istoryworld
Events relating to russia
A desperate battle begins for the city of Stalingrad, with house-to-house fighting between Germans and Russians
Soviet tanks complete the encirclement of 20 German divisions at Stalingrad
With much of the German Sixth Army destroyed, the survivors led by Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrender at Stalingrad
Hitler's attempt to take Kursk (in response to Stalingrad) results in the German loss of 70,000 men and 1500 tanks
The German siege of Leningrad is finally broken, after 900 days
After relieving Leningrad, the Russians begin to drive the Germans back on all fronts
Hungary signs an armistice with the USSR
Alexander Solzhenitsyn is sentenced to eight years in a Soviet labour camp for critizing Stalin in a private correspondence
Igor Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements, premiered in New York, derives from music written for or inspired by films
Russian-born novelist Vladimir Nabokov becomes a US citizen
Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill meet at Yalta to discuss Allied post-war plans
Stalin agrees at Yalta to declare war on Japan after the end of the European war
Stalin, at Yalta, promises free elections in post-war eastern Europe
Russian forces reach and capture the Austrian capital, Vienna
American and Soviet troops join up at Torgau, 70 miles south of Berlin
The USSR declares war on Japan, two days after an atom bomb has been dropped on Hiroshima
The Japanese in Korea surrender to the Russians in the north and to the Americans in the south
[1939-1945] - the death toll in World War II, double that of World War I, includes 17 million Russians and 8 million Chinese
Sergei Eisenstein completes Part 2 of his intended epic film trilogy Ivan the Terrible
The Soviet Union imposes a blockade on Berlin by denying the other powers access through the land corridor to the city
The British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean escape to the Soviet Union just ahead of their detection and arrest
Joseph Stalin dies, four days after suffering a stroke
Dmitry Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony has its first performance in Leningrad nine months after the death of Stalin
The first Soviet hydrogen bomb is successfully tested at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan
Secret-police chief Lavrenti Beria is executed by the new Soviet regime
