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The government stops uprisings in Moscow, killing hundreds
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Striking workings march to the Winter Palace to deliver a petition to the tsar on January 22 (January 9 O.S.). Troops open fire and killed between 96 and 200 people. The events of Bloody Sunday sparked strikes, peasant uprisings, mutinies in the navy, and assassinations of royalty and officials.
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The tsarist government closes all universities until the following academic year, believing them to be a source of revolutionary ideas
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The Bolshevik Party meets in London and turns down a proposal to reunite with the Mensheviks
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The tsarist government holds a political summit and devises a new system based on class qualifications
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The tsarist government announces the Bulygin Constitution which means a Duma will be elected. The idea is rejected by most political groups
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The Soviet of Soldiers’ and Workers’ Deputies is formed in St Petersburg with Leon Trotsky as vice-chairman. The council comprises primarily of Mensheviks
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Amid strikes and political unrest, Lenin returns to St Petersburg
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A relaxation in press censorship is announced leading to a flood of anti-tsarist literature and propaganda
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About 250 members of the St Petersburg Soviet are arrested and Moscow is paralysed by a strike
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Young radical Alexander Kerensky is arrested and imprisoned for possessing anti-tsarist literature
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Tsar Nicholas II issues the Fundamental Laws, a constitution which reasserts his and retracting promises made in the October Manifest
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The first Duma meets in St Petersburg, boycotted by the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks
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Over 800 Jews are killed in a spate of anti-Semitic violence in Bialystok, ending on June 3rd
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Stolypin replaces Goremykin as prime minister and the SR later make an attempt on his life
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Members of the St Petersburg Soviet go on trial. Most are exied t Siberia, including Trotsky
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The second Duma opens comprising of many socialist representatives, including SRs, Mensheviks and 18 Bolsheviks. It is dissolved by the tsar in June
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The third Duma opens and is comprised primarily of land-owners and conservatives.
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Lenin flees Russia and returns to exile in Switzerland
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Rasputin is temporarily banished by the tsar due to reports of his drinking and womanising.
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Stolypin is shot at the theatre, dies of his injuries, and is replaced by Vladimir Kokovstoff
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Troops arrest strike leaders in Lena River and fire on the marchers, killing more than 200. This triggers more strikes in other parts of Russia
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The fourth Duma opens
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The Austrian archduke, Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo
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Germany declares war on Russia. This leads to a boost in patriotism and a decrease in support for socialist groups.
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St Petersburg is renamed Petrograd
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Tsar Nicholas II temporarily dissolves the Duma on advice from Rasputin and the tsarina
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Over 140,000 Russian workers strike in commemoration of the 12th anniversary of Bloody Sunday
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The February Revolution begins. Food rationing is announced, leading to panic buying in cities, where food availability is already low
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The Duma’s Provisional Government committee meets Tsar Nicholas II and demands his abdication. He abdicates in favour of his brother Michael who refuses to take the throne, ending 300 years of Romanov rule
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Lenin returns to Russia with the help of the German government and delivers a speech which forms the basis of the April Theses
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Workers and soldiers in Petrograd revolt, demanding the Soviets or the Bolsheviks take power but they refuse and the rebellion is crushed by government troops
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After the Petrograd uprising, the liberal coalition of the Provisional Government collapses and Kerensky becomes prime minister. The cabinet is then filled with socialists.
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An attempt is made on Lenin's life by a member of the SR
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New commander-in-chief of the Russian army, General Kornilov, declares his intention to march on Petrograd and free the country from radical socialists.
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Bolsheviks have majority in the Petrograd Soviet and Trotsky elected as chairman
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The Bolshevik Central Committee declares that “an armed uprising is inevitable” and the Petrograd Soviet creates Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC)
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The Petrograd Soviet and Bolsheviks pass motions for the seizure of power and discuss how this should be achieved.
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It is announced by Lenin that the Bolsheviks have seized power. He calls for preparations for a Soviet government causing the Menshevik and moderate SR delegates to walk out of the Congress of Soviets.
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Having seized power, Lenin issues the Decree on Land, which calls for the abolition of private ownership, and the Decree on Peace, which requests an immediate ceasefire and treaty.
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After a week of fighting, the Bolshevik Red Guards successfully take control of Moscow
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The Bolshevik government abolishes all tsarist ranks, titles and privileges
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44 million people wote in the elections for the Constituent Assembly
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The Bolsheviks adopt the Gregorian, or New Style, calendar which was already in use in the rest of Europe.
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The church and the state are separated, making the practice of religion a matter of choice.
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The Red Army is offically formed and Trotsky is appointed war commissar. Germany invades Russia
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Russia ends its involvement in World War I and surrenders large amounts of land, people and resources to the Germans.
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The Bolshevik party changes its name to the Russian Communist Party
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British and French forces land in Russia, the first instances of foreign intervention in the Russian Civil War
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Thounsand of Left SRs attempt an October-style rebellion in Moscow but are defeated and arrested
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The Romanov family and tare shot by a local CHEKA detachment
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The beginning of prodrazvyorstka, compulsory grain requisitioning, is announced
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The third Communist International, or Comintern,meets in Moscow and disucsses how to aid and advance the cause of world revolution.
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The CHEKA closes down the Menshevik newspaper when it publishes criticism of Bolshevik policies
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Socialist revolutionaries declare a workers’ soviet republic in Hungary which is finally dispersed in August
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White Army general is arrested and executed after leading an assault on Petrograd that almost succeeds in capturing the city
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The Bolshevik government makes an offer of peace to the US but it is rejected
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Most fighting in the Civil War ends though there are some localised skirmishes and peasant uprisings
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Britain signs a bilateral trading agreement with Russia and other nations lift their trading blockades
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At the tenth Party Congress of the Communist Party, Lenin announces the New Economic Policy (NEP)
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Rebellions in the Tambov are finally suppressed, after Red Army troops are sent into the region
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A USA based famine relief group distributes millions of tons of grain in Russia
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The CHEKA is replaced with a new security agency, the OGPU
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Joseph Stalin is appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
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Lenin has the first of several strokes.
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Lenin announces the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, a federation of all soviet states
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Stalin and Lenin's relationship deteriorates
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Lenin has another stroke which paralyses him and leaves himbarely able to speak.
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American charities stope sending famine relief to Russia when they discover the government is exporting grain abroad
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Lenin dies and is embalmed in a mausoleum. The city of Petrograd is renamed Leningrad in his honour.
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The USSR is formally recognised by Commonwealth nations.