| Mikhail Bakunin and Sergi Nechayev publish the book Catechism of a Revolutionist. |
1869 |
| The formation of the Land and Liberty group. |
1876 |
| Vera Zasulich attempts to assassinate General Trepov, the police chief of St. Petersburg. |
24th January 1878 |
| The People's Will, a terrorist group, is established. |
October, 1879 |
| Alexander II announced that he is considering granting the Russian people a constitution. |
25th February, 1880 |
| Ignatei Grinevitski assassinates Tsar Alexander II. |
1st March, 1881 |
| Sophia Perovskaya, and other leaders of the People's Will is executed. |
3rd April, 1881 |
| Nicholas II becomes Tsar on the death of Alexander III. |
20th October, 1894 |
| A group of followers of Karl Marx meet in Minsk and form the Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP). |
March, 1898 |
| Socialist Revolutionary Party is established. |
1901 |
| Tsar Nicholas II appoints Vyacheslav Plehve as Minister of the Interior |
April, 1902 |
| Lenin establishes the Bolshevik faction at the SDLP conference in London. |
11th August, 1903 |
| Julius Martov becomes the leader of the Mensheviks faction of the SDLP. |
11th August, 1903 |
| Father George Gapon gains government approval to establish the Assembly of Russian Workers. |
15th February, 1904 |
| Vyacheslav Plehve, the Minister of the Interior, is assassinated on the orders of Evno Azef. |
28th July, 1904 |
| Over 100 workers were killed and some 300 wounded when a group of workers attempt to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II at the Winter Palace (Bloody Sunday). |
22nd January, 1905 |
| Sailors on the Potemkin battleship, protested against the serving of rotten meat. This becomes the start of the 1905 Revolution. |
27th June, 1905 |
| Leon Trotsky and other Mensheviks established the St. Petersburg Soviet. |
13th October, 1905 |
| Tsar Nicholas II, on the advice of Sergi Witte, his new Chief Minister, published the October Manifesto. |
17th October, 1905 |
| The Duma is elected on the basis of indirect universal male suffrage. |
May, 1906 |
| On the advice of the Tsar's chief minister, Peter Stolypin, the Duma is dissolved. |
July, 1906 |
| Second Duma convened in February, 1907 but closed down four months later. |
16th June, 1907 |
| The Third Duma is elected that gives greater power to the large landowners to the detriment of the peasants. The Duma is now dominated by the reactionaries and the nationalists. |
14th November, 1907 |
| Peter Stolypin is assassinated by Dmitri Bogrov, a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. |
1st September, 1911 |
| Germany declares war on Russia. |
1st August, 1914 |
| The Russian Army defeated at the Battle of Tannenberg. |
29th August, 1914 |
| Tsar Nicholas II replaces Grand Duke Nikolai as supreme commander of the Russian Army fighting on the Eastern Front. |
September, 1915 |
| Gregory Rasputin is murdered by a group that included Prince Felix Yusupov, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov, Vladimir Purishkevich and Stanislaus de Lazovert. |
29th December, 1916 |
| Workers go on strike protesting against the First World War. |
11th February, 1917 |
| Nicholas II orders the Duma to close down. |
26th February, 1917 |
| An estimated 200,000 workers in Petrograd on strike. |
27th February, 1917 |
| The Russian Army High Command recommend that Nicholas II abdicates. |
13th March, 1917 |
| Tsar Nicholas II abdicates and a Provisional Government, headed by Prince Georgi Lvov, is formed. |
15th March, 1917 |
| Lenin returns to Russia and announces the April Theses. |
3rd April, 1917 |
| Alexander Kerensky, the Minister of War, announces a new war offensive. |
18th June, 1917 |
| Kerensky replaces Prince George Lvov as prime minister. |
8th July, 1917 |
| Kerensky orders the arrest of Bolshevik leaders. |
19th July, 1917 |
| General Lavr Kornilov demands the resignation of Provisional Government and as a result he is recalled to Petrograd. |
7th September, 1917 |
| Alexander Kerensky attempts to recover his left-wing support by forming a new coalition that included more Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. |
25th September, 1917 |
| Kerensky orders the arrest of the Bolshevik leaders based in the Smolny Institute. |
22nd October, 1917 |
| Lenin gives orders for the Bolsheviks to occupy the railway stations, the telephone exchange and the State Bank. |
24th October, 1917 |
| Alexander Kerensky escapes from Petrograd. |
25th October, 1917 |
| The Aurora and the Peter and Paul Fortress open fire on the Winter Palace. |
25th October, 1917 |
| The All-Russian Congress of Soviets hand over power to the Soviet Council of People's Commissars. Lenin is elected chairman. |
26th October, 1917 |
| Elections for the Constituent Assembly begin. A total of 703 candidates were elected. This included Socialist Revolutionaries (299), Bolsheviks (168), Mensheviks (18) and Constitutional Democratic Party (17). |
25th November, 1917 |
| Victor Chernov, the leader of the largest party in the Constituent Assembly, the Socialist Revolutionaries, is elected President. |
5th January, 1918 |
| Lenin closes down the Constituent Assembly. |
6th January, 1918 |