Russia timeline

  • The First Anglo-Afghan War

    The First Anglo–Afghan War lasted from 1839 to 1842. It was one of the first major conflicts during the Great Game, the 19th century competition... Read more

  • The Second Anglo-Afghan War

    The Second Anglo-Afghan War refers to a war between the United Kingdom and Afghanistan that lasted from 1878 to 1880. After tension between... Read more

  • Joseph Stalin Is Born

    Joseph Stalin, was born in Gori, Georgia on 21st December, 1879. He was his mother's fourth child to be born in less than four years. The first... Read more

  • Borki Train Disaster

    On October 17 [N.S. October 29], 1888, the imperial train returning from the south derailed at the station of Borki, leaving twenty-one dead and... Read more

  • Khodynka Tragedy

    Nicholas II was crowned Tsar of Russia on May 14 , 1896. Four days later, a banquet was going to be held for the people at Khodynka Field. In the... Read more

  • Joseph Stalin Joins The Bolsheviks

    At the Second Congress of the Social Democratic Labour Party in London in 1903, there was a dispute between Vladimir Lenin and Julius Martov, two... Read more

  • Joseph Stalin Marries Ekaterina Svanidze

    In about 1904 Stalin had married a pious Georgian girl, Ekaterina Svanidze. She died some three years later and left a son, Jacob, whom his father... Read more

  • Joseph Stalin's Son Yakov Is Born

    Yakov Dzhugashvili had never been popular with his father, whom he held in dread. Stalin disapproved of his choice of wife, Yulia Meltzer, a ballet... Read more

  • Signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente

    The Anglo-Russian Entente or the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 was an accord signed on 31 August 1907 in St. Petersburg by Count Alexander... Read more

  • Tunguska Event

    It is generally accepted that the Tunguska event resulted from the catastrophic disruption of a large meteor high above the ground. Previous... Read more

  • Joseph Stalin Becomes Editor of 'Pravda'

    Stalin served as the editor of Pravda {Truth} in 1913 and wrote his first treatise, Marxism and the National Question in 1914. Just prior to its... Read more

  • Battle of Stallupönen

    On August 17 Rennenkampf started the invasion of Prussia, marching the First Army directly westward towards the German lines. Although he faced no... Read more

  • Battle of Gumbinnen

    The Battle of Gumbinnen, initiated by forces of the German Empire on August 20, 1914, was the first major German offensive on the Eastern Front... Read more

  • First Battle of the Masurian Lakes Begins

    The First Battle of the Masurian Lakes was a German offensive in the Eastern Front during the early stages of World War I. It pushed the Russian... Read more

  • Battleship 'Imperatritsa Mariya' Magazine Explosion

    The second class, the three-ship Imperatritsa Maria-class, were true dreadnoughts. Displacing 22,600 tons, armed with 12 X 12-inch guns, and... Read more

  • Russian Civil War

    Russian Civil War... (1918-20), conflict in which the Red Army successfully defended the newly formed Bolshevik government against various Russian... Read more

  • Fanny Kaplan Attempts to Assassinate Vladimir Lenin

    According to official accounts, on August 30, 1918, Lenin was speaking at a Moscow factory called "Hammer and Sickle". As Lenin left the building... Read more

  • Polish-Soviet War

    In the Polish-Soviet War (1920–1921), the Soviets battled the Poles all the way back to Warsaw, but Polish forces eventually drove the Soviets out... Read more

  • Soviet Invasion of Georgia

    In January, 1921 the Soviet Government decided to annex Georgia. The 11th Red Army was to advance into Georgia on the pretext of supporting the... Read more

  • Joseph Stalin's Daughter Svetlana Is Born

    Svetlana was Communist leader Joseph Stalin’s only daughter. Her mother was his second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva. Raised by a nurse she only... Read more

  • Stalin's First Five-Year Plan Begins

    The first Five Year Plan introduced in 1928, concentrated on the development of iron and steel, machine-tools, electric power and transport. Joseph... Read more

  • Stalin Begins Collectivization Of Agriculture

    To satisfy the state's need for increased food supplies, the First Five-Year Plan called for the organization of the peasantry into collective... Read more

  • The Ukrainian Holodomor

    In recent years this national tragedy has become widely known as the Holodomor (from moryty holodom ‘to kill by means of starvation’). This tragic... Read more

  • Nadezhda Alliluyeva Dies

    It was customary to bury not only rulers, but their wives, too, at the Novodevichy cemetery. At this point we would like to recall the wife of... Read more

  • Sergey Kirov is Killed

    Sergey Kirov, a leader of the Russian Revolution and a high-ranking member of the Politburo, is shot to death at his Leningrad office by Communist... Read more