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| History Explorer > Other History Timelines > Russia History Timeline |
Russia History Timeline
862-1237 AD
According to the first Russian Chronicle from early 12th century AD Varagians from Novgorod (Vikings originating in Scandinavia) established the Old Russian state in 862 AD in today's north-western Russia. The Varagian prince Rurik is accepted as the founder of the Rurik Dynasty. Varagian prince Oleg established his capital at Kiev and became the first independed ruler of Kievan Rus in 882 AD. Until Sviastoslav - first Slavic named prince - in about 945 the princes of Kievan Rus had Scandinavian names but left little cultural trace on Rus history. During the reign of prince Vladimir c. 980-1015 AD who was later canonized the Christianity became the official state religion. The rule of St. Vladimir and his son Yaroslav the Wise marked the climax of Kievan Rus. After the death of Yaroslav the Wise in 1054 Kievan Rus was dissolved into a dozen component princedoms. Under reign of Vladimir Monomakh 1113-1125 AD Kievan Rus was briefly united, but disintegration of Kievan Rus continued and Kiev fall into commercial and political decline. Meanwhile came to prominence three other principalities on the periphery: Galicia and Volhynia in the south-west, Novgorod in the west and Novgorod's eastern neighbor principality Vladimir-Suzdal.
1237-1462 AD
In 1237-1240 AD Rus lands were invaded and conquered by the Tatars led by the Mongol Khan Batu, grandson of Genghis Khan. Khan Baty's campaigns reached even Europe (Hungary) but he turn back from Europe to claim the succession. Rus lands were therefrom ruled by Batu as a vassal of his successful rival newly appointed Great Khan. The realm of Baty and his successors later became known as Golden Horde. During the first century of the Tatar Yoke a small area in the north-west was exempted from Tatar conquest and the tribute. Exception presents also Novgorod. The prince of Novgorod Alexander Nevsky (c. 1220-63) namely chose to voluntary pay the tribute and to submit to the Tatars although Tatars did not conquered Novgorod. Alexander's son Daniel became Prince of Moscow and founded the Muscovite dynasty which ruled the expanding principality unbroken from 1276 until 1598. Tatar Yoke is also distinctive for the rise of Moscow from an insignificant minor principality to emergence from the Tatar Yoke as the capital city of the first centralized independent Russia. In 1380 Prince Dmitry of Moscow defeated the Tatars in the Battle at Kulikovo near the River Don, but the victory did not became the turning point in the overthrow of the Tatar Yoke.
1462-1533 AD
In 1462 Grand Princedom of Moscow was succeeded by Ivan III (the Great) who ruled until 1505. In 1480 Ivan III overthrown the Tatar overlordship without military combat. Tatar and Muscovite armies faced each other across the River Ugra. After several weeks Khan of the Great Horde, Akhmed, decided to retreat but was ambushed and assassinated. Ivan III continued his expansionist politics and by the end of his reign the area of his realm was 3 million square kilometers big. Ivan III increased his personal power and became a suzerain of all Russia. In the period of Ivan's reign Muscovy as the only independent Orthodox state (Constantinople fall in 1453) began to see its self as the center of Christendom and the Third Rome. Ivan III was succeeded by Vasily III who reigned until 1533 and who completed the process of gathering the northern Russian lands.
1533-1613 AD
In 1533 the Grand Prince of Moscow became a three-year old Ivan IV, elder son of Vasily III and known also as Ivan the Terrible. Ivan IV got the title "Terrible" for his violent persecutions and executions of his political enemies who were mostly the great nobles. In 1547 Ivan IV was crowned as the first Tsar of All Russia. In foreign politics Ivan the Terrible continued the expansionist politics. In 1552 he captured Kazan and in 1556 Ivan Astrakhan from Tatars. On the west Ivan IV wanted to reach the Baltic Sea. He attacked Livonia what led to the war with Sweden and Poland (1558-82/83) which ended with the Russian defeat. In inner politics Ivan the Terrible reduced the power of nobility (boyars) by instituting the Oprichniks (a kind of secret police and sovereign's private army) in 1565. In 1581 Ivan the Terrible killed his son and heir Ivan. After the death of Ivan the Terrible in 1584 the next Tsar became his second son Feodor. Because Feodor was mentally unstable his brother-in-law Boris Godunov ruled as regent until Feodor died in 1598 without heir. Boris Godunov seized the throne urged to do so by Patriarch Job. After his death in 1605 Russia entered into a Time of Trouble and the Great Famine until 1613 as the rival pretenders struggle for the throne.
1613-1682 AD
In February 1613 a sixteen-year old Michael Romanov was chosen as Tsar by the Land Assembly (zemsky sobor) and was crowned in Moscow on July 21, 1613. Russia was onwards ruled by the Romanov Dynasty until the February Revolution of 1917 and the abdication of the last Romanov Tsar Nicholas II. Russia entered in 1613 in a comparatively becalmed period and continued successful development of Muscovite autocratic absolutism. The pre-imperial Romanov Tsars (Michael, Alexis, Feodor III and Ivan V) were in comparison to earlier Muscovy Grand Princes and Tsars concerning external expansion more passive.
1682-1725 AD
In 1682 Russia was ruled by joined reign of two juvenile co-Tsars: fifteen-year old Ivan V and his nine-year old half brother Peter I. Peter's half sister Sophia became the regent until 1689 when she was overthrown by Peter's supporters. Under Tsar Peter I (Peter the Great), the Russian Empire begins to flourish with traces of traditional social structure modifications in the country. Observing the radical advances of western civilizations, Peter orders the modernization of the army, creation of a navy, encourages mercantilism and foreign trade. As a means of breaking through western Europe Peter I was determined to conquer the Baltic coast and thus became embroiled in long but victorious Northern War against Sweden. Russia annexed Ingria and Karelia, territory of today's Estonia and Latvia, acquiring the Baltic coast and hinterland to Riga. In 1703 Peter I founded a port St Petersburg and made it capital city in 1712.
1725-1801 AD
After the death of Peter the Great in 1725 Russia was ruled by strong Empresses (Catherine I reigned 1725-27, Anne reigned 1730-40, Elizabeth reigned 1741-61, and Catherine II reigned 1762-96. Each Empresses was after her death briefly succeeded by an ineffectual male ruler: Peter II (a boy), Ivan VI (a baby), Peter III (adult politically unskilled), and Paul I (widely held to be insane). The eighteenth century witnessed also a considerable extension of Russia's southern and western frontiers on the expense of Ottoman Empire and Poland. In the Russo-Turkish War 1736-39 Russia defeated Ottoman Empire and captured Azov and annexed part of southern steppes. After two further victorious wars against Ottoman Empire Russia annexed all southern steppes down to the Black Sea and western to Dniester. Expansion included also Crimea which was seized in 1783. Russian expansion on the west took place on the expense of Poland's independence. In three partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793 and 1795 Russia annexed whole of Belorussia, Courland and Lithuania. Russia also extended it's eastern frontiers to central and far eastern Asia and even into northern America.
1801-1855
On the night of 11-12 March 1801 Paul I was assassinated by a group of officers. Alexander I who silently approved his father's assassination became the new Russian Tsar. Russian Empire was on the eve of Alexander I's accession on the Russian throne consolidated as an undisputed European great power. Russia continued expansion in a relatively detached spirit. In 1809 Finland was captured from Sweden, in 1812 Bessarabia was taken from the Ottoman Empire and central Poland was annexed through the Congress of Vienna in 1815. After the victory against Napoleon in 1812-15 Alexander I strengthened his autocracy but in 1825 he was informed over planned coup organized by so called Decembrists. The plotters hope to set up a republic or at least replace the autocracy with a constitutional monarchy. The first conspiratorial movement often regarded as revolutionary was unsuccessful but Alexander I refused to sanction the plotters with repressive measures. After his death on November 19, 1825, his successor Nicholas I assumed that task with great determination. About three thousand people were arrested, five of them were judged and hanged on a bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Many hundreds of others were exiled to Siberia, while insurgent soldiers were flogged or transferred in the Caucasus. Nicholas I achieved his aim of suppressing revolution and made his army feared throughout Europe but his reign ended military unsuccessful although the final defeat in Crimean War 1853-54 followed after his death.
1855-1881 AD
In 1855 was Alexander I succeeded by Alexander II who introduced a series of reforms: emancipation of serfs in 1861, legal reforms in 1864, new system of local government, reducing the conscription from 25 to 6 years, and other relaxations such as removal of restrictions on foreign travel, opening of universities for all social structures and amnestying of Decembrists. Although Alexander II started his reign with defeat in Crimean War in 1856, Russia increased it's Asiatic territory. In 1858-60 the lands of north of Amur were annexed from China through diplomatic pressure, in 1875 Russia captured the island of Sakhalin and larger areas were annexed or became the Russian protectorates in central Asia and to east to Caspian Sea. Russia became an unique colonial empire which formed a single territorial block. In 1877-78 Russia became embroiled in war against Ottoman Empire, inspired by the newly arisen Panslavist movement and resulting the liberation of Bulgaria. In Southeastern Europe Russia's interests clashed with interests of other great powers and at the Congress of Berlin in 1878 Russia was forced to give up many of her gains in Russo-Turkish war 1877-78. Despite the widespread of reforms Tsar Alexander II had to face a considerable unpopularity and in 1866 appeared the first attempt to take Alexander II's life. A student Dmitry Karakozov opened fire with a revolver in the Summer Garden in St Petersburg but missed his goal to kill Tsar Alexander II. One year later a Pole made an unsuccessful attempt on Tsars life in Paris. By the end of 1870s the revolutionary activity against Tsar increased and the revolutionaries succeeded in their assassination plans on March 1, 1881, when Alexander II was killed by a home made grenade thrown at him on the Catherine Embankment in St Petersburg.
1881-1917 AD
After the assassination of Alexander II his successors Alexander III (1881-94) and Nicholas II (1894-1905) made a swing to more reactionary rule and stopped the Russian territorial expansion. While Alexander III preserved peace throughout his reign Nicholas II became embroiled in unsuccessful war against Japan in 1904-05 for control over Korea. Unsuccessful war against Japan accompanied by an increased interior unrest led to Russian revolution in 1905. The upheaval broke out when Tsar's advisers ordered troops to open fire on peaceful demonstrators as they approached the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. The 1905 Revolution was suppressed by military force but Nicholas II permitted the formation of an elective body - the State Duma. Four Dumas were elected in all, of which only the third (1907-12) ran its full course of five years. The first and the second were prematurely dissolved by Nicholas II, while the fourth fell as the result of the Revolution of 1917. In 1914 Russia became involved in the World War I on the side of the Allies against the Central Powers. Although was Russian involvement in World War I at first welcomed by the Russian population, the disasters on the front led to a bitter political conflict between Tsar Nicholas II, court and ministers on the one hand and local government, industrials, Duma delegates and professional persons in general on the other hand. In February 1917 shortage of bread in St Petersburg led to riots on the streets, which was accompanied by the Cossacks and troops garrisoned in the capital. After few days of confusion, on March 2, 1917, Nicholas II abdicated and Russia was from March 3 to October 25, 1917, ruled by a Provisional Government, first consisting mainly of leading liberals from the State Duma and later of coalitions including more socialists alongside liberals.
1917-1924 AD
On October 25, 1917, Provisional Government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in a military coup. Their objectives were to lead the Russian empire into prosperity while utilizing Karl Marx's proposed doctrine for a communal, classless environment where the workers will be using their abilities to satisfy their own needs. On March 11, 1918, the seat of government was moved to Moscow which replaced St Petersburg as capital city. After ending the Word War I by signing the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany, Russia lost Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine and much of Belorussia. By spring of 1918 Bolsheviks had under their control only the central Russia while in other parts of Russia began to form anti-Bolshevik groups, known as "Whites". The Tsar and his family were captured and executed on night from 16-17 July 1918. Other political opponents were suppressed by secret police Cheka. Violent reprisals against political opponents led to a response by the White forces and the outbreak of the four-year long Civil War (1918-1922) between the "Reds" and the "Whites". Although "Reds" were victorious against the "Whites" Lenin had to face with unrest of peasants and workers which led even to revolts. The most serious for the Bolshevik government were strikes in St Petersburg and a naval munity in Kronstadt on March 1921, known as the Kronstadt rebellion. The Kronstadt rebellion was suppressed but the Bolsheviks decided to implement capitalistic modifications to the fragile economy in order to aid the communistic backlash that would follow. The New Economic Policy (NEP) created by Lenin would allow peasants to keep a certain amount of profit for themselves, rather than having the government subsidize all of it. Unfortunately, Lenin died just as his policy had started to work.
1925 AD - 1953 AD
After Lenin's death in 1924 the two apparent heirs to Lenin's regime were Josef Stalin and Leon Trotsky. Although Trotsky was better suited for the position (founder of the Red Army and Commissar for War), Josef Stalin (General Secretary to the Party Central Committee) assumed control and subsequently ordered the exile of all opposing cabinet ministers, including Trotsky. Anyone in the Union who objected to his decisions was sent to Siberian prison camps or murdered. He now had full control without any intervention from other liberal or moderate parties. He decided to concentrate on building on improving the Soviet economy and improving military strength, rather than follow Lenin's revolutionary goal of dominating the world. In order to obtain the immense amount of money needed to maintain his militia, he began a series of five year programs which would force the average farmer to meet a quota by the end of the harvest and then have the state subsidize all of the production. This system, aptly named collectivization, reprimanded all of the average worker's liberties created great suffering during the Stalin regime. On August 23, 1939, Stalin signed an anti-war Soviet-German Pact in an effort to avoid a confrontation with the Nazi military. However, Hitler violated this treaty in an effort to dominate all of Europe and on July 22, 1941, simultaneously struck along the Soviet frontier between the Baltic and The Black Seas. Within days much of the Soviet air force has been destroyed on the ground while Nazi tanks ploughed deep into Soviet territory. Initial Nazi success ended in December 1941 when Hitler failed to capture Moscow. The Germans also had to face the ferocious winter weather, for which Nazi troops proved worse adapted and clothed then Soviet. In 1942 Nazi forces launched an other attack but the offensive was bogged down with the Battle of Stalingrad (1942-43) which later became one of the turning points in World War II. After Soviet Army (Red Army) defeated the Germans in the Battle of Stalingrad they decisively defeated the Germans in the Battle of Kursk on July 1943. Red Army then pursueded the retreating German Army to Berlin. After the end of World War II the co-operation between the Soviet Union and her wartime allies came to an end. The leading world powers USA and the Soviet Union had different views how to reconstruct the postwar world and repeated crises throughout world threatened to escalate into world war. The period of conflict, tension and competition between USA and Soviet Union, known as Cold War, lasted from mid 1940's until early 1990's.
1953 AD - 1964 AD
After Stalin's death in 1953 Nikita Khrushchev, a dedicated liberal leader, managed to become the leader of the Soviet Union after he managed to discredit a conservative George Malenkov. Khrushchev proceeded to moderately alter the rigid, despotic structure of the Union and dealt vigorously with other foreign countries. The improvement in foreign relations, outer space developments and housing/employment allowed Khrushchev to improve the Soviet economy. One by-products of Khrushchev's policies was the unrest among the east European satellite states in autumn 1956. In Poland was brought to power Wladyslaw Gomulka against Moscow's will and in Hungary broke out the October Revolution which led to an attempt by Hungarian government to withdraw from the Warshaw Pact. Those events led to the outbreak of criticism of Khrushchev's policies by Party hard-liners. Khrushchev's position was also weakened after a serious breach with Communist China in early 1960s. In 1964, he became the first leader ever to lose power when the Political Bureau (Politburo) ousted him due to his extreme radical policies.
1964 AD - 1982 AD
Khrushchev was succeeded by a duumvirate Leonid Brezhnev assuming the office of First Secretary and Alexis Kosygin that of Prime Minister. In 1966 Leonid Brezhnev assumed power himself. A rigid Stalinist with hard-line ethics, Brezhnev's goal was to make the USSR into one of the strongest political superpowers in the world. The military was richly funded and the authoritative influence of Brezhnev could be felt in the asperity of the population. When Brezhnev died in 1982, he left behind an empire with one of the world's strongest military sectors, but with crumbling financial, social and political sectors.
1982 AD - 1991 AD
In the following years, the Union witnessed very little political reform in terms of enhancing social and production factors. Yuri Andropov who headed the KGB and died in 1984. Andropov was succeeded by Konstantin Chernenko who was aged 73 at his accession. After Chernenko's death in 1985, at age 54, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev emerged to inherit the economically devastated Union and began establishing political reforms. With radical ideologies such as Glasnost(Openess) and Perestroika (long-range capitalistic restructuring), along with improved foreign trade and diplomatic association with the United States (elimination of most ballistic nuclear missiles), the reformist had arrived to change the face of his dominion. Gorbachev's economical strategies had transformed the Soviet Union from a desolate oppressed wasteland to a socially liberated jungle. Such radical policies and reforms not only encouraged the development of a revolution, but the global transformation of Europe as we know it. As the hard-line coup was formed in early 1991, Gorbachev managed to hold on to power thanks in part to his liberal nemesis, Boris Yeltsin. In return, he had lost all popularity and support from the people and eventually witnessed the destruction of the Soviet Union and the death of communism in Russia.
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