Skip to content
★Maps of History Start free

The Soviet Union under Stalin, 1924–1953

Stalin’s Soviet Union timeline and maps

The Soviet Union under Stalin, 1924–1953 told in 12 chapters on an interactive situation map, with 24 dated maps and 64 battles, turning points and sites of memory, each drawn where it happened. This page is the index: every chapter, map and place as its own page.

Open the interactive atlas →

WW2 is free — every chapter. Try chapters 1–2 of any 2 other atlases (3 with a free account). Opening a new atlas uses one of them. Membership opens all 21 — Join.

Free printable Stalin’s Soviet Union study guide, sent by email ↓

The chapters

Stalin’s rise to power
CHAPTER 1 · 1928
Collectivisation in the USSR
CHAPTER 2 · 1930
Holodomor and the Soviet famines
CHAPTER 3 · 1933
Stalin’s Five-Year Plans
CHAPTER 4 · 1935
Gulag forced-labour camps
CHAPTER 5 · 1936
Great Terror (Great Purge)
CHAPTER 6 · 1937
Stalin’s ethnic deportations
CHAPTER 7 · 1944
Stalin’s cult of personality
CHAPTER 8 · 1939
Women and daily life under Stalin
CHAPTER 9 · 1940
Stalin in World War II
CHAPTER 10 · 1942
High Stalinism (1945–53)
CHAPTER 11 · 1949
Death of Stalin and de-Stalinisation
CHAPTER 12 · 1956

Stalin’s Soviet Union maps by year

JAN 1924OCT 1924JAN 1928MAR 1930AUTUMN 1931WINTER 1932–331934AUG 1935AUG 1937SEP–DEC 1939JUN–AUG 1940DEC 1941NOV 1942DEC 1943MAY 1944SEP 1945WINTER 1946–47JUN 1948OCT 1949DEC 1952SUMMER 1953MAY–JUN 1954FEB 1956NOV 1956

See every map as a picture →

Battles, events and sites of memory

◆ ALZhIR women’s camp◆ Baltic June deportations● Berlin Blockade◆ Bykivnia graves◆ Deportation of Soviet Koreans◆ Deportation of Stanitsa Poltavskaya◆ Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush◆ Deportation of the Crimean Tatars◆ Deportation of the Kalmyks◆ Deportation of the Volga Germans● Dnieper Hydroelectric Station● Evacuation to Kuibyshev✕ Fall of Rostov and Order No. 227● First Soviet atomic bomb test● Forest Brothers● Georgian affair● Gigant state farm● Gorky Automobile Plant (GAZ)◆ Holodomor in Kyiv oblast● Hujum unveiling campaign◆ Karlag labour camp◆ Kazakh famine◆ Kengir uprising◆ Kharkiv and the Holodomor● Khrushchev’s Secret Speech◆ Kolyma Gulag camps◆ Kulak deportations to Kotlas◆ Kurapaty mass graves● Kuznetsk Metallurgical Combine● Leningrad affair◆ Levashovo Memorial Cemetery● Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works● NKVD Order No. 00447◆ Narym special settlements◆ Norilsk Gulag (Norillag)● Pavlik Morozov◆ Sandarmokh mass graves◆ Siege of Leningrad◆ Solovki prison camp● Soviet invasion of Hungary◆ Soviet postwar famine● Sozak uprising● Stakhanovite movement● Stalin Peak (Ismoil Somoni Peak)● Stalin as General Secretary● Stalinabad (Dushanbe)● Stalino (Donetsk)● Stalin’s 50th birthday in Pravda● Stalin’s Siberian grain tour● Stalin’s birthplace, Gori● Tankograd● Tito–Stalin split● Trotsky’s exile to Alma-Ata● Trotsky’s expulsion from the USSR● Tsaritsyn renamed Stalingrad● Tulchyn peasant revolt● UPA insurgency in western Ukraine◆ Vinnytsia massacre◆ Vladivostok transit camp◆ Volga famine◆ Vorkuta Gulag◆ White Sea–Baltic Canal● Women workers of Ivanovo● Yalta Conference

The places, chapter by chapter →

Study and test

Stalin’s Soviet Union questions and answers Stalin’s Soviet Union quiz The printable study guide IB History notes: The Soviet Union under Stalin

THE FREE PRINTABLE STUDY GUIDE

Join the Dispatch — a short welcome series, then a letter when a new atlas opens — and the printable study guide for The Soviet Union under Stalin is yours now, free.

NO TRACKING · YOUR ADDRESS IS USED FOR THE DISPATCH AND NOTHING ELSE · UNSUBSCRIBE ANYTIME