Bolsheviks.
==Jan.14 > Lenin despondently asks his sister, “Do you suppose I’ll live to see another revolution?”
==Jan.18-30 > A Bolshevik Conference in Prague ‘expels’ the Mensheviks - the Bolsheviks are formally established as a separate party, and have regained the initiative within the RSDRP - Stalin, Zinoviev, and Ordzhonikidze are put on the Central Committee, as is labor leader/police agent Malinovsky, at Lenin’s insistence

Far Left.Caucasus.
==Jan.--- > The government tries 159 Armenian Dashnak revolutionaries - ~the case is soon discredited by falsified evidence

Rasputin.Czarist Regime.
Public reaction against the rise of Rasputin:
==late.Jan > Rasputin briefly flees St. Petersburg in the face of public outrage, after his rival Iliodor circulates the Czarina’s adoring letters and after allegedly attempting to hypnotize Premier Kokovtsov - the government forbids the press from printing Rasputin’s name - Kokovtsov falls from favor with the Czarina
==Mar.22 > Rasputin’s influence is attacked in the Duma
==Mar.26 > Rasputin returns to St. Petersburg at the Czarina’s insistence
==Apr.--- > Octobrist leader Rodzianko warns the Czar of the dangers of Rasputin’s influence - police and local officials consider murdering Rasputin when he visits Crimea

Czarist Regime.
==Feb.--- > In the event of an international crisis, the government authorizes a ‘preparation for war’ period in advance of formal mobilization

Czarist violence.Labor.Siberia.
The Lena goldfield strike and massacre:
==Mar.13 > Strikes erupt in the Lena goldfields in northeast Siberia after the company issues meat made from horse penises - by late Mar, the strikes have shut down all mines
==Mar.22 > Talks between management and the striking Lena gold miners break down, as the company adopts a hard line
==Apr.11 > An agreement to end the Lena strike collapses
==Apr.17 (Apr.04.OS) > The Lena strike leaders are arrested [early AM] - the Lena Massacre: troops fire on a peaceful strikers’ march, killing over 200 [late afternoon] - Interior Minister Makarov limply comments: “It has always been so; it will always be so.” - labor militancy is reviving; accelerating strikes to summer.1914

Duma.Czarist Regime.
==Apr.--- > Octobrist leader Guchkov fights a duel with an associate of War Minister Sukhomlinov

Unrest.
==spring > Persistent rumors circulate in Novgorod that the anti-Christ is born and the world is about to end

Bolsheviks.
==May.05 > Stalin is re-arrested six weeks after escaping from exile - ~the entire Bolshevik Russian Bureau has been imprisoned with the help of police agent Malinovsky
==May.05 > Publication of the first issue of the Bolshevik version of Pravda (the title has been stolen from the indignant Trotsky), edited by Molotov, with two police agents on the staff - rising Bolshevik influence in Russia
==May.26 > Police in the Donbas record minor radical activity by an 18-year-old named Nikita Khrushchev
==Jun.17-22 > Lenin suddenly moves his base from Paris to Cracow, close to the Russian border

Military.
==May.--- > The Russian Army’s Plan 19 is modified for an attack on Galicia in addition to East Prussia, splitting Russian offensive strength

Labor.Duma.
==Jun.23 > Workers’ health insurance is established by an act of the Duma

Duma.
==end.Jun > The Third Duma is dismissed

Military.
==Jul.13 > The Russian Chief of Staff promises France an offensive against Germany by the fifteenth day of mobilization

European Relations.
==Jul.16 > A Franco-Russian naval convention is signed

Military.
==Jul.--- > A law is passed to greatly increase army recruitment, beginning in 1913

Socialist Revolutionaries.
==summer > ~ Many of the SR’s have renounced terror

Bolsheviks.Mensheviks.
==Aug.25-Sep.02 > The Vienna Conference of the ‘August Bloc’ (the non-Bolshevik wing of the RSDRP) is organized by Trotsky - attempts at reconciliation between Mensheviks and Bolsheviks - the animosity between Lenin and Trotsky is at its height to early 1914

Czarist Regime.
==Sep.21 > The government celebrates the centenary of the battle of Borodino

Mensheviks.
==Sep.--- > The Mensheviks begin legally publishing the paper Luch

Rasputin.Czarist Regime.
==Oct.23-24 > The young Czarevitch dramatically recovers from a near-fatal bout of hemophilia at Spala - the Czarina credits his recovery to Rasputin

Bolsheviks.Press.
==late.Oct-early.1913 > The exiled Leon Trotsky reports on the Balkan Wars for the journal Kievan Thought

Duma.
==fall > Elections for the Fourth Duma are held - the moderate conservative Octobrists loose ground to the far right

European Relations.
==Nov.17 > French Prime Minister Poincaré assures Russian Ambassador Izvolsky that if Russia goes to war, France will also

Duma.Bolsheviks.Socialist Revolutionaries.
==Nov.28 > The Fourth Duma opens - Malinovsky, who is secretly a police agent, leads the Bolshevik delegation - Alexander Kerensky enters the Duma as a Trudovik/SR

Czarist Regime.
==Dec.29 > The Czar ousts the moderate Interior Minister Makarov, and installs the reactionary Maklakov

Bolsheviks.Mensheviks.
==Dec.--- > Menshevik and Bolshevik deputies appear as editors in each others’ newspapers, despite orders from Lenin - Lenin and Malinovsky successfully maneuver to split the RSDRP faction in the Duma by Oct 1913

Far Left.Caucasus.
==1912 > The left-nationalist Azerbaijani Musavat (Equality) Party is secretly founded

Military.
==1912 > A Russian naval buildup is underway

Military.
==1912 > The Russian armed forces attain second place behind France in the early race to build military aircraft

Ethnic.Central Asia.
==1912 > Kazakhs establish the Alash Orda party

Business.
==1912 > The Rothschilds sell out their interests in Russian oil to Royal Dutch/Shell

Bolsheviks.Mensheviks.
==Jan.12 and 20 > Lenin furiously demands the firing of the conciliatory editorial staff of Pravda, including Molotov: “They are not men but miserable dishrags...” - ~at a Bolshevik conference in Cracow, Lenin ends attempts by Bolshevik Duma members to reconcile with the Mensheviks

Bolsheviks.
The end of Stalin’s pre-revolutionary political activity:
1912
==Sep.14 > Stalin again escapes from exile; for six months, he frequently travels abroad
1913
==late.Jan-late.Feb > ~Stalin visits Vienna, arriving disguised as a Greek peasant - he writes the pamphlet Marxism and the Nationality Question, which advocates national/ethnic autonomy under socialism (which he privately calls “all sorts of rubbish”) - he first encounters Bukharin and Trotsky (to whom Stalin only grunts) - he uses the pseudonym ‘Stalin’ for the first time, on Jan.25
==Mar.08 > Stalin is apprehended while disguised as a woman at a musical benefit for Pravda in St. Petersburg, after being fingered by police agent Malinovsky - Stalin's last arrest
==Aug.--- > Stalin is exiled to the Turukhan region of northern Siberia, to 1917
1914
==Feb.--- > The Bolsheviks Stalin and Sverdlov are exiled together, to their mutual annoyance

Rasputin.
==early.1913 > A women’s plot to castrate Rasputin is encouraged by Trufanov (formerly the monk Iliodor, who was earlier an ally of Rasputin’s)

Bolsheviks.
==Jan.--- (OS) >   Lenin writes to Gorky: “What we need right now is a war, but I am afraid Franz Joseph and little Nicholas won’t do us the favor.”
==Feb.22 > Bolshevik activist Yakov Sverdlov is arrested in St. Petersburg after being fingered by Bolshevik Duma deputy/police agent Malinovsky

Far Left.Bolsheviks.
==Feb.26 > The Czar proclaims a general amnesty - radical parties are increasingly legal and above ground - Lenin’s control of the Bolsheviks further weakens

Czarist Regime.
==Mar.06-Jun > The Romanov Dynasty tricentennial - the celebrations fall flat

Women.Far Left.
==Mar.21 > International Women’s Day prompts meetings and demonstrations throughout Russia

Military.
==Mar.--- > The ‘Great Program,’ a plan for large-scale military expansion, is put before a surprised Imperial Council; it is not finally approved by the Duma until Jun.1914

Labor.Duma.
==May.16 > Over a year after the event, the Duma finally gets around to holding a debate on the Lena goldfield massacre

Far Right.Czarist Regime.
==May.--- > The reactionary leader Markov accuses Premier Kokovtsov of conspiring with Jewish financiers to embezzle from the state

Bolsheviks.
==Jul.--- > Lenin visits Vienna - according to some sources, he is paid off by the Austrian government
==Jul.---  (OS?) > The Russian government bans Pravda

Military.
==Aug.--- > The military plans to extend the railway system in western Russia by 1917 - little is actually accomplished

Duma.Czarist Regime.
==Oct.--- > Interior Minister Maklakov urges the Czar to overthrow the Duma

Jews.Czarist Regime.
==Oct.--- > The Beilis Trial ends after two years: the Jewish defendant is acquitted of ritual murder, but in humiliating terms - outrage from Russian liberals

Bolsheviks.
==Oct.--- (OS) > The Bolsheviks in the Duma (led by police agent Malinovsky) definitely split with the Mensheviks, angering other socialists
==Nov.--- > The German-Polish socialist leader Rosa Luxemburg bitterly denounces Lenin; real personal animosity develops between them

Military.
==1913 > Dec.--- > The Russian air command is divided between the General Staff and the Technical Directorate, causing administrative confusion
==1913 > General Yudenich becomes Russian Chief of Staff
==1913 > Russia begins a comprehensive overhaul of naval equipment

Economy.
==1913 > Russia’s share of world oil exports has dropped to 9% from 31% in 1904

Ethnic.Central Asia.
==1913 > The tribes of Tuva (near Mongolia) offer their allegiance to the Czar

Culture.
==1913 > Belyi’s apocalyptic novel Petersburg begins appearing in serialized form

Miscellaneous.
==1913 > The suggestion by a Duma deputy that Moscow construct cheap housing for 35,000 is ignored - Moscow population density per housing unit is twice that of western European cities, with a death rate nearly twice as high

European Relations.
==Jan.13 > An Imperial Russian Council discusses the prospect of war with Germany over the Liman von Sanders affair

Bolsheviks.
==Jan-fall > Lev Kamenev is sent to oversee Bolshevik activities in St. Petersburg
==early.1914 > The Socialist International Bureau investigates the RSDRP split and decides that the main cause is Lenin’s intransigence; it plans to call an international conference in July to decide the issue  (see Jul.16-17)

Military.Police.
==early.1914 > The Okhrana’s network of police spies in the army is abolished

Rasputin.Czarist Regime.
==Feb.13 > The capable Prime Minister Kokovtsov is dismissed under pressure from the Czarina and Rasputin - Goremykin begins a string of inept Premiers - Agriculture Minister Krivoshein dominates the government to summer.1915

European Relations.
==Feb.18 > Courtier Benckendorff writes “...absolutely no one wants war or adventure but over the last few months the feeling that war is inevitable has...grown in all classes.”

International.
==Feb.21 > A secret government conference decides that it would be impossible for Russia to seize Constantinople without provoking a general war, which would divert too many forces to permit Russia to take the Straits

Czarist Regime.
==Feb.--- > Conservative State Councilman Durnovo submits a memo arguing against Russian-German rivalry and accurately predicting an imminent general European war which will lead to an extreme social revolution in Russia - the report is evidently ignored by the Czar

Bolsheviks.Press.
==Feb.--- > Pravda editor Chernomazov is ousted, correctly suspected of being a police agent

Czarist Regime.
==early.Mar > The Czar’s mother writes “...I see that we are going by great steps toward some kind of catastrophe...”

Ethnic Unrest.Ukraine.
==Mar.--- > The centennial celebration of the Ukrainian poet Shevchenko is prohibited, setting off demonstrations: the first open clashes between the Russian government and Ukrainian nationalists

Bolsheviks.
==Mar.--- > Bolshevik activist Mikhail Frunze is permanently exiled to Manzurka in Siberia

Far Left.Czarist Regime.
==spring > Interior Minister Maklakov launches a crackdown on the left

Far Left.Duma.
==May.05 > Socialist deputies are ejected from the Duma after booing Premier Goremykin - 50,000 workers strike in St. Petersburg in support to May 7

Bolsheviks.Police.
==May.21 (May.08.OS) > The leading Bolshevik Duma deputy Malinovsky abruptly resigns, revealing himself as a police agent - revolutionaries are astonished

Bolsheviks.Mensheviks.
==May.--- > The Second International calls for a conference in Brussels of Russian socialists to reunite the RSDRP  (see Jul.16-17)

European Relations.
==mid.Jun > A bellicose article, possibly by War Minister Sukhomlinov, is published, declaring "Russia is ready: France must be ready, too!"

Czarist Regime.
==mid.Jun > The Czarina suffers a nervous collapse

Socialist Revolutionaries.
==late.Jun > The radical lawyer Kerensky is imprisoned for six months for protesting the anti-Semitic Beilis case

Rasputin.
==Jun.27 > Rasputin is nearly killed in an assassination attempt

European Relations.
==Jun.28 > The assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo
==Jun.29 > The Czar orders twelve days of mourning for the assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Military.
==Jun.--- > The Duma finally passes the ‘Great Program’ for massive a military expansion to be completed by 1917

European Relations.Military.
==Jun.--- > A British naval squadron visits Kronstadt

Ethnic.Central Asia.
==Jun.--- > The Fourth Moslem Congress is held

Bolsheviks.
==Jul.16-17 > The Second International holds a special Russian unity conference in Brussels - Lenin fails to attend; only the Bolsheviks oppose unity - preparations are made to denounce Lenin and the Bolsheviks at the International Socialist Congress to be held in Vienna on Aug.23, but the plans are pre-empted by World War I

European Relations.
==Jul.20-23 > French President Poincaré and Premier Viviani visit St. Petersburg

Labor Unrest.
==Jul.21-25/26 > A violent but unsuccessful strike wave sweeps St. Petersburg, provoked by the suppression of an oilfield strike in Baku - the government suppresses the socialist press

European Relations.
The July Crisis and the coming of war:
==Jul.23 > The July Crisis breaks into the open with the presentation of an Austrian ultimatum to Serbia
==Jul.24 > Russia decides to back Serbia against Austria to the extent of war
==Jul.25 > Russia proclaims a ‘Period Preparatory to War’
==Jul.28 > Austria declares war on Serbia
==Jul.29/30 > Russia orders a partial mobilization directed against Austria, despite warnings from Germany
==Jul.30 > Russia orders a general mobilization, making a general war virtually inevitable
==Jul.31/Aug.01 > Germany issues a 12-hour ultimatum to Russia
==Aug.01 > Germany declares war - RUSSIA ENTERS WORLD WAR I