HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Previous: Modern America (uptil WW2)Back to Main Index MODERN RUSSIA: 1917 to 1991 Combined chronological listing covering this period Next: Modern Middle East

1917 Bolshevik Revolution under Vladimir Ilych Lenin and Leon Trotsky
1918 Tsar Nicholas II killed
1918 Bolsheviks end Russian involvment in First World War
1920 Russo-Polish War
1921 Economic collapse and famine in Russia - 5 million die
1924 Joseph Stalin becomes Premiere of Russia after Death of Lenin
1927 Leon Trotsky expelled from Communist Party
1929 Massive collectivization push in Russia under Stalin
1934 Social Realism art movement encouraged in Russia
1935 France concludes pact of mutual assistance with Russia
1936 Great purge of Russian political parties by Stalin
1939 Russia signs non-agression pact with Hitler's Germany
1941 Germany invades Russia and Russia joins Second World War
1945 Russian intransigence after Potsdam conference starts "Cold War"
1947 "Iron Curtain" effectively drawn around Soviet-controlled countries
1949 Comecon setablished to coordinate Soviet block economies
1953 Death of Sergey Prokofiev (composer)
1953 Death of Josef Stalin - Nikita Khruschev becomes Premiere
1953 Soviets successfully test hydrogen bomb
1957 Russian Sputnik sattelite launched
1961 Russian Yuri Gagarin becomes first man in space
1968 Soviets crush Czechoslovakian Prague Spring revolt
1969 Border disputes between China and Russia
1971 Death of Igor Stravinsky (composer)
1972 "Detente" - Strategic Ams Pact between Russia and the West
1974 Alexander Solzhenitsyn deported to the West
1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
1985 Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Russian Premiere - "Glasnost" and "Perestroika"
1986 Chernobyl nuclear power station explodes, contaminating most of Europe
1987 Gorbachev signs first of several treaties to reduce nuclear arms
1989 Russians pull out of costly war in Afghanistan
1991 USSR breaks up into constituent countries - end of Soviet era

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