Russian History · Chronicle VII of VIII

The Soviet Union

СССР · USSR

Lenin to Gorbachev: revolution, terror, the Great Patriotic War, and collapse.

Span: 1922 – 1991
Entries: 21
Next: Russian Federation

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Entry 1 of 21

1922
FoundationPolitical
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is founded
On 30 December 1922, the Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Transcaucasian republics unite to form the USSR, the world's first socialist federal state.
Meanwhile, elsewhere
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1924
Death of LeninPolitical
Lenin dies and the succession struggle opens
Vladimir Lenin dies after a series of strokes; his body is embalmed and a power struggle begins between Stalin and Trotsky.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1928
The Five-Year PlansPolitical
The First Five-Year Plan and collectivization
Stalin launches the First Five-Year Plan, forcing breakneck industrialization and the collectivization of peasant agriculture.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1932
FamineEvent
The famine of 1932-1933 and the Holodomor
Forced grain requisitions amid collectivization cause a famine that kills millions, with Ukraine — the Holodomor — and Kazakhstan worst affected.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1936
The Great TerrorPolitical
The Great Purge and the Moscow Trials
Stalin unleashes a campaign of terror, with show trials of Old Bolsheviks and mass arrests and executions carried out by the NKVD.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1939
The Nazi-Soviet PactPolitical
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The USSR and Nazi Germany sign a non-aggression pact whose secret protocol divides Eastern Europe; days later the Second World War begins.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1941
The Great Patriotic WarMilitary
Operation Barbarossa
Germany launches the largest invasion in history; the Wehrmacht drives deep into Soviet territory and reaches the outskirts of Moscow before being halted.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1943
The Tide TurnsMilitary
Victory at Stalingrad
The encirclement and destruction of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad marks the great turning point of the war on the eastern front.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1945
Victory and EmpireMilitary
Victory over Germany and the new world order
Soviet forces capture Berlin; at Yalta and Potsdam the USSR secures dominance over Eastern Europe and emerges as a superpower.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1949
The Cold WarMilitary
The Soviet atomic bomb
The USSR tests its first atomic bomb, breaking the American nuclear monopoly and ushering in the nuclear arms race of the Cold War.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1953
Death of StalinPolitical
Stalin dies and the Thaw begins
Joseph Stalin dies after nearly thirty years in power; a collective leadership emerges and the secret police chief Beria is arrested and shot.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1956
De-StalinizationPolitical
Khrushchev's Secret Speech and Hungary
Khrushchev denounces Stalin's crimes in a secret speech to the Party Congress, then crushes the Hungarian uprising with tanks the same year.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1961
The Space AgeCultural
Gagarin becomes the first man in space
Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbits the Earth aboard Vostok 1, a triumph of Soviet science following the launch of Sputnik in 1957.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1962
The BrinkMilitary
The Cuban Missile Crisis
The deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba triggers a confrontation with the United States that brings the world to the edge of nuclear war.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1964
The Brezhnev EraPolitical
Khrushchev is ousted; Brezhnev takes power
Leonid Brezhnev leads a Politburo coup that removes Khrushchev, beginning two decades of conservative, stable rule.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1968
The Prague SpringMilitary
The invasion of Czechoslovakia
Warsaw Pact tanks crush the Prague Spring reform movement, and the Brezhnev Doctrine asserts Moscow's right to intervene in socialist states.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1979
AfghanistanMilitary
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
Soviet troops intervene to prop up a communist government in Afghanistan, beginning a nine-year war against US-backed mujahideen insurgents.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1985
PerestroikaPolitical
Gorbachev launches reform
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader and introduces perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness) to revive the stagnant Soviet system.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1986
ChernobylEvent
The Chernobyl disaster
A reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine explodes, causing history's worst nuclear accident and a vast radioactive contamination.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1989
The Fall of the BlocPolitical
The collapse of the Eastern Bloc
As Gorbachev refuses to intervene, communist regimes fall across Eastern Europe and the Berlin Wall is opened in November.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
1991
DissolutionPolitical
The August coup and the end of the USSR
A failed hardliner coup against Gorbachev accelerates the collapse; on 26 December the Soviet Union is formally dissolved into fifteen independent states.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
13 more entries, to 1991

The Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is founded

Lenin dies and the succession struggle opens

The First Five-Year Plan and collectivization

The famine of 1932-1933 and the Holodomor

The Great Purge and the Moscow Trials

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

Operation Barbarossa

Victory at Stalingrad

Victory over Germany and the new world order

The Soviet atomic bomb

Stalin dies and the Thaw begins

Khrushchev's Secret Speech and Hungary

Gagarin becomes the first man in space

The Cuban Missile Crisis

Khrushchev is ousted; Brezhnev takes power

The invasion of Czechoslovakia

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

Gorbachev launches reform

The Chernobyl disaster

The collapse of the Eastern Bloc

The August coup and the end of the USSR