Soviet Union Table of Contents
Period Description NINTH CENTURY ca. 860 Rurik, a Varangian, according to earliest chronicle of Kievan Rus', rules Novgorod and founds Rurikid Dynasty. ca. 880 Prince Oleg, a Varangian, first historically verified ruler of Kievan Rus'. TENTH CENTURY 911 Prince Oleg, after attacking Constantinople, concludes treaty with Byzantine Empire favorable to Kievan Rus'. 944 Prince Igor' compelled by Constantinople to sign treaty adverse to Kievan Rus'. ca. 955 Princess Olga, while regent of Kievan Rus', converts to Christianity. 971 Prince Sviatoslav makes peace with Byzantine Empire. 988 Prince Vladimir converts Kievan Rus' to Christianity. ELEVENTH CENTURY 1015 Prince Vladimir's death leads Rurikid princes into fratricidal war that continues until 1036. 1019 Prince Iaroslav (the Wise) of Novgorod assumes throne of Kievan Rus'. 1036 Prince Iaroslav the Wise ends fratricidal war and later codifies laws of Kievan Rus' into Ruska Pravda (Rus' Justice). 1037 Prince Iaroslav the Wise defeats Pechenegs; construction begins on St. Sofia Cathedral in Kiev. 1051 Ilarion becomes first native metropolitan of Orthodox Church in Kievan Rus'. TWELFTH CENTURY 1113-25 Kievan Rus' experiences revival under Grand Prince Vladimir Monomakh. 1136 Republic of Novgorod gains independence from Kievan Rus'. 1147 Moscow first mentioned in chronicles. 1156 Novgorod acquires its own archbishop. 1169 Armies of Prince Andrei Bogoliubskii of Vladimir-Suzdal' sack Kiev; Andrei assumes title "Grand Prince of Kiev and all Rus'" but chooses to reside in Suzdal'. THIRTEENTH CENTURY 1219-41 Mongols invade: Kiev falls in 1240; Novgorod and Moscow submit to Mongol "yoke" without resisting. 1242 Aleksandr Nevskii successfully defends Novgorod against Teutonic attack. 1253 Prince Daniil of Galicia-Volhynia accepts royal crown of Kievan Rus' from pope. FOURTEENTH CENTURY 1327 Ivan, prince of Moscow, nicknamed Kalita ("Money Bags"), affirmed as "Grand Prince of Vladimir" by Mongols; Moscow becomes seat of metropolitan of Russian Orthodox Church. 1380 Dmitrii Donskoi defeats Golden Horde at Battle of Kulikovo, but Mongol domination continues until 1480. FIFTEENTH CENTURY 1462 Ivan III becomes grand prince of Muscovy and first Muscovite ruler to use titles of tsar and "Ruler of all Rus'. 1478 Muscovy defeats Novgorod. 1485 Muscovy conquers Tver'. SIXTEENTH CENTURY 1505 Vasilii III becomes grand prince of Muscovy. 1510 Muscovy conquers Pskov. 1533 Grand Prince Ivan IV named ruler of Muscovy at age three. 1547 Ivan IV (the Terrible or the Dread) crowned tsar of Muscovy. 1552 Ivan IV conquers Kazan' Khanate. 1556 Ivan IV conquers Astrakhan' Khanate. 1565 Oprichnina of Ivan IV creates a state within the state. 1571 Tatars raid Moscow. 1581 Ermak begins conquest of Siberia. 1584 Fedor I crowned tsar. 1589 Patriarchate of Moscow established. 1596 Union of Brest establishes Uniate Church. 1598 Rurikid Dynasty ends with death of Fedor; Boris Godunov named tsar; Time of Troubles begins. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 1601 Three years of famine begin. 1605 Fedor II crowned tsar; First False Dmitrii subsequently named tsar after Fedor II's murder. 1606 Vasilii Shuiskii named tsar. 1606-07 Bolotnikov leads revolt. 1610 Second False Dmitrii proclaimed tsar. 1610-13 Poles occupy Moscow. 1611-12 Minin and Pozharskii organize counterattack against Poles. 1613 Mikhail Romanov crowned tsar, founding Romanov Dynasty. 1631 Metropolitan Mohila founds academy in Kiev. 1645 Alexis crowned tsar. 1648 Ukrainian Cossacks, led by Bohdan Khmel'nyts'kyi, revolt against Polish landowners and gentry. 1649 Serfdom fully established by law. 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslavl' places Ukraine under tsarist rule. 1667 Church council in Moscow anathemizes Old Belief but removes Patriarch Nikon; Treaty of Andrusovo ends war with Poland. 1670-71 Stenka Razin leads revolt. 1676 Fedor III crowned tsar. 1682 Half brothers Ivan V and Peter I named co- tsars; Peter's half sister, Sofia, becomes regent. 1689 Peter I (the Great) forces Sofia to resign regency; Treaty of Nerchinsk ends period of conflict with China. 1696 Ivan V dies, leaving Peter the Great sole tsar; port of Azov captured from Ottoman Empire. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 1700 Calendar reformed; war with Sweden begins. 1703 St. Petersburg founded; becomes capital of Russia in 1713. 1705-11 Bashkirs revolt. 1708 First Russian newspaper published. 1709 Swedes defeated at Battle of Poltava. 1710 Cyrillic alphabet reformed. 1721 Treaty of Nystad ends Great Northern War with Sweden and establishes Russian presence on Baltic Sea; Peter the Great proclaims Muscovy the Russian Empire; Holy Synod replaces patriarchate. 1722 Table of Ranks established. 1723-32 Russia gains control of southern shore of Caspian Sea. 1725 Catherine I crowned empress of Russia. 1727 Peter II crowned emperor of Russia. 1730 Anna crowned empress of Russia. 1740 Ivan VI crowned emperor of Russia. 1741 Elizabeth crowned empress of Russia. 1762 Peter III crowned emperor of Russia; abolishes compulsory state service for the gentry; Catherine II (the Great) crowned empress of Russia. 1768-74 War with Ottoman Empire ends with Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji. 1772 Russia participates in first partition of Poland. 1773-74 Emelian Pugachev leads peasant revolt. 1785 Catherine II confirms nobility's privileges in Charter to the Nobility. 1787-92 War with Ottoman Empire ends with Treaty of Jassy; Ottomans recognize 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea. 1793 and 1795 Russia participates in second and third partitions of Poland. 1796 Paul crowned emperor of Russia; establishes new law of succession. NINETEENTH CENTURY 1801 Alexander I crowned emperor; conquest of Caucasus region begins. 1809 Finland annexed from Sweden and awarded autonomous status. 1812 Napoleon's army occupies Moscow but is then driven out of Russia. 1817-19 Baltic peasants liberated from serfdom but given no land. 1825 "Decembrists' revolt" fails; Nicholas I crowned emperor. 1830 Polish uprising crushed. 1833 "Autocracy, Orthodoxy, and nationality" accepted as guiding principles by regime. 1837 First Russian railroad, from St. Petersburg to Tsarskoe Selo, opens; Aleksandr Pushkin, foremost Russian writer, dies in duel. 1840s and 1850s Slavophiles debate Westernizers over Russia's future. 1849 Russia helps to put down anti-Habsburg Hungarian rebellion at Austria's request. 1853-56 Russia fights Britain, France, Sardinia, and Ottoman Empire in Crimean War; Russia forced to accept peace settlement dictated by its opponents. 1855 Alexander II crowned emperor. 1858 Treaty of Aigun signed with China; northern bank of Amur River ceded to Russia. 1860 Treaty of Beijing signed with China; Ussuri River region awarded to Russia. 1861 Alexander II emancipates serfs. 1863 Polish rebellion unsuccessful. 1864 Judicial system reformed; zemstvos created. 1869 War and Peace by Lev Tolstoy (1828-1910) published. 1873-74 Army reformed; Russian youths go "to the people." 1875 Kuril Islands yielded to Japan in exchange for southern Sakhalin. 1877-78 War with Ottoman Empire ends with Treaty of San Stefano; independent Bulgaria proclaimed. 1879 Revolutionary society Land and Liberty splits; People's Will and Black Repartition formed. 1879-80 The Brothers Karamazov by Fedor Dostoevskii (1821-81) published. 1881 Alexander II assassinated; Alexander III crowned emperor. 1894 Nicholas II crowned emperor. 1898 Russian Social Democratic Labor Party established and holds first congress in March; Vladimir I. Lenin one of organizers of party. TWENTIETH CENTURY 1903 Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions. 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War ends with Russian defeat; southern Sakhalin ceded to Japan. 1905 "Bloody Sunday" massacre in January begins Revolution of 1905, a year of labor and ethnic unrest; government issues so-called October Manifesto, calling for parliamentary elections. 1906 First Duma (parliament) elected. 1911 Stolypin, chief minister since 1906, assassinated. 1914 World War I begins. 1916 Rasputin murdered. 1917 March: (February, according to Julian calendar) February Revolution, in which workers riot in Petrograd; Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies formed; Provisional Government formed; Emperor Nicholas II abdicates; Petrograd Soviet issues "Order No. 1." April: Demonstrations lead to Aleksandr Kerensky's assuming leadership in government; Lenin returns to Petrograd from Switzerland. July: Bolsheviks outlawed after attempt to topple government fails. September: Lavr Kornilov putsch attempt fails. November: (October, according to Julian calendar) Bolsheviks seize power from Provisional Government; Lenin, as leader of Bolsheviks, becomes head of state; Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (Russian Republic) formed; Constituent Assembly elected. December: Vecheka (secret police) created; Finns and Moldavians declare independence from Russia; Japanese occupy Vladivostok. 1918 January: Constituent Assembly dissolved; Ukraine declares its independence, followed, in subsequent months, by Armenia, Azerbaydzhan, Belorussia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, and Lithuania. February: Basmachi Rebellion begins in Central Asia; calendar changed from Julian to Gregorian. March: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed with Germany; Russia loses Poland, Finland, Baltic lands, Ukraine, and other areas; Russian Social Democratic Labor Party becomes Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik). April: Civil War begins. June: Concentration camps established. July: Constitution of Russian Republic promulgated; imperial family murdered. Summer: War communism established; intervention in Civil War by foreign expeditionary forces-- including those of Britain, France, and United States--begins. August: Attempt to assassinate Lenin fails; Red Terror begins. November: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk repudiated by Soviet government after Germany defeated by Allied Powers. 1919 January: Belorussia established as theoretically independent Soviet republic. March: Communist International (Comintern) formally founded at congress in Moscow; Ukraine established as Soviet republic. 1920 January: Blockade of Russian Republic lifted by Britain and other Allies. February: Peace agreement signed with Estonia; agreements with Latvia and Lithuania follow. April: War with Poland begins; Azerbaydzhan established as Soviet republic. July: Trade agreement signed with Britain. October: Truce reached with Poland. November: Red Army defeats Wrangel's army in Crimea; Armenia established as Soviet republic. 1921 March: War with Poland ends with Treaty of Riga; Red Army crushes Kronshtadt naval mutiny; New Economic Policy proclaimed; Georgia established as Soviet republic. Summer: Famine breaks out in Volga region. August: Aleksandr Blok, foremost poet of Russian Silver Age, dies; large number of intellectuals exiled. 1922 March: Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic formed, uniting Armenian, Azerbaydzhan, and Georgian republics. April: Joseph V. Stalin made general secretary of party; Treaty of Rapallo signed with Germany. May: Lenin suffers his first stroke. June: Socialist Revolutionary Party members put on trial by State Political Administration; Glavlit organized with censorship function. December: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union) established, comprising Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Transcaucasian republics. 1924 January: Lenin dies; constitution of Soviet Union put into force. February: Britain recognizes Soviet Union; other European countries follow suit later in year. Fall: Regime begins to delimit territories of Central Asian nationalities; Turkmenia and Uzbekistan elevated to Soviet republic status. 1925 April: Nikolai I. Bukharin calls for peasants to enrich themselves. November: Poet Sergei Esenin commits suicide. December: Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) becomes All- Union Communist Party (Bolshevik). 1926 April: Grigorii V. Zinov'ev ousted from Politburo. October: Leon Trotsky and Lev B. Kamenev ousted from Politburo. 1927 Fall: Peasants sell government less grain than demanded because of low prices; peasant discontent increases; grain crisis begins. December: Fifteenth Party Congress calls for large-scale collectivization of agriculture. 1928 January: Trotsky exiled to Alma-Ata. May: Shakhty trial begins; first executions for "economic crimes" follows. July: Sixth Congress of Comintern names socialist parties main enemy of communists. October: Implementation of First Five-Year Plan begins. 1929 January: Trotsky forced to leave Soviet Union. April: Law on religious associations requires registration of religious groups, authorizes church closings, and bans religious teaching. Fall: Red Army skirmishes with Chinese forces in Manchuria. October: Tadzhistan splits from Uzbek Republic to form separate Soviet republic. November: Bukharin ousted from Politburo. December: Stalin formally declares end of New Economic Policy and calls for elimination of kulaks; forced industrialization intensifies, and collectivization begins. 1930 March: Collectivization slows temporarily. April: Poet Vladimir Maiakovskii commits suicide. November: "Industrial Party" put on trial. 1931 March: Mensheviks put on trial. August: School system reformed. 1932 May: Five-year plan against religion declared. December: Internal passports introduced for domestic travel; peasants not issued passports. 1932-33 Terror: and forced famine rage in countryside, primarily in southeastern Ukrainian Republic and northern Caucasus. 1933 November: Diplomatic relations with United States established. 1934 August: Union of Writers holds its First Congress. September: Soviet Union admitted to League of Nations. December: Sergei Kirov assassinated in Leningrad; Great Terror begins, causing intense fear among general populace, and peaks in 1937 and 1938 before subsiding in latter year. 1935 February: Party cards exchanged; many members purged from party ranks. May: Treaties signed with France and Czechoslovakia. Summer: Seventh Congress of Comintern calls for "united front" of political parties against fascism. August: Stakhanovite movement to increase worker productivity begins. September: New system of ranks issued for Red Army. 1936 June: Restrictive laws on family and marriage issued. August: Zinov'ev, Kamenev, and other high-level officials put on trial for alleged political crimes. September: Nikolai Ezhov replaces Genrikh Iagoda as head of NKVD (police); purge of party deepens. October: Soviet Union begins support for antifascists in Spanish Civil War. December: New constitution proclaimed; Kazakhstan and Kirgizia become Soviet republics; Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic spits into Armenian, Azerbaydzhan, and Georgian Soviet republics. 1937 January: Trial of "Anti-Soviet Trotskyite Center." June: Marshal Mikhail N. Tukhachevskii and other military leaders executed. 1938 March: Russian language required in all schools in Soviet Union. July: Soviet and Japanese forces fight at Lake Khasan. December: Lavrenty Beria replaces Ezhov; Great Terror diminishes. 1939 May: Viacheslav Molotov replaces Maksim M. Litvinov as commissar of foreign affairs; armed conflict with Japan at Halhin Gol in Mongolia continues until August. August: Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact signed; pact includes secret protocol. September: Stalin joins Adolf Hitler in partitioning Poland. October: Soviet forces enter Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. November: Remaining (western) portions of Ukraine and Belorussia incorporated into Soviet Union; Soviet forces invade Finland. December: Soviet Union expelled from League of Nations. 1940 March: Finland sues for peace with Soviet Union. April: Polish officers massacred in Katyn Forest by Soviet troops. June: New strict labor laws enacted; northern Bukovina and Bessarabia seized from Romania and subsequently incorporated into Ukrainian Republics and newly created Moldavian Republic, respectively. August: Soviet Union annexes Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania; Trotsky murdered in Mexico. 1941 April: Neutrality pact signed with Japan. May: Stalin becomes chairman of Council of People's Commissars. June: Nazi Germany attacks Soviet Union ubder Operation Barbarossa. August: Soviet and British troops enter Iran. November: Lend-Lease Law of United States applied to Soviet Union. December: Soviet counteroffensive against Germany begins. 1942 May Red Army routed at Khar'kov; Germans halt Soviet offensive; treaty signed with Britain against Germany. July: Battle of Stalingrad begins. November: Red Army starts winter offensive. 1943 February: German army units surrender at Stalingrad; 91,000 prisoners taken. May: Comintern dissolved. July: Germans defeated in tank battle at Kursk. September: Stalin allows Russian Orthodox Church to appoint patriarch. November: Teheran Conference held. 1944 January: Siege of Leningrad ends after 870 days. May: Crimea liberated from German army. June: Red Army begins summer offensive. October: Tuva incorporated into Soviet Union; armed struggle against Soviet rule breaks out in western Ukrainian, western Belorussian, Lithuanian, and Latvian republics and continues for several years. 1945 February: Stalin meets with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt at Yalta. April: Soviet Union renounces neutrality with Japan. May: Red Army captures Berlin. July-: Potsdam Conference attended by Stalin, Harry S August Truman, and Churchill, who is later replaced by Clement R. Attlee. August: Soviet Union declares war on Japan; Soviet forces enter Manchuria and Korea. 1946 March: Regime abolishes Ukrainian Catholic Church (Uniate); Council of People's Commissars becomes Council of Ministers. Summer: Beginning of "Zhdanovshchina," a campaign against Western culture. 1947 Famine: in southern and central regions of European part of Soviet Union. September: Cominform established to replace Comintern. 1948 June: Blockade of Berlin by Soviet forces begins and lasts through May 1949. Summer: Trofim D. Lysenko begins his domination of fields of biology and genetics that continues until 1955. 1949 January: Council for Mutual Economic Assistance formed; campaign against "cosmopolitanism" launched. August: Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb. 1952 October: All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) becomes Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU); name of Polituro is changed to Presidium. 1953 January: Kremlin "doctors' plot" exposed, signifying political infighting. March: Stalin dies; Georgii M. Malenkov, Beria, and Molotov form troika (triumvirate); title of party chief changes from general secretary to first secretary. April: "Doctors' plot" declared a provocation. July: Beria arrested and shot; Malenkov, Molotov, and Nikita S. Khrushchev form new troika. August: Soviet Union tests hydrogen bomb. September: Khrushchev chosen CPSU first secretary; rehabilitation of Stalin's victims begins. 1955 February: Nikolai A. Bulganin replaces Malenkov as prime minister. May: Warsaw Pact organized. 1956 February: Khrushchev's "secret speech" at Twentieth Party Congress exposes Stalin's crimes. September: Minimum wage established. November: Soviet forces crush Hungarian Revolution. 1957 July: "Anti-party group" excluded from CPSU leadership. August: First Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile tested successfully. October: World's first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, launched. 1958 March: Khrushchev named chairman of Council of Ministers. October: Nobel Prize for Literature awarded to Boris Pasternak; campaign mounted against Pasternak, who refuses to accept award. 1959 September: Khrushchev visits United States. 1960 May: Soviet air defense downs United States U-2 reconnaissance aircraft over Soviet Union. 1961 April: Cosmonaut Iurii Gagarin launched in world's first manned orbital space flight. July: Khrushchev meets with President John F. Kennedy in Vienna. August: Construction of Berlin Wall begins. October: Stalin's remains removed from Lenin Mausoleum. 1962 June: Workers' riots break out in Novocherkassk. October: Cuban missile crisis begins, bringing United States and Soviet Union close to war. November: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich published in Soviet journal. 1963 August: Limited Test Ban Treaty signed with United States and Britain. 1964 October: Khrushchev removed from power; Leonid I. Brezhnev becomes CPSU first secretary. 1965 August: Volga Germans rehabilitated. 1966 February: Dissident writers Andrei Siniavskii and Iuii Daniel tried and sentenced. April: Brezhnev's title changes from first secretary to general secretary; name of Presidium is changed back to Politburo. 1967 April: Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Allilueva, defects to West. September: Crimean Tatars rehabilitated but not allowed to return home. 1968 June: Andrei Sakharov's dissident writings published in samizdat. July: Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons signed by Soviet Union. August: Soviet-led Warsaw Pact armies invade Czechoslovakia. 1969 March: Soviet and Chinese forces skirmish on Ussuri River. May: Major General Petr Grigorenko, a dissident, arrested and incarcerated in psychiatric hospital. 1970 Jewish: emigration to avoid persecution begins to increase substantially. October: Solzhenitsyn awarded Nobel Prize for December Literature. 1972 May: Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) result in signing of Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty) and Interim Agreement on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms; President Richard M. Nixon visits Moscow. 1973 June: Brezhnev visits Washington. 1974 February: Solzhenitsyn arrested and sent into foreign exile. 1975 July: Apollo/Soiuz space mission held jointly with United States. August: Helsinki Accords signed, confirming East European borders and calling for enforcement of human rights. December: Sakharov awarded Nobel Prize for Peace. 1976 Helsinki: watch groups formed to monitor human rights safeguards. 1977 June: Brezhnev named chairman of Presidium of Supreme Soviet. October: New constitution promulgated for Soviet Union. 1979 June: Second SALT agreement signed but not ratified by United States Senate. December: Soviet armed forces invade Afghanistan. 1980 January: Sakharov exiled to Gor'kiy. August: Summer Olympics held in Moscow and boycotted by United States. 1981 February: CPSU holds its Twenty-Sixth Party Congress. 1982 June: Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) begin. November: Brezhnev dies; Iurii V. Andropov named general secretary. 1983 September: Soviet fighter aircraft downs South Korean civilian airliner KAL 007 near Sakhalin. 1984 February: Andropov dies; Konstantin U. Chernenko becomes general secretary. 1985 March: Chernenko dies; Mikhail S. Gorbachev becomes general secretary. November: Gorbachev meets with President Ronald W. Reagan in Geneva. 1986 February-March: CPSU holds its Twenty-Seventh Party Congress. April-May: Nuclear power plant disaster at Chernobyl' releases deadly radiation. October: Gorbachev and Reagan hold summit at Reykjavik. December: Ethnic riots break out in Alma-Ata. 1987 December: Soviet Union and United States sign Intermediate- Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty). 1988 Winter: Ethnic disturbances begin in Caucasus. May: Soviet authorities stop jamming Voice of America broadcasts. May-June: Reagan visits Moscow. June: Millennium of establishment of Christianity in Kievan Rus' celebrated in Moscow. June-July: CPSU's Nineteenth Party Conference tests limits of glasnost' and perestroika in unprecedented discussions. October: Gorbachev replaces Andrei Gromyko as chairman of Presidium of Supreme Soviet; Gromyko and others removed from Politburo. December: Earthquake registering 6.9 on Richter scale strikes Armenian Republic, destroying much of cities of Leninakan and Spitak and resulting in 25,000 deaths. 1989 February: Soviet combat forces complete withdrawal from Afghanistan. March-: Initial and runoff elections held for the 2,250 April seats in Congress of People's Deputies; some seats have more than one candidate running; about 87 percent of elected deputies CPSU members or candidate members. May: Congress of People's Deputies meets, openly criticizes past and present regimes before television audiences, and elects 542 members to serve in Supreme Soviet; Gorbachev elected by Congress of People's Deputies to new position of chairman of Supreme Soviet.
Data as of May 1989