Timeline of Russian history

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a timeline of Russian history. To read about the background to these events, see History of Russia. See also the list of leaders of Russia.

This timeline is incomplete; some important events may be missing. Please help add to it.

[edit] 9th century

Year	Date	Event
862		Varangian leader Rurik gained the control of Ladoga and built the Holmgard settlement in Novgorod.
879		Rurik died. He was succeeded by Oleg, a relative, possibly his brother-in-law.
882		Oleg moved the capital from Novgorod to Kiev.

[edit] 10th century

Year	Date	Event
907		Rus'-Byzantine War (907): Oleg led an army to the walls of Constantinople.
		Rus'-Byzantine War (907): A Rus'-Byzantine Treaty allowed Rus' merchants to enter the city under guard.
912		Oleg died and was succeeded by Igor, who may have been Rurik's son.
941	May	Rus'-Byzantine War (941): A Rus' army landed at Bithynia.
	September	Rus'-Byzantine War (941): The Byzantines destroyed the Rus' fleet.
945		Rus'-Byzantine War (941): Another Rus'-Byzantine Treaty was signed. Rus' renounced some Byzantine territories.
		Igor died; his wife Olga became regent of Kievan Rus' for their son, Sviatoslav I.
963		Olga's regency ended.
965		Sviatoslav conquered Khazaria.
968		Siege of Kiev (968): The Pechenegs besieged Kiev. A Rus' general created the illusion of a much larger army, and frightened them away.
969	July 8	Sviatoslav moved the capital from Kiev to Pereyaslavets in Bulgaria.
971		The Byzantine Empire captured Pereyaslavets. The capital moved back to Kiev.
972		Sviatoslav was killed by the Pechenegs during an expedition on their territory. His son Yaropolk I succeeded him.
980		Yaropolk was betrayed and murdered by his brother Vladimir I, The Great, who succeeded him as Prince of Kiev.
981		Vladimir conquered Red Ruthenia from the Poles.
988		Christianization of Kievan Rus': Vladimir destroyed the pagan idols of Kiev and urged the city's inhabitants to baptize themselves in the Dnieper River.

[edit] 11th century

Year	Date	Event
1015		Vladimir died. He was succeeded by Sviatopolk I, who may have been his biological son by the rape of Yaropolk's wife. Sviatopolk ordered the murder of three of Vladimir's younger sons.
1016		Yaroslav I, another of Sviatopolk's brothers, led an army against him and defeated him, forcing him to flee to Poland.
1017		Yaroslav issued the first Russian code of law, the Russkaya Pravda.
1018		Polish Expedition to Kiev: Sviatopolk led the Polish army into Rus'. Red Ruthenia returned to Polish possession.
	August 14	Polish Expedition to Kiev: The Polish army captured Kiev; Yaroslav fled to Novgorod.
1019		Yaroslav defeated Sviatopolk and returned to the princedom of Kiev. He granted autonomy to Novgorod as a reward for her prior loyalty. Sviatopolk died.
1024		Rus'-Byzantine War (1024): A Rus fleet was annihilated by the Byzantines near the island of Lemnos.
1030		Yaroslav reconquered Red Ruthenia from the Poles.
1043		Rus'-Byzantine War (1043): Yaroslav led an unsuccessful naval raid on Constantinople. According to the peace settlement, Yaroslav's son Vsevolod I married a daughter of the Byzantine emperor Constantine Monomachos.
1054		Yaroslav died. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Iziaslav I.
1068		Iziaslav was overthrown in a popular uprising and forced to flee to Poland.
1069		Iziaslav led the Polish army back into Kiev and reestablished himself on the throne.
1073		Two of Iziaslav's brothers, Sviatoslav II and Vsevolod I, overthrew him; the former became prince of Kiev.
1076	December 27	Sviatoslav died. Vsevolod I succeeded him, but traded the princedom of Kiev to Iziaslav in exchange for Chernigov.
1078		Iziaslav died. The throne of Kiev went to Vsevolod.
1093	April 13	Vsevolod died. Kiev and Chernigov went to Iziaslav's illegitimate son, Sviatopolk II.
	May 26	Battle of the Stugna River: A Russian army attacked the Cumans at the Stugna River and was defeated.

[edit] 12th century

Year	Date	Event
1113	April 16	Sviatopolk died. He was succeeded by Vsevolod's son, his cousin, Vladimir II Monomakh.
1125	May 19	Vladimir died. His eldest son, Mstislav I, succeeded him.
1132	April 14	Mstislav died. His brother Yaropolk II followed him as prince of Kiev.
1136		Novgorod expelled the prince appointed for them by Kiev and vastly circumscribed the authority of the office.

[edit] 13th century

Year	Date	Event
1223		Battle of the Kalka River: The warriors of Russia first encountered the Mongol armies of Genghis Khan.
1227		Boyar intrigues forced Mstislav, the prince of Novgorod, to give the throne to his son-in-law Andrew II of Hungary.
1236		Alexander Nevsky was summoned by the Novgorodians to become Grand Prince of Novgorod and, as their military leader, to defend their northwest lands from Swedish and German invaders.
1237	December	Mongol invasion of Rus: Batu Khan set fire to Moscow and slaughtered and enslaved its civilian inhabitants.
1240	July 15	Battle of the Neva: The Novgorodian army defeated a Swedish invasion force at the confluence of the Izhora and Neva Rivers.
1242	April 5	Battle of the Ice: The army of Novgorod defeated the invading Teutonic Knights on the frozen surface of Lake Peipus.
1263	November 14	Nevsky died. His appanages were divided within his family; his youngest son Daniel became the first Prince of Moscow. His younger brother Yaroslav of Tver became the Grand Prince of Tver and of Vladimir and appointed deputies to run the Principality of Moscow during Daniel's minority.

[edit] 14th century

Year	Date	Event
1303	March 5	Daniel died. His eldest son Yury succeeded him as Prince of Moscow.
1317		Yury married the sister of Uzbeg Khan. Uzbeg deposed the Grand Prince of Vladimir and appointed Yury to that office.
1322		Dmitriy the Terrible Eyes, the son of the last Grand Prince of Vladimir, convinced Uzbeg Khan that Yury had been stealing from the khan's tribute money. He was reappointed to the princedom of Vladimir.
1325	November 21	Yury was murdered by Dmitriy. His younger brother Ivan I Kalita succeeded him.
1327	August 15	The ambassador of the Golden Horde was trapped and burned alive during an uprising in the Grand Duchy of Tver.
1328		Ivan led a Horde army against the Grand Prince of Tver, also the Grand Prince of Vladimir. Ivan was allowed to replace him in the latter office.
1340	March 31	Ivan died. His son Simeon succeeded him both as Grand Prince of Moscow and as Grand Prince of Vladimir
1353		Simeon died. His younger brother Ivan II, The Fair, succeeded him as Grand Prince of Moscow.
1359	November 13	Ivan died. His son, Dmitri Donskoi, succeeded him.
1380	September 8	Battle of Kulikovo: A Russian force defeated a significantly larger Blue Horde army at Kulikovo Field.
1382		The Mongol khan Tokhtamysh reasserted his power by looting and burning Moscow.
1389	May 19	Dmitri died. The throne fell to his son, Vasili I.

[edit] 15th century

Year	Date	Event
1425	February	Vasili died. His son Vasili II, The Blind, succeeded him as Grand Prince of Moscow; his wife Sophia became regent. His younger brother, Yury Dmitrievich, also issued a claim to the throne.
1430		Dmitrievich appealed to the khan of the Golden Horde to support his claim to the throne. Vasili II retained the Duchy of Moscow, but Dmitrievich was given the Duchy of Dmitrov.
1432		Vasili II led an army to capture Dmitrov. His army was defeated and he was forced to flee to Kolomna. Dmitrievich arrived in Moscow and declared himself the Grand Prince. Vasili II was pardoned and made mayor of Kolomna.
1433		The exodus of Muscovite boyars to Vasili II's court in Kolomna persuaded Dmitrievich to return Moscow to his nephew and move to Galich.
1434		Vasily II burned Galich.
	March 16	The army of Yury Dmitrievich defeated the army of Vasily II. The latter fled to Nizhny Novgorod.
	April 1	Dmitrievich arrived in Moscow and again declared himself the Grand Prince.
	July 5	Dmitrievich died. His eldest son Vasili Kosoy, the Cross-Eyed, succeeded him as Grand Prince.
1435		Dmitrievich's second son, Dmitry Shemyaka, allied himself with Vasili II. Vasili the Cross-Eyed was expelled from the Kremlin and blinded. Vasili II returned to the throne of the Grand Prince.
1438		Russo-Kazan Wars: The khan of the recently established Khanate of Kazan led an army towards Moscow.
1445	July 7	Battle of Suzdal: The Russian army suffered a great defeat at the hands of the Tatars of Kazan. Vasili II was taken prisoner; operation of the government fell to Dmitry Shemyaka.
	December	Vasili II was ransomed back to Russia.
1446		Shemyaka had Vasili II blinded and exiled to Uglich, and had himself declared the Grand Prince.
1450		The boyars of Moscow expelled Shemyaka from the Kremlin and recalled Vasili II to the throne.
1452		Shemyaka was forced to flee to the Novgorod Republic.
1453		Shemyaka was poisoned by Muscovite agents.
1462	March 27	Vasili II died. His son Ivan III, The Great, succeeded him as Grand Prince.
1463		Russia annexed the Duchy of Yaroslavl.
1471	July 14	Battle of Shelon: A Muscovite army defeated a numerically superior Novgorodian force.
1474		Russia annexed the Rostov Duchy.
1476		Ivan stopped paying tribute to the Great Horde.
1478	January 14	The Novgorod Republic surrendered to the authority of Moscow.
1480	November 11	Great stand on the Ugra river: Ivan's forces deterred Akhmat Khan of the Great Horde from invading Russia.
1485		Ivan annexed the Grand Duchy of Tver.
1497		Ivan issued a legal code, the Sudebnik, which standardized the Russian law, expanded the role of the criminal justice system, and limited the ability of the serfs to leave their masters.

[edit] 16th century

Year	Date	Event
1505	October 27	Ivan died. He was succeeded as Grand Duke of Russia by his son, Vasili III.
1507		Russo-Crimean Wars: The Crimean Khanate raided the Russian towns of Belyov and Kozelsk.
1510		With the approval of most of the local nobility, Vasili arrived in the Pskov Republic and declared it dissolved.
1517		The last Grand Prince of the Ryazan Principality was captured and imprisoned in Moscow.
1533	December 3	Vasili died; his son Ivan IV, The Terrible, succeeded him. His wife Elena Glinskaya became regent.
1538	April 4	Glinskaya died. She was succeeded as regent by Prince Vasily Nemoy.
1547	January 16	An elaborate ceremony crowned Ivan the first tsar of Russia.
1552	August 22	Siege of Kazan (1552): Russian armed forces arrived at Kazan.
	October 2	Siege of Kazan (1552): The Russian army breached the walls of Kazan.
	October 13	Siege of Kazan (1552): The civilian population of Kazan was massacred, the city occupied.
1556		Russia conquered and annexed the Astrakhan Khanate.
1558		Livonian War: Ivan demanded a back-breaking tribute from the Bishopric of Dorpat. The Bishop sent diplomats to Russia to renegotiate the amount; Ivan expelled them and invaded and occupied the Bishopric.
1560	August 2	Battle of Ergeme: Ivan's army crushed the forces of the Livonian Order.
1561	November 28	The Livonian Order agreed to the Union of Wilno, under which the Livonian Confederation was partitioned between Lithuania, Sweden and Denmark. Lithuania and Sweden sent troops to liberate their new territories from Russian possession.
1565	February	Ivan established the Oprichnina, a Russian territory ruled directly by the tsar.
1569	July 1	The Union of Lublin was signed. Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were merged into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; Poland began aiding Lithuania in its war against Russia.
1572		The Oprichnina was abolished.
1581	November 16	Ivan killed his eldest son.
1582	January 15	Livonian War: The Peace of Jam Zapolski ended Polish-Lithuanian participation in the war. Russia gave up its claims to Livonia and the city of Polatsk.
	October 23	Battle of Chuvash Cape: Russian soldiers dispersed the armed forces of the Siberia Khanate from its capital, Qashliq.
1583		Livonian War: The war was ended with the Treaty of Plussa. Narva and the Gulf of Finland coast went to Sweden.
1584	March 18	Ivan died of mercury poisoning. The throne fell to his mentally retarded son Feodor I; his son-in-law Boris Godunov took de facto charge of government.
1590	January 18	Russo-Swedish War (1590–1595): The Treaty of Plussa expired. Russian troops laid siege to Narva.
	February 25	Russo-Swedish War (1590–1595): A Swedish governor on the disputed territory surrendered to the Russians.
1591	May 15	Dimitriy Ivanovich, Ivan the Terrible's third and youngest son, died in exile from a stab wound to the throat.
1595	May 18	Russo-Swedish War (1590–1595): The Treaty of Tyavzino was signed. Ingria went to Russia.
1598	January 7	Feodor died with no children.
	February 21	A zemsky sobor elected Godunov the first non-Rurikid tsar of Russia.

[edit] 17th century

[edit] 18th century

Year	Date	Event
1604	October	False Dmitriy I, a man claiming to be the murdered Dmitriy Ivanovich, invaded Russia.
1605	April 13	Boris died. His son Feodor II was pronounced tsar.
	July 1	A group of boyars defected in support of False Dmitriy, seized control of the Kremlin, and arrested Feodor.
	June 20	False Dmitriy and his army arrived in Moscow.
	July 20	Feodor and his mother were strangled.
	July 21	False Dmitriy was crowned tsar.
1606	May 8	False Dmitriy married a Catholic, inflaming suspicions that he meant to convert Russia to Catholicism.
	May 17	Conservative boyars led by Vasili Shuisky stormed the Kremlin and shot False Dmitriy to death during his escape.
	May 19	Shuisky's allies declared him Tsar Vasili IV.
1607		False Dmitriy II, another claimant to the identity of Dmitriy Ivanovich, obtained financial and military support from a group of Polish magnates.
1609	February 28	Vasili ceded border territory to Sweden in exchange for military aid against the government of False Dmitriy II.
	September	Polish-Russian War (1609-1618): The Polish king Sigismund III led an army into Russia.
1610	July 4	Battle of Klushino: Seven thousand Polish cavalrymen defeated a vastly superior Russian force at Klushino.
	July 19	Vasili was overthrown. A group of nobles, the Seven Boyars, replaced him at the head of the government.
	July 27	Polish-Russian War (1609-1618): A truce was established. The boyars promised to recognize Sigismund's son and heir Władysław as tsar, conditional on severe limits to his power and his conversion to Orthodoxy.
	August	Polish-Russian War (1609-1618): Sigismund rejected the boyars' conditions.
	December	Hermogenes, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, urged the Russian people to rise against the Poles.
	December 11	False Dmitriy II was shot and beheaded by one of his entourage.
1612	November 1	Polish-Russian War (1609-1618): Russian nationalists rising against the Poles recaptured the Kremlin.
1613		Ingrian War: Sweden invaded Russia.
	February 21	A zemsky sobor elected Michael Romanov, a grandson of Ivan the Terrible's brother-in-law, the tsar of Russia.
1617	February 27	Ingrian War: The Treaty of Stolbovo ended the war. Kexholm, Ingria, Estonia and Livonia went to Sweden.
1618	December 11	Polish-Russian War (1609-1618): The Truce of Deulino ended the war. Russia ceded the city of Smolensk and the Czernihów Voivodeship to Poland.
1619	February 13	Feodor Romanov, Michael's father, was released from Polish prison and allowed to return to Russia.
1632	October	Smolensk War: With the expiration of the Truce of Deulino, a Russian army was sent to lay siege to Smolensk.
1634	March 1	Smolensk War: The Russian army, surrounded, was forced to surrender.
	June 14	Smolensk War: The Treaty of Polyanovka was signed, ending the war. Poland retained Smolensk, but Władysław renounced his claim to the Russian throne.
1645	July 13	Michael died. His son, Alexis I, succeeded him.
1648	January 25	Khmelnytsky Uprising: A Polish magnate, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, persuaded the Cossacks of the Zaporizhian Sich to join him against the king.
	June 1	Salt Riot: Upset over the introduction of a salt tax, the townspeople launched a rebellion in Moscow.
	June 11	Salt Riot: A group of nobles demanded a zemsky sobor on behalf of the rebellion.
	July 3	Salt Riot: Many of the rebellion's leaders were executed.
	December 25	Khmelnytsky Uprising: Khmelnytsky entered the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.
1649	January	A zemsky sobor ratified a new legal code, the Sobornoye Ulozheniye.
1653		Raskol: Nikon, the Patriarch of Moscow, reformed Russian liturgy to align with the rituals of the Greek Church.
1654		Khmelnytsky Uprising: Under the Treaty of Pereyaslav, Left-bank Ukraine, the territory of the Zaporozhian Host, became a Russian protectorate.
	July	Russo-Polish War (1654–1667): The Russian army invaded Poland.
1655		Deluge (history): Sweden invaded the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
	July 3	Russo-Polish War (1654–1667): The Russian army captured Vilnius.
	July 25	Deluge (history): The voivode of Poznań surrendered to the Swedish invaders.
	November 2	Russia negotiated a ceasefire with Poland.
1656	July	Russo–Swedish War (1656–1658): Russian reserves invaded Swedish Ingria.
1658	February 26	Dano-Swedish War (1657-1658): The Treaty of Roskilde ended Sweden's war with Denmark, allowing her to shift her troops to the eastern conflicts.
	September 16	Russo-Polish War (1654–1667): The Treaty of Hadiach established a military alliance between Poland and the Zaporozhian Host, and promised the latter a separate state within the Commonwealth.
	December 28	Russo–Swedish War (1656–1658): The Treaty of Valiesar established a peace. The conquered Ingrian territories were ceded to Russia for three years.
1660	April 23	Deluge (history): The Treaty of Oliva ended the conflict between Poland and Sweden.
1661		Russo-Polish War (1654–1667): Polish forces recaptured Vilnius.
		The Treaty of Valiesar expired. Russia returned Ingria to the Swedish Empire by the Treaty of Cardis.
1662	July 25	Copper Riot: In the early morning, a group of Muscovites marched to Kolomenskoye and demanded punishment for the government ministers who had debased Russia's copper currency. On their arrival, they were countered by the military; a thousand were hanged or drowned. The rest were exiled.
1665		Lubomirski's Rokosz: A Polish nobleman launched a rokosz (rebellion) against the king.
		The pro-Turkish Cossack noble Petro Doroshenko defeated his pro-Russian adversaries in the Right-bank Ukraine.
1667		Raskol: A church council anathematized the Old Believers, who rejected Nikon's reforms.
	January 30	Russo-Polish War (1654–1667): The Treaty of Andrusovo ended the war. Poland agreed to cede the Smoleńsk and Czernihów Voivodships and acknowledged Russian control over the Left-bank Ukraine.
1669		Doroshenko signed a treaty which recognized his state as a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire.
1670		The Cossack Stenka Razin began a rebellion against the Russian government.
1671		Razin was captured, tortured, and quartered in Red Square on the Lobnoye Mesto.
1674		The Cossacks of the Right-bank Ukraine elected the pro-Russian Ivan Samoylovych, Hetman of the Left-bank Ukraine, to replace Doroshenko and become the Hetman of a unified Ukraine.
1676		Russo-Turkish War (1676–1681): The Ottoman army joined Doroshenko's forces in an attack on the Left-bank city of Chyhyryn.
	January 29	Alexis died. His son Feodor III became tsar.
1680		Russo-Crimean Wars: The Crimean invasions of Russia ended.
1681	January 3	Russo-Turkish War (1676–1681): The war ended with the Treaty of Bakhchisarai. The Russo-Turkish border was settled at the Dnieper River.
1682		Feodor abolished the mestnichestvo, an ancient, unmeritocratic system of making political appointments.
	April 14	Avvakum, the most prominent leader of the Old Believer movement, was burned at the stake.
	April 27	Feodor died with no children. Peter I, The Great, Alexis's son by his second wife Natalia Naryshkina, was declared tsar. His mother became regent.
	May 17	Moscow Uprising of 1682: Streltsy regiments belonging to the faction of Alexis's first wife, Maria Miloslavskaya, took over the Kremlin, executed Naryshkina's brothers, and declared Miloslavskaya's invalid son Ivan V the "senior tsar," with Peter remaining on the throne as the junior. Miloslavkaya's eldest daughter Sophia Alekseyevna became regent.
1687	May	Crimean campaigns: The Russian army launched an invasion against an Ottoman vassal, the Crimean Khanate.
	June 17	Crimean campaigns: Faced with a burned steppe incapable of feeding their horses, the Russians turned back.
1689	June	Fyodor Shaklovity, the head of the Streltsy Department, persuaded Alekseyevna to proclaim herself tsarina and attempted to ignite a new rebellion in her support. The streltsy instead defected in support of Peter.
	October 11	Shaklovity was executed.
1696	January 29	Ivan died.
	April 23	Second Azov campaign: The Russian army began its deployment to an important Ottoman fortress, Azov.
	May 27	Second Azov campaign: The Russian navy arrived at the sea and blockaded Azov.
	July 19	Second Azov campaign: The Ottoman garrison surrendered.
1698	June 6	Streltsy Uprising: Approximately four thousand streltsy overthrew their commanders and headed to Moscow, where they meant to demand the enthroning of the exiled Sophia Alekseyevna.
	June 18	Streltsy Uprising: The rebels were defeated.
Year	Date	Event
1700	August 19	Great Northern War: Russia declared war on Sweden.
	October 16	Adrian, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, died. Peter prevented the election of a successor.

1707	October 8	Bulavin Rebellion: A small band of Don Cossacks killed a Russian noble searching their territory for tax fugitives.
1708	July 7	Bulavin Rebellion: After a series of devastating military reversals, Bulavin was shot by his former followers.
	December 18	An imperial decree divided Russia into eight guberniyas (governates).
1709	June 28	Battle of Poltava: A decisive Russian military victory over the Swedes at Poltava marked the turning point of the war.
1710	October 14	The Russian guberniyas were divided into lots according to noble population.
	November 20	Russo-Turkish War (1710–1711): Charles XII of Sweden persuaded the Ottoman sultan to declare war on Russia.
1711	February 22	Government reform of Peter I: Peter established the Governing Senate to pass laws in his absence.
	July 21	Russo-Turkish War (1710–1711): Peace was concluded with the Treaty of the Pruth. Russia returned Azov to the Ottoman Empire and demolished the town of Taganrog.
1713	May 8	The Russian capital was moved from Moscow to Saint Petersburg.
	July 17	The Riga Governorate was established on the conquered territory of Swedish Livonia.
		The territory of the Smolensk Governorate was divided between the Moscow and Riga Governorates.
1714	January 15	The northwestern territory of the Kazan Governorate was transferred to the newly established Nizhny Novgorod Governorate.
1715	October 11	Peter demanded that his son, the tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, endorse his reforms or renounce his right to the throne.
1716		Alexei fled to Vienna to avoid military service.
1717	November 22	The Astrakhan Governorate was formed on the southern lands of Kazan Governorate.
		The territory of the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate was reincorporated into the Kazan Governorate.
	December 12	Government reform of Peter I: Peter established collegia, government ministries that superseded the prikazy.
1718	January 31	Alexei returned to Moscow under a promise he would not be harmed.
	February 18	After torture, Alexei publicly renounced the throne and implicated a number of reactionaries in a conspiracy to overthrow his father.
	June 13	Alexei was put on trial for treason.
	June 26	Alexei died after torture in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
1719	May 29	Lots were abolished; the guberniyas were divided instead into provinces, each governed and taxed under a preexisting elected office (the Voyevoda). Provinces were further divided into districts, replacing the old uyezds. The district commissars were to be elected by local gentry.
		The Nizhny Novgorod Governorate was reestablished.
		The Reval Governorate was established on the conquered territory of Swedish Estonia.
1721	January 25	Peter established the Holy Synod, a body of ten clergymen chaired by a secular official, that was to head the Russian Orthodox Church in lieu of the Patriarch of Moscow.
	August 30	Great Northern War: The Treaty of Nystad ended the war. Sweden ceded Estonia, Livonia and Ingria to Russia.
	October 22	Peter was declared Emperor.
1722		Peter introduced the Table of Ranks, which granted the privileges of nobility based on state service.
	July	Russo-Persian War (1722-1723): A Russian military expedition sailed in support of the independence of two Christian kingdoms, Kartli and Armenia.
1723	September 12	Russo-Persian War (1722-1723): The Persian shah signed a peace treaty ceding the cities of Derbent and Baku and the provinces of Shirvan, Guilan, Mazandaran and Astrabad to the Russian Empire.
1725	January 28	Peter died of urinary problems. He failed to name a successor; one of Peter's closest advisers, Aleksandr Menshikov, convinced the Imperial Guard to declare in favor of Peter's wife Catherine I.
1726		The Smolensk Governorate was reestablished.
	February 8	Catherine established an advisory body, the Supreme Privy Council.
1727		Catherine established the Belgorod and Novgorod Governorates and adjusted the borders of several others. Districts were abolished; uyezds were reestablished.
	May 17	Catherine died.
	May 18	According to Catherine's wishes the eleven-year-old Peter II, the son of Alexei Petrovich and grandson of Peter the Great, became tsar. The Supreme Privy Council was to hold power during his minority.
	September 9	The conservative members of the Supreme Privy Council expelled its most powerful member, the liberal Menshikov.
1730	January 30	Peter died of smallpox.
	February 1	The Supreme Privy Council offered the throne to Anna Ivanovna, the daughter of Ivan V, on the conditions that the Council retain the powers of war and peace and taxation, among others, and that she never marry or appoint an heir.
	March 4	Anna tore up the terms of her accession and dissolved the Supreme Privy Council.
1736	May 20	Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739): The Russian army captured the Ottoman fortifications at Perekop.
	June 19	Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739): The Russians captured Azov.
1737	July	Russo-Turkish War (1735-1739): Austria joined the war on the Russian side.
1739	August 21	Russo-Turkish War (1735-1739): Austria agreed by the Treaty of Belgrade to end its participation in the war.
	September 18	Russo-Turkish War (1735-1739): The Treaty of Nissa ended the war. Russia gave up its claims on Crimea and Moldavia and its navy was barred from the Black Sea.
1740	October 17	Anna died of kidney disease. Her will left the throne to her adopted infant son, Ivan VI.
	October 18	Anna's lover, Ernst Johann von Biron, was declared regent.
	November 8	Biron was arrested on the orders of his rival, the Count Burkhard Christoph von Munnich. Ivan's biological mother, Anna Leopoldovna, replaced Biron as regent.
1741	August 8	Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743): Sweden declared war on Russia.
	November 25	Elizabeth, the youngest daughter of Peter the Great, led the Preobrazhensky to the Winter Palace to overthrow the regency of Anna Leopoldovna and install herself as empress.
	December 2	Ivan was imprisoned in the Daugavgriva fortress.
1742	September 4	Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743): Encircled by the Russians at Helsinki, the Swedish army surrendered.
1743	August 7	Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743): The Treaty of Åbo was signed, ending the war. Russia relinquished most of the conquered territory, keeping only the lands east of the Kymi River. In exchange Adolf Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp, the uncle of the Russian heir to the throne, was to become King of Sweden.
1744		The Vyborg Governorate was established on conquered Swedish territories.
1756	August 29	Seven Years' War: The Kingdom of Prussia invaded the Austrian protectorate of Saxony.
1757	May 1	Diplomatic Revolution: Under the Second Treaty of Versailles, Russia joined the Franco-Austrian military alliance.
	May 17	Seven Years' War: Russian troops entered the war.
1761	December 25	The miracle of the House of Brandenburg: Elizabeth died. Her nephew, Peter III, became tsar.
1762	May 5	Seven Years' War: The Treaty of Saint Petersburg ended Russian participation in the war at no territorial gain.
	July 17	Peter was overthrown by the Imperial Guard and replaced with his wife, Catherine II, The Great, on her orders.
1764	July 5	A group of soldiers attempted to release the imprisoned Ivan VI; he was murdered.
1767	October 13	Repnin Sejm: Four Polish senators who opposed the policies of the Russian ambassador Nicholas Repnin were arrested by Russian troops and imprisoned in Kaluga.
1768	February 27	Repnin Sejm: Delegates of the Sejm adopted a treaty ensuring future Russian influence in Polish internal politics.
	February 29	Polish nobles established the Bar Confederation in order to end Russian influence in their country.
	September 25	Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774): The Ottoman sultan declared war on Russia.
1771	September 15	Plague Riot: A crowd of rioters entered Red Square, broke into the Kremlin and destroyed the Chudov Monastery.
	September 17	Plague Riot: The army suppressed the riot.
1772	August 5	The first partition of Poland was announced. Poland lost thirty percent of its territory, which was divided between Prussia, Austria, and Russia.
1773		Pugachev's Rebellion: The army of the Cossack Yemelyan Pugachev attacked and occupied Samara.
	September 18	A confederated sejm was forced to ratify the first partition of Poland.
1774	July 21	Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774): The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca was signed. The portion of the Yedisan region east of the Southern Bug river, the Kabarda region in the Caucasus, and several Crimean ports, went to Russia. The Crimean Khanate received independence from the Ottoman Empire, which also declared Russia the protector of Christians on its territory.
	September 14	Pugachev's Rebellion: Upset with the rebellion's bleak outlook, Pugachev's officers delivered him to the Russians.
1783	April 8	The Crimean Khanate was incorporated into the Russian Empire.
	July 24	Threatened by the Persian and Ottoman Empires, the kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti signed the Treaty of Georgievsk under which it became a Russian protectorate.
1788		Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792): The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia and imprisoned her ambassador.
	June 27	Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790): The Swedish army playacted a skirmish between themselves and the Russians.
	July 6	Battle of Hogland: The Russian navy dispersed a Swedish invasion fleet near Hogland in the Gulf of Finland.
	October 6	Great Sejm: A confederated sejm was called to restore the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1790	August 14	Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790): The Treaty of Värälä ended the war, with no changes in territory.
1791	May 3	Great Sejm: Poland's Constitution of May 3 was ratified in secret. The new constitution abolished the liberum veto, reducing the power of the nobles and limiting Russia's ability to influence Polish internal politics.
	December 23	Catherine established the Pale of Settlement, an area in European Russia into which Russian Jews were transported.
1792	January 9	Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792): The Treaty of Jassy was signed, ending the war. The Russian border in Yedisan was extended to the Dniester river.
	May 18	Polish-Russian War of 1792: The army of the Targowica Confederation, which opposed the liberal Polish Constitution of May 3, invaded Poland.
1793	January 23	Polish-Russian War of 1792: The second partition of Poland left the country with one-third of its 1772 population.
	November 23	Grodno Sejm: The last sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ratified the second partition.
1794	March 24	Kościuszko Uprising: An announcement by Tadeusz Kościuszko sparked a nationalist uprising in Poland.
	November 4	Battle of Praga: Russian troops captured the Praga borough of Warsaw and massacred its civilian population.
	November 5	Kościuszko Uprising: The uprising ended with the Russian occupation of Warsaw.
1795	September 11	Battle of Krtsanisi: The Persian army demolished the armed forces of Kartl-Kakheti.
	October 24	The third partition of Poland divided up the remainder of its territory.
1796	April	Persian Expedition of 1796: Catherine launched a military expedition to punish Persia for its incursion into the Russian protectorate of Kartl-Kakheti.
	November 5	Catherine suffered a stroke in the bathtub.
	November 6	Catherine died. The throne fell to her son, Paul I.

[edit] 19th century

Year	Date	Event
1801	January 8	Paul authorized the incorporation of Kartl-Kakheti into the Russian empire.
	March 11	Paul was killed in his bed.
	March 23	Paul's son, Alexander I, ascended to the throne.
1802		Alexander established the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD).
1804		Russo-Persian War (1804-1813): Russian forces attacked the Persian settlement of Echmiadzin.
1805		The Ottoman Empire dismissed the pro-Russian hospodars of its vassal states, Wallachia and Moldavia.
	December 26	War of the Third Coalition: The Treaty of Pressburg ceded Austrian possessions in Dalmatia to France.
1806	October	To counter the French presence in Dalmatia, Russia invaded Wallachia and Moldavia.
	December 27	Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812): The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia.
1807	June 14	Battle of Friedland: The Russian army suffered a defeat against the French, suffering twenty thousand dead.
	July 7	The Treaty of Tilsit was signed. Alexander agreed to evacuate Wallachia and Moldavia and ceded the Ionian Islands and Cattaro to the French. The treaty ended Russia's conflict with France; Napoleon promised to aid Russia in conflicts with the Ottoman Empire.
	November 16	Alexander demanded that Sweden close the Baltic Sea to British warships.
1808	February 21	Finnish War: Russian troops crossed the Swedish border and captured Hämeenlinna.
1809	March 29	Diet of Porvoo: The four Estates of Finland swore allegiance to the Russian crown.
	September 17	Finnish War: The Treaty of Fredrikshamn was signed, ending the war and ceding Finland to the Russian Empire.
1810		The first military settlement was established near Klimovichi.
	January 1	Alexander established the State Council, which received the executive powers of the Governing Senate.
	February 20	The Russian government proclaimed the deposition of Solomon II from the throne of Imereti.
1811	March 27	Regional military companies were merged into the Internal Guard.
1812	May 28	Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812): The Treaty of Bucharest ended the war and transferred Bessarabia to Russia.
	June 24	French invasion of Russia (1812): The French army crossed the Neman River into Russia.
	September 14	French invasion of Russia (1812): The French army entered a deserted Moscow, the high-water mark of their invasion.
	December 14	French invasion of Russia (1812): The last French troops were forced off of Russian territory.
1813	October 24	Russo-Persian War (1804-1813): According to the Treaty of Gulistan, the Persian Empire ceded its Transcaucasian territories to Russia.
1815	June 9	Congress of Vienna: The territory of the Duchy of Warsaw was divided between Prussia, Russia, and three newly established states: the Grand Duchy of Posen, the Free City of Kraków and Congress Poland. The latter was a constitutional monarchy with Alexander as its king.
1825	November 19	Alexander died of typhus. The army swore allegiance to his eldest brother, the Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich. Constantine, however, following Alexander's choice of successor, swore allegiance to his younger brother, Nicholas I.
	December 12	Under pressure from Constantine, Nicholas published Alexander's succession manifesto.
	December 14	Decembrist revolt: Three thousand soldiers gathered at the Senate Square in Saint Petersburg, and declared their loyalty to Constantine and to the idea of a Russian constitution. When talk failed, the tsarist army dispersed the demonstrators with artillery, killing at least sixty.
1826		An imperial decree established the Second Section of His Majesty's Own Chancery, concerned with codifying and publishing the law, and the Third Section, which operated as the Empire's secret police.
	July	Nicholas established the office of Chief of Gendarmes, in charge of the Gendarmerie units of the Internal Guard.
	July 16	Russo-Persian War (1826-1828): The Persian army invaded the Russian-owned Talysh Khanate.
1828	February 21	Russo-Persian War (1826-1828) Facing the possibility of a Russian conquest of Tehran, Persia signed the Treaty of Turkmenchay.
	May	The Russian army occupied Wallachia.
	June	Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829): The Russian armed forces crossed into Dobruja, an Ottoman territory.
1829	September 14	Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829): The Treaty of Adrianople was signed, ceding the eastern shore of the Black Sea and the mouth of the Danube to the Russians.
1830	November 29	November Uprising: A group of Polish nationalists attacked Belweder Palace, the seat of the Governor-General.
1831	January 25	November Uprising: An act of the Sejm dethroned Nicholas from the Polish crown.
	January 29	November Uprising: A new government took office in Poland.
	February 4	November Uprising: Russian troops crossed the Polish border.
	September	Battle of Warsaw (1831): The Russian army captured Warsaw, ending the November Uprising.
1836		The Gendarmerie of the Internal Guard was spun off as the Special Corps of Gendarmes.
1852	December	The Ottoman sultan confirmed the supremacy of France and the Catholic Church over Christians in the Holy Land.
1853	July 3	Russia invaded the Ottoman provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia.
	October 4	Crimean War: The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia.
1854	March 28	Crimean War: Britain and France declared war on Russia.
	August	Crimean War: In order to prevent the Austrian Empire entering the war, Russia evacuated Wallachia and Moldavia.
1855	February 18	Nicholas died. His son, Alexander II, became tsar.
1856	March 30	Crimean War: The Treaty of Paris was signed, officially ending the war. The Black Sea was demilitarized. Russia lost territory it had been granted at the mouth of the Danube, abandoned claims to protect Turkish Christians, and lost its influence over the Danubian Principalities.
1857		The last military settlements were disbanded.
1858	May 28	The Treaty of Aigun was signed, pushing the Russo-Chinese border east to the Amur river.
1860	October 18	The Convention of Peking transferred the Ussuri krai from China to Russia.
1861	February 19	Emancipation reform of 1861: Alexander issued a manifesto emancipating the serfs.
1863	January 22	January Uprising: An anti-Russian uprising began in Poland.
1864	January 1	Zemstva were established for the local self-government of Russian citizens.
	May 1	The Russian army began an incursion into the Khanate of Kokand.
	May 21	Caucasian War: Alexander declared the war over.
	August 5	January Uprising: Romuald Traugutt, the dictator of the rebellion, was hanged.
	November 20	Judicial reform of Alexander II: A royal decree introduced new laws unifying and liberalizing the Russian judiciary.
1865	June 17	The Russian army captured Tashkent.
1867		The conquered territories of Central Asia became a separate Guberniya, the Russian Turkestan.
	March 30	Alaska purchase: Russia agreed to the sale of Alaska to the United States of America.
1868		The Khanate of Kokand became a Russian vassal state.
1870		Municipal dumas were established.
1873		The Narodnik rebellion began.
		The Emirate of Bukhara became a Russian protectorate.
	May 18	Khiva was captured by Russian troops.
	August 12	A peace treaty was signed that established the Khanate of Khiva as a quasi-independent Russian protectorate.
1876	March	The Khanate of Kokand was incorporated into the Russian Empire.
	April 20	April Uprising: Bulgarian nationalists attacked the Ottoman police headquarters in Oborishte.
	May	Alexander signed the Ems Ukaz, banning the use of the Ukrainian language in print.
	July 8	A secret treaty prepared for the division of the Balkans between Russia and Austria-Hungary, depending on the outcome of local revolutionary movements.
	December 6	Kazan demonstration: A political demonstration in front of the Kazan Cathedral in Saint Petersburg marked the appearance of the revolutionary group Land and Liberty.
1877	February	The Trial of the 193 occurred, punishing the participants of the Narodnik rebellion.
	April 24	Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878): Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire.
1878	March 3	Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878): The Treaty of San Stephano was signed, concluding the war and transferring Northern Dobruja and some Caucasian territories into Russian hands. Several Slavic states, Montenegro, Serbia, Romania, and Bulgaria, received independence or autonomy.
	July 13	Congress of Berlin: The Treaty of Berlin, imposed on Russia by the West, divided Bulgaria into Eastern Rumelia and the Principality of Bulgaria.
1879	August	Land and Liberty split into the moderate Black Repartition and the radical terrorist group People's Will.
1880	August 6	The Special Corps of Gendarmes and the Third Section were disbanded; their functions and most capable officers were transferred to the new Department of State Police under the MVD.
1881	March 10	Alexander was assassinated by Ignacy Hryniewiecki of the People's Will. His son, Alexander III, becomes tsar.
	September 21	Persia officially recognized Russia's annexation of Khwarazm in the Treaty of Akhal.
1882	May 3	Alexander III introduced the May Laws, which expelled Russian Jews from rural areas and small towns and severely restricted their access to education.
1890	June 12	An imperial decree subordinated the zemstva to the authority of the appointed regional governors.
1894	November 1	Alexander III died. His son Nicholas II succeeded him as tsar.
1898	March 1	The Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) held its first Party Congress.
1900		Russia invaded and occupied the Sixty-Four Villages East of the Heilongjiang River.
	February 6	Russification of Finland: Nicholas issued a decree making Russian the official language of Finland.

[edit] 20th century

Year	Date	Event
1901		The Socialist-Revolutionary Party was founded.
	June 30	Russification of Finland: The Military Service Act incorporated the Finnish and Russian armies.
1902		Russification of Finland: Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrikov, the Governor-General of Finland, was given the power to dismiss opponents of Russification from the Finnish government.
1903	March 20	Russification of Finland: The office of the Governor-General was given dictatorial powers.
	April 6	Kishinev pogrom: A three-day pogrom began which would leave forty-seven Jews dead.
	November 17	At the second congress of the RSDLP, the party split into two factions: the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, and the less radical Mensheviks.
1904	February 8	Russo-Japanese War: Japan launched a surprise torpedo attack on the Russian navy at Port Arthur.
1905	January 3	Russian Revolution of 1905: A strike began at the Putilov Works in St. Petersburg.
	January 9	Bloody Sunday (1905): Peaceful demonstrators arrived at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg to present a petition to the tsar, leading was a preist named Georgi Gapon. The Imperial Guard fired on the crowd, killing around 200 and wounding 800.
	May 28	Russian Revolution of 1905: The first soviet was formed in the midst of a textile strike in Ivanovo-Voznesensk.
	June 14	Russian Revolution of 1905: A mutiny occurred aboard the battleship Potemkin.
	June 25	Russian Revolution of 1905: The Potemkin sailors defected to Romania.
	September 5	Russo-Japanese War: The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed, ceding some Russian property and territory to Japan and ending the war.
	October 17	Russian Revolution of 1905: Nicholas signed the October Manifesto, expanding civil liberties and establishing and empowering the first State Duma of the Russian Empire.
1906	March	Russian legislative election, 1906: The first free elections to the Duma gave majorities to liberal and socialist parties.
	April 23	The Fundamental Laws were issued, reaffirming the autocratic supremacy of the tsar.
		The First Duma was called.
	July 21	The First Duma was dissolved.
	July 23	The Constitutional Democratic party (Kadets) issued the Vyborg Manifesto, calling on the Russian people to evade taxes and the draft. All signatories to the Manifesto lost their right to hold office in the Duma.
	November 9	A decree by Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin signaled the start of the Stolypin reform, intended to replace the obshchina with a more progressive, capitalist form of agriculture.
1907	February 9	The secret police units of the MVD Department of State Police were unified under the authority of the new Okhrana.
	February 20	The Second Duma began. The Kadets dropped seats, benefiting the RSDLP and the Socialist-Revolutionary Party.
	June 3	The Second Duma was dissolved.
		Nicholas changed the electoral law and gave greater electoral value to the votes of nobility and landowners.
	November 1	The Third Duma began.
1912	April 4	Lena goldfields massacre: The Russian army fired on a crowd of striking miners, killing 150.
	June 9	The Third Duma ended.
	November 15	The Fourth Duma was called.
1914	June 28	Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand: Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip of the Bosnian separatist group Young Bosnia.
	July 23	World War I: Austria-Hungary issued the July Ultimatum to Serbia, demanding, among other things, the right to participate in the investigation into the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, which Serbia refused.
	July 28	World War I: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
	July 30	World War I: Russia mobilized its army to defend Serbia.
	August 1	World War I: Germany declared war on Russia in defense of Austria-Hungary.
1915	May 2	Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive: The German army launched an offensive across the length of the Eastern Front.
	August 4	Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive: Germany conquered Warsaw.
	September 19	Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive: German forces captured Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.
1916	June 25	Basmachi Revolt: Nicholas issued a decree ordering the conscription of Central Asians.
	November 5	By the Act of November 5th, the German government established the nominally independent Kingdom of Poland.
	December 16	Royal adviser Grigori Rasputin was murdered by a group of nobles in the house of Prince Felix Yussupov.
1917	February 22	February Revolution: The workers at the Putilov Plant in Petrograd went on strike.
	February 23	February Revolution: A series of demonstrations were held, demanding the end of the Russian autocracy and the end of Russian participation in World War I.
	February 25	February Revolution: A battalion of soldiers was sent to Petrograd to end the uprising.
	February 26	February Revolution: Nicholas ordered the dissolution of the Fourth Duma. The Duma ignored his order and decreed the establishment of a Provisional Government with Georgy L'vov as Prime Minister.
	February 27	February Revolution: The soldiers sent to suppress the protestors defected and joined them. Menshevik leaders were freed from the Peter and Paul Fortress and founded the Petrograd Soviet.
	March 2	February Revolution: Nicholas abdicated the throne.
	March 17	A legislative council, the Tsentralna Rada, was founded in Ukraine.
	March 30	The Provisional Government established the autonomous province of Estonia and scheduled elections to an Estonian legislative body, the Maapäev.
	May 10	The Rumcherod, the Soviet government of southwestern Ukraine and Bessarabia, was established.
	June 23	The Tsentralna Rada ratified Ukrainian autonomy.
	July 3	July Days: A spontaneous pro-soviet demonstration occurred on the streets of Petrograd.
	July 6	July Days: The rebellion was put down. The Provisional Government ordered the arrest of Bolshevik leaders.
	July 14	The Maapäev took office.
	July 21	Alexander Kerensky succeeded L'vov as Prime Minister.
	August 27	Kornilov Affair: General Lavr Kornilov ordered an army corps to Petrograd to destroy the soviets.
	August 29	Kornilov Affair: The Provisional Government armed tens of thousands of Red Guards to defend Petrograd.
	August 31	Kornilov Affair: Kornilov was arrested.
	September 4	Under public pressure, Bolshevik leaders were released from prison.
	October 23	Estonian Bolsheviks under Jaan Anvelt captured the capital, Tallinn.
	October 25	October Revolution: Soldiers directed by the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet captured the Winter Palace, ending the power of the Russian Provisional Government.
		The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets convened. Menshevik and moderate SR representatives walked out to protest the October Revolution. The Congress established and elected the Sovnarkom, and Lenin its first chairman, to run the country between sessions.
	October 26	The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets issued the Decree on Peace, promising an end to Russian participation in World War I, and the Decree on Land, approving the expropriation of land from the nobility.
	November 21	The Moldavian legislature, the Sfatul Ţării, held its first meeting.
	December 5	A local nationalist group, the Alash Orda, established an autonomous government in Kazakhstan.
	December 6	The Finnish parliament issued a declaration of independence.
	December 7	The Cheka was established.
	December 12	A Muslim republic, the Idel-Ural State, was established in central Russia.
	December 25	Ukrainian Bolsheviks established the Soviet Ukrainian Republic in Kharkiv.
	December 27	Russian Civil War: The counterrevolutionary Volunteer Army was established.
1918	January 12	The Tsentralna Rada declared the independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic.
	January 14	The Rumcherod declared itself the supreme power in Bessarabia.
	January 15	A decree of the Sovnarkom established the Red Army.
	January 16	The Romanian army occupied Kishinev and evicted the Rumcherod.
	January 24	The Moldavian Democratic Republic declared its independence from Russia.
	January 28	The Transcaucasian parliament held its first meeting.

After January 31 (O.S.), the Bolsheviks adopted the Gregorian calendar. All dates hereafter are given in the New Style.

	February 18	The Red Army conquered Kiev.
	February 23	Mass conscription to the Red Army began in Moscow and Petrograd.
	February 24	The Red Army retreated from Estonia in the face of the German armed forces.
		The Transcaucasian parliament announced the independent Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (TDFR).
	March 3	Soviet Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, ending its participation in World War I, relinquishing Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine, and ceding to the Ottoman Empire all territory captured in the Russo-Turkish War.
	March 6	Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War: Two hundred British marines arrived at Murmansk.
	March 25	The Belarusian National Republic was established by its German occupiers.
	April	The Idel-Ural State was occupied and dissolved by the Red Army.
	April 30	The Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) was established on the territory of the defunct Russian Turkestan.
	May 26	Russian Civil War: The Czech Legion began its revolt against the Bolshevik government.
		Georgia seceded from the TDFR.
	May 28	Armenia and Azerbaijan declared their mutual independence.
	June 8	Russian Civil War: An anti-Bolshevik government, the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly, was established in Samara under the protection of the Czech Legion
	June 28	A decree by the Central Executive Committee made war communism, under which all industry and food distribution was nationalized, the economic policy of the Soviet state.
	June 29	Russian Civil War: The Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia was established in Vladivostok.
	July	The Idel-Ural State was restored by the Czech Legion.
	July 10	The 1918 Soviet Constitution was approved by the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets. The legislative power was transferred from the Sovnarkom to the Central Executive Committee, which also received the power to pass constitutional amendments.
	August 30	After giving a speech at a Moscow factory, Lenin was shot twice by SR Fanny Kaplan, but survived.
	September 3	Red Terror: Izvestia called on the Russian people to "crush the hydra of counterrevolution with massive terror."
	September 23	Russian Civil War: A meeting in Ufa established a unified anti-Bolshevik government, the Ufa Directorate.
	November 11	World War I: An armistice treaty was signed, ending the war.
	November 17	Two Latvian political parties founded a provisional legislature, the Tautas Padome.
	November 18	A military coup overthrew the Ufa Directorate and established its war minister, Aleksandr Kolchak, as dictator.
	November 19	The Maapäev returned to power in Estonia.
	November 22	Estonian War of Independence: The Russian Red Army invaded Estonia.
	November 24	Béla Kun, a friend of Lenin, founded the Hungarian Communist Party.
	November 29	Estonian War of Independence: The Red Army captured the Estonian town of Narva. Local Bolsheviks reestablished the Anvelt government as the Commune of the Working People of Estonia.
	December	The Idel-Ural State was again occupied and dissolved by the Red Army.
	December 8	The Communist Party of Lithuania established a revolutionary government in Vilnius.
1919	January 1	Local Bolsheviks established the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR).
	January 3	Latvian War of Independence: The Red Army invaded Latvia.
	January 5	The Red Army occupied Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, in support of the local Communist government.
		The Red Army captured Minsk and pronounced it the capital of the Byelorussian SSR.
	January 16	The Orgburo was established to oversee the membership and organization of the Communist Party.
	February 14	Polish-Soviet War: The Polish army attacked Soviet forces occupying the town of Biaroza.
	February 27	Lithuania was absorbed into the Lithuanian-Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.
	March 4	The First Congress of the Comintern began in Moscow.
	March 21	Seeking a military alliance with Russia against the French, the Hungarian Social Democrats merged with the Communist Party, released Kun from prison and appointed him Commissar for Foreign Affairs. Kun dismissed the president and proclaimed the Hungarian Soviet Republic.
	March 25	The Eighth Party Congress reinstituted the Politburo as the central governing body of the Communist Party.
	April 16	The Romanian army invaded Hungary.
	April 21	Polish-Soviet War: The Polish army consolidated its control of Vilnius.
	May 30	An anti-Communist Hungarian government headed by Gyula Károlyi was established in Szeged.
	June 16	Hungarian occupiers established the Slovak Soviet Republic.
	July 7	The Czechoslovak army reoccupied its territory and dissolved the Slovak Soviet Republic.
	August 1	Threatened by the approach of the Romanian army, Kun fled to Austria.
	August 14	The Romanian army left the Hungarian capital, Budapest. Admiral Miklós Horthy stepped into the power vacuum with the army of the Károlyi government.
	August 25	Polish-Soviet War: After its total occupation by Polish forces, the Lithuanian-Byelorussian SSR was dissolved.
1920	February 2	Estonian War of Independence: Soviet Russia signed the Treaty of Tartu, renouncing all claims on Estonian territory.
		An insurgency in the Khanate of Khiva forced the abdication of the Khan.
	February 7	Russian Civil War: Kolchak was executed by a Bolshevik military tribunal.
	March 26	Russian Civil War: The Volunteer Army evacuated to the Crimea to join the army of Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel.
	April 25	The Russian Eleventh Army invaded the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.
	April 26	The Khorezm People's Soviet Republic was established on the territory of the defunct Khanate of Khiva.
	April 28	With the Azerbaijani capital Baku under Eleventh Army occupation, the parliament agreed to transfer power to the Communist government of the Azerbaijan SSR.
	June 12	The Soviet Union recognized Lithuanian independence.
	July 8	Polish-Soviet War: The Galician Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) was established in Ternopil.
	August 11	Latvian War of Independence: The Treaty of Riga was signed. Soviet Russia renounced all claims on Latvian territory.
	August 13	Battle of Warsaw: The battle began with a Russian attack across the Vistula.
	August 26	The Bolsheviks defeated the government of the Alash Orda and established the Kyrgyz ASSR† (1).
	August 31	Battle of Warsaw: The total defeat of the Russian Fourth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Armies marked the end of the battle.
	September 2	The Red Army attacked Bukhara, the capital of the Emirate of Bukhara.
	September 21	Polish-Soviet War: The Polish army occupied Galicia and ended the rule of the Galician SSR.
	October 8	The Bukharan People's Soviet Republic was established.
	November 14	Russian Civil War: Wrangel fled Russia.
	November 29	The Eleventh Army entered Armenia.
	December 1	The Armenian Prime Minister ceded control of the country to the invading Communists.
1921	February 16	Red Army invasion of Georgia: The Eleventh Army crossed into Georgia.
	February 22	Gosplan, the economic planning committee of the Soviet Union, was created by a decree of the Sovnarkom.
	February 25	Red Army invasion of Georgia: The Eleventh Army captured Tbilisi and announced the formation of the Georgian SSR.
	February 28	Kronstadt rebellion: The crews of the battleships Petropavlovsk and Sevastopol, harbored at Kronstadt, published a list of demands on the government.
	March 17	Kronstadt rebellion: After over a week of fighting, government troops pacified Kronstadt.
	March 21	A decree of the Tenth Party Congress replaced war communism with the more liberal New Economic Policy.
	March 18	Polish-Soviet War: Poland and Soviet Russia signed the Peace of Riga, ending the war. The disputed territories were divided between Poland, Russia and the newly reestablished Ukrainian and Byelorussian SSRs.
	July	The Red Army captured Ulan Bator, the Mongolian capital.
	July 13	Russian famine of 1921: The writer Maxim Gorky brought world attention to the looming famine.
1922	February 23	Russian famine of 1921: A decree published in Izvestia authorized the seizure of church valuables for famine relief.
	March 12	The Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani SSRs were merged into the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR).
	April 3	The Eleventh Communist Party Congress established the office of the General Secretary of the Communist Party and appointed Joseph Stalin to fill it.
	May 16	Tikhon, the Patriarch of Moscow, was put under house arrest.
	August 4	Basmachi Revolt: Enver Pasha was killed in Turkestan.
	December 29	The Treaty on the Creation of the USSR united its signatories, the Russian and Transcaucasian SFSRs and the Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSRs, under the power of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
1923	May 3	A council of the pro-government Living Church declared Tikhon an apostate and abolished the Patriarchate.
	October 15	The Declaration of 46 was written. The Declaration echoed earlier concerns expressed by Leon Trotsky, the Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council, that the Communist Party was insufficiently democratic.
1924	January 21	Lenin died.
	January 31	The 1924 Soviet Constitution came into effect.
	February 18	The Thirteenth Party Congress, led by Stalin, Comintern chairman Grigory Zinoviev and Politburo chairman Lev Kamenev, denounced Trotsky and his faction, the Left Opposition.
	October 10	The territory of the Khorezm SSR was incorporated into the Turkestan ASSR.
	October 12	The Moldavian ASSR was established in the Ukrainian SSR.
	October 14	The Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast was spun off of the Turkestan ASSR and incorporated into the Russian SFSR.
	October 27	The Uzbek SSR was spun out of the Turkestan ASSR.
	November 25	The Mongolian People's Republic was established.
	November 27	The Bukharan People's Soviet Republic was incorporated into the Uzbek SSR.
1925	January 6	Trotsky was forced to resign his military offices.
	February 19	The lands of the Karakalpaks became the Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast, an oblast of the Kyrgyz ASSR (1).
	April 7	Tikhon died. The Communist government would not allow elections to the patriarchate to be held; Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsy became the Patriarchal locum tenens according to his will.
	April 19	The Kyrgyz ASSR (1) was renamed the Kazakh ASSR.
	May 13	The Uzbek SSR joined the Soviet Union.
		The remainder of the Turkestan ASSR became the Turkmen SSR.
	December 10	Peter of Krutitsy was arrested. Sergius of Nizhny Novgorod, whom he had named to succeed him, took the title of Deputy Patriarchal locum tenens.
	December 23	The Fourteenth Party Congress endorsed the leadership of Stalin and his rightist ally Nikolai Bukharin, soundly defeating the New Opposition faction of Kamenev and Zinoviev.
1926	February 11	The Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast was reorganized into the Kyrgyz ASSR (2).
	October 23	Trotsky was expelled from the Politburo.
1927	February 25	Article 58 of the RFSR Penal Code revised the penalties for counterrevolutionary activity.
	July 29	Sergius affirmed the loyalty of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Soviet government.
	November 12	Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the Communist Party.
	December 2	The Fifteenth Party Congress expelled the remainder of the United Opposition from the Party.
1928	March 7	Shakhty Trial: Police arrested a group of engineers in the town of Shakhty and accused them of conspiring to sabotage the Soviet economy.
	October 1	First Five Year Plan: Stalin announced the beginning of state industrialisation of the Soviet economy.
1929	November 17	Bukharin was expelled from the Politburo.
		Collectivisation in the USSR: A Central Committee resolution began the collectivisation of Soviet agriculture.
	December 5	The Tajik ASSR of the Uzbek SSR became the Tajik SSR.
1930	April 15	The Gulag was officially established.
	July 20	The Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast was transferred to the Russian SFSR.
1932	March 20	The Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast became the Karakalpak ASSR.
	August 7	Collectivisation in the USSR: The Central Executive Committee and the Sovnarkom issued the Decree about the Protection of Socialist Property, under which any theft of public property was punishable by death.
	September 11	Holodomor: Stalin sent a letter to a Politburo ally, Lazar Kaganovich, demanding the subjection of the Ukrainian SSR.
	December 27	A decree by the Central Executive Committee and the Sovnarkom established a passport system in the Soviet Union.
	December 31	First Five-Year Plan: It was announced that the plan had been fulfilled.
1933	January 22	Holodomor: Police were instructed to prevent Ukrainian peasants from leaving their homes in search of food.
1934	February 8	Elections to the Central Committee at the Seventeenth Party Congress revealed Sergey Kirov, the chief of the Leningrad Party, to be the most popular member.
	July 10	The Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) was established under the NKVD as a successor to the OGPU.
	December 1	Kirov was murdered by Leonid Nikolaev, possibly at the behest of Stalin.
1935	August 31	Aleksei Grigorievich Stakhanov was reported to have mined over one hundred tons of coal in a single shift, sowing the seeds of the Stakhanovite movement.
1936	August 19	Moscow Trials: The Trial of the Sixteen, in which Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev were the primary defendants, began.
	August 25	Moscow Trials: The defendants in the Trial of the Sixteen were executed.
	December 5	The Stalin Constitution came into effect. The Central Executive Committee was renamed the Supreme Soviet.
		The Kyrgyz ASSR (2) became a Union-level republic, the Kyrgyz SSR.
		The Kazakh ASSR became the Kazakh SSR.
		The territory of the Karakalpak ASSR was incorporated into the Uzbek SSR.
1937	January 23	Moscow Trials: The Second Trial began.
	January 30	Moscow Trials: The Second Trial ended. Of seventeen defendants, all but four were sentenced to death.
	May 22	Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization: Mikhail Tukhachevsky, a Marshal of the Soviet Union and hero of the Russian Civil War, was arrested.
	June 12	Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization: Tukhachevsky was executed, with eight other military leaders.
	July 30	Great Purge: NKVD Order № 00447 was issued. The order established a new judicial method, the NKVD troika, and set nationwide quotas for the execution and enslavement of "anti-Soviet elements."
	August 11	Polish operation of the NKVD: The NKVD chief signed Order № 00485, classifying all potential Polish nationalists as enemies of the state.
	August 15	Great Purge: NKVD Order № 00486 made relatives of accused traitors subject to imprisonment in labor camps.
	October 10	Peter of Krutitsy was executed in solitary confinement.
1938		A new decree required the teaching of Russian in all non-Russian schools.
	March 2	Trial of the Twenty One: The third Moscow Trial, at which Bukharin was the primary defendant, began.
	March 15	Trial of the Twenty One: The defendants were executed.
	July 29	Battle of Lake Khasan: The armed forces of Japanese Manchukuo attacked the Soviet military at Lake Khasan.
	August 31	Battle of Lake Khasan: The battle ended in a Japanese defeat.
1939	August 23	The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed, promising mutual non-aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and agreeing to a division of much of Europe between those two countries.
	September 17	Soviet invasion of Poland (1939): The Red Army invaded Poland.
	October 22	Elections were held to the Supreme Soviets of the Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union.
	November 26	Shelling of Mainila: The Red Army shelled the Russian village of Mainila and blamed the Finns for invented casualties.
	November 30	Winter War: The Soviet army attacked Finland.
	December 1	Winter War: The Soviet Union established the Finnish Democratic Republic in the border town of Terijoki.
1940	March 5	Katyn massacre: The Politburo signed an order to execute 27,500 imprisoned Polish nationalists.
	March 12	Winter War: The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed, ending the war at great cost to Finland and anticipating the evacuation of Finnish Karelia.
	March 31	The Karelian ASSR merged with the Finnish Democratic Republic into the Karelo-Finnish SSR.
	June 15	The Red Army occupied Lithuania.
	June 17	The Red Army occupied Estonia and Latvia.
	June 28	Soviet occupation of Bessarabia: Bessarabia and northern Bukovina were occupied by the Soviet Union.
	July 21	Lithuania became the Lithuanian SSR; Latvia became the Latvian SSR.
	August 2	The Moldavian ASSR became the Moldavian SSR, with much of its territory on the former Bessarabia and Bukovina. The old territory of the Moldavian ASSR remained in the Ukrainian SSR.
	August 3	The Lithuanian SSR was accepted into the Soviet Union.
	August 5	The Latvian SSR was annexed by the Soviet Union.
	August 6	Estonia became the Estonian SSR and was incorporated into the Soviet Union.
1941	April 13	Soviet-Japanese Border Wars: A Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact was signed.
	June 22	Operation Barbarossa: Three million Axis soldiers invaded the Soviet Union.
		Lithuanian 1941 independence: The Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF) began an uprising against the Soviet government.
	June 24	Lithuanian 1941 independence: The LAF government took power in Lithuania.
	June 25	Continuation War: The Soviet Union launched a major air offensive against Finnish targets.
	June 28	Operation Barbarossa: The Germans captured Minsk.
	July 27	Operation Barbarossa: The German and Romanian armies entered Kishinev.
	August 21	Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran: Three Soviet armies invaded Iran from the north.
	September 8	Siege of Leningrad: The German army cut the last land tie to Leningrad.
	September 17	Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran: The Soviet and British armed forces met in Tehran.
	September 19	Operation Barbarossa: Kiev fell to the Germans.
	October 2	Battle of Moscow: Three German armies began an advance on Moscow.
	November 20	Siege of Leningrad: The first food was carried into Leningrad across the Road of Life on the frozen Lake Ladoga.
	December 5	Battle of Moscow: The Soviet army launched a counterattack from Kalinin.
1942	January 7	Battle of Moscow: The Soviet counteroffensive ended between sixty and one-hundred fifty miles from Moscow.
	August 21	Battle of Stalingrad: The German Luftwaffe began a bombing raid against Stalingrad.
	November 19	Operation Uranus: The Soviet army began a pincer movement against the German forces besieging Stalingrad.
	November 22	Operation Uranus: The German Sixth Army was surrounded.
1943	January 12	Operation Spark (1943): The Soviet army launched a military offensive to break the Siege of Leningrad.
	January 18	Operation Spark (1943): The meeting of the Leningrad and Volkhov Front units opened a land corridor to Leningrad.
	February 2	Battle of Stalingrad: The German Sixth Army surrendered.
	May 15	The Comintern was dissolved.
	September 8	Stalin allowed a church council, which unanimously elected Sergius to the Patriarchate of Moscow.
	November 6	The Russians recaptured Kiev.
1944	January 6	The Red Army crossed into Poland.
	January 27	Siege of Leningrad: The last German forces were expelled from the city.
	May 15	Sergius died.
	July 21	The Communist Lublin Government of Poland was established.
	August 1	Warsaw Uprising: The Polish Home Army began an attack on German forces in Warsaw.
	August 22	Warsaw Uprising: Stalin denied the Allies use of his landing strips to supply aid to the insurgents.
	August 23	Michael I of Romania led a coup against the military dictatorship of Ion Antonescu.
	August 31	Soviet occupation of Romania: The Red Army captured Bucharest.
	September 12	Romania signed an armistice with the Allies, placing itself under the command of an Allied Commission led by Marshal of the Soviet Union Rodion Malinovsky.
	September 19	Continuation War: The Moscow Armistice was signed, ending the war at roughly the prewar borders.
	September 21	Soviet and Czechoslovak partisan armed forces entered German-occupied Czechoslovakia.
	October 2	Warsaw Uprising: The leader of the Uprising signed a surrender agreement.
	November 14	The Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia was established in Prague.
	December 31	The Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland (RTRP), which incorporated token non-Communists into the preexisting Lublin Government, was established.
1945	January 17	The Soviet Union captured Warsaw.
	January 18	The Soviet Union captured Budapest.
	February 2	Alexius I was elected Patriarch of Moscow.
	February 11	The Soviet Union gained the right to Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands at the Yalta Conference
	March 6	Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Rădescu was forced to resign his office to Petru Groza of the Ploughmen's Front.
	April 4	The government of the Third Czechoslovakian Republic was established in Košice.
	April 20	Battle of Berlin: The Soviet army began shelling Berlin.
	April 21	The RTRP ceded control of Poland's internal security apparatus to the Soviet government for forty years.
	May 2	Battle of Berlin: The defenders of Berlin surrendered to the Soviet Union.
	May 9	The Soviet army captured Prague.
	June 18	Trial of the Sixteen: Leaders of the Polish Secret State were tried in the Soviet Union for collaboration.
	June 21	Trial of the Sixteen: The defendants were sentenced.
	June 28	The coalition Provisional Government of National Unity (TRJN) was established in Poland.
	July 5	The United States recognized the TRJN.
	August 2	The Potsdam Agreement moved Poland's borders to the west and established the shape of occupied Germany.
	August 16	Operation August Storm: Soviet armed forces landed on Sakhalin.
	August 18	Operation August Storm: Soviet amphibious forces landed in Korea.
	August 20	Operation August Storm: The Soviet Union captured Changchun, the capital of Manchukuo.
	August 25	Operation August Storm: The Soviet Union captured Sakhalin's capital.
	November	The Soviet Union established the Azerbaijan People's Government in Iranian Azerbaijan.
1946	January 22	The Soviet-backed Kurdish Republic of Mahabad declared its independence from Iran.
	March 2	Iran crisis: British troops withdrew from Iran. The Soviet Union violated its prior agreement and remained.
	March 10	The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was united with the Russian Orthodox Church.
	March 20	László Rajk of the Hungarian Communist Party became Minister of the Interior.
	May 9	Iran crisis: The Soviet Union withdrew from Iran.
	May 26	Czechoslovak parliamentary election, 1946: The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) won a plurality of votes, enabling their takeover of the information and interior ministries.
	November 19	Romanian general election, 1946: Rigged elections gave a vast majority of seats in the Romanian legislature to the Romanian Communist Party and its allies.
	December 11	Iran regained control over the territory of the Azerbaijan People's Government.
	December 15	Iran conquered Mahabad.
1947	January 19	Polish legislative election, 1947: Rigged elections gave the Communist bloc 80 percent of the vote.
	August 31	The Hungarian Communist Party won a plurality of seats in elections to the Hungarian legislature.
	October 5	The Cominform was established in order to coordinate Communist parties under Soviet control.
	November 27	A speech to the Central Committee of the KSČ by Chairman Klement Gottwald denounced "reactionary forces" and triggered the purge of non-Communists from the Czechoslovakian security forces.
	December 30	King Michael I of Romania was forced to abdicate.
1948	February 20	Non-Communist ministers resigned from the Czechoslovakian parliament in order to force an election.
	February 21	The KSČ established the Workers' Militia, banned non-Communists from television broadcasts, and occupied the non-Communist ministries.
	February 25	Czechoslovakian president Edvard Beneš accepted the resignations of the non-Communist ministers and replaced them according to the demands of the KSČ.
	April 13	A new Romanian constitution declared that country a People's Republic.
	June 24	Berlin Blockade: The Soviet Union blocked rail and road access to West Berlin.
	June 25	Berlin Blockade: The commander of the American occupation zone ordered an airlift of supplies into West Berlin.
	June 28	Yugoslavia was expelled from the Cominform.
	September 9	The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established.
1949	May 11	Berlin Blockade: The Soviets lifted the blockade.
	August 18	A new Communist constitution came into force in Hungary.
	August 29	Joe 1: The Soviet atomic bomb project culminated in a successful test detonation.
1950	January 30	Korean War: Regarding a mass invasion of the South, Stalin wrote to his ambassador to North Korea: "Tell him [Kim] that I am ready to help him in this matter."
	June 25	Korean War: The North Korean army launched a 135,000 man surprise assault across the 38th parallel.
	November 1	Korean War: Soviet-piloted MiG-15s first crossed the Yalu River and attacked American planes.
1952	November 20	Prague Trials: A series of show trials purged the Czech Communist Party of Jews and insufficiently orthodox Stalinists.
1953	January 13	An article in Pravda accused some of the nation's most prominent doctors - particularly Jews - of participating in a vast conspiracy to poison top Soviet leaders.
	March 1	After an all-night dinner with party members Lavrenty Beria, Nikolai Bulganin, Nikita Khrushchev and Georgy Malenkov, Stalin suffered a paralyzing stroke.
	March 5	Stalin died.
	March 6	Malenkov succeeded Stalin as Premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party.
	March 14	Khrushchev became First Secretary.
	April 3	The Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party officially acquitted those arrested in connection with the so-called "doctors' plot".
	April 8	First Indochina War: Viet Minh and Pathet Lao forces invaded Laos and attacked French bases there.
	June 16	Uprising of 1953 in East Germany: In response to a 10 percent increase in work quotas, between 60 and 80 construction workers went on strike in East Berlin. Their numbers quickly swelled and a general strike and protests were called for the next day.
	June 17	Uprising of 1953 in East Germany: 100,000 protestors gathered at dawn, demanding the reinstatement of old work quotas and, later, the resignation of the East German government. At noon German police trapped many of the demonstrators in an open square; Soviet tanks fired on the crowd, killing hundreds and ending the protest.
	June 26	Beria was arrested at a special meeting of the Presidium.
	July 27	Korean War: An armistice was signed, ending the conflict.
	September 7	Khrushchev was confirmed as head of the Central Committee.
1954	March 13	Battle of Dien Bien Phu: Viet Minh forces loosed a massive artillery barrage against the surrounded French airbase at Dien Bien Phu.
	May 7	Battle of Dien Bien Phu: The battle ended in a French defeat.
	May 16	Kengir Uprising: Prisoners at a Gulag adjacent to the Kazakh village of Kengir occupied the camp's service yard.
	June 25	Kengir Uprising: The prison camp at Kengir was invaded and subdued by Soviet troops and tanks.
	July 21	Geneva Conference (1954): The signing of the Geneva Accords promised a complete French withdrawal, partitioned Vietnam into a Communist North and a monarchist South, and scheduled unifying elections for July 1956.
1955	June 2	Khrushchev and Tito issued the Belgrade declaration, which declared that "different forms of Socialist development are solely the concern of the individual countries."
	July	Ho Chi Minh visited Moscow and agreed to accept Soviet aid.
1956	February 25	At a closed session of the 20th Party Congress, Khrushchev read the "Secret Speech," On the Personality Cult and its Consequences, denouncing the actions of his predecessor Stalin. The speech weakened the hand of the Stalinists in the Soviet government.
	April 17	The Cominform was officially dissolved.
	June 28	Poznań 1956 protests: Poles upset with the slow pace of destalinization turned to protests, and then to violent riots.
	June 29	Poznań 1956 protests: Konstantin Rokossovsky, the Polish minister of defense, ordered the military in to end the riots. At least 74 civilians were killed.
	July 16	The Karelo-Finnish SSR became the Karelian ASSR of the Russian SFSR.
	October 19	The liberal Władysław Gomułka was elected leader of the Polish Communist party.
	October 23	1956 Hungarian Revolution: A small pro-Gomułka demonstration in Budapest expanded into a 100,000 head protest. The protestors marched on Parliament; when they were fired on by the Hungarian Security Police, they turned violent and began to arm themselves. An emergency meeting of the Central Committee appointed the reformist Imre Nagy Prime Minister.
	October 31	1956 Hungarian Revolution: Hungary under Nagy withdrew from the Warsaw Pact.
	November 4	1956 Hungarian Revolution: A Soviet invasion, involving infantry, artillery, airstrikes, and some 6,000 tanks entered Budapest. 2,500 Hungarians were killed in the ensuing battle.
	November 8	1956 Hungarian Revolution: Pro-Soviet János Kádár announced the formation of a new "Revolutionary Worker-Peasant Government," with himself as Prime Minister and leader of the Communist Party.
	December 2	Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro and his followers in the 26th of July Movement landed in Cuba.
	December 10	Angolan War of Independence: Two Angolan independence movements united to form the Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola.
1957	June 18	Led by the Stalinist Anti-Party Group, the Presidium voted to depose Khrushchev as First Secretary. The Presidium reversed its vote under pressure from Khrushchev and the defense minister and deferred the decision to a later meeting of the full Central Committee.
	June 29	A Central Committee vote affirmed Khrushchev as First Secretary and deposed Anti-Party Group members Molotov, Kaganovich, and Malenkov from the Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee.
1958	March 27	Khrushchev replaced Bulganin as Premier of the Soviet Union.
1959	January 1	Cuban Revolution: Cuban president Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba for the Dominican Republic.
1960	April 16	Sino-Soviet Split: A Chinese Communist Party newspaper accused the Soviet leadership of "revisionism."
	July 16	Sino-Soviet Split: Moscow recalled thousands of Soviet advisers from China and ended economic and military aid.
	December 20	Vietnam War: The National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam was formed, with the intent to overthrow the government of South Vietnam.
1961	April 17	Bay of Pigs Invasion: After a U.S. bombing run against the Cuban air force, a group of 1,500 armed exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs on the southern coast. As the invasion faltered, President John F. Kennedy called off the airstrikes.
	April 20	Bay of Pigs Invasion: Castro announced that all the invaders had been defeated.
	August 13	Construction began on the Berlin Wall.
	December 2	In a nationally broadcast speech, Castro declared he was a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba was going to adopt Communism.
	December 10	Sino-Albanian split: The Soviet Union severed diplomatic ties with Albania.
1962	June 2	Novocherkassk massacre: Soviet workers gathered in the town square of Novocherkassk to protest an increase in food prices and work quotas. The government fired on the rioters, killing nearly a hundred.
	June 25	Mozambican War of Independence: The Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO) was founded.
	October 16	Cuban Missile Crisis: President Kennedy was shown U-2 surveillance images of SS-4 launch sites in Cuba.
	October 22	Cuban Missile Crisis: Kennedy announced that any nuclear missile attack from Cuba would be regarded as an attack by the Soviet Union, and that the island would be placed under "quarantine" to prevent further weapons shipments.
	October 26	Cuban Missile Crisis: The Soviet Union offered to withdraw the missiles in return for a U.S. guarantee not to invade Cuba or support any invasion.
	October 28	Cuban Missile Crisis: Khrushchev announced that he had ordered the removal of the Soviet missiles in Cuba.
1964	October 14	Khrushchev's rivals in the party deposed him at a Central Committee meeting. Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin assumed power as First Secretary and Premier, respectively.
1965	January 1	The Marxist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) held its first congress.
1967	February 7	Sino-Soviet split: The Chinese government announced that it could no longer guarantee the safety of Soviet diplomats outside the embassy building.
	June 10	The Soviet Union severed diplomatic relations with Israel. see Soviet Union and the Arab-Israeli conflict
1968	January 5	Prague Spring: The liberal Alexander Dubček was appointed to succeed Antonín Novotný as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
	April 5	Prague Spring: The Czech Communist Party published their Action Programme. This document guaranteed a number of new freedoms including free speech, travel, debate and association.
	August 20	Prague Spring: Between 200,000 and 600,000 Warsaw Pact troops crossed the Czechoslovakian border.
	August 21	Prague Spring: Leading KSČ liberals - including Dubček - were arrested, flown to Moscow and forced to repeal the reforms of the Prague Spring. They agreed to the presence of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia.
1969	March 2	Sino-Soviet border conflict: A Soviet patrol came into armed conflict with Chinese forces on Zhenbao Island.
	June	Qahtan al-Shabi, president of the People's Republic of South Yemen, was overthrown and replaced by Salim Rubayi Ali of the Marxist National Liberation Front.
	October 21	Somali military and police occupied the capital of Mogadishu. The Supreme Revolutionary Council was established as the new government, with the Marxist revolutionary Siad Barre at its head.
1973	January 27	Vietnam War: The Paris Peace Accords pledged the signatory parties to "respect the independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of Vietnam as recognized by the 1954 Geneva Agreements on Vietnam," and promised a complete withdrawal of United States forces from Vietnam and Laos.
1974	July 11	The Soviet Union signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation with the Somali government.
	September 12	Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown by a council of military officers, the Derg.
	December 20	The Derg declared that socialism was the new ideology of the Ethiopian state.
1975	January 31	Angolan War of Independence: A transitional unity government, consisting of the National Liberation Front of Angola, the Soviet-backed MPLA, and the Maoist UNITA, took office under the terms of the Alvor Agreement.
	March 11	Vietnam War: A large-scale North Vietnamese offensive began with the conquest of Buon Ma Thuot.
	March 27	The Pathet Lao began a military offensive against the Laotian government.
	April 30	Fall of Saigon: The South Vietnamese capital of Saigon was captured by the Vietnam People's Army.
	June 25	Mozambican War of Independence: The FRELIMO government received independence from Portugal. Party leader Samora Machel, a Marxist, became the nation's first president.
	November 11	Angolan Civil War: Portugal accepted a declaration of independence from the MPLA, which controlled the Angolan capital of Luanda.
	December 2	The king of Laos abdicated the throne, leaving leadership of the country to the Communist Pathet Lao.
1977	July 23	Ogaden War: The Somali National Army invaded the Ogaden region in eastern Ethiopia.
	September 7	Ogaden War: The Soviet Union ended its arms shipments to the Somali government.
	November 13	Ogaden War: Barre cancelled the Somali-Soviet treaty of friendship.
1978	April 28	Saur Revolution: Military units loyal to the PDPA assaulted the Afghan Presidential palace, killing President Mohammed Daoud Khan.
	May 1	Saur Revolution: The PDPA installed its leader, Nur Muhammad Taraki, as President of Afghanistan.
	July	A rebellion against the new Afghan government began with an uprising in Nuristan.
	December 5	A treaty was signed which permitted deployment of the Soviet military at the Afghan government's request.
	December 25	Cambodian-Vietnamese War: The Vietnamese army invaded Cambodia.
1979	January 7	Cambodian-Vietnamese War: The Vietnamese army captured Phnom Penh, ending the reign of the Khmer Rouge.
	January 10	Cambodian-Vietnamese War: The People's Republic of Kampuchea was established.
	July 19	The armed forces of the Marxist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) entered Managua.
	September 14	Taraki was murdered by supporters of Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin.
	December 24	Soviet war in Afghanistan: Fearing the collapse of the Amin regime, the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan.
	December 27	Operation Storm-333: Soviet troops occupied major governmental, military and media buildings in Kabul, including the Tajbeg Presidential Palace, and executed Prime Minister Amin.
1980	September 17	The trade union Solidarity was founded in Poland.
	October 10	The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) was founded from an assortment of leftist and Communist Salvadoran revolutionary organizations.
1981	December 13	In response to the growing influence of Solidarity, Wojciech Jaruzelski, the First Secretary of the Communist Party, declared martial law in Poland.
1982	January 25	Suslov died after a severe stroke.
	November 10	Brezhnev died of a heart attack.
	November 12	Yuri Andropov was elected General Secretary of the CPSU.
1983	October 19	The Grenadian military overthrew the government of Maurice Bishop and installed the pro-Soviet Stalinist Bernard Coard to lead the nation.
	October 25	Invasion of Grenada: The United States and her Caribbean allies toppled the Coard government.
1984	February 9	Andropov died after long kidney disease and was succeeded as General Secretary by Konstantin Chernenko.
1985	March 10	Chernenko died of Emphysema.
	March 11	The Politburo unanimously supported Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary of the Communist Party.
1988	April 14	Soviet war in Afghanistan: The Soviet government signed the Geneva Accords, which included a timetable for withdrawing their armed forces.
	April 27	A strike at the V.I. Lenin Steel Mill in Nowa Huta touched off months of striking across Poland.
	June 3	Singing Revolution: The liberalization movement Sąjūdis was founded in Lithuania.
	October 9	Singing Revolution: The Popular Front of Latvia was founded.
1989	February 15	Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet troops left the country.
	April 4	The Polish Round Table Agreement legalized independent trade unions and reinstated the Senate.
	June 4	Free elections were held to the Polish parliament, resulting in a landslide Solidarity victory.
	August 23	Baltic Way: Two million people joined hands across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to demonstrate for independence.
	October 23	The Hungarian parliament declared their country a republic.
	November 9	The East German government loosened restrictions on travel into the West, effecting the end of the Berlin Wall.
	November 11	El Salvador Civil War: The FMLN launched an offensive which would capture part of San Salvador.
	November 17	Velvet Revolution: An anti-Communist protest in Czechoslovakia was ended violently by the police.
	November 28	Velvet Revolution: The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced the end of its monopoly on political power.
	December 7	Singing Revolution: The Lithuanian parliament ended the political monopoly of the Communist Party of Lithuania.
	December 16	Romanian Revolution of 1989: A protest broke out in Timişoara in response to an attempt by the government to evict a dissident Hungarian Reformed pastor, László Tőkés.
	December 25	Romanian Revolution of 1989: Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu was captured in the countryside and executed.
1990	January 15	The Bulgarian Communist Party repealed its constitutional supremacy.
	February 23	Singing Revolution: Elections in Lithuania gave Sąjūdis an absolute majority in the legislature.
	March 11	Singing Revolution: The Lithuanian government declared its independence from the Soviet Union.
	March 18	Singing Revolution: Elections to the Latvian Supreme Soviet gave the majority of seats to a pro-independence coalition, led by the Popular Front of Latvia.
	April 8	The Hungarian Socialist Party received only 8% of the seats in elections to parliament.
	June 9	Velvet Revolution: Elections in Czechoslovakia reduced the Communist Party to a minority.
	August 21	Conflict in Transnistria and Gagauzia: The Gagauz declared a new soviet republic on Moldavian soil.
1991	January 11	January Events: Soviet troops violently seized important buildings in cities throughout Lithuania.
	May 23	The Moldavian SSR became the Republic of Moldova.
	June 12	Russian presidential election, 1991: Boris Yeltsin was elected to the presidency of the Russian SFSR.
	August 19	Soviet coup attempt of 1991: A group of high-ranking officials calling themselves the State Emergency Committee announced that Gennady Yanayev was to replace Gorbachev as President of the Soviet Union.
	August 20	Singing Revolution: The Estonian government declared its independence.
	August 21	Singing Revolution: The government of Latvia declared its independence.
		Soviet coup attempt of 1991: The military refused State Emergency Committee orders to take the capital. The leaders of the coup were arrested.
	August 24	The Ukrainian parliament adopted the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine.
	August 27	Moldova declared independence.
	August 30	The Kyrgyz SSR became the Republic of Kyrgyzstan.
	August 31	The Republic of Kyrgyzstan declared independence.
	September 6	Singing Revolution: The Soviet Union recognized the independence of the Baltic states.
		Militants belonging to the separatist All-National Congress of the Chechen People (NCChP) stormed a session of the Supreme Soviet of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR. NCChP leader Dzhokhar Dudaev was appointed to the presidency.
	October 27	A national referendum confirmed the Dudaev presidency. Dudaev unilaterally declared the independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.
	December 8	The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine signed an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.
	December 26	The Soviet Union was officially dissolved.
1993	September 21	Russian constitutional crisis of 1993: Yeltsin announced the dissolution of the Russian legislature. The legislature, in turn, responded by impeaching Yeltsin and declaring Aleksandr Rutskoy the new President of the Russian Federation.
	October 4	Russian constitutional crisis of 1993: The army occupied the parliament building and arrested a number of its leaders.
	December 12	Russian constitutional crisis of 1993: A new Russian constitution was approved by referendum, vastly increasing the power of the presidency.
1994	August 2	First Chechen War: The leader of the Russian-backed Provisional Council of the Chechen Republic announced his intention to overthrow the Dudaev government.
	December 11	First Chechen War: Russian troops invaded Chechnya.
1996	July 3	Russian presidential election, 1996: Yeltsin narrowly defeated his Communist challenger, Gennady Zyuganov.
	August 30	First Chechen War: The Khasav-Yurt Accord was signed, signaling the end of the war.
1999	August 7	Dagestan War: A Chechnya-based militia invaded the Russian republic of Dagestan in support of local separatists.
	August 16	The State Duma confirmed the appointment of Vladimir Putin as Prime Minister of Russia.
	August 23	Dagestan War: The militias began their retreat back into Chechnya.
	August 26	Second Chechen War: The militia that had invaded Dagestan was bombed inside Chechnya.
	September 4	Russian apartment bombings: A car bomb outside of an apartment building in Buynaksk killed sixty-four people.
	October 2	Second Chechen War: Russian ground troops invaded Chechnya.
	December 8	The treaty of creation of the Union of Russia and Belarus was signed.
	December 31	Putin succeeded Boris Yeltsin as President of the Russian Federation.
2000	March 26	Russian presidential election, 2000: Putin was elected president with 53 percent of the vote.
	August 12	Russian submarine Kursk explosion: An explosion disabled the Russian submarine K-141 Kursk.

[edit] 21st century

Year	Date	Event
2002	October 23	Moscow theater hostage crisis: Chechen rebels seized the House of Culture theater in Moscow, taking approximately 700 theatergoers hostage, and demanded an immediate Russian withdrawal from Chechnya.
	October 26	Moscow theater hostage crisis: The police pumped anesthetic into the building, then stormed it from every entrance. The subsequent gunfight left 42 terrorists and 120 hostages dead.
2004	March 14	Russian presidential election, 2004: Putin won re-election to a second term, earning 71 percent of the vote.
	September 1	Beslan school hostage crisis: A group of Chechen terrorists took 1300 adults and children hostage at School Number One in Beslan.
	September 3	Beslan school hostage crisis: At one in the afternoon, following the sound of explosions, Russian police and soldiers stormed the school. The ensuing battle left 344 civilians and 31 of 32 hostage-takers dead.
2005	October 13	October 2005 Nalchik attack: A large group of Islamic militants assaulted and captured buildings throughout the city of Nalchik. By afternoon Russian soldiers surrounded and entered the city, forcing their enemies to retreat. Some 136 people were killed.
2008	March 2	Russian presidential election, 2008: Dmitry Medvedev won, earning 70.5 percent of the vote.