1899

April 23: Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov born to Elena Rukavishnikov and Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov in St. Petersburg at 47 Bol'shaia Morskaia Ulitsa.

1900

Birth of Sergei, VN's first brother.
(Sergei would die in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945.)

1901

Nabokov's mother brings her two young sons to Pau, France, to the estate of her brother Vassilii, known as Uncle Ruka. In 1916 Uncle Ruka would bequeath to VN an immense fortune that the latter would never see.

1902

Arrival of VN's first English governess, Miss Rachel Home.

1903

Birth of VN's first sister, Olga. In Speak, Memory, Nabokov notes that his first memories of childhood can be dated to 1903.

1905

Arrival of "Mademoiselle," the Swiss governess from Lausanne who would stay with the Nabokovs until 1912.

1906

Birth of VN's second sister, Elena.

1908

Nabokov's father, a member of the first Duma, is imprisoned for ninety days after signing a political manifesto.

1911

VN enters the Tenishev School.
Birth of VN's second brother Kiril, who would die in Munich in 1964.

1914

VN writes his first poem.

1916

VN's first book of poetry, Stikhi (68 poems in Russian), is privately published in St. Petersburg. (A facsimile reprint was issued in 1997 by Izd-vo Dorn.)

1917

Nabokov's father accepts a post in the Provisional Government after the Revolution.
November 2: VN and his brother Sergei leave St. Petersburg for the Crimea, where the family is offered refuge near Yalta on a friend's estate. His mother and sisters follow soon after.