In 1915, the Tsar took personal control of the Russian Army, and moved to the Army headquarters. This was a mistake. Not only did he not improve the situation, he began to be blamed for it. The fact that he was not near the government also meant that his wife Queen Alexandra was left in charge. Whenever the Duma tried to warn her that the people were angry, she would say they were lying, so she would ignore them. She even ignored a report by the secret police, the Okhrana, which said that a revolution might happen if things did not get better for ordinary people.
The first revolution began with a series of strikes in early February 1917. People in food queues in Petrograd, began a demonstration. They were joined by thousands of women, who left the fabrics factories where they worked. The strike spread through the capital. By February 25, most of St. Petersburg's factories had to close.
On the evening of February 25, Nicholas II sent the chief of the army in Petrograd a telegram. It told him to use his soldiers to stop the strikes. The army chief did that, but the soldiers joined the workers instead of stopping them. The police also joined them. The government's power collapsed.
On March 15, Nicholas abdicated. The control of Russia was given to a socialist provisional (temporary) government.
After the February Revolution, the Provisional Government was challenged by a large group of workers in St. Petersburg - the Petrograd Soviet. The Government leader, Alexander Kerensky, tried to improve things by allowing freedom of speech and letting political prisoners go, but people were becoming more unhappy. There was not enough food. Wages went down. The national debt grew to 10 million rubles.
Vladimir Lenin arrived in Petrograd in April 1917. He was a Communist while the provisional government was Socialist. He had been exiled to Switzerland by the Tsar, but the Provisional Government had allowed him to come back. He began to lead a Communist group called the Bolsheviks.
In July, the Bolsheviks spent four days demonstrating against the Government. The military attacked them. Lenin was forced to escape to Finland until August, when the Bolsheviks were asked to help defend the government against a takeover by the army. The result of this was that their reputation improved. The government gave them weapons.
The Provisional Government's reputation kept getting worse as time went on. The Bolsheviks' reputation got better because they refused to work with them until both sides could compromise.
On October 10, the Bolshevik's Central Committee voted to start a revolution. One began in Estonia on October 23. Another started in St. Petersburg two days later. This time the revolution was mostly peaceful. The Bolsheviks' Red Army took over many government buildings without a fight - only two people were killed. It ended with the takeover of the Tsar's old Winter Palace on the morning of October 26, when the Provisional Government was arrested.
The Soviets took power and formed a Congress (a new Government) which began on October 25. Some members who were not Bolsheviks walked out during its first few meetings, but this made little difference to its decisions. The people who left were taunted by Leon Trotsky on their way out. He told them to go "where you belong... the dustbin of history!" All parties who opposed the Bolsheviks were eventually broken up, and their leaders were arrested.
The Congress began to get rid of private property. This meant that all land and money was to be owned by the people, and control of factories was given to their workers.
Several countries that had been in the Russian Empire before the Revolution, such as Estonia and the Ukraine, had been asking for independence since February. As the new government formed they declared independence, and were allowed it.
In Russia, the revolution was severely challenged by countries that were not Communist and by the invading White Armies. In July 1918, countries including the United States, the United Kingdom and France sent more than 15 armies to fight the Bolsheviks. The ex-Tsar and his family were shot to stop them from being freed by the White Armies. In order to win the war, Lenin began a plan to divert food and supplies to the Communist Army. The plan worked. The Bolsheviks won the war, but the lack of food meant that between 3 and 10 million people died of hunger.
The Third Russian Revolution was an anarchist revolution against the Bolsheviks and the White Army. It lasted from 1918 to 1922.
Some European countries recognized the Soviet Union as a proper country in the early 1920s. The United States refused to until 1933.
Baguette
Baguettes are long thin of bread popular in France, but now common in many other countries. Usually, they are made of white bread. Baguettes usually have a hard crust on the outside but soft white bread on the inside.
French traditions say that bread may only contain the following four things: flour, water, yeast and salt. Anything containing more than those things must not be called bread.
A baguette is about 5-6 cm wide, 3 to 4 cm high, and about 65 cm long. Such a baguette usually weighs about 250 grams. It is common to dip the bread into olive oil when it is eaten.
The baguette is thought as to have come from France, but it actually came from Vienna. In the middle of the nineteenth century, steam ovens had just been brought into use. This allowed loaves to be made with a crispy crust and the white centre, similar to today's baguettes.
Later, in 1920, a law was passed that did not let bakers work before 4am. This made it impossible to make a larger loaf in time for their customers' breakfasts. The longer, thinner baguette helped solve this problem because it could be prepared and baked much faster. However, since the French had been making long thin loaves for a long time, what exactly was invented in 1920? It seems to be just the use of the word "baguette" for those thin loaves.
Outside France, the baguette is also called a 'French stick'. It is a loaf of bread, up to a metre long but only about four to five centimetres in diameter. The baguette is a symbol of France.
Baguettes are eaten as a sandwich cut in half lengthwise. They are also eaten for breakfast (usually with jam or chocolate spread).
A loaf the same length as a baguette but thicker (about 8-10 centimetres diameter) is known as 'pain'. A thin version of the baguette is called 'ficelle'.
Even in France there is a difference between a traditional baguette and a 'supermarket' baguette.
Baguette has the same texture as the Greek bread Tsoureki.
Barometer
A barometer is an instrument used to measure air pressure. The "barometer" measures air pressure in various kinds of units including hectopascals (hPa).
There are various types of "barometers" such as the water barometer, aneroid barometer, and the mercury barometer. The mercury barometer, the earliest barometer, was created by an Italian mathematician named Evangelista Torricelli in 1643.
They are used for measuring altitude, or height above the ground, such as the height of a mountain, and they were often used to measure altitude aboard a hot air balloon. Barometers are also used in modern aviation. Miners sometimes use them to determine the depth of a mine. The most used purpose of the barometer was measuring air pressure. This helps meteorologists in predicting weather.
A barograph is a device which records barometric readings on paper.
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish telecommunications company with its main office in Espoo, a suburb of Helsinki.
The company began in 1865 as a wood pulp mill in Finland and began making paper. The paper was sold to Russia, the UK, and France. The company merged with the Finnish Rubber Company which wanted to use its hydroelectricity plant. After World War Two, Nokia bought a large part of the Finnish Cable Works. In 1967 the three companies joined to form the Nokia Group.