Wars: Russia-Sweden-Finnish relations

9 century

The Vikings traded along the Russian rivers and founded settlements.

11 century

The controversial subject was the coast of the Gulf of Finland, which both the Novgorodians and the Swedes sought to take over.

12 century

1142-64 Swedish Crusade.
Swedish–Novgorodian Wars were a series of conflicts in the 12th and 13th centuries between the Republic of Novgorod and medieval Sweden over control of the Gulf of Finland, a part of the Varangian-Byzantine trade route. The Swedish attacks against Orthodox Russians had religious overtones.
After the marriage of Yaroslav I (Grand Prince of Novgorod and Kiev) to Ingegerd of Sweden in 1019, Ladoga became a desired territory in the orbit of Kievan Rus.
According to the First Novgorod Chronicle, the Swedish troops attacked the Novgorod merchants somewhere in the Baltic Sea region and killed 150 Novgorodians in 1142. It is the first known case of hostilities between Sweden and Novgorod. In 1164, a strong Swedish fleet approached Ladoga but was soundly defeated with most of its ships captured by Novgorod.

13 century

1240 Battle of the Neva. The Swedes invaded Russia to punish the Novgorodians for encroaching on Finnish tribes and to bar Russia’s access to the sea. Aleksandr Yaroslavich (Saint Alexander Nevsky) defeated the Swedes at the confluence of the Rivers Izhora and Neva. At the time of the battle he was not even 20 years old.
By defeating a Swedish invasion force at the confluence of the Rivers Izhora and Neva, he won the name Nevsky, «of the Neva».

14 century

1311 Novgorod raid on Finland.
1313 Burning by the Swedes Ladoga.
1314 Korela rebelled against Novgorod and called on the Swedes. Restraining Korela.
1322 After an unsuccessful attempt to seize Vyborg, the Novgorodians set up the Oreshek fortress.

15 century

Wars with the Swedes after the annexation of Novgorod to Moscow.
Ivan 3 concluded an alliance with Hans of Denmark.
He built a strong citadel in Ingria, named Ivangorod after himself, situated on the Russian-Estonian border, opposite the fortress of Narva held by the Livonian Confederation.
1495–97 Russo-Swedish War. Ivan 3 unsuccessfully attempted to conquer Vyborg from Sweden.

16 century

1508 A 60-year peace treaty under Vasily 3.
1554 Under Ivan the Terrible, Scandinavians attacked the Oreshek fortress. Russian troops laid siege to Vyborg. The Swedes staged a merciless pogrom in Korel lands.
1595 In troubled times, the people of Novgorod called upon the Swedish Prince and threw the Novgorod to the Swedes.

17 century

By the time of the accession of Mikhail Feodorovich in the hands of the Swedes were Ingermanlandia and part of the Novgorod lands.
1610-17 The Ingrian War between Sweden and Russia. This war was a part of Russia's Time of Troubles with the attempt to put a Swedish duke on the Russian throne. It ended with a large Swedish territorial gain in the Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617, which laid an important foundation to Sweden's Age of Greatness.
Russia lost the Izhora land and the Karelian county, which included the north-western Priladozhie.
As a result of the war, Russia was denied access to the Baltic sea for about a century, despite its persistent efforts to reverse the situation. This led to the increased importance of Arkhangelsk for its trading connections with Western Europe.
1656–58 The Russo-Swedish War - was fought by Russia and Sweden as a part of the Second Northern War. It took place during a pause in the contemporary Russo-Polish War (1654-1667) as a consequence of the Truce of Vilna. Despite initial successes, Tsar Alexis of Russia failed to secure his principal objective—to revise the Treaty of Stolbovo.

18 century

1700-21, 1741-43, 1788-90 Northern Wars.
The causes: Russia’s access to the Baltic was blocked by Swedish-held Karelia, Ingria, Estonia, and Livonia by Sweden’s expansion in the Baltic Sea coastlands during the 16th and 17th centuries.
1700-21 Great Northern War - military conflict in which Russia, Denmark-Norway, and Saxony-Poland challenged the supremacy of Sweden in the Baltic area.
1700 Siege of Narva by Russians and victorious attack on Swedes at Narva.
1700-03 The reorganization of Russian army by Peter 1 the Great.
1703 Peter 1 had founded the city of St. Petersburg and the naval port of Kronshtadt.
1704 Capture of Dorpat and Narva.
1709 The Battle of Poltava with main Sweden forces. Victory at Poltava. Defeat in The Northern War knocked Sweden out of the ranks of the great powers.
1710-11 Charles fled to Turkey and induced the Turks to declare war on Russia. However, the Turks, satisfied withanegotiated peace that gave them control of Azov, withdrew from the war.
1714 the Russians defeated the Swedish naval fleet at Hangö (Hanko) and, having captured the Åland Islands, threatened Stockholm.
1721 The Treaty of Nystad - which concluded the war between Sweden and Russia. Sweden ceded Ingria, Estonia, Livonia, and a strip of Finnish Karelia to Russia.
1741-43 The Russo-Swedish War - obliging Sweden to cede a strip of southern Finland to Russia and to become temporarily dependent on Russia.
1741 Empress Elizabeth of Russia agreed to return the Baltic territories to Sweden in exchange for Swedish support in her efforts to seize the Russian throne from the infant emperor Ivan 6.
The Swedes advanced toward St. Petersburg; their threat to the Russian capital enabled Elizabeth to stage a successful coup d’etat (to gain the power).
1742 Elizabeth reneged on the agreement with Sweden. Russian troops conquered Helsingfors and Åbo (modern Turku, then the capital of Finland) and occupied a large portion of Finland.
1743 Treaty of Åbo - Russia got a strip of southern Finland; Russian forces were to be allowed to occupy Sweden to make sure that nothing interfered with his selection.
1744 All the Russian troops were withdrawn from Sweden and Sweden quickly ended his dependence on Russia.
1788-90 The Russo-Swedish War, known as Gustav III's Russian War in Sweden.
The Western powers were alarmed by a string of Russian victories in the Russo-Turkish War (1787–92) and lobbied for the war in the north, which would have diverted the attention of Empress Catherine 2 of Russia from the Southern theatre. Sweden concluded an alliance with the Ottoman Empire in the summer of 1788. However, only the Ottoman Empire was willing to ally with Sweden while Great Britain, the Dutch Republic, and Prussia rejected efforts to form an alliance.
The Swedish attack foiled the Russian plans of sending its navy into the Mediterranean to support its forces fighting the Ottomans, as it was needed to protect the capital, Saint Petersburg. Russia land troops were tied up in the war against Turkey, and Catherine 2 was likewise concerned with revolutionary events in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and in France (the French Revolution). The war ended with status quo.

19 century

1808 Alexander I sent Russian troops to conquer Finland. Swedes after the resistance signed a peace treaty, yielding Finland to Russia.
1809-1917 An autonomous status of the Grand Duchy of Finland (Governor-General in the Russian Empire).

20 century

1917 - Finland became an independent republic.
1918 The Finnish Civil War fought for the leadership and control of Finland during the country's transition from a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire to an independent state.
The Finnish Civil War was fought between the socialist Reds and the non-socialist Whites in the newly sovereign state. The conflict lasted from late January until mid-May 1918 and resulted in a White victory.
1939-40 Soviet-Finnish war or the Winter War - a military conflict between the Soviet Union (USSR) and Finland.
The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the organization.
The underlying cause of the Winter War was Soviet concern about Nazi Germany's expansionism and protection of Leningrad.
1940 The Moscow Peace Treaty Finland ceded 11% of its territory representing 30% of its economy to the Soviet Union. Soviet losses were heavy, and the country's international reputation suffered. Soviet gains exceeded their pre-war demands and the USSR received substantial territory along Lake Ladoga and in northern Finland.
1940-44 Finnish cooperation with Hitler's Germany. In 1944 a truce was signed between Finland and the USSR.

Wars: West, North-West, South-West

10 century

907 The Rus'–Byzantine War associated in the Primary Chronicle with the name of Oleg of Novgorod. The chronicle implies that it was the most successful military operation of the Kievan Rus' against the Byzantine Empire.
Oleg resorted landed on the shore ~2,000 boats equipped with wheels. After his boats were transformed into vehicles, he led them to the walls of Constantinople and fixed his shield to the gates of the Imperial capital.
The threat to Constantinople was ultimately relieved by peace negotiations which bore fruit in the Russo-Byzantine Treaty of 907. Pursuant to the treaty, the Byzantines paid a tribute of twelve grivnas for each Rus' boat.
941 The Rus'–Byzantine War which took place during the reign of Igor of Kiev.
980-90 Vladimir had consolidated the Kievan realm from modern-day Belarus, Russia and Ukraine to the Baltic Sea and had solidified the frontiers against incursions of Bulgarian, Baltic tribes and Eastern nomads.

11 century

1043 Prince Yaroslav the Wise's a naval raid against Constantinople led by his son Vladimir. Although his navy was defeated in the Rus'–Byzantine War, Yaroslav managed to conclude the war with a favorable treaty and prestigious marriage of his son Vsevolod 1 of Kiev to a Byzantine princess. It has been suggested that the peace was so advantageous because the Kievans had succeeded in taking a key Byzantine possession in Crimea, Chersonesus.
1018 Svyatopolk Vladimirovich asked for help from the Polish Tsar against Yaroslav.
In 1030 Yaroslav the Wise conquered lands between Lake Peipus and the Baltic Sea and founded there the city of Yurev (named after Yaroslav's Christian name, Yurii-Georgii), now Tartu in Estonia.
In 1030–31, with Mstyslav's help, he regained the Cherven towns (part of modern Ukraine and Poland, 12-14 centuries - Galicia) from Bolesław I the Brave and annexed the Polish-ruled lands between the Sian River and the Buh River, where he founded Yaroslav (now Jarosław).
1044-74 The struggle for the Polotsk principality between Vseslav, Izyaslav and Vsevolod.
1084 The defeat of the Polotsk land by Vladimir Monomakh.

12 century

1127 The prince of Kiev, Mstislav Vladimirovich, began a war with the princes of Polotsk over trade routes and pillaged several cities including Polotsk (The area around Vitebsk was controlled by the principality of Polotsk beginning from the 10th century).
In 1193, Pope Celestine III declared the Northern Crusades, encouraging the Holy Roman Empire and Kingdom of Sweden to advance east into pagan-occupied territory. From then on, the Church would support any knights attempting to spread Rome’s influence farther to the north and east. For German Crusaders it was also the chance to get new lands and free labor.
Starting 1198 The Teutonic Knights — a German Order in the northern Holy Roman Empire — were working through Baltic tribes to grab hold of modern Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. They formed buffer between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox branches of the Christian faith.

13 century

1208, 1236 Germans moved into Estonia. With the ally of the Russian soldiers Estonians managed to force the Teutonic Order into a 30-year slog to acquire the territory. In 1236 on the Battle of Saule the Germans vanquished the Estonians.
1240 An assault on Pskov by Teutonic Order. In early 1242 Alexander Nevsky reclaimed Novgorod lands, liberating Pskov and pushing the German knights back into Estonia.
1242 Battle of the Ice - Russian soldiers under the command of Prince Alexander Nevsky defeated the German knights, who wanted to strike at Novgorod the Great. that prevented the Germans from entering Russia, hardening the dividing line between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.
The battle served as the last real attempt by Western armies to conquer the Russians for centuries. Alexander Nevsky was canonized as a Saint.
Starting 1253 The Kingdom or Principality of Galicia–Volhynia was formed (modern states of Poland, Ukraine and the Slovak Republic).
At the peak of its expansion, the Galician–Volhynian state contained not only south-western Rus' lands, but also briefly controlled part of the Black Sea.
Galicia–Volhynia competed with other successor states of Kievan Rus' (Vladimir) to claim the Kievan inheritance.
Galicia–Volhynia's King Danylo was the last ruler of Kiev preceding the Mongolian invasion.
Galicia's rulers were not concerned by religious succession to control over the Kievan Church and obtained a separate Church from Byzantium. Galicia–Volhynia, Poland and Hungary belonged to the same psychological and cultural world.
1246 Following the destruction after the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus', Galicia was looking for a help from Western Europe and tried, unsuccessfully, to establish military alliances with other European rulers.
middle 13th century-1795 The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was formed (modern states of Belarus and parts of Ukraine, Latvia, Poland and Russia).
1268 The Livonian Order's attempts to invade the Novgorod Republic were unsuccessful and its army was defeated in the Battle of Rakvere (The Livonian Order was an autonomous branch of the Teutonic Order, formed in 1237).

14 century

The expansion of the Grand Duch of Lithuania reached its height under Grand Duke Gediminas, who created a strong central government and established an empire that later spread from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea.
The weak control of the Mongols over the west and south-west of Kievan Rus' allowed Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which was mostly untouched by Mongols, to expand and accelerate at these areas. Rus' principalities were never incorporated directly into the Golden Horde, maintaining vassal relationships. Lithuania annexed parts of Kievan Rus' as vassals through diplomacy with Mongols. A significant part of Russia was under the rule of the Lithuanian principality, which acted as a counterbalance to the Golden Horde.
1320 The Grand Duchy of Lithuania vassalized or annexed most of the principalities of western Rus'.
1321-23 Gediminas of Lithuania captured Kiev, sending Stanislav, the last Rurikid to rule Kiev, into exile. Gediminas also re-established the permanent capital of the Grand Duchy in Vilnius, moving it from Trakai.
Formally Kiev was still vassal of Golden Horde, and finally officiall became part of Lithuania in 1362.
1323 The extinction of the Rurikid dynasty in Galicia–Volhynia - the brothers Andrew and Lev II died together, fighting against the Mongols, and left no heirs.
Partition of kingdom: Volhynia passed into the control of the Lithuanians, while the Rus' boyars took control over Galicia.
1333, 1339 Lithuanians defeated Mongol forces attempting to regain Smolensk.
1349 Galicia–Volhynia ceased to exist as an independent state after successful Invasion of Poland's King Casimir III. The Polish conquest of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia ended its vassalage to the Golden Horde.
1340-92 The civil war in the region transitioned into a power struggle between Lithuania, Poland, and Hungary.
By the mid-14th century, the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania divided up the region between them: Galicia and Western Volhynia now were part of Poland, Eastern Volhynia together with Kiev came under Lithuanian control.
~1355 The State of Moldavia had formed.
1385 Krevo union - a treaty between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (in Krevo, now in Belarus). It united the two countries in their struggle against the invading Teutonic knights. Ukrainian and Belarusian lands under the rule of Lithuania were incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland. Ukrainian and Belarusian nobles opposed the union.
1387 Lithuania had conquered the territory of the Golden Horde all the way to the Dnieper River.
1398 Lithuania invaded northern Crimea and won a decisive victory against Mongols.

15 century

At 15-16 centuries, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is the main rival of Moscow for domination over the territories from Smolensk to Bug and from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

16 century

Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars (also known as Russo-Lithuanian Wars)
It relates to a series of wars between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, allied with the Kingdom of Poland, and the Grand Duchy of Moscow. After several defeats at the hands of Ivan 3 and Vasily 3, the Lithuanians were increasingly reliant on Polish aid, which eventually became an important factor in the creation of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1492–94 First border war.
Ivan 3 considered himself an heir to the fallen Byzantine Empire and defender of the Orthodox Church. He proclaimed himself sovereign of all Rus' and claimed patrimonial rights to the former lands of Kievan Rus'.
Muscovite territory growed in power: 1456 extended influence to the Principality of Ryazan, 1477 annexed the Novgorod Republic, 1483 annexed the Principality of Tver. Further expansionist goals of Ivan 3 clashed with the Lithuanian interests.
1492 Without declaring war, Ivan 3 began large military actions: he captured and burned Mtsensk, Lyubutsk, Serpeysk, and Meshchovsk; raided Mosalsk; and attacked territory of the Dukes of Vyazma.
1494 An «eternal» peace treaty was concluded. The Lithuanian territorial losses to Moscow were to be approximately 87,000 km2.
1500-3 Second war.
The pretext was the alleged religious intolerance toward the Orthodox in the Lithuanian court.
1500 The Muscovites promptly overran Lithuanian fortresses in Bryansk, Vyazma, Dorogobuzh, Toropets, and Putyvl.
1501 The Livonian Order joined the war as an ally of Lithuania.
1502 Ivan 3 organized an successful campaign to capture Smolensk.
1503 Peace negotiations ended with a six-year truce on the Feast of the Annunciation. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania lost approximately 210,000 km2 or a third of its territory: Chernihiv, Novhorod-Siverskyi, Starodub, and lands around the upper Oka River.
The Lithuanians also acknowledged Ivan's title, sovereign of all Rus'.
1507-08 Third war.
1505 Vasili 3, son of Ivan 3, advanced his bid for the Polish throne, but Polish nobles chose Sigismund I the Old. Sigismund I sent envoys to Moscow to request the return of the territories acquired by the 1503 truce.
1508 The war eventually ended with the inconclusive «eternal» peace treaty, which maintained the territorial accords of the 1503 truce.
1512-22 Fourth war.
1512 Muscovy Rus' invaded the Grand Duchy of Lithuania seeking to capture Smolensk.
1514 The capture of Smolensk.
1514 The Russians suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Orsha.
1518 Russian forces were beaten during the siege of Polotsk.
1519 The Russians invaded Lithuania again, raiding Orsha, Mogilev, Minsk, Vitebsk, and Polotsk.
1519-1521 The Polish–Teutonic War, when Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor allied with Vasili 3.
1522 A treaty was signed that called for a five-year truce, no prisoner exchange, and for Russia to retain control of Smolensk. The truce was subsequently extended to 1534.
1534-37 Fifth or Starodub war.
1534 The Polish–Lithuanian monarch and the Tatars devastated the area around Chernigov, Novgorod Seversk, Radogoshch, Starodub and Briansk. They decided to take advantage of the situation when Elena Glinskaya, acted as the regent of 3 years old Ivan 4 , was engaged in power struggles with other relatives and boyars.
1537 Lithuania and Russia negotiated a five-year truce.

Livonian War.
1547 The Grand Duchy of Moscow officially became known as the Tsardom of Russia, with Ivan IV crowned as Tsar and «Ruler of all Rus». The tsar sought to gather the ethnically Ruthenian lands of the former Kievan Rus', engaging with other powers around the Baltic Sea in the Livonian War.
1568 Tsar Ivan 4 invaded Livonia.
1570 Ceasefire divided Livonia between the participants, with Lithuania controlling Riga and Russians expanding access to the Baltic Sea by taking hold of Narva.
1569 Union of Lublin pact between Poland and Lithuania that united the two countries into a single state, forming the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzecz Pospolita). The whole of Southern Russia (Ukraine) passed from Lithuania to the Polish crown.
1577-82 Ivan 4 took advantage of the Commonwealth internal strife and invaded Livonia, quickly taking almost the entire territory, with the exception of Riga and Reval (now Tallinn). Stefan Batory replied with a series of three offensives against Russia, trying to cut off Livonia from the main Russian territories.
1579 Stefan Batory retook Polatsk, Polish–Lithuanian troops also devastated Smolensk region, and Severia up to Starodoub.
1580 An army Stefan Batory took Velizh, Usvyat, Velikiye Luki.
1581 the Lithuanians burnt down Staraya Russa, with a 100,000-strong army Stefan Batory started the Siege of Pskov but failed to take the fortress.
1582-83 Yam-Zapolskoye and Plyusskoy truce, that deprived Russia of all conquests on the border with the Republic of Poland and the Baltic coastal cities. The division of Livonia between the Rzecz Pospolita, Sweden and Denmark. The Livonian War, which lasted for more than 20 years, was lost.

17 century

1605-18 The Polish–Muscovite War, also known as the Polish–Russian War or the Dimitriads - was a conflict fought between the Tsardom of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Starting 1598 Poland began influencing Russian boyars at the Time of Troubles, and supporting False Dmitris for the title of Tsar of Russia against the crowned Boris Godunov and Vasili Shuysky.
1605-09 King Sigismund III informally invaded Russia until the death of False Dmitry I in 1606, and invaded again in 1607 until Russia formed a military alliance with Sweden in 1609.
1610 Polish forces entered Moscow and Sweden withdrew from the military alliance with Russia, instead triggering the Ingrian War.
Sigismund's son, Prince Władysław of Poland, was elected tsar by the Seven Boyars, but Sigismund seized the Russian throne for himself to convert the population to Catholicism, with the pro-Polish boyars ending their support for the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1611 Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky formed a new army to launch a popular revolt against the Polish occupation. The Poles captured Smolensk in June 1611 but began to retreat after they were ousted from Moscow in September 1612.
1613 Michael Romanov, the son of Patriarch Filaret of Moscow, was elected Tsar of Russia, beginning the Romanov dynasty and ending the Time of Troubles.
1618 The end of Polish-Muscovite war with the Truce of Deulino, which granted the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth certain territorial concessions but preserved Russia's independence.
1654 Pereyaslav Agreement - an act undertaken by the rada (council) of the Cossack army in Ukraine, led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky, to submit Ukraine to Russian rule, and the acceptance of this act by emissaries of the Russian tsar Alexis.
Starting 1648 Ukraine had many problems with Poland, the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars and therefore decided to turn to Moscow for protection.
With the unification the Cossacks were granted a large degree of autonomy, and they, as well as other social groups in Ukraine, retained all the rights and privileges they had enjoyed under Polish rule.
Ukraine continued to be a part of the Russian empire for the next 263 years (until the empire collapsed in 1917) and it gained vast northern territories granted by various Russian tsars.
1654–67 The Thirteen Years’ War between Russia and Poland for control of Ukraine.
The unification of Ukraine with Russia was unacceptable to Poland. During the war, control of Ukraine shifted back and forth many times.
1667 Truce of Andrusovo - piece treaty that ended the Thirteen Years’ War, favorable to Russia.
According to the truce Ukraine was divided along the Dnieper River; Russia received the eastern portion of Ukraine, the city of Kiev, and the provinces of Smolensk and Seversk. The truce was confirmed by a treaty concluded in 1686.

18 century

1708-09 Mazepa uprising attempts to free the eastern Hetmanate from Russian rule, during the prolonged Great Northern War that ranged Russia against Poland and Sweden at the time.
The causes: the growth of social discontent in Ukraine caused by endless wars and abuse of the Ukranian population by Russian troops were the causes, that in 1700 Hetman of Ukraine Mazepa entered into secret negotiations with Charles XII of Sweden. In 1709 Mazepa, however, was able neither to inspire the Ukrainian population to revolt against the Russians nor to supply the Swedes with enough Cossacks to prevent the Russians from inflicting a major defeat upon them at Poltava. After that battle, Mazepa escaped with Charles into Turkish-controlled Moldavia, where he died.
1764 Russia abolishes the eastern Hetmanate and establishes the Little Russia governorate as a transitional entity until the full annexation of the territory in 1781.
1772-95 Decline and collapse of the Commonwealth of Poland.
The Commonwealth was facing many internal problems (civil war) and was vulnerable to foreign influences.
1768 The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth became a protectorate of the Russian Empire. Control of Poland was central to Catherine the Great's diplomatic and military strategies.
1772, 1793, 1795 A partition of Poland in three stages between Prussia, Austria and Russia. In 1795 Commonwealth of Poland collapsed.
Poland and Lithuania were not re-established as independent countries until 1918.

19 century

1806 Prussia joins Britain and Russia against Napoleon.
1807 The Treaty of Tilsit - the treaty between Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon Bonaparte of France. The treaty mediated peace between Russia and France.
1807 Transition of the Poles to the side of Napoleon. Napoleon created a French protectorate in Poland Duchy of Warsaw. Napoleonic campaign in Russia.
1812 Patriotic War with Napoleon expelled from Russia.
Battle of Smolensk. Moscow evacuated. Battle of Borodino. Napoleon arrives in Moscow to find the city abandoned and set alight by the inhabitants; retreating in the midst of a frigid winter, the army suffers great losses. Beginning of the Great Retreat. Battle of Maloyaroslavets. Crossing of the River Berezina. Grande Armée expelled from Russia
1813-14 Campaign of the Russian army liberated European countries from the domination of Napoleon.
1815 The formation of the Polish Tsardom - after the defeat of Napoleon the Duchy of Poland was transferred to Russia. Russification of the Tsardom of Poland.

20 century

1914-18 1st World War.
Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers).
Russia’s simmering instability exploded in the Russian Revolution of 1917, spearheaded by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks, which ended czarist rule and brought a halt to Russian participation in World War I.
1918 Treaties of Brest-Litovsk.
Lenin, realizing that the new Soviet state was too weak to survive a continuation of the war, was accepting German terms such as:
Russia lost Ukraine, its Polish and Baltic territories, and Finland (Ukraine was recovered in 1919, during the Russian Civil War.)
1918-22 Russian Civil War - civil war fought between several groups in Russia. The main fighting was between the Red Army and the White Army. The Red Army was an army of communists. The White Army opposed the communists. Other forces fought against both these groups or sometimes helped one against the other. The Red Army fought against Denikin in the south, Krasnov-on-Don, the countries of Atlanta in the Black Sea region, Yudenich in the West.
After this war, the communists established the Soviet Union in 1922.
1919-20 Russo-Polish War - military conflict between Soviet Russia and Poland, which sought to seize Ukraine. It resulted in the establishment of the Russo-Polish border that existed until 1939.
Although there had been hostilities between the two countries during 1919, the conflict began when the Polish head of state formed an alliance with the Ukrainian nationalist leader S. Petlyura.
1920 The Treaty of Riga - provided for the bulk of Ukraine to remain a Soviet republic, although substantial portions of Belorussia (Belarus) and Ukraine were ceded to Poland.
1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with A. Hitler - as a neutrality pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
The non-aggression pact contained a secret protocol dividing Northern and Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence in the event of war.
1939 Polish campaign of the USSR.
One week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, German forces invaded Poland from the west, north, and south. The Soviet Red Army invaded Poland from the east.
The result of the war was the two-way division and annexation of the entire territory of the Second Polish Republic by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
1941-45 Great Patriotic War or the German-Soviet War - the conflict fought along the many fronts of the Eastern Front of World War II between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany and its allies.
It was part of the Eastern Front of World War II - conflict between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Southeast Europe (Balkans).
Outcomes of Great Patriotic War:
The USSR’s losses are now estimated at about 26.6 million, accounting for half of all WW2 casualties.
Germany and its capital Berlin were divided into four parts. The zones were to be controlled by Great Britain, the United States, France and the Soviet Union.
The division of Europe between the USSR and the «West»: the partition of Poland (the east of Poland passed to the USSR), the USSR-controlled GDRs, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia.
The division of Europe was the beginning of the Cold War - the war between the democratic nations of the west and the Communist countries of eastern Europe.
During World War 2 , four of the Allied powers—the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and China— agreed to create an organization that should work for peace .It gave birth to the United Nations.
1968 The suppression of the «Prague Spring» in Czechoslovakia.
The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries viewed plans for the liberalization and democratization in Czechoslovakia by A. Dubček as tantamount to counterrevolution.
Soviet armed forces invaded the country and quickly occupied it. As hard-line communists retook positions of power, the reforms were curtailed, and Dubček was deposed the following April.
1980s-90s The collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe after the collapse of the USSR.
The Revolutions of 1989 formed part of a revolutionary wave in the late 1980s and early 1990s that resulted in the end of communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond.
The events of the full-blown revolution first began in Poland in 1989 and continued in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania. One feature common to most of these developments was the extensive use of campaigns of civil resistance, demonstrating popular opposition to the continuation of one-party rule and contributing to the pressure for change.

Wars: Russian-Turkish wars

13 century

1243 Part of the Crimean peninsula became the Ulus of the Golden Horde (Crimean Tatars).

15 century

1443 The formation of the Khanate of Crimea, one of the successor states to the Mongol empire. Centred at Bakhchysaray, the Crimean khanate staged occasional raids on emergent Muscovy.
1475 The Khanate of Crimea became a Turkish vassal (Ottoman Empire) . The Crimean Khans were appointed by the Sultan of the Geraev clan, the Crimean Khan had no right to start a war and make peace. For almost three centuries, the Crimean Tatars regularly raided the Russian lands. The lands of Russia and the Crimean Khanate were divided by the Russian and Ukrainian territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
1480 Ivan 3 formally declared Moscow independent from The Khanate of Crimea.

16 century

Crimean Khans constantly interfered in relations between Russia and Poland, entered into an alliance with Moscow, then with Poland, looted Moscow and Polish Ukraine, sold prisoners.
1507 1st raid of the Crimean Tatars for slaves on the land of Moscow Russia.
1511-1512 Raids on the Ryazan and Bryansk lands.
1521 1st raid on Moscow.
1568-70 1st Russian-Turkish War was a war between the Tsardom of Russia and the Ottoman Empire over the Astrakhan Khanate. It was the first of twelve Russo-Turkish wars ending with World War I in 1914-18.
The Ottoman Empire of Suleiman I sought to regain the influence of the Astrakhan and Kazan Khanates. The army was defeated by the army of Prince Serebryanny, the military governor of Astrakhan. The Ottoman fleet that had besieged Azov was destroyed by a storm.

17 century

1666–71 Polish-Cossack-Tatar War was the war between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire (a war between the Cossack Hetmanate and Crimean Khanate) over Ukraine. It was one of the aftermaths of the Russo-Polish War (1654–67) and a prelude to the Polish–Ottoman War (1672–76).
1666 Hetman of right-bank Ukraine P. Doroshenko, aiming to gain control of whole Ukraine, signed a treaty with Crimean Khanate (Sultan Mehmed IV) that recognized the Cossack Hetmanate as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire.
Later on the Ottoman Empire tried to gain control of that region for itself.
1676–81, 1687, 1689, 1695–96 Russian-Turkish wars.
1676–81 Russo-Turkish War.
The Ottoman government strove to spread its rule over all of the Right-bank Ukraine.
1676 Chigirin (the capital of the Cossacks of Ukraine) was captured by the pro-Turkish hetman Doroshenko. The city was recaptured thanks to the soldiers of Hetman Samoilovich and Prince Romodanovsky.
1681 The Treaty of Bakhchisarai ended the Russo-Turkish War by Russia, the Ottoman Empire, and the Crimean Khanate, with the agreement of 20-year truce and demarcation line as the Dnieper River.
1687-69 Two failed attempts to subdue Khanate of Crimea by Prince Vasily Golitsyn. Khanate of Crimea survived to stage raids on Russia until Catherine 2 the Great.
1695–96 Peter 1 the Great’s forces succeeded in capturing the fortress of Azov.

18 century

1710–12, 1735–39, 1768–74, 1787–91 Russian-Turkish wars.
1710-12 Turkey entered the Northern War against Russia, and after Peter the Great’s attempt to liberate the Balkans from Ottoman rule ended in defeat with return of Azov to Turkey.
1735-39 Russia and Austria alliance against Turkey. The Russians successfully invaded Turkish-held Moldavia, but their Austrian allies were defeated.
1736 Another war with the Ottoman Empire, prompted by raids on Ukraine by Crimean Tatars and the military campaign of the Crimean khan in the Caucasus.
1768–74 Turkey demanded that Russia’s ruler, Catherine 2 the Great, abstain from interfering in Poland’s internal affairs. The Russians went on to win impressive victories over the Turks. They captured Azov, Crimea, and Bessarabia, and under Field Marshal P. Rumyantsev they overran Moldavia and also defeated the Turks in Bulgaria.
1774 The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca made the Crimean khanate independent of the Turkish sultan; advanced the Russian frontier southward to the Southern (Pivdennyy) Buh River; gave Russia the right to maintain a fleet on the Black Sea; and assigned Russia vague rights of protection over the Ottoman sultan’s Christian subjects throughout the Balkans.
1783 Catherine 2 signed a manifesto on the annexation of the Crimea, Taman Island and the Kuban Region to Russia.
1787-91 Turks declared war on Russia. The Russian-Austrian army (Russian army commanded by General A. Suvorov) captured Belgrade, Ishmael and Anapa.
1792 The Treaty of Jassy - Turkey ceded the entire western Ukrainian Black Sea coast (from the Kerch Strait westward to the mouth of the Dniester) to Russia.

19 century

1811 With the prospect of a Franco-Russian war in sight, Russia sought a quick decision on its southern frontier (Ottoman Empire was Napoleon's ally).
1812 The Treaty of Bucharest - when victorious campaign of Russia against Napoleon forced the Turks to cede Bessarabia to Russia.
Its subsequent wars with Turkey were fought to gain influence in the Ottoman Balkans and expand into the Caucasus.
1828-29 The Russo-Turkish War sparked by the Greeks’ struggle for independence from Ottomans, in which Russian forces advanced into Bulgaria, the Caucasus, and northeastern Anatolia before the Turks sued for peace. The resulting Treaty of Edirne gave Russia most of the eastern shore of the Black Sea, and Turkey recognized Russian sovereignty over Georgia and parts of present-day Armenia.
1853-56 Crimean War: fought mainly on the Crimean Peninsula between Russia on one side, and Great Britain, France, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia on the other (France and Great Britain wanted to stop Russia's Empire growing influence).
Reasons:
The Russians demanded better treatment of and wanted to protect the Orthodox subjects of the Sultan of Turkey.
A dispute between the Russians and the French regarding the privileges of the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches in Palestine. With the backing of Britain, the Turks declared war on Russia in 1853. In 1854 France and Britain also declared war against Russia.
Throughout the war, the Russian army's main concern was to make sure that Austria stayed out of the war.
1856 Congress of Paris - diplomatic meeting held in Paris, France, to make peace after Crimean War.
Crimean War outcomes:
Russia lost part of Bessarabia and was forced to demilitarize the Black Sea.
The territories of Russia and Turkey were restored to their prewar boundaries. The Black Sea was neutralized so that no warships were allowed to enter; however, it was open to all other nations. A major consequence of this agreement was the reopening of the Black Sea for international trade and commerce.
The sultan of Turkey agreed, in return, to help improve the status of the Christian subjects in his empire.
The Crimean War thus instigated an era of self-evaluation in Russia which threw off the archaic traditions and embraced modernization by liberal reforms of Alexander II.
The Crimean War saw the balance of power change hands in Europe. Whilst Russia suffered a major defeat, Austria, which had chosen to remain neutral, would find itself in the coming years at the mercy of Germany.
1877-78 Slavic peoples of the Balkan Peninsula (Herzegovina, Romania, Bosnia and Bulgaria), supported by Russia, revolted against the Ottomans. End of Turkish rule in the Balkans.
The Treaty of San Stefano with Turkey in 1878 freed Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro from Turkish rule, gave autonomy to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and created a huge autonomous Bulgaria under Russian protection.
1878 The union of Germany (Bismarck) and Turkey. Austria occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina, Britain gained Cyprus, Russia's influence is limited.

20 century

The Ottoman entry into World War I resulted from an overly calculation of likely advantage.
The long-standing hostility to Russia combined to produce an Ottoman bombardment of the Russian Black Sea ports in 1914 and a declaration of war by the Entente against the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottomans held down a substantial numbers of Entente troops. In 1918 they dominated Transcaucasia
(Transcaucasia, Russian Zakavkazye, a small but densely populated region to the south of the Caucasus Mountains. It includes three independent states: Georgia in the northwest, Azerbaijan in the east, and Armenia, situated largely on a high mountainous plateau south of Georgia and west of Azerbaijan).
During the war the Young Turks (political reform movement) took the opportunity to attack certain internal problems.
The Young Turks didn't get support among Armenians in Eastern Anatolia, who largely remained loyal to Ottoman Empire and hoped that Christian Europe would pressure the Ottoman Empire to implement new reforms and protections for Armenians.
The Armenian community in eastern Asia Minor and Cilicia was massacred or deported to eliminate any domestic support for the pro-Christian tsarist enemy on the Eastern Front. Between 600,000 and 1,500,000 Armenians were killed. These events are now widely described as a genocide of the Armenian people.
After 1916, army desertions took place on a massive scale, and economic pressures became acute.
The Ottoman entry into World War I ended with the partition of the Ottoman Empire's remaining territories under the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres.
Russia was promised Istanbul and the straits and some the Ottoman provinces in eastern Asia Minor.
1917 Russia withdrew from World War I and ceased hostilities against the Ottoman Empire.
The Russian withdrawal in 1917 and postwar bargaining led to some modifications of the partition of the Ottoman Empire: the Ottomans retained Istanbul and part of Thrace but lost the Arab provinces, ceded a large area of Asia Minor to a newly created Armenian state with access to the sea. The straits were internationalized, and strict European control of Ottoman finances was established.
1921 Treaty of Moscow - pact concluded at Moscow between the nationalist government of Turkey and the Soviet Union that fixed Turkey’s northeastern frontier and established friendly relations between the two nations, also settled border disputes by giving Kars and Ardahan to Turkey and Batumi to Russia.
1922-23 The proclamation of the Turkish Republic, which ended the Ottoman Empire, which had lasted since 1299.

Wars: South borders and Mongol invasions

9 century

According to Genesis 8:4 , the Noah's Ark came to rest «on the mountains of Ararat». Early commentators record the tradition that these «mountains of Ararat» are to be found in the region then known as Armenia, roughly corresponding to Eastern Anatolia.
Through the foothills of the Caucasus in the 2nd century BC The Great Silk Road was laid. Ancestors of Armenians and Georgians, as early as 4-5 centuries, adopted Christianity, establishing a spiritual connection with the European world. In the 10th-12th centuries the ancient Georgian state was located from the Black to the Caspian Sea.
The Pechenegs (a semi-nomadic Turkic people from Central Asia) in the 9th century began a period of wars against Kievan Rus'. For more than two centuries they had launched raids into the lands of Rus'.
«Khazar Khaganate» (a semi-nomadic Turkic people with a confederation of Turkic-speaking tribes that in the late 6th century CE established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia), collected tribute from East Slavic tribes. It controlled the territory between the Black and Caspian Seas, Ciscaucasia, the Volga region, and Kazakhstan. Controlled the most important trade routes.

10 century

920 War on the Pechenegs by Igor of Kiev.
The Pecheneg wars against Kievan Rus' caused the Slavs from Walachian territories to gradually migrate north of the Dniestr in the 10th and 11th centuries.
964-66 Prince Svyatoslav’s campaigns against the Kama Bulgarians, Khazars, Yasovs and Kasogs.
964–66 Svyatoslav war with the Khazars for power of the Vyatichi Slavonic tribe.
This campaign resulted in the crushing defeat of the Khazar kaganat and destruction of its capital Itil and the fortresses of Sarkel and Semender.
At the same time he defeated the Volga Bolgars and took their capital Bolgar.
In the northern Caucasus he displayed himself in his victory over tribes of Yasy and Kasogi.
968-72 In 968 Pechenegs attacked Kyiv, thereby forcing Grand Prince Sviatoslav 1 Ihorovych to cut short his campaign against Bulgaria. In 972 a Pecheneg force led by Kagan Kuria routed Sviatoslav’s army and killed the prince.
968-72 Wars of Vladimir 2 Monomakh with the Polovtsy, who had settled in the steppe region southeast of the Kievan state. Vladimir recounted participating in 83 noteworthy military campaigns and recorded killing 200 Polovtsy princes.
Polovtsy (Kipchak, Byzantine Kuman, or Cuman) a loosely organized Turkic tribal confederation that by the mid-11th century occupied a vast, sprawling territory in the Eurasian steppe, stretching from north of the Aral Sea westward to the region north of the Black Sea.

11 century

Marriage unions of Russian Princes with the ruling houses of the Caucasus. 1154 - Izyaslav Mstistlavich's marriage to the daughter of Georgian Tsar Dimitri.
1036 The siege of Kiev by the Pechenegs. The defeat of the Pechenegs (the last invasion of the Pechenegs against Russia).
1077 Inter-Prince feuds with the participation of the Polovtsy: the Russian-Polovtsian army led by Oleg (son of Svyatopolk expelled from Vladimir) and Boris launched a campaign against Chernigov land.
1078 The Battle of Nezhatina Niva: Oleg Svyatoslavich and Boris Vyacheslavich rebelled against the sons of Yaroslav the Wise - Izyaslav, Prince of Kiev and Vsevolod, prince of Chernigov.
11-13 centuries The Kingdom of Georgia reached its Golden Age during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar the Great. The Georgian Empire was a medieval Eurasian monarchy which emerged circa 1008AD. Georgia became one of the pre-eminent nations of the Christian East, her pan-Caucasian empire stretching, at its largest extent, from Eastern Europe and the North Caucasus to the northern portion of Iran and Anatolia. It was the principal historical precursor of present-day Georgia.

12 century

After the death of Vladimir Monomakh, the Polovtsy participated in the internecine wars of the Russian Princes and in the defeats of Kiev as allies in 1169 and 1203.
1155 Prince Gleb Yuryevich took Kiev with the help of a Polovtsy (Cuman) army under the Cuman prince Chemgura. By 1160 Cuman raids into Rus' had become an annual event. These attacks put pressure on Rus' and affected trade routes to the Black Sea and Constantinople, in turn leading Rus' to again attempt action.
1170s-80s The Polovtsy Khan Konchek united the tribes of the eastern Cumans in the later half of the 12th century.
In the 1170s and 1180s he launched a number of attacks on the settlements of Kiev, the Principality of Chernigov and the Principality of Pereyaslavl. Konchak gave aid to the princes of the Principality of Novgorod-Seversk in their struggle for control with the other Rus' princes.
1185-86 Ihor Sviatoslavych unsuccessful campaign against the Polovtsy (in literature “The Song of Igor’s Campaign”). In 1186 Igor escaped from captivity and returned to Novgorod-Seversky.

13 century

1223 Battle of the Kalka River. During the first Mongol invasion of Russia, an army defeated an alliance of Russian princes and the Polovtsy.
1237-38 Invasion of Mongolian troops led by Batu Khan (the eldest son of Genghis Khan) to Russia. Batu Khan led his 35,000 mounted archers to burn down Moscow, Ryazan and Kolomna. Only Novgorod and Pskov were spared major destruction during this time.
1240 Invasion of Batu Khan into the great capital of Kiev and of the South Russian lands (Pereyaslavl, Rostov Veliky, Suzdal, Ryazan, Smolensk, Chernihiv, Galich). Kiev was sacked, starting a long era of Mongol rule in the region.
1239 The invasion of Batu Khan to the Crimea.
1241 The conquest of Volga Bulgaria.
1243 Batu founded the Golden Horde. Volga Bulgaria became part of the Golden Horde. Polovtsi ceased to exist as an independent people and made up the majority of the population of the Golden Horde. Part of the Crimean peninsula became the Ulus of the Golden Horde (Crimean Tatars).
1293 Khan Duden destroyed and burned 14 cities of northeast Russia.

14 century

1378 The victory of the Russian army over the Golden Horde in a battle on the river Vozhe. The Vozha battle was the first serious victory of the Russians over a big army of the Golden Horde. It had a big psychological effect before the famous Battle of Kulikovo because it demonstrated the vulnerability of the Tatar cavalry.
1380 Battle of Kulikovo on the Don River. This battle celebrated as the first victory for Russian forces over the Tatars of the Mongol Golden Horde since Russia was subjugated by Batu Khan in the 13th century. It was a giant step for the Duchy of Moscow in its rise to leadership of the Russian people.
1382 Siege and destruction of Moscow and other cities of North-Eastern Russia by Khan Tokhtamysh. Mamai’s successor and rival, Tokhtamysh, sacked and burned Moscow and reestablished the Horde’s dominion over the Russians.
1395 Tokhtamysh had his own power broken by his former ally Timur, who invaded the Horde’s territory in 1395, destroyed Sarai Berke, and deported most of the region’s skilled craftsmen to Central Asia, thus depriving the Horde of its technological edge over resurgent Muscovy.

15 century

During Vasily 2 reign the Golden Horde collapsed and broke up into smaller Khanates: Kazan and Astrakhan, Siberian Khanate.
1439 Moscow was besieged by the ruler of the Kazan Khanate. Vasily 2 had to flee the capital. Six years later, he personally led his troops against Ulugh Muhammad, but was defeated and taken prisoner. The Russians were forced to gather an enormous ransom for their prince, so that Vasily 2 could be released some five months later.
During that time, the control of Muscovy passed to Dmitry Shemyaka. Dmitry had Vasily 2 blinded and exiled him to Uglich, in 1446. Hence, Vasily 2 nickname, «the blind» (Tyomniy, literally «dark»).
As Vasily 2 still had a number of supporters in Moscow, Dmitry recalled him from exile and gave him Vologda as an appanage. that proved to be a mistake, as Vasily 2 quickly assembled his supporters and regained the throne.
1466 The final collapse of the Kingdom of Georgia into anarchy.
1480 Battle of the Ugra - bloodless confrontation between the armies of Muscovy and the Golden Horde, traditionally marking the end of the «Mongol yoke» in Russia. By this time the Golden Horde had lost control of large portions of its empire. Khan Akhmet of the Golden Horde led an army to the Ugra River, and waited there for his Lithuanian allies. The Muscovite army was drawn up on the opposite bank of the river. The two armies faced each other but did not fight. When the Lithuanians did not appear and Akhmet received word that his base camp near Sarai had been raided by allies of Ivan, he withdrew his army.
After the emergence of a centralized state, Russia resumed progress in the South Caucasus direction.
1490-93 The mutual recognition constituent kingdoms of Kartli, Kakheti and Imereti as independent states. It led by a rival branch of the Bagrationi dynasty, and into five semi-independent principalities – Odishi, Guria, Abkhazia, Svaneti, and Samtskhe – dominated by their own feudal clans.
1491 The ambassadors of the Kakhetian Tsar arrived in Moscow, initiating diplomatic relations.

16 century

The Kazan Khanate (1438-1552: emerged in 1438 and was incorporated to Russia in 1552; the state in the Middle Volga region, formed as a result of the collapse of the Golden Horde on the territory of the Volga Bulgaria), in alliance with Turkey, the Crimea, the Astrakhan Khanate and the Nogai Horde, pursued an aggressive policy towards Russia, closed for Russian Volga trade route, made constant raids, in the middle of the 16th century in Kazan there were about 100 thousand Russian prisoners.
1547 1st campaign of Ivan 4 to Kazan.
1550 2nd expedition of Ivan 4 to Kazan.
1552 Fall of Kazan.
Forces of Ivan 4 the Terrible laid siege to Kazan. After two months of siege and destruction of the citadel walls, the Russians entered the city. Some defenders managed to escape but most were put to the sword: about 110,000 killed, both civilians and garrison.
After the fall of Kazan, territories such as Udmurtia and Bashkortostan joined Russia without a conflict. The administration of the khanate was wiped out; pro-Moscow and neutral nobles kept their lands, but others were executed. Tatars were then resettled far away from rivers, roads and Kazan. Free lands were settled by Russians and sometimes by pro-Russian Tatars. Orthodox bishops such as Germogen forcibly baptized many Tatars.
1556 Fall of Astrakhan.
Russia sent more troops and occupied Astrakhan, proceeding to destroy the largest slave market on the Volga. In 1558 'Astrakhan' was moved 12 km south to its present location.
1569 The Ottomans unsuccessful campaign to regain Astrakhan for Islam.
Under Ivan the Terrible, Russia came out in a Caucasian direction in open confrontation between Turkey and Persia: Circassian Princes asked the Russian tsar to save the population from the Crimean-Turkish slavery.
1589 The protection of Kakheti by Tsar Feodor 1 of Russia after Tsar of Kakheti Alexander II sent a letter to the Russia asking for protection from the Ottomans and Safavid Iran as both empires vied for the hegemony in the Caucasus.

17 century

Suspension of Russian foreign policy in the south and southeast during the Time of Troubles.
1603-18 The strengthening of Persia in the Caucasus after Ottoman–Safavid (Ottoman–Persia) War.
The destruction of the Turkish garrisons by the Persians in Azerbaijan, Eastern Armenia, Eastern Georgia. When Persians were laying siege of Armenian city Kars, whole population was ordered to accompany the Persian army in its withdrawal. Some 300,000 people were duly herded to Persia.
In the first half of the 17th century Greater Armenia was divided between the Ottomans and the Safavids, under which Eastern Armenia remained under Persian rule, and Western Armenia remained under Ottoman rule.
Strengthening of Turkish expansion in Kuban –Priazovie –Predkavkaze, which prevented Russia from rendering assistance to the Christians of the Caucasus.

18 century

The strategic goal of Peter 1 was to expand ties with the countries of the East and search for secure borders in the south of the empire. A Georgian sloboda, or ‘free settlement’, was formed in Moscow in the early 18th century. The goal of Catherine 2 - driving Turkey out of the Black Sea coast, Persia from the Caspian Sea, protecting Christians Georgians and Armenians from the Turks in the Caucasus.
1722-23,1732-35 Russian-Persian Wars.
1722–23 The Russo-Persian War (Persian campaign of Peter the Great) - a war between the Russian Empire and Safavid Iran, triggered by the tsar's attempt to expand Russian influence in the Caspian and Caucasus regions and to prevent its rival, the Ottoman Empire, from territorial gains in the region at the expense of declining Safavid Iran.
1723 The Treaty of Saint Petersburg - the Russian victory ratified for Safavid Iran's cession of their territories in the North Caucasus, South Caucasus and northern Iran to Russia.
1732-35
1732 The Treaty of Resht - Empress Anna Ioannovna returned many of the annexed territories to Iran to construct an alliance with the Safavids against the Ottoman Empire on the eve of the Russo-Turkish War.
1735 Treaty of Ganja - the remaining territories were returned, and Iran was again in full possession of its territories in the North and South Caucasus and in contemporary northern Iran.
This sequel was additionally disastrous for the Georgian rulers who had supported Peter's venture. In eastern Georgia, a georgian royal prince lost his throne and sought protection of the Russian court in 1724. Western Georgia had to accept an Ottoman suzerainty on more stringent terms. The Ottomans, further, alarmed by the Russian intervention, strengthened their hold along the Caucasian coastline.
1783 Russia guaranteed Georgia’s territorial integrity with Treaty of Georgievsk - an agreement concluded by Catherine 2 the Great of Russia and eastern Georgia. Under the terms of the treaty Russia was obligated to defend Georgia against enemies and allow continuation of Bagratid dynasty reigning, and Georgia renounced dependence upon Iran or any other power.
Russo-Georgian alliance, however, backfired as Russia was unwilling to fulfill the terms of the treaty.

19 century

1801 The annexation of Georgian kingdom, and reducing it to the status of a Russian region (Georgia Governorate).
1810 The western Georgian kingdom of Imereti was annexed by Russia as well.
Russian rule over Georgia was eventually acknowledged in various peace treaties with Persia and the Ottomans.
1813, 1828 The Treaty of Gulistan and the Treaty of Turkmenchay - Persians ceded Kakheti and the rest of Georgia, Southern Caucasus and Dagestan to Imperial Russia.
1804-13 Russian-Iranian war. The result of the war - Iran losses of most of Georgian territory. It showed ʿto Iran the necessity of reforming its military forces.
1829 Turkey recognized the rights of Russia in western Georgia and to Armenia.
Russian rule offered the Georgians security from external threats and unprecedented social and economic change, but it was also often heavy-handed and insensitive to locals.
1817-64 Caucasian War.
The war took place during the administrations of three successive Russian Tsars: Alexander I, Nicholas I, and Alexander II.
The Russian invasion encountered fierce resistance.
Reasons:
The colonial policy of Russia and the instigation of the Islamist sentiments of the Highlanders by Turkey and Persia.
The Caucasian War was an invasion of the Caucasus by the Russian Empire which resulted in Russia's annexation of the areas of the North Caucasus, and the ethnic cleansing of Circassians.
Stages of war:
1817-21 Russian army achieved little success, especially compared with the then recent Russian victory over the «Great Army» of Napoleon in 1812.
1821-26 The suppression of the uprisings in Kabarda, Adygea and Chechnya; the formation of an Imamat and the declaration of a holy war against Russia.
1825-33 Little military activity took place in the Caucasus as wars with Turkey (1828/1829) and with Persia (1826–1828) occupied the Russians.
1834-59 Imam Shamil united 30 thousand army of highlanders.
1859 The capture of Imam’s army. After the fall of the state of Shamil, the Caucasian army was aimed at conquering Circassia. It was decided to start settling the mountains with Cossack villages and evicting Adygei and Circassians to Turkey or the Kuban. «The Circassian Question» became a symbol of resistance to Russia's imperial policy. It also called Muhajirism, or population transfer of the Muslim population to the Ottoman Empire.
Shackling 200 thousand Russian army in the Caucasus was one of The causess for the defeat of Russia in the Crimean war.

20 century

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Caucasus was shaken by social and national unrest.
1917 Coalition government of Transcaucasia (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia).
1922 Georgia (together with Abkhazia), Armenia and Azerbaijan formed a federal union the Transcaucasian Federation.
1979-88 War in Afghanistan: civil war of democratic forces (supported by the USSR) against radical Islamists (supported by NATO).
1991 Ethnic, religious diversity and national liberation movements as causes of instability in the Caucasus after the collapse of the USSR.
1991 Declaration of independence of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.
1991-93 Civil war in Georgia. Conflicts between Georgia and autonomies (1991-1992 South Ossetian war, 1992-1993 war in Abkhazia).
1994-96 1st and 2nd of the war in Chechnya.

Wars: Eastern frontier

15 century

The Khanate of Sibir is a state in Western Siberia, which was formed at the end of the 15th century during the disintegration of the Golden Horde. The Khanate was a Turkic Khanate located in southwestern Siberia withaturco-Mongol ruling class.
The area of the Khanate was itself once an integral part of the Mongol Empire, and later came under the control of the White Horde and of the Golden Horde.
The Khanate of Sibir ruled an ethnically diverse population of Turkic Siberian Tatars, Bashkirs and various Uralic peoples including the Khanty, Mansi and Selkup.

16 century

The path to the Urals and to Siberia opened after the Russians conquered the Kazan Khanate. But the Siberian Khan Kuchum regularly conducted raids on these settlements.
1581 Ermak's campaign to Siberia and capture of the capital of the Siberian Khanate (Siberia).

17 century

1632 P. Beketov founded Lensky burg (Yakutsk).
1639 Cossack expedition went to the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
1648 S. Dezhnev's ships left to the strait separating Asia from America.
1649-53 E. Khabarov, with an expedition to Amur, assigned the Amur region to Russia. By the end of the 17th century, Russian troops reached the Pacific Ocean.

18 century

Atlasov, a Siberian Cossack, was the first Russian to organize systematic exploration of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The movement continued on Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. The beginning of the development of Primorye and Ussuri region.
1741 Expedition of V. Bering and A. Chirikov landed in Alaska.
1784 1st Russian settlement in Alaska.
1792 1st official contact with Japan.

19 century

1806 Raids on Japanese settlements of frigates «Juno» and «Avos».
1867 After the defeat in the Crimean War, Alaska was sold to the US government.
1875 The Treaty of Saint Petersburg: recognition of the entire Sakhalin territory for Russia in exchange for the cession of the entire Kuril archipelago to Japan (Russia was denied access to the Pacific Ocean from the Sea of Okhotsk and access to its resources).
1896 Russia had concluded an alliance with China against Japan. China gave the rights to Russia to extend the Trans-Siberian Railroad across Chinese-held Manchuria to the Russian seaport of Vladivostok, thus gaining control of an important strip of Manchurian territory.
1898 Russia had pressured China into granting it a lease for the strategically important port of Port Arthur in southern Manchuria. Russia thereby entered into occupation of the peninsula.
The expansionist policy in the Far East was causing the military conflict between Japan and Russia (Russia-Japanese war in 1904-1905).

20 century

1904-05 Russian-Japanese War - the defeat of Russia in military conflict between Russia and Japan for dominance in Korea and Manchuria.
1905 The Treaty of Portsmouth - Japan gained control of the Liaodong Peninsula (and Port Arthur) and the South Manchurian Railway (which led to Port Arthur), as well as half of Sakhalin Island. Russia agreed to evacuate southern Manchuria, which was restored to China, and Japan’s control of Korea was recognized. Within two months of the treaty’s signing, a revolution compelled the Russian tsar Nicholas 2 to issue the October Manifesto, which was the equivalent of a constitutional charter.
1931 USSR support of China soviet government established by the communists.
1937-45 War between China and Japan was supported by Soviet Union on Chinese side.
1945 War against Japan after the victory over Nazi Germany.
1950-53 USSR support North Korea during the Korean War.
1964-75 USSR support North Vietnam during the US war in Vietnam.
1970-75 USSR support for the rebel movement in Cambodia.