20th Century - Revolutions & Wars

  • World War I starts

  • World War I ends

  • Russian Revolution

  • Mahknovist (anarchist) movement in Ukraine

  • Failed German Revolution

  • 1924-1930s Internal struggles in USSR

  • Lenin dies

  • Trotsky exiled from USSR

  • Great Depression starts

  • Hitler takes power in Germany

  • CPUSA at its peak in 30s

  • Spanish Civil War / Revolution 1936-39

  • 1939-45 World War II

  • CPUSA temporarily dissolves itself into CPA

  • Eastern European people's democracies formed 1945-49

  • US drops nukes on Hiroshima & Nagasaki (Aug 6 & 9, 1945)

  • USSR gets nuclear bomb

  • Chinese revolution

  • Smith Act Trials vs CPUSA leaders

  • Korean revolution / war 1950-53

  • Stalin dies

  • African national liberation mvmts (1955-1980)

  • Vietnam war starts (1955-1975)

    Ended April 30, 1975 when last U.S. troops leave.
  • Kruschev's anti-Stalin speech at 20th congress

  • Cuban revolution

  • Congo wins independece

  • Sino-Soviet Split

  • Berlin Wall built

  • Patrice Lumumba assassinated (Congo)

  • Marulanda launches Colombian armed struggle that becomes FARC (1961-present)

  • Cuban missile crisis

  • China first public criticism of USSR

  • China gets nuclear bomb

  • Chinese Cultural revolution starts

  • French near revolutionary moment

  • 1968 worldwide revolutionary upsurge

  • Communist Party of the Philippines reconstituted - people's war launched in 1969

  • Amilcar Cabral assassinated (Guinea-Bissau)

  • Guinea-Bissau wins independence

  • Mozambique wins independence

  • Vietnam War ends

  • Chinese Cultural revolution ends

  • Mao dies

  • Afghanistan PDPA in power (1978-90)

  • Iranian revolution

  • Nicaraguan revolution

  • Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (1979-88)

  • Grenada revolution (1980-83)

  • Salvadoran revolutionary mvmt (1980-92)

  • Chinese 'opening up' starts / verdict reversed on Cultural Revolution

  • US invades Grenada - overthrows revolution

  • People's Power movement in Philippines overthrows Marcos dictatorship

  • Berlin Wall comes down, Eastern European revolutions defeated

  • US invades Panama

  • China avoids counterrevolution at Tienanmen Square incident

  • USSR dissolved

  • Capture of Gonzalo halts Peruvian revolutionary mvmt

  • Peace accords in El Salvador, S. Africa, etc

  • Zapatista uprising in Mexico

  • Nepal Maoists launch people's war (1996-2006)

  • Chavez wins power in Venezuela

  • US overthrows Yugoslavian government

  • US invades / occupies Afghanistan (2001-present)

  • US invades Iraq, overthrows govt

  • Global Economic Crash

  • Nepali Maoists become ruling party; later split

  • FMLN wins election in El Salvador, FSLN back in Nicaragua

  • Tunisia, Egypt, Spain, Greece, OWS...