February 23, 1917: Revolution in Russia overthrows the regime of Czar Nicholas, sets up a Provisional Government under A.F. Kerensky.
October 25, 1917: Second revolution establishes a government of the Soviets of Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Deputies, with Bolshevik Party the leading force.
January 1918-November 1919: Period of Civil War; counterrevolutionary foreign intervention begins March 1918 with occupation of Murmansk by British, U.S. and French forces; within a year, White Guards backed by military forces from 14 imperialist countries occupy three-fourths of Soviet territory.
1918-1919: Extraordinary political and economic measures taken by the Soviets to mobilize all resources in order to save the Revolution; known as War Communism, these measures include a state monopoly on the grain trade, a prohibition on private trading, obligatory allocation of agricultural stocks to feed the army and the workers in the cities, rationing, and labor conscription.
March 3, 1918: Treaty to end the war between Soviet Russia and Germany signed at Brest-Litovsk, under which the Soviet government has to surrender 150,000 square kilometers of territory to Germany, including Poland, the Baltic states and much of the Ukraine.
November 12, 1918: Germany and her allies surrender, ending World War I.
November 13, 1918: Bolshevik government annuls the Brest-Litovsk treaty; by December, Soviet governments have been established in the Ukraine, the Crimea, the Baltic region and Belorussia.
February and March, 1921: Sailors at the Kronstadt naval base near Petrograd (Leningrad) stage a revolt against the Bolshevik government.
March 1921: 10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party, on Lenin's initiative, decides to adopt a New Economic Policy utilizing the market to revive the economy
October 17, 1921: Lenin elaborates on New Economic Policy in report to Second All-Russian Congress of Political Education Departments.
April 16, 1922: Soviet and German governments sign treaty of Rapallo under which Germany agrees to nullify the Brest-Litovsk agreement and renounces its claim to the Baltic states.
December 30, 1922: First Congress of Soviets of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics establishes the USSR as a multinational state composed of equal republics with right of secession.
April 1923: 12th Congress of the CPSU passes program on the national question aimed at liquidating economic and cultural inequality between the various peoples of the Soviet Union.
January 21, 1924: Lenin dies after illness complicated by an assassination attempt in 1918.
1926: Economy of USSR recovers to the pre-war level – that of underdeveloped, czarist Russia.
May 1929: Beginning of first Five-Year Plan with emphasis on industrialization.
1929: Establishment of first collective farms and beginning of struggle to expropriate the kulaks (rich peasants).
October 1929: Collapse of stock market in New York sets off worldwide capitalist depression.
1933: Beginning of second Five-Year Plan, one year ahead of schedule.
September 30, 1938: Hitler, Mussoline, Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier, without consulting either Czechoslovakia or USSR, sign Munich pact allowing Germany to seize the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia.
August 23, 1939: Foreign ministers Molotov for USSR and Ribbentrop for Germany sign ten-year non-aggression pact.
August 1940: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia incorporated into the USSR as Soviet Socialist Republics.
June 22, 1941 Nazi Germany invades the USSR.
1941-1945: Years of the wartime alliance between the USSR and the Allied imperialist powers against the Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan.
February 2, 1943: Battle of Stalingrad, which began in the summer of 1942, is won by Red Army in a decisive defeat for the German Command and a turning point in the war.
February 1945: Conference of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill at Yalta in the Crimea.
June 5, 1947: U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall outlines the Marshall Plan, under which $12.5 billion was extended by the U.S. through the Economic Cooperation Administration to rebuild the capitalist economies of Western Europe; it was superseded in 1952 by the Mutual Security Agency.
August 24, 1949: Formation of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) by U.S., Canada, and ten West European nations.
October 1, 1949: Victory of Chinese Revolution
June 25, 1950-July 27, 1953: War in Korea; military forces from the U.S. and 16 other capitalist countries try to roll back Korean socialist revolution, which has support of USSR and Peoples China; war ends in stalemate at 37th parallel, leaving Korea divided.
March 5, 1953: Death of Stalin.
May 14, 1955: Warsaw Pact defense treaty signed by USSR and seven East European nations.
February 1956: 20th Congress of CPSU; Khrushchev report denounces Stalin and emphasizes peaceful coexistence.
May 1957: Khrushchev reorganizes economy, shifting authority from central ministries to regional councils.
October 4, 1957: USSR launches Sputnik, world's first satellite in outer space.
January 1, 1959: Victory of Cuban Revolution.
August 3, 1972: U.S. Senate ratifies the first SALT treaty limiting strategic arms.
October 3, 1972: Nixon and Gromyko sign the final documents of the SALT treaty.
October 18, 1972: Trade treaty between U.S. and USSR is signed, but is never effectuated because of Jackson-Vanik Amendment.
June 1979: SALT II treaty signed in Vienna; is never ratified by U.S. Congress.
March 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev succeeds Konstantin Chernenko as General Secretary of the CPSU.
November 22, 1985: Presidium of Supreme Soviet announces sweeping overhaul of government, with changes in or abolition of 50 ministries.
November 19 and 20, 1985: Summit meeting in Geneva between President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev.
February 25, 1986: Gorbachev report to the 27th Party Congress says low growth rates due to bureaucracy and conservatism have created a "pre-crisis situation".
September 1986: Ministry of Foreign Trade authorizes some enterprises to negotiate export and import arrangements directly with foreign buyers and sellers.
December 17, 1986: Dinmukhamed A. Kunayev is removed as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and replaced by an ethnic Russian.
December 18, 1986: Rebellion in Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan in which two people are killed.
January 1, 1987: Joint venture law enabling individual Soviet enterprises to negotiate foreign trade goes into effect.
January 27, 1987: Gorbachev report "On Reorganization and the Party's Personnel Policy" to plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the CPSU attacks "wage leveling".
June 25, 1987: Gorbachev report "On the Tasks of the Party in the Radical Restructuring of Economic Management" to plenary session of the CPSU Central Committee lays out plan for perestroika.
June 1987: Magazine Novy Mir publishes article by economist Nikolai Shmelyov advocating elimination of central planning in favor of capitalist free market.
October 1987: Geidar Aliev, Politburo member from Azerbaijan, removed from his post, reportedly for opposing the reforms.
February 1988: Outbreak of heavy fighting in Armenia and in Sumgait, Azerbaijan, over the status of the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
May 15, 1988: Beginning of withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.
June 1, 1988: U.S. and USSR sign the Intermediate Nuclear Force (INF) treaty.
June 1988: 19th All-Union Party Conference of the CPSU.
September 1988: Plenary session of CPSU Central Committee; Gorbachev admits reforms are going slowly; state structure is changed to make Gorbachev Chairman of Supreme Soviet as well as General Secretary; Gromyko, others dropped from Politburo; Medvedev replaces Ligachev as head of ideology; steps taken to decollectivize farms.
December 7, 1988: Gorbachev speaks to United Nations General Assembly in New York, stresses "universal human values".
May 30, 1989: Gorbachev speaks to newly elected Congress of People's Deputies, calls for austerity measures, talks of changing forms of ownership.
July 10, 1989: Massive strike of coal miners begins in western Siberia over deterioration of living conditions; soon spreads to other major mines throughout USSR.
August 2, 1989: Railroad workers on Leningrad-Vyborg line walk out in brief strike.
Last updated: 23 July 2017