1988   unrest in the Baltic republics; 
  Feb 20:  Nagorno-Karabakh soviet declares the region under Armenian control
  May 15: Soviets begin pullout from Afghanistan; 
 1989 
  >  Feb 1 completion of Soviet pullout from Afghanistan 
 >  Mar 26 first multi-candidate elections in Soviet Union; Yeltsen and Sakhrov are elected overwhelmingly; 
 >  April demonstrations in Georgia for independence, coal miners strike in Ukraine, Central Asia, etc, Baltics demonstrations for independence; 
  >  November 1989 Berlin Wall comes down; 
 1990 
  >  Lithuania declares independence; 
 >  June 12 Congress of deputies delcares Declaration of the State Soveregnty of Russia, 
 1991
 >  June 12, 1991, Boris Yeltsin becomes first democratically elected Russian President
>  August 20 Yanayev, Pugo, Yazov and 3 others announce take over;  Yeltsin speaks to crowd from tank then barricades himself in Parliament building
  >  August 21  Latvia declares its independence 
                              Gorbachev returns from house arrest in Crimea
   >  August 22 Pugo commits suicide
 >  August 24 Gorbachev resigns as head of CP and Yeltsin closes Pravda and disbands CP
 >  Dec 25, 1991 Gorbachev announces his resignation and USSR ceases to exist
In Chechnya
Oct. 1991 -- Following the overthrow of local communist ruler Doku Zavgayev, Soviet air force general Dzhokhar Dudayev wins a disputed local poll and declares Chechnya independent. 
Russia rejects any talk of independence but takes no action against Dudayev and allows him to run Chechnya. 
Dec. 1994 -- President Boris Yeltsin sends troops to Chechnya to crush the independence movement, but they meet strong resistance from guerrilla fighters and suffer heavy casualties. 
Feb. 1995 -- Separatists abandon capital Grozny, reduced to ruins by artillery and rocket attacks over a month of fighting. 
June. 1995 -- Rebels seize hundreds of hostages in the Russian town Budennovsk. Over 100 people die. Peace talks open, Russia orders a halt to military operations, but the conflict goes on. 
Jan. 1996 -- Fighters seize hostages in neighbouring Dagestan, then move to the village of Pervomaiskoye just outside Chechnya. Most rebels escape, but many are killed. 
Feb. 1996 -- Yeltsin says the Chechnya campaign was "maybe one of our mistakes" but rules out withdrawal of Russian forces. 
April 1996 -- Dudayev is killed in a rocket attack and replaced by vice-president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. 
May 1996 -- Yeltsin and Yandarbiyev agree a truce at talks in Moscow. It holds until the presidential poll which Yeltsin wins some six weeks later. Yeltsin visits Russian troops in Grozny. 
Aug. 1996 -- Rebels seize Grozny. Yeltsin gives national security adviser Alexander Lebed powers to resolve the crisis. Lebed signs a truce on August 31 providing for a Russian pullout and deferring the issue of Chechen sovereignty for five years. 
Sep. 1996 -- Russia starts withdrawing its soldiers. 
Oct. 1996 -- Aslan Maskhadov, former rebel chief-of-staff, is named prime minister of an interim government. His platform includes independence and some elements of Islamic sharia law. 
Dec. 1996 -- Six foreign Red Cross workers are murdered in Chechnya, casting a shadow over the election campaign. 
Jan. 1997 -- Last Russian troops leave. Thirteen candidates run for president on January 27 and Maskhadov is elected with almost 65 percent of the vote. 
Jan. 1997 -- Unidentified kidnappers seize two Russian journalists in Chechnya, first in a long series of abductions for ransom money which fuel tensions with Moscow and effectively block the reconstruction of the shattered economy. 
March 1997 -- Russia's Parliament approves amnesty for most Chechen rebel fighters. 
May 12, 1997 -- Yeltsin and Maskhadov sign peace accord but Chechnya's final status still unresolved. Moscow says Chechnya must stay part of Russian Federation, albeit with wide autonomy. 
May 1998 -- Gunmen briefly seize main government building in Dagestani capital Makhachkala, underlining political tensions in wider North Caucasus region beyond Chechnya. 
1998 June - Amid growing lawlessness, Maskhadov imposes a state of emergency.
Aug. 1998 -- Dagestan's top Moslem cleric, his brother and a driver killed in bomb attack. 
Sep. 1998 -- Chechen warlords demand the resignation of President Maskhadov, saying he is too conciliatory towards Moscow. Maskhadov also under pressure from Russia, which says he is failing to combat organised criminal gangs, whose frequent kidnappings have turned Chechnya into no-go zone for outsiders. 
Shariah law imposed
1999 January/February - Maskhadov declares Islamic Shari'ah law will be phased in over three years. 
A group of former rebel field commanders announces the formation of a rival body to govern Chechnya according to Shari'ah law and calls on Aslan Maskhadov to relinquish the presidency.
March 1999 -- Maskhadov narrowly escapes assassination attempt. In unrelated incident, more than 50 die in a bomb blast in Vladikavkaz, capital of North Ossetia which borders Chechnya. 
March 1999 - Moscow's top envoy to Chechnya, General Gennadiy Shpigun, is kidnapped from the airport in Grozny. His corpse is found in Chechnya in March 2000.
1999 July/August - Chechen fighters clash with Russian troops on the Chechnya-Dagestan border; Chechen rebels stage armed incursions into Dagestan in an attempt to create an Islamic state.
Aug 7, 1999 -- Russian helicopters pound positions held by Islamic militants in Dagestan said to have come from Chechnya. Moscow vows firm action to dislodge intruders but says it does not seek resumption of full-scale war with breakaway Chechnya. 
Aug. 8, 1999 -- Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, a longstanding hawk on Chechnya, travels to Dagestan to supervise Russian counter-offensive.
1999 September - A bomb attack on Russian military housing in Dagestan and a series of apartment block bombings elsewhere in Russia are blamed on Chechen rebels; some 300 people are killed in the blasts. Russian forces redeploy in Chechnya; the new prime minister, Vladimir Putin, says the campaign is needed to quash terrorism.
1999 October - Moscow-based State Council of the Republic of Chechnya established by former members of the Chechen republican legislature. Moscow recognizes it as the sole legitimate Chechen authority and refuses to negotiate with Maskhadov.
1999 October - Many thousands of civilians flee the Russian advance, leaving Chechnya for neighbouring Russian republics. Their numbers are later estimated to reach 200,000.
2000 February - Russian troops capture Grozny; much of the city is razed.
2000 May - President Putin declares direct rule from Moscow.

Kadyrov years 
2000 June - Russia appoints former Chechen cleric Akhmat Kadyrov as head of its administration in Chechnya. 
2001 - Human rights organisations express concern about human rights violations in Chechnya, including alleged torture and widespread detentions at the hands of Russian troops. Concerns are fuelled by the discovery of a mass grave filled with mutilated bodies.
 2001 September - Major rebel offensive on the Chechen town of Gudermes; a Russian helicopter carrying senior officers is downed.
2001 September - In the aftermath of the 11 September attacks on the US, Putin urges rebels to "halt all contacts with international terrorists". 
2001 November - First official negotiations since 1999 as Maskhadov's representative Akhmed Zakayev and Russia's Kazantsev hold talks on a peace settlement in Moscow.
2001 December - Captured rebel field commander Salman Raduyev sentenced to life imprisonment on murder, terrorism charges. He dies in a Russian jail in December 2002.
2002 July - UN suspends aid operations in Chechnya for six months after the kidnapping of a Russian aid worker.
2002 August - Georgia accuses Russia of carrying out air raids in the Pankisi gorge, close to Georgia's border with Chechnya. Moscow says the gorge is a safe haven for Chechen rebel groups and presses for an international operation to flush them out. 
2002 October - Chechen rebels seize a Moscow theatre and hold about 800 people hostage. Most of the rebels and some 120 hostages are killed when Russian forces storm the building.
2002 December - Suicide bomb attack on the Grozny headquarters of the Russian-backed Chechen government kills around 80 people. Rebels claim responsibility.
2003 March - Russians hail Chechen referendum vote in favour of a new constitution stipulating that the republic is part of the Russian Federation. Human rights groups, among others, are strongly critical of Russia for pushing ahead with referendum before peace has been established. 
2003 May - Over 50 people killed in suicide bombing of government building in the north of the republic. Just two days later, administration chief Kadyrov has narrow escape in another suicide attack which leaves over a dozen dead. 
2003 December - Russian forces kill about a dozen Chechen fighters after band of rebels crosses border into neighbouring Dagestan and takes hostages. 
2004 February - Former Chechen president, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, killed in explosion in Qatar, where he had been living for three years. Two Russian intelligence agents subsequently sentenced to life in jail by a Qatari court for the killing. 
2004 May - President Kadyrov and numerous others killed in Grozny bomb blast. 
After Kadyrov 
2004 June - Dozens killed in neighbouring Ingushetia in attacks reported to have involved hundreds of gunmen. President Putin blames Chechen rebels led by Aslan Maskhadov whose spokesman denies the latter's direct involvement but acknowledges that Chechen volunteers took part. 
2004 July - Acting President Abramov survives explosion. 
2004 September - Hundreds are killed or wounded - many of them children - when a siege at a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, ends in bloodbath. President Putin blames international terrorists with links to Chechen separatist fighters. Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov condemns the seizure of the school but says it was carried out by people whom he describes as "madmen" motivated by desire to seek revenge for Russian actions against their own loved ones in Chechnya. 
2004 October - Kremlin-backed former Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov sworn in as president following August elections. 
2005 February - Separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov calls ceasefire and urges the Russian authorities to agree to peace talks. The official Chechen leadership dismisses his overtures and says he should give himself up. 
2005 March - Russian forces announce that Aslan Maskhadov has been killed in a "special operation" in Chechnya.  From the start of the Second Chechen War in August 1999, he had been leading the guerrilla resistance against the Russian army. He was killed in Tolstoy-Yurt, a village in northern Chechnya, in March 2005.
2005 May - Mr Maskhadov's successor, Abdul-Khalim Saydullayev, signals end to policy of seeking peace talks with Moscow and decrees organization of Caucasus Front in apparent bid to widen conflict with Russia. 
2005 July - About 15 people killed when armoured police vehicle blown up north of Groznyy. 
2005 October - Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev issues statement saying he was in overall command of militant forces which launched major assault on official buildings in Nalchik, the capital of the North Caucasus Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. Dozens die in clashes between Russian forces and rebel fighters.
2006. July 10.  Basayev was killed by an explosion. Controversy still surrounds who is responsible for his death, with the Russians claiming he was assassinated by the FSB, Chechens claiming he died in an accidental explosion, and other sources claiming a rival insurgent group assassinated him.