Timeline 1922-1929

 

1922
		The Cheka is replaced by the OGPU.
	April	Stalin becomes secretary general 11th Party Congress Lenin suffers his first stroke The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formally announced.
	16 April	Treaty of Rapallo with Germany is signed.
	1 June	An agreement between Finland and the Soviet Union regarding the border between the two countries is signed.
	23 December	Lenin begins his Testament.  He will finish this first part on 26 December.
	23 December	Russia, Byelorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation join to establish the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
1923
		12th Party Congress
	4 January	Lenin dictated a postscript to his Testament.  In this he said that  Stalin was too coarse to be secretary-general and should be replaced. Lenin suffers his second stroke.
1924
	January	Great Britain recognizes the Soviet Union and signs several economic  treaties with England.  These treaties were never ratified by England due to an anti-Soviet conservative government coming to power that Fall.
	21 January	Lenin dies after another stroke.
		France recognizes the Soviet Union.
		13th Party Congress The constitution of the USSR is ratified. The city of Petrograd is renamed 'Leningrad' The USSR is officially recognized by Great Britain, France, Italy
	24 October	The 'Zinoviev letter' is published in England.  It was supposedly written by Bolshevik revolutionary Grigory Zinoviev and urged British communists to infiltrate the military and push for the signing of trade treaties in preparation for a revolution.  The letter was a forgery possibly circulated by the Polish government, but enabled the Conservative party to win a huge victory over the Socialist Labor party.
	1 December	Soviets back a failed coup of attempt in Estonia.
1925
		14th Party Congress is held. Leon Trotsky is removed as war commissar.
1926
		The Soviets conduct their first national census.  It shows that  there were 147 million of people living in the Soviet Union at that time.  82 percent of whom were rural residents and 18 percent lived in the cities.
		Leon Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Kamenev are ousted from the Politburo.
	September	The Treaty of Berlin is signed with Germany.  It stated that each country would remain neutral if the other was attacked by a third power; and neither would support economic measures used against the other.
1927
		Soviet scientists reach the site of the 1908 Tunguska explosion and begin research.  The cause of the explosion would not be resolved for decades.
	27 May	Evidence of Soviet spy activity in England and communist literature is uncovered at the Anglo-Soviet "Arcos" trading company.  This leads to England to temporarily break off relations with the Soviet Union.
		The election of a hard line anti-Soviet government in Poland . The Polish election and the situation in England results in the 'War Scare' where an atmosphere of fear of foreign invasion permeated the Soviet Union.
		Construction begins on the Dniper River Dam project.
		15th Party Congress is held. Stalin takes control of the Bolshevik party.  He uses the recent crisis to expel Trotsky, Zinoviev, and others from the party.
	27 December	Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Soviet Communist Party.
	4 December	Dmitri Shostakovitch`s 2nd Symphony premiers in Moscow.
		A Communist revolt in China is crushed.
1928
	27 August	Soviet Union signs the General Pact for the renunciation of war.
	1 October	The first Five-Year Plan is adopted.  It set production targets for every industry, factory, and workshop.
1929
		Leon Trotsky is deported. Nikolai Bukharin is ousted from the Politburo in another of Stalin's attempts to remove his potential rivals and consolidate his power. The policies of Collectivization and industrialization begin.
	19 August	The Russian ballet director and founder of Ballets Russes died.  He was known for his production of Stravinsky's "Firebird" and "Rite of Spring".
	22 December	The dispute between China and the Soviet Union over the Eastern Railway ends when both sides agree to withdraw troops from the area.