A.D. 800's The first Russian state was established at Kiev.

ca. 988 Vladimir I converted the Russians to Christianity.

1237-1240 The Mongols captured Russia.

ca. 1318 The Mongols appointed Prince Yuri of Moscow as the Russian Grand Prince.

1480 Ivan III broke Mongol control over Russia.

1547 Ivan IV became the first ruler to be crowned Czar.

1604-1613 Russia was torn by civil war, invasion, and political confusion during the Time of Troubles.
1613 Michael Romanov became Czar. He started the Romanov line of Czars, which ruled until 1917.

1703 Peter I founded St. Petersburg and began building his capital there.
1773-1774 Russian troops crushed a peasant revolt.

1812 Napoleon invaded Russia, but was forced to retreat.
1825 The Decembrist Revolt, led by discontented army officers, was put down.
1861 Alexander II freed the serfs.

1905 Japan defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese War.
1905 A revolution forced Nicholas II to establish the Duma (Parliament).
1914-1917 Russia fought Germany in World War I.
1917 A revolution overthrew Nicholas II in March. The Bolsheviks (Communists) seized power in November, and Lenin became dictator. Russia withdrew from World War I.
1918-1920 The Communists defeated their anti-Communist opponents in a civil war.
1922 The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was established. Joseph Stalin became General Secretary of the Communist Party and began his rise to power as dictator.
1928 Stalin began the First Five-Year Plan to expand Russia's economy.

Mid-1930's Millions of Russians were shot or imprisoned during the Great Purge ordered by Stalin.

1941 German forces invaded Russia during World War II.
1942-1943 Russia defeated Germany in the Battle of Stalingrad, a major turning point in the war.
1945 Russian troops captured Berlin on May 2. Germany surrendered to the Allies on May 7.
Late 1940's Russia set up the Iron Curtain to cut off contacts between Communist and Western nations.

1953 Stalin died, and Nikita S. Khrushchev became head of the Communist Party.
1957 Russia launched Sputnik 1, the first spacecraft to circle the earth.
1958 Khrushchev became Premier of Russia.

1961 Yuri A. Gagarin, a Russian air force officer, became the first man to orbit the earth.
1964 High-ranking Communists forced Khrushchev to retire. He was replaced by Leonid I. Brezhnev as head of the Communist Party, and Aleksei N. Kosygin as Premier.
1966 A Russian spacecraft made the first soft landing on the moon.

1972 Russia and the United States signed a treaty to limit their nuclear weapons systems.

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Napoleon Bonaparte
World War I
World War II
Nikita S. Khrushchev

This page was last updated on 10/28/2009.