Soviet History Timeline

Events 1 - 200 of 1,263

• 1905-10-26 First Soviet (workers' council) formed, St Petersburg, Russia
• 1905-12-22 Arrest of St Petersburg Soviet members leads to an uprising of Moscow workers and fighting in the street
• 1912-05-05 Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing (4/22 OS)
• 1916-11-09 Ammunitions ship explodes at Bakaritsa harbour, near Archangel, Soviet Union, approx. 600 killed, 800 injured (OS 26 Oct)
• 1917-03-12 [OS Feb 27] Russian Duma sets up the Provisional Committee; Soviets form Executive Committee

• 1917-06-16 1st All Russian Congress of the Soviets convenes in Petrograd, Russia [OS Jun 3]

• 1917-10-13 Soviets accept establishment of Petrograd Military
• 1917-10-26 Petrograd Soviet accepts establishment of Military

• 1917-12-18 The Soviet government issues a decree recognizing Finland's newly-declared independence [N.S. December 31]
• 1917-12-20 Soviet state security force and forerunner to the KGB, the Cheka forms, under Felix Dzerzhinsky after decree by Vladimir Lenin
• 1918-01-14 Finland and USSR adopt New Style (Gregorian) calendar
• 1918-01-19 Soviets disallow a Constitution Assembly
• 1918-01-25 Russia declared a republic of Soviets
• 1918-01-29 Ukrainian-Soviet War: Battle of Kruty
• 1918-02-05 Separation of church and state begins in USSR
• 1918-02-14 USSR adopts New Style (Gregorian) calendar (originally Feb 1)
• 1918-07-10 Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic forms
• 1918-08-30 Fanya Kaplan attempts but fails to assassinate Lenin, new leader of Soviet Russia

• 1919-02-04 City of Bremen's Soviet Republic overthrown
• 1919-02-14 The Polish-Soviet War begins.
• 1919-03-23 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party re-establishes a five-member Politburo which becomes the center of political power in the Soviet Union. Original members Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, Lev Kamenev and Nikolai Krestinsky.
• 1919-04-06 Bavaria proclaims itself a soviet republic
• 1919-04-20 Polish Army captures Vilno, Lithuania from Soviet Army
• 1919-08-04 Hungarian communist leader Béla Kun flees to Vienna after the Hungarian Soviet Republic is overthrown by the Romanian Army
• 1919-08-06 Romanian forces bring down Hungarian Soviet Republic in Budapest
• 1919-09-27 British troops withdraw from the North Russian town of Archangelsk after fighting Bolsheviks/Soviets
• 1920-02-02 Tarto/Dorpat peace treaty: USSR recognizes Estonian independence
• 1920-02-29 Trying to maintain independence from Germany and the USSR, Czechoslovakia adopts a constitution
• 1920-03-28 Anton Denkin's White Russian troops defeated by Bolsheviks and Soviets at Novorossijsk on the Black Sea (The British aid Denkin in his escape)
• 1920-04-28 Azerbaijan SSR joins USSR (1st time)
• 1920-05-07 USSR recognizes Georgia's independence
• 1920-07-12 Lithuania and USSR sign peace treaty, Lithuania becomes independent republic
• 1920-08-11 1st peace of Riga-Soviet Union recognizes Independence of Latvia

• 1920-10-14 Part of Petsamo province ceded by Soviet Union to Finland
• 1921-02-12 Soviet troops invade Georgia
• 1921-02-26 The USSR signs treaties respecting the integrity of Persia and of Afghanistan
• 1921-03-16 Britain signs a trade agreement with the USSR and sends a trade mission to Moscow: this goes against the US, who in the same month refused to sign a trade agreement
• 1921-07-23 Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and others found the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai, with guidance from the Soviet backed Communist International (Comintern) and Dutch communist Henk Sneevliet. Chen Duxiu is elected its leader.
• 1921-10-18 Biding its time, Soviet Russia agrees to independence for the Crimea
• 1921-11-05 Soviet Russia signs a treaty with Mongolia, temporarily supporting the new government against China and Japanese incursions
• 1922-04-16 Treaty of Rapallo between the German Republic and Soviet Union a is signed in Italy, normalizing diplomatic relations with each side renouncing their territorial and financial claims against the other
• 1922-12-20 Draft declaration on creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) crafted by representatives from the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, Byelorussian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR

• 1923-01-01 Union of Socialist Soviet Republics established
• 1923-02-09 Soviet Union Council of Labour and Defence passes resolution creating the Civil Air Fleet of the USSR, the forerunner of Aeroflot Airline
• 1923-03-04 Vladimir Lenin's last article in Pravda (about Soviet bureaucracy)
• 1923-03-21 US foreign minister Charles Hughes refuses USSR recognition
• 1923-05-31 China & USSR exchange diplomats
• 1923-07-06 The Central Executive Committee accepts the Treaty of Union, signed in Moscow in December 1922, and the Russian Empire becomes the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
• 1923-10-06 USSR adopts experimental calendar
• 1923-11-06 USSR adopts experimental calendar, with 5-day "weeks"
• 1924-01-21 Vladimir Lenin's Testament is handed over to the Communist Party; it calls for changes to the Soviet governing structure and criticizes Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky and other members

• 1924-03-17 Netherlands & USSR begin talks over USSR recognition
• 1924-03-17 Sweden & USSR exchange diplomats
• 1924-03-27 Canada recognizes USSR
• 1924-05-02 Netherlands refuses to recognize USSR
• 1924-05-31 China recognizes the USSR
• 1924-08-28 Georgian opposition stages the August Uprising against the Soviet Union
• 1924-10-27 The Uzbek SSR is founded in the Soviet Union

• 1925-01-20 The Soviet and Japan sign a convention resuming relations: Russia agrees to limit revolutionary activity of the Third Communist International, while Japan agrees to leave the Sakhalin
• 1925-02-25 Diplomatic relations between Japan and the Soviet Union established
• 1925-05-12 Uzbekistan & Kirgizistan become autonomous Soviet republics
• 1925-06-16 The most famous Young Pioneer camp of the USSR, Artek, is established
• 1925-07-10 USSR's official news agency TASS forms
• 1925-11-05 British secret agent Sidney Reilly ('Ace of Spies') is executed in a forest near Moscow by the OGPU, the secret police of the Soviet Union
• 1925-12-17 Soviet Union & Turkey sign non-aggresion pact
• 1926-11-19 Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Politburo in the Soviet Union
• 1927-04-15 Switzerland & USSR agree to diplomatic relations
• 1927-05-02 International Economic Conference (52 countries including USSR) opens
• 1927-08-19 Metropolitan Sergius proclaims the declaration of loyalty of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Soviet state
• 1927-11-12 Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, paving the way for Joseph Stalin to consolidate complete power
• 1928-01-10 Soviet Union orders exile of Leon Trotsky
• 1928-08-13 Soviet Union Spartacan Games begins

• 1928-10-01 USSR launches its first 5-year plan
• 1929-01-08 "Man with a Movie Camera", Soviet experimental documentary film directed by Dziga Vertov, is released
• 1929-02-09 USSR, Estonia, Latvia, Poland & Romania sign Litvinov's Pact, providing for renunciation of war among its signatories

• 1929-07-17 USSR breaks diplomatic relations with China
• 1929-10-03 British Labour government recovers diplomatic relations with USSR

• 1930-01-09 Architectural firm Albert Kahn Associates becomes the consulting architects for all industrial construction in the Soviet Union
• 1930-01-30 Russia launches their 1st radiosonde - a battery-powered telemetry instrument carried into the atmosphere to measure various parameters and transmit them by radio to a ground receiver- from Pavlovsk, USSR.
• 1930-06-16 Sovnarkom establishes decree time in the USSR
• 1931-03-11 Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR, abbreviated as GTO, is introduced in the Soviet Union
• 1931-06-15 Poland and USSR sign friendship and trade treaty
• 1931-06-24 USSR & Afghanistan sign neutrality treaty
• 1931-08-24 France & USSR sign neutrality/no attack treaty
• 1932-01-21 USSR and Finland stop non-attack treaty
• 1932-06-29 USSR & China sign non-aggression treaty
• 1932-10-09 Soviet leader Joseph Stalin expels Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev from the Communist Party after a power struggle
• 1932-10-10 Dnjepr Dam in USSR put into operation (world's biggest)
• 1932-10-19 British government signs trade agreement with Soviet Union
• 1932-10-24 British government signs trade treaty with USSR
• 1932-11-27 Poland & USSR sign non-aggression treaty
• 1932-11-29 France & USSR sign non-aggression pact
• 1932-12-12 USSR & China resume diplomatic relations
• 1933-02-06 -90°F (-68°C), Oymyakon, USSR (Asian record)
• 1933-05-06 Italy and USSR sign trade agreement
• 1933-05-18 Around 5,000 forced deportees in the Soviet Union arrive on Nazino Island; within thirteen weeks most of them will be dead due to disease, cannibalism and violence
• 1933-07-28 Spain recognizes the USSR
• 1933-08-17 Soviet Union test GIRD-R1 rocket ("Object 09")
• 1933-09-03 Yevgeniy Abalakov reaches the highest point of the Soviet Union - Communism Peak (7495 m)

• 1933-11-17 United States recognizes Soviet Union, opens trade
• 1933-11-21 1st US ambassador to USSR, W.C. Bullitt, begins service
• 1933-11-25 1st Soviet liquid fuel rocket attains altitude of 261' (80m)
• 1934-01-13 The Candidate of Science degree is established in the USSR
• 1934-02-13 The Soviet steamship Cheliuskin sinks in the Arctic Ocean.
• 1934-06-10 USSR & Romania re-establish diplomatic relations
• 1934-09-12 Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania signs Baltic Entente, against USSR
• 1934-09-17 USSR joins League of Nations (Netherland, Switzerland & Portugal vote no)
• 1934-09-18 USSR admitted to League of Nations
• 1935-07-12 Belgium recognizes Soviet Union
• 1935-07-24 The world's first children's railway opens in Tbilisi, USSR
• 1935-10-22 Establishment of the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union
• 1935-12-28 Pravda publishes a letter by Pavel Postyshev, who revives New Year tree tradition in the Soviet Union

• 1936-12-05 Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Georgian SSR, Kazakh SSR & Kirghiz SSR becomes constituent republics of Soviet Union
• 1937-03-07 Bucharin, Jagoda & Rykov pushed out of CPSU in USSR
• 1937-06-12 After a one-day show trial, eight Soviet generals are sentenced to death and executed by the NKVD
• 1937-07-30 Russian Politburo issues NKVD Order no. 00447, to repress former kulak and anti-soviets, 269,100 to be arrested, 76,000 to be shot. Part of the Great Purge.
• 1937-08-06 US and USSR sign trade treaty
• 1938-01-17 Supreme Soviet elects Michail Kalinin as presidium chairman
• 1938-02-19 Soviet arctic ice research station North Pole 1 evacuated, Denmark
• 1938-03-02 Trials of Soviet leaders begins in the Soviet Union

• 1939-04-16 The Soviet Union proposes an alliance with Britain and France to counter Nazi Germany; the Soviets would later sign a secret agreement with the Nazis

• 1939-08-24 Germany & USSR sign 10-year non-aggression pact
• 1939-09-17 Soviet Union invades Eastern Poland allowing Germans to advance West, taking 217,000 Poles prisoner, without a formal declaration of war
• 1939-09-28 Estonia accepts Soviet military bases

• 1939-10-02 Prototype for the Ilyushin Il-2, world's most-produced military airplane designed by Sergey Ilyushin, takes it first flight. Over 36,000 made for Soviet airforce in WWII.

• 1939-11-26 4 soviet soldiers killed on Finnish-Russian border
• 1939-11-28 Soviet government revokes Russian-Finnish non-aggression treaty
• 1939-11-29 USSR drops diplomatic relations with Finland

• 1939-12-14 The League of Nations expels the Soviet Union for invading Finland
• 1940-01-07 Winter War: The Finish 9th Division defeats the Soviet forces on the Raate-Suomussalmi road despite being significantly outnumbered
• 1940-01-12 World War II: Soviets bombs cities in Finland.
• 1940-02-01 Soviet Union begins new offensive against Finland
• 1940-03-02 Soviet armies conquer Tuppura Island, Finland
• 1940-03-31 Karelo-Finnish SSR becomes 12th Soviet republic (until 1956)
• 1940-06-15 Soviet Army occupies Lithuania
• 1940-06-17 USSR occupies Estonia
• 1940-06-26 End of USSR experimental calendar; Gregorian readopted 6/27
• 1940-06-27 Soviet Army attacks Romania

• 1940-06-28 Romania cedes Bessarabia to Soviet Union
• 1940-07-21 Soviet Union annexes Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
• 1940-08-03 Lithuanian SSR is accepted into USSR
• 1940-08-06 Estonia is annexed into Soviet empire
• 1940-08-25 Lithuania, Latvia & Estonia incorporated into Soviet Union
• 1941-04-03 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill warns Soviet leader Joseph Stalin that a German invasion is imminent
• 1941-04-13 Pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed.
• 1941-05-06 Joseph Stalin becomes Premier of the Soviet Union, replacing his foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov
• 1941-06-19 Soviet anthropologist Michael Gerasimov opens tomb of Timurid Empire founder Timur and allegedly finds the inscription that whoever opens the tomb shall "unleash an invader more terrible than I." Three days later Germany invades Russia.
• 1941-06-22 June Uprising in Lithuania begins, resulting in the collapse of the Soviet occupation, but replaced with invading German forces shortly after

• 1941-06-25 -26] Soviet counterattack at Rovno, Ukraine
• 1941-06-25 Finland declares war on Soviet Union
• 1941-06-25 Finland enters WW2 against the USSR following a massive airstrike the previous day
• 1941-07-10 Continuation War: Finland invades East Karelia as hostilities with the Soviet Union resume following the German invasion in June
• 1941-08-02 German 11st Army surrounds 20 Soviet divisions at Oeman
• 1941-08-03 German troops conquer Roslavl USSR
• 1941-08-08 20 divisions of Soviet 6th/12th Army surrender at Oeman
• 1941-08-19 Romania annexes the Transnistria territory from the Soviet Union after Operation Barbarossa
• 1941-08-25 British & Soviet troops attack pro-German Iran
• 1941-09-17 World War II: A decree issued by the Soviet State Committee of Defense, restoring Vsevobuch "Universal compulsory military training of the citizens of the USSR" in the face of the "Great Patriotic War"
• 1941-09-23 German air raid on Soviet naval base at Kronstadt (battleship Marat sinks)
• 1941-10-06 German army occupies Briansk, USSR
• 1941-10-07 German army occupies Viarma, USSR
• 1941-10-12 Soviet government moves from Moscow to Volga as Nazis forces close in on Moscow

• 1941-10-18 Soviet spy Richard Sorge arrested in Tokyo
• 1941-11-06 USA lends Soviet Union $1 million
• 1941-11-27 USSR begins a counter offensive, causes Germany to retreat
• 1941-12-05 Soviet anti-offensive in Moscow drives out Nazi army
• 1941-12-12 Soviet 20th army recaptures Soljetsjnogorsk
• 1942-01-28 Soviet troops under General Semyon Timoshenko's troops move into Ukraine
• 1942-05-26 Anglo-Soviet Treaty signed in London
• 1942-06-11 US and USSR sign Lend-Lease agreement during WW II
• 1942-07-04 Siege of Sevastopol ends with the surrender of Soviet forces and after massive German bombing raids that leave just 11 city buildings undamaged
• 1942-07-10 Netherlands government in exile (London) recognizes Soviet Union
• 1942-07-22 4th Soviet army forms with 80 tanks
• 1942-08-08 Soviet anti-offensive of Voronezh under Marshal Timosjenko
• 1942-08-23 World War II: last cavalry charge in history takes place at Isbushenskij, Russia; the Italian Savoia Cavalleria charges Soviet infantry
• 1942-08-26 Soviet counter offensive begins in Moscow

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