1920 3 January: Soviet forces recapture Tsaritsyn. 3–5 January: Polish and Latvian forces drive the Red Army from Dvinsk (Daugavpils). 4 January: Kolchak resigns as supreme ruler, passing authority in South Russia to Denikin and in the Far East to Ataman Semenov. 5 January: The Political Center assumes power at Irkutsk. 5–10 January: Azov, Taganrog, Novocherkassk, and Rostov-on-Don fall to the Red Army. 7–8 January: Red forces pursuing Kolchak, aided by local partisans, capture Krasnoiarsk. 11 January: Great Britain and Italy offer de facto recognition to the independent governments of Georgia and Azerbaijan (and, on 18 January 1920, Armenia). 12 January–1 Apriclass="underline" The U.S. forces are withdrawn from Vladivostok. 15 January: Czechoslovak forces hand Kolchak over to the Political Center at Irkutsk. The Allies end the economic blockade of Soviet Russia. 17 January–7 Apriclass="underline" Red forces on the Caucasian (formerly South-East) Front inflict decisive defeats on Denikin’s forces and capture the North Caucasus. 20–22 January: Control of Irkutsk (and the imprisoned Kolchak) passes from the Political Center to a Bolshevik Revolutionary Committee. 22 January: The Bolshevik Central Committee approves Trotsky’s theses on the militarization of labor and the creation of Labor Armies. 27 January: General Wrangel resigns from his post in Denikin’s forces and travels to Constantinople on a British warship. February: The Caucasian Bureau of the RKP(b) (Kavbiuro) is created. 1 February: An armistice is signed between Latvia and Soviet Russia. 1–2 February: Red forces capture Khiva, liquidate the independent Khanate of Khiva, and drive Junaïd-khan into the Karakum desert. The Soviet–Estonian peace treaty, signed at Tartu (Dorpat), brings an end to the Estonian War of Independence. 5 February: Soviet forces capture Mariupol′ and Taganrog. 7 February: Red Army troops enter Odessa. A Soviet–Czechoslovak armistice signed at Kuitun facilitates the evacuation of the legion through Irkutsk to the Far East. Kolchak and his last prime minister, V. N. Pepeliaev, are executed at Irkutsk. 10 February: The Red Army’s capture of Krasnovodsk completes the consolidation of Soviet power in Transcaspia. 12 February: An Anglo–Soviet agreement on the exchange of prisoners is signed at Copenhagen. 19–21 February: Some 1,000 White soldiers and civilians evacuate Arkhangel′sk, as the city is captured by the Red Army; 1,500 more Whites, under General V. S. Skobel′tsyn, cross into Finland. 1 March: The last contingent of Czechoslovak troops leaves Irkutsk. 7–8 March: Red Army forces enter Irkutsk. 13–14 March: Red forces capture Murmansk. 17 March: Red forces capture Ekaterinodar. 23 March: A White military council at Yalta proclaims General P. N. Wrangel Denikin’s successor as commander in chief of the AFSR. 27 March: Red forces enter Novorossiisk, as, amid chaotic scenes, 35,000 White forces are evacuated from the port to Crimea, leaving tens of thousands more civilian and military refugees behind. 29 March–5 Apriclass="underline" At the 9th Congress of the RKP(b), the Council of Worker and Peasant Defense is transformed into the Council of Labor and Defense, while Trotsky’s plans for the militarization of labor come under attack from the party left and future members of the Workers’ Opposition. 1 Apriclass="underline" General Graves and the last contingent of U.S. troops leave Vladivostok. 6 Apriclass="underline" The Far Eastern Republic is founded at Verkhneudinsk, with A. M. Krasnoshchekov as its first president and minister for foreign affairs. Red forces land at Fort Aleksandrovsk, on the eastern shore of the Caspian. 4–6 Apriclass="underline" Japanese troops occupy Vladivostok and much of the Maritime Province. 16 Apriclass="underline" Soviet–Latvian peace talks begin in Moscow. 17 Apriclass="underline" Marshal Józef Piłsudski orders the Polish Army onto the offensive, signaling the active phase of the Soviet–Polish War. 21–24 Apriclass="underline" A series of political and military agreements is signed between Petliura’s representatives in Warsaw and the Polish government (the Treaty of Warsaw); the latter recognizes Ukrainian independence under Petliura, while the former agree to Polish command of Ukrainian forces west of the Dnepr and renounce all Ukrainian claims to Eastern Galicia (Western Ukraine).
25 Apriclass="underline" Polish troops enter Ukraine. 26 April: The Khorezm (Khwarazm) People’s Soviet Republic is proclaimed at Khiva. 27 Apriclass="underline" The Bolshevik organization in Baku begins an uprising against the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan. 27–28 Apriclass="underline" Red Army forces enter Azerbaijan and overthrow the independent Republic of Azerbaijan, which is distracted by a war with Armenia over Karabakh. The Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan is proclaimed. 6–8 May: Polish and Ukrainian forces enter Kiev. 7 May: A peace treaty is signed between the RSFSR and the Georgian Democratic Republic; Moscow recognizes Georgian independence and promises to refrain from interference in its internal affairs. 9 May: Soviet–Lithuanian peace negotiations open in Moscow. 11 May: The remaining elements of the AFSR that have gathered in Crimea are renamed the Russian Army by General Wrangel. 17–18 May: Red forces commanded by F. F. Raskol′nikov land at Enzeli (Bandar-e Anzali) in northern Persia and capture the White Caspian Fleet from its British custodians. 25–27 May: Partisan forces at Nikolaevsk-on-Amur under Triapitsyn massacre the Japanese garrison in the town (the “Nikolaevsk incident”). The Japanese retaliate by strengthening their control of the Maritime Province and occupying northern Sakhalin. 26 May–17 June: The Red Army’s Kiev Offensive operation on the South-West Front drives Polish and Ukrainian forces from much of Ukraine. 31 May: L. B. Krasin, the People’s Commissar for Foreign Trade, is received by Lloyd George in London. June: Soviet forces march on Resht in Persia and assist in the establishment of the Soviet Republic of Gīlān (which survives until October 1921). The Bolshevik North Caucasus Bureau instigates an unsuccessful rising in North Ossetia against Georgian rule. 5–7 June: Budennyi’s cavalry and other Soviet units penetrate Polish lines to capture Berdichev and Zhitomir to the west of Kiev. 6–7 June: General Wrangel’s forces break out of Crimea into the Northern Tauride. 10–12 June: Soviet forces commanded by A. I. Egorov recapture Kiev as the Poles withdraw. 12 June: Soviet–Finnish peace negotiations begin at Tartu. 27 June: The final 625 men of the British Military Mission in South Russia (once more than 2,000 strong) are withdrawn, soon to be followed by the French. 1 July: Wrangel sends an emissary to Makhno, seeking an alliance against the Bolsheviks; the emissary is executed (July 22), and Makhno puts out feelers to Moscow for joint action against Wrangel. 4–23 July: A Red offensive on the Western Front drives the Poles back through Belorussia. Minsk is captured on 11 July, Vil′na on 14 July. On the Galician Front, Budennyi’s cavalry captures Rovno on 10 July. 7–9 July: British troops evacuate Batumi. 8 July: The Galician Soviet Socialist Republic is established at Ternopol′ (Ternopil′) under V. P. Zatonskii. (It is dissolved 21 September 1920.) The United States lifts its trade embargo against Soviet Russia. 12 July: A Soviet–Lithuanian peace treaty is signed (Treaty of Moscow), recognizing Lithuanian independence and Vilnius as Lithuanian. 14 July: Red Army forces under G. D. Gai enter Vilnius. 15 July: A treaty (the Gongota Agreement) is signed between the Japanese Army and the Far Eastern Republic, recognizing the latter’s sovereignty. Japanese forces subsequently withdraw from eastern Transbaikalia and the Chinese Eastern Railway zone as far eastwards as Harbin (17–26 August). 16 July: A plenum of the Bolshevik Central Committee decides to continue the offensive against Poland, effectively endorsing an invasion of that country. 19 July: White forces of Wrangel’s Russian Army land on the Taman peninsula and push into the Kuban. 19 July–7 August: The Second Congress of the Komintern adopts the “Twenty-one Conditions” for admittance to the organization, which have been prepared by Lenin to exclude any party not subservient to Moscow. 23 July–16 August: The Warsaw Offensive on the Western Front brings Red forces to the gates of the Polish capital. 30 July: A Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee (Polrevkom), headed by Julian Marchlewski, Feliks Dzierżyński, and others, is established at Białystok in expectation of a revolution in Poland. 10 August: Soviet representatives in Tiflis sign an agreement with the Armenian government, recognizing Armenian independence; Red Army forces are invited to occupy for two years the territories disputed by Armenia and Azerbaijan. 11 August: The Soviet–Latvian peace treaty is signed at Riga. The French government offers de facto recognition to the Wrangel regime. 14 August: In the Kuban, 7,000 of Wrangel’s troops, under S. G. Ulagai, begin an advance toward Ekaterinodar but are defeated; they are forced to evacuate the region over 1–7 September. 14–16 August: In “the Miracle on the Vistula,” Polish forces push the Red Army back from the gates of Warsaw. 15–19 August: A peasant uprising in Tambov guberniia, led by A. S. Antonov, begins. 23 August: Polish forces recapture Białystok. 24 August–2 September: The last units of the Czechoslovak Legion are evacuated from Vladivostok. 26 August: Alash Orda is defeated by Soviet forces; the Kirgiz (Kazakh) ASSR is proclaimed. 1–8 September: The First Congress of the Peoples of the East opens in Baku to denounce (mainly British) imperialism in Asia and Africa. 2–6 September: A Bolshevik-inspired coup in Bukhara overthrows the emir and facilitates the entry of Red troops into the city. 6 September: Wrangel’s forces cross to the right bank of the Dnepr at Kakhovka. 9 September: Wrangel’s forces capture Aleksandrovsk. 13 September: A treaty of alliance is signed between Soviet Russia and the Khorezm People’s Republic. 21 September: The first meaningful Soviet–Polish peace talks open in Riga. The Revvoensovet of the Republic places M. V. Frunze in command of the newly designated Southern Front facing Wrangel. 21 September–27 October: Frunze’s forces conduct defensive operations to disrupt Wrangel’s plans to occupy the right bank of the Dnepr and link up with Polish and Ukrainian forces to the west. October–February 1922: Red forces battle with and eventually suppress a Finnish-aided peasant rebellion in Karelia. 8 October: The Bukharan People’s Soviet Republic is established. 10–15 October: Agreements are signed between Makhno and Soviet representatives at Khar′kov, according to which the Revolutionary-Insurgent Army of Ukraine will collaborate with the Red Army against Wrangel in return for the release of anarchists from Soviet prisons. 12 October: At Riga, delegations from Soviet Russia, Soviet Ukraine, and Poland agree on an armistice (effective from October 18). 14 October: A Soviet–Finnish agreement is signed at Tartu, by which Moscow confirms its recognition of Finnish independence. Budennyi’s 1st Cavalry Army turns Wrangel’s advance on the Southern Front. 15 October: Polish forces capture Minsk. 20–21 October: Semenov’s forces are driven out of Chita and into Manchuria by partisans loyal to the Far Eastern Republic (FER). The FER transfers its capital to Chita on 22 October. 28 October–3 November: Red forces go on the offensive on the Southern Front, driving Wrangel’s Russian Army out of the Northern Tauride and back into Crimea. 30 October: Turkish forces capture Kars. 7–17 November: With the Perekop offensive, Red forces on the Southern Front break through into Crimea and capture the peninsula. 14–16 November: Red forces capture Simferopol′, Feodosiia, and Sevastopol′. 16 November: Under French protection, 150,000 White soldiers and civilians, including the last units of Wrangel’s Russian Army, are evacuated from Crimea, bound for Constantinople. 26 November: Makhno is again declared to be an outlaw by the Soviet authorities, which begin an extensive drive to capture his supporters across Ukraine. November–early December: Units of the 11th Red Army enter Armenian territory, capture Yerevan (29 November), and overthrow the Democratic Republic of Armenia. 2 December: A peace treaty is signed between Soviet Russia and the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, recognizing the independence of Armenia. The Treaty of Alexandropol ends the Turkish–Armenian War. 22–30 December: The Eighth All-Russian Congress of Soviets at Moscow—the last at which SRs and Mensheviks are permitted to stand—is the occasion of bitter disputes over the role of trade unions in the Soviet state.