| January 29 (February 10) | Lenin's term of exile ends. |
| (February 10) | Lenin and Krupskaya leave Shushenskoye for European Russia. Forbidden to live in the metropolitan cities, university towns, and big industrial centres, Lenin chooses the town of Pskov as being most convenient for contact with St. Petersburg. |
| First half of February | On his way from Siberia, Lenin stops at Ufa, where Krupskaya remained until the end of her term of exile. Lenin meets Social-Democrats in exile at Ufa (A. D. Tsyurupa and others). |
| Middle of February | -- Lenin visits Moscow illegally and stays with his
relatives.
-- From I. K. Lalayants, a representative of the Ekaterinoslav Committee, Lenin learns of the preparations for the convocation of the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. and receives a proposal to participate in it as well as to undertake the editing of Rabochaya Gazeta. |
| Prior to February 26 (prior to March 10) | Lenin comes illegally to St. Petersburg, where he meets V. I. Zasulich, who has come from abroad, and conducts with her negotiations on the participation of the Emancipation of Labour group in the publication of an all-Russian Marxist newspaper and magazine abroad. |
| February 26 (March 10) | Lenin arrives in Pskov, where he is kept under the secret surveillance of the police. |
| Spring | -- Lenin establishes contact with Social-Democratic
groups and individual Social-Democrats in various Russian towns and
conducts negotiations for their support for the future Iskra.
-- Lenin goes illegally to Riga to establish contact with local Social-Democrats. In Pskov Lenin takes part in a meeting of the local revolutionary and oppositional intellectuals; he speaks in criticism of revisionism. |
| End of March-beginning of April, prior to 4th (17) | -- Lenin draws up the draft declaration of the Editorial Board on the programme and the objectives of the all-Russian
political newspaper (Iskra) and the scientific and political
magazine (Zarya).
-- Lenin conducts a conference between revolutionary Marxists and “legal Marxists” (P. B. Struve, M. I. Tugan-Baranovsky) on the question of sup port for the publication of Iskra and Zarya (the Pskov Conference). |
| April-May | Lenin writes a report for the contemplated Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. and receives a mandate from the Emancipation of Labour group to attend the Congress. |
| May 5 (18) | Lenin obtains a passport to go to Germany. |
| May 20 (June 2) | Lenin goes illegally to St. Petersburg to establish contact with local Social-Democrats. |
| May 21 (June 3) | Lenin is arrested and interrogated in St. Petersburg. |
| May 31 (June 13) | Lenin is released from custody. |
| June 1-7 (14-20) | -- Lenin lives with relatives at Podolsk, near Moscow.
-- On Lenin's invitation a number of Social-Democrats (P. N. Lepeshinsky, S. P. and S. P. Shesternin, and others) come to Podolsk and Lenin comes to an agreement with them on their support for the future Iskra. |
| June 7 (20) | Lenin goes to N. K. Krupskaya in Ufa via Nizhni Novgorod (now Gorky). |
| June 8 or 9 (21 or 22) | Lenin comes to an agreement with the Nizhni Novgorod Social-Democrats on their support for Iskra. |
| Second half of June | In Ufa Lenin comes to an agreement with the local Social-Democrats in exile on their support for Iskra. |
| Later than July 2 (15) | Lenin leaves Ufa for Podolsk. |
| Between July 2 and 10 (15 and 23) | Lenin stays in Samara (now Kuihyshev), where he comes to an agreement with the local Social-Democrats on their support for Iskra. |
| July 10 (23) | Lenin returns to Podolsk. |
| July 16 (29) | Lenin leaves for abroad. |
| Beginning of August | -- Lenin stays in Zurich for two days and discusses with
P. B. Axelrod the publication of Is/era and Zarya.
-- Lenin has talks with G. V. Plekhanov in Geneva on the publication of Iskra and Zarya; differences of opinion with Plekhanov in connection with Lenin's draft statement “In the Name of the Editorial Board." -- At Bellerive (near Geneva) Lenin has talks with N. E. Bauman and other Social-Democrats on their participation in the work of Iskra. |
| August 11-15 (24-28) | Lenin takes part in a conference with the Emancipation of Labour group at Corsier (near Geneva) on the question of the publication and joint editing of Iskra and Zarya. |
| August 20 (September 2) and later | Lenin records the circumstances connected with his talks with Plekhanov ("How the 'Spark' Was Nearly Extinguished"). |
| August 22 or 23 (September 4 or 5) | Lenin draws up a draft agreement between the Iskra group and the Emancipation of Labour group on the question of the publication of Iskra and Zarya and on the relation of the groups on the Editorial Board of the publications. |
| Between August 23 and September 2 (between September 5 and 15) | In his correspondence with an unknown Russian Social-Democrat Lenin emphatically rejects any agreement with the Union of Russian Social-Democrats Abroad, an organisation of “economists." |
| August 24 (September 6) | Lenin travels from Nuremberg to Munich. |
| Between September 27 and October 6 (between October 10 and 18) | The “Declaration of the Editorial Board of Iskra," composed by Lenin, is published as a separate leaflet. The statement is sent to Russia for distribution among Social-Democratic organisations and workers. |
| October 13 (26) | In a letter to A. A. Yakubova, Lenin, in the name of the Iskra group, emphatically refuses to accept the invitation to collaborate with Rabochaya Mysl, organ of the 'economists” |
| Beginning November | Lenin writes the preface to the pamphlet, May Days in Kharkov. |
| November | Lenin edits the first issue of Iskra and prepares it for the press. |
| End of November (first half of December) | Lenin organises the preparation and the publication of the first number of Zarya in Stuttgart. |
| Between December 1 and 10 (between December 14 and 23) | Lenin goes from Munich to Leipzig to prepare the first issue of Iskra for the press. |
| December 11 (24) | The first issue of Iskra appears carrying Lenin's articles: “The Urgent Tasks of Our Movement” (leading article); “The War in China”; “The Split in the Union of Russian Social-Democrats Abroad. |
| Between December 16 (29), 1900, and mid-February 1901 | Lenin takes part in the negotiations between the Editorial Board of Iskra and Zarya and P.B. Struve, on the latter's arrival in Munich, on the conditions for Struve's collaboration with those publications. Lenin is emphatically against an agreement with Struve. |