Ussr/Russia History Study Guide

N.K. Silverman

AP Comparative Politics

USSR/RUSSIA HISTORY STUDY GUIDE

1861—Emancipation Edict ends serfdom; rapid industrialization leads to growth of working class movement and spread of revolutionary ideas.
1917 February—Inflation, food shortages, poor morale of troops results in revolution and abdication of Nicholas II.
1917 October—Bolsheviks overthrow provisional government of Alexander Kerensky.
1921-1928—Lenin institutes New Economic Policy (NEP) which made concessions to private enterprise in industry, trade, and agriculture.
1924—Lenin dies and dispute over power begins. Josef Stalin, who believed in gradual transformation to communism, and Leon Trotsky, who believed in immediate worldwide revolution, were the main contenders. Trotsky was forced into exile and later assassinated in Mexico. By late 1920s, Stalin has established totalitarian state.
1936-1938—Stalin instituted the Great Purges, show trials of dissidents in armed forces and CPSU. Punishment included being sent to the gulags and execution.
1939—Non-aggression pact with Germany.
1953-1964—Nikita Khrushchev leads the USSR.
1956—Hungarian uprising is crushed by Soviet troops.
1957—Sputnik, the first human-made object to orbit the earth, is launched.
1961—Berlin Wall is begun to encircle West Berlin and keep Easterners from fleeing to the West.
1962—Soviets try to install missiles in Cuba. Kennedy uses a blockade to negotiate removal.
1968—Soviet troops invade Czechoslovakia to curb liberalization of Prague Spring.
1972—Nixon visits Moscow, meets with Leonid Brezhnev (Soviet leader), and signs an agreement partially limiting strategic weapons (SALT I).
1985-1991—Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader and institutes two major reform policies: glasnost (openness), and perestroika (economic restructuring). Some dissidents are released. Gorbachev signs INF (Intermediate Nuclear Force) Treaty with Reagan, and visits China just prior to Tiananmen Square massacre. A failed coup by hard-line Communists results in the end of Gorbachev’s rule.
1991—Russia becomes "independent" as the Soviet Union collapses and, together with Ukraine and Belarus, forms the Commonwealth of Independent States, which is eventually joined by all former Soviet republics except the Baltic States. Chechnya declares unilateral independence. Boris Yeltsin becomes the first elected President of Russia
1993 October—Yeltsin orders the army to attack parliament, which is recaptured following a bloody battle.
1998-1999—Yeltsin appoints and dismisses various PMs. Ruble collapses and government gives notice of intention to default on foreign debts. Militants from Chechnya invade the neighboring Russian constituent republic of Dagestan.
1999 September-October—Putin sends Russian troops back into Chechnya in the wake of a series of bomb explosions in Russia which are blamed on Chechen extremists. Yeltsin resigns and is replaced by Putin as acting president.
2003 October—Billionaire Yukos oil boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky arrested and held in custody over investigations into tax evasion and fraud. Mr. Khodorkovsky had supported liberal opposition to President Putin.
2005 May—Billionaire former Yukos oil boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky is sentenced to nine years in prison over charges including tax evasion and fraud. He is later sent to serve it in a Siberian penal colony.
2006 November—Former Russian security service officer Aleksandr Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of the Kremlin living in exile in London, dies there after being poisoned by a radioactive substance.
2008 May—Dmitry Medvedev takes over as president from Vladimir Putin, who becomes prime minister. The UN backs a Georgian claim that Russia shot down one of its unmanned drones over Abkhazia.
2008 August—Tensions between Russia and Georgia escalate into a full-blown military conflict after Georgian troops mount an attack on separatist forces in South Ossetia. Russia says its citizens are under attack and pours thousands of troops into South Ossetia, ejecting Georgian troops. It also launches bombing raids on targets in other parts of Georgia, and moves troops deeper into Georgian territory. After more than a week of hostilities, the two sides sign a French-brokered peace agreement. Russia withdraws its combat troops from Georgian territory outside Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Medvedev formally recognizes the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, drawing further protests from the West and Georgia.
2009 January—Russia stops gas supplies to Ukraine after the collapse of talks to resolve a row over unpaid bills and gas prices. Supplies to southeastern Europe are disrupted for several weeks as a result of the dispute.
2010 April—President Medvedev signs a new strategic arms agreement with his US counterpart Barack Obama. The New Start deal commits the former Cold War foes to cut arsenals of deployed nuclear warheads by about 30 percent.
2010 December—Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky is found guilty of embezzlement and money-laundering in a trial critics say is politically motivated
2012—Vladimir Putin elected President, and names Dmitry Medvedev as Prime Minister

Soviet Leaders: Vladimir Lenin; Josef Stalin; Nikita Khrushchev; Leonid Brezhnev; Yuri Andropov; Konstantin Chernenko; Mikhail Gorbachev