Rosta
Rossiiskoe telegrafnoe agentstvo: Russian Telegraph Agency
ROVS
Russkii Obshche-Voinskii Soiuz: Russian All-Military Union
Sovnarkom
Sovet narodnykh komissarov: Council of People’s Commissars
SR
A member of the PSR
SSR
Soviet Socialist Republic
STO
Sovet truda i oborona: Council of Labor and Defense
UGA
Ukrains′ka Halits′ka Armiia: Ukrainian Galician Army
UNR
Ukrayins′ka Narodnia Respublika: Ukrainian National (sometimes People’s) Republic
USSR
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
VSNKh
Vysshii sovet narodnogo khoziastva: Supreme Council of the National Economy
VTsIK
Vserossiiskii tsentral′nyi ispol′nitelnyi komitet: All-Russian Central Executive Committee
Zemgor
Ob″edinennyi komitet Zemskogo soiuza i Soiuza gorodov: United Committee of the Union of Zemstvos and Municipal Councils
Chronology
1916 Summer: Widespread revolts occur against Russian rule across Central Asia consequent to the extension of conscription to the formerly exempted Muslim subjects of the Russian Empire. The revolts are suppressed by force and meet considerable resistance, anticipating further Russian–Muslim conflicts in the region in the coming years (the Basmachi movement).
1917 27 February (12 March): A revolt in the Volynskii Regiment leads to a general mutiny of the Petrograd garrison during revolutionary disturbances on the streets of the Russian capital that had been building for several days, sealing the victory of the February Revolution. 1 (14) March: The Petrograd Soviet issues its “Order No. 1,” subsequently blamed for the disintegration of the Russian Army. 23 (15–16) March: Following the advice of all his senior generals (including M. V. Alekseev), Nicholas II abdicates. The Provisional Government, having come to an agreement with the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies on 1–2 (14–15) March 1917, assumes power. 4 (17) March: Ukrainian Central Rada created at Kiev; the start of efforts to assert Ukrainian autonomy or independence, which will be an enduring feature of the civil wars. 16 (29) March: Polish independence recognized by the Provisional Government. 3 (16) Apriclass="underline" V. I. Lenin arrives back in Russia, having traveled from Switzerland through Germany on a “sealed train.” 14 (27) Apriclass="underline" Bolshevik organizations in Petrograd and Moscow resolve to create Red Guards—the seeds of the Red Army. 1 (14) May: 1st All-Russian Muslim Congress convenes at Moscow and calls for a democratic, federal republic. 18 June (1 July): Under pressure from the Allies, the Russian Army launches an ultimately disastrous summer offensive on the Eastern Front. 5 (18) July: In the aftermath of disturbances on the streets of Petrograd (the July Days), the Provisional Government publishes allegations that the Bolsheviks are German agents. Many leading Bolsheviks are arrested (including L. D. Trotsky), and the party is outlawed. 18 (31) July: Prime Minister A. F. Kerensky names General L. G. Kornilov as supreme commander of the Russian Army. 19–21 July (1–3 August): German forces capture Riga. 27 August (9 September): Kerensky denounces Kornilov as a traitor for organizing a coup against the government (the Kornilov affair). Kornilov and his main alleged co-conspirators are subsequently arrested and imprisoned at Bykhov. The Petrograd Soviet creates the Committee for the Struggle against Counter-Revolution, which approves a Bolshevik resolution to create a Workers’ Militia (thereby, in effect rearming the Bolshevik Red Guards suppressed after the July Days). 31 August (12 September)–5 (18) September: The Bolsheviks win majority support in the Petrograd, Moscow, and Krasnoiarsk Soviets. 12 (25) October–21 (3 November): German forces occupy the islands of Saaremaa, Muhu, and Hiiumaa, off Estonia. 23 October (5 November): Estonian Bolsheviks under Jaan Anvelt seize power in Revel (Tallinn). 24–26 October (6–8 November): Russian Bolsheviks, acting under the aegis of the Military-Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, seize power in Petrograd. October 25 (November 7): The ataman of the Don Cossacks, A. M. Kaledin, announces that the Host authorities will assume full authority over their own affairs until the restoration of the power of the Provisional Government. 25 October–1 November (7–14 November): A Bolshevik–Left-SR coup in Tashkent creates the Turkestan Council of Peoples’ Commissars (Turksovnarkom) and proclaims Soviet power across all southern Central Asia. 26 October (8 November): At the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, Lenin reads a proclamation to all belligerents in the First World War, calling for immediate peace without annexations or indemnities (the “Decree on Peace”) and the “Decree on Land,” abolishing private ownership. Sovnarkom is created, with the Military-Naval Revolutionary Committee attached to it. 27 October (9 November): Cossack units (the 1st Don Corps), commanded by General P. N. Krasnov, capture Gatchina in the first significant military opposition to the Bolshevik coup (the Kerensky–Krasnov uprising). By order of the ataman of the Orenburg Cossacks, Colonel A. I. Dutov, the Host authorities assume full power over their own affairs. 28 October (10 November): Tsarskoe Selo is captured by a 700-strong unit of Krasnov’s Cossacks. In Petrograd, armed resistance to the Bolsheviks organized by the Committee for the Salvation of the Country and the Revolution leads to 200 casualties. A Sovnarkom decree is issued calling for the creation of workers’ and soldiers’ militias by all local soviets. 29 October (11 November): Anti-Bolshevik rising of officer cadets (junkers) is crushed by Red Guards in Petrograd. This date also marks the beginning of the anti-Bolshevik uprising in Moscow. 30 October (12 November): Moscow Kremlin is captured by Red Guard detachments after several days of fighting. 31 October (13 November)–1 (14) November: Defeat of Cossack forces sent against Petrograd by Kerensky and Krasnov. General Krasnov is briefly arrested; Kerensky goes into hiding. 1 (14) November: General N. N. Dukhonin is named by Kerensky as supreme commander of the Russian Army. 2 (15) November: The “Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia,” signed by Lenin and J. V. Stalin, offers self-determination, to the point of independence, to all nationalities of the former Russian Empire. 3 (16) November: The final suppression of the anti-Bolshevik rising in Moscow. In Kiev, the Central Rada issues its Third Universal, proclaiming Ukraine to be a People’s Republic within a Russian federation. 6 (19) November: Tsentrosibir′, the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Siberia, is proclaimed by the 1st All-Siberian Congress of Soviets at Tomsk. 9 (22) November: General Dukhonin is dismissed as commander in chief for insubordination (i.e., refusing to propose an armistice to the Germans) and is replaced by the Bolshevik ensign N. V. Krylenko. Izvestiia publishes details of the “secret treaties” between the Allies, revealing their annexationist war aims. 10 (23) November: A Sovnarkom decree is issued on the gradual reduction of the size of the Imperial Russian Army. 11 (24) November: Establishment of the Transcaucasian Commissariat (Zavkom). 12 (25) November: Voting begins in the elections to the Constituent Assembly. 13–14 (26–27) November: Soviet and German emissaries at Dvinsk agree on an armistice. 14 (27) November: Soviet power is proclaimed at Khar′kov, in opposition to the Rada at Kiev; the first Bolshevik invasion of Ukraine begins. The Sovnarkom decree “On Workers’ Control” is issued. 15 (28) November: The Estonian National Council (Maapäev) proclaims Estonian independence shortly before it is overthrown by local Bolsheviks. 18 November: As Soviet forces secure their hold on Irkutsk—after a two-week battle against local Cossacks, officers, and junkers—in Transbaikal, Esaul G. M. Semenov leads his Mongol-Buriat detachment against Soviet forces at Verkhneudinsk. 19 November (2 December): Military-Revolutionary Committee is created at Mogilev. The flight of Generals L. G. Kornilov, A. I. Denikin, A. S. Lukomskii, I. P. Romanovskii, and S. L. Markov from Bykhov prison toward the Don begins. Peace negotiations between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers open at Brest-Litovsk. The Allies refuse to participate. 20 November (2 December): Arrival at the stavka at Mogilev of Supreme Commander Krylenko. He is unable to prevent the lynching of General Dukhonin by a mob of soldiers and sailors. 21 November (3 December): Sfatul Ţării, the Bessarabian (later Moldavian) legislature, holds its first meeting. 24 November (6 December): The beginning of the full demobilization, on the order of Sovnarkom, of the Russian Army. The Finnish Diet proclaims the independence of Finland. 25 November (7 December): The Sovnarkom appeal “To the Entire Population” is issued, placing those areas of the Don and the Urals where “counter-revolutionary detachments have revealed themselves” under a state of siege and denouncing Generals Kaledin and Kornilov and Colonel Dutov as “enemies of the people.” Arrival in the port of Vladivostok of the American cruiser USS Brooklyn. 26 November (8 December): At Kokand, the Extraordinary Regional Muslim Congress, in opposition to the Tashkent Soviet, creates the Provisional Government of Autonomous Turkestan, soon to be headed by Mustafa Chokay-oghlu. 28 November (10 December): The Lithuanian National Council (Taryba) declares its independence from Russia, under German protection. 30 November (12 December): The Military-Revolutionary Committee at the Mogilev Stavka issues a telegram canceling “all officer and class ranks, titles and decorations.” 1 (14) December: Establishment of VSNKh. 2 (15) December: Kaledin’s Cossacks capture Rostov-on-Don. The National Council of Bessarabia (Sfatul Ţării) proclaims the independence of the Moldavian Democratic Republic. 4 (17) December: A Sovnarkom ultimatum to the Ukrainian Central Rada is issued, demanding that it cease offering covert support to counterrevolutionaries. 5 (18) December: V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko is named as People’s Commissar for the Fight against Counter-Revolution in South Russia. 5–13 (18–26) December: The Third Kazakh Congress at Orenburg proclaims Kazakh autonomy and elects an executive committee (under Aliqan Bokeyqan-uli) of an anti-Bolshevik Kazakh government, Alash Orda. 6–19 December (19 December–1 January 1918): At Tomsk, an Extraordinary Regional Congress, dominated by the SRs, denounces the Soviet government and establishes the Provisional Siberian Regional Council in opposition to it. 7 (20) December: Establishment of the Cheka. 9 (22) December: Peace negotiations between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers open at Brest-Litovsk. 10 (23) December: In Paris, the Supreme War Council resolves to support all national groups in the former Russian Empire that wish to continue the war against the Central Powers. An Anglo–French Convention, signed in Paris, divides South Russia and the Caucasus into (respectively) French and British “spheres of interest.” Members of the Party of Left-SRs join Sovnarkom. 12 (25) December: The Muslim Idel-Urals Republic is established at Kazan′. 14 (27) December: Sovnarkom nationalizes the banks. 15 (28) December: A Bolshevik uprising at Rostov-on-Don is crushed, and the Don Civil Council, headed by Ataman A. M. Kaledin, is transferred there. 16 (29) December: Sovnarkom decrees are promulgated on the election of officers in the army; the organization of authority in the army; equal rights for all military personnel; the abolition of all military ranks, titles, and badges of rank; and the abolition of saluting. 18 (31) December: Red forces capture Khar′kov. 20 December (2 January 1918): The All-Russian Directorate for the Formation of the Red Army and the All-Russia Collegium for Direction of the Air Forces of the Old Army are created. 25 December (7 January 1918): The short-lived Ukrainian Soviet Republic is established at Khar′kov. 27 December (9 January 1918): The Commissariat of Military Affairs orders that officers should only be dismissed if there are suitably qualified personnel available to replace them. 28 December (11 January): Soviet forces from Khar′kov capture Ekaterinoslav and begin to advance on Kiev. 30 December (12 January 1918): A Japanese warship, the Iwami (formerly the Russian battleship Orel, captured in May 1905) arrives off Vladivostok, followed the next day by the British cruiser HMS Suffolk.