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From Kievan Rus and its conversion to Orthodoxy through the Tsars, the revolution and the Soviet century, to modern Russia and Ukraine. Contested framings presented neutrally.
From Kievan Rus and its conversion to Orthodoxy through the Tsars, the revolution and the Soviet century, to modern Russia and Ukraine. Contested framings presented neutrally.
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According to the Primary Chronicle, the Varangian leader Rurik took power at Novgorod, an event later treated as the traditional starting point of the Rus state. The chronicle account is legendary and its details are debated by historians.
The Rus ruler Oleg is said to have seized Kiev and made it the center of his realm, linking Novgorod and Kiev under one dynasty. Kiev became the political heart of what is now called Kievan Rus.
Grand Prince Vladimir the Great adopted Byzantine Christianity and had the people of Kiev baptized, tying the Rus to the Orthodox world. Both modern Russia and Ukraine claim this conversion as a foundational moment in their national and religious histories.
Under Yaroslav the Wise, Kievan Rus reached a cultural and political high point, with the building of Saint Sophia Cathedral and the compiling of the law code known as the Russkaya Pravda. Dynastic marriages linked Kiev to royal houses across Europe.
A Mongol reconnaissance force defeated a combined army of Rus princes and Cumans in the first clash between the Rus and the Mongols. The defeat exposed how divided the Rus principalities were.
also in Falls of nations
In December 1240 the Mongols captured and destroyed Kiev, the chief city of the Rus. The sack broke the power of Kievan Rus and placed its lands under Mongol overlordship.
Prince Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod defeated the Livonian Order on the frozen Lake Peipus, checking crusader expansion from the west. The battle later became a strong symbol in Russian national memory.
The Mongols set up the Golden Horde, a khanate that made the Rus principalities tributary states for roughly two and a half centuries. Rus princes had to seek a patent to rule from the khan and collect tribute for him.
Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow led a coalition to victory over a Golden Horde army, the first major Rus win over the Mongols. The battle boosted Moscow's prestige even though Mongol overlordship continued for another century.
Grand Prince Ivan III annexes city-state of Novgorod, eliminating merchant republic model from Russian society.
in 1478 he annexed the city-state of Novgorod, which had the effect of eliminating the model of a merchant republic from Russian societyA History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years , p. 549-552
Ivan III absorbed the wealthy Novgorod Republic into the Grand Duchy of Moscow, a major step in gathering the Rus lands under Moscow. His reign also promoted the idea of Moscow as heir to Byzantium.
A standoff between the forces of Ivan III of Moscow and the Great Horde ended without a major battle and is traditionally seen as the end of Mongol overlordship over the Rus. Moscow was now an independent power.
Ivan IV was crowned Tsar of All Rus, the first Moscow ruler to take that title, raising his status above the other princes. His long reign brought both territorial growth and violent internal repression through the oprichnina.
Ivan the Terrible captured the Khanate of Kazan, adding a large non-Slavic and Muslim population to the Russian state. The victory opened the Volga region to further eastward expansion.
A Cossack expedition led by Yermak, backed by the Stroganov merchants, defeated the Khanate of Sibir and began Russia's expansion across Siberia. The push east eventually reached the Pacific.
The end of the old ruling line brought famine, civil war, pretenders to the throne, and Polish and Swedish intervention, nearly destroying the Russian state. A national uprising eventually expelled foreign forces and restored order.
An assembly of the land elected Michael Romanov as tsar, founding the Romanov dynasty that would rule Russia until 1917. His accession ended the Time of Troubles.
The Cossack leader Bohdan Khmelnytsky and the Zaporozhian Host pledged allegiance to the Russian tsar during their revolt against Poland. Russian and Ukrainian historians have long disputed whether the pact was a temporary military alliance or a union of the two lands.
Patriarch Nikon's reforms to church ritual and texts split the Russian Orthodox Church and produced the Old Believers, who rejected the changes. Many Old Believers were persecuted and fled to the empire's edges.
Last fall I spoke in the town of Dedham at a church built in 1638, only nine years after the Arbella brought the Nonconformists to Boston.Dumbing Us Down , p. 106-113
On the death of his co-tsar, Peter I took full control and launched a sweeping program to modernize the army, navy, administration, and culture along Western European lines. His reforms reshaped Russian society from the top down.
Peter the Great founded a new capital on the Baltic coast to serve as Russia's window to the West. Built at great human cost on marshland, the city symbolized his drive to Europeanize the country.
Peter the Great crushed the invading Swedish army of Charles XII, a turning point in the Great Northern War. The victory established Russia as a major European power and broke Sweden's dominance in the north.
After victory in the Great Northern War, Peter the Great took the title of Emperor and formally proclaimed the Russian Empire. The same reform era placed the Orthodox Church under state control through the Holy Synod, abolishing the office of patriarch.
Catherine II took the throne after a palace coup against her husband and went on to rule for over three decades. Her reign expanded the empire, promoted Enlightenment-influenced administration, and strengthened the power of the nobility.
also in Falls of nations
Between 1772 and 1795 Russia, Prussia, and Austria divided the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth among themselves in three partitions. By 1795 Poland had vanished from the map for over a century.
Yemelyan Pugachev led a huge revolt of Cossacks, serfs, and non-Russian peoples that briefly threatened Catherine the Great's rule. The rising was crushed and led to tighter control over the frontier and the serfs.
Catherine the Great annexed the Crimean Khanate, ending Ottoman influence there and opening the northern Black Sea to Russian settlement. The port of Sevastopol was founded soon after as a naval base.
Napoleon's Grande Armee invaded Russia, fought the bloody Battle of Borodino, and entered a largely abandoned and burning Moscow. The catastrophic winter retreat destroyed most of his army and marked a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars.
A group of reform-minded army officers staged an uprising demanding a constitution during the disputed succession to the throne. The revolt was quickly crushed by Nicholas I, and its leaders were executed or exiled.
Britain, France, and the Ottomans fight Russia, mainly in the Crimea, to check Russian expansion. The war kills over 600,000, mostly from disease, and spurs reforms from nursing to Russian serf emancipation.
Tsar Alexander II abolished serfdom, freeing tens of millions of peasants from bondage to their landlords. The reform was limited by redemption payments and land arrangements that left many peasants poor and discontented.
After decades of fighting, Russia completed its conquest of the North Caucasus, defeating mountain resistance led earlier by figures such as Imam Shamil. The campaign was followed by the mass expulsion of many Circassians.
Russia conquered or made protectorates of Tashkent, Samarkand, Khiva, and Bukhara, absorbing much of Central Asia. The advance brought Russia into rivalry with Britain in the contest known as the Great Game.
Russia sold its Alaskan territory to the United States, ending its presence in North America. The government saw the distant colony as hard to defend and unprofitable.
The reforming tsar was killed by a bomb thrown by members of the revolutionary group People's Will. His death led his successors to abandon reform for repression and tighter autocratic control.
Russia built a rail line stretching thousands of kilometers to link European Russia with the Pacific coast. The railway boosted settlement, trade, and military reach across Siberia.
After troops fired on peaceful marchers on Bloody Sunday, strikes and unrest spread across the empire. The tsar was forced to issue the October Manifesto, granting civil liberties and an elected assembly, the Duma.
Russia mobilized in support of Serbia and went to war against Germany and Austria-Hungary. Heavy casualties, poor supply, and economic strain steadily undermined support for the monarchy.
also in Hinges of history, How the First World War unfolded
The Bolsheviks seize power in Russia on a promise of peace, land, and bread.
Bolshevik Reds fight White armies, national movements, and foreign interventions across the former Russian Empire. Up to ten million die from fighting, terror, and famine, and the Soviet Union emerges from the wreckage.
Unable to stop the German advance, the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, losing all the western borderlands including Poland, the Ukraine, and the Baltic areas.
the Bolsheviks were compelled to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918). By this treaty Russia lost all the western borderlands, including Poland, the Ukraine, and the Baltic areas.Tragedy and Hope , p. 330-332
Amid the collapse of the Russian Empire, the Central Rada proclaimed a fully independent Ukrainian People's Republic. The young state was soon caught between competing armies in the civil war.
also in How the First World War unfolded
Soviet Russia leaves the war, ceding vast territories to Germany.
Bolshevik guards shot the former Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, and their children as White forces neared the city. The killing ended any prospect of a monarchist restoration around the imperial family.
The Bolsheviks launched a campaign of mass arrests and executions against real and suspected enemies, run by the Cheka secret police. It set a pattern of state violence that continued through the Soviet period.
The reborn Polish state and Soviet Russia fight over their borderlands, with the Red Army turned back at Warsaw in 1920. The Polish victory halts the westward spread of Bolshevism for two decades.
Lenin introduced the New Economic Policy, allowing limited private trade and small business to revive an economy shattered by war and requisitioning. It was a partial retreat from strict state control.
also in Communism: rise and fall
Sailors of the Kronstadt naval base rise against Bolshevik rule, demanding free soviets and an end to one-party control. The Red Army storms the fortress and the revolt's suppression marks the closing of dissent within the revolution.
Drought, war, and grain requisitioning produced a famine that killed millions, mainly along the Volga. International relief, including a large American effort, helped feed the starving.
also in Communism: rise and fall
The Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Transcaucasian Soviet republics sign the treaty creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The world's first communist state is formalized as a federal union.
Lenin suffered a cerebral stroke in May 1922 and, after a series of strokes, died in January 1924. His long illness set off a struggle for control of the party and state.
In May 1922, Lenin had a cerebral stroke and, after a series of such strokes, died in January 1924.Tragedy and Hope , p. 333-335
Vladimir Lenin died after a series of strokes, setting off a struggle for control of the party. His body was embalmed and put on display, and Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honor.
The Soviet state promoted mass atheism through an organized movement that attacked religion in schools, the press, and public life. Churches, mosques, and synagogues were closed and clergy were persecuted.
By the late 1920s Joseph Stalin had outmaneuvered his rivals, including Leon Trotsky, to become the dominant figure in the party and state. He then pushed the country toward rapid industrialization and forced collectivization.
The state seized private farms into collectives and drove crash industrialization through central planning. Peasant resistance was met with mass deportations of so-called kulaks and severe grain requisitioning.
Soviet authorities dynamited Moscow's largest cathedral as part of the campaign against religion, intending to build a Palace of Soviets that was never completed. The site later became an open-air swimming pool.
also in Communism: rise and fall
Famine caused by forced collectivization and grain requisition kills millions in Soviet Ukraine. Many historians and governments class it as a man-made catastrophe directed at the Ukrainian peasantry.
also in Communism: rise and fall
Stalin's purges sweep the Soviet party, army, and society, with show trials of old Bolsheviks and mass executions by the NKVD. Around 750,000 people are shot and over a million sent to the Gulag.
also in How the Second World War unfolded, Secret bargains: the hidden treaties
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact with a secret protocol dividing eastern Europe between them.
Following the secret protocol, the Red Army invaded eastern Poland weeks after Germany attacked from the west. The Soviets annexed the territory, including western Ukrainian and Belarusian lands.
The Soviet Union attacked Finland after it refused territorial demands, meeting fierce resistance and heavy Soviet losses. Finland ceded land in the peace but kept its independence.
also in How the Second World War unfolded
Germany invades the Soviet Union along a 2,900-kilometre front, the largest invasion in history.
German and Finnish forces encircled Leningrad for nearly 900 days, cutting off food and fuel. Hundreds of thousands of residents died, most from starvation, before the blockade was broken.
also in How the Second World War unfolded
The German Sixth Army is encircled and destroyed; the strategic initiative in the east passes to the Soviet Union for good.
The Soviets stopped a major German offensive in one of the largest tank battles in history. After Kursk the Red Army held the initiative and began pushing westward.
During the war Stalin eased persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church and allowed the election of a new patriarch, seeking wartime unity and legitimacy. The church remained closely watched and controlled by the state.
Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met at Yalta in the Crimea from February 4-12, 1945, to settle wartime and immediate postwar issues. They agreed on joint occupation of Germany, the United Nations voting rules, and the Polish settlement, giving Russia much of what it wanted.
The conference of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin held at Yalta, in the Crimea, on February 4-12, 1945, sought to reach agreement on most of the issues of the war and of the immediate postwar periodTragedy and Hope , p. 684-686
Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill met in Crimea to plan the final defeat of Germany and the shape of postwar Europe. The agreements left much of Eastern Europe within the Soviet sphere.
The Soviet Union accepted Germany's surrender after the fall of Berlin, ending the war in Europe. Victory Day on May 9 became a central date in Soviet and later Russian national memory, marking losses of around 27 million Soviet citizens.
also in 1947: the postwar order is built
Wartime cooperation gave way to rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States and their blocs, split by what Churchill called an Iron Curtain. The contest shaped global politics for over four decades.
The Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb, ending the American nuclear monopoly. The test opened a long arms race between the two superpowers.
Stalin died on March 5, 1953, just as he was preparing a third great purge of the party. His death set off a concealed five-year struggle for power from which Khrushchev eventually emerged as supreme leader.
At this point, just when the purge was to begin, Stalin died, possibly from a series of strokes, on March 5, 1953.Tragedy and Hope , p. 835-837
Joseph Stalin died after nearly three decades in power, setting off a struggle among his lieutenants. His death led to a partial easing of terror and the eventual rise of Nikita Khrushchev.
The Soviet leadership moved Crimea from the Russian to the Ukrainian republic within the USSR. The move drew little notice at the time but became a source of dispute after both republics became independent states.
also in Communism: rise and fall
Khrushchev denounces Stalin's cult of personality and crimes in a closed session of the Twentieth Party Congress. The speech launches de-Stalinization and shakes communist parties worldwide.
Soviet tanks crushed a popular revolt against communist rule in Hungary, killing thousands. The intervention showed the limits Moscow set on reform within its bloc.
also in Hinges of history
The Soviet Union puts Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit. The launch opens the space age and the space race, and spurs massive Western investment in science and technology.
also in Curriculum, programming, and propaganda
Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth aboard Vostok 1, becoming the first person in space. The flight was a major propaganda victory for the Soviet Union.
also in Hinges of history, JFK: the presidency and the assassination, The Cold War
The Cuban Crisis of October 1962 brought the United States and Soviet Union to the edge of an unwanted war and revealed to both the need to ease tension, marking the end of the period begun in 1945.
the Cuban Crisis of October 1962, somewhat like the Fashoda Crisis of 1898, by bringing the United States and the Soviet Union to the edge of a war that neither wanted, revealed to both the mutual balance of error and the need to do something about it.Tragedy and Hope , p. 729-731
also in Hinges of history
The discovery of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba brings the United States and the Soviet Union to the edge of nuclear war for thirteen days. The scare leads to the hotline and the first arms-control agreements.
Reform communists in Czechoslovakia tried to build socialism with a human face, prompting a Warsaw Pact invasion led by the Soviet Union. The crackdown reinforced the Brezhnev Doctrine of limited sovereignty for bloc states.
New leader Mikhail Gorbachev launched policies of openness and restructuring to reform the stagnant Soviet system. The reforms loosened censorship and central control but also unleashed forces that the state could not contain.
also in Hinges of history
Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear plant explodes, spreading radioactive fallout across Europe. The disaster discredits Soviet secrecy, energizes environmental movements, and stalls nuclear power for a generation.
State-tolerated celebrations marked a thousand years since the Christianization of Rus, signaling a thaw in relations between the Soviet state and the Orthodox Church. The event helped open the way for a religious revival.
also in Hinges of history, The Cold War
The Berlin Wall, the greatest symbol of the Cold War, began to crack. The chief of the CIA's Soviet division watched it happen on CNN, with no worthwhile spies left to report from Moscow.
When it began to crack one night in November 1989, the chief of the Soviet division of the clandestine service, Milt Bearden, sat speechless at headquarters, staring at CNN.Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
also in Hinges of history
East Germany opens its border and crowds tear at the Berlin Wall. Communist rule across Eastern Europe collapses within months, ending the Cold War division of the continent.
before the Wall came down in 1989Seeing Like a State- How Certain Schemes to Improve the , p. 366-369
Communist hardliners tried to seize power and reverse Gorbachev's reforms by placing him under house arrest. Popular resistance led by Boris Yeltsin defeated the coup within days and accelerated the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Ukraine's parliament declared independence from the Soviet Union in the wake of the failed August coup. A referendum on December 1 confirmed the choice with overwhelming support across the country.
also in Communism: rise and fall
The Supreme Soviet formally dissolves the USSR, a day after Gorbachev's resignation and the lowering of the Soviet flag over the Kremlin. Seven decades of communist rule in Russia end and fifteen states take its place.
The Yeltsin government freed prices and moved rapidly to a market economy, causing hyperinflation and a deep fall in living standards. Mass privatization concentrated wealth among a small group of businessmen who became known as oligarchs.
A power struggle between President Yeltsin and parliament ended with tanks shelling the parliament building. Yeltsin then pushed through a new constitution that gave the presidency wide powers.
Russia invades separatist Chechnya and destroys Grozny but cannot defeat the insurgency. Russian withdrawal in 1996 leaves Chechnya effectively independent until the second war.
Russia defaulted on its debt and devalued the ruble amid falling oil prices and fiscal strain. The crisis wiped out savings and deepened public anger at the reforms of the 1990s.
Vladimir Putin, who had become acting president when Yeltsin resigned at the end of 1999, won election in his own right. He moved to strengthen central control over regions, media, and business.
The Moscow cathedral demolished under Stalin was rebuilt and consecrated, a symbol of the post-Soviet revival of the Russian Orthodox Church. The church regained a prominent public role after decades of repression.
series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005
Russia defeats Georgia in a five-day war over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It is the first Russian invasion of a neighboring state since the Soviet collapse.
Protests erupted after President Yanukovych rejected an association agreement with the European Union, and grew after a violent crackdown. In February 2014 Yanukovych fled the country and parliament removed him from office, an outcome Ukraine calls a revolution and Russia calls a coup.
Pro-Russian separatists, with Russian backing, seized parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, sparking war with Ukrainian forces. Ukraine and Western governments describe the fighting as Russian aggression, while Russia long denied direct involvement.
A Malaysia Airlines passenger jet was shot down over separatist-held Donbas, killing all 298 people aboard. An international investigation concluded it was hit by a missile brought from Russia, which denies responsibility.
Ukraine, Russia, and separatist representatives signed ceasefire deals brokered with France and Germany to end the Donbas fighting. The agreements were never fully carried out, and the conflict remained frozen and deadly.
The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople granted a decree of independence to a new unified Orthodox Church of Ukraine, separate from the Moscow Patriarchate. The Russian Orthodox Church rejected the move and broke communion with Constantinople over it.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, striking cities across the country and attempting to seize the capital. Russia called it a special military operation, while Ukraine and most of the world condemned it as an unprovoked war of aggression.
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