Timeline
1907
| 18-24 August | Stuttgart Congress of the Second International; Lenin and Luxemburg amendment on the attitude towards war passed |
1910
| 28 August – 3 September | Copenhagen Conference of the Second International; resolution on the International’s position on war and struggle, firming up the proposals made by Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg at the congress in Stuttgart |
1912
| October | Outbreak of the First Balkan War |
| 24-25 November | Basel Congress of the Second International; reinforced the International’s firm stance of “war on war” which had been declared in Stuttgart and Copenhagen, and a call to socialists to “exert every effort in order to prevent the outbreak of war” and to use the conditions created by the war to “hasten the downfall of capitalist class rule” |
1913
| June | Outbreak of the Second Balkan War |
1914
| 28 July | First World War begins |
| 4 August | German SPD votes for war credits triggering the collapse of the Second International |
| 5 September | Lenin is forced to leave Austria-Hungary for neutral Switzerland |
1915
| 5-8 September | Zimmerwald Conference of anti-war Socialists |
1916
| 24-30 April | Kienthal Conference of anti-war Socialists (Second Zimmerwald Conference) |
1917
| 8-12 March | February Revolution in Russia; the tsar is forced to abdicate; Soviets are organised; Provisional Government formed |
| 16 April | Lenin returns to Russia and presents the April Theses |
| 10-13 September | Kornilov’s attempted coup against the Provisional Government is defeated |
| 7 November | October Revolution in Russia; the Soviets take power; Lenin drafts Decree on Peace |