# Timeline of Russian history

"none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]]
Part of a series on the :
History of Russia :
PeriodsPrehistory  • Antiquity  • Early Slavs
Rus' people pre-9th century     Rus' Khaganate     Arthania     Garðaríki
879–1240: Ancient Rus'
Rurik • Baptism of Rus' • Russkaya Pravda
Novgorod Land 882–1136 Principality of Polotsk 987–1397 Principality of Chernigov 988–1402 Rostov-Suzdal 1093–1157     full list...
1240–1480: Feudal Rus'
Council of Liubech • Council of Uvetichi • Mongol conquest • Battle of Kulikovo
Novgorod Republic 1136–1478 Vladimir-Suzdal 1157–1331 Principality of Moscow 1263–1547     full list...
1480–1917: Tsarist Russia
Great Stand on the Ugra River • Time of Troubles • Zemsky Sobor • Treaty of Nystad • Petrovian reforms • 1812 Patriotic War • Decembrist Revolt • Emancipation reform • Russo-Japanese War • 1905 Revolution • October Manifesto • Second Patriotic War
Tsardom of Russia 1547–1721 Russian Empire 1721–1917      Russian America 1799–1867      Grand Duchy of Finland 1809–1917      Congress Poland 1867–1915      Russian Manchuria 1900–1905      Uryankhay Krai 1914–1921
1917–1923: Russian Revolution
February Revolution • Provisional Government • Dvoyevlastiye • July Days • Kornilov affair • Directorate • Constituent Assembly (election) • Bolshevik Coup • Civil War • White Guard • Red Army • Soviet-Polish War • Priamurye Govt. • War Communism • USSR • Emigrants
Russian Republic 1917–1918      General Secretariat of Ukraine 1917–1918 Russian SFSR 1917–1922      Ukrainian SSR 1919–1922      Byelorussian SSR 1920–1922      Transcaucasian SFSR 1922–1922 Russian State 1918–1920      Provisional Priamurye Govt. 1921–1923     full list...
1923–1991: Soviet Era
NEP • Cultural revolution • Korenization • Stalinism • Collectivization • Industrialization • GULAG • Great Purge • Great Patriotic War • Cold War • Warsaw Pact • Comecon • Crimea transfer • Era of Stagnation • Afghan War • Perestroika • Chernobyl disaster • Karabakh War • Parade of sovereignties (War of Laws)
Soviet Union 1922–1991      Russian SFSR 1922–1991      Karelo-Finnish SSR1940–1956         full list... Tannu Tuva1921–1944
since 1991: Modern Russia
August Coup • Belavezha Accords • Alma-Ata Protocol • USSR dissolution • CIS • "Near abroad" • Constitutional crisis • Privatization • CSTO • Chechen wars (1st • 2nd) • Oligarchy • Putinism • Five-Days War • Presidential terms amendments • Eurasian Economic Union • Annexation of Crimea • War in Donbas • 2020 amendments • Invasion of Ukraine (Prelude • Mass emigration • Debt default • Sanctions • Mobilization • 2022 annexation)
Russian Federation 1991–present      Republic of Tatarstan 1994–present      Chechen Republic 2000–present      Republic of Crimea 2014–present      Donetsk People's Republic 2022–present      Luhansk People's Republic 2022–present      Kherson Oblast 2022–present      Zaporizhzhia Oblast 2022–present         full list...
^A Not internationally recognized. ^B Not fully controlled. :
Timeline860–1721 • 1721–1796 • 1796–1855 1855–1894 • 1894–1917 • 1917–1927 1927–1953 • 1953–1964 • 1964–1982 1982–1991 • 1991–present :
Russia portal :
vte :
This is a timeline of Russian history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Russia and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see history of Russia. See also list of Russian monarchs and list of heads of state of Russia.
Dates before 31 January 1918, when the Bolshevik government adopted the Gregorian calendar, are given in the Old Style Julian calendar.

## 9th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 862 | | Rurik came to rule in Novgorod, establishing the Rurikid Dynasty. |
| 882 | | Oleg the Wise conquered Kiev and moved the capital there. |

## 10th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 907 | | Rus'–Byzantine War (907): Oleg led an army to the walls of Constantinople. |
| 907 | | Rus'-Byzantine War (907): A Rus'-Byzantine Treaty allowed Rus' merchants to enter the city under guard. |
| 912 | | Oleg died and was succeeded by Igor, who was Rurik's son. |
| 941 | May | Rus'–Byzantine War (941): A Rus' army landed at Bithynia. |
| 941 | September | Rus'–Byzantine War (941): The Byzantines destroyed the Rus' fleet. |
| 945 | | Rus'-Byzantine War (941): Another Rus'-Byzantine Treaty was signed. Rus' renounced some Byzantine territories. |
| 945 | | Igor died; his wife Olga became regent of Kievan Rus' for their son, Sviatoslav I. |
| 957 or 962 | | Olga's regency ended. |
| 965 | | Sviatoslav conquered Khazaria. |
| 968 | | Siege of Kiev (968): The Pechenegs besieged Kiev. A Rus' created the illusion of a much larger army, and frightened them away. |
| 969 | 8 July | Sviatoslav moved the capital from Kiev to Pereyaslavets in Bulgaria. |
| 971 | | The Byzantine Empire captured Pereyaslavets. The capital moved back to Kiev. |
| 972 | | Sviatoslav was killed by the Pechenegs during an expedition on their territory. His son Yaropolk I succeeded him. |
| 978 | | Yaropolk was betrayed and murdered by his brother Vladimir the Great, who succeeded him as Prince of Kiev. |
| 981 | | Vladimir conquered Red Ruthenia from the Poles. |
| 988 | | Christianization of Kievan Rus': Vladimir destroyed the pagan idols of Kiev and urged the city's inhabitants to baptize themselves in the Dnieper River. |

## 11th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1015 | 15 July | Vladimir died. He was succeeded by Sviatopolk I, who may have been his biological son by the rape of Yaropolk's wife. Sviatopolk ordered the murder of three of Vladimir's younger sons. |
| 1016 | | Yaroslav I, another of Sviatopolk's brothers, led an army against him and defeated him, forcing him to flee to Poland. |
| 1017 | | Yaroslav issued the first Russian code of law, the Russkaya Pravda. |
| 1018 | | Polish Expedition to Kiev: Sviatopolk led the Polish army into Rus'. Red Ruthenia returned to Polish possession. |
| 1018 | 14 August | Polish Expedition to Kiev: The Polish army captured Kiev; Yaroslav fled to Novgorod. |
| 1019 | | Yaroslav defeated Sviatopolk and returned to the princedom of Kiev. He granted autonomy to Novgorod as a reward for her prior loyalty. Sviatopolk died. |
| 1030 | | Yaroslav reconquered Red Ruthenia from the Poles. |
| 1043 | 30 February | Rus'–Byzantine War (1043): Yaroslav led an unsuccessful naval raid on Constantinople. According to the peace settlement, Yaroslav's son Vsevolod I married a daughter of the Byzantine emperor Constantine IX Monomachos. |
| 1054 | | Yaroslav died. He was succeeded by his oldest son, Iziaslav I. |
| 1068 | | Iziaslav was overthrown in a popular uprising and forced to flee to Poland. |
| 1069 | | Iziaslav led the Polish army back into Kiev and reestablished himself on the throne. |
| 1073 | | Two of Iziaslav's brothers, Sviatoslav II and Vsevolod I, overthrew him; the former became prince of Kiev. |
| 1076 | 27 December | Sviatoslav died. Vsevolod I succeeded him, but traded the princedom of Kiev to Iziaslav in exchange for Chernigov. |
| 1078 | 3 October | Iziaslav died. The throne of Kiev went to Vsevolod. |
| 1093 | 13 April | Vsevolod died. Kiev and Chernigov went to Iziaslav's illegitimate son, Sviatopolk II. |
| 1093 | 26 May | Battle of the Stugna River: Rus' forces attacked the Cumans at the Stugna River and were defeated. |

## 12th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1113 | 16 April | Sviatopolk died. He was succeeded by Vsevolod's son, his cousin, Vladimir II Monomakh. |
| 1125 | 19 May | Vladimir died. His oldest son, Mstislav I, succeeded him. |
| 1132 | 14 April | Mstislav died. His brother Yaropolk II followed him as prince of Kiev. |
| 1136 | | Novgorod expelled the prince appointed for them by Kiev and vastly circumscribed the authority of the office. |
| 1139 | 18 February | Yaropolk died. His younger brother Viacheslav followed him, but in March Viacheslav was overthrown by his cousin, prince of Chernigov, Vsevolod. |
| 1146 | 1 August | Vsevolod died. His brother Igor followed him as a ruler of Kiev. Citizens of Kiev required him to depose old boyars of Vsevolod. Igor swore to fulfill their request, but then reconsidered to do it. Citizens of Kiev considered that oath-breaker is not a legitimate ruler anymore and chose to summon prince Iziaslav of Pereyaslavl to be a new prince of Kiev. |
| 1146 | 13 August | Iziaslav overthrow Igor. A brother of Igor, Sviatoslav, prince of Novgorod-Seversk asked prince of Rostov-Suzdal Yuri Dolgorukiy for help in realising Igor from captivity. |
| 1147 | | The first reference to Moscow when Yuri Dolgorukiy called upon Sviatoslav of Novgorod-Seversk to "come to me, brother, to Moscow". |
| 1149 | | Yuri Dolgorukiy captured Kiev. Iziaslav escaped. |
| 1150 | | With assistance of Black Klobuks Iziaslav kicked away Yuri from Kiev. After some time, with help of Volodimirko of Galych, Yuri took Kiev again. |
| 1151 | | Hungarian king Géza II helped Iziaslav to return Kiev. Yuri escaped |
| 1154 | 13 November | Iziaslav II died. His brother, prince of Smolensk Rostislav was summoned to become a new prince of Kiev. |
| 1155 | | Yuri Dolgorukiy expelled Rostislav with assistance of prince of Chernigov. |
| 1157 | | Yuri I was intoxicated and died. Iziaslav of Chernigov became prince of Kiev. |
| 1159 | | Iziaslav of Chernigov was overthrown by princes of Galych and Volyn. Allies called Rostislav to be prince of Kiev again. |
| 1167 | | Rostislav died. His nephew, Mstislav of Volyn, became new ruler of Kiev. |
| 1169 | | Andrey Bogolyubsky, the elder son of Yuri Dolgorukiy, prince of new strong principality of Vladimir-Suzdal attacked and plundered Kiev. A majority of Russian princes recognized him as a new grand prince. Unlike previous grand princes Andrey I did not move his residence to Kiev, instead remaining in Vladimir. Andrey appointed his brother Gleb as prince of Kiev. From this time, Kiev stopped being the center of Russian lands. The political and cultural center was moved to Vladimir. New princes of Kiev became dependent on the grand princes of Vladimir-Suzdal |

## 13th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1223 | | Battle of the Kalka River: The warriors of Rus' first encountered the Mongol armies of Genghis Khan. |
| 1227 | | Boyar intrigues forced Mstislav, the prince of Novgorod, to give the throne to his son-in-law Andrew II of Hungary. |
| 1236 | | Alexander Nevsky was summoned by the Novgorodians to become Grand Prince of Novgorod and, as their military leader, to defend their northwest lands from Swedish and German invaders. |
| 1237 | December | Mongol invasion of Rus: Batu Khan set fire to Moscow and slaughtered and enslaved its civilian inhabitants. |
| 1240 | 15 July | Battle of the Neva: The Novgorodian army defeated a Swedish invasion force at the confluence of the Izhora and Neva Rivers. |
| 1242 | 5 April | Battle on the Ice: The army of Novgorod defeated the invading Teutonic Knights on the frozen surface of Lake Peipus. |
| 1263 | 14 November | Nevsky died. His appanages were divided within his family; his youngest son Daniel became the first Prince of Moscow. His younger brother Yaroslav of Tver had become the Grand Prince of Tver and of Vladimir and had appointed deputies to run the Principality of Moscow during Daniel's minority. |

## 14th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1303 | 5 March | Daniel died. His oldest son Yury succeeded him as Prince of Moscow. |
| 1317 | | Yury married the sister of Uzbeg Khan who was Mongolian prince. Uzbeg deposed the Grand Prince of Vladimir and appointed Yury to that office. |
| 1322 | | Dmitry the Terrible Eyes, the son of the last Grand Prince of Vladimir, convinced Uzbeg Khan that Yury had been stealing from the khan's tribute money. He was reappointed to the princedom of Vladimir. |
| 1325 | 21 November | Yury was murdered by Dmitry. His younger brother Ivan I Kalita succeeded him. |
| 1327 | 15 August | The ambassador of the Golden Horde of Mongolian Empire was trapped and burned alive during an uprising in the Grand Duchy of Tver. |
| 1328 | | Ivan led a Horde army against the Grand Prince of Tver, also the Grand Prince of Vladimir. Ivan was allowed to replace him in the latter office. |
| 1340 | 31 March | Ivan died. His son Simeon succeeded him both as Grand Prince of Moscow and as Grand Prince of Vladimir |
| 1353 | | Simeon died. His younger brother Ivan II, The Fair, succeeded him as Grand Prince of Moscow. |
| 1359 | 13 November | Ivan died. His son, Dmitri Donskoi, succeeded him. |
| 1380 | 8 September | Battle of Kulikovo: A Muscovite force defeated a significantly larger Blue Horde army of Mongolia at Kulikovo Field. |
| 1382 | | The Mongol khan Tokhtamysh reasserted his power by looting and burning Moscow. |
| 1389 | 19 May | Dmitri died. The throne fell to his son, Vasili I. |

## 15th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1425 | February | Vasili I died. His son Vasili II, succeeded him as Grand Prince of Moscow; his wife Sophia became regent. His younger brother, Yury Dmitrievich of Zvenigorod, also issued a claim to the throne. |
| 1430 | | Yury appealed to the khan of the Golden Horde to support his claim to the throne. Vasili II retained the Duchy of Moscow, but Yury was given the Duchy of Dmitrov. |
| 1432 | | Muscovite Civil War: Vasili II led an army to capture Dmitrov. His army was defeated and he was forced to flee to Kolomna. Yury arrived in Moscow and declared himself the Grand Prince. Vasili II was pardoned and made mayor of Kolomna. |
| 1433 | | Muscovite Civil War: The exodus of Muscovite boyars to Vasili II's court in Kolomna persuaded Yury to return Moscow to his nephew and move to Galich. |
| 1434 | | Muscovite Civil War: Vasily II burned Galich. |
| 1434 | 16 March | Muscovite Civil War: The army of Yury Dmitrievich defeated the army of Vasily II. The latter fled to Nizhny Novgorod. |
| 1434 | 1 April | Muscovite Civil War: Yury arrived in Moscow and again declared himself the Grand Prince. |
| 1434 | 5 July | Yury died. His oldest son Vasily the Squint, succeeded him as Grand Prince. |
| 1435 | | Muscovite Civil War: Yury's second son, Dmitry Shemyaka, allied himself with Vasily II. Vasily the Squint was expelled from the Kremlin and blinded. Vasili II returned to the throne of the Grand Prince. |
| 1438 | | Russo-Kazan Wars: The khan of the recently established Khanate of Kazan led an army towards Moscow. |
| 1445 | 7 July | Battle of Suzdal: The Russian army suffered a great defeat at the hands of the Tatars of Kazan. Vasili II was taken prisoner; operation of the government fell to Dmitry Shemyaka. |
| 1445 | December | Muscovite Civil War: Vasili II was ransomed back to Muscovy. |
| 1446 | | Muscovite Civil War: Shemyaka had Vasili II blinded and exiled to Uglich, and had himself declared the Grand Prince. |
| 1450 | | Muscovite Civil War: The boyars of Moscow expelled Shemyaka from the Kremlin and recalled Vasili II to the throne. |
| 1452 | | Muscovite Civil War: Shemyaka was forced to flee to the Novgorod Republic. |
| 1453 | | Shemyaka was poisoned by Muscovite agents. |
| 1462 | 27 March | Vasili II died. His son Ivan III, The Great, succeeded him as Grand Prince. |
| 1463 | | Grand Duchy of Moscow annexed the Duchy of Yaroslavl. |
| 1471 | 14 July | Battle of Shelon: A Muscovite army defeated a numerically superior Novgorodian force. |
| 1474 | | Grand Duchy of Moscow annexed the Rostov Duchy. |
| 1476 | | Ivan stopped paying tribute to the Great Horde. |
| 1478 | 14 January | The Novgorod Republic surrendered to the authority of Moscow. |
| 1480 | 11 November | Great stand on the Ugra river: Ivan's forces deterred Akhmat Khan of the Great Horde from invading Muscovy. |
| 1485 | | Ivan annexed the Grand Duchy of Tver. |
| 1497 | | Ivan issued a legal code, the Sudebnik, which standardized the Muscovite law, expanded the role of the criminal justice system, and limited the ability of the serfs to leave their masters. |

## 16th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1505 | 29 October | Ivan died. He was succeeded as Grand Duke of Muscovy by his son, Vasili III. |
| 1507 | | Russo-Crimean Wars: The Crimean Khanate raided the Muscovite towns of Belyov and Kozelsk. |
| 1510 | | With the approval of most of the local nobility, Vasili arrived in the Pskov Republic and declared it dissolved. |
| 1517 | | The last Grand Prince of the Ryazan Principality was captured and imprisoned in Moscow. |
| 1533 | 3 December | Vasili died; his son Ivan IV, The Terrible, succeeded him. His wife Elena Glinskaya became regent. |
| 1538 | 4 April | Glinskaya died. She was succeeded as regent by Prince Vasily Nemoy. |
| 1547 | 16 January | An elaborate ceremony crowned Ivan the first Tsar of Russia. |
| 1552 | 22 August | Siege of Kazan (1552): Russian armed forces arrived at Kazan. |
| 1552 | 2 October | Siege of Kazan (1552): The Russian army breached the walls of Kazan. |
| 1552 | 13 October | Siege of Kazan (1552): The civilian population of Kazan was massacred, the city occupied. |
| 1553–1554 | | First book printed in Russia, the Narrow-typed Gospel Book. |
| 1556 | | Russia conquered and annexed the Astrakhan Khanate. |
| 1558 | | Livonian War: Ivan demanded a back-breaking tribute from the Bishopric of Dorpat. The Bishop sent diplomats to Moscow to renegotiate the amount; Ivan expelled them and invaded and occupied the Bishopric. |
| 1560 | 2 August | Battle of Ergeme: Ivan's army crushed the forces of the Livonian Order. |
| 1561 | 28 November | Livonian War: The Livonian Order agreed to the Union of Wilno, under which the Livonian Confederation was partitioned between Lithuania, Sweden and Denmark. Lithuania and Sweden sent troops to liberate their new territories from Russian possession. |
| 1565 | February | Ivan established the Oprichnina, a territory ruled directly by the tsar. |
| 1569 | 1 July | The Union of Lublin was signed. Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were merged into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth; Poland began aiding Lithuania in its war against Russia. |
| 1572 | | The Oprichnina was abolished. |
| 1581 | 16 November | Ivan killed his oldest son. |
| 1582 | 15 January | Livonian War: The Peace of Jam Zapolski ended Polish–Lithuanian participation in the war. Russia gave up its claims to Livonia and the city of Polatsk. |
| 1582 | 23 October | Battle of Chuvash Cape: Russian soldiers dispersed the armed forces of the Siberia Khanate from its capital, Qashliq. |
| 1583 | | Livonian War: The war was ended with the Treaty of Plussa. Narva and the Gulf of Finland coast went to Sweden. |
| 1584 | 18 March | Ivan died. The throne fell to his intellectually disabled son Feodor I; his son-in-law Boris Godunov took de facto charge of government. |
| 1590 | 18 January | Russo-Swedish War (1590–1595): The Treaty of Plussa expired. Russian troops laid siege to Narva. |
| 1590 | 25 February | Russo-Swedish War (1590–1595): A Swedish governor on the disputed territory surrendered to Russians. |
| 1591 | 15 May | Dimitry Ivanovich, Ivan the Terrible's youngest son, died in exile from a stab wound to the throat. Long-regarded as murdered by agents of Boris Godunov, more recently scholars have begun to defend the theory that Dimitry's death was self-inflicted during an epileptic seizure. |
| 1595 | 18 May | Russo-Swedish War (1590–1595): The Treaty of Tyavzino was signed. Ingria went to Russia. |
| 1598 | 7 January | Feodor I died with no children giving a start to Time of Troubles |
| 1598 | 21 February | A zemsky sobor elected Godunov the first non-Rurikid tsar of Russia. |

## 17th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1601–03 | | Devastating famine, that undermined Boris's authority. |
| 1604 | October | False Dmitriy I, a man claiming to be the deceased Dmitriy Ivanovich, son of Ivan IV, invaded Russia with help of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth |
| 1605 | 13 April | Boris died. His son Feodor II was pronounced tsar. |
| 1605 | 1 June | A group of boyars defected in support of False Dmitriy, seized control of the Kremlin, and arrested Feodor. |
| 1605 | 20 June | False Dmitriy and his army arrived in Moscow. Feodor and his mother were strangled. |
| 1605 | 21 July | False Dmitriy was crowned tsar. |
| 1606 | 8 May | False Dmitriy married a Catholic, Marina Mniszech, inflaming suspicions that he meant to convert Russia to Catholicism. |
| 1606 | 17 May | Conservative boyars led by Vasili Shuisky stormed the Kremlin and shot False Dmitriy to death during his escape. |
| 1606 | 19 May | Shuisky's allies declared him Tsar Vasili IV. |
| 1607 | | False Dmitriy II, another claimant to the identity of Dmitriy Ivanovich, obtained financial and military support from a group of Polish magnates |
| 1609 | 28 February | Vasili Shuisky ceded border territory to Sweden in exchange for military aid against the government of False Dmitriy II; around this time Smolensk got besieged |
| 1609 | September | Polish–Muscovite War (1609–1618): The Polish king Sigismund III led an army into Russia; |
| 1610 | 4 July | Battle of Klushino: Seven thousand Polish cavalrymen defeated a vastly superior Russian force at Klushino. |
| 1610 | 19 July | Vasili was overthrown. A group of nobles, the Seven Boyars, replaced him at the head of the government. |
| 1610 | 27 July | Polish–Russian War (1609–1618): A truce was established. The boyars promised to recognize Sigismund's son and heir Władysław as tsar, conditional on severe limits to his power and his conversion to Orthodoxy. |
| 1610 | August | Polish–Russian War (1609–1618): Sigismund rejected the boyars' conditions. |
| 1610 | December | Hermogenes, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, urged the Muscovite people to rise against the Poles. |
| 1610 | 11 December | False Dmitriy II was shot and beheaded by one of his entourage. |
| 1612 | 1 November | Polish–Russian War (1609–1618): Muscovite populace rising against the Poles recaptured the Kremlin. |
| 1613 | | Ingrian War: Sweden invaded Russia. |
| 1613 | 21 February | A zemsky sobor elected Michael Romanov, a grandson of Ivan the Terrible's brother-in-law, the tsar of Russia. |
| 1617 | 27 February | Ingrian War: The Treaty of Stolbovo ended the war. Kexholm, Ingria, Estonia and Livonia went to Sweden. |
| 1618 | 11 December | Polish–Russian War (1609–1618): The Truce of Deulino ended the war. Russia ceded the city of Smolensk and the Czernihów Voivodeship to Poland. |
| 1619 | 13 February | Feodor Romanov, Michael's father, was released from Polish prison and allowed to return to Moscow. |
| 1632 | October | Smolensk War: With the expiration of the Truce of Deulino, a Russian army was sent to lay siege to Smolensk. |
| 1634 | 1 March | Smolensk War: The Russian army, surrounded, was forced to surrender. |
| 1634 | 14 June | Smolensk War: The Treaty of Polyanovka was signed, ending the war. Poland retained Smolensk, but Władysław renounced his claim to the Russian throne. |
| 1645 | 13 July | Michael died. His son, Alexis, succeeded him. |
| 1648 | 25 January | Khmelnytsky Uprising: A Polish szlachta, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, leads the Cossacks of the Zaporizhian Sich against the Polish Crown. |
| 1648 | 1 June | Salt Riot: Upset over the introduction of a salt tax, the townspeople launched a rebellion in Moscow. |
| 1648 | 11 June | Salt Riot: A group of nobles demanded a zemsky sobor on behalf of the rebellion. |
| 1648 | 3 July | Salt Riot: Many of the rebellion's leaders were executed. |
| 1648 | 25 December | Khmelnytsky Uprising: Khmelnytsky entered the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. |
| 1649 | January | A zemsky sobor ratified a new legal code, the Sobornoye Ulozheniye. |
| 1653 | | Raskol: Nikon, the Patriarch of Moscow, reformed Russian liturgy to align with the rituals of the Greek Church. |
| 1654 | January | Khmelnytsky Uprising: Under the Treaty of Pereyaslav, Left-bank Ukraine, the territory of the Zaporozhian Host, allies itself with Russia. |
| 1654 | March–April | Raskol: Nikon arranges a church council, which decides to correct Russian divine service books using ancient Greek and Slavic manuscripts. |
| 1654 | July | Russo-Polish War (1654–1667): The Russian army invaded Poland. |
| 1655 | | Swedish Deluge: Sweden invaded the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. |
| 1655 | 3 July | Russo-Polish War (1654–1667): Russian army captured Vilnius. |
| 1655 | 25 July | Swedish Deluge: The voivode of Poznań surrendered to the Swedish invaders. |
| 1655 | 2 November | Russia negotiated a ceasefire with Poland. |
| 1656 | July | Russo-Swedish War (1656–1658): Russian reserves invaded Ingria. |
| 1658 | 26 February | Dano-Swedish War (1657–1658): The Treaty of Roskilde ended Sweden's war with Denmark, allowing her to shift her troops to the eastern conflicts. |
| 1658 | 10 July | Raskol: Patriarch Nikon leaves Moscow. |
| 1658 | 16 September | Russo-Polish War (1654–1667): The Treaty of Hadiach established a military alliance between Poland and the Zaporozhian Host, and promised the creation of a Commonwealth of three nations: Poland, Lithuania and Rus'. |
| 1658 | 28 December | Russo-Swedish War (1656–1658): The Treaty of Valiesar established a peace. The conquered Ingrian territories were ceded to Russia for three years. |
| 1660 | 23 April | Swedish Deluge: The Treaty of Oliva ended the conflict between Poland and Sweden. |
| 1661 | | Russo-Polish War (1654–1667): Polish forces recaptured Vilnius. |
| 1661 | 1 July | The Treaty of Valiesar expired. Russia returned Ingria to the Swedish Empire by the Treaty of Cardis. |
| 1662 | 25 July | Copper Riot: In the early morning, a group of Muscovites marched to Kolomenskoye and demanded punishment for the government ministers who had debased Russia's copper currency. On their arrival, they were countered by the military; a thousand were hanged or drowned. The rest were exiled. |
| 1665 | | Lubomirski's Rokosz: A Polish nobleman launched a rokosz (rebellion) against the king. |
| 1665 | | The pro-Turkish Cossack noble Petro Doroshenko defeated his pro-Russian adversaries in the Right-bank Ukraine. |
| 1666 | April–May | Raskol: Great Moscow Synod deposed Nikon from the patriarchy. The Old Believers were anathematized. |
| 1667 | 30 January | Russo-Polish War (1654–1667): The Treaty of Andrusovo ended the war between Poland and Russia without Cossack representation. Poland agreed to cede the Smoleńsk and Czernihów Voivodships and acknowledged Russian control over the Left-bank Ukraine. |
| 1669 | | Doroshenko signed a treaty that recognized his state as a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. |
| 1670 | | The Cossack Stenka Razin began a rebellion against the Russian government. |
| 1671 | | Razin was captured, tortured, and quartered in Red Square on the Lobnoye Mesto. |
| 1674 | | The Cossacks of the Right-bank Ukraine elected the pro-Russian Ivan Samoylovych, Hetman of the Left-bank Ukraine, to replace Doroshenko and become the Hetman of a unified Ukraine. |
| 1676 | | Russo-Turkish War (1676–1681): The Ottoman army joined Doroshenko's forces in an attack on the Left-bank city of Chyhyryn. |
| 1676 | 29 January | Alexis died. His son Feodor III became tsar. |
| 1676 | 1 February | Raskol: The 8-year-long siege of Solovki ended. |
| 1680 | | Russo-Crimean Wars: The Crimean invasions of Russia ended. |
| 1681 | 3 January | Russo-Turkish War (1676–1681): The war ended with the Treaty of Bakhchisarai. The Russo-Turkish border was settled at the Dnieper River. |
| 1682 | January | Feodor III abolished the mestnichestvo, an ancient, un-meritocratic system of making political appointments. |
| 1682 | 14 April | Raskol: Avvakum, the most prominent leader of the Old Believer movement, was burned at the stake. |
| 1682 | 27 April | Feodor died with no children. Peter I, Alexis's son by his second wife Natalia Naryshkina, was declared tsar. His mother became regent. |
| 1682 | 17 May | Moscow Uprising of 1682: Streltsy regiments belonging to the faction of Alexis's first wife, Maria Miloslavskaya, took over the Kremlin, executed Naryshkina's brothers, and declared Miloslavskaya's invalid son Ivan V the "senior tsar," with Peter remaining on the throne as the junior. Miloslavskaya's oldest daughter Sophia Alekseyevna became regent. |
| 1687 | May | Crimean campaigns: Russian army launched an invasion against an Ottoman vassal, the Crimean Khanate. |
| 1687 | 17 June | Crimean campaigns: Faced with a burned steppe incapable of feeding their horses, Russians turned back. |
| 1689 | June | Fyodor Shaklovity, the head of the Streltsy Department, persuaded Sophia to proclaim herself tsarina and attempted to ignite a new rebellion in her support. The streltsy instead defected in support of Peter. |
| 1689 | 11 October | Shaklovity was executed. |
| 1696 | 29 January | Ivan V died. |
| 1696 | 23 April | Second Azov campaign: Russian army began its deployment to an important Ottoman fortress, Azov. |
| 1696 | 27 May | Second Azov campaign: Russian navy arrived at the sea and blockaded Azov. |
| 1696 | 19 July | Second Azov campaign: The Ottoman garrison surrendered. |
| 1698 | 6 June | Streltsy Uprising: Approximately four thousand streltsy overthrew their commanders and headed to Moscow, where they meant to demand the enthroning of the exiled Sophia Alekseyevna. |
| 1698 | 18 June | Streltsy Uprising: The rebels were defeated. |
| 1700 | 19 August | Great Northern War: Russia declared war on Sweden. |
| 1700 | 16 October | Adrian, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, died. Peter prevented the election of a successor. |

## 18th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1703 | 27 May | Foundation of Saint Petersburg. |
| 1707 | 8 October | Bulavin Rebellion: A small band of Don Cossacks killed a noble searching their territory for tax fugitives. |
| 1708 | 7 July | Bulavin Rebellion: After a series of devastating military reversals, Bulavin was shot by his former followers. |
| 1708 | 18 December | An imperial decree divided Russia into eight guberniyas (governorates). |
| 1709 | 28 June | Battle of Poltava: A decisive Russian military victory over the Swedes at Poltava marked the turning point of the war, the end of Cossack independence and the dawn of the Russian Empire. |
| 1710 | 14 October | The Russian guberniyas were divided into lots according to noble population. |
| 1710 | 20 November | Russo-Turkish War (1710–1711): Charles XII of Sweden persuaded the Ottoman sultan to declare war on Russia. |
| 1711 | 22 February | Government reform of Peter I: Peter established the Governing Senate to pass laws in his absence. |
| 1711 | 21 July | Russo-Turkish War (1710–1711): Peace was concluded with the Treaty of the Pruth. Russia returned Azov to the Ottoman Empire and demolished the town of Taganrog. |
| 1713 | 8 May | The Russian capital was moved from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. |
| 1713 | 17 July | The Riga Governorate was established on the conquered territory of Livonia. |
| 1713 | 17 July | The territory of the Smolensk Governorate was divided between the Moscow and Riga Governorates. |
| 1714 | 15 January | The northwestern territory of the Kazan Governorate was transferred to the newly established Nizhny Novgorod Governorate. |
| 1715 | 11 October | Peter demanded that his son, the tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, endorse his reforms or renounce his right to the throne. |
| 1716 | | Alexei fled to Vienna to avoid military service. |
| 1717 | 22 November | The Astrakhan Governorate was formed on the southern lands of Kazan Governorate. |
| 1717 | 22 November | The territory of the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate was reincorporated into the Kazan Governorate. |
| 1717 | 12 December | Government reform of Peter I: Peter established collegia, government ministries that superseded the prikazy. |
| 1718 | 31 January | Alexei returned to Moscow under a promise he would not be harmed. |
| 1718 | 18 February | After torture, Alexei publicly renounced the throne and implicated a number of reactionaries in a conspiracy to overthrow his father. |
| 1718 | 13 June | Alexei was put on trial for treason. |
| 1718 | 26 June | Alexei died after torture in the Peter and Paul Fortress. |
| 1719 | 29 May | Lots were abolished; the guberniyas were divided instead into provinces, each governed and taxed under a preexisting elected office (the Voyevoda). Provinces were further divided into districts, replacing the old uyezds. The district commissars were to be elected by local gentry. |
| 1719 | 29 May | The Nizhny Novgorod Governorate was reestablished. |
| 1719 | 29 May | The Reval Governorate was established on the conquered territory of Estonia. |
| 1721 | 25 January | Peter established the Holy Synod, a body of ten clergymen chaired by a secular official, that was to head the Russian Orthodox Church in lieu of the Patriarch of Moscow. |
| 1721 | 30 August | Great Northern War: The Treaty of Nystad ended the war. Sweden ceded Estonia, Livonia and Ingria to Russia. |
| 1721 | 22 October | Peter was declared Emperor. |
| 1722 | | Peter introduced the Table of Ranks, which granted the privileges of nobility based on state service. |
| 1722 | July | Russo-Persian War (1722–1723): A Russian military expedition sailed in support of the independence of two Christian kingdoms, Kartli and Armenia. |
| 1723 | 12 September | Russo-Persian War (1722–1723): The Persian shah signed a peace treaty ceding the cities of Derbent and Baku and the provinces of Shirvan, Guilan, Mazandaran and Astrabad to the Russian Empire. |
| 1725 | 28 January | Peter died of urinary problems. He failed to name a successor; one of Peter's closest advisers, Aleksandr Menshikov, convinced the Imperial Guard to declare in favor of Peter's wife Catherine I. |
| 1726 | | The Smolensk Governorate was reestablished. |
| 1726 | 8 February | Catherine established an advisory body, the Supreme Privy Council. |
| 1727 | | Catherine established the Belgorod and Novgorod Governorates and adjusted the borders of several others. Districts were abolished; uyezds were reestablished. |
| 1727 | 17 May | Catherine died. |
| 1727 | 18 May | According to Catherine's wishes the eleven-year-old Peter II, the son of Alexei Petrovich and grandson of Peter the Great, became emperor. The Supreme Privy Council was to hold power during his minority. |
| 1727 | 9 September | The conservative members of the Supreme Privy Council expelled its most powerful member, the liberal Menshikov. |
| 1730 | 30 January | Peter died of smallpox. |
| 1730 | 1 February | The Supreme Privy Council offered the throne to Anna Ivanovna, the daughter of Ivan V, on the conditions that the Council retain the powers of war and peace and taxation, among others, and that she never marry or appoint an heir. |
| 1730 | 4 March | Anna tore up the terms of her accession and dissolved the Supreme Privy Council. |
| 1736 | 20 May | Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739): The Russian army captured the Ottoman fortifications at Perekop. |
| 1736 | 19 June | Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739): The Russians captured Azov. |
| 1737 | July | Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739): Austria joined the war on the Russian side. |
| 1739 | 21 August | Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739): Austria agreed by the Treaty of Belgrade to end its participation in the war. |
| 1739 | 18 September | Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739): The Treaty of Nissa ended the war. Russia gave up its claims on Crimea and Moldavia and its navy was barred from the Black Sea. |
| 1740 | 17 October | Anna died of kidney disease. She left the throne to her adopted infant son, Ivan VI. |
| 1740 | 18 October | Anna's lover, Ernst Johann von Biron, was declared regent. |
| 1740 | 8 November | Biron was arrested on the orders of his rival, the Count Burkhard Christoph von Munnich. Ivan's biological mother, Anna Leopoldovna, replaced Biron as regent. |
| 1741 | 8 August | Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743): Sweden declared war on Russia. |
| 1741 | 25 November | Elizabeth, the youngest daughter of Peter the Great, led the Preobrazhensky regiment to the Winter Palace to overthrow the regency of Anna Leopoldovna and install herself as empress. |
| 1741 | 2 December | Ivan was imprisoned in the Daugavgriva fortress. |
| 1742 | 4 September | Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743): Encircled by the Russians at Helsinki, the Swedish army surrendered. |
| 1743 | 7 August | Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743): The Treaty of Åbo was signed, ending the war. Russia relinquished most of the conquered territory, keeping only the lands east of the Kymi River. In exchange Adolf Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp, the uncle of the Russian heir to the throne, was to become King of Sweden. |
| 1744 | | The Vyborg Governorate was established on conquered Swedish territories. |
| 1755 | | Mikhail Lomonosov and Count Ivan Shuvalov founded the University of Moscow. |
| 1756 | 29 August | Seven Years' War: The Kingdom of Prussia invaded the Austrian protectorate of Saxony. |
| 1757 | 1 May | Diplomatic Revolution: Under the Second Treaty of Versailles, Russia joined the Franco-Austrian military alliance. |
| 1757 | 17 May | Seven Years' War: Russian troops entered the war. |
| 1761 | 25 December | Miracle of the House of Brandenburg: Elizabeth died. Her nephew, Peter III, became emperor. |
| 1762 | 5 May | Seven Years' War: The Treaty of Saint Petersburg ended Russian participation in the war at no territorial gain. |
| 1762 | 17 July | Peter was overthrown by the Imperial Guard and replaced with his wife, Catherine II, The Great, on her orders. |
| 1764 | 5 July | A group of soldiers attempted to release the imprisoned Ivan VI; he was murdered. |
| 1767 | 10 August | The Instruction of Catherine the Great is issued to the Legislative Commission. |
| 1767 | 13 October | Repnin Sejm: Four Polish senators who opposed the policies of the Russian ambassador Nicholas Repnin were arrested by Russian troops and imprisoned in Kaluga. |
| 1768 | 27 February | Repnin Sejm: Delegates of the Sejm adopted a treaty ensuring future Russian influence in Polish internal politics. |
| 1768 | 29 February | Polish nobles established the Bar Confederation in order to end Russian influence in their country. |
| 1768 | 25 September | Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774): The Ottoman sultan declared war on Russia. |
| 1771 | 15 September | Plague Riot: A crowd of rioters entered Red Square, broke into the Kremlin and destroyed the Chudov Monastery. |
| 1771 | 17 September | Plague Riot: The army suppressed the riot. |
| 1772 | 5 August | The first partition of Poland was announced. Poland lost 30% of its territory, which was divided between Prussia, Austria, and Russia. |
| 1773 | | Pugachev's Rebellion: The army of the Cossack Yemelyan Pugachev attacked and occupied Samara. |
| 1773 | 18 September | A confederated sejm was forced to ratify the first partition of Poland. |
| 1774 | 21 July | Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774): The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca was signed. The portion of the Yedisan region east of the Southern Bug river, the Kabarda region in the Caucasus, and several Crimean ports, went to Russia. The Crimean Khanate received independence from the Ottoman Empire, which also declared Russia the protector of Christians on its territory. |
| 1774 | 14 September | Pugachev's Rebellion: Upset with the rebellion's bleak outlook, Pugachev's officers delivered him to the Russians. |
| 1783 | 8 April | The Crimean Khanate was incorporated into the Russian Empire. |
| 1783 | 24 July | Threatened by the Persian and Ottoman Empires, the kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti signed the Treaty of Georgievsk under which it became a Russian protectorate. |
| 1788 | | Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792): The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia and imprisoned her ambassador. |
| 1788 | 27 June | Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790): The Swedish army playacted a skirmish between themselves and the Russians. |
| 1788 | 6 July | Battle of Hogland: The Russian navy dispersed a Swedish invasion fleet near Hogland in the Gulf of Finland. |
| 1788 | 6 October | Great Sejm: A confederated sejm was called to restore the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. |
| 1790 | 14 August | Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790): The Treaty of Värälä ended the war, with no changes in territory. |
| 1791 | 3 May | Great Sejm: Poland's Constitution of 3 May was ratified in secret. The new constitution abolished the liberum veto, reducing the power of the nobles and limiting Russia's ability to influence Polish internal politics. |
| 1791 | 23 December | Catherine established the Pale of Settlement, an area in European Russia into which Russian Jews were transported. |
| 1792 | 9 January | Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792): The Treaty of Jassy was signed, ending the war. The Russian border in Yedisan was extended to the Dniester river. |
| 1792 | 18 May | Polish–Russian War of 1792: The army of the Targowica Confederation, which opposed the liberal Polish Constitution of 3 May, invaded Poland. |
| 1793 | 23 January | Polish–Russian War of 1792: The second partition of Poland left the country with one-third of its 1772 population. |
| 1793 | 23 November | Grodno Sejm: The last sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ratified the second partition. |
| 1794 | 24 March | Kościuszko Uprising: An announcement by Tadeusz Kościuszko sparked a nationalist uprising in Poland. |
| 1794 | 4 November | Battle of Praga: Russian troops captured the Praga borough of Warsaw and massacred its civilian population. |
| 1794 | 5 November | Kościuszko Uprising: The uprising ended with the Russian occupation of Warsaw. |
| 1795 | 11 September | Battle of Krtsanisi: The Persian army demolished the armed forces of Kartl-Kakheti. |
| 1795 | 24 October | The third partition of Poland divided up the remainder of its territory. |
| 1796 | April | Persian Expedition of 1796: Catherine launched a military expedition to punish Persia for its incursion into the Russian protectorate of Kartl-Kakheti. |
| 1796 | 5 November | Catherine suffered a stroke in the bathtub. |
| 1796 | 6 November | Catherine died. The throne fell to her son, Paul I. |

## 19th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1801 | 8 January | Paul authorized the incorporation of Kartl-Kakheti into the Russian empire. |
| 1801 | 11 March | Paul was killed in his bed. |
| 1801 | 23 March | Paul's son, Alexander I, ascended to the throne. |
| 1802 | September | Alexander established the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). |
| 1804 | | Russo-Persian War (1804–1813): Russian forces attacked the Persian settlement of Üçkilise. |
| 1805 | | The Ottoman Empire dismissed the pro-Russian hospodars of its vassal states, Wallachia and Moldavia. |
| 1805 | 26 December | War of the Third Coalition: The Treaty of Pressburg ceded Austrian possessions in Dalmatia to France. |
| 1806 | October | To counter the French presence in Dalmatia, Russia invaded Wallachia and Moldavia. |
| 1806 | 27 December | Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812): The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia. |
| 1807 | 14 June | Battle of Friedland: The Russian army suffered a defeat against the French, suffering twenty thousand dead. |
| 1807 | 7 July | The Treaty of Tilsit was signed. Alexander agreed to evacuate Wallachia and Moldavia and ceded the Ionian Islands and Cattaro to the French. The treaty ended Russia's conflict with France; Napoleon promised to aid Russia in conflicts with the Ottoman Empire. |
| 1807 | 16 November | Alexander demanded that Sweden close the Baltic Sea to British warships. |
| 1808 | 21 February | Finnish War: Russian troops crossed the Swedish border and captured Hämeenlinna. |
| 1809 | 29 March | Diet of Porvoo: The four Estates of Finland swore allegiance to the Russian crown. |
| 1809 | 17 September | Finnish War: The Treaty of Fredrikshamn was signed, ending the war and ceding Finland to the Russian Empire. |
| 1810 | | The first military settlement was established near Klimovichi. |
| 1810 | 1 January | Alexander established the State Council, which received the executive powers of the Governing Senate. |
| 1810 | 20 February | The Russian government proclaimed the deposition of Solomon II from the throne of Imereti. |
| 1811 | 27 March | Regional military companies were merged into the Internal Guard. |
| 1812 | 28 May | Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812): The Treaty of Bucharest ended the war and transferred Bessarabia to Russia. |
| 1812 | 24 June | French invasion of Russia (1812): The French army crossed the Neman River into Russia. |
| 1812 | 14 September | French invasion of Russia (1812): The French army entered a deserted Moscow, the high-water mark of their invasion. |
| 1812 | 14 December | French invasion of Russia (1812): The last French troops were forced off of Russian territory. |
| 1813 | 24 October | Russo-Persian War (1804–1813): According to the Treaty of Gulistan, the Persian Empire ceded its Transcaucasian territories to Russia. |
| 1815 | 9 June | Congress of Vienna: The territory of the Duchy of Warsaw was divided between Prussia, Russia, and three newly established states: the Grand Duchy of Posen, the Free City of Kraków and Congress Poland. The latter was a constitutional monarchy with Alexander as its king. |
| 1825 | 19 November | Alexander died of typhus. The army swore allegiance to his oldest brother, the Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich. Constantine, however, following Alexander's choice of successor, swore allegiance to his younger brother, Nicholas I. |
| 1825 | 12 December | Under pressure from Constantine, Nicholas published Alexander's succession manifesto. |
| 1825 | 14 December | Decembrist revolt: Three thousand soldiers gathered at the Senate Square in Saint Petersburg, and declared their loyalty to Constantine and to the idea of a Russian constitution. When talk failed, the tsarist army dispersed the demonstrators with artillery, killing at least sixty. |
| 1826 | | An imperial decree established the Second Section of His Majesty's Own Chancery, concerned with codifying and publishing the law, and the Third Section, which operated as the Empire's secret police. |
| 1826 | July | Nicholas established the office of Chief of Gendarmes, in charge of the Gendarmerie units of the Internal Guard. |
| 1826 | 16 July | Russo-Persian War (1826–1828): The Persian army invaded the Russian-owned Talysh Khanate. |
| 1828 | 21 February | Russo-Persian War (1826–1828) Facing the possibility of a Russian conquest of Tehran, Persia signed the Treaty of Turkmenchay. |
| 1828 | May | The Russian army occupied Wallachia. |
| 1828 | June | Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829): The Russian armed forces crossed into Dobruja, an Ottoman territory. |
| 1829 | 14 September | Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829): The Treaty of Adrianople was signed, ceding the eastern shore of the Black Sea and the mouth of the Danube to the Russians. |
| 1830 | 29 November | November Uprising: A group of Polish nationalists attacked Belweder Palace, the seat of the Governor-General. |
| 1831 | 25 January | November Uprising: An act of the Sejm dethroned Nicholas from the Polish crown. |
| 1831 | 29 January | November Uprising: A new government took office in Poland. |
| 1831 | 4 February | November Uprising: Russian troops crossed the Polish border. |
| 1831 | September | Battle of Warsaw (1831): The Russian army captured Warsaw, ending the November Uprising. |
| 1836 | | The Gendarmerie of the Internal Guard was spun off as the Special Corps of Gendarmes. |
| 1852 | December | The Ottoman sultan confirmed the supremacy of France and the Catholic Church over Christians in the Holy Land. |
| 1853 | 3 July | Russia invaded the Ottoman provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia. |
| 1853 | 4 October | Crimean War: The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia. |
| 1854 | 28 March | Crimean War: Britain and France declared war on Russia. |
| 1854 | August | Crimean War: In order to prevent the Austrian Empire entering the war, Russia evacuated Wallachia and Moldavia. |
| 1855 | 18 February | Nicholas died. His son, Alexander II, became emperor. |
| 1856 | 30 March | Crimean War: The Treaty of Paris was signed, officially ending the war. The Black Sea was demilitarized. Russia lost territory it had been granted at the mouth of the Danube, abandoned claims to protect Turkish Christians, and lost its influence over the Danubian Principalities. |
| 1857 | | The last military settlements were disbanded. |
| 1858 | 28 May | The Treaty of Aigun was signed, pushing the Russo-Chinese border east to the Amur river; Tariff Act reduces import tax. |
| 1860 | 18 October | The Convention of Peking transferred the Ussuri krai from China to Russia. |
| 1861 | 3 March | Emancipation reform of 1861: Alexander issued a manifesto emancipating the serfs; Student Protests against the Tsar. |
| 1863 | 22 January | January Uprising: An anti-Imperial uprising began in Poland; girls allowed into secondary schools and standard curriculum set. |
| 1864 | 1 January | Zemstva were established for the local self-government of Russian citizens. |
| 1864 | 1 May | The Russian army began an incursion into the Khanate of Kokand. |
| 1864 | 21 May | Caucasian War: Alexander declared the war over. |
| 1864 | 5 August | January Uprising: Romuald Traugutt, the dictator of the rebellion, was hanged. |
| 1864 | 20 November | Judicial reform of Alexander II: A royal decree introduced new laws unifying and liberalizing the Russian judiciary. |
| 1865 | 17 June | The Russian army captured Tashkent |
| 1867 | | The conquered territories of Central Asia became a separate Guberniya, the Russian Turkestan. |
| 1867 | 30 March | Alaska Purchase: Russia agreed to the sale of Alaska to the United States of America. |
| 1868 | | The Khanate of Kokand became a Russian vassal state. |
| 1870 | | More vocational subjects taught to girls in schools |
| 1873 | | The Narodnik rebellion began. |
| 1873 | | The Emirate of Bukhara became a Russian protectorate. |
| 1873 | 18 May | Khiva was captured by Russian troops. |
| 1873 | 12 August | A peace treaty was signed that established the Khanate of Khiva as a quasi-independent Russian protectorate. |
| 1876 | March | The Khanate of Kokand was incorporated into the Russian Empire. |
| 1876 | 20 April | April Uprising: Bulgarian nationalists attacked the Ottoman police headquarters in Oborishte. |
| 1876 | May | Alexander signed the Ems Ukaz, banning the use of the Ukrainian language in print. |
| 1876 | 8 July | A secret treaty prepared for the division of the Balkans between Russia and Austria-Hungary, depending on the outcome of local revolutionary movements. |
| 1876 | 6 December | Kazan demonstration: A political demonstration in front of the Kazan Cathedral in Saint Petersburg marked the appearance of the revolutionary group Land and Liberty. |
| 1877 | February | The Trial of the 193 occurred, punishing the participants of the Narodnik rebellion. |
| 1877 | 24 April | Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878): Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire. |
| 1878 | 3 March | Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878): The Treaty of San Stefano was signed, concluding the war and transferring Northern Dobruja and some Caucasian territories into Russian hands. Several Slavic states, Montenegro, Serbia, Romania, and Bulgaria, received independence or autonomy. |
| 1878 | 13 July | Congress of Berlin: The Treaty of Berlin, imposed on Russia by the West, divided Bulgaria into Eastern Rumelia and the Principality of Bulgaria. |
| 1879 | August | Land and Liberty split into the moderate Black Repartition and the radical terrorist group People's Will. |
| 1880 | 6 August | The Special Corps of Gendarmes and the Third Section were disbanded; their functions and most capable officers were transferred to the new Department of State Police under the MVD. |
| 1881 | | Constitution proposed, Alexander II agrees to it but doesn't get a chance to sign it |
| 1881 | 10 March | Alexander II was assassinated by Ignacy Hryniewiecki of the People's Will. His son, Alexander III, becomes emperor. |
| 1881 | 21 September | Persia officially recognized Russia's annexation of Khwarazm in the Treaty of Akhal. |
| 1882 | | Alexander III introduces factory inspections and restricts working hours for women and children |
| | 3 May | Alexander III introduced the May Laws, which expelled Russian Jews from rural areas and small towns and severely restricted their access to education |
| 1883 | | Peasant Land Bank set up |
| 1890 | 12 June | An imperial decree subordinated the zemstva to the authority of the appointed regional governors. |
| 1891 | | Severe famine affects almost half of Russia's provinces |
| 1892 | | Witte's Great Spurt increases industrial growth; women banned from mines and children under 12 banned from working in factories |
| 1894 | 1 November | Alexander III dies. His son Nicholas II succeeds him as emperor. |
| 1898 | 1 March | The Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) held its first Party Congress. |
| 1900 | 16 July onward | In response to a local trade blockade, Russia invades and occupies the Sixty-Four Villages East of the Heilongjiang River. All 30,000 Qing dynasty citizens are expelled from their homes and driven across the Amur River, where most drown. |
| 1900 | 6 February | As part of the Russification of Finland, Nicholas issues the Language Manifesto of 1900, making Russian the official language of Finnish administration. |

## 20th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1901 | 30 June | Russification of Finland: The Military Service Act incorporated the Finnish and Russian armies. |
| 1902 | | Russification of Finland: Nikolay Bobrikov, the Governor-General of Finland, was given the power to dismiss opponents of Russification from the Finnish government. |
| 1902 | January | The Socialist Revolutionary Party was founded. |
| 1903 | 20 March | Russification of Finland: The office of the Governor-General was given dictatorial powers. |
| 1903 | 6 April | Kishinev pogrom: A three-day pogrom began, which would leave forty-seven Jews dead. |
| 1903 | 17 November | At the second congress of the RSDLP, the party split into two factions: the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, and the less radical Mensheviks. |
| 1904 | 8 February | Russo-Japanese War: Japan launched a surprise torpedo attack on the Russian navy at Port Arthur. |
| 1905 | 3 January | Russian Revolution of 1905: A strike began at the Putilov Works in St. Petersburg. |
| 1905 | 9 January | Bloody Sunday (1905): Peaceful demonstrators arrived at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg to present a petition to the emperor, leading was a priest named Georgi Gapon. The Imperial Guard fired on the crowd, killing around 200 and wounding 800. |
| 1905 | 27–28 May | Russo-Japanese War: The Russian Baltic Fleet was practically destroyed in the Battle of Tsushima, effectively ending the Russo-Japanese War in Japan's favour. |
| 1905 | 28 May | Russian Revolution of 1905: The first soviet was formed in the midst of a textile strike in Ivanovo-Voznesensk. |
| 1905 | 14 June | Russian Revolution of 1905: A mutiny occurred aboard the battleship Potemkin. |
| 1905 | 25 June | Russian Revolution of 1905: The Potemkin sailors defected to Romania. |
| 1905 | 5 September | Russo-Japanese War: The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed, ceding some Russian property and territory to Japan and ending the war. |
| 1905 | 17 October | Russian Revolution of 1905: Nicholas signed the October Manifesto, expanding civil liberties and establishing and empowering the first State Duma of the Russian Empire. |
| 1906 | March | 1906 Russian legislative election: The first free elections to the Duma gave majorities to liberal and socialist parties. |
| 1906 | 23 April | The Fundamental Laws were issued, reaffirming the autocratic supremacy of the emperor. |
| 1906 | 23 April | The First Duma was called. |
| 1906 | 21 July | The First Duma was dissolved. |
| 1906 | 23 July | The Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets) issued the Vyborg Manifesto, calling on the Russian people to evade taxes and the draft. All signatories to the Manifesto lost their right to hold office in the Duma. |
| 1906 | 9 November | A decree by Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin signaled the start of the Stolypin reform, intended to replace the obshchina with a more progressive, capitalist form of agriculture. |
| 1907 | 9 February | The secret police units of the MVD Department of State Police were unified under the authority of the new Okhrana. |
| 1907 | 20 February | The Second Duma began. The Kadets dropped seats, benefiting the RSDLP and the Socialist Revolutionary Party. |
| 1907 | 3 June | The Second Duma was dissolved. |
| 1907 | 3 June | Nicholas changed the electoral law and gave greater electoral value to the votes of nobility and landowners. |
| 1907 | 1 November | The Third Duma began. |
| 1912 | 4 April | Lena massacre: The Russian army fired on a crowd of striking miners, killing 150. |
| 1912 | 9 June | The Third Duma ended. |
| 1912 | 15 November | The Fourth Duma was called. |
| 1914 | 28 June | Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand: Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip of the Bosnian separatist group Young Bosnia. |
| 1914 | 23 July | World War I: Austria-Hungary issued the July Ultimatum to Serbia, demanding, among other things, the right to participate in the investigation into the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, which Serbia refused. |
| 1914 | 28 July | World War I: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. |
| 1914 | 30 July | World War I: Russia mobilized its army to defend Serbia. |
| 1914 | 1 August | World War I: Germany declared war on Russia in defense of Austria-Hungary. |
| 1915 | 2 May | Gorlice–Tarnów offensive: The German army launched an offensive across the length of the Eastern Front. |
| 1915 | 4 August | Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive: Germany conquered Warsaw. |
| 1915 | 19 September | Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive: German forces captured Vilnius. |
| 1916 | 25 June | Basmachi Revolt: Nicholas issued a decree ordering the conscription of Central Asians. |
| 1916 | 5 November | By the Act of 5th November, the German government established the nominally independent Kingdom of Poland. |
| 1916 | 16 December | Royal adviser Grigori Rasputin was murdered by a group of nobles in the house of Prince Felix Yusupov. |
| 1917 | 22–23 February | February Revolution: The workers at the Putilov Plant in Petrograd went on strike, demanding the end of the Russian autocracy and the end of Russian participation in World War I. |
| 1917 | 25 February | February Revolution: A battalion of soldiers was sent to Petrograd to end the uprising. |
| 1917 | 26 February | February Revolution: Nicholas ordered the dissolution of the Fourth Duma. The Duma ignored his order and decreed the establishment of a Provisional Government with Georgy Lvov as Prime Minister. |
| 1917 | 27 February | February Revolution: The soldiers sent to suppress the protestors defected and joined them. It started off as the "National Women's day" then, after two days, the women convinced the soldiers to join their revolution due to the fact that they were women and the soldiers did not want to kill them. On top of this, the Cossacks did not try to stop the protestors. Menshevik leaders were freed from the Peter and Paul Fortress and founded the Petrograd Soviet. |
| 1917 | 2 March | February Revolution: Nicholas abdicated. |
| 1917 | 17 March | A legislative council, the Central Rada, was founded in Ukraine. |
| 1917 | 30 March | The Provisional Government established the autonomous province of Estonia and scheduled elections to an Estonian legislative body, the Maapäev. |
| 1917 | 3 April | Communist leader Vladimir Lenin returns to Petrograd after a 10-year exile from Russia and begins to rebuild his power as leader of the Bolsheviks. |
| 1917 | 10 May | The Rumcherod, the Soviet government of southwestern Ukraine]and Bessarabia, was established. |
| 1917 | 23 June | The Central Rada ratified Ukrainian autonomy. |
| 1917 | 3 July | July Days: A spontaneous pro-soviet demonstration occurred on the streets of Petrograd. |
| 1917 | 6 July | July Days: The rebellion was put down. The Provisional Government ordered the arrest of Bolshevik leaders. |
| 1917 | 14 July | The Maapäev took office. |
| 1917 | 21 July | Alexander Kerensky succeeded Lvov as Prime Minister. |
| 1917 | 27 August | Kornilov Affair: General Lavr Kornilov ordered an army corps to Petrograd to destroy the soviets. |
| 1917 | 29 August | Kornilov Affair: The Provisional Government armed tens of thousands of Red Guards to defend Petrograd. |
| 1917 | 31 August | Kornilov Affair: Kornilov was arrested. |
| 1917 | 4 September | Under public pressure, Bolshevik leaders were released from prison. |
| 1917 | 23 October | Estonian Bolsheviks under Jaan Anvelt captured the capital, Tallinn. |
| 1917 | 25 October | October Revolution: Soldiers directed by the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet captured the Winter Palace, ending the power of the Russian Provisional Government. |
| 1917 | 25 October | The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets convened. Menshevik and moderate SR representatives walked out to protest the October Revolution. The Congress established and elected the Sovnarkom, and Lenin its first chairman, to run the country between sessions. |
| 1917 | 26 October | The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets issued the Decree on Peace, promising an end to Russian participation in World War I, and the Decree on Land, approving the expropriation of land from the nobility. |
| 1917 | 21 November | The Moldavian legislature, the Sfatul Țării, held its first meeting. |
| 1917 | 5 December | A local nationalist group, the Alash Orda, established an autonomous government in Kazakhstan. |
| 1917 | 6 December | The Finnish parliament issued a declaration of independence. |
| 1917 | 7 December | The Cheka was established. |
| 1917 | 12 December | A Muslim republic, the Idel-Ural State, was established in central Russia. |
| 1917 | 25 December | Ukrainian Bolsheviks established the Soviet Ukrainian Republic in Kharkiv. |
| 1917 | 27 December | Russian Civil War: The counterrevolutionary Volunteer Army was established. |
| 1918 | 12 January | The Tsentralna Rada declared the independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic. |
| 1918 | 14 January | The Rumcherod declared itself the supreme power in Bessarabia. |
| 1918 | 15 January | A decree of the Sovnarkom established the Red Army. |
| 1918 | 16 January | The Romanian army occupied Kishinev and evicted the Rumcherod. |
| 1918 | 24 January | The Moldavian Democratic Republic declared its independence from Russia. |
| 1918 | 28 January | The Transcaucasian parliament held its first meeting. |
| 1918 | 18 February | The Red Army conquered Kiev. |
| 1918 | 23 February | Mass conscription to the Red Army began in Moscow and Petrograd. |
| 1918 | 24 February | The Red Army retreated from Estonia in the face of the German armed forces. |
| 1918 | 3 March | Soviet Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, ending its participation in World War I, relinquishing Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine, and ceding to the Ottoman Empire all territory captured in the Russo-Turkish War. |
| 1918 | 6 March | Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War: Two hundred British marines arrived at Murmansk. |
| 1918 | 25 March | The Belarusian Democratic Republic was established by the Second Constituent Charter. |
| 1918 | April | The Idel-Ural State was occupied and dissolved by the Red Army. |
| 1918 | 30 April | The Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) was established on the territory of the defunct Russian Turkestan. |
| 1918 | 26 May | Russian Civil War: The Czecho-Slovak Legions began its revolt against the Bolshevik government. |
| 1918 | 28 May | Armenia and Azerbaijan declared their mutual independence. |
| 1918 | 8 June | Russian Civil War: An anti-Bolshevik government, the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly, was established in Samara under the protection of the Czecho-Slovak Legions |
| 1918 | 28 June | A decree by the Central Executive Committee made war communism, under which all industry and food distribution was nationalized, the economic policy of the Soviet state. |
| 1918 | 29 June | Russian Civil War: The Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia was established in Vladivostok. |
| 1918 | July | The Idel-Ural State was restored by the Czecho-Slovak Legions. |
| 1918 | July | Nestor Makhno declared his opposition to the Hetmanate regime by some operations in the southeastern Ukraine. |
| 1918 | 10 July | The Russian Constitution of 1918 was adopted by the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets. The legislative power was transferred from the Sovnarkom to the Central Executive Committee, which also received the power to pass constitutional amendments. |
| 1918 | 17 July | Nicholas and the rest of the royal family were executed. |
| 1918 | 30 August | After giving a speech at a Moscow factory, Lenin was shot twice by SR Fanny Kaplan, but survived. |
| 1918 | 3 September | Red Terror: Izvestia called on the Russian people to "crush the hydra of counterrevolution with massive terror." |
| 1918 | 23 September | Russian Civil War: A meeting in Ufa established a unified anti-Bolshevik government, the Ufa Directory. |
| 1918 | November | Makhnovists established an anarchist society run by peasants and workers in Ukraine, in the territory of Berdiansk, Donetsk, Oleksandrivsk and Katerynoslav. |
| 1918 | 11 November | World War I: An armistice treaty was signed, ending the war. |
| 1918 | 17 November | Two Latvian political parties founded a provisional legislature, the People's Council of Latvia. |
| 1918 | 18 November | A military coup overthrew the Ufa Directorate and established its war minister, Aleksandr Kolchak, as dictator. |
| 1918 | 19 November | The Maapäev returned to power in Estonia. |
| 1918 | 22 November | Estonian War of Independence: The Russian Red Army invaded Estonia. |
| 1918 | 24 November | Béla Kun, a friend of Lenin, founded the Hungarian Communist Party. |
| 1918 | 29 November | Estonian War of Independence: The Red Army captured the Estonian town of Narva. Local Bolsheviks reestablished the Anvelt government as the Commune of the Working People of Estonia. |
| 1918 | December | The Idel-Ural State was again occupied and dissolved by the Red Army. |
| 1918 | 8 December | The Communist Party of Lithuania established a revolutionary government in Vilnius. |
| 1919 | 1 January | Local Bolsheviks established the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). |
| 1919 | 3 January | Latvian War of Independence: The Red Army invaded Latvia. |
| 1919 | 5 January | The Red Army occupied Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, in support of the local Communist government. |
| 1919 | 5 January | The Red Army captured Minsk and pronounced it the capital of the Byelorussian SSR. |
| 1919 | 16 January | The Orgburo was established to oversee the membership and organization of the Communist Party. |
| 1919 | 14 February | Polish–Soviet War: The Polish army attacked Soviet forces occupying the town of Biaroza. |
| 1919 | 27 February | Lithuania was absorbed into the Lithuanian-Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. |
| 1919 | 4 March | The First Congress of the Comintern began in Moscow. |
| 1919 | 4 March | The White Army launches a Spring Offensive against the Red Army. |
| 1919 | 21 March | Seeking a military alliance with Russia against the French, the Hungarian Social Democrats merged with the Communist Party, released Kun from prison and appointed him Commissar for Foreign Affairs. Kun dismissed the president and proclaimed the Hungarian Soviet Republic. |
| 1919 | 25 March | The Eighth Party Congress reinstituted the Politburo as the central governing body of the Communist Party. |
| 1919 | 16 April | The Romanian army invaded Hungary. |
| 1919 | 21 April | Polish–Soviet War: The Polish army consolidated its control of Vilnius. |
| 1919 | 28 April | The Red Army counteroffensive in the Eastern front begins. |
| 1919 | 29 April | The White Army Spring offensive ends. |
| 1919 | 30 May | An anti-communist Hungarian government headed by Gyula Károlyi was established in Szeged. |
| 1919 | 16 June | Hungarian occupiers established the Slovak Soviet Republic. |
| 1919 | July | The Red Army Counteroffensive ends. |
| 1919 | 7 July | The Czechoslovak army reoccupied its territory and dissolved the Slovak Soviet Republic. |
| 1919 | July | Red Army detachments numbering some 40,000 troops in Crimea mutinied and deposed their commanders; many set out to join the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine. |
| 1919 | 1 August | Threatened by the approach of the Romanian army, Kun fled to Austria. |
| 1919 | 14 August | The Romanian army left the Hungarian capital, Budapest. Admiral Miklós Horthy stepped into the power vacuum with the army of the Károlyi government. |
| 1919 | 25 August | Polish–Soviet War: After its total occupation by Polish forces, the Lithuanian-Byelorussian SSR was dissolved. |
| 1919 | 14 November | Great Siberian Ice March:Admiral Kolchak's Army starts retreating from Omsk to Chita |
| 1920 | 2 February | Estonian War of Independence: Soviet Russia signed the Treaty of Tartu, renouncing all claims on Estonian territory. |
| 1920 | 2 February | An insurgency in the Khanate of Khiva forced the abdication of the Khan. |
| 1920 | 7 February | Russian Civil War: Kolchak was executed by a Bolshevik military tribunal. |
| 1920 | February | The Makhnovshchina was inundated with Red Army troops, including the 42nd Rifle Division and the Latvian & Estonian Red Division – in total at least 20,000 soldiers. The Makhnovists disarmed the 10,000-strong Estonian Division in Huliaipole. |
| 1920 | 26 March | Russian Civil War: The Volunteer Army evacuated to the Crimea to join the army of Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel. |
| 1920 | 25 April | The Russian Eleventh Army invaded the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. |
| 1920 | 26 April | The Khorezm People's Soviet Republic was established on the territory of the defunct Khanate of Khiva. |
| 1920 | 28 April | With the Azerbaijani capital Baku under Eleventh Army occupation, the parliament agreed to transfer power to the communist government of the Azerbaijan SSR. |
| 1920 | 12 June | Soviet Russia recognized Lithuanian independence. |
| 1920 | 8 July | Polish–Soviet War: The Galician Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) was established in Ternopil. |
| 1920 | 11 August | Latvian War of Independence: The Treaty of Riga was signed. Soviet Russia renounced all claims on Latvian territory. |
| 1920 | 13 August | Battle of Warsaw: The battle began with a Bolsheviks' attack across the Vistula. |
| 1920 | 26 August | The Bolsheviks defeated the government of the Alash Orda and established the Kyrgyz ASSR (1920–1925) |
| 1920 | 31 August | Battle of Warsaw: The total defeat of the Russian Fourth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Armies marked the end of the battle. |
| 1920 | 2 September | The Red Army attacked Bukhara, the capital of the Emirate of Bukhara. |
| 1920 | 21 September | Polish–Soviet War: The Polish army occupied Galicia and ended the rule of the Galician SSR. |
| 1920 | 25 September | The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine suddenly turned from south to east, attacking the main forces of General Denikin's army. |
| 1920 | 26 September | The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine routed elements of the white Volunteer Army in the Battle of Peregonovka, Uman (Ukraine). |
| 1920 | 8 October | The Bukharan People's Soviet Republic was established. |
| 1920 | 14 November | Russian Civil War: Pyotr Wrangel fled Russia. |
| 1920 | 29 November | The Eleventh Army entered Armenia. |
| 1920 | 1 December | The Armenian Prime Minister ceded control of the country to the invading communists. |
| 1921 | 16 February | Red Army invasion of Georgia: The Eleventh Army crossed into Georgia. |
| 1921 | 22 February | Gosplan, the economic planning committee of the Soviet Union, was created by a decree of the Sovnarkom. |
| 1921 | 25 February | Red Army invasion of Georgia: The Eleventh Army captured Tbilisi and announced the formation of the Georgian SSR. |
| 1921 | 28 February | Kronstadt rebellion: The crews of the battleships Petropavlovsk and Sevastopol, harbored at Kronstadt, published a list of demands on the government. |
| 1921 | 16 March | Treaty of Moscow is signed between Grand National Assembly of Turkey and Russian SFSR. |
| 1921 | 17 March | Kronstadt rebellion: After over a week of fighting, government troops pacified Kronstadt. |
| 1921 | 21 March | A decree of the Tenth Party Congress replaced war communism with the more liberal New Economic Policy. |
| 1921 | 18 March | Polish–Soviet War: Poland and Soviet Russia signed the Peace of Riga, ending the war. The disputed territories were divided between Poland, Russia and the newly reestablished Ukrainian and Byelorussian SSRs. |
| 1921 | July | The Red Army captured Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian capital. |
| 1921 | 13 July | Russian famine of 1921: The writer Maxim Gorky brought world attention to the looming famine. |
| 1921 | August | Nestor Makhno's headquarters staff and several subordinate commanders were arrested and executed on the spot by a Red Army firing squad: the Makhnovist treaty delegation, still in Kharkiv, was also arrested and liquidated. Makhnovist forces were defeated and dispersed by Red Army. |
| 1921 | 6 November | East Karelian Uprising begins between Finnish and Karelian forces. |
| 1922 | 23 February | Russian famine of 1921: A decree published in Izvestia authorized the seizure of church valuables for famine relief. |
| 1922 | 12 March | The Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani SSRs were merged into the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR). |
| 1922 | 21 March | East Karelian Uprising ends between Finnish and Karelian forces. |
| 1922 | 3 April | The Eleventh Communist Party Congress established the office of the General Secretary of the Communist Party and appointed Joseph Stalin to fill it. |
| 1922 | 16 May | Tikhon, the Patriarch of Moscow, was put under house arrest. |
| 1922 | 4 August | Basmachi Revolt: Enver Pasha was killed in Turkestan. |
| 1922 | 29 December | The Treaty on the Creation of the USSR united its signatories, the Russian and Transcaucasian SFSRs and the Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSRs, under the power of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. |
| 1923 | 3 May | A council of the pro-government Living Church declared Tikhon an apostate and abolished the Patriarchate. |
| 1923 | 16 June | Russian Civil War officially ends. |
| 1923 | 15 October | The Declaration of 46 was written. The Declaration echoed earlier concerns expressed by Leon Trotsky, the Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council, that the Communist Party was insufficiently democratic. |
| 1924 | 21 January | Lenin died. |
| 1924 | 31 January | The 1924 Soviet Constitution came into effect. |
| 1924 | 18 February | The Thirteenth Party Congress, led by Stalin, Comintern chairman Grigory Zinoviev and Politburo chairman Lev Kamenev, denounced Trotsky and his faction, the Left Opposition. |
| 1924 | 10 October | The territory of the Khorezm SSR was incorporated into the Turkestan ASSR. |
| 1924 | 12 October | The Moldavian ASSR was established in the Ukrainian SSR. |
| 1924 | 14 October | The Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast was spun off of the Turkestan ASSR and incorporated into the Russian SFSR. |
| 1924 | 27 October | The Uzbek SSR was spun out of the Turkestan ASSR. |
| 1924 | 25 November | The Mongolian People's Republic was established. |
| 1924 | 27 November | The Bukharan People's Soviet Republic was incorporated into the Uzbek SSR. |
| 1925 | 6 January | Trotsky was forced to resign his military offices. |
| 1925 | 19 February | The lands of the Karakalpaks became the Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast, an oblast of the Kyrgyz ASSR (1920–1925). |
| 1925 | 7 April | Tikhon died. The Communist government would not allow elections to the patriarchate to be held; Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsy became the Patriarchal locum tenens according to his will. |
| 1925 | 19 April | The Kyrgyz ASSR (1920–1925) was renamed the Kazakh ASSR. |
| 1925 | 13 May | The Uzbek SSR joined the Soviet Union. |
| 1925 | 13 May | The remainder of the Turkestan ASSR became the Turkmen SSR. |
| 1925 | 10 December | Peter of Krutitsy was arrested. Sergius of Nizhny Novgorod, whom he had named to succeed him, took the title of Deputy Patriarchal locum tenens. |
| 1925 | 23 December | The Fourteenth Party Congress endorsed the leadership of Stalin and his rightist ally Nikolai Bukharin, soundly defeating the New Opposition faction of Kamenev and Zinoviev. |
| 1926 | 11 February | The Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast was reorganized into the Kyrgyz ASSR (1926–1936). |
| 1926 | 23 October | Trotsky was expelled from the Politburo. |
| 1927 | 25 February | Article 58 of the RFSR Penal Code revised the penalties for counterrevolutionary activity. |
| 1927 | 29 July | Sergius affirmed the loyalty of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Soviet government. |
| 1927 | 12 November | Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the Communist Party. |
| 1927 | 2 December | The Fifteenth Party Congress expelled the remainder of the United Opposition from the Party. |
| 1928 | 7 March | Shakhty Trial: Police arrested a group of engineers in the town of Shakhty and accused them of conspiring to sabotage the Soviet economy. |
| 1928 | 1 October | First five-year plan: Stalin announced the beginning of state industrialisation of the Soviet economy. |
| 1929 | 17 November | Bukharin was expelled from the Politburo. |
| 1929 | 17 November | Collectivisation in the USSR: A Central Committee resolution began the collectivisation of Soviet agriculture. |
| 1929 | 5 December | The Tajik ASSR of the Uzbek SSR became the Tajik SSR. |
| 1930 | 15 April | The Gulag was officially established. |
| 1930 | 20 July | The Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast was transferred to the Russian SFSR. |
| 1932 | 20 March | The Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast became the Karakalpak ASSR. |
| 1932 | 7 August | Collectivisation in the USSR: The Central Executive Committee and the Sovnarkom issued the Decree about the Protection of Socialist Property, under which any theft of public property was punishable by death. |
| 1932 | 11 September | Holodomor: Stalin sent a letter to a Politburo ally, Lazar Kaganovich, demanding the subjection of the Ukrainian SSR. |
| 1932 | 27 December | A decree by the Central Executive Committee and the Sovnarkom established a passport system in the Soviet Union. |
| 1932 | 31 December | First Five-Year Plan: It was announced that the plan had been fulfilled. |
| 1933 | 22 January | Holodomor: Police were instructed to prevent Ukrainian peasants from leaving their homes in search of food. |
| 1934 | 8 February | Elections to the Central Committee at the Seventeenth Party Congress revealed Sergey Kirov, the chief of the Leningrad Party, to be the most popular member. |
| 1934 | 10 July | The Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) was established under the NKVD as a successor to the OGPU. |
| 1934 | 1 December | Kirov was murdered by Leonid Nikolaev, possibly at the behest of Stalin. |
| 1935 | 31 August | Aleksei Grigorievich Stakhanov was reported to have mined over one hundred tons of coal in a single shift, sowing the seeds of the Stakhanovite movement. |
| 1936 | 19 August | Moscow Trials: The Trial of the Sixteen, in which Kamenev and Zinoviev were the primary defendants, began. |
| 1936 | 25 August | Moscow Trials: The defendants in the Trial of the Sixteen were executed. |
| 1936 | 5 December | The Stalin Constitution came into effect. The Central Executive Committee was renamed the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. |
| 1936 | 5 December | The Kyrgyz ASSR (1926–1936) became a Union-level republic, the Kyrgyz SSR. |
| 1936 | 5 December | The Kazakh ASSR became the Kazakh SSR. |
| 1936 | 5 December | The territory of the Karakalpak ASSR was incorporated into the Uzbek SSR. |
| 1937 | 23 January | Moscow Trials: The Second Trial began. |
| 1937 | 30 January | Moscow Trials: The Second Trial ended. Of seventeen defendants, all but four were sentenced to death. |
| 1937 | 22 May | Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization: Mikhail Tukhachevsky, a Marshal of the Soviet Union and hero of the Russian Civil War, was arrested. |
| 1937 | 12 June | Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization: Tukhachevsky was executed, with eight other military leaders. |
| 1937 | 30 July | Great Purge: NKVD Order No. 00447 was issued. The order established a new judicial method, the NKVD troika, and set nationwide quotas for the execution and enslavement of "anti-Soviet elements." |
| 1937 | 11 August | Polish operation of the NKVD: The NKVD chief signed Order No. 00485, classifying all potential Polish nationalists as enemies of the state. |
| 1937 | 15 August | Great Purge: NKVD Order No. 00486 made relatives of accused traitors subject to imprisonment in labor camps. |
| 1937 | 10 October | Peter of Krutitsy was executed in solitary confinement. |
| 1938 | | A new decree required the teaching of Russian in all non-Russian schools. |
| 1938 | 2 March | Trial of the Twenty One: The third Moscow Trial, at which Bukharin was the primary defendant, began. |
| 1938 | 15 March | Trial of the Twenty One: The defendants were executed. |
| 1938 | 29 July | Battle of Lake Khasan: The armed forces of Japanese Manchukuo attacked the Soviet military at Lake Khasan. |
| 1938 | 31 August | Battle of Lake Khasan: The battle ended in a Japanese defeat. |
| 1939 | 23 August | The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed, promising mutual non-aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and agreeing to a division of much of Europe between those two countries. |
| 1939 | 17 September | Soviet invasion of Poland: The Red Army invaded Poland. |
| 1939 | 22 October | Elections were held to the Supreme Soviets of the Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union. |
| 1939 | 26 November | Shelling of Mainila: The Red Army shelled the Russian village of Mainila and blamed the Finns for invented casualties. |
| 1939 | 30 November | Winter War: The Soviet army attacked Finland. |
| 1939 | 1 December | Winter War: The Soviet Union established the Finnish Democratic Republic in the border town of Terijoki. |
| 1940 | 29 January | Winter War: The Soviet Union recognized the Finnish government as the legitimate government of Finland, thereby abandoning the Finnish Democratic Republic, and informed the Finnish government that the Soviets were willing to negotiate peace. |
| 1940 | 5 March | Katyn massacre: The Politburo signed an order to execute 27,500 imprisoned Polish nationals. |
| 1940 | 12 March | Winter War: The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed, ending the war. Finland ceded 9% of its territory to the Soviet Union, leading to the evacuation of Finnish Karelia. The Soviet attempt to conquer Finland failed. |
| 1940 | 31 March | The Karelian ASSR merged with the Finnish Democratic Republic into the Karelo-Finnish SSR. |
| 1940 | 15 June | The Red Army occupied Lithuania. |
| 1940 | 17 June | The Red Army occupied Estonia and Latvia. |
| 1940 | 28 June | Soviet occupation of Bessarabia: Bessarabia and northern Bukovina were occupied by the Soviet Union. |
| 1940 | 21 July | Lithuania became the Lithuanian SSR; Latvia became the Latvian SSR. |
| 1940 | 2 August | The Moldavian ASSR became the Moldavian SSR, with much of its territory on the former Bessarabia and Bukovina. The old territory of the Moldavian ASSR remained in the Ukrainian SSR. |
| 1940 | 3 August | The Lithuanian SSR was accepted into the Soviet Union. |
| 1940 | 5 August | The Latvian SSR was annexed by the Soviet Union. |
| 1940 | 6 August | Estonia became the Estonian SSR and was incorporated into the Soviet Union. |
| 1940 | 21 August | Trotsky is assassinated by Ramón Mercader on Stalin's orders. |
| 1941 | 13 April | Soviet–Japanese border conflicts: A Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact was signed. |
| 1941 | 22 June | Operation Barbarossa: Three million Axis soldiers invaded the Soviet Union. |
| 1941 | 25 June | Continuation War: The Soviet Union launched a major air offensive against Finnish targets. |
| 1941 | 28 June | Operation Barbarossa: The Germans captured Minsk. |
| 1941 | 27 July | Operation Barbarossa: The German and Romanian armies entered Kishinev. |
| 1941 | 21 August | Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran: Three Soviet armies invaded Iran from the north. |
| 1941 | 8 September | Siege of Leningrad: The Germans army cut the last land tie to Leningrad. |
| 1941 | 19 September | Operation Barbarossa: Kiev fell to the Germans. |
| 1941 | 2 October | Battle of Moscow: Three German armies began an advance on Moscow. |
| 1941 | 20 November | Siege of Leningrad: The first food was carried into Leningrad across the Road of Life on the frozen Lake Ladoga. |
| 1941 | 5 December | Battle of Moscow: The Soviet army launched a counterattack from Kalinin. |
| 1942 | 7 January | Battle of Moscow: The Soviet counteroffensive ended between sixty and one-hundred fifty miles from Moscow. |
| 1942 | 21 August | Battle of Stalingrad: The German Luftwaffe began a bombing raid against Stalingrad. |
| 1942 | 19 November | Operation Uranus: The Soviet army began a pincer movement against the German forces besieging Stalingrad. |
| 1942 | 22 November | Operation Uranus: The German Sixth Army was surrounded. |
| 1943 | 12 January | Operation Spark (1943): The Soviet army launched a military offensive to break the Siege of Leningrad. |
| 1943 | 18 January | Operation Spark (1943): The meeting of the Leningrad and Volkhov Front units opened a land corridor to Leningrad. |
| 1943 | 2 February | Battle of Stalingrad: The German Sixth Army surrendered. |
| 1943 | 15 May | The Comintern was dissolved. |
| 1943 | 8 September | Stalin allowed a church council, which unanimously elected Sergius to the Patriarchate of Moscow. |
| 1943 | 6 November | The Russians recaptured Kiev. |
| 1944 | 6 January | The Red Army crossed into Poland. |
| 1944 | 27 January | Siege of Leningrad: The last German forces were expelled from the city. |
| 1944 | 15 May | Patriarch Sergius died. |
| 1944 | 31 August | Soviet occupation of Romania: The Red Army captured Bucharest. |
| 1944 | 12 September | Romania signed an armistice with the Allies, placing itself under the command of an Allied Commission led by Marshal of the Soviet Union Rodion Malinovsky. |
| 1944 | 19 September | Continuation War: The Moscow Armistice was signed, ending the war at roughly the prewar borders. |
| 1944 | 21 September | Soviet and Czechoslovak partisan armed forces entered German-occupied Czechoslovakia. |
| 1944 | 14 November | The Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia was established in Prague. |
| 1945 | 17 January | The Soviet Union captured Warsaw. |
| 1945 | 18 January | The Soviet Union captured Budapest. |
| 1945 | 2 February | Alexius I was elected Patriarch of Moscow. |
| 1945 | 11 February | The Soviet Union gained the right to Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands at the Yalta Conference |
| 1945 | 20 April | Battle of Berlin: The Soviet army began shelling Berlin. |
| 1945 | 2 May | Battle of Berlin: The defenders of Berlin surrendered to the Soviet Union. |
| 1945 | 9 May | The Soviet army captured Prague. |
| 1945 | 18 June | Trial of the Sixteen: Leaders of the Polish Secret State were tried in the Soviet Union for collaboration. |
| 1945 | 21 June | Trial of the Sixteen: The defendants were sentenced. |
| 1945 | 16 August | Invasion of Manchuria: Soviet armed forces landed on Sakhalin. |
| 1945 | 18 August | Invasion of Manchuria: Soviet amphibious forces landed in Korea. |
| 1945 | 20 August | Invasion of Manchuria: The Soviet Union captured Changchun, the capital of Manchukuo. |
| 1945 | November | The Soviet Union established the Azerbaijan People's Government in Iranian Azerbaijan. |
| 1946 | 22 January | The Soviet-backed Kurdish Republic of Mahabad declared its independence from Iran. |
| 1946 | 2 March | Iran crisis: British troops withdrew from Iran. The Soviet Union violated its prior agreement and remained. |
| 1946 | 10 March | The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was liquidated by a rump synod in Lviv and driven underground. |
| 1946 | 9 May | Iran crisis: The Soviet Union withdrew from Iran. |
| 1947 | 5 October | The Cominform was established in order to coordinate Communist parties under Soviet control. |
| 1948 | 24 June | Berlin Blockade: The Soviet Union blocked rail and road access to West Berlin. |
| 1948 | 25 June | Berlin Blockade: The commander of the American occupation zone ordered an airlift of supplies into West Berlin. |
| 1948 | 28 June | Yugoslavia was expelled from the Cominform. |
| 1948 | 9 September | The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established. |
| 1949 | 11 May | Berlin Blockade: The Soviets lifted the blockade. |
| 1949 | 29 August | Joe 1: The Soviet atomic bomb project culminated in a successful test detonation. |
| 1949 | 1 October | Chinese Civil War: Mao Zedong proclaims the establishment of the People's Republic of China, with the Soviet Union recognized it the next day. |
| 1950 | 30 January | Korean War: Regarding a mass invasion of the South, Stalin wrote to his ambassador to North Korea: "Tell him [Kim] that I am ready to help him in this matter." |
| 1950 | 25 June | Korean War: The North Korean army launched a 135,000-man surprise assault across the 38th parallel. |
| 1950 | 1 November | Korean War: Soviet-piloted MiG-15s first crossed the Yalu River and attacked American planes. |
| 1952 | 20 November | Prague Trials: A series of show trials purged the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia of Jews and insufficiently orthodox Stalinists. |
| 1953 | 13 January | An article in Pravda accused some of the nation's most prominent doctors – particularly Jews – of participating in a vast conspiracy to poison top Soviet leaders. |
| 1953 | 1 March | After an all-night dinner with party members Lavrenty Beria, Nikolai Bulganin, Nikita Khrushchev and Georgy Malenkov, Stalin suffered a paralyzing stroke. |
| 1953 | 5 March | Stalin died. |
| 1953 | 6 March | Malenkov succeeded Stalin as Premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party. |
| 1953 | 14 March | Khrushchev became First Secretary. |
| 1953 | 3 April | The Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party officially acquitted those arrested in connection with the so-called "doctors' plot". |
| 1953 | 16 June | Uprising of 1953 in East Germany: In response to a 10 percent increase in work quotas, between 60 and 80 construction workers went on strike in East Berlin. Their numbers quickly swelled and a general strike and protests were called for the next day. |
| 1953 | 17 June | Uprising of 1953 in East Germany: 100,000 protestors gathered at dawn, demanding the reinstatement of old work quotas and, later, the resignation of the East German government. At noon German police trapped many of the demonstrators in an open square; Soviet tanks fired on the crowd, killing hundreds and ending the protest. |
| 1953 | 26 June | Beria was arrested at a special meeting of the Presidium. |
| 1953 | 27 July | Korean War: An armistice was signed, ending the conflict. |
| 1953 | 7 September | Khrushchev was confirmed as head of the Central Committee. |
| 1954 | 16 May | Kengir Uprising: Prisoners at a Gulag adjacent to the Kazakh village of Kengir occupied the camp's service yard. |
| 1954 | 25 June | Kengir Uprising: The prison camp at Kengir was invaded and subdued by Soviet troops and tanks. |
| 1955 | 2 June | Khrushchev and Tito issued the Belgrade declaration, which declared that "different forms of Socialist development are solely the concern of the individual countries." |
| 1956 | 25 February | At a closed session of the 20th Party Congress, Khrushchev read the "Secret Speech," On the Personality Cult and its Consequences, denouncing the actions of his predecessor Stalin. The speech weakened the hand of the Stalinists in the Soviet government. |
| 1956 | 17 April | The Cominform was officially dissolved. |
| 1956 | 28 June | Poznań 1956 protests: Poles upset with the slow pace of destalinization turned to protests, and then to violent riots. |
| 1956 | 29 June | Poznań 1956 protests: Konstantin Rokossovsky, the Polish minister of defense, ordered the military in to end the riots. At least 74 civilians were killed. |
| 1956 | 16 July | The Karelo-Finnish SSR became the Karelian ASSR of the Russian SFSR. |
| 1956 | 19 October | The liberal Władysław Gomułka was elected leader of the Polish Communist party. |
| 1956 | 23 October | 1956 Hungarian Revolution: A small pro-Gomułka demonstration in Budapest expanded into a 100,000 head protest. The protestors marched on Parliament; when they were fired on by the Hungarian Security Police, they turned violent and began to arm themselves. An emergency meeting of the Central Committee appointed the reformist Imre Nagy Prime Minister. |
| 1956 | 31 October | 1956 Hungarian Revolution: Hungary under Nagy withdrew from the Warsaw Pact. |
| 1956 | 4 November | 1956 Hungarian Revolution: A Soviet invasion, involving infantry, artillery, airstrikes, and some 6,000 tanks entered Budapest. 2,500 Hungarians were killed in the ensuing battle. |
| 1956 | 8 November | 1956 Hungarian Revolution: Pro-Soviet János Kádár announced the formation of a new "Revolutionary Worker-Peasant Government," with himself as Prime Minister and leader of the Communist Party. |
| 1957 | 18 June | Led by the Stalinist Anti-Party Group, the Presidium voted to depose Khrushchev as First Secretary. The Presidium reversed its vote under pressure from Khrushchev and the defense minister and deferred the decision to a later meeting of the full Central Committee. |
| 1957 | 29 June | A Central Committee vote affirmed Khrushchev as First Secretary and deposed Anti-Party Group members Molotov, Kaganovich, and Malenkov from the Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee. |
| 1957 | 4 October | Sputnik was launched at 7:28 pm |
| 1958 | 27 March | Khrushchev replaced Bulganin as Premier of the Soviet Union. |
| 1959 | 1 January | Cuban Revolution: Revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro overthrow Fulgencio Batista. |
| 1960 | 16 April | Sino-Soviet Split: The Chinese Communist Party accused the Soviet leadership of "revisionism." |
| 1960 | 16 July | Sino-Soviet Split: Moscow recalled thousands of Soviet advisers from China and ended economic and military aid. |
| 1961 | 12 April | Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space. |
| 1961 | 13 August | Construction began on the Berlin Wall. |
| 1962 | 2 June | Novocherkassk massacre: Soviet workers gathered in the town square of Novocherkassk to protest an increase in food prices and work quotas. Shots were fired at the rioters, killing 25 and injuring 87 people. |
| 1962 | 16 October | Cuban Missile Crisis: President Kennedy is shown aerial photos from U-2 surveillance flights showing missile bases in Cuba. The thirteen days marking the most dangerous period of the Cuban Missile Crisis begin. |
| 1962 | 22 October | Cuban Missile Crisis: Kennedy announced that any nuclear missile attack from Cuba would be regarded as an attack by the Soviet Union, and that the island would be placed under "quarantine" to prevent further weapons shipments. |
| 1962 | 26 October | Cuban Missile Crisis: The Soviet Union offered to withdraw the missiles in return for a U.S. guarantee not to invade Cuba or support any invasion. |
| 1962 | 28 October | Cuban Missile Crisis: Khrushchev announced that he had ordered the removal of the Soviet missiles in Cuba. |
| 1964 | 14 October | Khrushchev's rivals in the party deposed him at a Central Committee meeting. Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin assumed power as First Secretary and Premier, respectively. |
| 1967 | 7 February | Sino-Soviet split: The Chinese government announced that it could no longer guarantee the safety of Soviet diplomats outside the embassy building. |
| 1967 | 10 June | The Soviet Union severed diplomatic relations with Israel. see Soviet Union and the Arab-Israeli conflict |
| 1968 | 5 January | Prague Spring: The liberal Alexander Dubček was appointed to succeed Antonín Novotný as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. |
| 1968 | 5 April | Prague Spring: The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia published their Action Programme. This document guaranteed a number of new freedoms including free speech, travel, debate and association. |
| 1968 | 20 August | Prague Spring: Between 200,000 and 600,000 Warsaw Pact troops crossed the Czechoslovakian border. |
| 1968 | 21 August | Prague Spring: Leading KSČ liberals – including Dubček – were arrested, flown to Moscow and forced to repeal the reforms of the Prague Spring. They agreed to the presence of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia. |
| 1969 | 2 March | Sino-Soviet border conflict: A Soviet patrol came into armed conflict with Chinese forces on Zhenbao Island. |
| 1973 | 27 January | Vietnam War: The Paris Peace Accords pledged the signatory parties to "respect the independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of Vietnam as recognized by the 1954 Geneva Agreements on Vietnam," and promised a complete withdrawal of United States forces from Vietnam and Laos. |
| 1975 | 30 April | Vietnam War: People's Army of Vietnam overrun and capitulate the city of Saigon, capital of South Vietnam. |
| 1977 | 7 October | Brezhnev Constitution adopted. The Communist Party was proclaimed "the leading and guiding force of the Soviet society". |
| 1978 | 28 April | Saur Revolution: Military units loyal to the PDPA assaulted the Afghan Presidential palace, killing President Mohammed Daoud Khan. |
| 1978 | 1 May | Saur Revolution: The PDPA installed its leader, Nur Muhammad Taraki, as President of Afghanistan. |
| 1978 | July | A rebellion against the new Afghan government began with an uprising in Nuristan. |
| 1978 | 5 December | A treaty was signed that permitted deployment of the Soviet military at the Afghan government's request. |
| 1979 | 14 September | Taraki was murdered by supporters of Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin. |
| 1979 | 24 December | Soviet–Afghan War: Fearing the collapse of the Amin regime, the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan. |
| 1979 | 27 December | Operation Storm-333: Soviet troops occupied major governmental, military and media buildings in Kabul, including the Tajbeg Presidential Palace, and executed Prime Minister Amin. |
| 1980 | 22 January | Andrei Sakharov is exiled without charges to the closed industrial city of Gorky for opposing the invasion of Afghanistan. |
| 1980 | 6 February | The United States announces its planned boycott of the Moscow Olympics because of the invasion of Afghanistan. |
| 1980 | 19 July – 3 August | 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. |
| 1982 | 25 January | Suslov died after a severe stroke. |
| 1982 | 10 November | Brezhnev died of a heart attack. |
| 1982 | 12 November | Yuri Andropov was elected General Secretary of the CPSU. |
| 1983 | 1 September | South Korean Boeing 747 was shot down by the Soviet Air Forces |
| 1984 | 9 February | Andropov died after a lengthy kidney disease and was succeeded as General Secretary by Konstantin Chernenko. |
| 1984 | 8 May | Chernenko announces a Soviet-bloc boycott of the Los Angeles-held Summer Olympics, citing security concerns for its athletes. |
| 1985 | 10 March | Chernenko died of emphysema. |
| 1985 | 11 March | The Politburo unanimously supported Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary of the Communist Party. |
| 1985 | 7 May | Gorbachev launches an anti-alcohol campaign by decree of the Council of Ministers "On measures to overcome alcoholism". |
| 1988 | 14 April | Soviet–Afghan War: The Soviet government signed the Geneva Accords, which included a timetable for withdrawing their armed forces. |
| 1988 | 13 April | Singing Revolution: The Popular Front of Estonia was founded. |
| 1988 | 3 June | Singing Revolution: The liberalization movement Sąjūdis was founded in Lithuania. |
| 1988 | 9 October | Singing Revolution: The Popular Front of Latvia was founded. |
| 1988 | 15 November | Soviet Union and the Arab-Israeli conflict: The Soviet Union recognizes the independence of the State of Palestine declared by the Palestine Liberation Organization. |
| 1988 | 7 December | An earthquake destroyed the city of Spitak in northern Armenia. |
| 1989 | 15 February | Soviet–Afghan War: The last Soviet troops left the country. |
| 1989 | 23 August | Singing Revolution: Two million people joined hands to form the Baltic Way across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to demonstrate for independence. |
| 1989 | 9 November | The East German government loosened restrictions on travel into the West, effecting the end of the Berlin Wall. |
| 1989 | 28 November | Velvet Revolution: The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced the end of its monopoly on political power. |
| 1989 | 1 December | Mikhail Gorbachev meets with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. |
| 1989 | 7 December | Singing Revolution: The Lithuanian parliament ended the political monopoly of the Communist Party of Lithuania. |
| 1989 | 25 December | Romanian Revolution of 1989: Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife, Elena, were captured in the countryside and executed. |
| 1990 | 11 March | Singing Revolution: The Lithuanian government declared its independence from the Soviet Union. |
| 1990 | 18 March | Singing Revolution: Elections to the Latvian Supreme Soviet gave the majority of seats to a pro-independence coalition, led by the Popular Front of Latvia. |
| 1990 | 12 June | The First Congress of People's Deputies of Russia issued the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. |
| 1990 | 21 August | Gagauzia conflict: The Gagauz declared a new soviet republic on Moldavian soil. |
| 1991 | 11 January | January Events: Soviet troops violently seized important buildings in cities throughout Lithuania. |
| 1991 | 17 March | A referendum on the future of the Soviet Union was held, with nearly 70% of voters supporting the renewed New Union Treaty. |
| 1991 | 12 June | 1991 Russian presidential election: Boris Yeltsin was elected to the presidency of the Russian SFSR. |
| 1991 | 19 August | Soviet coup attempt of 1991: A group of high-ranking officials calling themselves the State Emergency Committee announced that Gennady Yanayev was to replace Gorbachev as President of the Soviet Union. |
| 1991 | 20 August | The Estonian government declared its independence. |
| 1991 | 21 August | The government of Latvia declared its independence. |
| 1991 | 21 August | Soviet coup attempt of 1991: The military refused State Emergency Committee orders to take the capital. The leaders of the coup were arrested. |
| 1991 | 24 August | The Ukrainian parliament adopted the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine. |
| 1991 | 27 August | Moldova declared independence. |
| 1991 | 31 August | The Republic of Kyrgyzstan declared independence. |
| 1991 | 6 September | The Soviet Union recognized the independence of the Baltic states. |
| 1991 | 6 September | Militants belonging to the separatist All-National Congress of the Chechen People (NCChP) stormed a session of the Supreme Soviet of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR. NCChP leader Dzhokhar Dudayev was appointed to the presidency. |
| 1991 | 18 October | Soviet Union and the Arab-Israeli conflict: The Soviet Union restores full relations with Israel. |
| 1991 | 27 October | A national referendum confirmed Dudayev's presidency. Dudayev unilaterally declared the independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. |
| 1991 | 8 December | The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine signed the Belavezha Accords, dissolving the Soviet Union. |
| 1991 | 26 December | The Supreme Soviet confirmed the dissolution of the Soviet Union. |
| 1992 | 2 January | Centralized price controls have been canceled. "Liberalization of prices" started. |
| 1992 | 31 March | Treaty of Federation signed by the representatives of the Russian federal government and regional authorities. |
| 1992 | 1 October | Voucher privatization begins. |
| 1992 | 31 Oct–4 Nov | Ossetian–Ingush Conflict over the eastern parts of the autonomous republic of North Ossetia |
| 1993 | 21 September | 1993 Russian constitutional crisis: Yeltsin announced the dissolution of the Russian legislature. The legislature, in turn, responded by impeaching Yeltsin and declaring Aleksandr Rutskoy the new President of the Russian Federation. |
| 1993 | 4 October | Russian constitutional crisis of 1993: The army occupied the parliament building and arrested a number of its leaders. |
| 1993 | 12 December | Russian constitutional crisis of 1993: A new 5th Russian constitution was approved by referendum, vastly increasing the power of the presidency. |
| 1994 | 2 August | First Chechen War: The leader of the Russian-backed Provisional Council of the Chechen Republic announced his intention to overthrow Dudayev's government. |
| 1994 | 11 December | First Chechen War: Russian troops entered Chechnya. |
| 1996 | 3 July | 1996 Russian presidential election: Yeltsin narrowly defeated his communist challenger, Gennady Zyuganov. |
| 1996 | 30 August | First Chechen War: The Khasav-Yurt Accord was signed, signaling the end of the war. |
| 1999 | 7 August | Dagestan War: A Chechnya-based militia invaded the Russian republic of Dagestan in support of local separatists. |
| 1999 | 16 August | The State Duma confirmed the appointment of Vladimir Putin as Prime Minister of Russia. |
| 1999 | 23 August | Dagestan War: The militias began their retreat back into Chechnya. |
| 1999 | 26 August | Second Chechen War: The militia that had invaded Dagestan was bombed inside Chechnya. |
| 1999 | September | Second Chechen War: Russian apartment bombings |
| 1999 | 2 October | Second Chechen War: Russian ground troops entered Chechnya. |
| 1999 | 8 December | The treaty of creation of the Union of Russia and Belarus was signed. |
| 1999 | 31 December | Boris Yeltsin resigned as President of the Russian Federation. Prime Minister Putin became acting president. |
| 2000 | 26 March | 2000 Russian presidential election: Putin was elected President of Russia with 53 percent of the vote. |
| 2000 | 12 August | Russian submarine Kursk explosion: An explosion disabled the Russian submarine K-141 Kursk. |

## 21st century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 2001 | 23 March | Mir - the last national orbital station re-entered Earth's atmosphere. |
| 2002 | 23 October | Moscow theater hostage crisis: Chechen rebels seized the Dubrovka theater in Moscow, taking approximately 700 theatergoers hostage, and demanded an immediate Russian withdrawal from Chechnya. |
| 2002 | 26 October | Moscow theater hostage crisis: The police pumped anesthetic into the building, then stormed it from every entrance, executing all 42 terrorists. Over 120 hostages also died due to cumulative effects of intoxication, hunger and maltreatment by the terrorists. |
| 2003 | September–October | Russia-Ukraine territorial dispute over Tuzla Island |
| 2003 | 25 October | Yukos affair: Khodorkovsky arrested. |
| 2004 | January | Russia–Belarus energy dispute. |
| 2004 | 14 March | 2004 Russian presidential election: Putin won re-election to a second term, earning 71% of the vote. |
| 2004 | 24 August | Russian aircraft bombings killed all 90 people on board. |
| 2004 | 1–3 September | Beslan school siege. A group of Chechen terrorists took approximately 1100 adults and children hostage at School Number One in Beslan, the ensuing battle left over 330 civilians, 31 of 32 hostage-takers and 10 policemen dead. |
| 2004 | September | Vladimir Putin came up with an initiative to change the appointment procedure for governors, proposing to confirm them in office by decision of legislature from the candidates proposed by the President. Putin logically linked his initiative to the Beslan tragedy. |
| 2004 | December | A bill to abolish direct gubernatorial elections was drafted and adopted. |
| 2005 | 13 October | 2005 raid on Nalchik: A large group of terrorists assaulted and captured buildings throughout the city of Nalchik. By afternoon, Russian soldiers surrounded and entered the city, forcing their enemies to retreat. Some 136 people were killed. |
| 2005 | 1 December | Perm Oblast and Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug merged into Perm Krai. |
| 2006 | 15–17 July | 32nd G8 summit in St. Petersburg |
| 2007 | 23 April | Boris Yeltsin died of congestive heart failure. |
| 2008 | 2 March | 2008 Russian presidential election: Deputy Prime minister Dmitry Medvedev won, earning 70.5% of the vote. |
| 2008 | 7 May | Vladimir Putin becomes Prime Minister of Russia. |
| 2008 | 7–12 August | Russo-Georgian War: Russia revoked Georgia's attempts to reintegrate breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. |
| 2008 | 31 December | 2008 Constitutional amendments extended the terms of the President and Parliament |
| 2009 | January | 2009 Russia–Ukraine gas dispute |
| 2009 | 12–16 May | Eurovision Song Contest 2009 |
| 2009 | 17 August | Sayano-Shushenskaya power station accident |
| 2009 | 5 December | "Lame Horse" nightclub fire |
| 2010 | 8 April | The New START treaty, which would cut the nuclear arsenals of Russia and the United States by a third, was signed. |
| 2010 | July–August | 2010 Russian wildfires |
| 2011 | 27 March | Time zones reform reduced its number from 11 to 9 |
| 2011 | 4 December | 2011 Russian legislative election, that caused large protests against alleged vote fraud |
| 2012 | 4 March | 2012 Russian presidential election: Vladimir Putin won, earning 63.6% of the vote. |
| 2012 | 1 June | an Act came into force, which returns the direct election of Governors. |
| 2012 | 22 August | Russia became a WTO member. |
| 2013 | 6–17 July | 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan |
| 2013 | August–September | Russian Far East and Northeastern China affected by heavy flooding on Amur river |
| 2014 | 7–23 February | 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi |
| 2014 | 16 March | Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation: Referendum on the political status of Crimea |
| 2014 | 18 March | Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation: Putin and Crimean officials signed the Treaty on Accession of the Republic of Crimea to Russia. |
| 2014 | 26 October | 2011 time zones reform was canceled |
| 2015 | 1 January | The Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union came into force. |
| 2015 | 30 September | Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war begins |
| 2015 | 31 October | Aircraft bombing over Sinai |
| 2015 | 24 November | 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown |
| 2016 | 8 September | 2016 Russian legislative election |
| 2016 | 19 December | Assassination of Andrei Karlov |
| 2017 | 1–3 June | St. Petersburg International Economic Forum |
| 2017 | 17 June - 2 July | 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup |
| 2018 | 18 March | 2018 Russian presidential election |
| 2018 | 25-26 March | 2018 Kemerovo fire killed at least 60 people. |
| 2018 | 14 June–15 July | The 2018 FIFA World Cup was held in Russia. |
| 2018 | July–November | 2018 Russian pension protests |
| 2018 | 15 October | 2018 Moscow–Constantinople schism |
| 2018 | 17 October | Kerch Polytechnic College massacre killed 21 people including the perpetrator. |
| 2019 | 8 September | 2019 Moscow City Duma election preceded by massive public protests in support of unregistered opposition candidates. |
| 2019 | 23–24 October | The first (inaugural) Russia-Africa Summit is held at Sochi. |
| 2020 | 15 January | 2020 Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly. Announcement of the constitutional reform. Resignation of the Cabinet. |
| 2020 | 1 July | 2020 Russian constitutional referendum |
| 2022 | 24 February | Russian invasion of Ukraine begins |
| 2022 | 21 September | 2022 Russian mobilization |
| 2022 | 30 September | Russian annexation of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts |
| 2023 | 23–24 June | Wagner Group rebellion |
| 2024 | 16 February | Death and funeral of Alexei Navalny |
| 2024 | 22 March | Crocus City Hall attack |
| 2024 | 6 August | Kursk offensive (2024–present) |