Lenin Internet Archive: Biography: Timeline
| “Old Style” | (“New Style”) | ||
| 1870 | April 10 | (22) | Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) born in Simbirsk |
| 1886 | January 12 | (24) | Death of Vladimir’s father. |
| 1887 | May 8 | (20) | Vladimir’s older brother Alexander executed for conspiring to execute the Czar. |
| 1887 | August 13 | (25) | Vladimir Ilyich enrolls in Kazan University. In December he is arrested for participating in student protests and is expelled. |
| 1888-89 | Vladimir Ilyich studies the literature of the earlier generations of Russian revolutionaries and begins to study law. Resides in Kazan and Samara. | ||
| 1892 | July 23 | (August 4) | Gains license to practice law. |
| 1893 | Becomes active in Marxist study group. Moves to St. Petersburg on August 31 (September 12). | ||
| 1895 | Journeys to Europe to meet European and exiled Russian revolutionaries. | ||
| 1895 | Plans to publish Rabochye Delo, an illegal newspaper, but is arrested in St. Petersburg on December 8 (20). | ||
| 1895 | Autumn | (Autumn) | League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class is founded in St. Petersburg, with Vladimir Ilyich a member. |
| 1896 | Vladimir Ilyich held by authorities for the entire year. | ||
| 1897 | January 29 | (February 10) | Vladimir Ilyich is exiled to Shushenskoye in Siberia. |
| 1898 | March | (March) | Founding Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) in Minsk. |
| 1898 | July 10 | (22) | Marriage of Vladimir Ilyich to N.K. Krupskaya. |
| 1899 | March 24-31 | (April 5-12) | Publication of Vladimir Ilyich’s book, The Development of Capitalism in Russia. |
| 1900 | January 29 | (February 10) | Siberian exile ends. Vladimir Ilyich settles in Pskov. |
| 1900 | July 16 | (29) | Vladimir Ilyich leaves Russia for Europe to begin publishing activities. Settles in Munich in September. |
| 1900 | December 11 | (December 24) | First issue of Vladimir Ilyich’s paper, Iskra. |
| 1901 | May | (May) | Krupskaya rejoins Vladimir Ilyich abroad after completing her term of exile in Ufa. |
| 1901 | December | (December) | Uses the pseudonym “Lenin” for the first time. |
| 1902 | March | (March) | Lenin publishes the famous What is to be Done?. |
| 1903 | April | (April) | Lenin moves to London after a brief residence in Geneva. |
| 1903 | July 17 - August 10 | (July 30 - August 23) | Second Congress of the RSDLP is held. Party splits into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions. Lenin is separated from Iskra. |
| 1905 | January | (January) | Lenin begins publishing a new paper, Vyperod. |
| 1905 | January 9 | (22) | Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg. Revolution of 1905 begins. |
| 1905 | April 12-27 | (April 25 - May 10) | Third Congress of the RSDLP. Mensheviks do not attend. |
| 1905 | June - July | (June - July) | Lenin composes Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution. |
| 1905 | November | (November) | Lenin returns to St. Petersburg after government amnesties political exiles and prisoners. |
| 1906 | April 10-25 | (April 23 - May 8) | Fourth Congress of the RSDLP. Mensheviks participate. Lenin elected to Presidium. |
| 1907 | January | (January) | Lenin moves to Finland for security purposes. |
| 1907 | August | (August) | Stuttgart Congress of the Socialist International. Lenin attends. |
| 1908 | January 7 | (20) | Lenin settles in Geneva. |
| 1908 | October | (October) | Lenin completes his book, Materialism and Empiriocriticism. |
| 1908 | November | (December) | Lenin moves to Paris. |
| 1908 | December 21-27 | (January 3-9, 1909) | Fifth Congress of the RSDLP. Lenin again elected to Presidium. |
| 1909 | Spring | (Spring) | Lenin meets Inessa Armand. |
| 1910 | August | (August) | Lenin meets the writer Maxim Gorky in Italy. Attends the Copenhagen Conference of the Second International. |
| 1911 | Summer | (Summer) | Lenin directs Party school near Paris. |
| 1912 | January 5-17 | (18-30) | Prague Conference. Bolsheviks establish themselves as a de facto autonomous political party. |
| 1912 | April | (April) | First issue of Pravda, published in Russia. |
| 1914 | July 18 | (August 1) | Germany declares war on Russia. WWI begins. |
| 1914 | August | (August) | Lenin is forced to leave Russia, and emmigrates to Berne, Switzerland. |
| 1915 | August 23-26 | (September 5-8) | Zimmerwald Conference of anti-war Socialists. Lenin attends. |
| 1916 | January - June | (January - June) | Lenin writes Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. |
| 1916 | February | (February) | Moves to Zurich. |
| 1916 | April 11-17 | (24-30) | Second “Zimmerwald Conference”, held at Kienthal. Lenin a participant. |
| 1917 | February 27 | (March 12) | Czar Nicholas II abdicates. Provisional Government is formed in Russia. |
| 1917 | April 3 | (16) | Lenin and his party arrive in Petrograd after transiting Germany in a sealed train. |
| 1917 | April 4 | (17) | Lenin publishes the April Theses, calling for the overthrow of the provisional government and redefining Bolshevik tactics. |
| 1917 | April | (May) | Seventh Congress of the RSDLP (Bolsheviks) in Petrograd. Lenin takes a prominent role. |
| 1917 | May 21 - June 1 | (June 3 - 14) | First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers and Soldiers. |
| 1917 | July | (July) | Uprising known as the “July Days”. |
| 1917 | July | (July) | Lenin is forced into hiding; escapes to Finland. |
| 1917 | July 26 - August 3 | (August 8-16) | Sixth Congress of the RSDLP. Lenin guided the congress from underground, taking part in drafting the most important resolutions of the congress. The congress unanimously elected Lenin its honorary chairman. |
| 1917 | September | (September) | Lenin argues for a new uprising. |
| 1917 | mid-October | (mid-October) | Lenin returns to Petrograd secretly from Finland, and pushes for an immediate insurrection despite strong opposition within the Party. |
| 1917 | October 25 | (November 7) | The Soviet government is formed, with Lenin as Chairman. |
| 1918 | January 16 | (29) | Lenin dissolves Constituent Assembly |
| 1918 | — | March 3 | Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ends hostilities with Germany. |
| 1918 | — | March 10 | Lenin and the Soviet Government move to Moscow. |
| 1918 | — | August 30 | Fanny Kaplan attempts assassination of Lenin. Lenin wounded. |
| 1919 | — | March 2-6 | Communist International (Comintern) is founded. |
| 1920 | — | October | Inessa Armand dies. |
| 1921 | — | February 23 - March 17 | Kronstadt uprising against the Soviet Government. |
| 1921 | — | March 17 | Tenth Party Congress. New Economic Policy (NEP) is begun. |
| 1922 | — | May 26 | Lenin suffers his first stroke. |
| 1922 | — | November 20 | Lenin’s last public speech. |
| 1922 | — | December 15 | Lenin suffers his second stroke. |
| 1922 | — | December 24 | Politburo orders that Lenin be kept in isolation. |
| 1922 | — | December 30 | Formal establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). |
| 1922-23 | — | December - January | Lenin composes several letters into what became known as his Last Testament. |
| 1923 | — | March 2 | Lenin writes his last document; Better Fewer, But Better, on the reorganisation and reduction in size of the Soviet government. |
| 1923 | — | March 9 | Lenin suffers his third stroke. No longer able to speak. |
| 1923 | — | May 12 | Lenin removed to a Party sanitorium at Gorki. |
| 1924 | — | January 21 | Lenin dies from fourth stroke. |