Russian History: A Very Short Introduction

Timothy J. Colton, Yeltsin: A Life (2008).

Lilia Shevtsova, Russia – Lost in Transition: The Yeltsin and Putin Years (2007).

Simon Pirani, Change in Putin’s Russia: Power, Money and People (2010).

Chronology

Principal grand princes and tsars

Kiev

978–1015

Vladimir

1019–54

Iaroslav the Wise

1113–25

Vladimir Monomakh

Novgorod

1236–63

Alexander Nevskii

Moscow

c. 1276–1303

Daniil

1325–41

Ivan I (Kalita)

1359–89

Dmitrii Donskoi

1462–1505

Ivan III

1505–33

Vasilii III

1533–84

Ivan IV (the Terrible)

1584–98

Fedor I

1598–1605

Boris Godunov

1604–13

Time of Troubles

1613–45

Mikhail

1645–76

Aleksei

St Petersburg

1682–1725

(till 1696 jointly with Ivan V) Peter I (the Great)

1727–30

Peter II

1730–40

Anna

1741–61

Elizabeth

1761–2

Peter III

1762–96

Catherine II (the Great)

1796–1801

Paul

1801–25

Alexander I

1825–55

Nicholas I

1855–81

Alexander II

1881–94

Alexander III

1894–1917

Nicholas II

Principal Soviet leaders

1917–24

Vladimir Lenin (as Prime Minister)

1922–53

Joseph Stalin (as Party General Secretary)

1953–64

Nikita Khrushchev (as Party First Secretary)

1964–82

Leonid Brezhnev (as Party General Secretary)

1985–91

Mikhail Gorbachev (as Party General Secretary)

Main events

988

Kievan Rus accepts Christianity

1054

Split between Byzantine and Roman churches

1237–42

Mongol armies conquer most of Rus

1240–2

Alexander Nevskii defeats Swedes and Teutonic Knights

1326

Kiev Metropolitanate transferred to Moscow

1362

Battle of Blue Waters

1380

Battle of Kulikovo

1438–9

Council of Ferrara-Florence

1453

Byzantine falls to the Ottoman Turks

1478

Novgorod acknowledges Muscovite sovereignty

1480

Muscovy ceases to acknowledge sovereignty of Golden Horde

1480s–90s

Golden Horde breaks up

1547

Ivan IV is crowned Tsar

1550

Sudebnik (Law Code)

1552

Conquest and annexation of Kazan

1556

Conquest and annexation of Astrakhan

1556

Decree on Service

1558–82

Livonian War

1564–72

Creation of oprichnina

1571

Crimean Tatars sack Moscow

1589

Creation of Moscow Patriarchate

1613

Zemskii sobor elects Mikhail Romanov Tsar

1648

Dnieper Cossack rebellion against Poland

1649

Ulozhenie (Law Code)

1652–8

Nikon as Patriarch

1654

Annexation of Dnieper Cossack Hetmanate (Ukraine)

1666–7

Church Council anathematizes the Old Belief

1667–71

Rising of Stenka Razin

1703

Establishment of new capital: St Petersburg

1705

Establishment of permanent standing army

1709

Victory over Sweden at Poltava

1721

Abolition of Patriarchate

1721

Annexation of Baltic provinces

1722

Institution of Table of Ranks

1723

Introduction of poll tax

1726

Establishment of Russian Academy of Sciences

1730

Empress Anna rejects ‘Conditions’

1732

Foundation of Cadet Corps

1755

Establishment of Moscow University

1756–63

Seven Years War

1762

Emancipation of dvorianstvo from state service

1767–8

Law Code Commission

1768–74

War with Ottoman Empire

1772, 1793, 1795

Partitions of Poland

1773–5

Pugachev rising

1791

Establishment of Jewish Pale of Settlement

1801

Annexation of Georgia

1805–15

Wars against Napoleon

1812

French invasion of Russia

1825

Decembrist revolt

1830–1

Polish rising

1833

Pushkin completes The Bronze Horseman

1842

Publication of Gogol’s Dead Souls

1853–6

Crimean War

1859

Capture of Shamil

1861

Emancipation of serfs

1863–4

Polish rising

1864–6

Publication of Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground and Crime and Punishment

1865–76

Conquest of Kokand, Khiva, and Bukhara

1869

Publication of Tolstoy’s War and Peace

1873–4

Populists’ ‘going to the people’

1874, 1880

First performances of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina

1874

Introduction of universal male military service

1877–8

War against Ottoman Empire

1879

Formation of Narodnaia volia

1881

Assassination of Alexander II

1882

Anti-Jewish May Laws

1898

Formation of Social Democratic Workers’ Party

1899

Imperial Manifesto on Finland

1901

Formation of Socialist Revolutionary Party

1903

SD Party splits into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks

1903

Completion of Trans-Siberian Railway

1904–5

Russo-Japanese War

1905–6

First Russian Revolution

October 1905

October Manifesto

April 1906

Formation of State Duma

November 1906

Stolypin’s agrarian reform

June 1907

Revision of Duma electoral law

1911

Assassination of Stolypin

1913

First performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring

August 1914

Outbreak of First World War

1915

Loss of Poland

February–March 1917

February Revolution; formation of Provisional Government and soviets

October 1917

October Revolution

January 1918

Dissolution of Constituent Assembly

March 1918

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk; Russia withdraws from the war

1922

Formation of USSR

1922

Stalin becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party

January 1924

Death of Lenin

1928

Beginning of First Five Year Plan

1929

Launch of dekulakization and collectivization of agriculture

1932

Creation of Union of Soviet Writers

1932

Introduction of internal passports and propiska

1932–4

Widespread famine

1937–8

Height of Stalin’s terror

August 1939

Nazi–Soviet Pact

September 1939