declare war on Germany
17 September: Red Army enters Poland from the east
28 September: German troops capture Warsaw
30 November: Russians invade Finland
14 December: Soviet Union expelled from the League of Nations
1940
11 February: Soviet attack on the cd
3 March: Red Army captures Vyborg (Viipuri)
12 March: Finland signs peace treaty with USSR, ceding the Karelian isthmus and the shores of Lake Ladoga
10 May: Germans invade Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg
29 May: Beginning of British evacuation from Dunkirk (to 3 June)
14 June: Germans enter Paris
17–23 June: Russians occupy Baltic states
22 June: France signs armistice with Germany
11–18 August: Peak of the Battle of Britain
7 September: First blitz over London
9 December: 8th Army begins offensive in north Africa
1941
22 June: Germany invades the Soviet Union; Finland attacks Soviet Karelia
27 June: Romania declares war on Russia
28 June: Germans capture Minsk
3 July: Stalin’s first wartime broadcast to the Soviet people
16 July: Germans reach Smolensk
25 July: Germans capture Tallinn
30 August: Mga, the last rail link to Leningrad, is captured by the Germans
17 September: Encirclement of Soviet troops near Kiev
30 September: Beginning of the Battle of Moscow
2 October: Germans capture Orel
12 October: Germans capture Kaluga
13 October: Germans capture Kalinin (Tver)
16 October: Height of the ‘Moscow panic’
20 October: State of siege declared in Moscow
30 October: Siege of Sevastopol begins in the Crimea
3 November: Germans capture Kursk
22 November: Germans break into Klin
26 November: Germans capture Istra
6 December: Soviet counter-offensive begins near Moscow
7 December: Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and raid British Malaya
8 December: USA and Britain declare war on Japan
15 December: Soviets recapture Klin and Istra
25 December: Russians begin to establish bridgehead in eastern Crimea
30 December: Soviets recapture Kaluga
1942
15 February: Singapore falls to Japanese
8 May: Germans attack in eastern Crimea
12 May: Unsuccessful Soviet offensive opened near Kharkov
20 May: Germans retake the Kerch peninsula
3 July: Fall of Sevastopol
30 July: Stalin’s order no. 227, ‘Not a Step Back.’
23 August: 40,000 killed in air raid on Stalingrad
13 September: Launch of German offensive to take Stalingrad
23 October: Beginning of Battle of El Alamein
19 November: Launch of Soviet counter-offensive near Stalingrad
1943
31 January: Paulus surrenders at Stalingrad
2 February: Final German surrender at Stalingrad
8 February: Soviets recapture Kursk
14 February: Soviets take Rostov
16 February: Soviets take Kharkov
15 March: Germans recapture Kharkov
5 July: Beginning of German offensive at Kursk
12 July: Soviet counter-offensive launched near Kursk
5 August: Russians take Orel and Belgorod
23 August: Soviets capture Kharkov
3 September: Allies invade Italy
25 September: Smolensk recaptured by Red Army
6 November: Soviets recapture Kiev
1944
27 January: Final relief of Leningrad
2 April: Soviets enter Romania
9 May: Liberation of Sevastopol
13 May: Final defeat of Germans in the Crimea
18 May: NKVD troops round up Crimean Tatars, who are exiled to central Asia
6 June: Allies invade Normandy
22 June: Launch of Operation Bagration in Belorussia
3 July: Soviets recapture Minsk and take about 100,000 German prisoners
18 July: Red Army troops under Rokossovsky enter Poland
1 August: Beginning of Warsaw Rising
25 August: Liberation of Paris
2 October: Surrender of Polish nationalist forces in Warsaw
1945
17 January: Soviet troops take the ruined city of Warsaw
4 February: Beginning of Yalta conference
13 February: Budapest falls to Soviets
9 April: Surrender of Koenigsberg to Soviets
13 April: Russians take Vienna
16 April: Launch of final offensive for Berlin
23 April: Russians reach Berlin
30 April: Hitler and his closest aides commit suicide
2 May: Berlin surrenders to Russians
8 May: