Timeline: 2 decades of USSR

Apr 16, 1917

Return

Lenin and other revolutionaries return to Russia from Germany

1918

"War communism" 1918-21

Policy of "war communism" enunciated, with the state taking control of the whole economy; millions of peasants in the Don region starve to death as the army confiscates grain for its own needs and the needs of urban dwellers.

1918

"War communism" 1918-21

Policy of "war communism" enunciated, with the state taking control of the whole economy; millions of peasants in the Don region starve to death as the army confiscates grain for its own needs and the needs of urban dwellers.

1918

Civil war 1918-20

Civil war between Bolsheviks, or Reds, and anti-Bolsheviks, or Whites, ravages Russia. In northern Russia, British, French and US troops capture Murmansk and Archangel until 1919, while in the Russian Far East they occupy Vladivostok, which was held by the Japanese until 1922

Mar 3, 1918

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk according to which Russia ceded large tracts of land to Germany; Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan proclaim their independence from Russia

Mar 18, 1921

Treaty of Riga

Peace treaty between Poland and Russia signed in Riga, Latvia, that ended the Russo-Polish War of 1919–20 and set their mutual border. The treaty, which gave Poland parts of Belorussia (now Belarus) and Ukraine, lasted until World War II, after which a new treaty established a new border.

Dec 22, 1922

Declaration of the Creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Union treaty formally joins Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Transcaucasus - which were divided in 1936 into Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan - into the Soviet Union. Also Germany recognises the Soviet Union.

1924

Dictatorship and Joseph Stalin

Soviet Union adopts constitution based on the dictatorship of the proletariat and stipulating the public ownership of land and the means of production; Lenin dies and is replaced by Joseph Stalin