April
22, 1870
Birth
of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, later known as Lenin, in the Russian city of
Simbirsk.
March
13, 1881
Assassination
of Tsar Alexander II
January
24, 1886
Death
of Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov, Lenin's father.
May
20, 1887
Alexander
Ulyanov, Lenin's brother, hanged in St. Petersburg.
December
17, 1887
Lenin
arrested in student protest at Kazan University, later expelled from the
University.
November
1891
Lenin
passes law examination as external student at St. Petersburg University.
Summer
1895
Lenin
goes abroad for the first time, meets Plekhanov.
December
21, 1895
Lenin
arrested by the Tsar's police.
February
10, 1895
Lenin
exiled to Siberia for three years.
March
1898
Social
Democratic Party, first Russian Marxist party, founded in Minsk.
July
22, 1898
Lenin
marries Nadezhda Krupskaya in Shushenskoe, Siberia.
February
10, 1900
Lenin's
exile ends, and he returns to St. Petersburg.
July
1900
Lenin
travels to Western Europe.
December
1900
First
issue of Iskra published in Germany.
March
1902
Publication
of Lenin's What Is To Be Done?
July-August
1903
Second
Congress of Social Democrats in Brussels and London; Bolshevik-Menshevik
split emerges for the first time.
February
1904
Outbreak
of Russo-Japanese War
January
22, 1905
"Bloody
Sunday" in St. Petersburg, beginning of 1905 Revolution.
April-May
1905
Third
Congress in London; Lenin dominates.
October
30, 1905
Nicholas
II issues "October Manifesto," promising civil liberties and a
democratically elected "Duma."
November
1905
Lenin
returns to Russia.
December
1905
Lenin
in Finland for a Bolshevik conference, where he meets Stalin for the first
time.
December
1907
Lenin
returns to Western Europe, settles in Switzerland
December
1908
Lenin
moves to Paris, meets Inessa Armand.
January-February
1912
Split
with Mensheviks becomes official, Bolsheviks form their own party.
June
1912
Lenin
moves to Krakow in Austrian Poland.
May
1913
Lenin
settles in Polish village of Poronin.
August-September
1914
Outbreak
of World War I (1914-1918); Lenin leaves Poland for Switzerland.
March
8, 1917
Beginning
of Revolution in St. Petersburg.
March
15, 1917
Nicholas
II abdicates, Provisional Government formed.
April
1917
Lenin
takes "sealed train" through Germany back to Russia.
April
16-17, 1917
Lenin
reaches St. Petersburg/Petrograd, issues "April Theses"
advocating overthrow of Provisional Government.
July
17, 1917
Attempted
Bolshevik coup in Petrograd ("July Days"); Lenin goes into
hiding.
July
24, 1917
Kerensky
becomes Prime Minister.
November
6-7, 1917
Bolsheviks
seize power, Kerensky flees.
December
15, 1917
Temporary
armistice signed with Germany.
December
1917
White
armies begin to form in the Ukraine, beginning of civil war.
January
18, 1918
Constituent
Assembly convenes, and is forcibly broken up by Bolsheviks.
March
3, 1918
Treaty
of Brest-Litovsk signed with Germany, ending Russia's involvement in World
War I.
March
13, 1918
Trotsky
appointed People's Commissar for War, takes charge of the Red Army.
Spring-Summer
1918
Allied
forces land in Murmansk, Archangel, and Vladivostok.
July
17, 1918
Murder
of Nicholas II and his family in Ekaterinburg.
August
30, 1918
Assassination
attempt on Lenin by Fanya Kaplan.
September
1918
Official
beginning of the Red Terror when Lenin orders the Red troops to begin
taking hostages. White armies driven back along the Volga.
November
1918
End
of World War I in Western Europe.
April
1919
First
concentration camps established in Russia.
April
26, 1920
Poland
invades Russia.
June
1920
Poles
driven back to Warsaw by Red Army.
September
24, 1920
Inessa
Armand dies.
November
1920
Evacuation
of the last White forces across the Black Sea.
1921
Famine
in Russia, nearly 5 million die.
March
1921
Military
uprising on Kronstadt Island.
March
8, 1921
Tenth
Party Congress in Moscow, Lenin announces New Economic Policy.
April 1922
Stalin
appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party.
May 26, 1922
Lenin
suffers first stroke.
Summer 1922
Lenin
convalesces at Gorki.
December 16, 1922
Lenin
suffers second stroke.
December-January 1922-23
Lenin
dictates his "Testament", warning against Stalin.
March 10, 1923
Lenin
suffers his third stroke, loses the power of speech.
January
21, 1924
Lenin
dies
January 27, 1924
Lenin's
embalmed body installed in Red Square mausoleum.
Born
in Simbirsk (renamed Ulyanovsk after its most famous son), in the Russian
Empire, Lenin was the son of Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov and Maria
Alexandrovna Ulyanova. His father was a successful Russian official in
public education who wanted democracy. The family was of mixed ethnicity,
his ancestry being “Russian, Mordovian, Kalmyk, Jewish (see Blank
family), Volgan German, and Swedish, and possibly others” according to
biographer Dmitri Volkogonov. Lenin was baptized into the Russian Orthodox
Church.
In 1886, Lenin’s father, a schoolmaster, died of a cerebral hemorrhage,
and, in May 1887, when Lenin was 17 years old, his eldest brother
Alexander was arrested and hanged for participating in a terrorist bomb
plot threatening the life of Tsar Alexander III. His sister Anna, who was
with Alexander at the time of his arrest, was banished to his family
estate in the village of Kokushkino, about 40 km (25 mi.) from Kazan. This
event radicalized Lenin, and his official Soviet biographies describe it
as being central to the revolutionary track of his life. It is also
significant, perhaps, that this emotional upheaval transpired in the same
year as that which saw him enroll at the Kazan State University. A famous
painting by Piotr Belousov, We Will Follow a Different Path, reprinted in
millions of Soviet textbooks, depicted young Lenin and his mother grieving
the loss of his elder brother. The phrase “We will follow a different
path” refers to Lenin's choosing a Marxist approach to popular
revolution, instead of anarchist or individualist methods. As Lenin became
interested in Marxism, he was involved in student protests and was
subsequently arrested. He was then expelled from Kazan University for his
political ideas. He continued to study independently, however, and it was
during this period of exile that he first familiarized himself with Karl
Marx’s Das Kapital. Lenin was later permitted to continue his studies,
this time at the University of Saint Petersburg, and, by 1891, had been
admitted to the Bar. In January 1892 Lenin was awarded a first class
degree in law by the University.[5] He also distinguished himself in Latin
and Greek, and learned German, French and English. His knowledge of the
latter two languages was limited: he relied on Inessa Armand to translate
an article into French and into English in 1917. In the same year he also
wrote to S. N. Ravich in Geneva “I am unable to lecture in French.”
