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Founding of the USSR
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was founded in November 1917 by the Bolshevik Party. Led by Vladimir Lenin and, after 1923, by Josef Stalin, the Bolsheviks (later known as the Communists) established Communist rule in the former Russian Empire after the conclusion of a bitter civil war in 1921. -
Soviets End World War One
Treaty World War 1
The Soviet Government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk thus ending four years of war between Russia and Germany. Ohm -
Stalin Becomes Leader
Lenin appoints Joseph Stalin General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party. Ohm -
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Stalin's Reign
Stalin's reign as leader of the Soviet Union until his death after suffering a stroke days before. Ohm -
Hitler's Suggestions
As early as 1925, Hitler's Mein Kampf suggested that he would invade the Soviet Union because the German people nededed Lebensraum (living space) and raw materials. Hitler had interests in the East for a very long time. -
First 5 year Plan
No Specific Month or Day
Adoption of first Five-Year Plan, with the state setting goals and priorities for the whole economy.
The end of the New Economic Policy.
Collectivisation of agriculture begins; numerous relatively prosperous peasants, or Kulaks, killed; millions of peasant households eliminated and their property confiscated.
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League of Nations
The Soviet Union is admitted into the League of Nations. The Union is also recognized by many other states including the United States previous to the Soviet admission into the LoN. Ohm -
Great Terror Begins
Great TerrorStalin begins his purge of all the enemies of his regime. 27 million die in the ensuing chaos. People are taken from their homes and thrown in jail, killed, or forced into labour camps. Ohm -
Japanese Invasion
The Japanese invaded the USSR and were checked at the Battle of Lake Khasan. Soviet victory, but the Japanese claimed it an "inconclusive draw". -
Japanese Actions
Japanese decide to move the Japanese-Mongolian border up to the Khalkin Gol River by force. -
Declaration of War
On September 3, 1939, Britain and France, having guaranteed to protect Poland's borders five months earlier, declared war on Germany. These events marked the beginning of World War II. -
German–Soviet Credit Agreement
Economic arrangement between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany whereby Soviet Union supplied Germany with raw materials in exchange for German factory equipment, installations, machinery and machine tools, ships, vehicles, and other means of transport worth 120 million Reichsmark. It was concluded on August 19, 1939 in Berlin. The economic agreement was the first step toward improvement in relations between the Soviet Union and Germany. The Molotov–Ribbentrop pact was signed four days later. -
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
Ten-year non-aggression pact signed between Molotov (Soviet Union) and Ribbentrop (Nazi Germany). Each signatory promised not to attack the other. Secret protocols of the pact outlined an agreement between the Third Reich and the Soviet Union on the division of the border states between them: the Soviet Union would receive the Baltic States in this pact. -
Germany attacks Poland
The German-Soviet Pact enabled Germany to attack Poland on September 1, 1939, without fear of Soviet intervention. -
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World War II
World War II
Sep. 1 1939 - Germany Invades Poland
Sep. 2 1945 - Japan Surrenders to America. Ohm -
Soviet Actions
The nonaggression pact of August 23 contained a secret protocol that provided for the partition of Poland and the rest of eastern Europe into Soviet and German spheres of interest. In accordance with this plan, the Soviet army occupied and annexed eastern Poland in the autumn of 1939. On November 30, 1939, the Soviet Union attacked Finland, precipitating a four-month winter war after which the Soviet Union annexed Finnish territory borderlands, particularly near Leningrad. -
German-Soviet Commercial Agreement
Soviet Union agreed to trade large quantities of critical raw materials to Germany in exchange for German weapons, military technology and civilian machinery. The agreement expanded upon a smaller German–Soviet Commercial Agreement, signed on August 19, 1939.Soviet Union would send Germany 650 million Reichsmarks in raw materials in exchange for 650 million Reichmarks in machinery, manufactured goods and technology.The trade pact helped Germany to surmount the British blockade. -
Hitler's Motives
Hitler told one of his generals in June that the victories in western Europe "finally freed his hands for his important real task: the showdown with Bolshevism", though German generals told Hitler that occupying Western Russia would create "more of a drain than a relief for Germany's economic situation." Hitler's anti-communist (Bolshevik) views are still evident. -
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Aspects of the Pact - German Indulgence
With German indulgence, the Soviet Union also moved to secure its sphere of interest in eastern Europe in the summer of 1940. The Soviets occupied and incorporated the Baltic states and seized the Romanian provinces of northern Bukovina and Bessarabia. -
Romania cedes lands to Soviet Union
Romania cedes Bessarabia and North Bukovina to the USSR after an ultimatum and subsequently declared the land the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. Ohm -
Signing Directive 21 (Code-named Operation Barbarossa)
Hitler had always regarded the German-Soviet nonaggression pact as a tactical and temporary maneuver. From the beginning of operational planning, German military and police authorities intended to wage a war of annihilation against the Communist state as well as the Jews of the Soviet Union, whom they characterized as forming the "racial basis" for the Soviet state. Propaganda throughout Germany led citizens to believe the Soviet Union was being controlled by Jews. -
Soviet-Japan Non-Aggression Pact
Japanese Foreign Ministers and Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov Sign the Pact declaring peace between the two nations. Ohm -
Stalin's Speech on Germany
Stalin declared: "War with Germany is inevitable. If comrade Molotov can manage to postpone the war for two or three months that will be our good fortune, but you yourselves must go off and take measures to raise the combat readiness of our forces". Stalin was aware that relations with Germany were tense and Hitler was not to be trusted. -
Operation Barbarossa
Largest German military operation of World War II. Three army groups, including more than three million German soldiers, supported by half a million troops from Germany's allies (Finland, Romania, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, and Croatia), attacked the Soviet Union across a broad front, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south. Although suspicious of Hitler, Stalin had avoided many warnings from Britain and his own people about the attack. -
Battle at Dnepropetrovsk
Freidrich Paulus (German) promoted to General. Fought first battle at Dnepropetrovsk in the Soviet Union. The advance of the 6th Army was halted by the Red Army. One month later, Paulus was forced to move back in search of defensive positions. -
Attack on the 6th Army at Volchansk
General Timoshenko, with 640,000 men, attacked the 6th Army at Volchansk. Paulus (being outnumbered) was forced to retreat, again, to Kharkov. The 6th Army was rescued by General Paul von Kleist and his 1st Panzer Army when they struck Timoshenko's flank on May 17th. -
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USSR
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Counter-attack on German troops
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Counteroffensive against German Sixth Army - Stalingrad
Stalingrad ended the string of German success in summer of 1942. In mid-November 1942, the Soviet army launched a massive counteroffensive against the German Sixth Army, some 250,000 soldiers trying to conquer Stalingrad in bitter hand-to-hand fighting. The Soviet troops encircled and trapped the German forces. Following six more weeks of fierce combat in which both sides took heavy casualties, some 91,000 surviving German soldiers surrendered between January 31 and February 2, 1943. -
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Germans surrender to Soviets after Barbarossa
Following six more weeks of fierce combat in which both sides took heavy casualties, some 91,000 surviving German soldiers surrendered between January 31 and February 2, 1943. -
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Liberation and a final German offensive attempt
After the victory at Stalingrad, the Soviet army remained on the offensive, liberating most of the Ukraine, and virtually all of Russia and eastern Belorussia during 1943. In the summer of 1943 at Kursk, in Russia, the Germans attempted one more offensive, but were badly beaten by the Soviet army in what is now considered the military turning point on the eastern front. -
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Further Soviet Offense and Liberation
In the summer of 1944, the Soviets launched another major offensive, which liberated the rest of Belorussia and the Ukraine, most of the Baltic states, and eastern Poland from Nazi rule. By August 1944, Soviet troops had crossed the German border into East Prussia. -
Soviets on the Oder River
In January 1945, a new offensive brought Soviet forces to the Oder River, in Germany proper, about 100 miles from Berlin. -
Soviet's final assault on Nazi Germany
In mid-April 1945, the Soviet army launched its final assault on Nazi Germany, capturing Vienna on April 13 and encircling Berlin on April 21. On April 25, Soviet advance patrols met American troops at Torgau on the Elbe River in central Germany, effectively cutting the country in half. -
Hitler commits suicide
After more than a week of heavy fighting in the streets of Berlin, Soviet units neared Hitler's central command bunker. On April 30, 1945, Hitler committed suicide. -
Berlin's Surrender
Berlin surrendered to Soviet forces on May 2, 1945. -
German Surrender in the West
The German armed forces surrendered unconditionally in the west on May 7. -
V-E Day
The western allies proclaimed May 8, 1945, as Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day). -
German surrender in the East and Soviets in Prague
The German armed forces surrendered unconditionally in the east on May 9, 1945. On May 9, the Soviet army entered Prague, the last major city still occupied by German units.
