Timeline

			1917
7 November (25 October)			Bolshevik revolution establishes Soviet government in Russia.
			1918
3-11 December			The November Revolution. Revolutionary uprising of workers, sailors and soldiers throughout Germany, overthrowing the Kaiser. Social Democratic Party (SPD) forms government, its right-wing leaders aiming to stabilise capitalism in Germany.
30 December			Founding of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in Berlin.
			1919
5-15 January			Spartacist Uprising in Berlin crushed by government troops. Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht abducted and murdered by Freikorps on orders of the SPD Government.
2-6 March			Founding Congress of the Communist International in Moscow.
28 June			Treaty of Versailles concluded which results in major losses of German territory and crippling financial reparations.
			1920
24 February			Nazi Party founded.
August-September			Revolutionary movement of factory occupations in Italy, reformist leadership fails to take power.
			1921
17 March			Ultra-left ‘March Action’ called by KPD in Germany.
26 July			Hitler becomes leader of the Nazi Party.
9 November			Mussolini forms Fascist Party in Italy funded by Italian big business.
			1922
28-31 October			Following Mussolini’s ‘March on Rome’, Italian ruling class hand power to the fascists.
			1923
October			Trotsky forms the Left Opposition to challenge Russian and Comintern leaders including Stalin and Zinoviev.
			1924
21 January			Lenin dies. Stalin and bureaucracy increasingly consolidate their position within Russia, the Communist Party and Comintern.
			1927
15 April			Shanghai Massacre spells the defeat of the Chinese Revolution of 1925-27.
November			Trotsky expelled from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
			1928
9-25 February			Ninth Plenum of the ECCI. Comintern Executive declares the ‘third period’ or the ‘final’ crisis of capitalism.
20 May			Fourth Reichstag elections – Nazis only get 12 seats out of 474. Workers’ parties SPD and KPD get 42% of vote.
			1929
February			Trotsky exiled from the Soviet Union, arrives in Turkey.
1-3 May			‘Blutmai’ – Berlin SPD police chief Karl Zörgiebel orders violent repression of marching workers.
28-29 October			Wall Street financial crash.
			1930
April			Trotsky forms the International Left Opposition to draw his supporters together in the struggle against Stalinism.
14 September			Fifth Reichstag elections – Nazis get 107 seats; SPD: 143; KPD: 77.
			1931
July			Global financial crisis leads to per capita income in Germany crashing to 24 per cent below 1914 levels. Unemployment reaches 31 per cent.
			1932
31 July			Sixth Reichstag elections – Nazis get 230 seats, SPD: 133, KPD: 89.
6 November			Seventh Reichstag elections – Nazis get 196 seats (33 per cent of the vote); SPD: 20 per cent and KPD 17 per cent. The two parties get 221 seats between them.
17 November			Franz von Papen resigns as Chancellor, replaced by Kurt von Schleicher.
			1933
30 January			Hitler appointed Chancellor.
27 February			Reichstag Fire, followed by mass arrests of KPD members.
6 March			KPD banned.
23 March			Enabling act passed through Reichstag giving Hitler dictatorial powers.
Late July			Trotsky moves to France.
			1934
6 February			Several thousand armed fascists and royalists attack buildings in Paris. The Radical president Daladier hands power to a reactionary government under Doumergue.
9 February			General strike in France in protest of the coup.
30 June – 2 July			The Night of the Long Knives – Hitler’s SS wipes out the leadership of the SA (Brownshirts).
			1935
May			Trotsky, forced to leave France, is granted asylum in Norway.
3 August			Trotsky launches call for a new, Fourth International, declaring that the failure of events in Germany to generate any debate in the Third International demonstrated that the Communist Parties and Comintern had degenerated beyond reform.
			1936
May			Popular Front government elected in France headed by Léon Blum’s socialists.
26 May			Strike wave begins in the port city of Le Havre. Leads to factory occupations and spreads throughout France, rapidly reaching general strike proportions. Workers leaders, including the Communist Party, negotiate concessions and the movement subsides.
17 July			Fascist uprising begins in Spain against the Popular Front government. In response, workers seize power in major cities, including Barcelona.
19-24 August			The first of the three major Moscow Purge Trials. Old Bolsheviks including Trotsky (in absentia), Zinoviev and Kamenev are convicted, and many are executed.
December			The Norwegian ‘Socialist’ government forces Trotsky to leave. Mexico grants him asylum.
			1938
September			Founding Congress of Fourth International held in France, with world war looming.
			1939
23 August			Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed. Became known as the Hitler-Stalin Pact.
1 September			Outbreak of Second World War.
			1940
21 August			Trotsky murdered by a Stalinist agent in Mexico City
			1943
15 May			The Third (Communist) International is dissolved on Stalin’s orders.
25 July			Mussolini ousted from power by Fascist Grand Council.
8 September			Following the fall of Mussolini, open civil war breaks out in Italy between workers and partisans and the fascists.
			1944
December			Workers and partisans in Greece organise a general strike and force evacuation of German forces. British troops are sent to disarm the workers.
			1946
August			Ted Grant writes ‘Democracy or Bonapartism in Europe (A Reply to Pierre Frank)’, outlining that the process taking place at the end of the War was one of ‘counter-revolution in a democratic form’.
			1948
28 June			Ted Grant writes The Menace of Fascism – What it is and How to Fight it.