a servant, and corresponded with political figures across Europe. The exile ended on Jan 1st, 1900. He starts travelling again to meet Marxists.

Nicholas was dealing with Kaiser Wilhelm, who had unified Germany in 1871, and Emperor Meiji who had industrialized Japan from 1868. The first battle with Japan is in 1904. Japan won the battle, and this caused a revolution in Russia in 1905 (Jan 22nd). Morale was low after the defeat, many lives had been lost, factories weren't paying properly and there were general shortages. The soldiers organized themselves and demanded reform.

The response was brutal. Tsarist forces opened fire, in what came to be known as the Bloody Sunday. Nicholas's reputation was damaged forever, and he retreated from public life to his palace near St Petersburg. The armed forces remained loyal to the Tsar.

In Sep 1905, a peace treaty was brokered with Japan by US Prez Teddy Roosevelt. A Parliament, called the Duma, was set up in response of the popular demand of revolutionaries, but it was flawed from the beginning. Nicholas could veto any and all legislation. Lenin viewed 1905 as a lost opportunity. They weren't organized enough to take control of the country.

Lenin meets a Georgian called Loseb Dzhugashvili, also known as Stalin. Stalin quickly became Lenin's handyman. Meanwhile Nicholas II meets Rasputin. Rasputin was credited with healing Nicholas II's son Alexei, from hemophilia. Rasputin was invited to live at the royal palace, and this caused a scandal in Russia. His presence was kept a secret. But then letters between him and the Tsarina became public, which were very passionate in nature.

Feb 1st, 1913, was 300 years of the Romanov rule. celebrations were planned. But on June 28th, 1914, Archduke Ferdinand was killed in Sarajevo. WW I starts. The Russian army had motivated officers, but demotivated troops. There were no rifles or boots. They were told to pick equipment from the corpse in front of them. There were many desertions and officers being murdered. Nicholas II put himself in charge of military strategy, which meant that Rasputin and the Tsarina were effectively in charge.

Russian Army was on the brink of defeat against the Germans. On Dec 16th, 1916, the other autocrats of the Romanov family revolted against Rasputin's influence on Alix. He was accused of being a German spy. and nobody knew that he was at the court to heal Alexei. He was found dead, floating in the river.

Soon the revolutionary fervor increased, civil unrest broke out In St Petersburg (which was thought to be too German a name, and Russia was losing the war against Germany), and reached a tipping point when on Mar 17th, 1914, Tsar Nicholas II was forced to step down. 2 factions fought for power, council of workers and soldiers (Called the Petrograd Soviet) led by Leon Trotsky as a member, and the Russian Provisional Govt, formed by ministers serving under the Czar. They moved the Romanov family to Siberia for safekeeping.

The Provisional Govt wanted to continue the war with Russia, but they couldn't even supply bread to the housewives. The people were dissatisfied. Lenin was in Zurich at the time and rushed back to Russia. Germany offered safe passage to Lenin to get to Russia as Lenin was against the war.

On Apr 17th, 1917, Lenin landed in St Petersburg. Lenin starts his propaganda about a vision of Soviet Russia where everyone who was at the top, would now be at the bottom. News emerged that he had accepted money from the Germans and was declared a traitor. He had to retreat to Finland. Oct 31st, 1917, Lenin returns and takes over the Railway station and post office of St Petersburg. Lenin correctly deduced the weakness of the Provisional Govt, who was powerless. The Bolsheviks start a civil war that lasts until 1922. The Oct revolution had begun, and it was all because of Lenin. The Soviet party membership grew from 20,000 in 1917 to 1.3 MM in 1921. The entire political and rich class was brutally murdered. The army and the navy sided with the Bolsheviks and murdered their own officers.

Lenin ends the war with Germany. He unleashes Red terror across Soviet Russia. On July 17th, 1918, The Romanov family was murdered. Nicholas's mother escaped with other members of the extended Romanov family. By 1922, the Bolsheviks won the civil war. Soviet Union is established. Trotsky created the red army from the disillusioned deserters. Lenin consolidated all power in himself and started abusing it. Lenin died on Jan 21st, 1924, from strokes. Stalin took power.