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Bolsheviks (reds) vs. Anti-Bolsheviks (whites) Lenin leads the reds
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Russia + Ukraine + Belarus + Transcaucasus (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan) = The Soviet Union
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Stalin siezes power after Lenin dies
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Collectivize agriculture and sieze land/set goals for economy
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USSR is admitted into the League of Nations
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USSR signs non aggression pact with Germany, Germany invades Poland (triggers WW II). USSR later invades Poland.
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Sign non aggression pact. Later, Germany invades USSR
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Germany unable to take Stalingrad and have to retreat. USSR launches offensive and takes Berlin
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WW II comes to a close, and the USSR & US feel tensions with out a common enemy
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USSR puts up the Berlin blockade-US and Britian counter with a two year airlift of supplies into East Berlin
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USSR explodes its first nuke
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Korean War breaks out. US vs. Communism
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Stalin dies and Nikita Krushchev is put into power. He later denounces Stalin's actions. USSR explodes its first hydrogen bomb.
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First-ever artificial earth satellite, Sputnik, orbits the earth-leads to a full on space race
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Missils planted in Cuba by the USSR. Tensions are high between the USSR and US.
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Soviet Union joins the US and Britain in signing a treaty banning atmospheric nuclear tests; US-Soviet "hot line" set up.
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Khrushchev is replaced as first secretary of the Communist Party by Leonid Brezhnev (later elected into presidential position)
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USSR and US sign Salt 1 to limit arms. Start of the "thaw"
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Soviet Union and US sign SALT-2 agreement; Soviet troops invade Afghanistan ending the thaw
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Brezhnev dies and is replaced by KGB chief Yuri Andropov, but two years later Andropov dies and replaced by Konstantin Chernenko, but he only lasts a year before dropping dead. Mikhail Gorbachev is in power
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Chernobyl nuclear power station explodes, showering large areas in Ukraine, Belarus and beyond with radioactive material
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Soviet troops leave Afghanistan, Lithuanian Communist Party declares its independence from the Soviet Communist Party
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Communist Party votes to end one-party rule; Gorbachev opposes independence of Baltic states. Yeltsin elected president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
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Yeltsin bans the Soviet Communist Party in Russia and seizes its assets; Yeltsin recognises the independence of the Baltic republics; Ukraine, followed by other republics, declares itself independent.
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September - Congress of People's Deputies votes for the dissolution of the Soviet Union. 1991 25 December - Gorbachev resigns as Soviet president; US recognises independence of remaining Soviet republics. 1991 26 December - Russian government takes over offices of USSR in Russia.
