1919

The Nabokov family leaves Sebastopol in March on a ship bound for Constantinople, thence to London.

1919-22

VN and his brother attend Cambridge University, Vladimir in Trinity College, Sergei in Christ College. The family is temporarily settled in England.

1920

August: The Nabokov family moves to Berlin, where Nabokov's father will become editor of the Russian newspaper Rul' (The Rudder). It is in Rul' that many of VN's first prose works and translations of French and English poets will appear.

1922

March 28: Nabokov's father is fatally shot during an assassination attempt on the politician Miliukov by right-wing monarchists. (Follow this link for a photograph of his tomb.)
June: Nabokov receives his degree from Cambridge in French and Russian.
VN moves to live with his family in Berlin.
Publication of Romain Roland, Colas Breugnon (translations from the French), Berlin: Slovo.
Publication of Grozd' (36 poems in Russian), Berlin: Gamaiun.

1923

Nabokov's mother (along with his sister Elena) moves to Prague, where she is offered a government pension as the widow of V.D. Nabokov.
Publication of Gornii put' (The Empyrean Path) (128 poems in Russian), Berlin: Grani.
Publication of Skital'sy (The Wanderers) (Berlin, Grani), "a supposed translation of the first act of a play by the nonexistent English author 'Vivian Calmbrood' (anagram)" [DN]
Publication of Ania v strane chudes (Translation of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Berlin: Gamaiun.
May 8: VN meets his future wife, Véra Slonim, at a charity costume ball in Berlin.
May 20: Publication in Rul' of Smert' (Death), verse drama in two acts.
October 14: Publication in Rul' of Dedushka (The Grandad), verse drama in one act.
December 2: Publication in Rul' of Agasfer, "a dramatic monologue written as a prologue to a staged symphony" (VN's subtitle).

1924

VN completes his first play, Tragediia Gospodina Morna (The Tragedy of Mister Morn), a verse drama in five acts.
April 6: Publication in Rul' of excerpts from the play.
August 14 and 16: Publication in Rul' of Polyus (The Pole), verse drama in one act.

1925

April 15: VN and Véra Slonim marry in Berlin.
September: Publication of the story "Draka" in Rul'.
VN writes Mashen'ka (Mary), his first novel.

1926

February: Publication of the story "Britva" ("The Razor") in Rul'.
Publication of Mashen'ka (Berlin: Slovo).
VN's second play, Chelovek iz SSSR (The Man from the USSR), is produced in Berlin.

1927

January 1: Publication in Rul' of act one only of Chelovek iz SSSR.

1928

September: Publication of one chapter of Korol', dama, valet (King, Queen, Knave) in Rul'
Publication of Korol', dama, valet (Berlin: Slovo).
December: Publication in Rul' of "Rozhdestvenskii rasskaz" ("A Christmas Tale"), short story.

1929

VN and his wife travel to Paris and then to the Eastern Pyrenees to hunt butterflies. VN begins work on Zashchita Luzhina (The Defense).
Publication of Vozvrashchenie Chorba (The Return of Chorb) (15 stories and 24 poems in Russian), Berlin: Slovo. Many of the stories had been previously published in Rul' from 1924-1927.
September: Publication in Rul' of one chapter of Zashchita Luzhina
Publication in Sovremennye zapiski (Contemporary Annals) (2), nos. 40-42 of Zashchita Luzhina
Publication in book form of Zashchita Luzhina (Berlin: Slovo).

1930

Publication in Sovremennye zapiski No. 44 of Sogliadatai (The Eye), novel.

1931

Publication in Sovremennye zapiski No. 45-48 of Podvig (Glory).

1932

Publication in book form of Podvig (Paris: Sovremennye Zapiski).
Publication in Sovremennye zapiski no. 49-52 of Kamera obskura (Laughter in the Dark).

1933

VN begins work on Dar (The Gift).
Publication in book form of Kamera obskura (Paris: Sovremennye zapiski).

1934

Publication in Sovremennye zapiski no. 54-56 of Otchaianie.
May 10: Dmitri, VN's only child, is born.

1936

Publication in book form of Otchaianie (Despair). Berlin: Petropolis.
Publication in Sovremennye zapiski no. 58-60 of Priglashenie na kazn' (Invitation to a Beheading).

1937

VN and Véra move to Paris to avoid the growing danger from Nazism. VN becomes involved with La Nouvelle Revue Francaise, meets Jean Paulhan and James Joyce, and composes in French an essay on Pushkin entitled Pouchkine, ou le vrai et le vraisemblable.
March: Publication in Poslednie novosti of short story "Podarok."

1938

VN writes two plays produced in Russian in Paris: Sobytia (The Event) and Izobretenie Wal'sa (The Waltz Invention). Sobytia published in Russkie zapiski (Russian Annals) in April, Izobretenie Wal'sa in the same journal in November.
Publication in Sovremennye zapiski no. 63-67 of chapters 1, 2, 3, and 5 of Dar.
Publication in book form of Priglashenie na kazn'. Paris: Dom Knigi.
Publication in book form of Sogliadatai (novel, with twelve stories in Russian). Paris: Russkie zapiski.
Begins writing The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (in English).

1939

VN composes in French "Mademoiselle O."
Composes Volshebnik (The Enchanter), "a first sketch on the Lolita theme."