Stalin achieves complete personal control in the USSR after removing all his rivals from the Politburo

Stalin concludes his long-standing rivalry with Trotsky, expelling him from the USSR three years after removing him from the Politburo

25 million peasants are moved from the land to provide cheap labour in Stalin's new factories

To escape the Kuomintang forces, the Chinese Communist army begins the Long March from Jiangxi province to Shaanxi

Sergei Kirov, head of the party in Leningrad, is assassinated in his office, giving Stalin the pretext for his first massive purge

Josip Broz, a leading member of the banned Communist Party of Yugoslavia, adopts the name Tito

Mao Zedong wins control over the Chinese Communists during the Long March

Leningrad's opera and ballet company is renamed the Kirov, in memory of the city's recently assassinated commissar

Kim Il Sung leads a Communist guerrilla campaign against the Japanese occupation of Korea

Stalin stages the first of the Moscow show trials, designed to eliminate any surviving high-level opponents

On Stalin's orders Dmitry Shostakovich is attacked in Pravda for providing 'chaos instead of music'

At the same time as the Moscow show trials, millions are purged from the Russian Communist party nation-wide

Lavrenty Beria is appointed head of Stalin's state security organization, the NKVD

An assassin sent by Stalin kills the exiled Trotsky in his home in Mexico City

In To the Finland Station Edmund Wilson discusses the development of socialism and revolution, culminating in Lenin and Trotsky

More than 4000 Polish officers are massacred at Katyń on Stalin's orders

Moscow appoints Tito to head the Communist Party of Yugoslavia

In preparation for the invasion of Russia, Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler set up Special Task Commandos (Einsatzkommando) to exterminate Communists and Jews

Mao Zedong becomes official leader of the Chinese Communist Party, as the elected Chairman of the Central Committee and the Politburo

Bulgaria changes to the Allied side and Communists take control in Sofia

Tito and his partisans, with Soviet assistance, liberate Belgrade

With Budapest still in German hands, the Soviets set up a provisional Hungarian government, at Debrecen

The Soviet army surrounds the Hungarian capital, Budapest

Alexander Solzhenitsyn is sentenced to eight years in a Soviet labour camp for critizing Stalin in a private correspondence

Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill meet at Yalta to discuss Allied post-war plans