Russia. A History

Conquest, absorption of Central Asia

1866

Assassination attempt on Alexander II

1867–9

Church reforms (abolition of caste in 1867; restructuring of seminary; reorganization of parishes in 1869)

1869

Publication of P. Lavrov’s Historical Letters and L. Tolstoy’s War and Peace

1870

City government reform

1872

Russian publication of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital

1874

Universal Military Training Act, culminating military reforms

1874

Populist ‘going to the people’

1876–9

Revolutionary populist organization, Land and Freedom

1877–8

Russo-Turkish War

1878

Peace of Berlin

1879

Terrorist organization, People’s Will, established to combat autocracy

1879–80

Publication of F. Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov

1879–81

‘Crisis of Autocracy’—terrorism, ‘dictatorship of the heart’

1881–94

Reign of Alexander III

1881

Temporary Regulations of 14 August 1881 (establishing ‘extraordinary’ police powers to combat revolutionary movement)

1881–2

Pogroms

1882

May laws (discriminating against Jews)

1882–4

Counter-reform in censorship (1882), education (1884), Church (1884)

1882–6

Reform acts to protect industrial labour

1884

First Marxist organization, under G. Plekhanov, established abroad

1885

Noble Land Bank established; abolition of poll-tax

1885–1900

Russification in borderlands

1889

New local state official, the ‘Land Captain’, established

1890–1914

Revolutionary Russia

1890

Zemstvo counter-reform (restricting autonomy and franchise)

1891–2

Famine

1891–1904

Construction of Trans-Siberian Railway

1892

City government counter-reform (restricting autonomy and franchise)

1892–1903

S. Iu. Witte as Minister of Finance

1894–1917

Reign of Nicholas II

1895

‘Senseless dreams’ speech by Nicholas II

1896–7

St Petersburg textile strikes; St Petersburg Union for the Liberation of Labour established

1897

Gold standard; first modern census

1898

Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party founded

1899

V. I. Lenin’s The Development of Capitalism in Russia published

1901–2;

Party of Social Revolutionaries (PSR) established

1902

Peasant disorders in Poltava and Kharkov (March-April); Lenin’s What Is To Be Done? published

1903

Union of Liberation (left-liberal organization) established; RSDWP splits into Bolshevik (under V. I. Lenin) and Menshevik (under Iu. Martov) factions; south Russian labour strikes (Rostov-on-the-Don and Odessa); Kishinev anti-Semitic pogroms

1904

Corporal punishment abolished

1904–5

Russo-Japanese War

1905–7

Revolution of 1905

1905

Bloody Sunday (9 January); October Manifesto (17 October) promising political reform and civil rights

1906

First State Duma; Stolypin land reforms

1907

Second State Duma; coup d’état of 3 June

1907–12

Third State Duma

1909

Publication of Vekhi (‘Signposts’)

1911

Assassination of P. A. Stolypin (September)

1912

Lena Goldfields massacre and ensuing strike wave (March-May)

1912–17

Fourth State Duma

1914–1921

War, Revolution, Civil War

1914

Outbreak of First World War

1915

Progressive Bloc and political crisis (August)

1916

Central Asia rebellion; murder of Rasputin

1917

February Revolution (23 February-1 March); establishment of Provisional Government and Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldiers’ Deputies (1 March); abdication of Nicholas II (2 March); ‘Programme’ of the Provisional Government (8 March); Appeal to All the Peoples of the World’ by Petrograd Soviet (14 March); Lenin’s return to Russia (3 April) and the April crisis’ in the party; Petrograd crisis (23–4 April); coalition governments (May-October); first All-Russian Congress of Soviets’ (June); ‘July Days’; Kornilov mutiny (25–8 August); publication of Lenin’s State and Revolution; Bolshevik seizure of power (25 October); elections for Constituent Assembly (25 November); establishment of the Cheka (7 December)

1918

Constituent Assembly meets (5–6 January); separation of Church and state; civil war commences; first Soviet constitution (July)

1919

Height of White challenge (autumn 1919); establishment of the Comintern

1920

Soviet-Polish War

1921–1929

Era of the New Economic Policy (NEP)

1921

Kronstadt revolt (2–17 March); Tenth Party Congress (8–16 March), which promulgated ‘New Economic Policy’

1921–2

Famine

1922

Eleventh Party Congress (27 March-2 April); Stalin elected General Secretary (3 April); Genoa Conference, with Soviet participation (April); German-Russian treaty at Rapallo; Lenin’s first stroke (26 May); Lenin’s second stroke (16 December); Lenin dictates ‘testament’ (25 December)

1923

Lenin adds postscript to ‘testament’ calling for Stalin’s dismissal as General Secretary (4 January); Lenin’s third stroke (9 March)

1924

Death of Lenin (21 January); party launches ‘Lenin Enrolment’ campaign (February); Stalin publicizes ‘Socialism in One Country’ (December)

1925

Apogee of NEP (April)

1926