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Russia

Table A. Chronology of Important Events

Period	Description
NINTH CENTURY
ca. 860	Rurik, a Varangian, according to earliest chronicle of Kievan Rus', rules Novgorod and founds Rurik Dynasty.
ca. 880	Prince Oleg, a Varangian, first historically verified ruler of Kievan Rus'.
TENTH CENTURY
911	Prince Oleg, after attacking Constantinople, concludes treaty with Byzantine Empire favorable to Kievan Rus'.
944	Prince Igor' compelled by Constantinople to sign treaty adverse to Kievan Rus'.
ca. 955	Princess Olga, while regent of Kievan Rus', converts to Christianity.
971	Prince Svyatoslav makes peace with Byzantine Empire.
988	Prince Vladimir converts Kievan Rus' to Christianity.
ELEVENTH CENTURY
1015	Prince Vladimir's death leads Rurik princes into fratricidal war that continues until 1036.
1019	Prince Yaroslav (the Wise) of Novgorod assumes throne of Kievan Rus'.
1036	Prince Yaroslav the Wise ends fratricidal war and later codifies laws of Kievan Rus' into Rus'ka pravda (Justice of Rus').
1037	Prince Yaroslav defeats Pechenegs; construction begins on St. Sofia Cathedral in Kiev.
1051	Ilarion becomes first native metropolitan of Orthodox Church in Kievan Rus'.
TWELFTH CENTURY
1113-25	Kievan Rus' experiences revival under Grand Prince Vladimir Monomakh.
1136	Republic of Novgorod gains independence from Kievan Rus'.
1147	Moscow first mentioned in chronicles.
1156	Novgorod acquires its own archbishop.
1169	Armies of Prince Andrey Bogolyubskiy of Vladimir-Suzdal' sack Kiev; Andrey assumes title "Grand Prince of Kiev and all Rus'" but chooses to reside in Suzdal'.
THIRTEENTH CENTURY
1219-41	Mongols invade: Kiev falls in 1240; Novgorod and Moscow submit to Mongol "yoke" without resisting.
1242	Aleksandr Nevskiy successfully defends Novgorod against attack by Teutenic Knights.
1253	Prince Daniil (Danylo) of Galicia-Volhynia accepts crown of Kievan Rus' from pope.
FOURTEENTH CENTURY
1327	Ivan I, prince of Moscow, nicknamed Ivan Kalita ("Money Bags"), affirmed as "Grand Prince of Vladimir" by Mongols; Moscow becomes seat of metropolitan of Russian Orthodox Church.
1380	Dmitriy Donskoy defeats Golden Horde at Battle of Kulikovo, but Mongol domination continues until 1480.
FIFTEENTH CENTURY
1462	Ivan III (the Great) becomes grand prince of Muscovy and first Muscovite ruler to use titles of tsar and "Ruler of all Rus'."
1478	Muscovy defeats Novgorod.
1485	Muscovy conquers Tver'.
SIXTEENTH CENTURY
1505	Vasiliy III becomes grand prince of Muscovy.
1510	Muscovy conquers Pskov.
1533	Grand Prince Ivan IV named ruler of Muscovy at age three.
1547	Ivan IV (the Terrible) crowned tsar of Muscovy.
1552	Ivan IV conquers Kazan' Khanate.
1556	Ivan IV conquers Astrakhan' Khanate.
1565	Oprichnina of Ivan IV creates a state within the state.
1571	Tatars raid Moscow.
1581	Yermak begins conquest of Siberia.
1584	Fedor I crowned tsar.
1589	Patriarchate of Moscow established.
1596	Union of Brest establishes Uniate Church.
1598	Rurik Dynasty ends with death of Fedor; Boris Godunov named tsar; Time of Troubles begins.
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
1601	Three years of famine begin.
1605	Fedor II crowned tsar; first False Dmitriy subsequently named tsar after Fedor II's murder.
1606	Vasiliy Shuyskiy named tsar.
1610	Second False Dmitriy proclaimed tsar.
1610-13	Poles occupy Moscow.
1611-12	Forces from northern cities and Cossacks organize counterattack against Poles.
1613	Mikhail Romanov crowned tsar, founding Romanov Dynasty.
1631	Metropolitan Mogila (Mohyla) founds academy in Kiev.
1645	Aleksey crowned tsar.
1648	Ukrainian Cossacks, led by Bogdan Khmel'nitskiy (Bohdan Khmel'nyts'kyy), revolt against Polish landowners and gentry.
1649	Serfdom fully established by law.
1654	Treaty of Pereyaslavl' places Ukraine under tsarist rule.
1667	Church council in Moscow anathemizes Old Belief but removes Patriarch Nikon; Treaty of Andrusovo ends war with Poland.
1670-71	Stenka Razin leads revolt.
1676	Fedor III crowned tsar.
1682	Half brothers Ivan V and Peter I named co-tsars; Peter's half sister, Sofia, becomes regent.
1689	Peter I (the Great) forces Sofia to resign regency; Treaty of Nerchinsk ends period of conflict with China.
1696	Ivan V dies, leaving Peter the Great sole tsar; port of Azov captured from Ottoman Empire.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
1700	Calendar reformed; war with Sweden begins.
1703	St. Petersburg founded; becomes capital of Russia in 1713.
1705-11	Bashkirs revolt.
1708	First Russian newspaper published.
1709	Swedes defeated at Battle of Poltava.
1710	Cyrillic alphabet reformed.
1721	Treaty of Nystad ends Great Northern War with Sweden and establishes Russian presence on Baltic Sea; Peter the Great proclaims Muscovy the Russian Empire; Holy Synod replaces patriarchate.
1722	Table of Ranks established.
1723-32	Russia gains control of southern shore of Caspian Sea.
1725	Catherine I crowned empress of Russia.
1727	Peter II crowned emperor of Russia.
1730	Anna crowned empress of Russia.
1740	Ivan VI crowned emperor of Russia.
1741	Elizabeth crowned empress of Russia.
1762	Peter III crowned emperor of Russia; abolishes compulsory state service for the gentry; Catherine II (the Great) crowned empress of Russia after Peter III's assassination.
1768-74	War with Ottoman Empire ends with Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji.
1772	Russia participates in first partition of Poland.
1773-74	Emel'yan Pugachev leads peasant revolt.
1785	Catherine II confirms nobility's privileges in Charter to the Nobility.
1787-92	War with Ottoman Empire ends with Treaty of Jassy; Ottomans recognize 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea.
1792	Government initiates Pale of Settlement, restricting Jews to western part of the empire.
1793 and 1795	Russia participates in second and third partitions of Poland.
1796	Paul crowned emperor of Russia; establishes new law of succession.
NINETEENTH CENTURY
1801	Alexander I crowned emperor; conquest of Caucasus region begins.
1809	Finland annexed from Sweden and awarded autonomous status.
1812	Napoleon's army occupies Moscow but is then driven out of Russia.
1817-19	Baltic peasants liberated from serfdom but given no land.
1825	Decembrist Revolt fails; Nicholas I crowned emperor.
1831	Polish uprising crushed by forces of Nicholas I.
1833	"Autocracy, Orthodoxy, and nationality" accepted as guiding principles by regime.
1837	First Russian railroad, from St. Petersburg to Tsarskoye Selo, opens; Aleksandr Pushkin, foremost Russian writer, dies in duel.
1840s and 1850s	Slavophiles debate Westernizers over Russia's future.
1849	Russia helps to put down anti-Habsburg Hungarian rebellion at Austria's request.
1853-56	Russia fights Britain, France, Sardinia, and Ottoman Empire in Crimean War; Russia forced to accept peace settlement dictated by its opponents.
1855	Alexander II crowned emperor.
1858	Treaty of Aigun signed with China; northern bank of Amur River ceded to Russia.
1860	Treaty of Beijing signed with China; Ussuri River region awarded to Russia.
1861	Alexander II emancipates serfs.
1863	Polish rebellion unsuccessful.
1864	Judicial system reformed; zemstva created.
1866	Crime and Punishment by Fedor Dostoyevskiy (1821-81) published.
1869	War and Peace by Lev Tolstoy (1828-1910) published.
1873-74	Army reformed; Russian radicals go "to the people."
1875	Kuril Islands yielded to Japan in exchange for southern Sakhalin Island.
1877-78	War with Ottoman Empire ends with Treaty of San Stefano; independent Bulgaria proclaimed; Russia forced to accept less advantageous terms of Congress of Berlin.
1879	Revolutionary society Land and Liberty splits; People's Will and Black Repartition formed.
1879-80	The Brothers Karamazov by Fedor Dostoyevskiy published.
1881	Alexander II assassinated; Alexander III crowned emperor.
1894	Nicholas II crowned emperor.
1898	Russian Social Democratic Labor Party established and holds first congress in March; Vladimir I. Lenin one of organizers of party.
TWENTIETH CENTURY
1903	Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions.
1904-05	Russo-Japanese War ends with Russian defeat; southern Sakhalin Island ceded to Japan.
1905	Bloody Sunday massacre in January begins Revolution of 1905, a year of labor and ethnic unrest; government issues so-called October Manifesto, calling for parliamentary elections.
1906	First Duma (parliament) elected.
1911	Petr Stolypin, prime minister since 1906, assassinated.
1914	World War I begins.
1916	Rasputin murdered.
1917 March	February Revolution, in which workers riot in Petrograd; Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies formed; Provisional Government formed; Emperor Nicholas II abdicates; Petrograd Soviet issues Order Number One.
April	Demonstrations lead to Aleksandr Kerenskiy's assuming leadership in government; Lenin returns to Petrograd from Switzerland.
July	Bolsheviks outlawed after attempt to topple government fails.
November	Bolsheviks seize power from Provisional Government; Lenin, as leader of Bolsheviks, becomes head of state; Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (Russian Republic) formed; Constituent Assembly elected.
December	Cheka (secret police) created; Finns and Moldavians declare independence from Russia; Japanese occupy Vladivostok.
1918 January	Constituent Assembly dissolved; Ukraine declares its independence, followed, in subsequent months, by Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belorussia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
February	Basmachi Rebellion begins in Central Asia; calendar changed from Julian to Gregorian.
March	Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed with Germany; Russia loses Poland, Finland, Baltic lands, Ukraine, and other areas; Russian Social Democratic Labor Party becomes Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik).
April	Civil War begins.
July	Constitution of Russian Republic promulgated; imperial family murdered.
Summer	War communism established; intervention in Civil War by foreign expeditionary forces--including those of Britain, France, and United States--begins.
August	Attempt to assassinate Lenin fails; Red Terror begins.
November	Treaty of Brest-Litovsk repudiated by Soviet government after Germany defeated by Allied Powers.
1919 January	Belorussia established as theoretically independent Soviet republic.
March	Communist International (Comintern) formally founded at congress in Moscow; Ukrainian Soviet established.
1920 January	Blockade of Russian Republic lifted by Britain and other Allies.
February	Peace agreement signed with Estonia; agreements with Latvia and Lithuania follow.
April	War with Poland begins; Azerbaijan Soviet republic established.
July	Trade agreement signed with Britain.
October	Truce reached with Poland.
November	Red Army defeats Wrangel's army in Crimea; Armenian Soviet republic established.
1921 March	War with Poland ends with Treaty of Riga; Red Army crushes Kronshtadt naval mutiny; New Economic Policy proclaimed; Georgian Soviet republic established.
Summer	Famine breaks out in Volga region.
August	Aleksandr Blok, foremost poet of Russian Silver Age, dies; large number of intellectuals exiled.
1922 March	Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic formed, uniting Armenian, Azerbaijan, and Georgian republics.
April	Joseph V. Stalin made general secretary of party; Treaty of Rapallo signed with Germany.
May	Lenin suffers his first stroke.
June	Socialist Revolutionary Party members put on trial by State Political Directorate; Glavlit organized with censorship function.
December	Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union) established, comprising Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Transcaucasian republics.
1924 January	Lenin dies; constitution of Soviet Union put into force.
February	Britain recognizes Soviet Union; other European countries follow suit later in year.
Fall	Regime begins to delimit territories of Central Asian nationalities; Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan elevated to Soviet republic status.
1925 April	Theoretician Nikolay Bukharin calls for peasants to enrich themselves.
November	Poet Sergey Yesenin commits suicide.
December	Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) becomes All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik).
1926 April	Grigoriy Zinov'yev ousted from Politburo.
October	Leon Trotsky and Lev Kamenev ousted from Politburo.
1927 Fall	Peasants sell government less grain than demanded because of low prices; peasant discontent increases; grain crisis begins.
December	Fifteenth Party Congress calls for large-scale collectivization of agriculture.
1928 January	Trotsky exiled to Alma-Ata.
May	Shakhty trial begins; first executions for "economic crimes" follow.
July	Sixth Congress of Comintern names socialist parties main enemy of communists.
October	Implementation of First Five-Year Plan begins.
1929 January	Trotsky forced to leave Soviet Union.
April	Law on religious associations requires registration of religious groups, authorizes church closings, and bans religious teaching.
Fall	Red Army skirmishes with Chinese forces in Manchuria.
October	Tajikistan split from Uzbek Republic to form separate Soviet republic.
November	Bukharin ousted from Politburo.
December	Stalin formally declares end of New Economic Policy and calls for elimination of kulaks; forced industrialization intensifies, and collectivization begins.
1930 March	Collectivization slows temporarily.
April	Poet Vladimir Mayakovskiy commits suicide.
November	"Industrial Party" put on trial.
1931 March	Mensheviks put on trial.
August	School system reformed.
1932 May	Five-year plan against religion declared.
December	Internal passports introduced for domestic travel; peasants not issued passports.
1932-33	Terror and forced famine rage in countryside, primarily in southeastern Ukrainian Republic and northern Caucasus.
1933 November	Diplomatic relations with United States established.
1934 August	Union of Soviet Writers holds its First Congress.
September	Soviet Union admitted to League of Nations.
December	Sergey Kirov assassinated in Leningrad; Great Terror begins, causing intense fear among general populace, and peaks in 1937 and 1938 before subsiding in latter year.
1935 February	Party cards exchanged; many members purged from party ranks.
May	Treaties signed with France and Czechoslovakia.
Summer	Seventh Congress of Comintern calls for "united front" of political parties against fascism.
August	Stakhanovite movement to increase worker productivity begins.
September	New system of ranks issued for Red Army.
1936 June	Restrictive laws on family and marriage issued.
August	Zinov'yev, Kamenev, and other high-level officials put on trial for alleged political crimes.
September	Nikolay Yezhov replaces Genrikh Yagoda as head of NKVD (secret police); purge of party deepens.
October	Soviet Union begins support for antifascists in Spanish Civil War.
November	Germany and Japan sign Anti-Comintern Pact.
December	New constitution proclaimed; Kazakstan and Kyrgyzia become Soviet republics; Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic splits into Armenian, Azerbaijan, and Georgian Soviet republics.
1937 January	Trial of "Anti-Soviet Trotskyite Center."
June	Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevskiy and other military leaders executed.
1938 March	Russian language required in all schools in Soviet Union.
July	Soviet and Japanese forces fight at Lake Khasan.
December	Lavrenti Beria replaces Yezhov as chief of secret police; Great Terror diminishes.
1939 May	Vyacheslav Molotov replaces Maksim Litvinov as commissar of foreign affairs; armed conflict with Japan at Halhin Gol in Mongolia continues until August.
August	Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact signed; pact includes secret protocol.
September	Stalin joins Adolf Hitler in partitioning Poland.
October	Soviet forces enter Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
November	Remaining (western) portions of Ukraine and Belorussia incorporated into Soviet Union; Soviet forces invade Finland.
December	Soviet Union expelled from League of Nations.
1940 March	Finland sues for peace with Soviet Union.
April	Polish officers massacred in Katyn Forest by Soviet troops.
June	New strict labor laws enacted; northern Bukovina and Bessarabia seized from Romania and subsequently incorporated into Ukrainian Republic and newly created Moldavian Republic, respectively.
August	Soviet Union annexes Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania; Trotsky murdered in Mexico.
1941 April	Neutrality pact signed with Japan.
May	Stalin becomes chairman of Council of People's Commissars.
June	Nazi Germany attacks Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.
August	Soviet and British troops enter Iran.
November	Lend-Lease Law of United States applied to Soviet Union.
December	Soviet counteroffensive against Germany begins.
1942 May	Red Army routed at Khar'kov; Germans halt Soviet offensive; treaty signed with Britain against Germany.
July	Battle of Stalingrad begins.
November	Red Army starts winter offensive.
1943 February	German army units surrender at Stalingrad; 91,000 prisoners taken.
May	Comintern dissolved.
July	Germans defeated in tank battle at Kursk.
September	Stalin allows Russian Orthodox Church to appoint patriarch.
November	Tehran Conference held.
1944 January	Siege of Leningrad ends after 870 days.
May	Crimea liberated from German army.
June	Red Army begins summer offensive.
October	Tuva incorporated into Soviet Union; armed struggle against Soviet rule breaks out in western Ukrainian, western Belorussian, Lithuanian, and Latvian republics and continues for several years.
1945 February	Stalin meets with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt at Yalta.
May	Red Army captures Berlin.
July-August	Potsdam Conference attended by Stalin, Harry S. Truman, and Churchill, who later is replaced by Clement R. Attlee.
August	Soviet Union declares war on Japan; Soviet forces enter Manchuria and Korea.
1946 March	Regime abolishes Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (Uniate); Council of People's Commissars becomes Council of Ministers.
Summer	Beginning of "Zhdanovshchina," a campaign against Western culture.
1947	Famine in southern and central regions of European part of Soviet Union.
September	Cominform established to replace Comintern.
1948 June	Blockade of Berlin by Soviet forces begins and lasts into May 1949.
Summer	Trofim Lysenko begins his domination of fields of biology and genetics that continues until 1955.
1949 January	Council for Mutual Economic Assistance formed; campaign against "cosmopolitanism" launched.
August	Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb.
1952 October	All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) becomes Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU); name of Politburo is changed to Presidium.
1953 January	Kremlin "doctors' plot" exposed, signaling political infighting, new wave of purges, and anti-Semitic campaign.
March	Stalin dies; Georgiy Malenkov, Beria, and Molotov form troika (triumvirate); title of party chief changes from general secretary to first secretary.
April	"Doctors' plot" declared a provocation.
July	Beria arrested and shot; Malenkov, Molotov, and Nikita S. Khrushchev form new troika.
August	Soviet Union tests hydrogen bomb.
September	Khrushchev chosen CPSU first secretary; rehabilitation of Stalin's victims begins.
1955 February	Nikolay Bulganin replaces Malenkov as prime minister.
May	Warsaw Pact organized.
1956 February	Khrushchev's "secret speech" at Twentieth Party Congress exposes Stalin's crimes.
September	Minimum wage established.
November	Soviet forces crush Hungarian Revolution.
1957 July	"Antiparty group" excluded from CPSU leadership.
August	First Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile tested successfully.
October	World's first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, launched.
1958 March	Khrushchev named chairman of Council of Ministers.
October	Nobel Prize for Literature awarded to Boris Pasternak; campaign mounted against Pasternak, who is forced to decline award.
1959 September	Khrushchev visits United States.
1960 May	Soviet air defense downs United States U-2 reconnaissance aircraft over Soviet Union.
1961 April	Cosmonaut Yuriy Gagarin launched in world's first manned orbital space flight.
July	Khrushchev meets with President John F. Kennedy in Vienna.
August	Construction of Berlin Wall begins.
October	Stalin's remains removed from Lenin Mausoleum.
1962 June	Workers' riots break out in Novocherkassk.
October	Cuban missile crisis begins, bringing United States and Soviet Union close to war.
November	Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich published in Soviet journal.
1963 August	Limited Test Ban Treaty signed with United States and Britain.
1964 October	Khrushchev removed from power; Leonid I. Brezhnev becomes CPSU first secretary.
1965 August	Volga Germans rehabilitated.
1966 February	Dissident writers Andrey Sinyavskiy and Yuliy Daniel tried and sentenced.
April	Brezhnev's title changes from first secretary to general secretary; name of Presidium is changed back to Politburo.
1967 April	Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, defects to West.
September	Crimean Tatars rehabilitated but not allowed to return home.
1968 June	Andrey Sakharov's dissident writings published in samizdat.
July	Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) signed by Soviet Union.
August	Soviet-led Warsaw Pact armies invade Czechoslovakia.
1969 March	Soviet and Chinese forces skirmish on Ussuri River.
May	Major General Petr Grigorenko, a dissident, arrested and incarcerated in psychiatric hospital.
1970 October	Jewish emigration begins to increase substantially.
December	Solzhenitsyn awarded Nobel Prize for literature.
1972 May	Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) result in signing of Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty) and Interim Agreement on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms; President Richard M. Nixon visits Moscow.
1973 June	Brezhnev visits Washington.
1974 February	Solzhenitsyn arrested and sent into foreign exile.
1975 July	Apollo/Soyuz space mission held jointly with United States.
August	Helsinki Accords signed, confirming East European borders and calling for enforcement of human rights.
December	Sakharov awarded Nobel Prize for Peace.
1976	Helsinki watch groups formed to monitor human rights safeguards.
1977 June	Brezhnev named chairman of Presidium of Supreme Soviet.
October	New constitution promulgated for Soviet Union.
1979 June	Second SALT agreement signed but not ratified by United States Senate.
December	Soviet armed forces invade Afghanistan.
1980 January	Sakharov exiled to Gor'kiy.
August	Summer Olympics held in Moscow and boycotted by United States and other Western nations.
1981 February	CPSU holds its Twenty-Sixth Party Congress.
1982 June	Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) talks begin.
November	Brezhnev dies; Yuriy V. Andropov named general secretary.
1983 September	Soviet fighter aircraft downs South Korean civilian airliner KAL 007 near Sakhalin Island.
1984 February	Andropov dies; Konstantin U. Chernenko becomes general secretary.
1985 March	Chernenko dies; Mikhail S. Gorbachev becomes general secretary.
November	Gorbachev meets with President Ronald W. Reagan in Geneva.
1986 February-March	CPSU holds its Twenty-Seventh Party Congress.
April	Nuclear power plant disaster at Chernobyl' releases large amounts of radiation over Russia, Ukraine, and Belorussia.
	Glasnost launched.
October	Gorbachev and Reagan hold summit at Reykjavik.
December	Ethnic riots break out in Alma-Ata.
1987 January	Gorbachev launches perestroika.
December	Soviet Union and United States sign Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty).
1988 Winter	Ethnic disturbances begin in Caucasus.
May	Soviet authorities stop jamming Voice of America broadcasts.
May-June	Reagan visits Moscow.
June	Millennium of establishment of Christianity in Kievan Rus' celebrated in Moscow.
June-July	CPSU's Nineteenth Party Conference tests limits of glasnost and perestroika in unprecedented discussions.
October	Gorbachev replaces Andrey Gromyko as chairman of Presidium of Supreme Soviet; Gromyko retires, and others are removed from Politburo.
December	Supreme Soviet dissolves itself, preparing way for new elected parliament.
1989 February	Soviet combat forces complete withdrawal from Afghanistan.
March-April	Initial and runoff elections held for the 2,250 seats in Congress of People's Deputies (CPD); many reform candidates, including Boris N. Yeltsin, win seats.
April	Soviet troops break up rally in Tbilisi, Georgia, killing at least twenty civilians.
May	CPD openly criticizes past and present regimes; Gorbachev elected by CPD to new position of chairman of Supreme Soviet.
June	Free elections in Poland begin rapid decline of Soviet Union's empire in Central Europe.
July	Coal miners strike in Russia and Ukraine.
August	Nationalist demonstrations in Chisinau, Moldavia, lead to reinstatement of Romanian as official language of republic. Russians and Ukrainians living along Dnestr River go on strike, demanding autonomy.
	Soviet Union admits existence of secret protocols to 1939 Nazi-Soviet Nonagression Pact, which allotted to Soviet Union the Baltic countries, parts of then eastern Poland, and Moldavia.
	Mass exodus from East Germany begins.
September	Ukrainian Popular Movement for Perestroika (Rukh) holds founding congress in Kiev.
October	Mass protests take place in Berlin and Leipzig.
November	Berlin Wall falls. Bulgaria's Todor Zhivkov deposed. Communist party of Czechoslovakia falls from power.
December	Violent revolution in Romania. Nicolae Ceaucescu arrested, tried, and shot.
	CPD condemns Nazi-Soviet Nonagression Pact and secret protocols.
	Lithuanian Communist Party leaves CPSU.
	Latvian parliament deletes from its constitution reference to communist party's "leading role."
	At hasty shipboard summit off Malta, Gorbachev and United States president George H.W. Bush declare Cold War ended.
1990 January	Azerbaijani demonstrators on Soviet side of border with Iran dismantle border posts.
	Gorbachev fails to heal rift with Lithuanian communists.
	Anti-Armenian pogroms in Azerbaijan. Gorbachev sends troops to Baku.
February	Central Committee of CPSU votes to strike Article 6, which guarantees leading role of communist party, from Soviet constitution.
March	In elections for Supreme Soviet of Russian Republic, Yeltsin wins seat.
	Newly elected Lithuanian parliament declares independence.
	Estonian parliament declares itself in a state of transition to independence.
May	Latvian parliament votes to declare independence after unspecified transition period.
	Anti-Soviet demonstrations break out in and around Yerevan.
	Yeltsin becomes chairman of Supreme Soviet of Russian Republic.
June	Communists in Russian Republic vote to form Communist Party of the Russian Republic.
	Russia, Uzbekistan, and Moldavia issue declarations of sovereignty. By October most of the other Soviet republics have done likewise.
July	Twenty-Eighth Party Congress: Yeltsin quits CPSU; Politburo stripped of almost all meaning.
	Meeting of Gorbachev and West German chancellor Helmut Kohl in Stavropol'. German unification within North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) secured.
	Soviet government and republics open negotiations on a new treaty of union.
August	Russia and Lithuania sign agreement on trade and economic cooperation.
	Armenia declares independence.
October	Germany united; Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE Treaty) signed in Paris.
	Parliament of Russian Republic passes resolution proclaiming that no Soviet law can take effect in the republic without republican parliamentary approval.
	Parliament of Russian Republic approves radical economic reform plan, thereby undercutting all-union Supreme Soviet's economic reform package.
	Gorbachev awarded Nobel Prize for peace.
November	Violence breaks out in Moldavia between Moldavians and Russian and Ukrainian separatists.
	Gorbachev proposes new union treaty.
December	Eduard Shevardnadze resigns as minister of foreign affairs, warning of oncoming dictatorship.
	Parliament of Russian Republic votes to contribute to Soviet budget less than one-tenth of central government's request.
1991 January	Soviet crackdown on Lithuanian and Latvian independence movements.
	Soviet Ministry of Defense announces plan to send troops to seven union republics to enforce military conscription and to round up draft dodgers.
	Russian Republic and the Baltic republics sign mutual security pact.
February	Baltic countries hold nonbinding plebiscites as demonstration of their people's will to secede from Soviet Union.
March	Coal miners go on strike in Ukraine, Kazakstan, Arctic mines, and Siberia.
	Mass pro-Yeltsin rallies in Moscow.
	Referendum held on preservation of Soviet Union: 70 percent vote to remain in union, but Armenia, Georgia, Moldavia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia boycott.
	Warsaw Pact officially dissolves.
April	Georgia declares independence.
	Russian parliament grants Yeltsin emergency powers.
May	Yeltsin gains control over coal mines in Russian Republic.
	Russian government establishes foreign ministry and internal security organization. Russian television begins broadcasting on second all-union channel.
June	By universal suffrage, Yeltsin elected president of Russian Republic.
	Last Soviet troops leave Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
	Gorbachev and leaders of seven Soviet republics sign draft union treaty.
July	Yeltsin bans political activity at workplaces and government establishments in Russian Republic; Gorbachev signs START I agreement in Moscow with United States president Bush.
August	Hard-line officials attempt to unseat Gorbachev government; coup fails after three days, elevating Yeltsin's prestige.
	Ukraine, Belorussia, Moldavia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyz Republic declare independence. Armenia and Tajikistan follow in September, Turkmenistan in October, and Kazakstan in December.
October	Dzhokar Dudayev elected president of newly declared Chechen Republic.
November	Russian parliament grants Yeltsin sweeping powers to introduce radical economic reform. Yeltsin cuts off Russian funding of Soviet central ministries.
	Chechens demand independence. Ingush members of Chechen National Congress resign.
	Russia gains control of Soviet natural resources; Yeltsin places Russian economy above that of Soviet Union, ending possibility of Russia remaining in union.
	Gorbachev fails to win support of republics for new union treaty.
December	Presidents of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia meet in Minsk and proclaim initial Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
	Yeltsin meets with Soviet defense officials and army commanders to gain support for CIS.
	Russian foreign minister Andrey Kozyrev asks United States secretary of state James Baker to recognize independence of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.
	Gorbachev announces that at year's end all central government structures will cease to exist.
	Eleven republics form CIS.
	Soviet Union ceases to exist. Russian flag rises over Kremlin. Control of nuclear arsenal handed over to Yeltsin.
1992 January	Russian government lifts price controls on almost all goods.
	Beginning of rift between Yeltsin and speaker of Russian Supreme Soviet Ruslan Khasbulatov and Russian vice president Aleksandr Rutskoy.
February	First United States-Russia summit.
	International airlift of food and medical supplies to Russian cities begins.
March	Fighting breaks out between Moldovan forces and Russian and Ukrainian separatists along Dnestr River.
	Eighteen of twenty autonomous republics within Russian Federation sign Federation Treaty. Tatarstan and Chechnya refuse.
April	At first post-Soviet session of Russian CPD, Yeltsin fends off vote of no-confidence in his economic program. CPD also changes name of Russian Socialist Federation of Soviet Republics to Russian Federation.
	Yeltsin calls for a referendum on new constitution that would abolish Russian CPD.
May	Formation of Russian armed forces. Army general Pavel Grachev appointed minister of defense.
	Ten of the eleven CIS presidents sign mutual security treaty in Tashkent. Treaty acknowledges demise of unified CIS armed forces.
	United States and all four post-Soviet nuclear states vow to comply with START agreement.
June	Russia joins International Monetary Fund (IMF).
	Russian Supreme Soviet establishes Republic of Ingushetia within Russian Federation.
	Russian troops complete withdrawal from Republic of Chechnya.
	General Aleksandr Lebed' takes command of 14th Army in Moldova.
July	Yeltsin makes first appearance at Group of Seven (G-7) meeting.
	Russian Supreme Soviet ratifies CFE Treaty.
August	Black Sea Fleet evacuates 1,700 Russians from Sukhumi in civil-war-torn Georgia.
September	Russia completes troop withdrawal from Mongolia.
October	Russia launches privatization.
	Last Russian combat troops leave Poland.
November	Yeltsin declares state of emergency in North Ossetia and Ingushetia in order to halt outbreak of ethnic conflicts.
	Russian troops attack Georgian forces deployed in Abkhazia.
	Russian troops enter Ingushetia.
December	Seventh Russian CPD opens. Yeltsin and parliament clash over economic reform and powers. Viktor Chernomyrdin becomes prime minister. Yeltsin and congress agree to hold referendum on presidential power. Part of same deal grants Yeltsin extraordinary powers .
	Russia and China pull most of their troops back 100 kilometers along common border.
1993 March	CPD revokes December 1992 deal with Yeltsin, who then attempts to impose special rule, but fails.
	Russian troops deployed in Tajikistan as part of CIS peacekeeping operation.
April	Referendum approves Yeltsin as president and Yeltsin's social and economic programs.
	Yeltsin and CPD issue differing draft versions of new Russian constitution.
July	Constitutional assembly passes draft Russian constitution worked out by conciliatory committee.
	Parliament annuls presidential decrees on economic reforms.
	Marshal Yevgeniy Shaposhnikov, having resigned as commander in chief of CIS joint forces, hands over his launch authorization codes to Russian defense minister Grachev.
	Russian Central Bank (RCB) announces withdrawal from circulation of Soviet and Russian banknotes issued between 1961 and 1992. Yeltsin eases some of RCB's provisions.
	Yeltsin counters parliament's suspension of privatization. Two weeks later, parliament again suspends privatization. Yeltsin issues decree continuing program.
August	Yeltsin formally requests that parliament hold early elections.
September	Yeltsin suspends Vice President Rutskoy based on charges of corruption.
	Yeltsin dissolves the CPD and Supreme Soviet and sets date for elections in December.
	Supreme Soviet votes to impeach Yeltsin and swears in Rutskoy as president; CPD confirms decisions.
	Clashes in Moscow between Yeltsin and Supreme Soviet supporters.
October	Church mediation of government split collapses; further clashes on Moscow streets.
	Top leaders of opposition surrender. Sniper fire continues for several days.
	Russia officially asks for revisions to CFE Treaty.
	Yeltsin suspends Constitutional Court and disbands city, district, and village soviets.
November	Russian troops land in Abkhazia.
December	Parliamentary elections and referendum on new constitution are held. Constitution approved. Chechnya does not participate in elections.
	Yeltsin and Turkmenistan's president Saparmyrat Niyazov sign accord on dual citizenship, first such agreement between Soviet successor states.
1994 January	Trilateral agreement among Russia, Ukraine, and United States prepares for denuclearizing Ukraine's armed forces.
	Chernomyrdin states that radical economic reform has come to an end in Russia. Reformers quit posts. Western advisers withdraw their services as advisers to Russian government.
February	United States Central Intelligence Agency arrests Aldrich Ames on charges of spying for Soviet Union and Russia.
	State Duma (lower house of parliament beginning with 1993 election) grants amnesty to leaders of 1991 coup against Gorbachev and leaders of parliamentary revolt of October 1993.
	Yeltsin gives speech calling for continued radical restructuring of economy.
April	Russia and Belarus agree to monetary union.
	Central Asian republics, Georgia, and Armenia allow Russian participation in patrolling their borders.
	Political leaders meet to sign Civic Accord, which calls on signatories to refrain from violence in pursuing political goals. Three of 248 participants refuse to sign, among them Gennadiy Zyuganov, leader of Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF ).
June	Yeltsin accelerates market reforms.
	Foreign Minister Kozyrev signs NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) accord.
July	Russian and United States troops conduct joint peacekeeping exercise in Orenburg, Russia. United States conducts maneuvers in Black Sea with Russia, Ukraine, and other Black Sea countries.
	Russian government issues statement that situation in Chechnya is getting out of control.
August	Last Russian troops leave Germany, Estonia, and Latvia.
September	Fighting breaks out in Chechnya between Dudayev's and opposition forces.
October	Ruble loses one-fifth of its value in one day.
	Chernomyrdin and Prime Minister Sangheli of Moldova sign agreement on withdrawal of Russia's 14th Army from Moldova.
November	Dudayev proclaims martial law throughout republic and mobilizes all men aged seventeen and older.
	Yeltsin issues ultimatum to warring parties in Chechnya to lay down their arms.
December	Kozyrev suspends Russia's participation in PfP.
	Russian armored columns enter Chechnya.
1995 January	Russia and Kazakstan agree to unify their armies by end of 1995.
April	Human rights activist Sergey Kovalev estimates 10,000 Russian soldiers and 25,000 Chechen civilians killed in Chechnya since 1994.
June	State Duma votes no-confidence in Government (cabinet). Second no-confidence vote fails in State Duma.
July	Yeltsin hospitalized, returns to work in August.
October	Yeltsin again hospitalized, reappears in November.
December	In parliamentary elections, communists and nationalists gain strength, reformists split and in decline.
1996 January	Yeltsin replaces Foreign Minister Andrey Kozyrev with Yevgeniy Primakov. Leading liberal reformists dismissed or resign.
March	After slowdown in privatization and increase in government spending, Russia granted loan agreement worth US$10 billion by IMF.
	Leaders of Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Belarus sign customs union treaty in Moscow.
April	Russia and Belarus sign union treaty with substantial elements of reunification.
	Dzhokar Dudayev killed in rocket attack in Chechnya.
May	Chechens sign cease-fire agreement, whose terms are immediately violated; fighting resumes.
June	Yeltsin and Zyuganov, candidate of KPRF, finish first and second, respectively, in first round of presidential elections, qualifying them for second round.
	Yeltsin fires Grachev and other senior hard-line officials and appoints Lebed' chief of Security Council.
	Yeltsin disappears from public view because of undisclosed illness.
July	Yeltsin defeats Zyuganov in second round of presidential election, 54 percent to 40 percent.
	Fighting in Chechnya intensifies.
	Lebed' associate Igor' Rodionov named minister of defense, promises military reform; Anatoliy Chubays named presidential chief of staff.
	Citing failure of Russian economic reform, IMF withholds tranche of 1996 assistance package.
	Yeltsin creates civilian Defense Council.
	Pravda, voice of communism since 1912, renamed Pravda 5 and begins more objective reporting.
August	Yeltsin staff announces Yeltsin will rest for prolonged period to recover from election campaign.
	Chernomyrdin confirmed for second term as prime minister; Yeltsin names new Government with reformists in key positions.
	Chechen guerrillas recapture Chechen capital Groznyy, exposing weakness of Russian military; Lebed' achieves cease-fire in direct talks with Chechen leaders.
	IMF resumes economic assistance payments.
	Bellona Foundation report exposes mishandling of nuclear materials in Arctic regions.
September	As cease-fire terms hold, first Russian troops leave Chechnya.
	NATO offers Russia special terms of military cooperation.
	Yeltsin announces he will undergo heart surgery; under pressure, he temporarily cedes military command and control of internal security agencies to Chernomyrdin.
	Controversy continues over locus of government authority.
	Election cycle begins in subnational jurisdictions, continues through March 1997.
October	Lebed' dismissed as Security Council chief; negotiations with Chechnya continue under Ivan Rybkin.
	United States secretary of defense William Perry rebuffed in attempt to gain passage of START II by State Duma.
	Government establishes emergency tax commission to improve tax collection; collection rate remains poor in ensuing months.
	Chubays begins campaign for compliance of regional laws with federal constitution.
October-December	Escalating conflict between military and civilian defense officials over military reform methods.
November	Russia's first bond issue on international market nets US$1 billion.
	Yeltsin undergoes successful open-heart surgery.
	Primakov visits China, Japan, and Mongolia to expand markets.
	Third Kilo-class submarine sold to Iran.
	Yeltsin remains out of public view until February 1997, his administration inactive; opposition calls for impeachment on health grounds.
December	Four-person Consultative Council formed to smooth differences between Government and parliament.
	Primakov agrees to negotiate charter giving Russia special status with NATO.
	Federation Council (upper house of parliament since 1993 elections) claims Ukrainian port of Sevastopol' as Russian territory, reopening dispute with Ukraine.
1997 January	Long-delayed new Criminal Code goes into effect.
	State Duma passes 1997 budget after long discussions and amendments; experts call revenue projections unrealistic.
	Opposing military reform programs issued by Ministry of Defense and civilian Defense Council.
	Presidential and legislative elections in Chechnya; moderate Aslan Maskhadov wins presidency on independence platform.
	Yeltsin approves Russia's participation in NATO's Bosnia peacekeeping force until 1998.
	IMF withholds loan payment because of continued tax system problems.
February	Last Russian troops leave Chechnya.
	NATO talks with Russia bring modification of CFE Treaty demands on Russia, subject to ratification by members.
February-March	NATO chief Javier Solana visits several CIS nations, which entertain closer NATO ties.
March	Yeltsin reestablishes his leadership with vigorous state of the federation speech.
	Government streamlining begins with appointments of Chubays and Boris Nemtsov to powerful positions; Chernomyrdin's power wanes.
	Second issue of Russian bonds sold on international market; third issue scheduled.
	Nationwide labor action gains lukewarm participation; uncoordinated local actions intensify.
	At CIS summit, Yeltsin fails to reassert Russian domination as several members take independent positions.
	Helsinki summit with President William J. Clinton yields some economic agreements, continued discord on NATO expansion.
	Bilateral treaty reaffirms integration of Russia and Belarus.
April	Moscow summit with Chinese president Jiang Zemin expresses disapproval of United States world domination, yields agreement to reduce troops along shared border.
	State Duma postpones ratification of Chemical Weapons Convention following United States Congress ratification.
	Government proposal to limit government housing subsidies brings strong political opposition.
	Prompted by revenue shortages, Finance Minister Chubays submits budget revision to State Duma, cutting US$19 billion in spending.
May	Peace treaty signed by Russia and Chechnya (Chechnya-Ichkeria); Chechen independence issue remains unresolved.
	Igor' Sergeyev replaces Igor' Rodionov as minister of defense following Rodianov's open conflict with other defense authorities.
	New privatization programs begin in housing, natural gas, railroads, and electric power.
	Security Council issues new national security doctrine.
	Terms set for new pipeline from Tengiz oil fields (Kazakstan) to Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.
	Russia signs "founding act" agreement with NATO, allowing participation in NATO decision making; Russia agrees to drop opposition to NATO expansion in Central Europe.
	Yeltsin and Ukraine's president Leonid Kuchma sign treaty of friendship and cooperation, nominally settling disputes over territory and ownership of Black Sea Fleet.
June	State Duma recesses for summer without acting on budget-cut proposal, leaving determination of cuts to Government.
	Yeltsin names his daughter Tat'yana Dyachenko an official adviser.
	Yeltsin participates in Denver G-8 (formerly G-7) meeting as full partner for first time.
	Government announces allocation of US$2.9 billion to pay long-overdue pensions.
	Government announces sale of shares in six state-owned oil companies to increase revenues.
	Under pressure from Yeltsin, Duma approves new tax code aimed at broadening government's revenue base.
June-July	Mishaps aboard Mir space station reinforce international doubts about Russia's space program.
July	Yeltsin declares Russia's economy has "turned the corner" toward growth and stability; statistics show some improvement.
	New CFE treaty reduces arms in Europe, does not limit NATO movement into Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland as Russia had demanded.
	Russia offers Japan new conditions for development of disputed Kuril Islands; bilateral talks address Japanese investment elsewhere in Russia's Far East.
	Constitutinal Court rejects Moscow's residency fees as unconstitutional.
	Yeltsin announces large-scale program for military reform and streamlining.
	First meeting of NATO-Russia joint council establishes operational procedures.
	Yeltsin vetoes law restricting activities of non-Orthodox religions, after both houses of parliament had overwhelmingly passed it, Russian Orthodox Church supported it, and human rights organizations condemned it.
	Yeltsin's drive against official corruption thwarted as high officials refuse to divulge personal finances.
August	Pro-Yeltsin party, Our Home Is Russia, shaken by resignation of parliamentary leader Sergey Belyayev.
	NATO's Sea Breeze 97 exercise in Ukraine modified from military to humanitarian maneuver after protest by Russia.
	Yeltsin announces ruble reform for January 1998, dropping three zeros from denomination of currency.
	Government submits privatization plan for 1998 and draft 1998 budget to Sate Duma; budget calls for 2 percent growth in GDP and annual inflation of 5 percent.
	Russia and Armenia sign friendship and cooperation treaty tightening military and economic ties.
September	Duma reconvenes; atop agenda are tax reform bill and consideration of 1998 budget proposal.
	Shakeups of military establishment continue as Yeltsin dismisses his Defense Council chief, Yuriy Baturin, and reorganizes Rosvooruzheniye, the foreign arms sales cartel.
	Overdue tax payments by Gazprom reach US$2.4 billion.
	Agreement with Chechnya sets terms for repair of Baku (Azerbaijan)-Novorossiysk pipeline through Chechnya, with October 1997 as completion deadline; negotiations continue on new pipelines from Central Asia westward.
	Russia warns NATO against pressure on Bosnian Serb Karadzic faction.
	Foreign trade figures for first half of 1997 announced; overall surplus US$18.5 billion, down 3.9 percent from first half 1996, including decrease of 11.7 percent in CIS trade.
	Duma passes land code without provision for sale of land by owner, frustrating Yeltsin's long campaign for reform of land ownership.
	Worker protests spread across Russia as wage non-payment continues, especially among coal, defense industry, and scientific workers.
	Yeltsin signs revised bill on religious organizations after "Christianity" added to list of Russia's "traditional," unrestricted faiths; human rights and religious groups protest.

Data as of July 1996

Russia - TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table A. Chronology of Important Events

Country Profile