Timeline of Russian history

This is a timeline of Russian history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Russia and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see History of Russia. See also the list of leaders of Russia.

Dates before 31 January 1918, when the Bolshevik government adopted the Gregorian calendar, are given in the Old Style.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.
Centuries: 9th · 10th · 11th · 12th · 13th · 14th · 15th · 16th · 17th · 18th · 19th · 20th · 21st · See also · Further reading

9th century

Year Date Event
860 Rus'–Byzantine War (860): The Rus' launched a successful raid on Constantinople.
862 Rurik came to rule in Novgorod, establishing the Rurikid Dynasty.
882 Oleg of Novgorod conquered Kiev and moved the capital there.

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 was 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 Pretich Vasily Vasilievsky. Byzantium and the Pechenegs. St. Petersburg, 1872. created the illusion of a much larger army, and frightened them away.
969 8 July 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.

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.
14 August 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.
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 oldest 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 27 December 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 13 April Vsevolod died. Kiev and Chernigov went to Iziaslav's illegitimate son, Sviatopolk II.
26 May Battle of the Stugna River: Rus' forces attacked the Cumans at the Stugna River and were defeated.

12th century

Year Date Event
1113 16 April Sviatopolk died. He was succeeded by Vsevolod's son, his cousin, Vladimir II Monomakh.
1125 19 May Vladimir died. His oldest son, Mstislav I, succeeded him.
1132 14 April 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.
1139 18 February Yaropolk died. His younger brother Viacheslav followed him, but in March Viacheslav was overthrown by his cousin, prince of Chernigov, Vsevolod.
1146 1 August Vsevolod died. His brother Igor followed him as a ruler of Kiev. Citizens of Kiev required him to depose old boyars of Vsevolod. Igor swore to fulfill their request, but then reconsidered to do it. Citizens of Kiev considered that oath-breaker is not a legitimate ruler anymore and chose to summon prince Iziaslav of Pereyaslavl to be a new prince of Kiev.
1146 13 August Iziaslav overthrow Igor. A brother of Igor, Sviatoslav, prince of Novgorod-Seversk asked prince of Rostov-Suzdal Yuri Dolgorukiy for help in realising Igor from captivity.
1147 The first reference to Moscow when Yuri Dolgorukiy called upon Sviatoslav of Novgorod-Seversk to "come to me, brother, to Moscow".
1149 Yuri Dolgorukiy captured Kiev. Iziaslav escaped.
1150 With assistance of chorniye klobuky Iziaslav kicked away Yuri from Kiev. After some time, with help of Volodimirko of Galych, Yuri took Kiev again.
1151 Hungarian king Géza II helped Iziaslav to return Kiev. Yuri escaped
1154 13 November Iziaslav II died. His brother, prince of Smolensk Rostislav was summoned to become a new prince of Kiev.
1155 Yuri Dolgorukiy expelled Rostislav with assistance of prince of Chernigov.
1157 Yuri I of Kiev was intoxicated and died. Iziaslav of Chernigov became prince of Kiev.
1159 Iziaslav of Chernigov was overthrow by princes of Galych and Volyn. Allies called Rostislav to be prince of Kiev again.
1167 Rostislav died. His nephew, Mstislav of Volyn, became new ruler of Kiev.
1169 Andrey Bogolyubsky, the elder son of Yuri Dolgorukiy, prince of new strong principality of Vladimir-Suzdal attacked and plundered Kiev. A majority of Russian princes recognized him as a new grand prince. Unlike previous grand princes Andrey I remained in Vladimir and didn't move his residence to Kiev. Andrey appointed his brother Gleb as prince of Kiev. In fact, since this, Kiev stopped to be a center of Russian lands. Political and cultural center was moved to Vladimir. New princes of Kiev were depending on grand princes of Vladimir-Suzdal

13th century

Year Date Event
1223 Battle of the Kalka River: The warriors of Rus' 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 15 July Battle of the Neva: The Novgorodian army defeated a Swedish invasion force at the confluence of the Izhora and Neva Rivers.
1242 5 April Battle of the Ice: The army of Novgorod defeated the invading Teutonic Knights on the frozen surface of Lake Peipus.
1263 14 November 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 had become the Grand Prince of Tver and of Vladimir and had appointed deputies to run the Principality of Moscow during Daniel's minority.

14th century

Year Date Event
1303 5 March Daniel died. His oldest son Yury succeeded him as Prince of Moscow.
1317 Yury married the sister of Uzbeg Khan who was Mongolian prince. 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 21 November Yury was murdered by Dmitriy. His younger brother Ivan I Kalita succeeded him.
1327 15 August The ambassador of the Golden Horde of Mongolian Empire 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 31 March 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 13 November Ivan died. His son, Dmitri Donskoi, succeeded him.
1380 8 September Battle of Kulikovo: A Muscovite force defeated a significantly larger Blue Horde army of Mongolia at Kulikovo Field.
1382 The Mongol khan Tokhtamysh reasserted his power by looting and burning Moscow.
1389 19 May Dmitri died. The throne fell to his son, Vasili I.

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.
16 March The army of Yury Dmitrievich defeated the army of Vasily II. The latter fled to Nizhny Novgorod.
1 April Dmitrievich arrived in Moscow and again declared himself the Grand Prince.
5 July Dmitrievich died. His oldest 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 7 July 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 Muscovy.
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 27 March Vasili II died. His son Ivan III, The Great, succeeded him as Grand Prince.
1463 Russia annexed the Duchy of Yaroslavl.
1471 14 July 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 14 January The Novgorod Republic surrendered to the authority of Moscow.
1480 11 November Great stand on the Ugra river: Ivan's forces deterred Akhmat Khan of the Great Horde from invading Muscovy.
1485 Ivan annexed the Grand Duchy of Tver.
1497 Ivan issued a legal code, the Sudebnik, which standardized the Muscovite law, expanded the role of the criminal justice system, and limited the ability of the serfs to leave their masters.

16th century

Year Date Event
1505 27 October Ivan died. He was succeeded as Grand Duke of Muscovy by his son, Vasili III.
1507 Russo-Crimean Wars: The Crimean Khanate raided the Muscovite 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 3 December Vasili died; his son Ivan IV, The Terrible, succeeded him. His wife Elena Glinskaya became regent.
1538 4 April Glinskaya died. She was succeeded as regent by Prince Vasily Nemoy.
1547 16 January An elaborate ceremony crowned Ivan the first Czar of Muscovy.
1552 22 August Siege of Kazan (1552): Muscovite armed forces arrived at Kazan.
2 October Siege of Kazan (1552): The Muscovite army breached the walls of Kazan.
13 October Siege of Kazan (1552): The civilian population of Kazan was massacred, the city occupied.
1553–1554 First book printed in Russia, the Narrow-typed Gospel Book.
1556 Muscovy 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 Muscovy to renegotiate the amount; Ivan expelled them and invaded and occupied the Bishopric.
1560 2 August Battle of Ergeme: Ivan's army crushed the forces of the Livonian Order.
1561 28 November 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 Muscovite territory ruled directly by the tsar.
1569 1 July 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 Muscovy.
1572 The Oprichnina was abolished.
1581 16 November Ivan killed his oldest son.
1582 15 January Livonian War: The Peace of Jam Zapolski ended Polish–Lithuanian participation in the war. Muscovy gave up its claims to Livonia and the city of Polatsk.
23 October Battle of Chuvash Cape: Muscovite 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 18 March 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 18 January Russo-Swedish War (1590–1595): The Treaty of Plussa expired. Muscovite troops laid siege to Narva.
25 February Russo-Swedish War (1590–1595): A Swedish governor on the disputed territory surrendered to the Muscovites.
1591 15 May Dimitriy Ivanovich, Ivan the Terrible's third and youngest son, died in exile from a stab wound to the throat. Long-regarded as murdered by agents of Boris Godunov, more recently scholars have begun to defend the theory that Dimitriy's death was self-inflicted during an epileptic seizure.
1595 18 May Russo-Swedish War (1590–1595): The Treaty of Tyavzino was signed. Ingria went to Muscovy.
1598 7 January Feodor died with no children.
21 February A zemsky sobor elected Godunov the first non-Rurikid tsar of Muscovy.

17th century

Year Date Event
1604 October False Dmitriy I, a man claiming to be the deceased Dmitriy Ivanovich, invaded Muscovy.
1605 13 April Boris died. His son Feodor II was pronounced tsar.
1 July A group of boyars defected in support of False Dmitriy, seized control of the Kremlin, and arrested Feodor.
20 June False Dmitriy and his army arrived in Moscow.
20 July Feodor and his mother were strangled.
21 July False Dmitriy was crowned tsar.
1606 8 May False Dmitriy married a Catholic, inflaming suspicions that he meant to convert Muscovy to Catholicism.
17 May Conservative boyars led by Vasili Shuisky stormed the Kremlin and shot False Dmitriy to death during his escape.
19 May 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 28 February Vasili ceded border territory to Sweden in exchange for military aid against the government of False Dmitriy II.
September Polish–Muscovite War (1609–1618): The Polish king Sigismund III led an army into Muscovy.
1610 4 July Battle of Klushino: Seven thousand Polish cavalrymen defeated a vastly superior Muscovite force at Klushino.
19 July Vasili was overthrown. A group of nobles, the Seven Boyars, replaced him at the head of the government.
27 July 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 Muscovite people to rise against the Poles.
11 December False Dmitriy II was shot and beheaded by one of his entourage.
1612 1 November Polish–Russian War (1609–1618): Muscovite populace rising against the Poles recaptured the Kremlin.
1613 Ingrian War: Sweden invaded Muscovy.
21 February A zemsky sobor elected Michael Romanov, a grandson of Ivan the Terrible's brother-in-law, the tsar of Muscovy.
1617 27 February Ingrian War: The Treaty of Stolbovo ended the war. Kexholm, Ingria, Estonia and Livonia went to Sweden.
1618 11 December Polish–Russian War (1609–1618): The Truce of Deulino ended the war. Muscovy ceded the city of Smolensk and the Czernihów Voivodeship to Poland.
1619 13 February Feodor Romanov, Michael's father, was released from Polish prison and allowed to return to Muscovy.
1632 October Smolensk War: With the expiration of the Truce of Deulino, a Muscovite army was sent to lay siege to Smolensk.
1634 1 March Smolensk War: The Muscovite army, surrounded, was forced to surrender.
14 June Smolensk War: The Treaty of Polyanovka was signed, ending the war. Poland retained Smolensk, but Władysław renounced his claim to the Muscovite throne.
1645 13 July Michael died. His son, Alexis I, succeeded him.
1648 25 January Khmelnytsky Uprising: A Polish szlachta, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, leads the Cossacks of the Zaporizhian Sich against the Polish Crown.
1 June Salt Riot: Upset over the introduction of a salt tax, the townspeople launched a rebellion in Moscow.
11 June Salt Riot: A group of nobles demanded a zemsky sobor on behalf of the rebellion.
3 July Salt Riot: Many of the rebellion's leaders were executed.
25 December 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 Muscovite 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, allies itself with Muscovy.
July Russo-Polish War (1654–1667): The Muscovite army invaded Poland.
1655 Deluge (history): Sweden invaded the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
3 July Russo-Polish War (1654–1667): The Muscovite army captured Vilnius.
25 July Deluge (history): The voivode of Poznań surrendered to the Swedish invaders.
2 November Muscovy negotiated a ceasefire with Poland.
1656 July Russo–Swedish War (1656–1658): Muscovite reserves invaded Ingria.
1658 26 February 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.
16 September Russo-Polish War (1654–1667): The Treaty of Hadiach established a military alliance between Poland and the Zaporozhian Host, and promised the creation of a Commonwealth of three nations: Poland, Lithuania and Rus'.
28 December Russo–Swedish War (1656–1658): The Treaty of Valiesar established a peace. The conquered Ingrian territories were ceded to Muscovy for three years.
1660 23 April 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. Muscovy returned Ingria to the Swedish Empire by the Treaty of Cardis.
1662 25 July Copper Riot: In the early morning, a group of Muscovites marched to Kolomenskoye and demanded punishment for the government ministers who had debased Muscovy'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-Muscovite adversaries in the Right-bank Ukraine.
1667 Raskol: A church council anathematized the Old Believers, who rejected Nikon's reforms.
30 January Russo-Polish War (1654–1667): The Treaty of Andrusovo ended the war between the Commonwealth and Muscovy without Cossack representation. Poland agreed to cede the Smoleńsk and Czernihów Voivodships and acknowledged Muscovite control over the Left-bank Ukraine.
1669 Doroshenko signed a treaty that recognized his state as a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire.
1670 The Cossack Stenka Razin began a rebellion against the Muscovite 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-Muscovite 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.
29 January Alexis died. His son Feodor III became tsar.
1680 Russo-Crimean Wars: The Crimean invasions of Muscovy ended.
1681 3 January 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, un-meritocratic system of making political appointments.
14 April Avvakum, the most prominent leader of the Old Believer movement, was burned at the stake.
27 April 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.
17 May 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 oldest daughter Sophia Alekseyevna became regent.
1687 May Crimean campaigns: The Muscovite army launched an invasion against an Ottoman vassal, the Crimean Khanate.
17 June Crimean campaigns: Faced with a burned steppe incapable of feeding their horses, the Muscovites 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.
11 October Shaklovity was executed.
1696 29 January Ivan died.
23 April Second Azov campaign: The Muscovite army began its deployment to an important Ottoman fortress, Azov.
27 May Second Azov campaign: The Muscovite navy arrived at the sea and blockaded Azov.
19 July Second Azov campaign: The Ottoman garrison surrendered.
1698 6 June 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.
18 June Streltsy Uprising: The rebels were defeated.
1700 19 August Great Northern War: Muscovy declared war on Sweden.
16 October Adrian, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, died. Peter prevented the election of a successor.

18th century

Year Date Event
1707 8 October Bulavin Rebellion: A small band of Don Cossacks killed a Muscovite noble searching their territory for tax fugitives.
1708 7 July Bulavin Rebellion: After a series of devastating military reversals, Bulavin was shot by his former followers.
18 December An imperial decree divided Muscovy into eight guberniyas (governorates).
1709 28 June Battle of Poltava: A decisive Muscovite military victory over the Swedes at Poltava marked the turning point of the war, the end of Cossack independence and the dawn of the Russian Empire.
1710 14 October The Russian guberniyas were divided into lots according to noble population.
20 November Russo-Turkish War (1710–1711): Charles XII of Sweden persuaded the Ottoman sultan to declare war on Russia.
1711 22 February Government reform of Peter I: Peter established the Governing Senate to pass laws in his absence.
21 July 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 8 May The Russian capital was moved from Moscow to Saint Petersburg.
17 July The Riga Governorate was established on the conquered territory of Livonia.
The territory of the Smolensk Governorate was divided between the Moscow and Riga Governorates.
1714 15 January The northwestern territory of the Kazan Governorate was transferred to the newly established Nizhny Novgorod Governorate.
1715 11 October 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 22 November 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.
12 December Government reform of Peter I: Peter established collegia, government ministries that superseded the prikazy.
1718 31 January Alexei returned to Moscow under a promise he would not be harmed.
18 February After torture, Alexei publicly renounced the throne and implicated a number of reactionaries in a conspiracy to overthrow his father.
13 June Alexei was put on trial for treason.
26 June Alexei died after torture in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
1719 29 May 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 Estonia.
1721 25 January 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.
30 August Great Northern War: The Treaty of Nystad ended the war. Sweden ceded Estonia, Livonia and Ingria to Russia.
22 October 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 12 September 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 28 January 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.
8 February 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.
17 May Catherine died.
18 May 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.
9 September The conservative members of the Supreme Privy Council expelled its most powerful member, the liberal Menshikov.
1730 30 January Peter died of smallpox.
1 February 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.
4 March Anna tore up the terms of her accession and dissolved the Supreme Privy Council.
1736 20 May Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739): The Russian army captured the Ottoman fortifications at Perekop.
19 June 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 21 August Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739): Austria agreed by the Treaty of Belgrade to end its participation in the war.
18 September 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 17 October Anna died of kidney disease. She left the throne to her adopted infant son, Ivan VI.
18 October Anna's lover, Ernst Johann von Biron, was declared regent.
8 November 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 8 August Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743): Sweden declared war on Russia.
25 November 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.
2 December Ivan was imprisoned in the Daugavgriva fortress.
1742 4 September Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743): Encircled by the Russians at Helsinki, the Swedish army surrendered.
1743 7 August 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.
1755 Mikhail Lomonosov and Count Ivan Shuvalov founded the University of Moscow.
1756 29 August Seven Years' War: The Kingdom of Prussia invaded the Austrian protectorate of Saxony.
1757 1 May Diplomatic Revolution: Under the Second Treaty of Versailles, Russia joined the Franco-Austrian military alliance.
17 May Seven Years' War: Russian troops entered the war.
1761 25 December Miracle of the House of Brandenburg: Elizabeth died. Her nephew, Peter III, became tsar.
1762 5 May Seven Years' War: The Treaty of Saint Petersburg ended Russian participation in the war at no territorial gain.
17 July Peter was overthrown by the Imperial Guard and replaced with his wife, Catherine II, The Great, on her orders.
1764 5 July A group of soldiers attempted to release the imprisoned Ivan VI; he was murdered.
1767 13 October 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 27 February Repnin Sejm: Delegates of the Sejm adopted a treaty ensuring future Russian influence in Polish internal politics.
29 February Polish nobles established the Bar Confederation in order to end Russian influence in their country.
25 September Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774): The Ottoman sultan declared war on Russia.
1771 15 September Plague Riot: A crowd of rioters entered Red Square, broke into the Kremlin and destroyed the Chudov Monastery.
17 September Plague Riot: The army suppressed the riot.
1772 5 August 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.
18 September A confederated sejm was forced to ratify the first partition of Poland.
1774 21 July 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.
14 September Pugachev's Rebellion: Upset with the rebellion's bleak outlook, Pugachev's officers delivered him to the Russians.
1783 8 April The Crimean Khanate was incorporated into the Russian Empire.
24 July 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.
27 June Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790): The Swedish army playacted a skirmish between themselves and the Russians.
6 July Battle of Hogland: The Russian navy dispersed a Swedish invasion fleet near Hogland in the Gulf of Finland.
6 October Great Sejm: A confederated sejm was called to restore the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1790 14 August Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790): The Treaty of Värälä ended the war, with no changes in territory.
1791 3 May Great Sejm: Poland's Constitution of 3 May 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.
23 December Catherine established the Pale of Settlement, an area in European Russia into which Russian Jews were transported.
1792 9 January 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.
18 May Polish–Russian War of 1792: The army of the Targowica Confederation, which opposed the liberal Polish Constitution of 3 May, invaded Poland.
1793 23 January Polish–Russian War of 1792: The second partition of Poland left the country with one-third of its 1772 population.
23 November Grodno Sejm: The last sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ratified the second partition.
1794 24 March Kościuszko Uprising: An announcement by Tadeusz Kościuszko sparked a nationalist uprising in Poland.
4 November Battle of Praga: Russian troops captured the Praga borough of Warsaw and massacred its civilian population.
5 November Kościuszko Uprising: The uprising ended with the Russian occupation of Warsaw.
1795 11 September Battle of Krtsanisi: The Persian army demolished the armed forces of Kartl-Kakheti.
24 October 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.
5 November Catherine suffered a stroke in the bathtub.
6 November Catherine died. The throne fell to her son, Paul I.

19th century

Year Date Event
1801 8 January Paul authorized the incorporation of Kartl-Kakheti into the Russian empire.
11 March Paul was killed in his bed.
23 March 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 Üçkilise.
1805 The Ottoman Empire dismissed the pro-Russian hospodars of its vassal states, Wallachia and Moldavia.
26 December 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.
27 December Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812): The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia.
1807 14 June Battle of Friedland: The Russian army suffered a defeat against the French, suffering twenty thousand dead.
7 July 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.
16 November Alexander demanded that Sweden close the Baltic Sea to British warships.
1808 21 February Finnish War: Russian troops crossed the Swedish border and captured Hämeenlinna.
1809 29 March Diet of Porvoo: The four Estates of Finland swore allegiance to the Russian crown.
17 September 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.
1 January Alexander established the State Council, which received the executive powers of the Governing Senate.
20 February The Russian government proclaimed the deposition of Solomon II from the throne of Imereti.
1811 27 March Regional military companies were merged into the Internal Guard.
1812 28 May Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812): The Treaty of Bucharest ended the war and transferred Bessarabia to Russia.
24 June French invasion of Russia (1812): The French army crossed the Neman River into Russia.
14 September French invasion of Russia (1812): The French army entered a deserted Moscow, the high-water mark of their invasion.
14 December French invasion of Russia (1812): The last French troops were forced off of Russian territory.
1813 24 October Russo-Persian War (1804–1813): According to the Treaty of Gulistan, the Persian Empire ceded its Transcaucasian territories to Russia.
1815 9 June 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 19 November Alexander died of typhus. The army swore allegiance to his oldest brother, the Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich. Constantine, however, following Alexander's choice of successor, swore allegiance to his younger brother, Nicholas I.
12 December Under pressure from Constantine, Nicholas published Alexander's succession manifesto.
14 December 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.
16 July Russo-Persian War (1826–1828): The Persian army invaded the Russian-owned Talysh Khanate.
1828 21 February 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 14 September 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 29 November November Uprising: A group of Polish nationalists attacked Belweder Palace, the seat of the Governor-General.
1831 25 January November Uprising: An act of the Sejm dethroned Nicholas from the Polish crown.
29 January November Uprising: A new government took office in Poland.
4 February 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 3 July Russia invaded the Ottoman provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia.
4 October Crimean War: The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia.
1854 28 March 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 18 February Nicholas died. His son, Alexander II, became tsar.
1856 30 March 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 28 May The Treaty of Aigun was signed, pushing the Russo-Chinese border east to the Amur river; Tariff Act reduces import tax.
1860 18 October The Convention of Peking transferred the Ussuri krai from China to Russia.
1861 3 March Emancipation reform of 1861: Alexander issued a manifesto emancipating the serfs; Student Protests against the Tsar.
1863 22 January January Uprising: An anti-Russian uprising began in Poland; girls allowed into secondary schools and standard curriculum set.
1864 1 January Zemstva were established for the local self-government of Russian citizens.
1 May The Russian army began an incursion into the Khanate of Kokand.
21 May Caucasian War: Alexander declared the war over.
5 August January Uprising: Romuald Traugutt, the dictator of the rebellion, was hanged.
20 November Judicial reform of Alexander II: A royal decree introduced new laws unifying and liberalizing the Russian judiciary.
1865 17 June The Russian army captured Tashkent
1867 The conquered territories of Central Asia became a separate Guberniya, the Russian Turkestan.
30 March 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 More vocational subjects taught to girls in schools
1873 The Narodnik rebellion began.
The Emirate of Bukhara became a Russian protectorate.
18 May Khiva was captured by Russian troops.
12 August 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.
20 April 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.
8 July A secret treaty prepared for the division of the Balkans between Russia and Austria-Hungary, depending on the outcome of local revolutionary movements.
6 December 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.
24 April Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878): Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire.
1878 3 March 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.
13 July 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 6 August 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 Constitution proposed, Alexander II agrees to it but doesn't get a chance to sign it
10 March Alexander was assassinated by Ignacy Hryniewiecki of the People's Will. His son, Alexander III, becomes tsar.
21 September Persia officially recognized Russia's annexation of Khwarazm in the Treaty of Akhal.
1882 Alexander III introduces factory inspections and restricts working hours for women and children
3 May Alexander III introduced the May Laws, which expelled Russian Jews from rural areas and small towns and severely restricted their access to education
1883 Peasant Land Bank set up
1890 12 June An imperial decree subordinated the zemstva to the authority of the appointed regional governors.
1891 Severe famine affects almost half of Russia's provinces
1892 Witte's Great Spurt increases industrial growth; women banned from mines and children under 12 banned from working in factories
1894 1 November Alexander III dies. His son Nicholas II succeeds him as tsar.
1898 1 March The Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) held its first Party Congress.
1900 16 July onward In response to a local trade blockade, Russia invades and occupies the Sixty-Four Villages East of the Heilongjiang River. All 30,000 Qing Dynasty citizens are expelled from their homes and driven across the Amur River, where most drown.
6 February As part of the Russification of Finland, Nicholas issues the Language Manifesto of 1900, making Russian the official language of Finnish administration.

20th century

Year Date Event
1901 The Socialist-Revolutionary Party was founded.
30 June 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 20 March Russification of Finland: The office of the Governor-General was given dictatorial powers.
6 April Kishinev pogrom: A three-day pogrom began, which would leave forty-seven Jews dead.
17 November 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 8 February Russo-Japanese War: Japan launched a surprise torpedo attack on the Russian navy at Port Arthur.
1905 3 January Russian Revolution of 1905: A strike began at the Putilov Works in St. Petersburg.
22 January Bloody Sunday (1905): Peaceful demonstrators arrived at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg to present a petition to the tsar, leading was a priest named Georgi Gapon. The Imperial Guard fired on the crowd, killing around 200 and wounding 800.
27–28 May Russo-Japanese War: The Russian Baltic Fleet was practically destroyed in the Battle of Tsushima, effectively ending the Russo-Japanese War in Japan's favour.
28 May Russian Revolution of 1905: The first soviet was formed in the midst of a textile strike in Ivanovo-Voznesensk.
14 June Russian Revolution of 1905: A mutiny occurred aboard the battleship Potemkin.
25 June Russian Revolution of 1905: The Potemkin sailors defected to Romania.
5 September Russo-Japanese War: The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed, ceding some Russian property and territory to Japan and ending the war.
17 October 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.
23 April The Fundamental Laws were issued, reaffirming the autocratic supremacy of the tsar.
The First Duma was called.
21 July The First Duma was dissolved.
23 July 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.
9 November 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 9 February The secret police units of the MVD Department of State Police were unified under the authority of the new Okhrana.
20 February The Second Duma began. The Kadets dropped seats, benefiting the RSDLP and the Socialist-Revolutionary Party.
3 June The Second Duma was dissolved.
Nicholas changed the electoral law and gave greater electoral value to the votes of nobility and landowners.
1 November The Third Duma began.
1912 4 April Lena goldfields massacre: The Russian army fired on a crowd of striking miners, killing 150.
9 June The Third Duma ended.
15 November The Fourth Duma was called.
1914 28 June Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand: Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip of the Bosnian separatist group Young Bosnia.
23 July 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.
28 July World War I: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
30 July World War I: Russia mobilized its army to defend Serbia.
1 August World War I: Germany declared war on Russia in defense of Austria-Hungary.
1915 2 May Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive: The German army launched an offensive across the length of the Eastern Front.
4 August Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive: Germany conquered Warsaw.
19 September Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive: German forces captured Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.
1916 25 June Basmachi Revolt: Nicholas issued a decree ordering the conscription of Central Asians.
5 November By the Act of 5 November, the German government established the nominally independent Kingdom of Poland.
16 December Royal adviser Grigori Rasputin was murdered by a group of nobles in the house of Prince Felix Yussupov.
1917 22 February February Revolution: The workers at the Putilov Plant in Petrograd went on strike.
23 February 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.
25 February February Revolution: A battalion of soldiers was sent to Petrograd to end the uprising.
26 February 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.
27 February February Revolution: The soldiers sent to suppress the protestors defected and joined them. It started off as the "National Women's day" then, after two days, the women convinced the soldiers to join their revolution due to the fact that they were women and the soldiers did not want to kill them. On top of this, the Cossacks did not try to stop the protestors. Menshevik leaders were freed from the Peter and Paul Fortress and founded the Petrograd Soviet.
2 March February Revolution: Nicholas abdicated.
17 March A legislative council, the Tsentralna Rada, was founded in Ukraine.
30 March The Provisional Government established the autonomous province of Estonia and scheduled elections to an Estonian legislative body, the Maapäev.
10 May The Rumcherod, the Soviet government of southwestern Ukraine and Bessarabia, was established.
23 June The Tsentralna Rada ratified Ukrainian autonomy.
3 July July Days: A spontaneous pro-soviet demonstration occurred on the streets of Petrograd.
6 July July Days: The rebellion was put down. The Provisional Government ordered the arrest of Bolshevik leaders.
14 July The Maapäev took office.
21 July Alexander Kerensky succeeded L'vov as Prime Minister.
27 August Kornilov Affair: General Lavr Kornilov ordered an army corps to Petrograd to destroy the soviets.
29 August Kornilov Affair: The Provisional Government armed tens of thousands of Red Guards to defend Petrograd.
31 August Kornilov Affair: Kornilov was arrested.
4 September Under public pressure, Bolshevik leaders were released from prison.
23 October Estonian Bolsheviks under Jaan Anvelt captured the capital, Tallinn.
25 October 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.
26 October 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.
21 November The Moldavian legislature, the Sfatul Ţării, held its first meeting.
5 December A local nationalist group, the Alash Orda, established an autonomous government in Kazakhstan.
6 December The Finnish parliament issued a declaration of independence.
7 December The Cheka was established.
12 December A Muslim republic, the Idel-Ural State, was established in central Russia.
25 December Ukrainian Bolsheviks established the Soviet Ukrainian Republic in Kharkiv.
27 December Russian Civil War: The counterrevolutionary Volunteer Army was established.
1918 12 January The Tsentralna Rada declared the independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic.
14 January The Rumcherod declared itself the supreme power in Bessarabia.
15 January A decree of the Sovnarkom established the Red Army.
16 January The Romanian army occupied Kishinev and evicted the Rumcherod.
24 January The Moldavian Democratic Republic declared its independence from Russia.
28 January The Transcaucasian parliament held its first meeting.
After 31 January (O.S.), the Bolsheviks adopted the Gregorian calendar. All dates hereafter are given in the New Style.
18 February The Red Army conquered Kiev.
23 February Mass conscription to the Red Army began in Moscow and Petrograd.
24 February 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).
3 March 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.
6 March Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War: Two hundred British marines arrived at Murmansk.
25 March The Belarusian National Republic was established by its German occupiers.
April The Idel-Ural State was occupied and dissolved by the Red Army.
30 April The Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) was established on the territory of the defunct Russian Turkestan.
26 May Russian Civil War: The Czecho-Slovak Legions began its revolt against the Bolshevik government.
Georgia seceded from the TDFR.
28 May Armenia and Azerbaijan declared their mutual independence.
8 June Russian Civil War: An anti-Bolshevik government, the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly, was established in Samara under the protection of the Czecho-Slovak Legions
28 June 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.
29 June Russian Civil War: The Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia was established in Vladivostok.
July The Idel-Ural State was restored by the Czecho-Slovak Legions.
July Makhno declared his opposition to the Hetmanate regime by some operations in the southeastern Ukraine.
10 July The Russian Constitution of 1918 was adopted 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.
17 July Nicholas and the rest of the royal family were executed on direct orders from Lenin.
30 August After giving a speech at a Moscow factory, Lenin was shot twice by SR Fanny Kaplan, but survived.
3 September Red Terror: Izvestia called on the Russian people to "crush the hydra of counterrevolution with massive terror."
23 September Russian Civil War: A meeting in Ufa established a unified anti-Bolshevik government, the Ufa Directorate.
November Makhnovists established an anarchist society run by peasants and workers in Ukraine, in the territory of Berdyansk, Donetsk, Alexandrovsk and Yekaterinoslav.
11 November World War I: An armistice treaty was signed, ending the war.
17 November Two Latvian political parties founded a provisional legislature, the Tautas Padome.
18 November A military coup overthrew the Ufa Directorate and established its war minister, Aleksandr Kolchak, as dictator.
19 November The Maapäev returned to power in Estonia.
22 November Estonian War of Independence: The Russian Red Army invaded Estonia.
24 November Béla Kun, a friend of Lenin, founded the Hungarian Communist Party.
29 November 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.
8 December The Communist Party of Lithuania established a revolutionary government in Vilnius.
1919 1 January Local Bolsheviks established the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR).
3 January Latvian War of Independence: The Red Army invaded Latvia.
5 January 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.
16 January The Orgburo was established to oversee the membership and organization of the Communist Party.
14 February Polish–Soviet War: The Polish army attacked Soviet forces occupying the town of Biaroza.
27 February Lithuania was absorbed into the Lithuanian-Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.
4 March The First Congress of the Comintern began in Moscow.
21 March 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.
25 March The Eighth Party Congress reinstituted the Politburo as the central governing body of the Communist Party.
16 April The Romanian army invaded Hungary.
21 April Polish–Soviet War: The Polish army consolidated its control of Vilnius.
30 May An anti-Communist Hungarian government headed by Gyula Károlyi was established in Szeged.
16 June Hungarian occupiers established the Slovak Soviet Republic.
7 July The Czechoslovak army reoccupied its territory and dissolved the Slovak Soviet Republic.
1 August Threatened by the approach of the Romanian army, Kun fled to Austria.
14 August The Romanian army left the Hungarian capital, Budapest. Admiral Miklós Horthy stepped into the power vacuum with the army of the Károlyi government.
25 August Polish–Soviet War: After its total occupation by Polish forces, the Lithuanian-Byelorussian SSR was dissolved.
1920 2 February 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.
7 February Russian Civil War: Kolchak was executed by a Bolshevik military tribunal.
February the Free Territory was inundated with Red troops, including the 42nd Rifle Division and the Latvian & Estonian Red Division – in total at least 20,000 soldiers. The insurgents disarmed the 10,000-strong Estonian Division in Huliajpole.
26 March Russian Civil War: The Volunteer Army evacuated to the Crimea to join the army of Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel.
25 April The Russian Eleventh Army invaded the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.
26 April The Khorezm People's Soviet Republic was established on the territory of the defunct Khanate of Khiva.
28 April With the Azerbaijani capital Baku under Eleventh Army occupation, the parliament agreed to transfer power to the Communist government of the Azerbaijan SSR.
12 June The Soviet Union recognized Lithuanian independence.
8 July Polish–Soviet War: The Galician Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) was established in Ternopil.
11 August Latvian War of Independence: The Treaty of Riga was signed. Soviet Russia renounced all claims on Latvian territory.
13 August Battle of Warsaw: The battle began with a Russian attack across the Vistula.
26 August The Bolsheviks defeated the government of the Alash Orda and established the Kyrgyz ASSR† (1).
31 August Battle of Warsaw: The total defeat of the Russian Fourth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Armies marked the end of the battle.
2 September The Red Army attacked Bukhara, the capital of the Emirate of Bukhara.
21 September Polish–Soviet War: The Polish army occupied Galicia and ended the rule of the Galician SSR.
25 September Makhno's Black Army suddenly turned from south to east, attacking the main forces of General Denikin's army.
26 September Makhnovists routed elements of the white Volunteer Army in the Battle of Peregonovka, Uman (Ukraine).
8 October The Bukharan People's Soviet Republic was established.
14 November Russian Civil War: Wrangel fled Russia.
29 November The Eleventh Army entered Armenia.
1 December The Armenian Prime Minister ceded control of the country to the invading Communists.
1921 16 February Red Army invasion of Georgia: The Eleventh Army crossed into Georgia.
22 February Gosplan, the economic planning committee of the Soviet Union, was created by a decree of the Sovnarkom.
25 February Red Army invasion of Georgia: The Eleventh Army captured Tbilisi and announced the formation of the Georgian SSR.
28 February Kronstadt rebellion: The crews of the battleships Petropavlovsk and Sevastopol, harbored at Kronstadt, published a list of demands on the government.
17 March Kronstadt rebellion: After over a week of fighting, government troops pacified Kronstadt.
21 March A decree of the Tenth Party Congress replaced war communism with the more liberal New Economic Policy.
18 March 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.
13 July Russian famine of 1921: The writer Maxim Gorky brought world attention to the looming famine.
August Nestor Makhno's headquarters staff and several Black Army subordinate commanders were arrested and executed on the spot by a Red Army firing squad: the Makhnovist treaty delegation, still in Kharkiv, was also arrested and liquidated. Makhno's Black Army forces were defeated and dispersed by Red Army.
1922 23 February Russian famine of 1921: A decree published in Izvestia authorized the seizure of church valuables for famine relief.
12 March The Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani SSRs were merged into the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR).
3 April The Eleventh Communist Party Congress established the office of the General Secretary of the Communist Party and appointed Joseph Stalin to fill it.
16 May Tikhon, the Patriarch of Moscow, was put under house arrest.
4 August Basmachi Revolt: Enver Pasha was killed in Turkestan.
29 December 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 3 May A council of the pro-government Living Church declared Tikhon an apostate and abolished the Patriarchate.
15 October 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 21 January Lenin died.
31 January The 1924 Soviet Constitution came into effect.
18 February The Thirteenth Party Congress, led by Stalin, Comintern chairman Grigory Zinoviev and Politburo chairman Lev Kamenev, denounced Trotsky and his faction, the Left Opposition.
10 October The territory of the Khorezm SSR was incorporated into the Turkestan ASSR.
12 October The Moldavian ASSR was established in the Ukrainian SSR.
14 October The Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast was spun off of the Turkestan ASSR and incorporated into the Russian SFSR.
27 October The Uzbek SSR was spun out of the Turkestan ASSR.
25 November The Mongolian People's Republic was established.
27 November The Bukharan People's Soviet Republic was incorporated into the Uzbek SSR.
1925 6 January Trotsky was forced to resign his military offices.
19 February The lands of the Karakalpaks became the Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast, an oblast of the Kyrgyz ASSR (1).
7 April 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.
19 April The Kyrgyz ASSR (1) was renamed the Kazakh ASSR.
13 May The Uzbek SSR joined the Soviet Union.
The remainder of the Turkestan ASSR became the Turkmen SSR.
10 December Peter of Krutitsy was arrested. Sergius of Nizhny Novgorod, whom he had named to succeed him, took the title of Deputy Patriarchal locum tenens.
23 December 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 11 February The Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast was reorganized into the Kyrgyz ASSR (2).
23 October Trotsky was expelled from the Politburo.
1927 25 February Article 58 of the RFSR Penal Code revised the penalties for counterrevolutionary activity.
29 July Sergius affirmed the loyalty of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Soviet government.
12 November Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the Communist Party.
2 December The Fifteenth Party Congress expelled the remainder of the United Opposition from the Party.
1928 7 March Shakhty Trial: Police arrested a group of engineers in the town of Shakhty and accused them of conspiring to sabotage the Soviet economy.
1 October First Five Year Plan: Stalin announced the beginning of state industrialisation of the Soviet economy.
1929 17 November Bukharin was expelled from the Politburo.
Collectivisation in the USSR: A Central Committee resolution began the collectivisation of Soviet agriculture.
5 December The Tajik ASSR of the Uzbek SSR became the Tajik SSR.
1930 15 April The Gulag was officially established.
20 July The Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast was transferred to the Russian SFSR.
1932 20 March The Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast became the Karakalpak ASSR.
7 August 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.
11 September Holodomor: Stalin sent a letter to a Politburo ally, Lazar Kaganovich, demanding the subjection of the Ukrainian SSR.
27 December A decree by the Central Executive Committee and the Sovnarkom established a passport system in the Soviet Union.
31 December First Five-Year Plan: It was announced that the plan had been fulfilled.
1933 22 January Holodomor: Police were instructed to prevent Ukrainian peasants from leaving their homes in search of food.
1934 8 February 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.
10 July The Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) was established under the NKVD as a successor to the OGPU.
1 December Kirov was murdered by Leonid Nikolaev, possibly at the behest of Stalin.
1935 31 August 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 19 August Moscow Trials: The Trial of the Sixteen, in which Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev were the primary defendants, began.
25 August Moscow Trials: The defendants in the Trial of the Sixteen were executed.
5 December The Stalin Constitution came into effect. The Central Executive Committee was renamed the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.
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 23 January Moscow Trials: The Second Trial began.
30 January Moscow Trials: The Second Trial ended. Of seventeen defendants, all but four were sentenced to death.
22 May Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization: Mikhail Tukhachevsky, a Marshal of the Soviet Union and hero of the Russian Civil War, was arrested.
12 June Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization: Tukhachevsky was executed, with eight other military leaders.
30 July 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."
11 August Polish operation of the NKVD: The NKVD chief signed Order № 00485, classifying all potential Polish nationalists as enemies of the state.
15 August Great Purge: NKVD Order № 00486 made relatives of accused traitors subject to imprisonment in labor camps.
10 October Peter of Krutitsy was executed in solitary confinement.
1938 A new decree required the teaching of Russian in all non-Russian schools.
2 March Trial of the Twenty One: The third Moscow Trial, at which Bukharin was the primary defendant, began.
15 March Trial of the Twenty One: The defendants were executed.
29 July Battle of Lake Khasan: The armed forces of Japanese Manchukuo attacked the Soviet military at Lake Khasan.
31 August Battle of Lake Khasan: The battle ended in a Japanese defeat.
1939 23 August 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.
17 September Soviet invasion of Poland (1939): The Red Army invaded Poland.
22 October Elections were held to the Supreme Soviets of the Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union.
26 November Shelling of Mainila: The Red Army shelled the Russian village of Mainila and blamed the Finns for invented casualties.
30 November Winter War: The Soviet army attacked Finland.
1 December Winter War: The Soviet Union established the Finnish Democratic Republic in the border town of Terijoki.
1940 5 March Katyn massacre: The Politburo signed an order to execute 27,500 imprisoned Polish nationals.
12 March Winter War: The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed, ending the war at great cost to Finland and anticipating the evacuation of Finnish Karelia.
31 March The Karelian ASSR merged with the Finnish Democratic Republic into the Karelo-Finnish SSR.
15 June The Red Army occupied Lithuania.
17 June The Red Army occupied Estonia and Latvia.
28 June Soviet occupation of Bessarabia: Bessarabia and northern Bukovina were occupied by the Soviet Union.
21 July Lithuania became the Lithuanian SSR; Latvia became the Latvian SSR.
2 August 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.
3 August The Lithuanian SSR was accepted into the Soviet Union.
5 August The Latvian SSR was annexed by the Soviet Union.
6 August Estonia became the Estonian SSR and was incorporated into the Soviet Union.
21 August Trotsky is assassinated by Ramon Mercador on Stalin's orders.
1941 13 April Soviet-Japanese Border Wars: A Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact was signed.
22 June 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.
24 June Lithuanian 1941 independence: The LAF government took power in Lithuania.
25 June Continuation War: The Soviet Union launched a major air offensive against Finnish targets.
28 June Operation Barbarossa: The Germans captured Minsk.
27 July Operation Barbarossa: The German and Romanian armies entered Kishinev.
21 August Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran: Three Soviet armies invaded Iran from the north.
8 September Siege of Leningrad: The German army cut the last land tie to Leningrad.
17 September Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran: The Soviet and British armed forces met in Tehran.
19 September Operation Barbarossa: Kiev fell to the Germans.
2 October Battle of Moscow: Three German armies began an advance on Moscow.
20 November Siege of Leningrad: The first food was carried into Leningrad across the Road of Life on the frozen Lake Ladoga.
5 December Battle of Moscow: The Soviet army launched a counterattack from Kalinin.
1942 7 January Battle of Moscow: The Soviet counteroffensive ended between sixty and one-hundred fifty miles from Moscow.
21 August Battle of Stalingrad: The German Luftwaffe began a bombing raid against Stalingrad.
19 November Operation Uranus: The Soviet army began a pincer movement against the German forces besieging Stalingrad.
22 November Operation Uranus: The German Sixth Army was surrounded.
1943 12 January Operation Spark (1943): The Soviet army launched a military offensive to break the Siege of Leningrad.
18 January Operation Spark (1943): The meeting of the Leningrad and Volkhov Front units opened a land corridor to Leningrad.
2 February Battle of Stalingrad: The German Sixth Army surrendered.
15 May The Comintern was dissolved.
8 September Stalin allowed a church council, which unanimously elected Sergius to the Patriarchate of Moscow.
6 November The Russians recaptured Kiev.
1944 6 January The Red Army crossed into Poland.
27 January Siege of Leningrad: The last German forces were expelled from the city.
15 May Sergius died.
21 July The Communist Lublin Government of Poland was established.
1 August Warsaw Uprising: The Polish Home Army began an attack on German forces in Warsaw.
22 August Warsaw Uprising: Stalin denied the Allies use of his landing strips to supply aid to the insurgents.
23 August Michael I of Romania led a coup against the military dictatorship of Ion Antonescu.
31 August Soviet occupation of Romania: The Red Army captured Bucharest.
12 September 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.
19 September Continuation War: The Moscow Armistice was signed, ending the war at roughly the prewar borders.
21 September Soviet and Czechoslovak partisan armed forces entered German-occupied Czechoslovakia.
2 October Warsaw Uprising: The leader of the Uprising signed a surrender agreement.
14 November The Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia was established in Prague.
31 December The Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland (RTRP), which incorporated token non-Communists into the preexisting Lublin Government, was established.
1945 17 January The Soviet Union captured Warsaw.
18 January The Soviet Union captured Budapest.
2 February Alexius I was elected Patriarch of Moscow.
11 February The Soviet Union gained the right to Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands at the Yalta Conference
6 March Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Rădescu was forced to resign his office to Petru Groza of the Ploughmen's Front.
4 April The government of the Third Czechoslovakian Republic was established in Košice.
20 April Battle of Berlin: The Soviet army began shelling Berlin.
21 April The RTRP ceded control of Poland's internal security apparatus to the Soviet government for forty years.
2 May Battle of Berlin: The defenders of Berlin surrendered to the Soviet Union.
9 May The Soviet army captured Prague.
18 June Trial of the Sixteen: Leaders of the Polish Secret State were tried in the Soviet Union for collaboration.
21 June Trial of the Sixteen: The defendants were sentenced.
28 June The coalition Provisional Government of National Unity (TRJN) was established in Poland.
5 July The United States recognized the TRJN.
2 August The Potsdam Agreement moved Poland's borders to the west and established the shape of occupied Germany.
16 August Invasion of Manchuria: Soviet armed forces landed on Sakhalin.
18 August Invasion of Manchuria: Soviet amphibious forces landed in Korea.
20 August Invasion of Manchuria: The Soviet Union captured Changchun, the capital of Manchukuo.
25 August Invasion of Manchuria: The Soviet Union captured Sakhalin's capital.
November The Soviet Union established the Azerbaijan People's Government in Iranian Azerbaijan.
1946 22 January The Soviet-backed Kurdish Republic of Mahabad declared its independence from Iran.
2 March Iran crisis: British troops withdrew from Iran. The Soviet Union violated its prior agreement and remained.
10 March The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was liquidated by a rump synod in L'viv and driven underground.
20 March László Rajk of the Hungarian Communist Party became Minister of the Interior.
9 May Iran crisis: The Soviet Union withdrew from Iran.
26 May Czechoslovak parliamentary election, 1946: The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) won a plurality of votes, enabling their takeover of the information and interior ministries.
19 November Romanian general election, 1946: Rigged elections gave a vast majority of seats in the Romanian legislature to the Romanian Communist Party and its allies.
11 December Iran regained control over the territory of the Azerbaijan People's Government.
15 December Iran conquered Mahabad.
1947 19 January Polish legislative election, 1947: Rigged elections gave the Communist bloc 80 percent of the vote.
31 August The Hungarian Communist Party won a plurality of seats in elections to the Hungarian legislature.
5 October The Cominform was established in order to coordinate Communist parties under Soviet control.
27 November 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.
30 December King Michael I of Romania was forced to abdicate.
1948 20 February Non-Communist ministers resigned from the Czechoslovakian parliament in order to force an election.
21 February The KSČ established the Workers' Militia, banned non-Communists from television broadcasts, and occupied the non-Communist ministries.
25 February Czechoslovakian president Edvard Beneš accepted the resignations of the non-Communist ministers and replaced them according to the demands of the KSČ.
13 April A new Romanian constitution declared Romania a People's Republic.
24 June Berlin Blockade: The Soviet Union blocked rail and road access to West Berlin.
25 June Berlin Blockade: The commander of the American occupation zone ordered an airlift of supplies into West Berlin.
28 June Yugoslavia was expelled from the Cominform.
9 September The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established.
1949 11 May Berlin Blockade: The Soviets lifted the blockade.
18 August A new Communist constitution came into force in Hungary.
29 August Joe 1: The Soviet atomic bomb project culminated in a successful test detonation.
1950 30 January 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."
25 June Korean War: The North Korean army launched a 135,000 man surprise assault across the 38th parallel.
1 November Korean War: Soviet-piloted MiG-15s first crossed the Yalu River and attacked American planes.
1952 20 November Prague Trials: A series of show trials purged the Czech Communist Party of Jews and insufficiently orthodox Stalinists.
1953 13 January 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.
1 March After an all-night dinner with party members Lavrenty Beria, Nikolai Bulganin, Nikita Khrushchev and Georgy Malenkov, Stalin suffered a paralyzing stroke.
5 March Stalin died.
6 March Malenkov succeeded Stalin as Premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party.
14 March Khrushchev became First Secretary.
3 April The Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party officially acquitted those arrested in connection with the so-called "doctors' plot".
8 April First Indochina War: Viet Minh and Pathet Lao forces invaded Laos and attacked French bases there.
16 June 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.
17 June 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.
26 June Beria was arrested at a special meeting of the Presidium.
27 July Korean War: An armistice was signed, ending the conflict.
7 September Khrushchev was confirmed as head of the Central Committee.
1954 13 March Battle of Dien Bien Phu: Viet Minh forces loosed a massive artillery barrage against the surrounded French airbase at Dien Bien Phu.
7 May Battle of Dien Bien Phu: The battle ended in a French defeat.
16 May Kengir Uprising: Prisoners at a Gulag adjacent to the Kazakh village of Kengir occupied the camp's service yard.
25 June Kengir Uprising: The prison camp at Kengir was invaded and subdued by Soviet troops and tanks.
21 July 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 2 June 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 25 February 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.
17 April The Cominform was officially dissolved.
28 June Poznań 1956 protests: Poles upset with the slow pace of destalinization turned to protests, and then to violent riots.
29 June Poznań 1956 protests: Konstantin Rokossovsky, the Polish minister of defense, ordered the military in to end the riots. At least 74 civilians were killed.
16 July The Karelo-Finnish SSR became the Karelian ASSR of the Russian SFSR.
19 October The liberal Władysław Gomułka was elected leader of the Polish Communist party.
23 October 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.
31 October 1956 Hungarian Revolution: Hungary under Nagy withdrew from the Warsaw Pact.
4 November 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.
8 November 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.
2 December Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro and his followers in the 26 July Movement landed in Cuba.
10 December Angolan War of Independence: Two Angolan independence movements united to form the Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola.
1957 18 June 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.
29 June 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 27 March Khrushchev replaced Bulganin as Premier of the Soviet Union.
1959 1 January Cuban Revolution: Cuban president Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba for the Dominican Republic.
1960 16 April Sino-Soviet Split: A Chinese Communist Party newspaper accused the Soviet leadership of "revisionism."
16 July Sino-Soviet Split: Moscow recalled thousands of Soviet advisers from China and ended economic and military aid.
20 December Vietnam War: The National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam was formed, with the intent to overthrow the government of South Vietnam.
1961 17 April 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.
20 April Bay of Pigs Invasion: Castro announced that all the invaders had been defeated.
13 August Construction began on the Berlin Wall.
2 December In a nationally broadcast speech, Castro declared he was a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba was going to adopt Communism.
10 December Sino-Albanian split: The People's Republic of China severed diplomatic ties with Albania.
1962 2 June Novocherkassk massacre: Soviet workers gathered in the town square of Novocherkassk to protest an increase in food prices and work quotas. Shots were fired at the rioters, killing 25 and injuring 87 people.
25 June Mozambican War of Independence: The Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO) was founded.
16 October Cuban Missile Crisis: President Kennedy is shown aerial photos from U-2 surveillance flights showing missile bases in Cuba. The thirteen days marking the most dangerous period of the Cuban missile crisis begin.
22 October 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.
26 October 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.
28 October Cuban Missile Crisis: Khrushchev announced that he had ordered the removal of the Soviet missiles in Cuba.
1964 14 October 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 1 January The Marxist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) held its first congress.
1967 7 February Sino-Soviet split: The Chinese government announced that it could no longer guarantee the safety of Soviet diplomats outside the embassy building.
10 June The Soviet Union severed diplomatic relations with Israel. see Soviet Union and the Arab-Israeli conflict
1968 5 January Prague Spring: The liberal Alexander Dubček was appointed to succeed Antonín Novotný as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
5 April 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.
20 August Prague Spring: Between 200,000 and 600,000 Warsaw Pact troops crossed the Czechoslovakian border.
21 August 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 2 March 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.
21 October 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 27 January 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 11 July The Soviet Union signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation with the Somali government.
12 September Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown by a council of military officers, the Derg.
20 December The Derg declared that socialism was the new ideology of the Ethiopian state.
1975 31 January 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.
11 March Vietnam War: A large-scale North Vietnamese offensive began with the conquest of Buon Ma Thuot.
27 March The Pathet Lao began a military offensive against the Laotian government.
30 April Fall of Saigon: The South Vietnamese capital of Saigon was captured by the Vietnam People's Army.
25 June Mozambican War of Independence: The FRELIMO government received independence from Portugal. Party leader Samora Machel, a Marxist, became the nation's first president.
11 November Angolan Civil War: Portugal accepted a declaration of independence from the MPLA, which controlled the Angolan capital of Luanda.
2 December The king of Laos abdicated the throne, leaving leadership of the country to the Communist Pathet Lao.
1977 23 July Ogaden War: The Somali National Army invaded the Ogaden region in eastern Ethiopia.
7 September Ogaden War: The Soviet Union ended its arms shipments to the Somali government.
13 November Ogaden War: Barre cancelled the Somali-Soviet treaty of friendship.
1978 28 April Saur Revolution: Military units loyal to the PDPA assaulted the Afghan Presidential palace, killing President Mohammed Daoud Khan.
1 May 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.
October Brezhnev's poliboro sizes up Karol Cardinal Wojtyla of Poland when he is elected Pope John Paul II on October 16 and delivers his "be not afraid" speech on

October 22's papal inauguration.

5 December A treaty was signed that permitted deployment of the Soviet military at the Afghan government's request.
25 December Cambodian-Vietnamese War: The Vietnamese army invaded Cambodia.
1979 7 January Cambodian-Vietnamese War: The Vietnamese army captured Phnom Penh, ending the reign of the Khmer Rouge.
10 January Cambodian-Vietnamese War: The People's Republic of Kampuchea was established.
19 July The armed forces of the Marxist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) entered Managua.
14 September Taraki was murdered by supporters of Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin.
24 December Soviet war in Afghanistan: Fearing the collapse of the Amin regime, the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan.
27 December 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 January 22 Andrei Sakharov is exiled without charges to the closed industrial city of Gorki for opposing the invasion of Afghanistan.
6 February The United States announces its planned boycott of the Moscow Olympics because of the invasion of Afghanistan.
17 September The trade union Solidarity was founded in Poland.
10 October The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) was founded from an assortment of leftist and Communist Salvadoran revolutionary organizations.
1981 13 December In response to the growing influence of Solidarity, Wojciech Jaruzelski, the First Secretary of the Communist Party, declared martial law in Poland, under indirect threat of Soviet intervention.
1982 25 January Suslov died after a severe stroke.
10 November Brezhnev died of a heart attack.
12 November Yuri Andropov was elected General Secretary of the CPSU.
1983 19 October The Grenadian military overthrew the government of Maurice Bishop and installed the pro-Soviet Stalinist Bernard Coard to lead the nation.
25 October Invasion of Grenada: The United States and its Caribbean allies toppled the Coard government.
1984 9 February Andropov died after a lengthy kidney disease and was succeeded as General Secretary by Konstantin Chernenko.
8 May Chernenko announces a Soviet-bloc boycott of the Los Angeles-held Summer Olympics, citing security concerns for its athletes.
1985 10 March Chernenko died of emphysema.
11 March The Politburo unanimously supported Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary of the Communist Party.
1988 14 April Soviet war in Afghanistan: The Soviet government signed the Geneva Accords, which included a timetable for withdrawing their armed forces.
27 April A strike at the V.I. Lenin Steel Mill in Nowa Huta touched off months of strikes across Poland.
13 April Singing Revolution: The Popular Front of Estonia was founded.
3 June Singing Revolution: The liberalization movement Sąjūdis was founded in Lithuania.
9 October Singing Revolution: The Popular Front of Latvia was founded.
1989 15 February Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet troops left the country.
4 April The Polish Round Table Agreement legalized independent trade unions and reinstated the Senate.
4 June Partially-free elections were held to the Polish parliament, resulting in a landslide Solidarity victory.
23 August Singing Revolution: Two million people joined hands to form the Baltic Way across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to demonstrate for independence.
23 October The Hungarian parliament declared their country a republic.
9 November The East German government loosened restrictions on travel into the West, effecting the end of the Berlin Wall.
11 November El Salvador Civil War: The FMLN launched an offensive that would capture part of San Salvador.
17 November Velvet Revolution: An anti-Communist protest in Czechoslovakia was ended violently by the police.
28 November Velvet Revolution: The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced the end of its monopoly on political power.
1 December Mikhail Gorbachev meets with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.
7 December Singing Revolution: The Lithuanian parliament ended the political monopoly of the Communist Party of Lithuania.
16 December 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.
25 December Romanian Revolution of 1989: Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife, Elena, were captured in the countryside and executed.
1990 15 January The Bulgarian Communist Party repealed its constitutional supremacy.
23 February Singing Revolution: Elections in Lithuania gave Sąjūdis an absolute majority in the legislature.
11 March Singing Revolution: The Lithuanian government declared its independence from the Soviet Union.
18 March 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.
8 April The Hungarian Socialist Party received only 8% of the seats in elections to parliament.
9 June Velvet Revolution: Elections in Czechoslovakia reduced the Communist Party to a minority.
12 June The First Congress of People's Deputies of Russia issued the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
21 August Conflict in Transnistria and Gagauzia: The Gagauz declared a new soviet republic on Moldavian soil.
1991 11 January January Events: Soviet troops violently seized important buildings in cities throughout Lithuania.
23 May The Moldavian SSR became the Republic of Moldova.
12 June Russian presidential election, 1991: Boris Yeltsin was elected to the presidency of the Russian SFSR.
19 August 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.
20 August Singing Revolution: The Estonian government declared its independence.
21 August 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.
24 August The Ukrainian parliament adopted the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine.
27 August Moldova declared independence.
30 August The Kyrgyz SSR became the Republic of Kyrgyzstan.
31 August The Republic of Kyrgyzstan declared independence.
6 September 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.
27 October A national referendum confirmed the Dudaev presidency. Dudaev unilaterally declared the independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.
8 December The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine signed the Belavezha Accords, dissolving the Soviet Union.
26 December The Supreme Soviet confirmed the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
1993 21 September 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.
4 October Russian constitutional crisis of 1993: The army occupied the parliament building and arrested a number of its leaders.
12 December Russian constitutional crisis of 1993: A new 5th Russian constitution was approved by referendum, vastly increasing the power of the presidency.
1994 2 August First Chechen War: The leader of the Russian-backed Provisional Council of the Chechen Republic announced his intention to overthrow the Dudaev government.
11 December First Chechen War: Russian troops invaded Chechnya.
1996 3 July Russian presidential election, 1996: Yeltsin narrowly defeated his Communist challenger, Gennady Zyuganov.
30 August First Chechen War: The Khasav-Yurt Accord was signed, signaling the end of the war.
1999 7 August Dagestan War: A Chechnya-based militia invaded the Russian republic of Dagestan in support of local separatists.
16 August The State Duma confirmed the appointment of Vladimir Putin as Prime Minister of Russia.
23 August Dagestan War: The militias began their retreat back into Chechnya.
26 August Second Chechen War: The militia that had invaded Dagestan was bombed inside Chechnya.
4 September Russian apartment bombings: A car bomb outside of an apartment building in Buynaksk killed sixty-four people.
2 October Second Chechen War: Russian ground troops invaded Chechnya.
8 December The treaty of creation of the Union of Russia and Belarus was signed.
31 December Boris Yeltsin resigned as President of the Russian Federation. Prime Minister Putin became acting president.
2000 26 March Russian presidential election, 2000: Putin was elected president with 53 percent of the vote.
12 August Russian submarine Kursk explosion: An explosion disabled the Russian submarine K-141 Kursk.

21st century

Year Date Event
2002 23 October 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.
26 October Moscow theater hostage crisis: The police pumped anesthetic into the building, then stormed it from every entrance, executing all 42 terrorists. 120 hostages also died due to cumulative effects of intoxication, hunger and maltreatment by the terrorists.
2004 14 March Russian presidential election, 2004: Putin won re-election to a second term, earning 71 percent of the vote.
1 September Beslan school hostage crisis: A group of Chechen terrorists took 1300 adults and children hostage at School Number One in Beslan.
3 September 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, 31 of 32 hostage-takers and 10 police dead.
2005 13 October October 2005 Nalchik attack: A large group of terrorists 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.
2007 23 April Boris Yeltsin died of congestive heart failure.
2008 2 March Russian presidential election, 2008: Dmitry Medvedev won, earning 70.5 percent of the vote.
2008 16 August 2008 South Ossetia War: Russia defeated Georgia.
2010 8 April The New START treaty, which would cut the nuclear arsenals of Russia and the United States by a third, was signed.
2012 4 March Russian presidential election, 2012: Vladimir Putin won, earning 63.6 percent of the vote.
2014 19 March Accession of Crimea to the Russian Federation: Putin signed the Treaty on the Adoption of the Republic of Crimea to Russia.

See also

Cities in Russia

Further reading

Published in the 19th century

Published in the 20th century

Published in the 21st century

External links

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