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862	The Viking, Rurik of Jutland, defeats the Slavs at Novgorod, and becomes the ruler of Northern Russia. This is considered the founding of Russia.
880	Rurik's successor Oleg conquers Slavic-ruled Kiev. The resulting State known as "Rus" (from the Viking word for "oarsman") becomes one of the largest kingdoms in the world.
978	Prince Vladimir succeeds to the throne and introduces (Byzantine) Christianity to Russia. This is a real turning point in Russian history because of the influence Byzantine culture will have on art, architecture, etc.
1125	Yuri Dolgoruki, the Kievan Grand Prince, declares Suzdal his northern capital.
1147	Moscow is founded. Also visit the Moscow page for more Moscow-specific history.
1240-1480	In 1240 Batu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, conquers Kiev. Russian leaders move their kingdoms out to the "Golden Ring" (Rostov, Vladimir, Suzdal, and Zagorsk - Popular tourist destinations today). These Mongolian Tartars, often called "Tatars," (a.k.a. "The Golden Horde") hold power until 1480. It was during this occupation that tea was introduced into Russia. It remains the most important drink in the culture today.
1240	Also in this year, the Scandinavians invade from the North. But, Alexander Nevsky, Prince of Novgorod, defeats them along the Neva river (in present-day St. Petersburg). The Khan declares him Grand-Prince, and his son Danill - Prince of Moscovy.
1328	Ivan I, known as "Kalita" or "Moneybags," because of the large tributes he collects for the Khan, is appointed Prince of Moscovy. The seats of the Grand Prince and the Russian Orthodox Church Metropolitan are moved from Vladimir to Moscow.
1353-1359	Ivan II's reign. The Khan's power base weakens. Ivan's son Dmitri "Donskoy" (so named after the Don river, location of the Battle of Kulikovo) is the first Russian leader to defeat the Mongols.
1453	The Ottoman Turks conquer Constantinople. This breaks Byzantium's grip on the Russian Orthodox Church. Two years later, the "Metropolitan of Kiev" is renamed "Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia." The Russian Orthodox Church remains the most dominant in Russia today.
1462-1505	Ivan III "The Great's" reign. Along with his marriage to the daughter of the last Byzantine emperor in 1472 comes the famous double-headed eagle crest for Russia. He drives the remaining Mongols out of Russia, annexes Novgorod to the Moscovy principality, and rebuilds Moscow. The city is hailed as the new Constantinople, and the third (and last) Roman empire. Under Ivan III, it is named "The Capital of the Holy Roman Empire."
1533-1584	Ivan IV "The Terrible," first Russian leader proclaimed "Czar" (after "Caesar,") in 1547, was indeed "terrible." (Click here to view a chronological list of all the czars.) He is known to have blinded the architect of the famous St. Basil's Cathedral, to be sure he could never reproduce it. He also assigned masters to the peasants working the lands around estates, which resulted in Russian serfdom. In 1582, after losing the Livonian War with Poland and Sweden, Russia lost its northern territories and, with them, its access to the Baltic. That same year Ivan killed his own son in a fit of rage. After his reign, Moscovy was left nearly in ruin.
1584	Ivan the Terrible's son, Fyodor, inherits the crown. He later dies childless and the 700-year Rurik dynasty comes to an end. In any event, his brother-in-law and regent, Boris Godunov virtually runs the country during his reign.
1591	Dmitri, youngest son of Ivan the Terrible dies mysteriously.
1598	Fyodor, the last of the Ruriks, dies. Godunov is elected to the throne by the Imperial Assembly.
1598-1605	Godunov's reign ushers in the "Time of Troubles," and the widespread famine and unrest that followed.
1604	The first "False Dmitri" is proclaimed the legitimate heir to the throne by the wealthy Russian Boyars. Supported by a Polish Army, with their own designs on the Russian territory, he attacks Moscow. Godunov dies before "Dmitri" reaches the city, and Dmitri becomes czar. He is murdered shortly thereafter. A second false Dmitri throws in with the Polish army, but the Russian Cossacks, fearing Polish invasion, prove too much for them.
1613	16-year-old Mikhail Romanov, from an influential Boyar family, is elected czar. The Romanovs rule for the next 150 years, until the Communist Revolution of 1917.
1645-1676	Aleksey I, Mikhail Romanov's son rules. In 1652 Nikon becomes church patriarch.
1676-1682	Fyodor, son of Aleksey I, rules for 6 years. He dies after a violent schism within the Russian Orthodox Church.
1682	The Romanovs, Ivan V and his half brother Peter, I are proclaimed joint-czars. Their older sister Sophia is acting regent. When Ivan V dies, "Peter the Great" becomes sole Ruler and Emperor of All Russia.
1682-1725	Peter the Great was probably responsible for greater progress in Russia than any other leader in its history. He led his people, or dragged them kicking and screaming when necessary, out of the feudal past and brought them in line with the rest of Europe. From military victories, founding the Russian Navy, and political intrigue, to travels throughout Europe incognito, the story of Peter the Great is one of the most fascinating in all of history.
1703	Celebrating his victory over the Swedes, Peter the Great begins the construction of his new capital city, St. Petersburg, on land he took from them. He invented a number of interesting ways to provide for the needs of this new city. He introduced a "stone fee" for traders to enter the city (since rock for foundations in this, mainly swampy, area was so scarce), as well as taxes on such things as beards and the souls of lower-class adult males. (See also the history of St. Petersburg area of this Web site).
	Sophia, Peter the Great's sister, tried to plot against him. She was sent into exile in the Novodevichy Convent. (This is now an excellent tourist stop, where many of the most famous Russians in (especially modern) history are buried. *If a little old man comes up to you wanting to be your tour guide, don't be too quick to send him away. He is likely to be the man who, literally, wrote the book on the monastery, and you can get a terrific tour for a very reasonable price).
1725-1875	Russia's Golden Age. Thanks largely to reigns Peter the Great and (during this period), Catherine the Great (1762-1796) who deserves a great deal of credit for Russia's appreciation of the fine arts, people pour into the new Russian capital by the thousands. It becomes a major cultural center and home to some of the world's greatest artists, composers, architects, scientists, etc., including Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Mendeleev and many more.
1825	On 14 December, a group of dissatisfied nobles known as the "Decembrists" march on Senate Square in St. Petersburg, demanding the end of serfdom and autocracy. Czar Nicholas I crushes the rebellion, killing 120 men, and later hanging five others.
1848	The Petroshevists, sparked by the writings of Belinsky, begin fomenting revolution. Fyodor Dostoevsky joins them.
1849	On 22 April, Count Orlov, the Chief of Police, discovers the Petroshevists plot and has them all thrown in prison in the Peter and Paul Fortress. (An excellent tourist destination today, Nicholas II and his family were reburied here in July of 1998.) On 22 December, before exiling the revolutionaries to Siberia, Nicholas I, in a rare display of cruelty, set up a mock execution for Dostoevsky and five others. The czar waited until the last possible moment to inform them that the Imperial Majesty was granting them their lives. This moment would leave a mark on Dostoevsky that would influence him for the rest of his life.
1861	Alexander II abolishes serfdom. It is however, too little too late to quell the Marxist revolutionary movement to come.
1881	The "People's Will" group assassinates Alexander II.
1896	Five students, including the older brother of one Vladimir Il'yich Ulyanov, who would later take the name "Lenin," attempt the assassination of Alexander III. They are all executed. Nicholas II becomes czar. A deep sense of mistrust towards revolutionaries is deeply ingrained in Nicholas II even before he begins his reign. He marries Alexandra (Queen Victoria's granddaughter). They begin a life of opulence, and excess, which will soon be cut short.
1898	The Social Democratic Labor Party is founded.
1903	The Labor Party splits into two groups, the Mensheviks (minority), who were the educated and commercial elite, and the Bolsheviks (majority), worker's "councils" (soviets) under Lenin.
1905	Russia is defeated in the Russo-Japanese War. The first revolutionary march, under Father Capon, heads for Palace Square, chanting "God save the czar". The Chief of Police orders his men to open fire on the procession, killing hundreds. It comes to be known as "Bloody Sunday". Many other protests and strikes follow. The czar is forced to create the limited consultative parliament known as the State Duma. He disregards it however, as soon as it proposes resolutions with which he does not agree.
1907-1911	The czar's premier, Stolypin, kills 2,000 in order to suppress further revolutionary activities, before he is himself assassinated in the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Theater.
1914	World War I begins. Saint Petersburg is renamed Petrograd to sound more Russian (less German).
1914-1916	The notorious figure Rasputin, originally called on to treat the czar's hemophiliac son, practically runs the country.
1917	On 1 March, the czar abdicates. A provisional government, under Kerensky, seizes power. Lenin returns to Petrograd.
1917	25 October: The battleship Aurora sails up the Neva river and fires a blank shot near the Hermitage, signaling the beginning of the Communist Revolution. American writer John Reed (portrayed in the movie "Reds") called what was to follow, as he later named his book: "The Ten Days that Shook the World." The Red Army seizes the Winter Palace, and the Bolsheviks take control of the new "Soviet" government. Lenin changes the Party's name from "Bolshevik" to "Communist," and becomes its first chairman. He, Trotsky (appointed Commander of the Red Army), and Joseph Stalin move quickly. They establish the secret police "Cheka," sign an armistice with Germany, and turn over land to those who work it.
1918	As part of a systematic program of arrests, torture, and executions, Nicholas II and his family are executed in Sverdlovsk. Lenin moves the capital to Moscow. By now, strongholds of resistance to the communist regime have developed in the south and east. They are known collectively as the Whites, but they are not organized within their ranks. They will wage civil war for the next 3 years, resulting in 1.5 million people fleeing into exile, not to mention the terrible economic consequences, which led to the famine of 1920-21, which killed 4-5,000,000.
1922	The name "The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" becomes official.
1924	Lenin dies. Petrograd (St. Petersburg) is renamed Leningrad. The communist system becomes firmly entrenched. Soon Stalin takes the reigns…
1928	Iosef Visarionovich Dzhugashvili, a Georgian, who gave himself the name Stalin (which means "of steel") sets out on an extreme set of "reforms." Many farmers choose to burn their crops, rather than go along peacefully with collectivization. Famine adds to the problems faced in the recovery from war. It eventually kills 10,000,000 people. (Stalin will sentence more than this to death himself).
1934	Kirov, Leningrad Party Chief, is assassinated. The "Great Terror" of Stalin's persecutions begins. Absolutely anyone he, or his head of the Secret Police, Lavrenti Beria, feel can possibly oppose Stalin are summarily killed or sent to the GULAG (an abbreviation which stands for Central Administration for (Prison) Camps).
1934-1941	Stalin's terror continues. Andrej Zhdanov, in the "Leningrad Affair" begins the systematic persecution of the intelligentsia. The poets Mayakovsky and Yesenin commit suicide. Zhdanov eventually (1948) joins the 20,000,000 purged by Stalin. 7,000,000 are summarily shot. The remainder are sent to the GULAG. Alexander Solzhenitsyn's masterpieces of realism "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" and "The Gulag Archipelago" describe the purges and life in the gulag best. To show how terrible this time was, when copies of "Denisovich" reach the hands of the Soviet people, they are actually relieved to read for the first time that not everyone who had been rounded up had automatically been killed. Since Stalin, naturally, felt threatened most by the best and brightest, the USSR lost the vast majority of its most talented citizens in his purges.
1941	Stalin's non-aggression pact with Hitler, and plans to cut up Eastern Europe between them, backfires when Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union. The USSR is far from ready and suffers terribly throughout the war. Starvation is widespread, especially in the blockaded cities of Leningrad (present-day St. Petersburg), which was blockaded for 900 days, and Stalingrad (present-day Volgograd), where 1,000,000 Red Army soldiers died. Another 20,000,000 die during the war, which leaves a more profound mark on the people of the (former) Soviet Union than any other event in history. There are many reasons for this. One in ten was killed, and Soviet trust of outsiders was dealt a heavy blow. One that the Communist Party would take maximum advantage of. But, it was also something the Soviets could hold up and count as a good dead, well done. Russians, to this day, take great pride in winning "The Great Patriotic War".
1953	Stalin dies. Khrushchev takes over and, in a secret speech (now famous) before the 20th Party Congress, he denounces Stalin.
1954	Beria dies. Khrushchev establishes the KGB (Committee for State Security), giving control over the secret police to the Party. Its officials are made exempt from arrest. Khrushchev brings 5,000,000 people back from the GULAG. He introduces many social and intellectual reforms under his de-Stalinization program, but gives no quarter to the Orthodox church. Two thirds of its churches and monasteries are closed under Khrushchev. He is not successful in all his endeavors. His likeness can still be seen on stack dolls "Matroshka" sold in Russia, depicting him alongside a corn stalk, in reference to his grand (but failed) scheme to plant millions of acres in corn.
1956	The Red Army invades Hungary.
1961	Khrushchev meets with US President Kennedy. The USSR sends the first man, Yuri Gagarin, into space. Khrushchev begins rebuilding Moscow from the war. After seeing Khrushchev as the little badger, beating the heel of his shoe on a table in the U.N., It is interesting to compare the way these two men are now being considered by historians, after all that has been made public on their lives in recent years.
1964	For a number of reasons, including the Bay of Pigs and an attempt to introduce legislation limiting terms of office for Party members, Khrushchev is forced to resign. His successor, Leonid Brezhnev, is thought to have plotted the coup against Khrushchev. Large gas and oil reserves are suddenly discovered by Brezhnev's people. The peasants' private plots are returned to them. The first part of Brezhnev's term sees the largest improvement in the economy since the Revolution. Relations with Western countries warm in all sectors. However, due to higher wages, consumer goods can not keep pace, and the long lines the Soviet Union will become famous for begin to appear. Corruption is also on the increase.
1968	The Red Army invades Czechoslovakia.
1979	December 24: The Red Army invades Afghanistan.
1982	Brezhnev dies. Yuri Andropov, former head of the KGB (1967-82), becomes general secretary. (Interestingly, Andropov becomes famous among Russians for his association with automobiles. In one of the most famous incidents, he secretly keeps all taxi drivers in Moscow from reporting for work one day, then sends out every KGB agent in the city, in plain clothes, to catch rides from, and to arrest, anyone moonlighting as a cabby. He is also reported to have been partial to the use of cars for assassination purposes).
1984	Andropov dies. Konstantin Chernenko succeeds him, but dies only one year later.
1985	Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev becomes secretary general. He immediately, and aggressively, pursues a policy of reform. Parts of this program become household words in the United States, including restructuring (perestroika), which introduced many Western-style reforms, and openness (glasnost'), which allowed the Soviet people access to much more information. Dissidents are released and allowed to form associations and to speak freely.
1987	In December, at the Washington Summit, Gorbachev and US President Ronald Regain sign the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate and Shorter Range Nuclear Missiles.
1988	Withdrawal of all forces from Afghanistan begins. Andrei Gromyko dies. Gorbachev takes on the additional role of President of the Supreme Soviet. My Years with Gorbachev and Shevardnadze by Pavel Palazchenko, Gorbachev's interpreter, offers a unique, insider's view of this period.
1989	Gorbachev restores the right to express religious convictions openly and meets with Pope John Paul II in the Vatican and allows trade between private companies in the USSR and the US. Gorbymania grows. In October, Gorbachev declares that "the Soviet Union has no moral or political right to interfere in the affairs of its East European neighbors. They have the right to decide their own fate." By the end of the year, sweeping changes takes place throughout the "Warsaw Pact" countries. In Gorbachev's words "Having embarked upon the road of radical reform, we have crossed the line beyond which there is no return to the past. Things will never be the same again in the Soviet Union or, for that matter, in the whole communist world".
	Seeing the Berlin wall come down was an incredibly moving moment in history. When Lieutenant Colonel "Nick" Nicholson was shot by a Soviet sentry, while performing his duties as a member of the US Military Liaison Mission, and was left to bleed to death (his colleague/driver restrained from rendering first aid) everyone in Berlin felt a little farther from home. When the Berlin wall came down, much of the "Iron Curtain" came down with it. It was as close as a "Cold Warrior" would ever come to a victory parade.
1990	Yeltsin is voted in as President of the Russian Federation, the largest republic in the former USSR, with more than half its population. In June, he resigns from the Communist Party "to better represent all of the people."
1991	Rumors of a coup in the USSR begin to surface in the West. Many Soviets begin to fear the immense power of Gorbachev. Possibly sensing this, Gorbachev begins to change his posture. His actions seem increasingly irrational, as though he is experiencing "cold feet" at the thought of straying further from his communist roots. On January 11, the National Salvation Commission of Lithuania declares the republic's independence. Two days later Soviet troops attack the main TV center, killing 15 and wounding hundreds more. On January 20, Soviet troops clash with Latvians in Riga, leaving five dead. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens rise in protest. Gorbachev's support wanes as Yeltsin's strengthens. The rumors of a coup grow. Gorbymania may be strong in the West, but among his own people, struggling to get by in an increasingly weak economy, his popularity approaches zero. Despite his precarious position, Gorbachev decides to take a short working vacation in the Crimea.
1991	August 18: Gorbachev is finishing work on the All-Union Treaty, when Yuri Plekhanov of the KGB appears at his dacha. Gorbachev's phones are dead. One of the "Gang of Eight," Gorbachev's own chief of staff, Valeri Boldin, enters and presents the demands of the "State Emergency Committee," that he turn over much of his power. If Gorbachev refuses to sign, the Vice President of the Emergency Committee, Gennady Yanaev, will take control of the government. Gorbachev tells himself he will commit suicide first. To complicate the situation further, Boldin takes the "Black Box," in which Gorbachev keeps the codes to launch all of the missiles in the USSR.
1991	August 19: Yanaev assumes power on the excuse that Gorbachev is "ill." Strikes and demonstrations are banned, and the media is placed under government control. But the disorganized Gang of Eight forgets about Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin tells them "we don't accept your gang of bandits," he goes outside the "White House" and jumps on top of a tank before 20,000 protestors and rallies support for mass resistance, proclaiming himself as the "Guardian of Democracy." Soon, over 100,000 supporters are setting up barricades and surrounding the building. It is not long before the military joins them.
1991	August 20: Tanks roll into Moscow. Protesters surround the Parliament building to protect it. One protestor is run over by a tank and two others are shot. Famed cellist Rostropovich flies in to Moscow to play within the Parliament walls. The Old Russian flag is flown all around the city. The coup leaders are not to be seen anywhere in public.
1991	August 21: Yeltsin dispatches Russian Republic officials to the Crimea to retrieve Gorbachev. All the coup leaders are rounded up except Boris Pugo, who commits suicide. But by now, Gorbachev is in no position to resume power. The coup had brought communism down with it. The people are tired of the excesses of the Party elite "nomenclatura," and want a change. Even the statue of the founder of the Soviet KGB, Dzherzhinsky, known as "Iron Felix" is brought down. By the end of the year, Yeltsin and Gorbachev declare Communist Party rule over. The Soviet Archives are seized (leading to many fascinating revelations).
1991	21 December: Nine days short of its 70th year, the Soviet Union is no more. For further reading on this period, Remnick's (of the Washington Post) book "Lenin's Tomb" is unrivaled.
2002...	Russia faces economic problems, the likes of which they have not yet experienced. Much of the financial support they enjoyed after the fall of the Soviet Union has dried up. Under the heavy added burdens placed on Russian businesses by corruption and the mafia, the immediate future does not look bright. 40,000,000 live under the poverty line. But the Russian people I speak with seem optimistic about the future and, considering what they've been through in the past, they can never be counted out.

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