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1920- war with poland.1921- peace treaty with poland signed.1922- Germay reconsized the soviet union.1928- adopet to first five year plan.

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A chronology of key events:

1917 April - Lenin and other revolutionaries return to Russia from Germany.

1917 October - Bolsheviks overthrow provisional government led by Alexander Kerensky, with workers and sailors capturing government buildings and the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, and eventually taking over Moscow.

Civil war

1918 - Treaty of Brest-Litovsk according to which Russia ceded large tracts of land to Germany; Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan proclaim their independence from Russia.

1918-20 - Civil war between Bolsheviks, or Reds, and anti-Bolsheviks, or Whites, ravages Russia. In northern Russia, British, French and US troops capture Murmansk and Archangel until 1919, while in the Russian Far East they occupy Vladivostok, which was held by the Japanese until 1922.

1918-21 - Policy of "war communism" enunciated, with the state taking control of the whole economy; millions of peasants in the Don region starve to death as the army confiscates grain for its own needs and the needs of urban dwellers.

1920 - War with Poland.

1921 - Peace treaty with Poland signed.

1921 - New Economic Policy ushers in a partial return to the market economy and a period of stability.

Collectivisation and purges

1922 - Union treaty formally joins Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Transcaucasus - which were divided in 1936 into Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan - into the Soviet Union.

1922 - Germany recognises the Soviet Union.

1924 - Soviet Union adopts constitution based on the dictatorship of the proletariat and stipulating the public ownership of land and the means of production; Lenin dies and is replaced by Joseph Stalin.

1928 - Adoption of first Five-Year Plan, with the state setting goals and priorities for the whole economy, signifies the end of the New Economic Policy.

Collectivisation of agriculture begins; numerous relatively prosperous peasants, or Kulaks, killed; millions of peasant households eliminated and their property confiscated.

1936-38 - Announcement of the discovery of a plot against Stalin's regime headed by Leon Trotsky ushers in a large-scale purge in which thousands of alleged dissidents in the armed forces, the Communist Party and the government were sentenced to death or long imprisonment.

1933 - United States recognises the Soviet Union.

1934 - Soviet Union admitted to League of Nations.

1939 August - Soviet Union and Nazi Germany conclude a non-aggression pact; Germany invades Poland, triggering World War II.

1939 September - Soviet troops enter Poland, which is then divided between Germany and the USSR.

1939-40 - Russian-Finnish war, which ends with Finland ceding territory to the USSR - the present Russian constituent republic of Karelia.

World War II and its aftermath

1940 - Soviet troops occupy Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which are then incorporated into the USSR; Romania cedes Bessarabia and North Bukovina to the USSR which declares the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic - the present independent republic of Moldova.

1941 April - Soviet Union and Japan sign a non-aggression pact.

Cold War Soviet leader Khrushchev

Khrushchev, right, was premier of the USSR between 1958 and 1964

Born in 1894, the son of a miner

Denounces Stalin in 1956 and oversees 'de-Stalinising' of USSR

BBC History
1941 June - Germany invades the USSR and by the end of the year occupies Belarus and most of Ukraine, surrounds Leningrad (now called St Petersburg). Although a Soviet counter-offensive saves Moscow, by June 1942 the Germans were at the gates of Stalingrad (now called Volgograd) and close to the Caucasus oil fields.

1943 - Germans fail to take Stalingrad; Soviet troops launch a general counter-offensive which eventually culminates in the capture of Berlin in May 1945.

1945 - Soviet Union and the Allies reach understanding on postwar spheres of influence in Europe during the Yalta and Postdam summit conferences.

1945 August - Soviet Union declares war on Japan, eventually annexing the southern half of Sakhalin and the Kuril islands.

1948-49 - Berlin blockade: Soviet Union fails to prevent supplies from reaching the sectors of Berlin occupied by Western forces.

1949 - Soviet Union explodes its first atomic device; recognises the Communist government in China.

1950 - Soviet Union and China sign 30-year alliance treaty.

1950-53 - Outbreak of Korean war sees relations between the Soviet Union and the West deteriorate markedly.

1953 March - Stalin dies and is succeeded by Georgi Malenkov as prime minister and by Nikita Khrushchev as first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.

1953 - Soviet Union explodes its first hydrogen bomb.

1955 - Nikolay Bulganin replaces Malenkov as prime minister.

1955 - Warsaw Treaty Organisation, or Warsaw Pact, set up.

1956 - Soviet troops help crush uprising in Hungary.

Post-Stalin thaw

1956 February - Khrushchev makes a secret speech to the 20th Communist Party congress denouncing Stalin's dictatorial rule and cult of personality.

1957 - First-ever artificial earth satellite, Sputnik, orbits the earth.

1958 - Khrushchev becomes prime minister - in addition to Communist Party chief - after dismissing Bulganin.

Late 1950s - China falls out with the Soviet Union over Moscow's policy of peaceful coexistence with the West.

1960 - Soviet Union shoots down US spy plane U-2 over Soviet territory.

1961 - Yuri Gagarin makes the first manned orbital flight.

1962 - Cuban missile crisis erupts over presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba.

Leonid Brezhnev

Head of the Politburo 1964-82

Invades Czechoslovakia in 1968 under the Brezhnev Doctrine

Under his rule, USSR achieves parity with US on strategic nuclear weapons

Retains power until his death in 1982

1982: Brezhnev rumours sweep Moscow
1963 - Soviet Union joins the US and Britain in signing a treaty banning atmospheric nuclear tests; US-Soviet "hot line" set up.

The Brezhnev era

1964 - Khrushchev is replaced as first secretary of the Communist Party by Leonid Brezhnev; Aleksey Kosygin becomes prime minister.

1968 - Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia to stem a trend towards liberalisation; "Brezhnev doctrine" enunciated, giving communist countries the right to intervene in other communist states whose policies threatened the international communist movement.

1969 - Soviet and Chinese troops clash across the border.

1972 - Soviet Union and US sign SALT-1 arms control agreement, heralding the start of detente.

1974 - Soviet Union agrees to ease its emigration policy in return for most-favoured-nation trade status with the US.

1977 - Brezhnev elected president under new constitution.

1979 - Soviet Union and US sign SALT-2 agreement; Soviet troops invade Afghanistan, formally ending the period of detente with the West.

Mikhail Gorbachev

His reforms hastened the end of communism

Becomes Communist Party chief in 1985

1987: Proposes economic and political reform - perestroika and glasnost

1987: Signs superpower treaty with US to begin scrapping nuclear warheads

1991: Gorbachev resigns as Soviet Union breaks up BBC History: Mikhail Gorbachev 1989 - Europe's revolution
1980 - Kosygin is replaced as prime minister by Nikolay Tikhonov; Kosygin dies.

1982 - Brezhnev dies and is replaced by KGB chief Yuri Andropov.

Boris Yeltsin

Becomes president in 1990

First elected leader in 1991

Soviet Union's Last Stand
1984 - Andropov dies and is replaced by Konstantin Chernenko.

Glasnost, perestroika and Chernobyl

1985 - Chernenko dies and is replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev as general secretary of the Communist Party; Andrey Gromyko becomes president. Gorbachev begins an anti-alcohol campaign and promulgates the policies of openness, or glasnost, and restructuring, or perestroika.

1986 - Chernobyl nuclear power station explodes, showering large areas in Ukraine, Belarus and beyond with radioactive material.

1987 - Soviet Union and US agree to scrap intermediate-range nuclear missiles; Boris Yeltsin dismissed as Moscow party chief for criticising slow pace of reforms.

1988 - Gorbachev replaces Gromyko as president; challenges nationalists in Kazakhstan, the Baltic republics, Armenia and Azerbaijan; special Communist Party conference agrees to allow private sector.

1989 - "Revolutions of 1989" see the toppling of Soviet-imposed communist regimes in central and eastern Europe. Events begin in Poland and continue in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania. In East Germany, an unprecedented series of mass public rallies leads to the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November.

Elsewhere in the USSR: Soviet troops leave Afghanistan; nationalist riots put down in Georgia; Lithuanian Communist Party declares its independence from the Soviet Communist Party; first openly-contested elections for new Congress of People's Deputies, or parliament.

Death of the Soviet Union

1990 - Soviet troops sent to Azerbaijan following inter-ethnic killings between Armenians and Azeris; Communist Party votes to end one-party rule; Gorbachev opposes independence of Baltic states and imposes sanctions on Lithuania; Yeltsin elected president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic by the latter's parliament and leaves the Soviet Communist Party.

1991 August - Senior officials, including Defence Minister Dmitry Yazov, Vice-President Gennadiy Yanayev and the heads of the Interior Ministry and the KGB detain Gorbachev at his holiday villa in Crimea, but are themselves arrested after three days; Yeltsin bans the Soviet Communist Party in Russia and seizes its assets; Yeltsin recognises the independence of the Baltic republics; Ukraine, followed by other republics, declares itself independent.

1991 September - Congress of People's Deputies votes for the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

1991 8 December - Leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus sign agreement setting up Commonwealth of Independent States.

1991 25 December - Gorbachev resigns as Soviet president; US recognises independence of remaining Soviet republics.

1991 26 December - Russian government takes over offices of USSR in Russia.

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A chronology of key events: 1917 April - Lenin and other revolutionaries return to Russia from Germany. 1917 October - Bolsheviks overthrow provisional government led by Alexander Kerensky, with workers and sailors capturing government buildings and the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, and eventually taking over Moscow.

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1926-  Suppression of opposition parties.1929-  Lateran Treaty creates state of Vatican City.

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1931- Japan took over Manchuria and renamed it.1932- prime minister was killed.1937- Japan invaded china.

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Japan Time Line Chronological Timetable of Events - Worldatlas.com

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(1635) In Sakoku Edict of 1635, Japanese were restricted from traveling abroad, Europeans were not allowed entry into the country, penalties for practicing Catholicism were instituted and foreign trade was restricted

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1923- They had an earthquack in tokyo that killed over 100,000 people.1925- The electorate increases fivefold.1920s- rejects the western influence.

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1853 - US fleet forces Japan to open up to foreign influence after over 200 years of self-imposed isolation.

1868 - End of centuries of rule by Shogun military caste, Empire of Japan proclaimed, and country enters period of rapid industrialisation and trading dominance over East Asia.

1894-95 - Japan goes to war with China, and its better-equipped forces win victory in just nine months. China cedes Taiwan and permits Japan to trade on mainland.

Capital: Tokyo

Quake-prone Tokyo lies at the intersection of continental plates

Comprises the 'shi' (inner city) and 'to' (metropolis)

Population: 12.4 million (2003 estimate)

Japan's 2011 earthquake
1904 - Japan becomes first Asian country in modern times to defeat an European power when it routs Russia in Manchuria.

1910 - Japan annexes Korea after three years of fighting, becoming one of the world's leading powers.

1914 - Japan joins World War I on the side of Britain and her allies, gaining some Pacific islands from Germany at the end of the war.

1918-1922 - Japan tries to establish buffer zone against Bolshevik regime in Russia's Pacific provinces, forced out by British and US diplomatic pressure and domestic opposition.
Ultra-nationalism and war
1923 - Earthquake in Tokyo region kills more than 100,000 people.

World's oldest monarchy

Emperor Akihito, heads the world's oldest hereditary monarchy

Until 1945 emperors had the status of living gods

Currently, only males can succeed to the throne

Princess Kiko gave birth to a baby boy in September 2006, potentially resolving a succession crisis

Royal birth sparks succession debate
British Empire ends 21-year alliance with Japan, signalling Western and US apprehension of Japan's growing power in East Asia.

1925 - Universal male suffrage is instituted. The electorate increases fivefold.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
Late 1920s - Extreme nationalism begins to take hold in Japan as world economic depression hits. The emphasis is on a preservation of traditional Japanese values, and a rejection of "Western" influence.

1931 - Japanese army invades Chinese province of Manchuria, installs puppet regime.

1932 - Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi killed during failed coup by nationalist army officers. Military holds increasing influence in the country.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Atomic attacks

Devastation at Hiroshima: Atomic attacks are said to have forced Japan's WWII surrender
Hiroshima survivors keep memories alive 1945: US drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima Independence 1945: Atom bomb hits Nagasaki
1936 - Japan signs alliance with Nazi Germany.

1937 - Japan goes to war with China, capturing Shanghai, Beijing and Nanjing amid atrocities like the "Rape of Nanjing", in which up to 300,000 Chinese civilians were killed.

1939 - Outbreak of Second World War in Europe. With fall of France in 1940, Japan moves to occupy French Indo-China.

1941 - Japan launches a surprise attack on US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. US and main allies declare war on Japan.

1942 - Japan occupies succession of countries, including Philippines, Dutch East Indies, Burma and Malaya. In June, US aircraft carriers defeat the Japanese at the Battle of Midway. The US begins a strategy of "'island-hopping", cutting the Japanese support lines as its forces advance.

1944 - US forces are near enough to Japan to start bombing raids on Japanese cities.

1945 - US planes drop two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August. Emperor Hirohito surrenders and relinquishes divine status. Japan placed under US military government. All Japanese military and naval forces disbanded.

Aum Shinrikyo cult

1995 attack on the Tokyo underground claimed 12 lives, injured more than 5,500

Aum Shinrikyo was founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987 and drew thousands of followers

Asahara was sentenced to death in 2004 over the Tokyo attack

Aum's lingering legacy Rise of Japanese cults Natural and man-made disasters
1947 - New constitution comes into force, establishes parliamentary system with all adults eligible to vote. Japan renounces war and pledges not to maintain land, sea or air forces for that purpose. Emperor granted ceremonial status.

1951 - Japan signs peace treaty with US and other nations. To this day, there is no peace treaty with Russia, as the legal successor to the Soviet Union.

1952 - Japan regains independence. US retains several islands for military use, including Okinawa.

1955 - Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) formed. Apart from brief interludes, party governs into 21st century.

1956 - Japan joins United Nations.
Koizumi at helm
1964 - Olympic Games held in Tokyo.

1972 - Japanese prime minister visits China and normal diplomatic relations are resumed. Japan subsequently closes embassy in Taiwan.

Okinawa is returned to Japanese sovereignty, but US retains bases there.

Yasukuni shrine

Remembers Japan's 2.5m war dead

Monument also venerates convicted war criminals

Ceremonies at the shrine raise hackles across Asia

Japan's controversial shrine
1982 - Japanese car firm Honda opens its first plant in the US.
Iraq deployment
1989 - Emperor Hirohito dies, succeeded by Akihito.

1993 July - Elections held against a background of bribery scandals and economic decline see the LDP ousted for the first time since 1955. A seven-party coalition takes power.

1993 August - Government issues historic "Kono statement" apologising for Japanese military's war-time use of sex slaves.
Abe takes over
1994 - The anti-LDP coalition collapses. An administration supported by the LDP and the Socialists takes over.

1995 January - An earthquake hits central Japan, killing thousands and causing widespread damage. The city of Kobe is hardest hit.

1995 March - A religious sect, Aum Shinrikyo, releases the deadly nerve gas sarin on the Tokyo underground railway system. Twelve people are killed and thousands are injured.

Rape of a local schoolgirl by US servicemen based on Okinawa sparks mass protests demanding the removal of US forces from the island.
Abe steps down
1997 - The economy enters a severe recession.

Shinto religion

Shinto rites are central to the daily life of followers

Rigidly enforced state religion until the 1950s

Followers venerate "kami", spirits who number in the millions

Shinto has no founder, major scriptures or ethical laws

Tens of thousands of Shinto shrines dot the country

BBC Religion and Ethics - Shinto
2001 March - A Japanese court overturns compensation order for Korean women forced to work as sex slaves during WW II.

2001 April - Junichiro Koizumi becomes new LDP leader and prime minister.
LDP defeated
2001 April - Trade dispute with China after Japan imposes import tariffs on Chinese agricultural products. China retaliates with import taxes on Japanese vehicles and other manufactured goods.

2001 August- Koizumi pays homage at the Yasukuni shrine dedicated to the country's war dead, provoking protests from Japan's neighbours. The memorial also honours war criminals.

Futenma: Controversial base

The US base on Okinawa has been a source of friction between the allies
No easy answers in Okinawa debate Economic woes Profile: Japan's Okinawa
2001 October - Koizumi visits Seoul and offers an apology for the suffering South Korea endured under his country's colonial rule.

2002 September - Koizumi becomes the first Japanese leader to visit North Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il apologises for abductions of Japanese citizens in 1970s and 1980s and confirms that eight of them are dead. Five Japanese nationals return home.

2003 December - Government announces decision to install "purely defensive" US-made missile shield.

2004 February - Non-combat soldiers arrive in Iraq in first Japanese deployment in combat zone since World War II.

2005 September - PM Koizumi wins a landslide victory in early general elections.
Islands rows
2006 July - The last contingent of Japanese troops leaves Iraq.

2006 September - Shinzo Abe succeeds Junichiro Koizumi as prime minister.

2006 December - Parliament approves the creation of a fully-fledged defence ministry, the first since World War II.
Abe returns
2007 April - Wen Jiabao becomes first Chinese prime minister to address the Japanese parliament. Mr Wen says both sides have succeeded in warming relations.

2007 August - On the 62nd anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II, almost the entire cabinet stays away from the Yasukuni shrine. Prime Minister Abe says he has no plans to visit the shrine for as long as the issue continues to be a diplomatic problem.

2007 September - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigns, is replaced by Yasuo Fukuda.

2008 June - Japan and China reach a deal for the joint development of a gas field in the East China Sea, resolving a four-year-old dispute.
New security strategy
2008 September - Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda resigns. Former foreign minister Taro Aso appointed as new premier.

2008 November - General Toshio Tamogami, head of Japan's air force, loses his job after writing an essay seeking to justify Japan's role in the second world war.

2009 February - Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano says Japan is facing worst economic crisis since World War II, after figures show its economy shrank by 3.3% in last quarter.

2009 August - Opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) wins general election by a landslide, ending more than 50 years of nearly unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.

2009 September - DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama elected PM at head of coalition with Social Democratic Party and People's New Party.

2010 June - Prime Minister Hatoyama quits over failure to close US military base on Okinawa. Finance Minister Naoto Kan takes over.

2010 July - Ruling coalition loses majority in elections to the upper house of parliament.

2011 February - Japan is overtaken by China as world's second-largest economy.

2011 March - Huge offshore earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastate miles of shoreline. Damage to the Fukushima nuclear plant causes a radiation leak that leaves extensive areas uninhabitable and contaminates food supplies.

2011 August - Following severe criticism of his handling of the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, Prime Minister Naoto Kan steps down. He is succeeded by Yoshihiko Noda.

2011 December - The government announces a relaxation of Japan's self-imposed ban on arms exports. It says the move will allow the country to supply military equipment for humanitarian missions.

2012 June - The lower house of parliament approves a bill to double sales tax, in order to make up the income tax shortfall caused by an ageing population. The governing Democratic Party splits, but retains its lower house majority.

2012 July - Japan restarts the Ohi nuclear reactor, the first since the meltdown at the Fukushima power plant last year, amid local protests.

2012 August - Japan's economic growth slows to 0.3% from 1% in the second quarter as eurozone crisis hits exports and domestic consumption.

Japan recalls its ambassador to Seoul in protest at a visit to the Liancourt Rocks by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. Both countries claim the islets, which Japan calls Takeshima and South Korea calls Dokdo.

2012 September - China cancels ceremonies to mark the 40th anniversary of restored diplomatic relations with Japan because of a public flare-up in a dispute over ownership of a group of islands in the East China Sea administered by Japan as the Senkaku Islands and claimed by China as the Diaoyu Islands. Taiwan also claims the islands.

2012 December - Opposition conservative Liberal Democratic Party wins landslide in early parliamentary elections. Former prime minister Shinzo Abe forms government on pledge of stimulating economic growth.

2013 May - Exports rise 10.1% - the fastest annual rate since 2010 - thanks to weaker yen, boosting Prime Minister Abe's economic recovery plan.

2013 July - Prime Minister Abe's coalition wins upper house elections, giving him control of both houses of parliament - a first for a prime minister in six years.

2013 September - Tokyo is chosen to host the 2020 Olympics.

2013 December - Japan approves the relocation of a US military airbase on its southern island of Okinawa. The base, which houses over 25,000 US troops, will be relocated to a less densely populated part of the island.

Japan's cabinet approves a new national security strategy and increased defence spending in a move widely seen as aimed at China.

2014 July - Japan's government approves a landmark change in security policy, paving the way for its military to fight overseas.

A judicial panel recommends that three former executives of the TEPCO utility - which runs the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant - be indicted on criminal charges for their role in the 2011 disaster.

2014 December - The LDP-led government retains its large parliamentary majority in snap elections called by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to seek a fresh mandate for his economic policies, after Japan's economy slips back into recession mid-year.

2015 February - Economy re-emerges from recession in last quarter of 2014, although growth remains sluggish.

2015 July - Lower house of parliament backs bills allowing troops to fight overseas for first time since Second World War, prompting protests at home and criticism from China.

2015 August - Japan restarts first nuclear reactor at Sendai plant, under new safety rules following 2011 Fukushima disaster.

2016 April - At least 44 people die and more than 1,000 are injured as a result of two major earthquakes on the southern island of Kyushu.

These and major aftershocks also leave at least 100,000 people displaced.

2016 August - Emperor Akihito indicates his readiness to abdicate in a rare video message to the public.

2017 June - Parliament passes a landmark bill allowing Emperor Akihito to abdicate.

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1853 - US fleet forces Japan to open up to foreign influence after over 200 years of self-imposed isolation. 1868 - End of centuries of rule by Shogun military caste, Empire of Japan proclaimed, and country enters period of rapid industrialisation and trading dominance over East Asia.

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Germans elected Nazis making  them 2and largest  party in germany .In 1932 Franklen Roosevelt was elected presadent of the united states.1936 civil war erupts in spian.1939 Czechoslovakia was took over bye the Nazis

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This is the treaty of peace that germany sighns to say they will not attack. But doese not always keep your word. Ther was more treatys not just this. This was a big part of the war.

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FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd presadent of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945.

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1933- US reconsizes the soviet union.1934- the soviet union admitted to leagof nations. 19390- Germany invades poland trigering ww2.

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A chronology of key events:

1917 April - Lenin and other revolutionaries return to Russia from Germany.

1917 October - Bolsheviks overthrow provisional government led by Alexander Kerensky, with workers and sailors capturing government buildings and the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, and eventually taking over Moscow.

Civil war

1918 - Treaty of Brest-Litovsk according to which Russia ceded large tracts of land to Germany; Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan proclaim their independence from Russia.

1918-20 - Civil war between Bolsheviks, or Reds, and anti-Bolsheviks, or Whites, ravages Russia. In northern Russia, British, French and US troops capture Murmansk and Archangel until 1919, while in the Russian Far East they occupy Vladivostok, which was held by the Japanese until 1922.

1918-21 - Policy of "war communism" enunciated, with the state taking control of the whole economy; millions of peasants in the Don region starve to death as the army confiscates grain for its own needs and the needs of urban dwellers.

1920 - War with Poland.

1921 - Peace treaty with Poland signed.

1921 - New Economic Policy ushers in a partial return to the market economy and a period of stability.

Collectivisation and purges

1922 - Union treaty formally joins Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Transcaucasus - which were divided in 1936 into Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan - into the Soviet Union.

1922 - Germany recognises the Soviet Union.

1924 - Soviet Union adopts constitution based on the dictatorship of the proletariat and stipulating the public ownership of land and the means of production; Lenin dies and is replaced by Joseph Stalin.

1928 - Adoption of first Five-Year Plan, with the state setting goals and priorities for the whole economy, signifies the end of the New Economic Policy.

Collectivisation of agriculture begins; numerous relatively prosperous peasants, or Kulaks, killed; millions of peasant households eliminated and their property confiscated.

1936-38 - Announcement of the discovery of a plot against Stalin's regime headed by Leon Trotsky ushers in a large-scale purge in which thousands of alleged dissidents in the armed forces, the Communist Party and the government were sentenced to death or long imprisonment.

1933 - United States recognises the Soviet Union.

1934 - Soviet Union admitted to League of Nations.

1939 August - Soviet Union and Nazi Germany conclude a non-aggression pact; Germany invades Poland, triggering World War II.

1939 September - Soviet troops enter Poland, which is then divided between Germany and the USSR.

1939-40 - Russian-Finnish war, which ends with Finland ceding territory to the USSR - the present Russian constituent republic of Karelia.

World War II and its aftermath

1940 - Soviet troops occupy Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which are then incorporated into the USSR; Romania cedes Bessarabia and North Bukovina to the USSR which declares the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic - the present independent republic of Moldova.

1941 April - Soviet Union and Japan sign a non-aggression pact.

Cold War Soviet leader Khrushchev

Khrushchev, right, was premier of the USSR between 1958 and 1964

Born in 1894, the son of a miner

Denounces Stalin in 1956 and oversees 'de-Stalinising' of USSR

BBC History
1941 June - Germany invades the USSR and by the end of the year occupies Belarus and most of Ukraine, surrounds Leningrad (now called St Petersburg). Although a Soviet counter-offensive saves Moscow, by June 1942 the Germans were at the gates of Stalingrad (now called Volgograd) and close to the Caucasus oil fields.

1943 - Germans fail to take Stalingrad; Soviet troops launch a general counter-offensive which eventually culminates in the capture of Berlin in May 1945.

1945 - Soviet Union and the Allies reach understanding on postwar spheres of influence in Europe during the Yalta and Postdam summit conferences.

1945 August - Soviet Union declares war on Japan, eventually annexing the southern half of Sakhalin and the Kuril islands.

1948-49 - Berlin blockade: Soviet Union fails to prevent supplies from reaching the sectors of Berlin occupied by Western forces.

1949 - Soviet Union explodes its first atomic device; recognises the Communist government in China.

1950 - Soviet Union and China sign 30-year alliance treaty.

1950-53 - Outbreak of Korean war sees relations between the Soviet Union and the West deteriorate markedly.

1953 March - Stalin dies and is succeeded by Georgi Malenkov as prime minister and by Nikita Khrushchev as first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.

1953 - Soviet Union explodes its first hydrogen bomb.

1955 - Nikolay Bulganin replaces Malenkov as prime minister.

1955 - Warsaw Treaty Organisation, or Warsaw Pact, set up.

1956 - Soviet troops help crush uprising in Hungary.

Post-Stalin thaw

1956 February - Khrushchev makes a secret speech to the 20th Communist Party congress denouncing Stalin's dictatorial rule and cult of personality.

1957 - First-ever artificial earth satellite, Sputnik, orbits the earth.

1958 - Khrushchev becomes prime minister - in addition to Communist Party chief - after dismissing Bulganin.

Late 1950s - China falls out with the Soviet Union over Moscow's policy of peaceful coexistence with the West.

1960 - Soviet Union shoots down US spy plane U-2 over Soviet territory.

1961 - Yuri Gagarin makes the first manned orbital flight.

1962 - Cuban missile crisis erupts over presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba.

Leonid Brezhnev

Head of the Politburo 1964-82

Invades Czechoslovakia in 1968 under the Brezhnev Doctrine

Under his rule, USSR achieves parity with US on strategic nuclear weapons

Retains power until his death in 1982

1982: Brezhnev rumours sweep Moscow
1963 - Soviet Union joins the US and Britain in signing a treaty banning atmospheric nuclear tests; US-Soviet "hot line" set up.

The Brezhnev era

1964 - Khrushchev is replaced as first secretary of the Communist Party by Leonid Brezhnev; Aleksey Kosygin becomes prime minister.

1968 - Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia to stem a trend towards liberalisation; "Brezhnev doctrine" enunciated, giving communist countries the right to intervene in other communist states whose policies threatened the international communist movement.

1969 - Soviet and Chinese troops clash across the border.

1972 - Soviet Union and US sign SALT-1 arms control agreement, heralding the start of detente.

1974 - Soviet Union agrees to ease its emigration policy in return for most-favoured-nation trade status with the US.

1977 - Brezhnev elected president under new constitution.

1979 - Soviet Union and US sign SALT-2 agreement; Soviet troops invade Afghanistan, formally ending the period of detente with the West.

Mikhail Gorbachev

His reforms hastened the end of communism

Becomes Communist Party chief in 1985

1987: Proposes economic and political reform - perestroika and glasnost

1987: Signs superpower treaty with US to begin scrapping nuclear warheads

1991: Gorbachev resigns as Soviet Union breaks up BBC History: Mikhail Gorbachev 1989 - Europe's revolution
1980 - Kosygin is replaced as prime minister by Nikolay Tikhonov; Kosygin dies.

1982 - Brezhnev dies and is replaced by KGB chief Yuri Andropov.

Boris Yeltsin

Becomes president in 1990

First elected leader in 1991

Soviet Union's Last Stand
1984 - Andropov dies and is replaced by Konstantin Chernenko.

Glasnost, perestroika and Chernobyl

1985 - Chernenko dies and is replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev as general secretary of the Communist Party; Andrey Gromyko becomes president. Gorbachev begins an anti-alcohol campaign and promulgates the policies of openness, or glasnost, and restructuring, or perestroika.

1986 - Chernobyl nuclear power station explodes, showering large areas in Ukraine, Belarus and beyond with radioactive material.

1987 - Soviet Union and US agree to scrap intermediate-range nuclear missiles; Boris Yeltsin dismissed as Moscow party chief for criticising slow pace of reforms.

1988 - Gorbachev replaces Gromyko as president; challenges nationalists in Kazakhstan, the Baltic republics, Armenia and Azerbaijan; special Communist Party conference agrees to allow private sector.

1989 - "Revolutions of 1989" see the toppling of Soviet-imposed communist regimes in central and eastern Europe. Events begin in Poland and continue in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania. In East Germany, an unprecedented series of mass public rallies leads to the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November.

Elsewhere in the USSR: Soviet troops leave Afghanistan; nationalist riots put down in Georgia; Lithuanian Communist Party declares its independence from the Soviet Communist Party; first openly-contested elections for new Congress of People's Deputies, or parliament.

Death of the Soviet Union

1990 - Soviet troops sent to Azerbaijan following inter-ethnic killings between Armenians and Azeris; Communist Party votes to end one-party rule; Gorbachev opposes independence of Baltic states and imposes sanctions on Lithuania; Yeltsin elected president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic by the latter's parliament and leaves the Soviet Communist Party.

1991 August - Senior officials, including Defence Minister Dmitry Yazov, Vice-President Gennadiy Yanayev and the heads of the Interior Ministry and the KGB detain Gorbachev at his holiday villa in Crimea, but are themselves arrested after three days; Yeltsin bans the Soviet Communist Party in Russia and seizes its assets; Yeltsin recognises the independence of the Baltic republics; Ukraine, followed by other republics, declares itself independent.

1991 September - Congress of People's Deputies votes for the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

1991 8 December - Leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus sign agreement setting up Commonwealth of Independent States.

1991 25 December - Gorbachev resigns as Soviet president; US recognises independence of remaining Soviet republics.

1991 26 December - Russian government takes over offices of USSR in Russia.

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A chronology of key events: 1917 April - Lenin and other revolutionaries return to Russia from Germany. 1917 October - Bolsheviks overthrow provisional government led by Alexander Kerensky, with workers and sailors capturing government buildings and the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, and eventually taking over Moscow.

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The start of ww2 was cause hitler came in as presadent for the jews and killed many people.Everyone was trying to stay out of it but they did not speak up and soon they were attacked and could not do nothing but fight back. they were mad from ww1 and they also wanted more money to live on.