October 30: Clash between Cossacks and pro-Bolshevik sailors and Red Guards near Pulkovo; Cossacks withdraw. Union of Railroad Employees demands Bolsheviks quit government.
October 31–November 2: Fighting in Moscow, which ends with surrender of pro-government troops.
November 1–2: Bolshevik Central Committee rejects Union of Railroad Employees’ demands; Kamenev and four other commissars resign to protest Lenin’s refusal to compromise on broadening cabinet.
November 4: Critical encounter between Lenin and Trotsky and Central Executive Committee of Soviets: by manipulating vote, Sovnarkom obtains formal authority to legislate by decree.
November 9: Bolsheviks transmit their Peace Decree to Allied representatives, whose governments reject the call for an immediate armistice.
November 12: Elections to Constituent Assembly begin in Petrograd; they continue throughout unoccupied Russia until the end of the month. Socialists-Revolutionaries gain largest number of votes.
November 14: Bank employees refuse Sovnarkom’s requests for money.
November 15: First regular meeting of Bolshevik Sovnarkom.
November 17: Bolshevik troops break into State Bank, remove 5 million rubles.
November 20/December 3: Armistice negotiations begin at Brest-Litovsk; Soviet delegation headed by Ioffe.
November 22: Decree dissolving most courts and the legal profession; creation of Revolutionary Tribunals.
November 22–23: Establishment of Union for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly.
November 23/December 6: Russians and Central Powers agree on armistice.
November 26: Peasants’ Congress convenes in Petrograd.
November 28: Rump meeting of Constituent Assembly.
December: Supreme Council of the National Economy (VSNKh) created.
December 4: Bolsheviks and Left SRs break up Peasants’ Congress.
December 7: Cheka established.
December 9–10: Bolsheviks reach accord with Left SRs; Left SRs enter Sovnarkom and Cheka.
December 15/28: Brest talks adjourn.
December 27/January 9: Brest talks resume; Trotsky heads Russian delegation.
December 30/January 12: Central Powers recognize Rada as government of the Ukraine.
Late December: Generals Alekseev and Kornilov found Volunteer Army.
1918
January 1: Attempt on Lenin’s life.
January 5/18: One-day session of Constituent Assembly; demonstration in its support fired upon and dispersed. Workers’ “plenipotentiaries” hold first meeting; Trotsky returns from Brest to Petrograd.
January 6: Constituent Assembly closed.
January 8: Opening of Bolshevik-sponsored Third Congress of Soviets; it passes “Declaration of the Rights of the Toiling and Exploited Masses” and proclaims Soviet Russian Republic.
January 15/28: Trotsky returns to Brest, talks resume.
January 21: Soviet Russia repudiates foreign and domestic debts.
January 28: Rada proclaims Ukrainian independence.
February 9: Central Powers sign separate peace with Ukraine; Kaiser orders German delegation at Brest to give Russians ultimatum.
February 17–18: Disputes among Bolsheviks about German peace demands; Lenin secures barest majority for their acceptance.
February 18: German and Austrian troops resume offensive against Russia.
February 21: Trotsky requests French military help.
February 21–22: Lenin’s decree “The Socialist Fatherland in Danger!” authorizes summary execution of opponents.
February 23: German ultimatum arrives with fresh territorial demands.
February 24–25: Germans occupy Dorpat, Revel, and Borisov.
March 1: Russian delegation returns to Brest; two days later signs German text of the peace treaty.
Early March: Bolshevik government transfers to Moscow.
March 5: Murmansk Soviet requests and receives from Moscow authorization to have Allies land troops to protect it.
March 6–8: Seventh Congress of Bolshevik Party.
March: People’s Courts introduced.
March 9: First Allied contingent lands in Murmansk.
March 14: Soviet Congress ratifies Brest Treaty; Left SRs leave Sovnarkom.
Night of March 10–11: Lenin moves to Moscow.
March 16: Grand dukes ordered to register with Cheka; subsequently exiled to the Urals.
April 4: First Japanese landings in Vladivostok.
April 13: Kornilov killed by stray shell; General Denikin assumes command of Volunteer Army.
April: Soviet Russia and Germany exchange diplomatic missions.
April 20: Decree outlawing purchase and leasing of industrial and commercial enterprises; all securities and bonds to be registered with government.
April 22: Transcaucasian Federation proclaims independence.
April 26: Nicholas, wife, and one daughter depart under guard from Tobolsk for Ekaterinburg; they arrive there April 30 and are imprisoned.
May 1: Inheritance abolished.
May 8–9: Sovnarkom decides to launch assault on the rural areas.
May 9: Bolsheviks fire on worker demonstrators at Kolpino.
May 13: Declaration of war on “peasant bourgeoisie” in decree giving Commissar of Supply extraordinary powers.
May 14: Altercation between Czech Legion and Magyar POWs in Cheliabinsk.
May 20: Decree creating “food supply detachments.”
