| 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 |
| 1993 |
|
Violent constitutional crisis in Russia after Boris Yeltsin dissolves legislature |
| 1995 |
|
Russian war in Chechnya (ends in 1996) |
| 1999 |
|
Vladimir Putin becomes acting Russian President after Yeltsin resigns |
