| November 1917 |
Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, take command in Russia |
| 1918-1920 |
Civil war and foreign intervention in Russia |
| March 1918 |
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk |
| July 1918 |
Nicholas II of Russia and his family are murdered |
| March 1919 |
Communist International is formed |
| 1921-1928 |
New Economic Policy |
| 1922 |
Stalin becomes general secretary of the Communist party |
| 1922 |
Mussolini rises to power |
| 1923 |
Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch and subsequent imprisonment |
| January 1924 |
Lenin dies |
| 1924 |
Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics takes effect |
| 1928 |
First Five-Year Plan starts rapid industrialization in Russia |
| October 1929 |
The Great Depression begins |
| 1929 |
Stalin in sole command in Russia; collectivization of agriculture begins |
| 1933 |
Hitler elected chancellor of Germany |
| 1936 |
Stalin constitution: socialism achieved |
| 1936-38 |
Stalin's terror purges |
| 1936-39 |
Spanish Civil War |
| November 1938 |
Nazi pogrom--Kristallnacht |
| 1939 |
Hitler invades Poland; World War II breaks out |
| June 1941 |
Hitler invades the Soviet Union |
