1920s: After the Revolution of 1917, Nicholas II, sets up a constitution and a parliament. However, his repressive government quickly ceases offering new freedoms to Russian citizens. This leads to the civil war in 1918. This civil war between the Bolsheviks, or "Reds," who espoused socialist views, and the Czarists, or "White Czars," who favored Russia's old authoritarian regimes, ends in 1920. Believing violence to be necessary to establishing socialism, the Reds gain control, setting up the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. The country remains rife with conflict between the Czarists and the Reds, the two primary political groups.

1990s: Though hard-line socialism initially held great promise for a country rife with internal conflict and widespread poverty, it has not succeeded in eliminating Russia's troubles. Repressive and corrupt government activities continue, breeding distrust within and among the Soviet nations, now known as the Russian Federation. While liberal...