1861 - 1899
1861 |
March |
Tsar Alexander II passes the Emancipation Edict, ending serfdom in Russia (but keeps peasants tied to the land through continuing labour obligations) |
1866 |
|
Publication of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime & Punishment |
1867 |
|
Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel invents dynamite. Within a decade, Russian revolutionaries are using dynamite to try to assassinate the Tsar |
1867 |
|
The first volume of Karl Marx's Das Kapital is published |
1868 |
May |
Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia is born |
1870 |
April |
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is born |
1877-1878 |
|
Russo-Turkish war |
1878 |
|
Vera Zasulich, a member of the secret revolutionary organisation Land & Freedom, is acquitted by the jury in her trial for the attempted murder of Dmitrii Trepov, Governor General of St Petersburg |
1880 |
February |
Failed attempt (no.5) to assassinated Tsar Alexander II by blowing up his palace dining room kills 11 & wounds 56. The tsar survives through being late to dinner |
1881 |
March |
Tsar Alexander II is assassinated by a member of the radical group The People's Will after 5 previously unsuccessful attempts on his life. He is succeeded by his son, Alexander III, who enacts anti-terrorism measures that curb civil rights & freedom of the press |
1882 |
|
Pogroms against Jews spread across the Russian Empire, leading to mass emigration of the Jewish population |
1883 |
|
The Emancipation of Labour group, the first Russian Marxist group, is founded in Switzerland |
1883 |
March |
Karl Marx dies in London |
1887 |
May 20 |
Lenin's older brother, Alexander, is executed for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Tsar Alexander III |
1890 |
|
The Zemstvo Act restricts the authority of the zemstvos, rural government councils which were established in 1864 |
1891-92 |
|
Famine in Russian kills between 375,000 & 400,000 & affects millions more |
1891 |
|
Construction of the Trans-Siberian railway |
1894 |
November 1 |
Tsar Alexander III dies after a sudden illness; his son Nicholas II assumes the throne |
1894 |
November 26 |
Tsar Nicholas II marries Princess Alexandra Fedorovna, Queen Victoria's granddaughter |
1895 |
December 20 |
Lenin is arrested to be kept in solitary confinement for 13 months & then exiled to Siberia for 3 years |
1896 |
May 26 |
Coronation of Tsar Nicholas II |
1896 |
May 30 |
The Khodynka Tragedy - a stampede in Moscow occurs during festivities following Nicholas II's coronation, & results in the deaths of over 1,300 people |
1897 |
|
Sergei Witte, Russian Minister of Finance, undertakes a major currency reform & puts the Russian rouble on the Gold Standard |
1897 |
|
According to census records, the overall literacy rate in the Russian Empire (excluding Finland) is 21.1 percent (29.3 percent for men & 13.1 percent for women) |
1898 |
|
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party is founded in Minsk |
1900 - 1916
1900 |
|
The average life expectancy at birth in Russia is 29.4 years for boys & 31.4 years for girls |
1901 |
|
Queen Victoria dies |
1901-02 |
|
The Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR) is established |
1901-05 |
|
Economic downturn in Russia creates discontent |
1902 |
April |
Lenin enters the British Museum's round Reading Room for the first time under the pseudonym Jacob Richter |
1902 |
|
First publication of Mrs Craddock, one of the first novels by William Somerset Maugham, who in 1917 travelled to Russia as a British Secret Intelligence Service agent |
1903 |
July-August |
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party meets for its Second Congress in London & splits into 2 factions: Mensheviks ('minority') & the more radical Bolsheviks ('majority') |
1904 |
|
The first part of the Trans-Siberian Railway is completed between Moscow & Vladivostok. The entire railway was completed in 1916 |
1904 |
February |
The Russo-Japanese war starts. The Japanese fleet launches a surprise attack & siege on the Russian naval squadron at Port Arthur |
1904 |
May - December |
The Russian army suffers defeats at the battles of Fu-hsien & Liao-yang |
1904 |
August 12 |
After having 4 daughters, Tsarina Alexandra gives birth to a son, Alexei |
1905 |
January |
The Russian commander of Port Arthur surrenders the port to the Japanese without consulting his officers |
1905 |
January 22 |
Bloody Sunday. Troops & Police open fire on a peaceful demonstration outside the Winter Palace & elsewhere in St Petersburg, killing between 200 & 1000 people. The liberal press argued that Nicholas II was responsible for the bloodshed |
1905 |
February - March |
The Russian army is defeated at the Battle of Mukden. Loses in the battle amount to approx 89,000 Russian & 71,000 Japanese casualties |
1905 |
April - May |
The Third Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party meets in London |
1905 |
June |
Sailors mutiny on the battleship Potemkin, part of the Black Sea fleet. The mutiny triggers riots in Odessa, which are quashed by troops on the tsar's orders |
1905 |
Summer |
Strikes, unrest & peasant uprisings continue, culminating in a general strike in October |
1905 |
August - September |
Following Russia's defeat in the naval battle of Tsushima in May 1905, Russia & Japan sign the Treaty of Portsmouth, ending the Russo-Japanese war |
1905 |
October |
The St Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies holds is first session |
1905 |
October |
The Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets) is formed |
1905 |
October 30 |
Tsar Nicholas II issues the October Manifesto, promising civil liberties & an elected parliament (Duma) |
1905 |
December |
In response to the suppression of the St Petersburg Soviet, the Moscow Soviet launches a disastrous attempt to seize power. The government quashes the insurrection after 5 days |
1906 |
May 6 |
Tsar Nicholas II issues the Fundamental Laws, a 124 point de facto constitution |
1906 |
May 10 |
The first Russian Duma meets |
1906 |
November |
Prime Minister Petr Stolypin's Agrarian Reform Act, a series of measures aimed at ending the communal system of landholding is implemented |
1908 |
June 30 |
The Tunguska event. A giant, mysterious explosion shakes Siberia, levelling an estimated 80 million trees over an area of 830 square miles |
1910 |
November |
Leo Tolstoy dies |
1910 |
|
Artists & poets form a group that marks the start of the Russian futurist movement |
1913 |
March 6 |
Nicholas II celebrates 300 years of Romanov rule in Russia |
1913 |
|
Andrei Bely's novel Petersburg, recognised as the most significant work of Russian symbolism & modernism, is published. The novel tells a story of a young revolutionary who is ordered to assassinate his father in autumn 1905, during the period of social & political unrest |
1913 |
May 29 |
Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring premieres in Paris, where it is met with outrage from the audiene |
1913 |
|
Between 1908 & 1913 industrial production increases by almost 50 percent in Russia, but working conditions remain almost the same |
1913 |
|
Natalia Goncharova, a prominent member of the Russian futurist movement, completes her futurist painting The Cyclist |
1914 |
June 28 |
Assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary |
1914 |
July 28 |
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia |
1914 |
August 1 |
Germany declares war on Russia & Russia enters WWI. 3 days later on 4 August Britain declares war on Germany |
1914 |
|
At the beginning of WWI, the number of urban workers in Russia is estimated at between 12 & 22 million (approx 10 percent of the population). Only 0.5 to 0.8 percent of this industrial workforce were members of either the Bolshevik or Menshevik factions of the Social Democrats. The population of the Russian Empire in 1914 is approx 170 million |
1914 |
|
Women comprise one third of the industrial labour force in Russia, but receive significantly lower wages than their male counterparts |
1914 |
|
St Petersburg is renamed Petrograd to make it sound less German |
1914 |
August 26-30 |
Russia's 2nd army suffers defeat at the battle of Tannenberg, the first major battle on the eastern front. Over 30,000 Russian soldiers are killed or wounded, & more than 90,000 are taken prisoner by the Germans |
1915 |
January |
The first use of gas warfare by the German forces |
1915 |
September |
Tsar Nicholas II becomes supreme commander of the Russian army |
1915 |
|
By the middle of 1915, the German army controls all of Russian Poland & Lithuania, & most of Latvia |
1916 |
December 30 |
Grigorii Rasputin, the controversial 'holy man' & close friend of Tsar Nicholas II's family, is murdered after several failed attempts |
1916 |
|
By 1916 Russia's war casualties total 1.7 million military dead & 5 million wounded |
|
|
1917
1917 |
|
The overall literacy rate in Russia is approx 43 percent |
1917 |
January |
A Russian pound (or funt) of sugar in Moscow costs 28 kopecks, compared to 15 kopecks before the war |
1917 |
March 8 |
On International Women's Day, demonstrators & striking workers - many of whom are women - take to the streets to protest against food shortages & the war |
1917 |
March 10 |
Strikes spread across Petrograd |
1917 |
March 12 |
The Duma meets against the Tsar's wishes |
1917 |
March 12 |
The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' & Soldiers' Deputies forms & holds its first meeting |
1917 |
March 12 |
The death penalty is abolished |
1917 |
March 14 |
Order Number 1, the first official decree of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' & Soldiers' Deputies is issued |
1917 |
March 14 |
Tsar Nicholas II abdicates & also removes his son from the succession. The following day Nicholas's brother Mikhail announces his refusal to accept the throne |
1917 |
March 15 |
The Provisional Committee (government) of the State Duma is formed & replaces the tsarist government |
1917 |
March 15 |
Prince Lvov becomes leader of the Provisional Government |
1917 |
April |
Lenin returns from exile, travelling to Petrograd in a sealed train from Switzerland via Germany & Finland |
1917 |
May 1 |
The 'Miliukov note'. A telegram sent to the Allied Powers by Foreign Minister (& member of the Kadet Party) Pavel Miliukov states the Provisional Government's intention to continue the war. The note is leaked, resulting in protests & increased support for the Bolsheviks |
1917 |
May |
Miliukov resigns & members of the Socialist Revolutionaries & Mensheviks join the government |
1917 |
June |
The first All-Russia Congress of Workers' & Soldiers' Deputies opens |
1917 |
July |
Russia launches an offensive against Austria-Hungary |
1917 |
July |
The death penalty is reintroduced at the front |
1917 |
July 16-20 |
The July Days begin in Petrograd. A new Provisional Government is set up with Alexander Kerensky at its head. Lenin goes into hiding |
1917 |
July |
The Provisional Government grants women the right to vote & hold office |
1917 |
July 24 |
Alexander Kerensky becomes Prime Minister of the Provisional Government |
1917 |
August |
A Russian pound (funt) of sugar costs 2.25 roubles in Moscow & is being sold on the black market |
1917 |
August |
Trotsky joins the Bolshevik Party. He had previously been a member of the Menshevik faction & later was head of the Mezhraiontsy - a small independent faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party |
1917 |
September 4-9 |
The Kornilov affair, a failed coup by General Kornilov, commander of the Russian army, takes place |
1917 |
September |
Russia is officially declared a republic, several months after the de facto end of the monarchy |
1917 |
November 7 |
The October revolution; the Bolsheviks seize control of Petrograd |
1917 |
November 8 |
The Bolsheviks take control of the Winter Palace, the last remaining holdout of the Provisional Government |
1917 |
November 8 |
The decrees on land & peace are issued by the new government |
1917 |
November 8 |
Subsequent workers' decrees outline measures for an 8 hour working day, minimum wage & the running of factories |
1917 |
November 8 |
The death penalty is abolished once again |
1917 |
November 9 |
The Decree on the Press, the first Bolshevik censorship decree, abolishes the 'bourgeois' press |
1917 |
November 15 |
The Bolsheviks gain control of Moscow after a week of bitter street fighting |
1917 |
November |
The Central Rada (parliament) takes power in Kyiv |
1917 |
November 25 |
Elections to the Constituent Assembly takes place. The Socialist Revolutionaries win the largest number of seats, while the Bolsheviks win less than one quarter of the vote |
1917 |
December 6 |
Finland declares its independence from Russia |
1917 |
December |
A Russian pound (funt) of sugar costs 6 roubles in Moscow. Each person receives 1/4 pound of bread per day. Bread & flour are still being sold openly, but for extortionate prices |
1917 |
December |
Lenin appoints Felix Dzerzhinsky as Communist for Internal Affairs & head of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution & Sabotage (Cheka) |
1917 |
December 15 |
An armistice between Russia & the Central Powers is signed & fighting stops |
1917 |
December 22 |
Russian-German peace negotiations begin at Brest-Litovsk |
1917 |
December 23 |
Orthographic reform is introduced by the People's Commissariat for Education. However, the reform does not take effect until October 10 1918 |
1918 - 1924
1918 |
January 18-19 |
The Constituent Assembly meets but is dissolved by the Bolsheviks |
1918 |
January |
Alexander Blok completes his poem The Twelve |
1918 |
January |
The Russian delegation, led by Leon Trotsky, denounces the German Peace Terms as unacceptable & walks out of the peace negotiations at Brest-Litovsk |
1918 |
January 28 |
The Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) issues a decree forming the Workers' & Peasants' Red Army |
1918 |
February |
A Russian pound (punt) of sugar in Moscow costs 10 roubles |
1918 |
February 14 |
Russia adopts the Western (Gregorian) calendar |
1918 |
March 3 |
The Brest-Litovsk Treaty ends Russia's participation in WWI. Russia accepts territorial losses |
1918 |
March 6-8 |
At the 7th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, the Bolsheviks change the name of their party to the Russian Communist Party |
1918 |
|
Spanish flu pandemic kills 50 to 100 million people worldwide |
1918 |
March |
British troops land in Murmansk |
1918 |
March |
The Russian capital is moved from Petrograd to Moscow |
1918 |
April |
For an 8 hour day, skilled male workers receive 18 roubles & women workers of the same category receive 15 roubles 30 kopecks. Unskilled workers receive 10.65 roubles & 9.35 roubles |
1918 |
May |
Czechoslovak legionnaires storm Chelyabinsk railway station & occupy the city |
1918 |
July 6 |
Wilhelm von Mirbach, the German ambassador to Soviet Russia, is assassinated in Moscow by members of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party |
1918 |
July 10 |
The first constitution of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic grants equal rights to men & women |
1918 |
July 16 |
Gorky's Novaia zhizn' (New Life), the last opposition newspaper is banned |
1918 |
July 16-17 |
Tsar Nicholas II & his family are executed by the Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg |
1918 |
July |
US president Woodrow Wilson approves a 5,000 strong American force to support the White Army in northern Russia |
1918 |
August 11 |
Lenin sends a telegram to communists in Penza, Central Russia complaining about uprisings in the area & calling for the public execution of 100 kulaks |
1918 |
August 30 |
Moisei Uritskii, head of the Bolshevik secret police (Cheka) in Petrograd is assassinated |
1918 |
August 30 |
An assassination attempt on Lenin by the Socialist Revolutionary Fanny Kaplan leaved him seriously wounded. The attempt, together with the murder of Uritskii, sparks a period of mass arrests & executions known as the 'Red Terror' |
1918 |
October |
A Russian pound (funt) of sugar in Moscow costs 35 roubles |
1918 |
October |
The Bolshevik Family Law clarifies & expands earlier reforms on the legal status of marriage, divorce & parenthood |
1918 |
November 7-8 |
Revolution breaks out in a number of German cities, including the capital, Berlin. Uprisings continue over the following months until the final suppression of the Munich Soviet in May 1919 |
1918 |
November 11 |
WWI ends |
1918 |
November 11 |
Poland declares its independence |
1918 |
November 19 |
The first All-Russian Congress of Women meets. The congress results in the foundation of the Zhenotdel, the world's first government department exclusively concerned with the affairs of women in 1919 |
1918 |
December |
Perm (in central Siberia) falls to the White Army, led by Admiral Kolchak |
1919 |
January 15 |
German communist leaders Rosa Luxemburg & Karl Liebknecht are murdered in Berlin |
1919 |
January 18 |
Paris Peace Conference convenes, resulting in the Treaty of Versailles |
1919 |
January |
The Sovnarkom formally announces the beginning of Prodrazverstka (compulsory grain requisitioning), which leads to peasant revolts |
1919-1921 |
|
Polish-Soviet war |
1919 |
March |
American journalist & social John Reed's Ten Days that Shook the World is published in New York |
1919 |
March |
The Hungarian Soviet Republic, led by Béla Kun is established; it lasts until August before being dispersed |
1919 |
March |
The Comintern (or Third International) is formed in Moscow, with the aim of spreading revolution all over the world |
1919 |
July |
Finland becomes a republic |
1920 |
|
Communist parties form across the world |
1920 |
January 10 |
The League of Nations is established |
1920 |
August |
Peasant insurrection in Tambov (300 miles south-east of Moscow) begins |
1920 |
November |
The Red Army invades & occupies Crimea & the White Army is force to withdraw |
1920 |
November |
Abortion is legalised |
1920 |
|
Evgenii Zamyatin completes his dystopian novel We. It is the first work to be banned by the Goskomizdat (State Committee for Publishing) & is first published in English in New York in 1924 |
1921 |
|
The population of Petrograd has fallen from 2.5 million in 1917 to 600,000 in 1920 |
1921 |
|
By the beginning of 1921 the rouble has lost 96 percent of its pre war value; industrial production has fallen to 10 percent of its 1913 level |
1921 |
March |
The Kronstadt mutiny, an unsuccessful uprising against the Bolsheviks, takes place |
1921 |
March |
End of 'War Communism' & the introduction of the 'New Economic Policy' (NEP) |
1921 |
March 18 |
The Peace of Riga ends the Polish-Soviet war |
1921-1922 |
|
Between 6 & 7 million children are living on the streets, with a further 540,000 living in orphanages |
1922 |
April 3 |
Stalin is appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party |
1922 |
April 16 |
Soviet Russia & Germany sign the Treaty of Rapallo, renouncing all territorial & financial claims against each other following the Brest-Litovsk Treaty & WWI |
1922 |
December |
Creation of the Soviet Union |
1922 |
|
5 million people have died as a result of 2 years of famine |
1923 |
October 23-25 |
The Hamburg uprising, an attempted communist coup, is crushed within 24 hours |
1923 |
January 21 |
Lenin dies, leading to a power struggle within the party. Stalin emerges as party leader. His rival Leon Trotsky is dismissed, then exiled & finally murdered in 1940 |
1924 |
January 31 |
Constitution of the USSR that legitimises its creation is ratified |
1924 |
February 1 |
Britain, led by its first Labour government, recognises the Soviet Union. Several other countries, including Italy & China, quickly follow |
1924 |
|
The majority of Western countries close their border to immigrants from Eastern Europe following almost 40 years of mass migration |
|
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