History of the Soviet Union: An Event a Year 1917 - 1953

1917

Led by Alexander Kerensky this group overthrow the provisional government, with workers and sailors capturing government buildings and the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, and eventually taking over Moscow.

1918

This treaty ceded large tracts of land to Germany and recognised the independence of Ukraine, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

1919

Millions of peasants in the Don region starve to death as the army confiscates grain for its own needs and the needs of urban dwellers, thereby enacting this new policy.

1920

Russia goes to war with this country.

1921

This policy ushers in a partial return to the market economy and a period of stability with "a free market and capitalism, both subject to state control."

1922

The Treaty on the Creation of the USSR officially legalised a union of several Soviet republics that had existed since 1919 and created a new centralised federal government. What did USSR stand for?

1923

A wide gap between industrial (high) and agricultural (low) prices causes this crisis, which saw peasants revert to subsistence farming, leading to fears of a famine.

1924

This leader dies, leading to a power struggle within the Party.

1925

Following the power struggle which saw Joseph Stalin take power, this man is forced to resign his military offices.

1926

The above is expelled from this high-ranking policy-making government authority.

1927

This group, which demanded greater freedom of expression within the Communist Party, are all expelled from the Party.

1928

Stalin announced the beginning of state industrialisation of the Soviet economy with this plan, the first of its kind.

1929

Soviet agriculture becomes subject to this policy, which saw individual landholdings, especially farms, come into state-ownership (kolkhozes.)

1930

This forced-labour camp-system is introduced.

1931

This spin doctor and propagandist justifies the existence of forced labour in his speech at the Sixth Congress of Soviets of the USSR.

1932

This law is introduced, making stealing from a kolkhozes/collective farm punishable a crime. The law was used to prosecute corrupt officials and also those who gleaned even handfuls of grain or spikelets left behind in the fields.

1933

Police were instructed to prevent Ukrainian peasants from leaving their homes in search of food in this genocide, which literally translates to "murder by starvation."

1934

The Soviet Union is admitted to this international organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, created after the First World War to provide a forum for resolving international disputes.

1935

This man was reported to have mined over one hundred tons of coal in a single shift, sowing the seeds of the Stakhanovite movement.

1936

Many experienced old Bolsheviks were the primary defendants in these show trials. They were charged with conspiring with the western powers to assassinate Stalin and other Soviet leaders, dismember the Soviet Union, and restore capitalism. Of the sixteen, all but four were sentenced to death.

1937

This leading Soviet military leader is trialed in secret. His blood-stained confession stated that that he was a German agent in cahoots with Nikolai Bukharin to seize power.

1938

A new decree required the teaching of this language as the lingua franca of all schools in the USSR.

1939

The Soviet army attacked Finland in this three month war.

1940

This "Vanishing Commissar", the NKVD orchestrator of some of the worst atrocities of The Great Purge is tortured, forced to confess to anti-Soviet activity and executed.

1941

Three million Axis soldiers invaded the Soviet Union in this Axis 'Operation'

1942

This five month battle begins. It would see 478,741 Soviet soldiers killed or missing, and would become the bloodiest battle in the history of warfare.

1943

This international organization which advocated world communism is dissolved to avoid antagonising allies the United States and the United Kingdom.

1944

This left-wing anthem is replaced by The State Anthem of the USSR. Its lyrics begin "Stand up, damned of the Earth Stand up, prisoners of starvation."

1945

Soviet Union declares war on this country, annexing the southern half of Sakhalin and the Kuril islands.

1946

With the support of the UK and USA, this Western Asian country begins to successfully break away from the Soviet Union, winning in military conflicts against Azerbaijan and Mahabad.

1947

The founding of this international communist bureau confirms the reality of a divide between the Western and Eastern Blocs.

1948

Stalin sends first advisers to this country in an effort to repair the economic damage brought on by years of civil war. 300 Soviet engineers and laborers repair Manchurian railways as part of the effort.

1949

This nuclear bomb used in the USSR's first successful nuclear weapons test is assigned this code-name by the United States, in reference to Joseph Stalin.

1950

Outbreak of this war in East Asia sees relations between the Soviet Union and the West deteriorate markedly.

1951

This couple are convicted of espionage for their role in passing atomic secrets to the Soviets during and after World War II

1952

This antisemitic plot fabricated by Joseph Stalin accused a group of predominantly Jewish doctors from Moscow of conspiring to assassinate Soviet leaders.

1953

Following Stalin's death, this man becomes First Secretary of the Communist Party.