Russian History: important historic events in Russia

Russian History: Important Historical Events in Russia:

Russian History

Table A. Chronology of Important Events

Period Description

NINTH CENTURY

ca. 860 Rurik, a Varangian, according to earliest chronicle of Kievan Rus', rules Novgorod and founds Rurik 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 Svyatoslav makes peace with Byzantine Empire.
988 Prince Vladimir converts Kievan Rus' to Christianity.

ELEVENTH CENTURY

1015 Prince Vladimir's death leads Rurik princes into fratricidal war that continues until 1036.
1019 Prince Yaroslav (the Wise) of Novgorod assumes throne of Kievan Rus'.
1036 Prince Yaroslav the Wise ends fratricidal war and later codifies laws of Kievan Rus' into Rus'ka pravda (Justice of Rus').
1037 Prince Yaroslav 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 Andrey Bogolyubskiy of Vladimir-Suzdal' sack Kiev; Andrey 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 Nevskiy successfully defends Novgorod against attack by Teutenic Knights.
1253 Prince Daniil (Danylo) of Galicia-Volhynia accepts crown of Kievan Rus' from pope.

FOURTEENTH CENTURY

1327 Ivan I, prince of Moscow, nicknamed Ivan Kalita ("Money Bags"), affirmed as "Grand Prince of Vladimir" by Mongols; Moscow becomes seat of metropolitan of Russian Orthodox Church.
1380 Dmitriy Donskoy defeats Golden Horde at Battle of Kulikovo, but Mongol domination continues until 1480.

FIFTEENTH CENTURY

1462 Ivan III (the Great) 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 Vasiliy 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) 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 Yermak begins conquest of Siberia.
1584 Fedor I crowned tsar.
1589 Patriarchate of Moscow established.
1596 Union of Brest establishes Uniate Church.
1598 Rurik 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 Dmitriy subsequently named tsar after Fedor II's murder.
1606 Vasiliy Shuyskiy named tsar.
1610 Second False Dmitriy proclaimed tsar.
1610-13 Poles occupy Moscow.
1611-12 Forces from northern cities and Cossacks organize counterattack against Poles.
1613 Mikhail Romanov crowned tsar, founding Romanov Dynasty.
1631 Metropolitan Mogila (Mohyla) founds academy in Kiev.
1645 Aleksey crowned tsar.
1648 Ukrainian Cossacks, led by Bogdan Khmel'nitskiy (Bohdan Khmel'nyts'kyy), 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 after Peter III's assassination.
1768-74 War with Ottoman Empire ends with Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji.
1772 Russia participates in first partition of Poland.
1773-74 Emel'yan 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.
1792 Government initiates Pale of Settlement, restricting Jews to western part of the empire.
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 Decembrist Revolt fails; Nicholas I crowned emperor.
1831 Polish uprising crushed by forces of Nicholas I.
1833 "Autocracy, Orthodoxy, and nationality" accepted as guiding principles by regime.
1837 First Russian railroad, from St. Petersburg to Tsarskoye 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; zemstva created.
1866 Crime and Punishment by Fedor Dostoyevskiy (1821-81) published.
1869 War and Peace by Lev Tolstoy (1828-1910) published.
1873-74 Army reformed; Russian radicals go "to the people."
1875 Kuril Islands yielded to Japan in exchange for southern Sakhalin Island.
1877-78 War with Ottoman Empire ends with Treaty of San Stefano; independent Bulgaria proclaimed; Russia forced to accept less advantageous terms of Congress of Berlin.
1879 Revolutionary society Land and Liberty splits; People's Will and Black Repartition formed.
1879-80 The Brothers Karamazov by Fedor Dostoyevskiy 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 Island 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 Petr Stolypin, prime minister since 1906, assassinated.
1914 World War I begins.
1916 Rasputin murdered.
1917 March 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 Number One.
April Demonstrations lead to Aleksandr Kerenskiy's assuming leadership in government; Lenin returns to Petrograd from Switzerland.
July Bolsheviks outlawed after attempt to topple government fails.
November 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 Cheka (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, Azerbaijan, 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.
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; Ukrainian Soviet established.
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; Azerbaijan Soviet republic established.
July Trade agreement signed with Britain.
October Truce reached with Poland.
November Red Army defeats Wrangel's army in Crimea; Armenian Soviet republic established.
1921 March War with Poland ends with Treaty of Riga; Red Army crushes Kronshtadt naval mutiny; New Economic Policy proclaimed; Georgian Soviet republic established.
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, Azerbaijan, 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 Directorate; 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; Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan elevated to Soviet republic status.
1925 April Theoretician Nikolay Bukharin calls for peasants to enrich themselves.
November Poet Sergey Yesenin commits suicide.
December Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) becomes All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik).
1926 April Grigoriy Zinov'yev ousted from Politburo.
October Leon Trotsky and Lev 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" follow.
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 Tajikistan split 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 Mayakovskiy 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 Soviet Writers holds its First Congress.
September Soviet Union admitted to League of Nations.
December Sergey 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'yev, Kamenev, and other high-level officials put on trial for alleged political crimes.
September Nikolay Yezhov replaces Genrikh Yagoda as head of NKVD (secret police); purge of party deepens.
October Soviet Union begins support for antifascists in Spanish Civil War.
November Germany and Japan sign Anti-Comintern Pact.
December New constitution proclaimed; Kazakstan and Kyrgyzia become Soviet republics; Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic splits into Armenian, Azerbaijan, and Georgian Soviet republics.
1937 January Trial of "Anti-Soviet Trotskyite Center."
June Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevskiy 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 Lavrenti Beria replaces Yezhov as chief of secret police; Great Terror diminishes.
1939 May Vyacheslav Molotov replaces Maksim 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 Republic 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 in 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 Tehran 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.
May Red Army captures Berlin.
July-August Potsdam Conference attended by Stalin, Harry S. Truman, and Churchill, who later is replaced by Clement R. Attlee.
August Soviet Union declares war on Japan; Soviet forces enter Manchuria and Korea.
1946 March Regime abolishes Ukrainian Greek 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 into May 1949.
Summer Trofim 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 Politburo is changed to Presidium.
1953 January Kremlin "doctors' plot" exposed, signaling political infighting, new wave of purges, and anti-Semitic campaign.
March Stalin dies; Georgiy 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 Nikolay 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 "Antiparty 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 is forced to decline 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 Yuriy 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 Andrey Sinyavskiy and Yuliy 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 Alliluyeva, defects to West.
September Crimean Tatars rehabilitated but not allowed to return home.
1968 June Andrey Sakharov's dissident writings published in samizdat.
July Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) 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 October Jewish emigration begins to increase substantially.
December Solzhenitsyn awarded Nobel Prize for 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/Soyuz 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 and other Western nations.
1981 February CPSU holds its Twenty-Sixth Party Congress.
1982 June Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) talks begin.
November Brezhnev dies; Yuriy V. Andropov named general secretary.
1983 September Soviet fighter aircraft downs South Korean civilian airliner KAL 007 near Sakhalin Island.
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 Nuclear power plant disaster at Chernobyl' releases large amounts of radiation over Russia, Ukraine, and Belorussia.
Glasnost launched.
October Gorbachev and Reagan hold summit at Reykjavik.
December Ethnic riots break out in Alma-Ata.
1987 January Gorbachev launches perestroika.
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 Andrey Gromyko as chairman of Presidium of Supreme Soviet; Gromyko retires, and others are removed from Politburo.
December Supreme Soviet dissolves itself, preparing way for new elected parliament.
1989 February Soviet combat forces complete withdrawal from Afghanistan.
March-April Initial and runoff elections held for the 2,250 seats in Congress of People's Deputies (CPD); many reform candidates, including Boris N. Yeltsin, win seats.
April Soviet troops break up rally in Tbilisi, Georgia, killing at least twenty civilians.
May CPD openly criticizes past and present regimes; Gorbachev elected by CPD to new position of chairman of Supreme Soviet.
June Free elections in Poland begin rapid decline of Soviet Union's empire in Central Europe.
July Coal miners strike in Russia and Ukraine.
August Nationalist demonstrations in Chisinau, Moldavia, lead to reinstatement of Romanian as official language of republic. Russians and Ukrainians living along Dnestr River go on strike, demanding autonomy.
Soviet Union admits existence of secret protocols to 1939 Nazi-Soviet Nonagression Pact, which allotted to Soviet Union the Baltic countries, parts of then eastern Poland, and Moldavia.
Mass exodus from East Germany begins.
September Ukrainian Popular Movement for Perestroika (Rukh) holds founding congress in Kiev.
October Mass protests take place in Berlin and Leipzig.
November Berlin Wall falls. Bulgaria's Todor Zhivkov deposed. Communist party of Czechoslovakia falls from power.
December Violent revolution in Romania. Nicolae Ceaucescu arrested, tried, and shot.
CPD condemns Nazi-Soviet Nonagression Pact and secret protocols.
Lithuanian Communist Party leaves CPSU.
Latvian parliament deletes from its constitution reference to communist party's "leading role."
At hasty shipboard summit off Malta, Gorbachev and United States president George H.W. Bush declare Cold War ended.
1990 January Azerbaijani demonstrators on Soviet side of border with Iran dismantle border posts.
Gorbachev fails to heal rift with Lithuanian communists.
Anti-Armenian pogroms in Azerbaijan. Gorbachev sends troops to Baku.
February Central Committee of CPSU votes to strike Article 6, which guarantees leading role of communist party, from Soviet constitution.
March In elections for Supreme Soviet of Russian Republic, Yeltsin wins seat.
Newly elected Lithuanian parliament declares independence.
Estonian parliament declares itself in a state of transition to independence.
May Latvian parliament votes to declare independence after unspecified transition period.
Anti-Soviet demonstrations break out in and around Yerevan.
Yeltsin becomes chairman of Supreme Soviet of Russian Republic.
June Communists in Russian Republic vote to form Communist Party of the Russian Republic.
Russia, Uzbekistan, and Moldavia issue declarations of sovereignty. By October most of the other Soviet republics have done likewise.
July Twenty-Eighth Party Congress: Yeltsin quits CPSU; Politburo stripped of almost all meaning.
Meeting of Gorbachev and West German chancellor Helmut Kohl in Stavropol'. German unification within North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) secured.
Soviet government and republics open negotiations on a new treaty of union.
August Russia and Lithuania sign agreement on trade and economic cooperation.
Armenia declares independence.
October Germany united; Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE Treaty) signed in Paris.
Parliament of Russian Republic passes resolution proclaiming that no Soviet law can take effect in the republic without republican parliamentary approval.
Parliament of Russian Republic approves radical economic reform plan, thereby undercutting all-union Supreme Soviet's economic reform package.
Gorbachev awarded Nobel Prize for peace.
November Violence breaks out in Moldavia between Moldavians and Russian and Ukrainian separatists.
Gorbachev proposes new union treaty.
December Eduard Shevardnadze resigns as minister of foreign affairs, warning of oncoming dictatorship.
Parliament of Russian Republic votes to contribute to Soviet budget less than one-tenth of central government's request.
1991 January Soviet crackdown on Lithuanian and Latvian independence movements.
Soviet Ministry of Defense announces plan to send troops to seven union republics to enforce military conscription and to round up draft dodgers.
Russian Republic and the Baltic republics sign mutual security pact.
February Baltic countries hold nonbinding plebiscites as demonstration of their people's will to secede from Soviet Union.
March Coal miners go on strike in Ukraine, Kazakstan, Arctic mines, and Siberia.
Mass pro-Yeltsin rallies in Moscow.
Referendum held on preservation of Soviet Union: 70 percent vote to remain in union, but Armenia, Georgia, Moldavia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia boycott.
Warsaw Pact officially dissolves.
April Georgia declares independence.
Russian parliament grants Yeltsin emergency powers.
May Yeltsin gains control over coal mines in Russian Republic.
Russian government establishes foreign ministry and internal security organization. Russian television begins broadcasting on second all-union channel.
June By universal suffrage, Yeltsin elected president of Russian Republic.
Last Soviet troops leave Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
Gorbachev and leaders of seven Soviet republics sign draft union treaty.
July Yeltsin bans political activity at workplaces and government establishments in Russian Republic; Gorbachev signs START I agreement in Moscow with United States president Bush.
August Hard-line officials attempt to unseat Gorbachev government; coup fails after three days, elevating Yeltsin's prestige.
Ukraine, Belorussia, Moldavia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyz Republic declare independence. Armenia and Tajikistan follow in September, Turkmenistan in October, and Kazakstan in December.
October Dzhokar Dudayev elected president of newly declared Chechen Republic.
November Russian parliament grants Yeltsin sweeping powers to introduce radical economic reform. Yeltsin cuts off Russian funding of Soviet central ministries.
Chechens demand independence. Ingush members of Chechen National Congress resign.
Russia gains control of Soviet natural resources; Yeltsin places Russian economy above that of Soviet Union, ending possibility of Russia remaining in union.
Gorbachev fails to win support of republics for new union treaty.
December Presidents of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia meet in Minsk and proclaim initial Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Yeltsin meets with Soviet defense officials and army commanders to gain support for CIS.
Russian foreign minister Andrey Kozyrev asks United States secretary of state James Baker to recognize independence of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.
Gorbachev announces that at year's end all central government structures will cease to exist.
Eleven republics form CIS.
Soviet Union ceases to exist. Russian flag rises over Kremlin. Control of nuclear arsenal handed over to Yeltsin.
1992 January Russian government lifts price controls on almost all goods.
Beginning of rift between Yeltsin and speaker of Russian Supreme Soviet Ruslan Khasbulatov and Russian vice president Aleksandr Rutskoy.
February First United States-Russia summit.
International airlift of food and medical supplies to Russian cities begins.
March Fighting breaks out between Moldovan forces and Russian and Ukrainian separatists along Dnestr River.
Eighteen of twenty autonomous republics within Russian Federation sign Federation Treaty. Tatarstan and Chechnya refuse.
April At first post-Soviet session of Russian CPD, Yeltsin fends off vote of no-confidence in his economic program. CPD also changes name of Russian Socialist Federation of Soviet Republics to Russian Federation.
Yeltsin calls for a referendum on new constitution that would abolish Russian CPD.
May Formation of Russian armed forces. Army general Pavel Grachev appointed minister of defense.
Ten of the eleven CIS presidents sign mutual security treaty in Tashkent. Treaty acknowledges demise of unified CIS armed forces.
United States and all four post-Soviet nuclear states vow to comply with START agreement.
June Russia joins International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Russian Supreme Soviet establishes Republic of Ingushetia within Russian Federation.
Russian troops complete withdrawal from Republic of Chechnya.
General Aleksandr Lebed' takes command of 14th Army in Moldova.
July Yeltsin makes first appearance at Group of Seven (G-7) meeting.
Russian Supreme Soviet ratifies CFE Treaty.
August Black Sea Fleet evacuates 1,700 Russians from Sukhumi in civil-war-torn Georgia.
September Russia completes troop withdrawal from Mongolia.
October Russia launches privatization.
Last Russian combat troops leave Poland.
November Yeltsin declares state of emergency in North Ossetia and Ingushetia in order to halt outbreak of ethnic conflicts.
Russian troops attack Georgian forces deployed in Abkhazia.
Russian troops enter Ingushetia.
December Seventh Russian CPD opens. Yeltsin and parliament clash over economic reform and powers. Viktor Chernomyrdin becomes prime minister. Yeltsin and congress agree to hold referendum on presidential power. Part of same deal grants Yeltsin extraordinary powers.
Russia and China pull most of their troops back 100 kilometers along common border.
1993 March CPD revokes December 1992 deal with Yeltsin, who then attempts to impose special rule, but fails.
Russian troops deployed in Tajikistan as part of CIS peacekeeping operation.
April Referendum approves Yeltsin as president and Yeltsin's social and economic programs.
Yeltsin and CPD issue differing draft versions of new Russian constitution.
July Constitutional assembly passes draft Russian constitution worked out by conciliatory committee.
Parliament annuls presidential decrees on economic reforms.
Marshal Yevgeniy Shaposhnikov, having resigned as commander in chief of CIS joint forces, hands over his launch authorization codes to Russian defense minister Grachev.
Russian Central Bank (RCB) announces withdrawal from circulation of Soviet and Russian banknotes issued between 1961 and 1992. Yeltsin eases some of RCB's provisions.
Yeltsin counters parliament's suspension of privatization. Two weeks later, parliament again suspends privatization. Yeltsin issues decree continuing program.
August Yeltsin formally requests that parliament hold early elections.
September Yeltsin suspends Vice President Rutskoy based on charges of corruption.
Yeltsin dissolves the CPD and Supreme Soviet and sets date for elections in December.
Supreme Soviet votes to impeach Yeltsin and swears in Rutskoy as president; CPD confirms decisions.
Clashes in Moscow between Yeltsin and Supreme Soviet supporters.
October Church mediation of government split collapses; further clashes on Moscow streets.
Top leaders of opposition surrender. Sniper fire continues for several days.
Russia officially asks for revisions to CFE Treaty.
Yeltsin suspends Constitutional Court and disbands city, district, and village soviets.
November Russian troops land in Abkhazia.
December Parliamentary elections and referendum on new constitution are held. Constitution approved. Chechnya does not participate in elections.
Yeltsin and Turkmenistan's president Saparmyrat Niyazov sign accord on dual citizenship, first such agreement between Soviet successor states.
1994 January Trilateral agreement among Russia, Ukraine, and United States prepares for denuclearizing Ukraine's armed forces.
Chernomyrdin states that radical economic reform has come to an end in Russia. Reformers quit posts. Western advisers withdraw their services as advisers to Russian government.
February United States Central Intelligence Agency arrests Aldrich Ames on charges of spying for Soviet Union and Russia.
State Duma (lower house of parliament beginning with 1993 election) grants amnesty to leaders of 1991 coup against Gorbachev and leaders of parliamentary revolt of October 1993.
Yeltsin gives speech calling for continued radical restructuring of economy.
April Russia and Belarus agree to monetary union.
Central Asian republics, Georgia, and Armenia allow Russian participation in patrolling their borders.
Political leaders meet to sign Civic Accord, which calls on signatories to refrain from violence in pursuing political goals. Three of 248 participants refuse to sign, among them Gennadiy Zyuganov, leader of Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF).
June Yeltsin accelerates market reforms.
Foreign Minister Kozyrev signs NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) accord.
July Russian and United States troops conduct joint peacekeeping exercise in Orenburg, Russia. United States conducts maneuvers in Black Sea with Russia, Ukraine, and other Black Sea countries.
Russian government issues statement that situation in Chechnya is getting out of control.
August Last Russian troops leave Germany, Estonia, and Latvia.
September Fighting breaks out in Chechnya between Dudayev's and opposition forces.
October Ruble loses one-fifth of its value in one day.
Chernomyrdin and Prime Minister Sangheli of Moldova sign agreement on withdrawal of Russia's 14th Army from Moldova.
November Dudayev proclaims martial law throughout republic and mobilizes all men aged seventeen and older.
Yeltsin issues ultimatum to warring parties in Chechnya to lay down their arms.
December Kozyrev suspends Russia's participation in PfP.
Russian armored columns enter Chechnya.
1995 January Russia and Kazakstan agree to unify their armies by end of 1995.
April Human rights activist Sergey Kovalev estimates 10,000 Russian soldiers and 25,000 Chechen civilians killed in Chechnya since 1994.
June State Duma votes no-confidence in Government (cabinet). Second no-confidence vote fails in State Duma.
July Yeltsin hospitalized, returns to work in August.
October Yeltsin again hospitalized, reappears in November.
December In parliamentary elections, communists and nationalists gain strength, reformists split and in decline.
1996 January Yeltsin replaces Foreign Minister Andrey Kozyrev with Yevgeniy Primakov. Leading liberal reformists dismissed or resign.
March After slowdown in privatization and increase in government spending, Russia granted loan agreement worth US$10 billion by IMF.
Leaders of Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Belarus sign customs union treaty in Moscow.
April Russia and Belarus sign union treaty with substantial elements of reunification.
Dzhokar Dudayev killed in rocket attack in Chechnya.
May Chechens sign cease-fire agreement, whose terms are immediately violated; fighting resumes.
June Yeltsin and Zyuganov, candidate of KPRF, finish first and second, respectively, in first round of presidential elections, qualifying them for second round.
Yeltsin fires Grachev and other senior hard-line officials and appoints Lebed' chief of Security Council.
Yeltsin disappears from public view because of undisclosed illness.
July Yeltsin defeats Zyuganov in second round of presidential election, 54 percent to 40 percent.
Fighting in Chechnya intensifies.
Lebed' associate Igor' Rodionov named minister of defense, promises military reform; Anatoliy Chubays named presidential chief of staff.
Citing failure of Russian economic reform, IMF withholds tranche of 1996 assistance package.
Yeltsin creates civilian Defense Council.
Pravda, voice of communism since 1912, renamed Pravda 5 and begins more objective reporting.
August Yeltsin staff announces Yeltsin will rest for prolonged period to recover from election campaign.
Chernomyrdin confirmed for second term as prime minister; Yeltsin names new Government with reformists in key positions.
Chechen guerrillas recapture Chechen capital Groznyy, exposing weakness of Russian military; Lebed' achieves cease-fire in direct talks with Chechen leaders.
IMF resumes economic assistance payments.
Bellona Foundation report exposes mishandling of nuclear materials in Arctic regions.
September As cease-fire terms hold, first Russian troops leave Chechnya.
NATO offers Russia special terms of military cooperation.
Yeltsin announces he will undergo heart surgery; under pressure, he temporarily cedes military command and control of internal security agencies to Chernomyrdin.
Controversy continues over locus of government authority.
Election cycle begins in subnational jurisdictions, continues through March 1997.
October Lebed' dismissed as Security Council chief; negotiations with Chechnya continue under Ivan Rybkin.
United States secretary of defense William Perry rebuffed in attempt to gain passage of START II by State Duma.
Government establishes emergency tax commission to improve tax collection; collection rate remains poor in ensuing months.
Chubays begins campaign for compliance of regional laws with federal constitution.
October-December Escalating conflict between military and civilian defense officials over military reform methods.
November Russia's first bond issue on international market nets US$1 billion.
Yeltsin undergoes successful open-heart surgery.
Primakov visits China, Japan, and Mongolia to expand markets.
Third Kilo-class submarine sold to Iran.
Yeltsin remains out of public view until February 1997, his administration inactive; opposition calls for impeachment on health grounds.
December Four-person Consultative Council formed to smooth differences between Government and parliament.
Primakov agrees to negotiate charter giving Russia special status with NATO.
Federation Council (upper house of parliament since 1993 elections) claims Ukrainian port of Sevastopol' as Russian territory, reopening dispute with Ukraine.
1997 January Long-delayed new Criminal Code goes into effect.
State Duma passes 1997 budget after long discussions and amendments; experts call revenue projections unrealistic.
Opposing military reform programs issued by Ministry of Defense and civilian Defense Council.
Presidential and legislative elections in Chechnya; moderate Aslan Maskhadov wins presidency on independence platform.
Yeltsin approves Russia's participation in NATO's Bosnia peacekeeping force until 1998.
IMF withholds loan payment because of continued tax system problems.
February Last Russian troops leave Chechnya.
NATO talks with Russia bring modification of CFE Treaty demands on Russia, subject to ratification by members.
February-March NATO chief Javier Solana visits several CIS nations, which entertain closer NATO ties.
March Yeltsin reestablishes his leadership with vigorous state of the federation speech.
Government streamlining begins with appointments of Chubays and Boris Nemtsov to powerful positions; Chernomyrdin's power wanes.
Second issue of Russian bonds sold on international market; third issue scheduled.
Nationwide labor action gains lukewarm participation; uncoordinated local actions intensify.
At CIS summit, Yeltsin fails to reassert Russian domination as several members take independent positions.
Helsinki summit with President William J. Clinton yields some economic agreements, continued discord on NATO expansion.
Bilateral treaty reaffirms integration of Russia and Belarus.
April Moscow summit with Chinese president Jiang Zemin expresses disapproval of United States world domination, yields agreement to reduce troops along shared border.
State Duma postpones ratification of Chemical Weapons Convention following United States Congress ratification.
Government proposal to limit government housing subsidies brings strong political opposition.
Prompted by revenue shortages, Finance Minister Chubays submits budget revision to State Duma, cutting US$19 billion in spending.
May Peace treaty signed by Russia and Chechnya (Chechnya-Ichkeria); Chechen independence issue remains unresolved.
Igor' Sergeyev replaces Igor' Rodionov as minister of defense following Rodianov's open conflict with other defense authorities.
New privatization programs begin in housing, natural gas, railroads, and electric power.
Security Council issues new national security doctrine.
Terms set for new pipeline from Tengiz oil fields (Kazakstan) to Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.
Russia signs "founding act" agreement with NATO, allowing participation in NATO decision making; Russia agrees to drop opposition to NATO expansion in Central Europe.
Yeltsin and Ukraine's president Leonid Kuchma sign treaty of friendship and cooperation, nominally settling disputes over territory and ownership of Black Sea Fleet.
June State Duma recesses for summer without acting on budget-cut proposal, leaving determination of cuts to Government.
Yeltsin names his daughter Tat'yana Dyachenko an official adviser.
Yeltsin participates in Denver G-8 (formerly G-7) meeting as full partner for first time.
Government announces allocation of US$2.9 billion to pay long-overdue pensions.
Government announces sale of shares in six state-owned oil companies to increase revenues.
Under pressure from Yeltsin, Duma approves new tax code aimed at broadening government's revenue base.
June-July Mishaps aboard Mir space station reinforce international doubts about Russia's space program.
July Yeltsin declares Russia's economy has "turned the corner" toward growth and stability; statistics show some improvement.
New CFE treaty reduces arms in Europe, does not limit NATO movement into Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland as Russia had demanded.
Russia offers Japan new conditions for development of disputed Kuril Islands; bilateral talks address Japanese investment elsewhere in Russia's Far East.
Constitutinal Court rejects Moscow's residency fees as unconstitutional.
Yeltsin announces large-scale program for military reform and streamlining.
First meeting of NATO-Russia joint council establishes operational procedures.
Yeltsin vetoes law restricting activities of non-Orthodox religions, after both houses of parliament had overwhelmingly passed it, Russian Orthodox Church supported it, and human rights organizations condemned it.
Yeltsin's drive against official corruption thwarted as high officials refuse to divulge personal finances.
August Pro-Yeltsin party, Our Home Is Russia, shaken by resignation of parliamentary leader Sergey Belyayev.
NATO's Sea Breeze 97 exercise in Ukraine modified from military to humanitarian maneuver after protest by Russia.
Yeltsin announces ruble reform for January 1998, dropping three zeros from denomination of currency.
Government submits privatization plan for 1998 and draft 1998 budget to Sate Duma; budget calls for 2 percent growth in GDP and annual inflation of 5 percent.
Russia and Armenia sign friendship and cooperation treaty tightening military and economic ties.
September Duma reconvenes; atop agenda are tax reform bill and consideration of 1998 budget proposal.
Shakeups of military establishment continue as Yeltsin dismisses his Defense Council chief, Yuriy Baturin, and reorganizes Rosvooruzheniye, the foreign arms sales cartel.
Overdue tax payments by Gazprom reach US$2.4 billion.
Agreement with Chechnya sets terms for repair of Baku (Azerbaijan)-Novorossiysk pipeline through Chechnya, with October 1997 as completion deadline; negotiations continue on new pipelines from Central Asia westward.
Russia warns NATO against pressure on Bosnian Serb Karadzic faction.
Foreign trade figures for first half of 1997 announced; overall surplus US$18.5 billion, down 3.9 percent from first half 1996, including decrease of 11.7 percent in CIS trade.
Duma passes land code without provision for sale of land by owner, frustrating Yeltsin's long campaign for reform of land ownership.
Worker protests spread across Russia as wage non-payment continues, especially among coal, defense industry, and scientific workers.
Yeltsin signs revised bill on religious organizations after "Christianity" added to list of Russia's "traditional," unrestricted faiths; human rights and religious groups protest.

Data as of July 1996

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