Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Tatar (Mongol) hordes conquer Russia and exact tribute. Russia, however,
succeeds where the Baltics failed: at keeping the Germans out.
1224-1242
The Russian czars consolidate power in Moscow, drive away the Tatars,
and form a unified Russian state.
1465-1557
1613
Foundation of the Romanov dynasty, which lasts until 1917.
Czar Peter the Great founds St. Petersburg as Russia's “window on the
West.” Russia expands southward and eastward under Peter and his suc-
cessor, Catherine.
1703
1812
Napoleon burns Moscow, but loses an army on the way home.
Russia loses Crimean War and decides to modernize, including freeing the
serfs.
1855-1861
Russia loses a war with the Japanese, contributing to a failed revolution
later glorified by the communists as a manifestation of the workers' con-
sciousness.
1905
In March, the Romanov czar is ousted by a provisional government led by
Aleksandr Kerensky; in the October Revolution (which actually took place
in November on the modern calendar), the provisional government is ous-
ted by the Bolsheviks (communists), led by Vladimir Lenin. A few months
later, the entire Romanov family is executed.
1917
Josef Stalin purges the government and the army. Forced collectivization
causes famine and tens of millions of deaths in Ukraine.
1924-1939
In World War II, Russia loses 20 million people to the Germans, but winds
up with control over a sizable chunk of Eastern Europe.
1939-1945
At the peak of the Cold War, Russia acquires the atom bomb, and launches
the first satellite and the first manned space mission.
1945-1962
During a “time of stagnation” under Leonid Brezhnev, the communist sys-
tem slowly fails.
1970s
Mikhail Gorbachev comes to power and declares the beginning of
glasnost
(openness) and
perestroika
(restructuring).
1985
Reactionaries try to topple Gorbachev. They fail to keep power, but so
does Gorbachev. Boris Yeltsin takes control of the government and starts
reforms.
1991
Reactionaries fail to topple Yeltsin. Weakened, Yeltsin manages to hang on
to power until 1999, despite grumbling from the ultra-nationalist right and
the communist left.
1993
On New Year's Eve, Yeltsin suddenly and inexplicably resigns, handing
the country over to Vladimir Putin.
1999
2000-2008
Putin rules as president.
