Russia: A History

CHRONOLOGY

For a detailed chronology of Russian history, see Francis Conte (ed.), Great Dates in Russian and Soviet History (New York, 1994).

860–1240 — Era of Kievan Rus

862 — Traditional date for arrival of ‘Riurik’ of Varangians (Norsemen), founder of Riurikid dynasty (862–1598)

980–1015 — Vladimir reigns as grand prince of Kiev

988 — Conversion of Kievan Rus to Eastern Orthodox Christianity

1019–54 — Iaroslav reigns as grand prince of Kiev

1037–46 — Construction and decoration of Church of St Sofia in Kiev

1051 — Hilarion consecrated as metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus

1055 — Polovtsy appear on steppe

1061 — Polovtsy attack territories of Rus

1072 — Canonization of Princes Boris and Gleb

1096 — Polovtsy attack Kiev and burn Pecherskii Monastery

1097 — Princely conference at Liubech

1113–25 — Vladimir Monomakh reigns as grand prince of Kiev

1132–6 — Emergence of semi-autonomous Novgorod

1147 — First chronicle mention of Moscow

1156 — Construction of first kremlin walls in Moscow

1169 — Armies of Prince Andrei Bogoliubskii of Vladimir sack Kiev

1191–2 — Novgorod signs commercial treaty with Scandinavians and Germans

1223 — Battle of Kalka: first encounter of Mongols with Kievan Rus

1237–40 — Mongol conquest of Kievan Rus, culminating in the sack of Kiev

1240 — Prince Alexander Nevsky defeats Swedes on the Neva

1240–1340 — Early Mongol Suzerainty

1242 — Prince Alexander Nevsky defeats Teutonic Knights at Lake Peipus

1300 — Moscow conquest of Kolomna: beginning of ‘in-gathering’ of Russian land

1317–28 — Metropolitan moves to Moscow

1327–41 — Ivan I (Kalita), designated grand prince of Vladimir, by the Mongol khan

1340–1584 — Rise of Muscovy

1337 — Founding of Holy Trinity Sergius Monastery

1359–89 — Dmitrii Donskoi reigns as grand prince of Moscow

1367 — Construction of stone kremlin in Moscow

1380 — Battle of Kulikovo

1389–1425 — Vasilii I reigns as grand prince of Moscow

1425–62 — Vasilii II reigns as grand prince of Moscow

1433–53 — Civil war between Vasilii II and his kinsmen

1448 — Bishop Iona of Riazan selected metropolitan, without the approval of Constantinople

1453 — Fall of Constantinople

1462–1505 — Ivan III (the Great) reigns as grand prince of Moscow

1463 — Moscow acquires the principalities of Iaroslavl and part of Rostov

1478 — Moscow annexes Novgorod

1480 — Battle of Ugra, nominal end of Moscow subordination to Mongols

1485 — Moscow conquers Tver

1497 — Ivan III issues a brief law code (Sudebnik), with the first broad limitation on peasant movement

1499 — Moscow acquires the principalities of Viatka

1505–33 — Vasilii III reigns as grand prince of Moscow

1510 — Moscow absorbs the city-state of Pskov

1514 — Smolensk conquered

1521 — Annexation of Riazan, last independent principality in central Russia

1533–84 — Ivan IV reigns in minority as grand prince (1533–47), then tsar of Moscow (1547–84)

1537 — Local judicial and administrative reforms, with the election of ‘brigandage elders’ (gubnye starosty)

1547 — Ivan IV crowned tsar

1550 — Law code (sudebnik) promulgated

1551 — Church council (‘Hundred Chapters’ or Stoglav) proposes church reforms

1552 — Conquest of Kazan

1555 — Reform of local fiscal system (zemskie starosty)

1556 — Astrakhan conquered

1558–83 — Livonian War, ending with threats that cede lands to Poland-Lithuania and Sweden

1564 — Publication of first book

1564–72 — Oprichnina, Ivan’s personal domain

1570 — Oprichnina forces sack Novgorod

1571 — Crimean Tatars storm and burn Moscow

1575 — Ivan IV abdicates temporarily in favour of Semen Bekbulatovich

1580 — First law forbidding peasants to change landlords

1582 — Ermak’s initial conquest of khanate of western Siberia

1584–1613 — Time of Troubles

1584 — Fedor Ivanovich reigns as tsar, with Boris Godunov ruling behind the scenes

1589 — Law code (sudebnik); establishment of Patriarchate

1591 — Death of Tsarevich Dmitrii

1598 — Fedor dies, marking the extinction of the Riurikid dynasty

1598–1605 — Boris Godunov reigns as tsar

1605–6 — First False Dmitrii reigns as tsar

1606–7 — Bolotnikov rebellion

1606–10 — Reign of ‘boyar’ tsar, Vasilii Shuiskii

1610–13 — Interregnum: boyar intervention, Polish rule

1612 — Liberation of Moscow by Minin and Pozharskii (October)

1613–1689 — Muscovy: Restored and Reconstructed

1613 — Election of Michael Romanov, onset of new dynasty (1613–1917) 1613–45 Mikhail reigns as tsar

1617 — Treaty of Stolbovo with Sweden

1618 — Armistice of Deulino with Poland

1619 — Filaret (Romanov) consecrated as patriarch

1632–4 — Polish war

1645–76 — Alexis reigns as tsar

1648 — Moscow uprising

1649 — Law code (Sobornoe ulozhenie)

1650 — Novgorod and Pskov rebellions

1652 — Establishment of separate foreigners’ settlement (nemetskaia sloboda) in Moscow; consecration of Nikon as Patriarch

1653 — First church reforms, which eventually led to schism (raskot)

1654 — Cossacks under Bohdan Khmelnitskii recognize Moscow’s suzerainty

1666–7 — Church council: condemnation of Nikon, formal beginning of schism

1667 — Armistice of Andrusovo with Poland

1667–71 — Stenka Razin rebellion

1672 — First theatrical performance

1676–81 — First Russo-Turkish war

1676–82 — Fedor reigns as tsar

1682–9 — Regency of Sofia; nominal rule of Peter I and Ivan V

1682 — Peter I proclaimed tsar, then co-tsar with older half-brother Ivan V; aboltion of precedence; Streltsy revolt

1686 — ‘Eternal Peace’ with Poland-Lithuania and joining Holy League against the Ottoman Turks

1687–9 — Vasilii Golitsyn’s failed campaigns against the Crimean khanate

1689 — Russian-Chinese Treaty of Nerchinsk

1689–1740 — Petrine Russia and Aftermath

1689 — Peter I (the Great) assumes power, ruling until his death in 1725

1690 — Birth of Tsarevich Alexis

1693–4 — Peter travels to Archangel to sample sea voyages

1695–6 — Azov campaigns: initial failure, eventual success

1697–8 — Peter’s ‘Grand Embassy’ to Western Europe

1698 — Revolt of the Streltsy suppressed

1700–21 — Northern War between Russia and Sweden

1700 — Russian defeat at Narva; death of Patriarch Adrian; adoption of European (Julian) calendar

1701 — Opening of the Moscow school of mathematics and navigation

1702 — Manifesto welcoming foreigners to Russia; opening of first public theatre in Moscow

1703 — Foundation of St Petersburg; publication of first newspaper (Vedomosti)

1705–6 — Streltsy revolt at Astrakhan

1707–8 — Cossack revolt on lower Don led by Bulavin

1708 — Adoption of civil alphabet

1709 — Russian victory at Poltava

1710 — Russian conquest of Baltics

1711 — Foundation of the Senate; marriage of Peter to Catherine; defeat at Pruth

1713 — Court and many administrative agencies transferred to St Petersburg; earnest preparations for administrative reform commence

1714 — Russian naval victory at Hangö; Naval Academy established in St Petersburg

1715–17 — First Russian expedition to Central Asia

1716–17 — Peter’s second extended trip to Europe

1717–18 — Administrative colleges (kollegii) established

1718 — Investigation, trial, and execution of Tsarevich Alexis and other alleged conspirators

1721 — Adoption of imperial title; publication of the Ecclesiastical Regulation and foundation of the Holy Synod

1722 — New succession law; Table of Ranks promulgated

1722–3 — Persian Campaign along the Caspian Sea

1722–4 — Completion of first universal (male) census; first collection of ‘soul tax’

1724 — Foundation of the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences at St Petersburg

1725 — Death of Peter I; accession of Catherine I

1725–7 — Reign of Catherine I; hegemony of Alexander Menshikov

1726–30 — Predominance of Supreme Privy Council

1727–30 — Reign of Peter II; downfall and exile of Menshikov

1730 — ‘Constitutional Crisis’ after the death of Peter II, accession of Anna Ivanovna as empress (1730–40); abolition of Supreme Privy Council; emergence of Biron as favourite

1733–5 — War of the Polish Succession, Russia in alliance with Austria

1735 — Orenburg founded on south-eastern border and southern Urals; Turkic Bashkirs resist Russian encroachment in a full-blown colonial war till 1740

1736–9 — Russo-Turkish War

1740 — Death of Anna Ivanovna

1740–1 — Ivan VI, with Anna Leopoldovna as regent

1741–1801 — Age of Enlightenment

1741–61 — Reign of Elizabeth

1741–3 — Russo-Swedish War

1754 — Abolition of internal tariffs; establishment of Noble Bank

1755 — Moscow University established

1756–62 — Russian participation in Seven Years War

1760 — Nobles given right to exile serfs to Siberia

1761–2 — Reign of Peter III

1762 — Manifesto freeing the nobility from obligatory service (18 February)

1762–96 — Reign of Catherine II

1764 — Secularization of Church lands and peasants

1766 — Publication of ‘The Great Instruction’ by Catherine the Great

1767–8 — Legislative Assembly (Ulozhennaia komissiia) convened

1768–74 — Russo-Turkish War

1771 — Bubonic plague; Moscow riots

1772 — First Partition of Poland (July)

1774 — Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainardji with Turkey, recognizing Russian protectorate over Christians in the Ottoman Empire

1773–5 — Pugachev rebellion

1775 — Statute on Provincial Administration

1781–6 — Administrative absorption of Ukraine

1782 — Law on Provincial Police

1785 — Charter to the Nobility; Charter to the Towns

1787–92 — Russo-Turkish War

1790 — A. N. Radishchev’s Journey from St Petersburg to Moscow published

1793 — Second Partition of Poland

1794 — Odessa founded

1795 — Third and final partition of Poland

1796–1801 — Reign of Paul

1797 — Edict limiting corvée labour (barshchina) to three days per week; Law of Succession

1800–1855 — Pre-Reform Russia

1801–25 — Reign of Alexander I

1801 — Annexation of Georgia

1802 — Establishment of ministries

1804 — Educational reform; establishment of three additional universities; Pale of Settlement, restricting Jewish residency to the Western provinces

1804–7 — Russian participation in alliance against Napoleon

1807 — Peace of Tilsit

1807–11 — Speransky Reforms

1809 — Acquisition of Finland

1810 — State Council established

1812 — Napoleon invades Russia (June); Battle of Borodino; Moscow burnt (September); French retreat

1815 — Holy Alliance; establishment of Congress Poland

1816–19 — Landless emancipation of Baltic serfs

1819 — Establishment of St Petersburg University

1825 — Decembrist revolt

1825–55 — Reign of Nicholas I

1830 — Publication of The Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire

1830–1 — Polish rebellion

1833 — First modern law code (Svod zakonov) published, taking effect in 1835

1836 — Publication of P. Ia. Chaadaev’s ‘Philosophical Letter’

1837–42 — State peasant reforms under P. D. Kiselev

1842–51 — Construction of first Russian railway line (St Petersburg-Moscow)

1847 — Exchange between N. Gogol and V. Belinskii

1849 — Petrashevskii circle

1853–6 — Crimean War

1855–1890 — Great Reforms and Counter-Reform

1855–81 — Reign of Alexander II

1856 — Peace of Paris, ending the Crimean War; Alexander’s speech to the nobility of Moscow, intimating the need to reform serfdom ‘from above’

1857 — Secret commission for serf reform established (1 January); Nazimov Rescript (20 November) inviting nobility to collaborate in reform; ‘Chief Committee on Peasant Affairs’ under Rostovtsev established to oversee emancipation

1859–60 — Noble deputations come to St Petersburg (August 1859; January 1860)

1861 — Emancipation Manifesto (19 February)

1862 — Publication of I. S. Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons

1863 — Polish Rebellion; publication of N. G. Chernyshevskii’s What Is to Be Done?; University Statute issued

1864 — Zemstvo (local self-government) established; judicial reform; elementary school reform

1865 — Censorship reform (‘Temporary Regulations’)

1865–85 — Conquest, absorption of Central Asia

1866 — Assassination attempt on Alexander II

1867–9 — Church reforms (abolition of caste in 1867; restructuring of seminary; reorganization of parishes in 1869)

1869 — Publication of P. Lavrov’s Historical Letters and L. Tolstoy’s War and Peace

1870 — City government reform

1872 — Russian publication of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital

1874 — Universal Military Training Act, culminating military reforms

1874 — Populist ‘going to the people’

1876–9 — Revolutionary populist organization, Land and Freedom

1877–8 — Russo-Turkish War

1878 — Peace of Berlin

1879 — Terrorist organization, People’s Will, established to combat autocracy

1879–80 — Publication of F. Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov

1879–81 — ‘Crisis of Autocracy’—terrorism, ‘dictatorship of the heart’

1881–94 — Reign of Alexander III

1881 — Temporary Regulations of 14 August 1881 (establishing ‘extraordinary’ police powers to combat revolutionary movement)

1881–2 — Pogroms

1882 — May laws (discriminating against Jews)

1882–4 — Counter-reform in censorship (1882), education (1884), Church (1884)

1882–6 — Reform acts to protect industrial labour

1884 — First Marxist organization, under G. Plekhanov, established abroad

1885 — Noble Land Bank established; abolition of poll-tax

1885–1900 — Russification in borderlands

1889 — New local state official, the ‘Land Captain’, established

1890–1914 — Revolutionary Russia

1890 — Zemstvo counter-reform (restricting autonomy and franchise)

1891–2 — Famine

1891–1904 — Construction of Trans-Siberian Railway

1892 — City government counter-reform (restricting autonomy and franchise)

1892–1903 — S. Iu. Witte as Minister of Finance

1894–1917 — Reign of Nicholas II

1895 — ‘Senseless dreams’ speech by Nicholas II

1896–7 — St Petersburg textile strikes; St Petersburg Union for the Liberation of Labour established

1897 — Gold standard; first modern census

1898 — Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party founded

1899 — V. I. Lenin’s The Development of Capitalism in Russia published

1901–2 — Party of Social Revolutionaries (PSR) established

1902 — Peasant disorders in Poltava and Kharkov (March-April); Lenin’s What Is To Be Done? published

1903 — Union of Liberation (left-liberal organization) established; RSDWP splits into Bolshevik (under V. I. Lenin) and Menshevik (under Iu. Martov) factions; south Russian labour strikes (Rostov-on-the-Don and Odessa); Kishinev anti-Semitic pogroms

1904 — Corporal punishment abolished

1904–5 — Russo-Japanese War

1905–7 — Revolution of 1905

1905 — Bloody Sunday (9 January); October Manifesto (17 October) promising political reform and civil rights

1906 — First State Duma; Stolypin land reforms

1907 — Second State Duma; coup d’état of 3 June

1907–12 — Third State Duma

1909 — Publication of Vekhi (‘Signposts’)

1911 — Assassination of P. A. Stolypin (September)

1912 — Lena Goldfields massacre and ensuing strike wave (March-May)

1912–17 — Fourth State Duma

1914–1921 — War, Revolution, Civil War

1914 — Outbreak of First World War

1915 — Progressive Bloc and political crisis (August)

1916 — Central Asia rebellion; murder of Rasputin

1917 — February Revolution (23 February-1 March); establishment of Provisional Government and Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldiers’ Deputies (1 March); abdication of Nicholas II (2 March); ‘Programme’ of the Provisional Government (8 March); Appeal to All the Peoples of the World’ by Petrograd Soviet (14 March); Lenin’s return to Russia (3 April) and the April crisis’ in the party; Petrograd crisis (23–4 April); coalition governments (May-October); first All-Russian Congress of Soviets’ (June); ‘July Days’; Kornilov mutiny (25–8 August); publication of Lenin’s State and Revolution; Bolshevik seizure of power (25 October); elections for Constituent Assembly (25 November); establishment of the Cheka (7 December)

1918 — Constituent Assembly meets (5–6 January); separation of Church and state; civil war commences; first Soviet constitution (July)

1919 — Height of White challenge (autumn 1919); establishment of the Comintern

1920 — Soviet-Polish War

1921–1929 — Era of the New Economic Policy (NEP)

1921 — Kronstadt revolt (2–17 March); Tenth Party Congress (8–16 March), which promulgated ‘New Economic Policy’

1921–2 — Famine

1922 — Eleventh Party Congress (27 March-2 April); Stalin elected General Secretary (3 April); Genoa Conference, with Soviet participation (April); German-Russian treaty at Rapallo; Lenin’s first stroke (26 May); Lenin’s second stroke (16 December); Lenin dictates ‘testament’ (25 December)

1923 — Lenin adds postscript to ‘testament’ calling for Stalin’s dismissal as General Secretary (4 January); Lenin’s third stroke (9 March)

1924 — Death of Lenin (21 January); party launches ‘Lenin Enrolment’ campaign (February); Stalin publicizes ‘Socialism in One Country’ (December)

1925 — Apogee of NEP (April)

1926 — ‘United Opposition’ of Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Kamenev emerges in the Central Committee (6–9 April); Zinoviev removed from the Politburo (14–23 July); Trotsky and Kamenev removed from Politburo (23–6 October); Bukharin replaces Zinoviev as chairman of Comintern; Family Code to reform marriage and divorce

1927 — ‘War Scare’ with Great Britain (May-August); Trotsky and Zinoviev expelled from Central Committee (21–23 October); Trotsky and Zinoviev expelled from party (15 November); Fifteenth Party Congress, which approves Kamenev’s expulsion from the party (2–19 December); First Five-Year Plan

1928 — Trotsky exiled to Alma-Ata (16 January); Shakhty Trial (18 May-5 July) and beginning of the ‘cultural revolution’; first Five-Year Plan officially commenced (1 October)

1929–1940 — Stalin Revolution

1929 — Defeat of the ‘Right Opposition’ (Bukharin, Rykov, and Tomskii); ban on ‘religious associations’ and proselytizing (April); Stalin condemns ‘right deviation’ (21 August); Bukharin dropped from Politburo (10–17 November); celebration of Stalin’s fiftieth birthday and beginning of the ‘cult of the individual’ (21 December); Stalin calls for mass collectivization and liquidation of kulaks (27 December)

1930 — Mass collectivization launched (5 January); Stalin’s ‘Dizziness from Success’ published in Pravda (2 March)

1932 — Issue of internal passports (December)

1932–3 — Famine in Ukraine and elsewhere

1933 — Second Five-Year Plan (1 January 1933–December 1937)

1934 — Seventeenth Party Congress (January); first congress of Union of Soviet Writers (August); assassination of Sergei Kirov (December)

1935 — Model collective farm statute (February); Stakhanovite movement begun (September)

1936 — New family law restricting abortion and divorce (June); show trial of Zinoviev, Kamenev, and others (August); Ezhov appointed head of NKVD (September); promulgation of Stalin Constitution (December)

1937 — Show trial of Radek, Piatakov, and others (January); execution of Marshal Tukhachevskii and Red Army officers (June); height of ‘Great Terror’ (to late 1938)

1938 — Third Five-Year Plan (1 January 1938–June 1941); trial of N. Bukharin, Rykov, and others (March); introduction of ‘labour book’ for workers (December); Beria succeeds Ezhov as head of NKVD (December)

1939 — Nazi–Soviet pact (August); Soviet invasion of eastern Poland (September); Soviet–Finnish ‘winter war’ (November 1939–March 1940)

1940 — Soviet annexation of Baltic states (June)

1941–1953 — Great Fatherland War and Post-War Stalinism

1941 — Nazi Germany invades USSR (22 June); formation of State Defence Committee (30 June); emergency legislation to mobilize labour, institute rationing, lengthen working day, and criminalize absenteeism (June-December); Stalin’s speech to the nation (3 July); Germans reach Smolensk (16 July); beginning of siege of Leningrad (July); fall of Kiev (19 September); battle for Moscow (November–December); USA approves Lend-Lease aid for the USSR (7 November); Soviet counter-offensive (December 1941–February 1942)

1942 — Anglo-Soviet alliance (May); fall of Sevastopol (July); Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942–February 1943)

1943 — Surrender of von Paulus at Stalingrad (31 January); battle of Kursk (July); Stalin eases restrictions on Russian Orthodox Church (September); Teheran Conference (November); beginning of deportations of nationalities from northern Caucasus

1944 — Siege of Leningrad broken (January); Belorussian operation and destruction of German army group ‘Centre’ (June-July); Soviet armies penetrate Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Hungary (July-December)

1945 — Soviet invasion of Germany (January); Yalta Conference (February); US and Soviet forces meet at the Elbe (25 April); German unconditional surrender (9 May); Potsdam Conference (July-August); Soviet invasion of Manchuria (9 August); formal Japanese surrender (2 September)

1946 — Stalin’s ‘electoral speech’ (February); attacks on leading intellectuals, onset of ‘Zhdanovshchina’; decree on collective farms (September).

1947 — Famine in Ukraine (1947–8); formation of Communist Information Bureau, or Cominform (September)

1948 — Communist coup in Czechoslovakia (February); start of Berlin blockade (May)

1949 — Leningrad affair; formation of NATO (April); end of Berlin blockade (May); Soviet atomic bomb test (August)

1950 — Outbreak of Korean War (25 June)

1951 — Nineteenth Party Congress

1952 — Doctors’ plot (January); death of Stalin (5 March)

1953–1985 — From Stalinism to Stagnation

1953 — G. Malenkov becomes head of state, Beria head of the NKVD and police, N. S. Khrushchev first secretary of the party; denunciation of doctors’ plot; arrest of L. Beria (26 June; executed in December); first hints of de-Stalinization and cultural ‘thaw’

1954 — Publication of I. Ehrenburg’s The Thaw; rehabilitation commission established (May); Khrushchev’s ‘Virgin Lands programme’ adopted

1955 — Malenkov replaced by Bulganin as head of state

1956 — Twentieth Party Congress (Khrushchev’s ‘secret speech’ denouncing Stalin); CC resolution ‘On Overcoming the Cult of the Individual and Its Consequences’ (30 June); Hungarian insurrection (November)

1957 — Decentralization proposal (sovnarkhozy) adopted in May; anti-party group defeated (June); demotion of Marshal Zhukov (October); ‘Sputnik’ launched (October)

1958 — Boris Pasternak awarded Nobel Prize for Doctor Zhivago; new penal code, eliminating category of ‘enemies of the people’ (December)

1959 — Sino-Soviet split becomes public; Twenty-First Party Congress; Khrushchev launches maize campaign 1960 American reconnaissance plane, U-2, shot down inside Russia

1961 — Capital punishment extended to economic crimes (May); Twenty-Second Party Congress (October); Stalin’s body removed from Kremlin (31 October); first manned space flight

1962 — Publication of A.Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; Novocherkassk disorders (June); Cuban missile crisis (October)

1963 — Exceptionally poor harvest

1964 — Removal of N. S. Khrushchev (14 October)

1965 — CC approves plan for economic reform (September); publication of A. Nekrich’s 22 June 1941

1966 — Trial of dissident writers Iu. Daniel and Andrei Siniavskii (February); Twenty-Third Party Congress (March) 1968 Demonstration by Crimean Tatars (April); invasion of Czechoslovakia (August); first issue of Chronicle of Current Events

1970 — Establishment of Human Rights Committee (November)

1971 — Jewish demonstration in Moscow, beginning of large-scale Jewish emigration

1972 — SALT-I (arms limitations); Shevardnadze becomes party boss in Georgia

1974 — Deportation of Solzhenitsyn from USSR

1975 — Helsinki agreement on European Security and Co-operation; Sakharov awarded Nobel Prize for peace

1976 — Twenty-fifth Party Congress

1977 — New Soviet constitution; Brezhnev becomes President of the USSR

1978 — Trial of Anatolii Shcharanskii

1979 — SALT-II (arms limitation agreement); Soviet intervention in Afghanistan

1980 — Exile of Sakharov to Gorky (January)

1981 — Twenty-Sixth Party Congress

1982 — Death of L. I. Brezhnev (10 November), replaced by Andropov

1984 — Andropov dies, replaced by Chernenko (February)

1985 — Chernenko’s death, replacement by Mikhail Gorbachev (11 March)

1985–1995 — From Perestroika to Dissolution of the USSR

1985 — Mikhail Gorbachev elected General Secretary (11 March); Eduard Shevardnadze appointed Foreign Minister (2 July); first superpower summit between Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan in Geneva (November)

1986 — Tbilisi disorders, with twenty demonstrators slain by Soviet troops (9 April); Chernobyl disaster (26 April); riots in Alma-Ata (December)

1987 — Twenty-seventh Party Congress (February-March); new law on ‘socialist enterprise’; Yeltsin dismissed as Moscow party chief (November)

1988 — Nineteenth Party Conference transforms role of Communist Party (June)

1989 — Ethnic conflict erupts in Nagorno-Karabakh (February); USSR Congress of People’s Deputies elected in partly democratic elections (March); anti-perestroika letter by Nina Andreeva; Gorbachev announces plan to withdraw from Afghanistan (April); miners’ strike (July 1989); first national movement, Sajudis, forms in Lithuania (November)

1990 — Election of People’s Deputies of Russian Federation (March); formation of Communist Party of the Russian Federation, with Ivan Polozkov as leader (June); Twenty-eighth Party Congress, with defection of Boris Yeltsin and leaders of Democratic Platform to establish their own party; Gorbachev elected President of the USSR (September)

1991 — Soviet troops attack TV centre in Vilnius, killing 14 (January); Boris Yeltsin elected President of the Russian Federation (June); ultimatum to Gorbachev to resign in favour of Gennadii Ianaev signals beginning of attempted coup (18 August); Yeltsin makes his way to White House to lead opposition to putsch (19 August); attempted coup collapses (21 August); Yeltsin announces plans for economic reform (October); Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and Azerbaijan declare independence (August-September); Chechnya declares independence (November); Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus agree on formation of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) (8 December); CIS formally constituted in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan (21 December); resignation of Gorbachev (25 December); formal dissolution of the USSR (31 December)

1992 — Gaidar introduces radical ‘shock therapy’ economic reforms (January); constitutional referendum (April); Tashkent summit (March); Black Sea accord between Ukraine and Russia (August); privatization vouchers issued (1 October); Yeltsin appoints V. Chernomyrdin as Prime Minister (14 December)

1993 — START-II signed by United States and Russia (3 January); leaders of Central Asia agree in principle on loose union (January); mounting conflict between Yeltsin and Parliament, which votes to strip the President of his economic powers (March); national referendum of 25 April shows support for Yeltsin (58 per cent of votes) and constitution; Yeltsin dismisses parliament and announces new elections (21 September); after parliament impeaches Yeltsin and poses armed resistance, Yeltsin storms the Parliament building, with upward of 200 killed (3–4 October); many CIS states (Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, followed by others) establish their own national currencies (November); national vote to approve constitution (57 per cent) and to elect new Duma, with nearly a quarter of the votes for V. Zhirinovskii’s nationalist party (12 December)

1994 — Russian-Belarus economic union (5 January); State Duma amnesties those involved in the October 1993 events (26 February); speculative pyramid scheme based on MMM stock fund fails (29 July); Yeltsin signs agreement with Bashkortostan to define its powers and sovereignty (3 August); Yeltsin, at stopover at Shannon airport, fails to meet with Irish prime minister, reportedly because of illness and inebriation (30 September); crash of ruble (11 October); after peace talks with Chechnya collapse, Moscow launches military assault (11 December)

1995 — Rehabilitation of 1.5 million victims from World War II in Gulag (25 January); removal of Sergei Kovalev, critic of Chechnya conflict, as human rights commissioner (10 March); founding congress of pro-government party, ‘Our Home is Russia,’ headed by Viktor Chernomyrdin; Chechen armed unit seizes hostages in Budennovsk, with casualties and successful escape of Chechens (June); Duma elections make the Communist Party the largest party with 22 per cent of the vote, while reducing Zhirinovskii’s Liberal Democratic Party to 11 per cent (17 December)

1996 — Treaty of the Four (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan) seeks to enhance integration in economic and foreign policy (29 March); formation of the ‘Shanghai Five’ (Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and China) on multilateral non-aggression and policy coordination (26 April); the Paris Club of governmental creditors agrees to reschedule the Russian state debt of 38 billion dollars (29 April); first round of the presidential election, giving Yeltsin 35 per cent of the vote, but not an absolute majority, with 32 per cent voting for Ziuganov of the Communist Party and 15 per cent for the popular ex-general Lebed (16 June); Yeltsin appoints Lebed as secretary of the Security Council, with the latter throwing his support behind Yeltsin (18 June); run-off for the presidential election, with Yeltsin winning 54 per cent of the vote against Ziuganov’s 40 per cent (3 July); liberal economist and architect of the second privatization, Anatolii Chubais, appointed chief of staff of Presidential Administration (15 July); Lebed and the Chechen leader, Aslan Maskhadov, announce the Khasaviurt Accord (31 August); Yeltsin dismisses Lebed (17 October); Yeltsin successfully undergoes quintuple bypass heart surgery (5 November); three-quarters of the country’s miners go on strike to protest wage arrears (3–11 December); the Shanghai Five agree to reduce military forces along common borders (27 December)

1997 — Maskhadov (with 65 per cent of the vote) elected president of Chechnya, which now calls itself the Republic of Ishkeriia (27 January); major reshuffling of the Russian government, with Chubais appointed first deputy prime minister (March); Chinese-Russian declaration calling for ‘multipolar’ rather than ‘bipolar’ world (23 April); Shanghai Five agree to further reductions in military forces along the Chinese border (24 April); Yeltsin and Maskhadov sign treaty of principles on peaceful relations, but without a clear resolution on the final status of Chechnia (12 May); Belarus and Russia sign a treaty providing for greater cooperation but not fusion of the two states (23 May); Russia and Ukraine agree to respect existing boundaries, to withhold support from secessionist movements, to divide Black Sea fleet, and to share use of Sevastopol port (31 May); the Madrid conference of NATO formally decides to admit Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic as full members (July); creation of a supreme tax agency, named after the infamous Cheka, to increase state revenues (October); Chubais and several top aides are accused of accepting large book advances from a bank involved in privatization (13 November)

1998 — Chernomyrdin replaced by Kirienko as the prime minister (March-April); renewed miners’ strike blocks the Trans-Siberian Railway (May); international creditors extend new 22.6 billion dollar lending package (13 July); default on short-term treasury bonds, followed by Kirienko’s dismissal (17 August); Yeltsin condemns US missile strikes against ‘terrorist bases’ in Afghanistan and Sudan (21 August); after the Duma rejects Yeltsin’s first nominee (Chernomyrdin), Evgenii Primakov is nominated and confirmed as the new prime minister (September); murder of a prominent Duma deputy under suspicious circumstances (20 November); Belarus and Russia sign agreement to unify (25 December)

1999 — Clinton Administration announced plans to develop the National Missile Defence (NMD) system and to modify the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty (January); USA imposes sanctions against three Russian institutions for alleged technology transfer to Iran (10 January); five countries (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Russia) establish a Customs Union and Common Economic Space for the free movement of goods, capital, services, and labour (26 February); Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic formally join NATO (12 March); after NATO unleashes military bombardment of Kosovo, Russia suspends relations with NATO (March); Primakov dismissed and replaced by Sergei Stepashin as prime minister (May); IMF loan of 22 billion dollars (July); after another Chechen military attack, Stepashin is replaced by Vladimir Putin as prime minister (August); after bombings in three cities, attributed to Chechen terrorists, Putin orders bombing of Groznyi (23 September) and Russian military invasion of Chechnya (1 October); Duma elections return a pro-government majority, with a Putin-endorsed ‘Unity’ party nearly overtaking the Communist Party (19 December); Putin’s internet posting of his ‘Russia at the Turn of the Millennium’ (29 December); Yeltsin announces resignation, with Putin becoming the acting president (31 December)

2000-… — Rebuilding Russia

2000 — Pro-Kremlin ‘Unity’ Party and Communists make a deal to split most committee chairs (18 January); London Club of commercial creditors writes off 37% of the Soviet-era debt and agrees to reschedule the balance (February); Russia restores relations with NATO (February); Russian forces take Groznyi (March); presidential election, with Putin winning 53% of the vote (26 March); police raid on Gusinskii’s media headquarters (11 May); Putin establishes plenipotentiaries (polpredy) over seven super-districts (13 May); Putin abolishes State Committee for Environmental Protection (17 May) to promote more favourable business environment; sinking of the submarine Kursk with 118 lives lost (12 August); Putin distances himself from the previous regime, announcing that he can answer only for the last 100 days (29 August); Boris Berezovskii, amidst investigation of alleged crimes, goes into self-declared exile (November); adoption of tsarist (flag, coat of arms) and Soviet (anthem, red banner) symbols (December)

2001 — Tax reform, including adoption of 13% flat tax on personal income and simplification of social security taxes (January); the government forces the last independent TV station to stop broadcasting (January); the arrest of FBI agent Robert Hanssen as Russian spy (February), leading to departure of Russian embassy staff who had alleged contacts with Hanssen (March); state-controlled Gazprom takes over Gusinskii’s media empire (April); Shanghai Five expanded to include Uzbekistan and reconstituted as Shanghai Cooperation Organization (June); Russia and China sign Good Neighbour Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, the first treaty since 1950, accompanied by agreements to sell Tupolev jets and to build energy pipelines (July); initial Law on Parties limits participation to national parties and eliminates regional, special interest parties in national elections (11 July); Putin’s vacation turns into a pilgrimage to the most famous holy monasteries in northern Russia (August); in response to the terrorist attacks in the United States, Russia expresses condemnation and facilitates American military action in Afghanistan (September); at the Crawford summit (at President Bush’s ranch in Texas), the two sides fail to break the deadlock on the ABM treaty, but do agree to sharp reductions in strategic nuclear warheads (13–15 November); adoption of judicial reforms to improve law enforcement, with more secure, better-compensated, and more judges (November); USA announces withdrawal from ABM Treaty, effective after six months (December); to create better business environment and encourage foreign investment, Russia adopts a new ‘Labour Code’ giving companies more latitude in hiring and firing and limits collective bargaining rights (30 December)

2002 — Pro-business tax reform, as corporate tax is reduced (January); two parties, Unity and Fatherland-All Russia, merge to form ‘United Russia’ as pro-government, ruling party in Duma; Putin-Bush sign nuclear arms deal, reducing nuclear arsenals by two-thirds (24 May); USA recognizes RF as having market economy (June); Russia becomes full-fledged member of the G-8 (July); adoption of new Criminal Procedural Code, which bestows significant new rights on the accused and the defence, and transfers power from the procuracy to judges (July); Chechen terrorists seize Moscow theatre, Nordost, taking 800 hostages; most rebels and 129 hostages are killed when special forces storm the building (October); Russia removed from the OECD blacklist of countries that launder illicit funds (November)

2003 — Chechnya referendum, denounced by human rights organizations, affirms that Chechnya will remain part of the Russian Federation (March); the government closes TVS, the only national television station not controlled by the state (June); Kyrgyzstan grants Russia a military base at Kant, giving parity with the United States’ base at Manas (September); oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovskii arrested for fraud, tax evasion, and other offences (October); pro-government party United Russia wins Duma elections and, with allies, holds two-thirds of seats (7 December)

2004 — Establishment of Stabilization Fund to create reserves and the capacity to counteract short-term fluctuations in global commodity markets (1 January); Putin wins presidential election with 71% (14 March); pro-Russian president of Chechnya, Akhmad Kadyrov, assassinated in Groznyi (May); Chechen terrorists down two passenger liners, almost simultaneously (August); Beslan tragedy, as Chechen terrorists seize 1,347 hostages and special forces intercede, ultimately with at least 330 hostages (including 186 children) being slain under murky circumstances (1–3 September); the government seizes assets of Yuganskneftegaz, main asset of Khodorkovskii’s Yukos, to cover its tax arrears (August); Putin, citing needs for heightened security, announces new measures to bolster capacity of effective state rule, including presidential appointment of governors in lieu of popular election (13 September); a new process for the selection of governors (presidential nomination, confirmation by regional legislature); revised Law on Parties imposes further restrictions on small parties (October); federal law authorizing the president to nominate governors is adopted (12 November); Russia ratifies Kyoto Protocol, providing the requisite number of signatories for Kyoto to take effect (4 November)

2005 — New system to monetize welfare payments leads to mass protests (January); Moscow agrees to supply fuel for Iran’s Beshehr nuclear facility (February); Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov killed by Russian special forces (March); ‘Public Chamber’, as para-legislative collective ombudsman, created by Duma (March) and signed into law by Putin (April); adoption of new electoral law establishing proportionate representation and abolishing single-mandate districts (18 May); trial concluded for Mikhail Khodorkovskii, who is found guilty of tax evasion and fraud and sentenced to nine years incarceration (31 May); Gazprom acquires Izvestiia from Vladimir Potanin as government strengthens its control over media (June); SCO calls for withdrawal of US from military bases and to withdraw forces from Central Asia (July); Russia and Germany sign agreement to construct gas pipeline under Baltic Sea (September); terrorists attack police and other targets in Nal’chik (October); ‘Russia Today’ as English-language TV programme commences operation (December); adoption of Law on NGO registration (23 December), which takes effect 10 April 2006.

2006 — Russia cuts delivery of natural gas to Ukraine in dispute over prices, with immediate impact on transit deliveries to Europe (January); Russia surpasses Saudi Arabia in oil output (June); Putin dismisses procurator-general and intensifies campaign against corruption (June); Chechen insurrectionary leader Musa Sadaev killed (17 June); Russian special forces kill Shamil Basaev, infamous Chechen warlord who claimed responsibility for multiple terrorist acts (10 July); rouble becomes convertible currency (July); Russia hosts G8 summit in St Petersburg (July); Duma unanimously endorse government request for permission to send special forces anywhere in the world to track down terrorists (July); investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaia murdered (7 October); Russia and USA agree on terms for Russian accession to the World Trade Organization (November); former KGB officer Aleksandr Litvinenko dies from radioactive substance, allegedly at the hands of Russian security organs (23 November)

2007 — US announces plan to deploy National Missile Defence system in Poland and Czech Republic (January); Putin speech at Munich conference, with vehement criticism of the United States for expansionism and attempt to establish global supremacy (10 February); police disrupt planned rally of anti-Putin groups in Moscow (April); former president Boris Yeltsin dies (April); Putin proposes joint missile defence system to resolve dispute over US plans for NMD installations in Poland and Czech Republic (June); Russia sends expedition to Arctic to expand territorial claims and plants flag on seabed at North Pole (August); Russia resumes, after 15 years, long-range patrols of Russian strategic bombers (August); Russia formally suspends participation in 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty limiting heavy military armaments (November); Duma elections gives pro-government party, United Russia, a two-thirds majority in the Duma, with the Communist Party—once the largest party—reduced to just 12% of the vote (10 December); Putin declares support for Dmitrii Medvedev, first deputy prime minister, to succeed him as president (10 December); Time chooses Putin as ‘person of the year’ (19 December) 2008 Stabilization fund divided into ‘Reserve Fund’ (liquid assets to cushion budget from fluctuations in commodity, especially energy, prices) and National Well-being Fund for investment in blue-chip companies (February); Dmitrii Medvedev elected president of Russia with 71% of the vote (March); Medvedev inaugurated as president, Putin named prime minister (May); Georgian forces launch attack on breakaway region South Ossetia, but routed in counter-attack by Russian forces (August); Putin accuses United States of ‘orchestrating’ the Georgian military offensive (28 August); the financial crisis in United States triggers a sharp fall in Russian stock market and price on energy (September-October); death of Patriarch Aleksii II (5 December); constitutional amendment extends the next presidential term to six years and the next Duma term to five years (29 December)

2009 — Russia suspends natural gas delivery to Ukraine in dispute over arrears, unpaid fines, and rates, causing disruption in transit deliveries to Europe and eliciting widespread criticism for ‘energy blackmail’ (January); installation of new patriarch, Kirill I (1 February)