) proclaims independence. 16–17 (29–30) January: Red forces capture Odessa. 18 (31) January: Dutov’s Cossacks are defeated, and Soviet power is proclaimed in Orenburg. 19 January (1 February): Patriarch Tikhon anathematizes the Bolsheviks. 20 January (2 February): Sovnarkom proclaims the disestablishment of the Russian Orthodox Church. 21 January (3 February): Sovnarkom repudiates Russia’s state debts. 24 January (6 February): Sfatul Ţării declares the independence from Russia of the Moldavian People’sRepublic. 26–27 January (8–9 February): The Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia is founded at Tomsk and immediately driven underground by Red Guards. Soviet forces under M. A. Murav′ev capture Kiev. 27 January (9 February): At Brest-Litovsk, the Central Powers sign a separate peace with the Ukrainian Rada. 28 January (10 February): Trotsky walks out of the Brest-Litovsk negotiations, declaring a policy of “neither war nor peace”: Soviet Russia will not accept the annexationist peace terms offered by the Central Powers but will not continue fighting. Red forces seize Taganrog. 29 January (11 February): A Sovnarkom decree is issued disbanding the imperial Russian fleet and announcing the creation of the Socialist Worker-Peasant Red Fleet. A. M. Kaledin resigns as ataman of the Don Host and subsequently commits suicide, as the Volunteer Army leaves Novocherkassk and embarks on the First Kuban (Ice) March. The Fourth Regional Congress of Soviets at Tashkent declares war on the Kokand government. 30 January (12 February): Turkish forces reopen hostilities against Russian forces in Transcaucasia, advancing toward Erzincan and Trabzon (Trebizond). 31 January: At midnight, Soviet Russia adopts the Gregorian calendar; the following day will be 14 February. 14–20 February: With much brutality, Red forces from the Orenburg Front and Red Guards of the Tashkent Soviet, supported by Austro-Hungarian “internationalists” (liberated prisoners of war), overthrow the Muslim government at Kokand, initiating the war between the Soviet authorities and the Muslim resistance fighters (Basmachi). 16 February: At Vilnius, the Lithuanian National Council (Taryba) proclaims Lithuania’s independence. 17–18 February: German forces reopen operations against Russia: “Operation Thunderbolt” captures virtually the entire Baltic region and much of Belorussia within a week. 19 February: Sovnarkom issues a radio message agreeing to accept the German conditions for peace. The Sovnarkom decree “On the Socialization of the Land” is issued. 19 February–2 May: “The Ice March of the Baltic Fleet”: 226 Russian vessels are moved from Revel and Helsingfors to Kronshtadt, to prevent them from falling into German hands. 21 February: The Committee for the Revolutionary Defense of Petrograd is created. Sovnarkom issues an appeal, “The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger!,” as German forces capture Minsk. 23 February: The Bolshevik Central Committee votes to accept German peace terms (by seven votes in favor to four against, with four abstentions). 23–24 February: Rostov-on-Don is captured by Soviet forces after its evacuation by the Volunteer Army. The British government authorizes the funding of Ataman Semenov’s forces in Manchuria. The Transcaucasian Assembly (Sejm) is established at Tiflis and declares the independence of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. 24 February: In Revel, the Estonian Provisional Government, under Konstantin Päts, is proclaimed by the Committee of Elders as German forces close on the city. By a vote of 116 to 85 (with 26 abstentions), VTsIK agrees to sign a peace treaty with the Central Powers. 24–28 February: Theremaining Allied diplomatic and military missions leave Petrograd (mostly for Vologda). 25 February: Soviet forces capture Novocherkassk. The newly elected ataman of the Don Cossacks, A. M. Nazarov, is shot by Cossack radicals. German forces capture Revel. 28 February: The Austro-Hungarian army begins to advance into Ukraine, as German forces enter Pskov. 1 March: Forces of the Tashkent Soviet disperse the Kokand Autonomy. 2 March: Soviet forces abandon Kiev, which is then occupied by Austro-German units and forces of the Ukrainian Central Rada commanded by S. V. Petliura. 3 March: The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is signed: Soviet Russia loses control of the Baltic provinces, Ukraine, and much of Belorussia; cedes to the Ottoman Empire all territory captured in the Russo–Turkish War of 1877–1878; agrees to full demobilization of its armed forces; and promises to cease agitation and propaganda against the Central Powers. 4 March: The Supreme Military Council is created, headed by L. D. Trotsky. German forces capture Narva. 5 March: The Red Army’s Northern and Western “Screens” are created. German forces land on the Åland Islands, as a first step in their intervention in the Finnish Civil War to assist the Finnish Whites. 6–8 March: British and French troops land at Murmansk, at the invitation of the local soviet. The 8th (Extraordinary) Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks) changes the party name to the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks): RKP(b). 8 March: The Baltic German Landesrat offers the crown of the Duchy of Courland to Kaiser Wilhelm II. 10–12 March: The Soviet government moves from Petrograd to the new capital, Moscow. Invading Austrian and German forces occupy Odessa. 13–14 March: Red forces from Novorossiisk capture Ekaterinodar, the Kuban capital and headquarters of the Kuban Cossack Host. 14 March: Trotsky is named People’s Commissar for Military Affairs. German and White Finnish forces occupy Helsinki (Helsingfors). 14–16 March: The Fourth (Extraordinary) All-Russian Congress of Soviets ratifies the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Subsequently (19 March 1918) all Left-SR commissars resign in protest from Sovnarkom. 15 March: Sovnarkom agrees that the Czechoslovak Legion can leave Russia via Vladivostok, providing it surrenders most of its arms. The first train leaves Penza on 27 March. Turkish forces occupy Trabzon. 21 March: The election of officers is ended in both the Red Army and the Red Fleet. 25 March: A Soviet treaty with Bukhara is signed recognizing the independence of the emirate. The German-sponsored Belarussian National Republic is established. 27 March: The Don Cossack Host rises up against Soviet rule. 30 March: German forces occupy Poltava. 31 March–2 Apriclass="underline" Bolshevik and Dashnak forces of the Baku Soviet emerge victorious in fighting with Muslim members of the Musavet. At least 3,500 (and perhaps as many as 12,000) Muslims are killed during the “March Days.” Apriclass="underline" The Don Army and the Urals (from January 1919 the Urals Independent) Army are formed. German and Austrian forces overrun much of southeastern Ukraine and Crimea. 3 Apriclass="underline" The All-Russian Bureau of Military Commissars (Vsebiurvoenkom) is formed, attached to the Commissariat for Military Affairs. 3–5 Apriclass="underline" German forces (commanded by General Rüdiger von der Goltz) land on the Finnish mainland at Hangö (Hanko) and march on Helsinki, which they enter on 12–13 April. 5 Apriclass="underline" German forces capture Khar′kov. 5–6 Apriclass="underline" 500 Japanese troops land at Vladivostok to “restore order” in the port, followed by contingents of British and U.S. forces. 6 Apriclass="underline" Trotsky adds the post of Commissar for Naval Affairs to his portfolio of duties.