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Ivan the III (the Great) ruled Russia from 1462-1505. He is the first Czar of Russia.
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The 1905 Russian Revolution is a time period describing a series of political terrorism, strikes, mustinies, that swept through vast areas of the Russian Empire, leading to the establishment of the State Duma of the Russian Empire, multi-party system and the Russian Constitution of 1906.
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The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was created in eurasia in 1922 and ended in 1991. Vladimir Ilich Lenin was the founder of the USSR and was a Russian Revolutionary leader.
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Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until he died in 1953. After moving up the ranks and becoming head of state in the Soviet Union, he established a government based on the principles of Leninism, and began building socialism in one country.
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During World War II%u2014known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War%u2014 the USSR had a struggle against the Nazis which let Stalin encourage nationalism and build loyalty to the Soviet State. Russia had been attacked again and were victorious against a Western power.
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The Cold War was the state of conflict, tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union.Throughout this period, rivalry between the two superpowers was expressed through military coalitions, propaganda, espionage, weapons development, industrial advances, and competitive technological development, which included the space race.
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On June 24, the Soviet Union tries to take control of Berlin by blockading all land access to the city. From June 1948 to May 1949, U.S. and British planes airlift 1.5 million tons of supplies to those living in West Berlin. After 200,000 flights, the Soviet Union lifted the blockade.
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The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the spacecraft that went into earth's orbit, the first one in human history, and was an enormously significant event for that reason. The launching of Sputnik 1 and 2 as well as other USSR launches initiated the Space Race between the US and the USSR.
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On May 1, an American U-2 spy plane is shot down on a mission over the Soviet Union. After the Soviets announce the capture of pilot Francis Gary Powers, the US recants earlier assertions that the plane was on a weather research mission.
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The United States rejects proposals by Khrushchev to make Berlin a "free city" with access controlled by East Germany. On August 15, communist authorities began building the Berlin Wall to prevent the East Germans from going over to West Berlin.
