Russia

Before present 20,000-26,000 Age of mammoths Sungir remains 24,000 Onset of the Ice Age 7,000-8,000 Global warming; ice retreats Aspen, birch, hazel, willow, hornbeam, linden, oak, elm, etc. Animals, wildfowl 6,000 Palaeolithic era Agriculture and animal husbandry 4,000 Babylonia Tripolye settlements 3,5oo Hunter-gatherers in Finland 3,000 Iron Age Swidden agriculture Persian Empire Cimmerians, Scythians, Alexander the Great Sarmatians 2,000 Roman Empire Common Era (CE) 330 CE Constantine the Great founds Constantinople Khazar kaganate c. 650- Spread of Islam: Baghdad Caliphate c. 856 Riurik at Ladoga 858 Askold and Dir take Kiev 860 Vikings raid Constantinople 882 Alfred the Great Oleg defeats Askold and Dir Khazar hegemony over Kiev c. 955 Olga visits Constantinople Sviatoslav conquers Khazars Christianization of Rus Vladimir builds St Sofia in Kiev Iaroslav the Wise (d. 1054) 1066 Normans conquer England 1068 Rus defeated by Polovtsians (Cumans) 1113 Vladimir Monomakh, Prince of Vladimir-Suzdal 1204 Crusaders sack Constantinople 1232 Baty Khan routs Russians Mongol era begins 1240 Collapse of Kievan Rus Alexander Nevskii beats off Swedes and German Knights c. 1300 Rise of Vladimir-Moscow 1325 Metropolitan of Kiev moves to Moscow 1331 Ivan I (Money-Bag) becomes grand prince 1380 Dmitrii defeats Tatars at Kulikovo 1400 St Sergius. Monastic colonization 1413 Treaty of Horodlo Catholicization in Lithuania 1425 Growth of Inca Empire Vasilii 11 1441 Council of Ferrara Ivan III (the Great) Louis XI of France 1453 Constantinople falls to Turks Lorenzo de’ Medici Henry the Navigator Novgorod subjected to Moscow 1472 Ivan III m. Zoe Palaeologue 1485 Henry VII of England Aztec Empire 1547 Ivan IV (the Terrible) 1550 Spain and Portugal build empires Law book issued Kazan captured First Russian outposts in Caucasus Conquest of Siberian khanate Livonian war English merchants discover Russia Archangel established Boris Godunov 1601 Onset of Little Ice Age Mangazeia founded 1605 Russia in turmoil Collapse of Muscovite state Pretender Dmitrii takes Moscow 1606 Swedes invade 1612 Moscow recaptured 1613 Michael Romanov crowned tsar 1630-31 War with Poland Smolensk recaptured 1648 Fronde in France Dezhnev reaches Pacific English Civil War Ukrainian Cossacks rebel against Polish rule 1654 War with Poland Ukrainian Cossacks submit to Tsar Alexis 1660 Restoration of monarchy in England 1667 Peace of Andrusovo: Russia gains eastern Ukraine 1676 Death of Alexis, accession of Fedor 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk with China 1689-1725 Peter I (the Great) Great Northern War 1703 Foundation of St Petersburg 1709 Russians rout Swedes at Poltava 1711 Russians defeated by Turks on river Pruth 1716 Orenburg Line begun (base for future expansion into Central Asia) Annexation of Baltic states 1724 War with Persia 1725 Catherine I 1726 Alliance with Habsburg Emperor 1727 Peter II 1730 Anna Iovanovna 1741 Elizabeth Petrovna 1756-63 Seven Years War 1761 Peter III 1762 Catherine II 1769-73 American Revolution War with Turks First partition of Poland 1783 Annexation of Crimea 1787-93 French Revolution War with Turks 1793 Second partition of Poland 1795 Revolutionary Wars Third partition of Poland 18oo Napolean A Russian fleet enters the Mediterranean 1803 A Russian ship circumnavigates the globe 1808 Finland annexed 1811 Bessarabia annexed 1812 Russia invaded by Napoleon’s Grande Armée 1815 Waterloo Russian troops in Paris 1820s War in Chechnya Russia sponsors Greek independence 1828-9 Russians take Tabriz and Erzurum Russia penetrates Central Asia and Far East; gains access to Mediterranean Russia sponsors autonomous Serbia Russian colonization of Alaska 1837-1901 Queen Victoria 1853-6 Crimean War 1864 American Civil War Russians take Chimkent 1865 Samarkand 1873 Khiva Kokand 1877-8 War with Turks Russia sponsors Bulgarian Independence Railway-building 1885 Heyday of British Empire Russians defeat Afghans at Pendjeh 1890s Russia industrializes Trans-Siberian Railway 1896 Russia—China accord 1904 War with Japan 1905 Battle of Tsushima 1914-18 First World War 1917 Nicholas II abdicates; end of Romanov Empire Bolsheviks remove Provisional Government I918- Civil War War with Poland Loss of Baltic states, Ukraine, etc. 1924 Death of Lenin; power gravitates to Stalin 1928-9 Great Depression Stalin launches Collectivization and first Five-Year Plan 1933 Hitler in power in Germany 1934-8 Purges and show trials 1938 Munich Agreement 1939 Second World War begins in West 1940 Occupation of Baltic states 1941 Pearl Harbor; US enters WWII Hitler invades Soviet Union 1942 Battle of Stalingrad 1943 Battle of Kursk; Germans in retreat 1944 Invasion of Normandy Yalta Conference 1945 Atomic bomb dropped on Japan Soviet forces take Berlin Potsdam agreement 1947 Marshall Plan Onset of the Cold War Chinese Communists defeat Soviet Bloc formed Nationalists 1949 Soviet Union acquires atom bomb; breach with China 1953 Death of Stalin 1954 COMECON becomes active 1955 Warsaw Pact 1956 Soviet intervention in Hungary 1959 Cuba aligns with Moscow 1961 Soviet Union puts first astronaut into space 1964 Brezhnev replaces Khrushchev 1968 Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia 1979 Soviet intervention in Afghanistan 1982 Andropov becomes Party Secretary 1984 Death of Andropov; Chernenko succeeds him 1985 Death of Chernenko; Gorbachev becomes Party Secretary; detente with West 1986 Chernobyl disaster 1988-91 Reunification of Germany Collapse of Bloc Dissolution of Soviet Union 1992 Yeltsin as Russian president Catastrophic decline Russia reverts to frontiers of c. 1650 1994-6 NATO extends eastward First Chechen War US warships enter Black Sea 2000 Putin becomes president Reassertion of Russian interests Economic recovery