|
*Chronology
of the Soviet Union & Joseph Stalin
|
| 1878 |
(21
December) Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili (Stalin) born in Gori, Georgia,
fourth child (and only one to live to adulthood) of Vissarion Ivanovich
Djugashvili and Ekaterina Georgievna Geladze Djugashvili (other records
give the date as 6 December 1878). |
| 1890 |
Vissarion
Djugashvili (Stalin's father) dies. |
| 1888 |
Enters
Gori Theological School. |
| 1894 |
Enters
Tbilisi Theological Seminary. |
| 1898 |
(March) Formation of Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) in Minsk;
Stalin joins Tbilisi Marxist group. |
| 1899 |
Expelled
from seminary for failing to attend examinations. |
| 1900 |
(January)
Takes job at Tbilisi Observatory; Gives first public speech. |
| 1901 |
(21
March) Leaves observatory, sought by police for revolutionary activities;
Elected to Tbilisi Social Democratic Committee. |
| 1902
|
(13
April) Arrested for revolutionary activities. |
| 1903 |
(July
- August) RSDLP divides into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions at second
congress in London; (July) Stalin sentenced to Siberian exile for three
years; Marries Ekaterina Svanidze. (According to Ulam, there was a belief
among the Bolsheviks that marriage was part of private life, and should,
in general, not be put on public display; this explains the scarcity of
information about Svanidze. A Georgian contemporary of Stalin names 1903
as the date of the marriage (Iremashvili 1932, cited in Payne 1965:99).
Ulam calls his account "unreliable," and suggests 1906 or 1907 as the date
of the marriage, with 1910 as the date of Svanidze's death (1910 is the
date given in Svetlana Allilueva's memoir). The debate is complicated by
a second, surrounding the birth date of Svanidze's son, Iakov. According
to official sources and Allilueva's memoir, Iakov was born in 1908. Radzinsky,
however, citing a newspaper report in the Party Archive, gives November
25, 1907 (old style) as the date of Svanidze's death. He concludes that
Iakov was born in 1907, but that his birth date was recorded as 1908 to
postpone his drafting to army service (Ulam 1973: 82-3; Radzinsky 1996:65) |
| 1904 |
(18
January) Escapes on way to Siberia from Novaia Uda, Irkutsk guberniia, and
returns to Tbilisi, becoming member of Bolshevik faction of party. |
| 1904-1906
|
Russo-Japanese
War |
| 1905 |
(May) Publication of first pamphlet, Briefly About Party Differences;
Revolution of 1905; (December) At first All-Russian Bolshevik Conference
in Tammerfors, Finland, meets Lenin for first time. |
| 1906 |
(15
April) Arrested and released; (23 April - 8 May) Attends Fourth Russian
Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) Congress in Stockholm; (Winter) Writes
Anarchism or Socialism? |
| 1907 |
(13
May - 1 June) Attends Fifth RSDLP Congress in London, but does not participate;
Birth of son, Yakov; (8 December) Ekaterina Svanidze dies of pneumonia/typhus
(?). |
| 1908 |
(7
April) Arrested in Baku; (22 November) Sent to Solvychegodsk, Vologda guberniia,
to begin exile; contracts typhus in Vyatka, enroute; recovers in Solvychegodsk. |
| 1909 |
(6
July) Escapes from Solvychegodsk to Baku |
| 1910 |
(5
April) Arrested in Baku; (6 October) Exiled a second time to Solvychegodsk.
|
| 1911 |
(January)
Moves into home of Maria Prokopievna Kuzakova in Solvychegodsk; has son
with Kuzakova, Konstantin Stepanovich Kuzakov, born 1912. (CV gives birthdate
as 1908); (June) Elected to Organization Committee of All-Russian Conference
of RSDLP; (July) Completes term of exile; (September) Moves to St. Petersburg,
rather than remaining, as agreed, in Vologda. (22 September) Arrested in
St. Petersburg;(December) Exiled to Vologda. |
| 1912 |
(February)
Coopted ( in absentia) onto Central Committee of RSDLP (Bolshevik) during
Twelfth Congress in Prague (According to Radzinsky, he was coopted later,
but before his escape from Vologda); (13 March) Escapes from Vologda; (April)
Contributes to work on first issue of Pravda; (5 May) Arrested in
St. Petersburg, subsequently exiled to Narym Territory, Tomsk Province.
(September) Escapes from Narym; (November - December) Spends time with and
is instructed by Lenin in Cracow. |
| 1913 |
(January
- February) Works on Marxism and the Nationalities Question in Vienna;
(7 March) Arrested in St. Petersburg and exiled to Turukhansk in the far
north. |
|
1914 |
World
War I begins. |
| 1916 |
(December)
Ordered to Krasnoyarsk for army service, but declared unfit because of withered
arm. |
| 1917 |
(25
March) Arrives in Petrograd with Kamenev; (7 - 12 May) Elected to Central
Committee during RSDLP Seventh All-Russian Conference; elected afterwards
to Bureau of Central Committee (forerunner of Politburo) with Lenin, Zinoviev
and Kamenev; (July) With Sergo Alliluiev, aids Lenin in escaping to Sestroretsk,
carries messages between Lenin and the Central Committee in Petrograd; (July/August)
Moves into Alliluievs' apartment; meets future wife Nadezhda Alliluieva;
(8 - 16 August) Elected to Central Committee of RSDLP during Sixth Congress,
plays an increasingly important role in organization during Lenin's absence;
(23 October) Present for Lenin's declaration that it is time for an uprising;
(24-26 October) Bolsheviks take power; (November) Appointed Commissar of
Nationalities in Sovnarkom; (15 November) With Lenin, signs decree on the
rights of nationalities; (12 December) Stalin elected by Central Committee
to "Bureau of Four" with Lenin, Trotsky and Sverdlov. (Role of
"Bureau" was to handle Party problems). |
| 1918 |
(3
March) Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed with Germany (6 - 8 March) Elected
to Central Committee of RSDLP (renamed Russian Communist Party -Bolsheviks)
during Seventh Congress; (10 March) Capital of USSR moved from St. Petersburg
to Moscow; (April) Civil War begins in Russia; (31 May) Given responsibility
for supplying northern Russia with grain from south (Volkokgonov, citing
Central Party Archives at Institute of Marxism-Leninism, gives 24 May as
relevant date.); (19 July) Appointed to War Council of Southern Front; (July)
Tsar's family is shot in Ekaterinburg; (October) At insistence of Trotsky,
Stalin removed by Lenin from Tsaritsyn, where he had begun grain collection.
Removed from War Council of Southern Front ; (November) Allied-German armistice;
(30 November) Appointed to Supreme War Council. |
| 1919 |
(5
January) Arrives with Dzerzhinsky in Vyatka to initiate purge of Red Army;
(4 February) Chooses to stay in Moscow, rather than joining War Council
of South West Front; (2 - 6 March) Attends First Congress of Comintern with
other Russian delegates Lenin, Trotsky, Zinoviev and Bukharin; (24 March)
Marries Nadezhda Alliluieva (This date is given by Payne, who states that
the Eighth Congress ended the previous day: 23 March); (25 March) Elected
to Politburo at Eighth Congress of RCP(B); (May - June) Assists Zinoviev
in defending Petrograd from White Army attack; (November) Awarded Order
of Red Banner |
| 1920 |
(3
February) Chooses to stay in Moscow, rather than joining War Council of
Caucasian Front ; December Stalin in hospital. |
| 1921 |
(16
February) Stalin responsible for invasion of Georgia, overcoming Menshevik
government; Birth of son, Vasilii (Both Radzinsky and Volkogonov give 1921
as the year of Vasilii's birth, although, in another place, Volkogonov lists
it as 1922 (Radzinsky 1996: 172; Volkogonov 1988: 102, 149). |
| 1922 |
(3
April) Elected Secretary General of Central Committee and reelected to Politburo
at Eleventh Congress of RCP(B); (May) Lenin's first stroke; (16 December)
Lenin's second stroke. |
| 1923 |
(5
March) Lenin sends letter to Stalin, containing threat to end relations;
(17 - 25 April) Following Lenin's third stroke, becomes leading figure at
Twelfth Congress of RCP(B). |
| 1924 |
(21
January) Lenin dies. Stalin promises faithfulness to Lenin's position before
Second All-Union Congress of Soviets. |
| 1925 |
(January)
Stalin removes Trotsky from post of Commissar of War; (27 - 29 April) Ends
association with Zinoviev and Kamenev to ally himself with Bukharin and
Rykov; (18 - 31 December) Present for defeat of Zinoviev as head of RCP(B)
at Fourteenth Congress. Kirov, ally of Stalin, named to replace Zinoviev
as head of CP in Leningrad. |
| 1926
|
Birth
of daughter, Svetlana; (July) Removal of Zinoviev from Politburo; (October)
Removal of Trotsky and Kamenev from Politburo. |
| 1929 |
(18
January) Expulsion of Trotsky from Soviet Union; (17 November) Removal of
Bukharin from Politburo. |
| 1930 |
(23
February) Awarded Order of the Red Banner for a second time. |
| 1932 |
(8
November) Nadezhda Alliluieva commits suicide. |
| 1933 |
Hitler
becomes Chancellor of Germany. |
| 1934 |
(September)
USSR joins League of Nations. |
| 1934 |
(1
December) Kirov is assassinated. |
| 1935 |
(15-16
January) Zinoviev, Kamenev and seventeen others tried for Kirov's assassination
and sentenced to prison. |
| 1936 |
(August)
Zinoviev, Kamenev and fourteen others tried again and executed; (December)
Stalin's Constitution enacted into law. |
| 1937 |
(June)
Tukhachevsky and seven other Red Army generals executed. |
| 1939 |
(23
August) Stalin signs Non-Agression pact with Hitler; (September) Germany
and Soviet Union invade Poland; (November) USSR annexes western Ukraine
and western Belorussia,acting on basis of Treaty on Borders and Friendship
signed with Germany in September 1939; (December) Expulsion of USSR from
League of Nations. |
| 1940 |
(20
August) Trotsky assassinated in Mexico; (August) USSR takes over Latvia,
Lithuania and Estonia. |
| 1941 |
(6
May) Assumes post of Chairman of Council of People's Commissars; (21 June)
Germany invades USSR; (3 July) Speaks in public for first time after German
invasion; (19 July) Named Supreme Commander and Commissar for Defense; (25
August) Leningrad placed under seige; (October -1942 ? January) Battle of
Moscow. |
| 1942
|
(July
- 1943 February) Battle of Stalingrad |
| 1942 |
Daughter
Svetlana falls in love with Alexei Kapler; Kapler is subsequently sent to
Vorkutka by Stalin for five years; Son Yakov dies in Sachsenhausen concentration
camp, Germany. |
| 1943 |
Assumes
title of Marshal of Soviet Union; Dissolves Comintern; (28 November - 1
December) Tehran Conference of Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt. |
| 1944
|
Daughter
Svetlana marries Grigori Morozov, a Jew, against wishes but with permission
of Stalin (Although he gives no dates, Radzinsky writes that Svetlana and
Grigori had a son and subsequently divorced (1996: 540). Her second marriage,
this one acceptable to her father, was to Zhdanov's son. Stalin's second
son, Vasilii, was married three times and had two children with his first
wife. Yakov, Stalin's first son, was married and had a daughter (Radzinsky
1996: 476, 541-3); (February - June) Deportation of Chechens, Ingush, Balkars,
Kalmyk and others from Caucasus and Crimea; (29 July) Stalin awarded Order
of Victory; (August) Red Army enters Bucharest; (September) Red Army enters
Sofia; (October) Red Army enters Belgrade. |
| 1945 |
(4
- 11 February) Yalta Conference; (2 May) Red Army enters Berlin; (8 May)
Germany surrenders; (26 June) Stalin awarded title of Hero of Soviet Union;
(17 July - 2 August) Potsdam Conference of Stalin, Churchill, Attlee and
Truman; (8 August) USSR declares war on Japan; (2 September) Japan surrenders;
(24 October) United Nations established. |
| 1947 |
Daughter
Svetlana divorces husband. |
| 1948 |
(April
- June) Berlin is blockaded; Berlin airlift. |
| 1948 |
(May)
Establishment of state of Israel; (June) Stalin breaks relations with Tito.
|
| 1949
|
(April)
NATO founded; (September) Soviet Union tests atomic bomb. |
| 1950 |
(February)
Sino-Soviet Friendship Treaty signed. |
| 1952
|
(14
October) Stalin peaks in public for the last time at nineteenth Party Congress. |
| 1953 |
(5
March) Stalin dies; (9 March) Funeral is held; body is preserved and is
placed in the mausoleum alongside Lenin. |
| 1956 |
(February)
Khrushchev makes 'secret speeches' condemning Stalin at twentieth Party
Congress. |
| 1961 |
(31
October) Stalin's body is removed from the Lenin mausoleum and reburied
outside the Kremlin wall. |
