9 century

864 soon after the calling of Vikings in 862, lots of Novgorod residents were unhappy with a despotic rule of Rurik and by the actions of his relatives.
Uprising for liberties was led by Vadim Brave and was lost. Vadim was killed by Rurik, along with many of his adherents.

10 century

945 The revolt of Drevlians against Igor's obligation to pay tribute.
The Drevlians were a neighboring tribe with which the growing Kievan Rus’ empire had a complex relationship. They stopped paying tribute upon Oleg’s death and instead gave money to a local warlord. Confronted by Igor’s larger army, the Drevlians backed down and paid tribute to Kievan Rus. As Igor and his army rode home, however, he decided the payment was not enough and returned, with only a small envoy, seeking more tribute. Upon his arrival in their territory, the Drevlians murdered Igor. According to the Byzantine chronicler Igor’s death was caused by a gruesome act of torture in which he was «captured by them, tied to tree trunks, and torn in two.»
Igor’s son Svyatoslav was only three years old at that time, so his widow Olga became a regent in 945.
The Drevlians now saw Kievan Rus’ as an easy target and sent envoys to Olga to make her marry the Drevlian Prince Mal.
Olga's revenge:
Act 1. The Drevlians sent 20 of their envoys in two boats to meet Olga in Kiev. She gave them honorable welcome. Then the boats with all the men inside were tossed into the trench and they were all buried alive.
Act 2. Olga sent a message to the Drevlians that she is ready to marry Prince Mal but needs a delegation of 20 of their most distinguished men to persuade her people as well. The delegation was sent and Olga gave them a warm welcome. After their arrival, Olga first offered them to bathe in a fancy bathhouse to relax. After the men had entered, Olga ordered the doors be locked and the building was set on fire. All the men were burned alive.
Act3. To the rest of the Drevlians, Olga offered to come to them if they organized a funeral feast for her husband. She arrived at the feast in an apparent mourning, then waited until the Drevlians were all drunk and had her soldiers kill them. All 5,000 were slaughtered.
Act 4. While the remainder of the people were begging for mercy, Olga said she will impose an easy punishment on them: she needed just three pigeons and three sparrows from each household. The people, thankful for the reasonable terms, provided the birds. Olga then ordered her soldiers to attach a tiny piece of sulfur wrapped in cloth to every single pigeon and sparrow. At night all the birds returned to their homes and the whole town was set to fire that killed everyone.

11 century

In 11 century the first attempts of Novgorod to gain independence from the Old Russian state took place.
Novgorod boyars with the support of the urban population wanted to get rid of the tax burden of Kiev and create their own army.
1024 An uprising of Volkhvy (Slavic druids) in Suzdal lands in response to a crop failure and drought. Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise was forced to intervene to end the rebellion.
1068 The Kiev uprising against Grand Prince Iziaslav Yaroslavich of Kiev in the aftermath of a Kievan Rus’ defeat to Polovtsy. The Kievans held a veche and sent the following communication to the Prince Iziaslav: «The Polovtsy have spread over the country. O Prince, give us arms and horses, that we may offer them combat once more.» Iziaslav, however, paid no heed to this request.
The Kievan mob ransacked the general (voevoda) house, they then drove out Iziaslav and placed Sviatoslav on the Kievan throne in hopes that he could stop the Polovtsy. Iziaslav fled to Poland, where he was supported with arms, with which he returned to Kiev the following year and took back the throne.
1071 The Rostov Uprising led by Volkhy pagan priests as a result of famine in Yaroslavl.
1097 Liubech congress of princes - a conference of the princes of Kyivan Rus’, convened at the initiative of Volodymyr Monomakh. Its purpose was to end the conflicts among the princes and to unite them in the struggle against the Polovtsy. The congress abolished the seniority principle of succession and adopted the principle of patrimony, whereby each prince would possess the lands ruled by his father. The congress thereby transformed a formally unitary state into a group of independent states joined together in a unique kind of federation, in which issues of common interest were settled at princely congresses.

12 century

1113 Kiev Rebellion was an antifeudal uprising of the urban lower classes of Kiev, the slaves (kholopy), and perhaps the rural population of the Kievan region. The rebellion was caused by dissatisfaction with the policies of Prince Sviatopolk Iziaslavich, the rising cost of bread, and starvation and was directed against the abuses of the prince’s administrators, who speculated in bread and salt, and against the enslavement of free citizens by moneylenders.
The rebellion flared up immediately upon the death of Sviatopolk. The rebels destroyed the palace of the boyar Putiata Vyshatich and attacked the holdings of the Jewish moneylenders.
The frightened Kiev boyars were able to persuade Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh to become prince of Kiev. Monomakh succeeded in placating the insurgents by promulgating laws that made some concessions to the rebels, known as the Statute of Vladimir Monomakh of 1113.
1136 Novgorod declared its independence from princely power, and it remained a sovereign city until conquered by Muscovy (Moscow).
The reason for it was the decline of power by Kiev and disintgreation of Kievan Rus.
Novgorod was governed by an oligarchy of great trading boyar families who controlled the exploitation of the hinterland. They chose (from among themselves) a mayor, a military commander, and a council of aldermen. There was in addition a veche (council), a town meeting.
A major role in politics was played by the archbishop, who after 1156 controlled the lands and incomes previously owned by the Kievan princes and who appears throughout Novgorod’s history as a powerful, often independent figure.
1173-1176 Vsevolod the Big Nest took part in struggle against the powerful boyars of Rostov and Suzdal. In 1176 Vsevolod succeeded him in Vladimir. He promptly subjugated the boyars and systematically raided the Volga peoples, notably Volga Bulgaria.
Vsevolod showed little mercy to those who disobeyed his commands. In 1180 and 1187 he punished the princes of Ryazan by ousting them from their lands.

13 century

1207 Vsevolod the Big Nest burnt to the ground both Ryazan and Belgorod (see 12th century).

14 century

1320s Absorbing of duchy of Vladimir-Suzdal by Grand Principality of Moscow (Muscovite Rus).
1327 The Tver Uprising was the first major uprising against the Mongol invasion of Rus' by the people of Vladimir. It was brutally suppressed by the joint efforts of the Golden Horde, Muscovy and Suzdal. At the time, Muscovy and Vladimir were involved in a rivalry for dominance in the northeast of Kievan Rus', and Vladimir's total defeat effectively ended the quarter-century struggle for power. The Golden Horde later became an enemy of Muscovy, and Russia did not become free of Mongol influence until the Great stand on the Ugra river in 1480, more than a century later.
1348 Pskov achieved full independence as a republic.
Pskov is one of the oldest Russian towns. The town became important in the Middle Ages as a centre for trade between the interior of Russia and the Hanseatic seaports of the Baltic.
Pskov was under the protection of the city of Novgorod in the 11th and 12th centuries. In the latter century monasteries were established on the left bank of the Velikaya. It became independent from Novgorod and established an aristocratic oligarchy.
Middle of the 14th and 1st half of the 15th century
The first Russian heretical sect, the Strigolniki, was established in Pskov and later in Novgorod and Tver. This movement critisized corrupt priests, their overeating, overdrinking, ignorance and bribery. The heresy did not refuse the practices of the Orthodox church. They had attacked the demoralization of priests and only refused the rituals which were held by the decadent priests.
In 1375, Ieaders of the heresy, Karp, Nikita, and another were punished with death, but the heresy survived.
Late in the 14th century
The Golden Horde disintegrated into the independent Tatar khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan on the Volga River, Sibir in western Siberia, and Crimea.
(Russia conquered the first three of these khanates in the 16th century, but the Crimean khanate became a vassal state of the Ottoman Turks until it was annexed to Russia by Catherine the Great in 1783.)

15 century

1478, 1485 Annexation of the Novgorod Republic in 1478 and the Grand Duchy of Tver in 1485 by Grand Principality of Moscow.
Alarmed at the growing power of Moscow, Novgorod had negotiated with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Rus in the hope of placing itself under the protection of the neighboring Catholic Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Casimir IV, King of Poland and Grand Prince of Lithuania, against the increasing attacks by the Muscovite dynasty, a would-be alliance that was proclaimed by the Moscow rulers as an act of apostasy from Orthodoxy. Ivan took the field against Novgorod in 1470, and after his generals had twice defeated the forces of the republic — at the Battle of Shelon River and on the Northern Dvina, both in the summer of 1471 — the Novgorodians were forced to sue for peace.
Ivan visited Novgorod several times in the next several years, persecuting a number of pro-Lithuanian boyars and confiscating their lands.
In 1477 he marched against them. Deserted by Casimir and surrounded on every side by the Moscow armies, Novgorod ultimately recognized Ivan's direct rule over the city and its vast hinterland in 1478. Ivan dispossessed Novgorod of more than four-fifths of its land. Subsequent revolts (1479–1488) were punished by the removal en masse of the richest and most ancient families of Novgorod to Moscow, Vyatka, and other north-eastern Rus' cities.
The rival republic of Pskov owed the continuance of its own political existence to the readiness with which it assisted Ivan against its ancient enemy.
The other principalities were eventually absorbed by conquest, purchase, or marriage contract: The Principality of Yaroslavl in 1463, Rostov in 1474, Tver in 1485, and Vyatka 1489.
After annexing the multinational Viatka Republic in 1489, Moscow laid formal claim to all Udmurt lands but controlled only the north.
1491 Skhariya the Jew, the founder of The Thought of Skhariya the Jew, or the Heresy of the Judaizers (Zhidovstvuyushchiye) was executed in Novgorod by the order of Ivan 3.
Heresy of the Judaizers was a religious concept that existed in Novgorod the Great and Grand Duchy of Moscow in the second half of the 15th century and marked the beginning of a new era of schism in Russia.
Their beliefs arbitrarily presupposed their adherence to Judaism, even though most of Skhariya's followers had been ordinary Russians of Russian Orthodox faith and low-ranking Orthodox clergy and had never confessed Judaism.

16 century

1537 Andrei Staritsky’s rebellion, uncle Ivan the Terrible, against Elena Glinskaya. Adult uncle was a dynastic rival for the young Ivan. He was thrown into prison and soon died of starvation in prison.
1547 A large revolt of Moscow population. The reason was the grandiose fire that destroyed a significant part of the city.
Instability of the supreme power in the country gave rise to feudal lords' tyranny in the provinces, what resulted in upgrowth of people's discontent and even overt revolts in a number of cities. This revolt was suppressed by the government. One of the Tsar's uncles - Y. Glinsky was lacerated, the houses of the others were plundered.
With a view to strengthen the central power the 17-years old Grand Duke Ivan was recognized the Tsar of Russia and thus was formally equated with the West-European emperors.
1565-72 The oprichnina was a state policy implemented by Tsar Ivan the Terrible.
The late 1560s under Ivan the Terrible were rife with conspiracies and violence. Ivan's mental state was continually deteriorating and was exacerbated by his wars with Sweden, Lithuania, and Poland.
Oprichnina was run by the Tsar's own guards, the oprichniks. Drawn mainly from the lower levels of the military and society, they were rewarded for their services with land, property and payments. The result was a small army of individuals whose entire livelihood was owed to Tsar's generosity and whose loyalty was without question.
The oprichniks are frequently portrayed as unhinged black-robed killers, who slaughtered people just as frivolously as they killed dogs whose severed heads they carried around as a symbol of their 'snapping at the heels' of the Tsar's enemies. They carried around brooms as another representation of their campaign to sweep away traitors.
Using forged documents as a pretext, thousands were hanged, drowned or deported, while the buildings and countryside were plundered and destroyed. Estimates of the death toll vary between 15,000 and 60,000 people.
1570 The Massacre of Novgorod was an attack launched by Tsar Ivan the Terrible's oprichniki on the city of Novgorod. The sheer number of casualties combined with the extreme level of violent cruelty makes this campaign possibly the most vicious in the brutal legacy of the oprichnina.
In 1569 the tsar evicted several thousands from Novgorod and the neighboring town of Pskov in an attempt to avoid a betrayal from boyars, ц the Tsar believed was planning to ally with Lithuania.
1578-80 The beginning of Russian conquest of Siberia.
The Russian conquest of Siberia took place in the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Khanate of Sibir had become a loose political structure of vassalages that were being undermined by the activities of Russian explorers.
The conquest began when some 540 Cossacks under Yermak Timofeyevich invaded the territory of the Voguls, subjects to the Khan of Siberia. They were accompanied by 300 Lithuanian and German slave laborers, whom the Stroganovs had purchased from the tsar.

17 century

1601–03 The Russia's worst famine in terms of proportional effect on the population, killing perhaps two million people, about 30% of the Russian people. The famine compounded the Time of Troubles, when the country was unsettled politically and later invaded by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The many deaths contributed to social disruption and helped bring about the downfall of Boris Godunov.
1606-07 Bolotnikov rebellion. The uprising was part of the Time of Troubles in Russia. Bolotnikov led rebel forces loyal to Tsar Dmitry against the usurper Tsar Vasily Shuisky. Wrongly believing that Dmitry I had escaped Shuisky's assassins, the rebels essentially renewed the civil war that had brought Tsar Dmitry II to power.
1648 Salt riot: The Moscow uprising of 1648 started because of the government's replacement of different taxes with a universal salt tax for the purpose of replenishing the state treasury after the Time of Troubles. This drove up the price of salt, leading to violent riots in the streets of Moscow. The riot was an early challenge to the reign of Alexei 1, eventually resulting in the exile of Alexei's advisor Boris Morozov.
1650 Novgorod and Pskov Uprising, caused by the Russian government's bulk purchasing of grain (traded to Sweden) and the resulting increases in the price of bread.
1662 Copper Riots. Russian government began producing copper coins and assigning them equal value to silver currency to meet expenses. The effort failed and silver vanished from circulation, the entire economy collapsed and unemployment rose dramatically. The copper money was naturally devalued in purchasing power and then there was widespread counterfeiting operations since the official value of the copper coinage became far in excess of the cost of production.
1667-76 Solovetskoe uprising: the monks of the Solovki monastery were opposed to church reforms. The siege of the Solovetsky monastery lasted 8 years and ended with the capture of the monastery by the tsarist troops.
1670-71 Cossack uprising led by Stepan Razin.
Cossack Stenka Razin led a major uprising against the nobility and tsarist bureaucracy in southern Russia. Razin became a symbol of peasant unrest, his movement turned political. Razin wanted to protect the independence of the Cossacks and to protest an increasingly centralized government. The Cossacks supported the tsar and autocracy, but they wanted a tsar that responded to the needs of the people and not just those of the upper class. Razin's movement failed and the rebellion led to increased government control. The Cossacks lost some of their autonomy, and the tsar bonded more closely with the upper class because both feared more rebellion.
1682 1st Streltsy uprising (The Khovansky Affair).
An uprising of the Moscow Streltsy regiments that resulted in supreme power devolving on Sophia Alekseyevna. Behind the uprising lurked the rivalry between the Miloslavsky and Naryshkin relatives of the two wives of the late Tsar Aleksey for dominant influence on the administration of the Tsardom of Russia.
1698 2nd Streltsy uprising, suppressed by Tsar Peter 1.
Possible reasons: rebellion against the progressive innovations of Peter the Great, serfdom oppression, military-service hardships and harassment.
The Moscow Streltsy, who had participated in Peter the Great's Azov campaigns in 1695–1696, remained in Azov as a garrison. In 1697, however, the four regiments of Streltsy were unexpectedly sent to Velikiye Luki instead of Moscow. In 1698 they left their regiments and fled to Moscow to file a complaint. They secretly established contact with Sophia Alekseyevna, who had been incarcerated at the Novodevichy Monastery, and hoped for her mediation.
The runaway Streltsy, despite their resistance, were sent back to their regiments, giving rise to discontent among the rest of them. Peter availed himself of savage tortures while investigating the incident. Between 1698 and 1699, 1,182 Streltsy were executed and 601 were whipped, branded with iron, or sent into exile. The investigation and executions continued up until 1707. Streltsy and their family members were removed from Moscow.

18 century

A number of social grievances were prevalent in the peasant population of Russia of 18th century due to:
- Peter the Great's radical reforms designed to «Westernize» old Muscovy;
- Peter's newly formed police state was expanding territorially: with the massive recruitment into the army for campaigns to Azov and Sweden, unfolded construction;
The whole groups of serfs and even villages fled with their families to the Volga, Don and Sloboda Ukraine.
In general, the entire rural Russian atmosphere was in an agitated state, waiting for a catalyst of some kind.
1705-06 Astrakhan uprising: an antifeudal action by streltsy, soldiers, posadskie liudi (merchants and artisans), and rabotnye liudi (bound or free industrial and trade workers) in Astrakhan.
Causes: the intensification of tax oppression (new taxes on salt, on baths, cellars, and ovens) and the arbitrariness and coercion of the local administration and garrison officers. The salaries of the soldiers and streltsy were lowered, and they were forced to work for the officers. The immediate cause of the uprising was Peter 1st ukase prohibiting the wearing of Russian dress and beards (cutting off beards «with blood.»)
1707-09 Bulavin Rebellion: a war of Don Cossacks against Imperial Russia was led by Kondraty Bulavin, a democratically elected Ataman of Don Cossacks.
The war was triggered by a number of underlying tensions between the Imperial government under Peter 1st of Russia, the Cossacks, and Russian peasants fleeing from serfdom in Russia to gain freedom in the autonomous Don area.
The Bulavin Rebellion bore striking similarities to Razin's Revolt a generation earlier. Both were Cossack rebellions in part, aimed against an imposing governmental institution and driven by animosity for the miserable state of peasant life. They effectively set the stage for the Pugachev Uprising under Catherine the Great. In response to the uprising, Peter tightened his grip on the Cossack states.
1769-71 Kizhi uprising: a movement among state peasants attached to the Olonets metallurgical works in Karelia, provoked by increased feudal exploitation in the form of compulsory labor at factories (cutting wood, stoking coal, processing ores) and by abuses of the local administration.
After heavy artillery fire by the punitive expedition about 2,000 peasants surrendered. The leaders of the movement were branded, whipped, and sentenced to hard labor for life in Nerchinsk. About 52 persons were deported to Siberia, and many were conscripted into the army. As a result of the uprising, peasants were no longer forced to quarry marble or construct new plants.
1771 Plague riot caused by an outbreak of bubonic plague.
The measures undertaken by the authorities, such as creation of forced quarantines, destruction of contaminated property without compensation or control, closing of public baths, etc., caused fear and anger among the citizens.
The city's economy was mostly paralyzed because many factories, markets, stores, and administrative buildings had been closed down.
All of this was followed by acute food shortages, causing deterioration of living conditions for the majority of the Muscovites.
1773-75 Pugachev's Rebellion (major Cossack and peasant rebellion in Russia).
Claiming to be Emperor Peter 3rd (who had been deposed by his wife, Catherine 2nd the Great, and assassinated in 1762), Pugachov decreed the abolition of serfdom and gathered a substantial following, including Yaik Cossacks, peasant workers in the mines and factories of the Urals, agricultural peasants, clergymen, and the Bashkirs. Planning ultimately to depose Catherine, Pugachov stormed and laid siege to Orenburg in 1773.
Catherine recognized the seriousness of the rebellion and sent an army, but Pugachov proceeded to Kazan and burned the city (1774). He was defeated again several days later, but he crossed the Volga River, intending to gather reinforcements among the Don Cossacks. He captured Saratov (1774) and besieged Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd), where General A. Suvorov finally defeated him (September 1774). Pugachov escaped but was betrayed by some Yaik Cossacks, sent to Moscow, and executed.
Salawat Yulayev is a Bashkir national hero who participated in Pugachev's Rebellion.

19 century

1820е Creation of secret organizations «Union of Welfare», «Northern society», «Southern Society» by Russian advanced nobility. The general ideas: the abolishment of autocracy and serfdom and introduction of constitutional form of government.
1825 Decembrist uprising: a revolutionary movement born during the reign of Alexander Ist.
The background of the Decembrist Revolt lay in the Napoleonic Wars, when a number of well-educated Russian officers in Western Europe during the course of military campaigns were exposed to its liberalism and encouraged to seek change on their return to autocratic Russia.
Army officers created the Union of Salvation, aimed at the abolishment of serfdom and introduction of constitutional monarchy by means of armed revolt at the next emperor’s succession to the throne.
The revolt occurred on December 1825, when about 3,000 officers and soldiers refused to swear allegiance to the new tsar, Alexander’s brother Nicholas, proclaiming instead their loyalty to the idea of a Russian constitution and a constitutional monarchy .
The revolt was easily crushed, and the surviving rebels exiled to Siberia, leading Nicholas to turn away from the modernization program begun by Peter the Great.
1830-31 Cholera riots - the riots caused by the anti-cholera measures, undertaken by the tsarist government, such as quarantine, armed cordons and migratory restrictions.
Influenced by rumors of deliberate contamination of ordinary people by government officials and doctors, agitated mobs started raiding police departments and state hospitals, killing hated functionaries, officers, landowners and gentry. (in Tambov, St. Petersburg, Novgorod Province, Sevastopol, etc.).
1840-44 Potato riots - the introduction of potato cultivation culture met with strong resistance from the peasants (in the Perm, Orenburg, Vyatka, Kazan and Saratov gubernias).
The forcible measures accompanying the introduction of the sowing of potatoes provoked the disturbances; the peasants’ best land was chosen for potatoes, they were subjected to severe penalties for failure to observe the directions of the authorities, and various requisitions were imposed on them.
1860-70e Student Movements. Caused by: social composition and financial situation of students; the activities of revolutionary secret societies; increased student oversight.
1860-70e Narodnichestvo movement («Populists») - socialist movement in Russia who believed that political propaganda among the peasantry would lead to the awakening of the masses and, through their influence, to the liberalization of the tsarist regime.
Because Russia was a predominantly agricultural country, the peasants represented the majority of the people (narod): hence the name of the movement, narodnichestvo, or «populism.»
1860-70e Proletariat movement: caused by increase in the number of the proletariat and difficult working conditions (up to 17 hours a working day, lower salary for female and child labor).
1860-90e Strike movement: 1861- 1869 ~ 63 strikes, 1870-1879 ~ 326 strikes, 1880-1884 ~ 101 strike (~ 99 thousand workers), 1885-1889 ~ 221 strike (~ 223 thousand workers).
1890e The spread of Marxism: Marxism made important inroads among Russian intellectuals, gaining adherents in academic circles and in the radical and revolutionary movement. Among them were young intellectuals V. Ulianov (Lenin) and J. Martov.
Both decided to dedicate their lives to revolutionary struggle and soon emerged as leaders of Russian Marxists. In the 1890s Marxism appealed to many young intellectuals, including many future liberals, like P. Struve, N. Berdiaev, S. Bulgakov, who would later renounce their early Marxist learnings.

20 century

1905-07 1st Russian Revolution. Causes: lack of reforms, poverty and powerlessness of peasants (70% of the population), powerlessness of workers, the national question (forced Russification), failures on the Russian-Japanese front.
Events: Bloody Sunday, mutiny on the battleship «Prince Potyomkin Taurian» and the cruiser «Ochakov», All-Russian strike. Results: the formation of the State Duma, trade unions, voting rights.
1917 February February Revolution. Causes: anti-war sentiments, the plight of workers and peasants, political powerlessness, the decline of the authority of autocratic power and its inability to carry out reforms.
Events: strikes and strikes, transfer of the tsarist regiments to the side of the workers, Nicholas 2's abdication from the throne diarchy - the Council of Deputies as an organ of people's power and the Provisional Government as an organ of the bourgeois dictatorship.
1917 October October Revolution. Causes: the diarchy ended with the victory of the bourgeoisie, which did not fulfill the demands of the working people, the announcement of the dictatorship and the intention to disperse the Soviets.
Events: the creation of the Military Revolutionary Committee, the overthrow and arrest of the Provisional Government, the transfer of power to the Soviets, the «Peace Decree» and the «Land Decree».
1929-33 Rebellion and discontent against collectivization and dispossession of kulaks. Holodomor. Seizure of property for transfer to collective farms. Fines for non-fulfillment of grain procurements.
1960s-80s The dissident movement in the USSR. Criticism of power, the struggle for human rights, stagnation in science, the movement on the originality of Russia. Fighting dissidents: arrests, links, mental hospitals.
1990 Mass rally (more than 200 thousand) for the abolition of the one-party system (Article 6 of the Constitution). Adoption of the law of the USSR on recognition of a multiparty system in the country.
1990 The aggravation of interethnic and interfaith relations in the 1990s.