Seventy years, era by era.
From the last years of the empire to the lowering of the flag in 1991 — every era mapped to its events, turning points and source documents.
Revolution & Civil War
The February Revolution ended the Romanov dynasty; the October Revolution put the Bolsheviks in power. What followed was civil war, foreign intervention, famine — and the first experiments of a new state.
Forging the Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was founded in 1922, as Lenin's health failed and factions fought over his legacy. The New Economic Policy mixed limited markets with state control while the first power struggles took shape.
Plans & Terror
A decade of forced transformation: five-year plans, collectivization and industrial expansion carried out at enormous human cost. The Great Purge and the deepening Gulag system defined the era.
The Great Patriotic War
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact opened the decade; the German invasion of June 1941 turned the Soviet Union into the principal battlefield of the Second World War. The war ended in Berlin — at a cost of some 27 million Soviet lives.
Cold War & Late Stalinism
Victory gave way to division: satellite states, the Iron Curtain and the nuclear standoff. At home, reconstruction continued under a hardening regime until Stalin's death in March 1953.
The Thaw
De-Stalinization after the 20th Party Congress loosened cultural and political life — but could not prevent crisis in Hungary or Cuba. Sputnik and the first man in space gave the era its brightest moments.
Stagnation & Dissent
The Brezhnev years traded reform for stability — and stability for stagnation. Dissidents and samizdat kept an alternative record alive, while an unwinnable war in Afghanistan drained the state.
Perestroika & Dissolution
Gorbachev's reforms — glasnost, perestroika — unleashed forces that could not be contained. Between Chernobyl, the revolutions of 1989 and the August coup of 1991, the Soviet Union came apart.