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Lenin and other revolutionaries return to Russia from Germany
Bolsheviks overthrow the provisional government led by Alexander Kerensky, with workers and sailors capturing government buildings and the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, and eventually taking over Moscow. -
Period: to
Civil war
Civil war between Bolsheviks, or Reds, and anti-Bolsheviks, or Whites, ravages Russia. In northern Russia, British, French and US troops capture Murmansk and Archangel until 1919, while in the Russian Far East they occupy Vladivostok, which was held by the Japanese until 1922. -
War with Poland
War with Poland -
Peace treaty
Peace treaty with Poland signed -
Union treaty
Union treaty formally joins Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Transcaucasus - which were divided in 1936 into Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan - into the Soviet Union -
The USSR is formed
Following the Russian Revolution, there was a struggle for power between the Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin, and the anti-communist White movement. In December 1922, the Bolsheviks won the civil war, and the Soviet Union was formed with the merger of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Byelorussian -
Germany recognises the Soviet Union
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Constitution
The Soviet Union adopts a constitution based on the dictatorship of the proletariat and stipulating the public ownership of land and the means of production; Lenin dies and is replaced by Joseph Stalin. -
Five-Year Plan
The adoption of the Five-Year Plan, with the state setting goals and priorities for the whole economy, signifies the end of the New Economic Policy. -
United States recognises the Soviet Union.
United States recognises the Soviet Union. -
United Nations
Soviet Union admitted to League of Nations.