| 1917 |
END OF THE ROMANOV DYNASTY. Vladimir I. Lenin takes control and creates CHEKA, the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission for Struggle Against CounterRevolution, Speculation and Sabotage. |
| 1918 |
World War I ends |
| 1920 |
Russian Civil War ends. |
| 1922 |
Joseph Stalin becomes General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in April. Lenin has his first major stroke, followed by several others, and he becomes an invalid. |
| 1923 |
The Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (USSR) is formed. |
| 1924 |
January 20: V.I. Lenin dies. Stalin rules with Trotsky and Bukharin. |
| 1928 |
The first Five Year Plan with the forced collectivization of farms. |
| 1931 |
The Moscow metro is started. |
| 1932-1933 |
Famine caused in part by peasants' passive resistance to the collectivization, destruction pf livestock and general chaos. |
| 1939 |
Russo Finnish War is fought. |
| 1941 |
Hitler invades Russia. |
| 1953 |
Stalin dies. Nikita S. Khrushchev becomes first secretary. |
| 1956 |
Hungarian uprising crushed. |
| 1957 |
Sputnik I launched. |
| 1962 |
Cuban missile crisis with the US occurs. |
| 1964 |
Leader of the state, Khrushchev is deposed.
October 14.: Leonid I. Brezhnev becomes the first secretary of CC CPSU |
| 1968 |
"Prague Spring" |
| 1971 |
N.S. Khrushchev dies |
| 1977 |
June: Leonid I. Brezhnev replaces Nikolai Podgorny as a president of USSR. |
| 1979 |
Afghanistan is invaded. |
| 1980 |
Olympic games are held in Moscow. Vladimir Vysotsky dies in Moscow. |
| 1982 |
November 10.: L.I. Brezhnev dies from heart attack.
November 12.: Yuri V. Andropov is elected general secretary of CPSU. |
| 1984 |
February 9.: Yu.V. Andropov dies.
February 13.: Konstantin U. Chernenko is elected the General secretary of CPSU. |
| 1985 |
March 10.: K.U. Chernenko dies.
March 11.: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the first secretary of CPSU. |
| 1986 |
Perestroyka begins. |
| 1988 |
October: M.S. Gorbachev is elected President of the USSR. |
| 1989 |
The first multi-candidate elections in the USSR are held. The last Soviet troops leave Afghanistan. |
| 1990 |
M.S. Gorbachev wins Nobel Peace Prize. |
| 1991 |
January: Crackdowns occur in Baltic countries, Lithuania and Latvia.
August 19. - 23. : The Soviet coup (putsch) disrupts the government.
August 24. : M.S. Gorbachev resigns as head of CPSU.
December 25. : Gorbachev resigns as president of the USSR. |
| 1992 |
Boris Yeltsin heads the government of the Russian Federation. |
| 1993 |
October: Yeltsin quells a coup attempt. |
| 1994 |
December: Start of war in Chechnya. |
| 1996 |
Yeltsin elected to a second term. |
| 1998 |
August: Ruble crashes. |
| 2000 |
Yeltsin resigns on New Year's Day. Vladimir Putin becomes acting president and later is elected president. |
