First Congress of the Communist International opens

British-led Allied forces landed at Arkhangelsk, followed by intervention elsewhere in northern Russia. The operation aimed to reopen an Eastern Front and secure military supplies; it also supported...

After assassination attempts and attacks on Soviet officials, the government announced the Red Terror, authorizing mass arrests, executions and hostage-taking against designated political opponents....

Twenty-six Baku Commune leaders were executed near Krasnovodsk after the fall of the commune and their transfer into the custody of forces associated with the Transcaspian Government and British...

The armistice between the Allies and Germany ended the main fighting in Western Europe and removed the immediate military basis for the Brest-Litovsk settlement. Former imperial territories faced...

Following Germany’s defeat, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee annulled the Brest-Litovsk treaty. The withdrawal of German forces reopened the struggle over Ukraine, the Baltic region and...

The central Soviet government and Bashkir government signed an agreement on Soviet autonomy for Bashkiria. It followed Bashkir political organizing and negotiation during the collapse of the Russian...

Hungarian socialists and communists proclaimed a Soviet republic during the upheaval after the First World War. The short-lived government sought ties with Soviet Russia but faced military...

The Red Army entered Baku as the Azerbaijani Soviet government was established. The city’s oil and strategic position made it central to the region’s political economy. Soviet rule promised land and...

Britain, France, the United States and Japan recognized Admiral Alexander Kolchak as the “supreme ruler” of anti-Bolshevik Russia, while attaching conditions. The decision showed the international...

Red Army forces captured Omsk, a major center of Kolchak’s White government. Kolchak’s authority eroded amid military defeats, peasant resistance and the collapse of supply lines. The change of...