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| Gregorian date | Julian date | Event |
| December 14, 1825 | December 26, 1825 | In the Senate Square in St. Petersburg, 3,000 Russian soldiers led by army officers revolt against Imperial Russia. This would come to be known as the Decembrist revolt. |
| xxx | 1848-1870 | Alexander Herzen's ideas begin to blend Western Socialism with the traditional peasant communes of Russia |
| xxx | 1861 | The emancipation of the serfs: peasants are freed from feudal controls and tied closely to their village communes |
| xxx | 1861-1864 | Disappointment at the emancipation leads to small amounts of physical rebellion and a surge in intellectual unrest; the Land and Liberty Party Zemyla i volya is formed. |
| xxx | 1864 | The zemstvo, local councils, are created to replace feudal courts and government; the nobility are generally in charge. |
| xxx | 1866 | Dmitry Karakozov tries to kill Tsar Alexander II, prompting the White Terror. |
| xxx | 1866-1870 | The White Terror, a period of intense anti-rebellious activity by the government. |
| xxx | 1867-1870s | The ideas of narodnichestvo (Revolutionary Populism) develop, based on an idealistic look at rural communes as collective, land sharing, power sharing groups. Believers are called narodniki. |
| xxx | 1874 | The Mad Summer, where thousands of young intellectuals flock unorganised to the countryside in order to teach socialism; peasant disinterest causes it to fail dismally and the socialists begin a turn to underground activity |
| xxx | 1876 | A second Zemyla i volya group forms, but they split in 1879 over the issue of terror: the Cherny peredel denounce it, while the Narodnaya volya, want to use it to achieve their aims. |
| xxx | 1880-1900 | Russia begins a period of swift industrialisation under Sergei Witte, creating a densely packed factory workforce living in poor conditions and doing dangerous jobs; this new population looks remarkably like Karl Marx's proletariat and Russian Marxism grows around them. The new workers are politically aware, organising and striking. |
| March 13, 1881 | March 1, 1881 | Alexander II is assassinated by members of Narodnaya volya; the new tsar, Alexander III, begins a repressive, racist and xenophobic crackdown on the Russian people. |
| xxx | 1883 | The first Russian Marxist group is formed in Switzerland by Georgi Plekhanov: The Group for the "Emancipation of Labour". |
| November 13, 1894 | November 1, 1894 | Death of Alexander III; Tsar Nicholas II succeeds his father. |
| December 19, 1895 | December 7, 1895 | Lenin is arrested and held by authorities for an entire year, then exiled to Shushenskoye in Siberia in 1897. |
| April 1898 | April 1898 | The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party is formed in Minsk. The First Party Conference of the RSDLP tries to unite the various small socialist/marxist revolutionary organisations into one party. It takes place outside Russia and isn't very successful. |
| April 1899 | April 1899 | Lenin publishes the book The Development of Capitalism in Russia |
| xxx | 1901 | The Socialist-Revolutionary Party is formed, reflecting the aims of the Narodniki and the methods of Narodnaya volya under the leadership of Victor Chernov. Lenin is among a group of revolutionaries publishing Iskra (Spark). |
| xxx | 1901-1905 | An economic downturn creates discontent, the zemstvos begin to organise and form a coherent agenda; workers develop a strong strikers movement. |
| 1902 | 1902 | The campaign for a national zemstvo assembly begins. Lenin publishes What is to be Done?, a work with very strong views on party organisation. |
| xxx | 1902-1907 | The "Years of the Red Cockerel", a period of rural unrest caused by anger at the injustices of the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. |
| 1903 | 1903 | Stalin is exiled to Siberia |
| xxx | November 17, 1903 | The Second Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party meet in Belgium and London to attempt to create a united force. At the congress, the party split into two irreconcilable factions. the Bolsheviks lead by Lenin and the Mensheviks headed by Julius Martov. |
| xxx | February 4, 1904 | Japan severs relations with Russia in anticipation of war. |
| xxx | February 8, 1904 | The Russo-Japanese War, a war between Meiji Japan and Imperialist Russia, begins. 13 zemstvos organise a medical brigade for the war led by Prince Lvov, who persuades the Tsar to allow it; this is the first time zemstvos are allowed to unite nationally; Lvov becomes a hero. |
| 1904 | 1904 | Stalin returns from exile in Siberia |
| xxx | July, 1904 | Plehve, Minister of the Interior and hardliner against reform, is killed by Socialist-Revolutionary Party activists; public either indifferent or celebratory. Other opposition groups join campaign for national zemstvo assembly. |
| xxx | November 6 - November 9, 1904 | The Zemstvo Assembly: 103 representatives meeting with permission from the Minister of the Interior; produces resolutioin on assembly and reforms, which is rejected by the Tsar. |
| xxx | December 12, 1904 | Decrees expand the rights of zemstvos and ease censorship, but there is no assembly. |
| xxx | January 2, 1905 | Port Arthur finally falls to the Japanese after a series of brutal, high-casualty assaults. |
| 1905 | 1905 | The Russian Revolution of 1905 takes place. It was a country-wide spasm of both anti-government and undirected violence. It was not controlled or managed, and it had no single cause or aim. It is usually regarded as a signpost of changes in Russia |
| xxx | January 3 - January 8, 1905 | 120,000 workers strike in St. Petersburg; government warns against any organised marches |
| xxx | January 9, 1905 | Bloody Sunday. 150,000 striking workers and their families march through St. Petersburg to deliver a protest to the Tsar, but are shot and ridden down on multiple occasions by the army. |
| xxx | January, 1905 | Reaction to the massacre spreads across neighboring regions, especially the industrial centres which experience spontaneous workers' strikes. |
| xxx | February, 1905 | The strike movement spreads down to the Caucasus |
| xxx | February 4, 1905 | Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich is killed by an SR assassin as protests grow. |
| xxx | February 6, 1905 | Notably large rural disorder, especially in Kursk. |
| xxx | February 18, 1905 | Reacting to the growing troubles, Nicholas II orders the creation of a consultative assembly to report on constitutional reform; the move is less than the revolutionaries want, but it gives them impetus. |
| xxx | March, 1905 | The strike movement and unrest reaches Siberia and the Urals. |
| xxx | April 2, 1905 | The second National Congress of zemstvos again demands a constitutional assembly; the Union of Unions is formed. |
| xxx | May,1905 | Embarrassment for the government as the Baltic Fleet is easily sunk at the Battle of Tsushima, having spent 7 months sailing round to Japan. |
| xxx | June, 1905 | Soldiers are used against strikers in Łódź. |
| xxx | June 14-24, 1905 | Sailors Mutiny on the Battleship Potemkin. |
| xxx | June 18, 1905 | Odessa is halted by a large strike. |
| xxx | August, 1905 | Moscow holds the first Conference of the Peasants Union; Nizhny Novgorod holds the First Congress of the Muslim Union, one of many groups pushing for regional - often national - autonomy. |
| xxx | August 6, 1905 | Nicholas II issues a manifesto on the creation of a state Duma; this plan, created by Bulygin and nicknamed the Bulygin Duma, is rejected by revolutionaries for being too weak and having a tiny electorate. |
| xxx | August 23, 1905 | Treaty of Portsmouth ends the Russo-Japanese War; Russia has been beaten by an opponent they were expected to easily defeat. |
| xxx | September 23, 1905 | Printers strike in Moscow, the start of Russia's first General Strike. |
| xxx | October, 1905 | Prince Lvov joins the Constitutional Democratic party (Kadets), which includes the more radical zemstvo men, nobles and scholars; conservative liberals from the Octobrist Party. These are the people who have led the revolution so far. |
| xxx | October, 1905 - July, 1906 | The Peasant Union of the Volokolamsk District creates the independent Markovo Republic; it survives, 80 miles from Moscow, until the government crushes it in July, 1906. |
| xxx | October 6, 1905 | Railway workers join the strike |
| xxx | October 9, 1905 | As telegraph workers join the strike, Witte warns the Tsar that to save Russia he must make great reforms or impose a dictatorship. |
| xxx | October 12, 1905 | Strike action has developed into a General Strike. |
| xxx | October 13, 1905 | A council is formed to represent striking workers: the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Delegates; it functions as an alternative government. The Mensheviks dominate it as the Bolsheviks boycott and similar soviets are soon created in other cities. |
| xxx | October 17, 1905 | Nicholas II issues the October Manifesto, a liberal scheme proposed by Witte. It grants civil liberties, the need for Duma consent before passing laws and a widening of the Duma electorate to include all Russians; mass celebrations follow; political parties form and rebels return, but acceptance of the Manifesto pushes the liberals and socialists apart. The St. Petersburg Soviet prints its first issue of the newsheet Izvestia; left and right groups clash in streetfights. |
| xxx | October 18, 1905 | N.E. Bauman, a Bolshevik activist, is killed during a streetfight triggering a street war between the Tsar-supporting right and the revolutionary left. |
| xxx | October 19, 1905 | The Council of Ministers is created, a government cabinet under Witte; leading Kadets are offered posts, but refuse. |
| xxx | October 20, 1905 | Bauman's funeral is the focus of major demonstrations and violence. |
| xxx | October 21, 1905 | The General Strike is ended by the St. Petersburg Soviet. |
| xxx | October 26-27, 1905 | Sailors revolt at the Kronstadt Naval Base. |
| xxx | October 30-31, 1905 | The Vladivostok Mutiny. |
| xxx | November 6-12, 1905 | The Peasants Union holda a conference in Moscow, demanding a Constituent Assembly, land redistribution and political union between peasants and urban workers. |
| xxx | November 8, 1905 | The Union of Russian People is created by Dubrovin. This early fascist group aims to fight against the left and is funded by government officials. |
| xxx | November 14, 1905 | The Moscow branch of the Peasants Union is arrested by the government. |
| xxx | November 16, 1905 | Telephone/graph workers strike. |
| xxx | November 24, 1905 | The Tsar introduces "Provisional Rules", which at once abolish some aspects of censorship, but introduces harsher penalties for those praising "criminal acts". |
| xxx | November 26, 1905 | The Head of the St. Petersburg Soviet, Khrustalyov-Nosar, is arrested. |
| xxx | November 27, 1905 | The St. Petersburg Soviet appeals to the armed forces and elects a triumvirate to replace Nosar, it includes Trotsky. |
| xxx | December, 1905 | Nicholas II and his son are given honorary membership of the Union of the Russian People; they accept. |
| xxx | December 3, 1905 | The St. Petersburg Soviet is arrested en masse after Social Democrats (SDs) hand out weapons. |
| xxx | December 10-15, 1905 | The Moscow Uprising, where rebels and militias try to take the city through armed struggle; it fails. No other major rebellions take place, but the Tsar and the right react: the police regime returns and the army sweeps across Russia crushing dissent. |
| xxx | December 11, 1905 | Russia's urban population and workers are enfranchised by electoral changes. |
| xxx | January 9-10, 1906 | Vladivostok experiences an armed uprising. |
| xxx | January 11, 1906 | Rebels create the Vladivostok Republic. |
| xxx | January 19, 1906 | The Vladivostok Republic is overturned by Tsarist forces. |
| xxx | February 16, 1906 | The Kadets condemn sthe trikes, land seizures and the Moscow Uprising as they try to secure the new political scene against further revolution. |
| xxx | February 18, 1906 | New punishments for those seeking to undermine government offices and agencies by verbal or written "inaccuracy". |
| xxx | February 20, 1906 | The Tsar announces the structure of the State Duma and State Council. |
| xxx | March 4, 1906 | Provisional Rules guarantee rights of assembly and of association; this and the Duma allows political parties to legally exist in Russia; many form. |
| xxx | April, 1906 | Pyotr Stolypin becomes the Minister of the Interior. |
| xxx | April 23, 1906 | Fundamental Laws of the Empire are published. The Russian Constitution of 1906 includes the creation of the State Duma and State Council; the former is composed of 500 delegates drawn from every Russian region and class. The laws are cleverly written to meet the October Promises, but not diminish the Tsar's power. |
| xxx | April 26, 1906 | Provisional Laws abolish preliminary censorship. |
| xxx | April 27, 1906 | The First State Duma opens, boycotted by the left. |
| xxx | June 18, 1906 | Hertsenstein, a Duma Deputy of the Kadet party, is killed by the Union of Russian People. |
| xxx | July 8, 1906 | The first Duma is deemed too radical by the Tsar and is closed. |
| xxx | July 10, 1906 | The Vybord Manifesto, when radicals - mainly Kadets - call for the people to snub the government via a tax and military boycott. The people don't and the 200 Duma signatories are tried; from this point the Kadets separate themselves from the views of "the people". |
| xxx | July 17-20, 1906 | The Sveaborg Mutiny. |
| xxx | July 19-29, 1906 | Further mutiny in Kronstadt. |
| xxx | August 12, 1906 | Fringe SRs bomb Stolypin's summer home, killing over 30 people - but not Stolypin. |
| xxx | August 19, 1906 | The government creates a special courts martial to deal with political incidents; over 60,000 are executed, imprisoned or exiled by the system. |
| xxx | September-November, 1906 | Members of the St. Petersburg Soviet are tried. Thanks to Trotsky's grandstanding, few are convicted, but he is exiled. |
| xxx | September 15, 1906 | The government orders its local branches to use "any means" in maintaining public order, including aiding loyalist groups; political parties are threatened by the Tsar. |
| xxx | January 30, 1907 | The Union of Russian People try to murder Witte. |
| xxx | February 20, 1907 | The Second State Duma opens, dominated by the left who cease their boycott. |
| xxx | March 14, 1907 | Iollos, a Duma Deputy of the Kadet party, is killed by the Union of Russian People. |
| xxx | May 27, 1907 | The Union of Russian People try to murder Witte again. |
| xxx | June 3, 1907 | The Second Duma is also deemed too radical and is closed; Stolypin alters the Duma voting system in favour of the wealthy and landed in a move branded his coup d'etat. |
| xxx | July, 1907 | Stolypin becomes Prime Minister. |
| xxx | November 1, 1907 | The Third Duma opens. Mainly Octobrist, Nationalist and Rightist, it generally did as it was told. The failure of the Duma causes people to turn away from liberal or democratic groups in favour of radicals. |
| xxx | 1911 | Stolypin is assassinated by a Socialist Revolutionary (who is also a police agent); he was hated by the left and the right. |
| xxx | 1912 | 200 striking workers are shot during the Lena Goldfield Massacre; reaction to this sparks another year of unrest. The Fourth State Duma is elected from a far broader political spectrum from the third as the Octobrist and Nationalist parties divide and collapse; the Duma and government are soon in heavy disagreement. |
| xxx | 1912-1914 | Strikes begin to grow, with 9000 during the period; Bolshevik trade unions and slogans grew. |
| xxx | 1912-1916 | Rasputin, a monk and favourite of the Imperial family, accepts sexual favours for political influence; his carousel of government appointments creates great division. |
| xxx | June-July, 1914 | General Strikes in St. Petersburg. |
| xxx | July 19, 1914 | Germany declares war on Russia, causing a brief sense of patriotic union amongst the Russian nation and a downturn in striking. |
| xxx | July 30, 1914 | The All Russian Zemstvo Union for the Relief of Sick and Wounded Soldiers is created with Lvov as president. |
| xxx | August-November, 1914 | Russia suffers heavy defeats and a large shortage of supplies, including food and munitions. |
| xxx | August 18, 1914 | St. Petersburg is renamed Petrograd as 'Germanic' names are made to sound more Russian, and hence more patriotic. |
| xxx | November 5, 1914 | Bolshevik members of the Duma are arrested; they are later tried and exiled to Siberia |
| xxx | January 9, 1917 | 140,000 strike in Petrograd to commemorate Bloody Sunday; strikes in other cities. |
| xxx | January 24, 1917 | The Workers Group calls for a strike on February 14 (date of the Duma's next recall) to demand the overthrow of the Tsar and the creation of a Provisional Government. |
| xxx | January 31, 1917 | Strikes across Russia. |
| xxx | February 14, 1917 | 100,000+ strike in Petrograd; the Duma reconvenes and attacks the government over food shortages. |
| xxx | February 19, 1917 | Petrograd authorities announce that bread will be rationed from March 1; panic buying ensues. |
| xxx | February 23, 1917 | Demonstrations in Petrograd for International Women's Day (mainly women and striking Putilov workers) are joined by evermore striking bread demonstrators until a crowd of 100,000 forms; revolutionary banners and slogans appear. The Bolsheviks are initially opposed to the strike. |
| February 1917 | February 1917 | The February Revolution takes place. |
| July 1917 | July 1917 | The July Days take place. |
| October 1917 | October 1917 | The October Revolution takes place. |
| xxx | 17 July 1918 | Tsar Nicholas II and his family, including the gravely ill Tsarevich Alexei and several family servants, were executed by firing squad in the basement of the Ipatiev House where they had been imprisoned by a detachment of Bolsheviks led by Yakov Yurovsky. |
| xxx | March 3, 1918 | Russia and the Central Powers, sign The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, a peace treaty, marking Russia's exit from World War I. |
| xxx | March 18, 1921 | The Peace of Riga is signed between Poland and Soviet Russia ending the Polish-Bolshevik War. |
| xxx | December 1922 | The Soviet Union, a union of the Russian, Ukrainian, Belarussian, and Transcaucasian Soviet republics is formed. |
| xxx | 1922 | Lenin has his first stroke partly induced by the bullet still lodged in his spine |
| xxx | 1923 | Lenin is effectively removed from public life. |
| xxx | January 21, 1924 | Lenin Dies. The city of Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honor. |
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