1881 General Melikov (Minister of Interior) releases political prisoners and calls for greater share ingovernment to offset extremism.
1883–4 Plekhanov leads groups studying Marxism.
1891 Thousands of Jews evicted from Moscow and forced into ghettos under pogroms instigated by Alexander III. Construction of the Trans-Siberian railway begins.
1891–3 Major famine in Russia.
1892 Sergei de Witte appointed Minister of Finance and Commerce.
1894 1 November Nicholas II becomes Tsar after death of Alexander III.
1895 Lenin organises the St Petersburg ‘League of Struggle form the Emancipation of the Working Class’,
1897 Lenin exiled to Siberia.
1899 First national students’ strike.
1900 Leninist newspaper Iskra (the ‘Spark’) founded. Russian troops move into southern Manchuria.
1901 Foundation of the Social Revolutionary Party, mainly to represent the peasantry.
1902 Further strikes and student disturbances. Publication of Lenin’s What is to be Done?.
1903 Strikes and peasant disturbances throughout Russia. In London the Social Democratic Party splits into two groups, the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. Under Lenin’s leadership, the Bolsheviks advocate a small disciplined party which could lead a revolution.
1904 10 February The Russo-Japanese war breaks out.
May Lenin publishes One Step Forward, Two Steps Back. Japanese victory at theYalu; Port Arthur
under intense attack.
November The Zemstvos Conference requests a wider range of liberal reforms.
1905 1 January Russians surrender Port Arthur.
22 January ‘Bloody Sunday’. Father Gapon leads a peaceful protest to the Winter Palace with a Petition for theTsar: Troops open fire killing many protestors.
April-May The Third Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party meets in London.
June Mutiny on the battleship Potemkin. Armed rising at Lodz.
6 August The draft law on the establishment of the Consultative State Duma published.
5 September The Russo-Japanese war brought to an end by the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth.
7 October Nationwide political strikes.
17 October Tsar issues ‘October Manifesto’ promising a constitution and an elected parliament with genuine legislative power. The Tsar also guarantees civil liberties. The Constitutional Democratic Party (the Cadets) is formed.
October-December Formation of Workers’ Soviets in major Russian cities.
24–8 October Armed forces revolt at Kronstadt.
21 November First sitting of the Moscow Soviet.
November Formation of the moderate Octobrist Party.
23 December Moscow Soviet stages uprising that leads to widespread armed risings in Russia, but by the end of the month the Moscow rising is crushed.
1906 April Elections boycotted by Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries; Constitutional Democrats (‘Cadets’) win largest number of seats.
6 May Tsar issues Fundamental Law of the Empire by which the Tsar retained his autocratic power, thus reversing many of the earlier democratic concessions.
10 May First Duma assembles; vote of no confidence in the government.
June Stolypin appointed Prime Minister.
21 July Dissolution of the Duma. Cadet leaders issue Vyborg Manifesto calling for a refusal to pay taxes and enter military service.
July Soldiers and sailors rise in Kronstadt.
25 August Stolypin makes large tracts of land available to the peasants.
October Peasants are allowed to leave their village communes or to join others. Stolypin removes restrictions on the election of peasants to the Zemstvos.
22 November Stolypin’s Agrarian Reform Act ends communal system of landholding. Peasants are allowed to leave the commune and claim their share of land.
1907 5 March The Second Duma meets.
November Election of the Third Duma.
1911 September Stolypin assassinated.
1913 Election of Fourth Duma.
1914 Summer General Strike in St Petersburg.
1 August Germany declares war on Russia.
26 August Russia defeated at battle of Tannenberg.
1915 6 September Tsar assumes supreme command of the armed forces
1917 7 March Tsar leaves Petrograd for army GHQ; beginnings of large-scale demonstrations in the capital.
9–11 March Police fire on crowds as strikes break out and soldiers join the people; police fire at demonstrators, but fail to stem increasing numbers of soldiers joining in protest. Sittings of Duma discontinued again by orders of Tsar.
12 March Formation of Committee of State Duma to replace Tsarist government. Formation of Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.
14 March Appointment of Ministers of the Provisional Government. ‘Army Order No. 1’ issued by Petrograd Soviet puts armed forces under its authority and urges rank and file to elect representatives to the Soviet.
15 March Tsar abdicates in favour of his brother, Grand Duke Michael, at the same time confirming the new ministry and asking the country to support it. Grand Duke Michael chooses not to accept the throne unless he is requested to do so by the Assembly. The Provisional Government forbids the use of force against rioting peasants.
16 March Abdication of Grand Duke Michael.
13 April Lenin arrives back in Petrograd.
3–5 May Bolshevik-organised demonstrations by garrison in Petrograd against the Ministers Guchkov and Milyukov. Kornilov resigns command of forces in Petrograd, and Milyukov and Guchkov resign from the government.
18 May Kerensky helps to reorganise provisional government.
16–18 July Bolsheviks organise demonstrations by sailors and Red Guards but the unrest is put down by loyal troops.
21 July Formation of new government with Kerensky as Prime Minister.
1 August Kornilov appointed Commander-in-Chief.
3 August Kerensky resigns. Party leaders give him a free hand to form new government.
25–8 August Kerensky holds Moscow State Conference to find centrist forces on which to base a new government and to settle differences with Kornilov, but fails to reach agreement.
8 September Troops begin to move against Petrograd, and Kerensky denounces Kornilov ‘plot’ against the government. Collapse of movement followed by arrest of Kornilov and fellow generals.
19 September Bolshevik majority in Moscow Soviet.
6 October Trotsky becomes Chairman of Petrograd Soviet.
2 November Parliament refuses to give Kerensky powers to suppress the Bolsheviks.
7 November Bolsheviks seize power in Petrograd, taking key installations and services. The Winter Palace is cut off and ministers of provisional government are arrested. Kerensky flees. Lenin announces the transfer of power to the Military Revolutionary Committee and the victory of the socialist revolution.
8 November Lenin appeals for a just peace without annexations and indemnities, and announces Decree on Land, affirming that all land is the property of the people. A Bolshevik government is formed.
13 November Counter-offensive by Kerensky against Petrograd fails.
15 November Bolsheviks gain power in Moscow.
17 December Russia and Germany agree a ceasefire and start negotiations.
1918 18 January Opening of Constituent Assembly.
19 January Constituent Assembly dissolved.
3 March Russians sign Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, giving up large areas of pre-Revolutionary Russia. German troops continue to advance into central Russia and the Crimea.
29 May Partial conscription introduced for Red Army.
16 July Execution of Imperial family at Ekaterinburg.
1921 February Strikes in Petrograd. Red Army invades Georgia.
1922 March-April 11th Party Congress. Stalin becomes General Secretary. Lenin forced to convalesce after operation to remove two bullets, the result of Kaplan’s attempted assassination in 1918.
30 December Formation of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, federating Russia, the Ukraine.White Russia and Transcaucasia.