Civil and Political Life of the late Soviet Period (1979-1991)

 

 

A historical overview of the political and civilian events between 1979 and 1991.
This section will focus on a history of events that took place throughout the USSR during the time of the Afghanistan War up to the end of the Soviet era.  Here we will discuss the political changes and significant civil events that occurred during this time.  The Soviet leaders of the period will also be profiled at a later time.  The Soviet leaders of the period will also be profiled at a later time.	Political & Civil Events Historical Index    1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1988 1989 1990 1991   Statistics of the Late Soviet Period	Soviet Leaders (1979-1991) 1964-1983 Leonid Brezhnev 1983-1984 Yuri Andropov 1984-1985 Konstantin  Chernenko 1985-1991 Mikhail Gorbachev 1991-2000 Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin

Timeline of the Years 1979-1991

 

1979
		Mikhail Gorbachev is made a candidate member of Politburo.
	2 April	An accident at a Sverdlovsk biological warfare facility kills about one hundred people.
	18 June	The SALT II treaty is signed in Vienna.  It was set to last until 1985 and was to limit various ballistic and cruise missiles.  It did not address this issue of the Tu-22M, mobile missiles, or ground and sea launched cruise missiles.
	19 August	Soyuz 34 returns to Earth after Cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakov and Valery Ryumin completed a record 175 days in space.
	6 October	Brezhnev offers to reduce number of SS-20 'Saber' IRBM launchers deployed if the United States does not deploy Ground Launched Cruise and Pershing Missiles in Europe.
	26 December	Beginning of Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.
1980
		US grain embargo to protest invasion of Afghanistan.
	January	President Carter suspends exports of high technology to the Soviet Union and asks for a delay in ratification of SALT II treaty.
	22 January	Andrei Sakharov, the father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb program, is exiled.
	19 July	64 countries boycott Moscow Summer Olympics to protest Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
	25 July	Singer, poet, actor Vladimir Vysotsky dies at the age of 42.
		Gorbachev promoted to full member of Politburo.
	11 October	Salyut 6 space mission is completed.  During the mission two Soviet  cosmonauts spent a record 185 days in space.
1981
	23 February	26th Party Congress is held and the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (1981-1985) is proposed.
	28 October	A Soviet nuclear armed Whiskey class submarine ran aground in Swedish waters creating an international incident.
	6 November	After protests from the Soviet Union, the Swedish government releases the Whiskey-class submarine that ran aground in their waters the previous month.
	19 November	President of the United States, Ronald Reagan proposes 'Zero Option'.  It is an offer not to deploy the Pershing or GCLM missiles in Europe if the Soviets dismantle their SS-20 'Saber' IRBM launchers in Europe.
	20 November	Anatoly Karpov defeats Viktor Korchnoi during the World Chess Championship in Italy.
	22 - 24 November	Brezhnev-Schmidt conference is held in Bonn.  Soviet Union offers to reduce a 'certain portion' of its IRBM force.
	30 November	Closed session medium range missile reduction talks are held in Geneva.
	19 December	Military takeover in Poland results in more sanctions against the USSR by the United States.  High technology exports are again the targets of these sanctions.
1982
	16 March	Brezhnev announces a moratorium on new Soviet missiles targeted at Western Europe.
	10 November	Leonid Brezhnev dies at age 75.  He had been leader of the Soviet Union since 1964 and its president since 1977.
	12 November	Yuri Andropov is elected First Secretary of the Soviet Communist party following the death of Leonid Brezhnev.
	10 December	A pair of Soviet cosmonauts return to Earth after setting a new record by spending 211 days in space aboard Salyut 7.
		New biological warfare facility is set up in Stepnogorsk to replace the one closed in Sverdlovsk.
1983
	February	The Warsaw Pact summit proposes a non-aggression agreement with NATO.
	1 September	Korean airliner KAL 007 shot down by Soviet Su-15 'Flagon' after violating Soviet airspace.
	23 November	The Soviet delegation walked out of arms limitation talks in Geneva in protest over the United States deployment of cruise missiles in Europe.
1984
	9 February	Yuri Andropov dies at age 69; Konstantin Chernenko becomes General Secretary
	8 May	Soviets withdraw from Summer Olympics in Los Angeles
	21 June	Massive explosion at Sevromorsk naval supply depot kills over 200 people.
	10 July	Soviet film director Andrei Tarkovsky emigrates to Italy.
	August	Soyuz T-10/11 sets a record of 237 days of living in space. (2)
1985
	10 March	Konstantin Chernenko dies age 73; Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary.
		Anti-alcoholism program ('dry law') is initiated.
		Gorbachev calls for economic reforms (Perestroika).
	2 July	Andrei Gromyko becomes president of the Soviet Union, and  Eduard Shevardnadze replaces him as Soviet Foreign Minister.
1986
	19 February	Core of MIR space station is launched at 2119 local time.
	26 April	Chernobyl disaster occurs when one reactor melts down and contaminates huge area with its radioactive cloud.
	25 February - 6 March	27th Party Congress is held and Twelfth Five-Year Plan (1986-1991) is announced.
		Gorbachev begins an anti-corruption campaign.
	31 August	Soviet passenger ship Admiral Nahkimov and Soviet freighter Pyotr Vasev collide in Black Sea killing 398 people.
	11 -12 October	The US-Soviet summit in Reykjavik is held between President Reagan and Premier Gorbachev.
	21 October	Fifty-five Soviet diplomats are ordered to leave the United States by November 1.  This came in retaliation for the expulsion of five diplomats from the Soviet Union.  The Soviets retaliated by expelling more diplomats the following day.
	19 December	Andrei Sakharov is freed from his 7 years of exile in Gorky
1987
		Moscow showing of Abuladze's 'Repentance'.
	28 May	Mathias Rust, 19 years old, lands his Cessna 172 in Red Square; Air-defense commander Koldunov is removed for failing to stop it.
		Gorbachev sets 1991 as deadline for overhaul of the economy
	14 July	Soviet diplomats go to Israel for first official visit since 1967 US/Soviet summit in Washington
	22 October	Josef Brodsky is awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.
	24 October	Both the Soviet Union and the United States agree to scrap their arsenals of short and medium-range nuclear missiles
	27 December	Mikhail Gorbachev is named man of the year by Time magazine.
1988
		Ethnic unrest in the Baltic Republics
	20 February	Nagorno-Karabakh Soviet declares the region under Armenian control.
	27 February	Azerbaijani massacre of 32 Armenians in Sumgait suburb of Baku
	March	Nina Andreeva's anti-Perestroika letter published in Sovetskaya Rossiya.  It criticized the thaw in censorship, permissiveness, American rock and roll culture and denigration of Stalin.
	15 May	Soviets begin pullout from Afghanistan
	29 May - 3 June	US/Soviet summit is held in Moscow.
	7 June	Soyuz TM-5 mission to MIR space station.
	28 June	Second Party Conference.   New Congress of Peoples' Deputies with elected seats is announced. Kremlin sends troops to Nagorno-Karabakh. Gorbachev becomes president.
		Gorbachev's speech at U.N. announcing significant cuts in Soviet military strength.
		Doctor Zhivago is first published in Russia.
	29 August	Soyuz TM-6 mission to MIR space station.
	5 September	Trial of Yuri Churbanov, Brezhnev's son-in-law, for bribery and extortion
	30 September	In a meeting lasting only one hour members of the Communist Party approve the retirement of five senior officials, including President Andrei Gromyko.
	15 October	Soviet pullout of Afghanistan is half complete.
	7 December	Devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Armenia kills over 55,000.
1989
	January	Gorbachev takes control of Nagorno-Karabakh
	1 February	Yuri Levada's questionnaire in Lit gazeta
	15 February	Soviets complete military pullout of Afghanistan
	26 March	First multi-candidate elections; several uncontested candidates defeated. Boris Yeltsin and Andrei Sakharov overwhelmingly win seats in the Congress of People's Deputies
	6 April	Protesters in Georgia demand independence, Soviet troops move in.
	May	Purging of "dead souls" in the Central Committee.
	May	Soviet-Chinese summit is held in Beijing.
	May	Coal miners in Siberia, Ukraine, and Central Asia go on strike.
	May	Demonstrations in Baltics for independence. The Popular Movement of the Ukraine (RUKH) demands independence.
	25 May - 9 June	Congress of Peoples Deputies of the USSR begins political reforms
	July	Coal miners strike in Vorkutka, Karaganda, Siberia and the Ukraine
	2 July	Andrei Gromyko dies aged 79.
	4 September	Azerbaijani Popular Front imposes blockade on 85% of freight entering Armenia
	26 September	Eduard Shevardnadze, the Soviet Foreign Minister, calls for the total destruction of chemical weapons possessed by the United States and Soviet Union.  His offer went further than United States President George Bush, who offered an 80% chemical weapons reduction the day before.
		Gorbachev warns Erich Honecker of East Germany to liberalize.
	October	Armenia and Azerbaijani engaged in civil war
	November	The Berlin Wall is torn down.
	9 November	East Germany opens its borders to the West ending a major area of contention of the Cold War.
	13  December	Vladimir Zhirinovsky founds the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party Of Russia.
	14  December	Andrei Sakharov dies aged 68.
1990
	February	Russia's first McDonald's opens on Gorky Street.  Lines stretch for four blocks as 50,000 people a day are served.
	March	Elections of regional deputies of the Russian Federation Lithuania declares independence
	2 July - 13 July	28th Party Congress. Yeltsin announces resignation from Communist Party. Supreme Soviet passes law to lift censorship from the press.
	12 June	Russia Independence Day The Congress of Peoples Deputies of RSFSR passes "Declaration of State Sovereignty of Russia"
	1 September	Both the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia sign the first agreement between COMECON countries to conduct their trade in convertible currencies and use world prices.
	18 September	The Soviet Union and United States sign an agreement covering nuclear waste disposal and environmental restoration.
	30 September	Formal diplomatic relations with the nation of Israel are reestablished.  They had been broken in 1967 after the six-day war.
	15 October	Mikhail Gorbachev awarded Nobel Prize for peace.
	26 October	The Soviet Republic of Kirghizin changes its name to the Socialist Republic of Kyrgyzstan.
	November	'Law on Peasant Farms' allows kolkhozniks to own private farms
	26 November	Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev makes a formal statement requesting Iraqi troops to leave Kuwait.
	19 November	Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty is signed in Paris.
	27 November	Gennady Yanayev was elected to the new post of Soviet vice-president.
1991
	January	Soviet army attacks public buildings in Riga and Vilnius.
	12 June	Boris Yeltsin becomes first democratically elected Russian President
	1 July	The Warsaw Pact is formally dissolved.
	4 July	Eduard Shevardnadze, the former Soviet foreign minister, decided to leave the Communist Party.
	10 July	Boris Yeltsin is sworn in as the first elected President of Russia.
	July	Bodies of Nicholas II and family exhumed.
	23 July	Soviet government applies for full fledged membership in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank after the G-7 nations recommend a limited association with the Soviet Union.
	19 August	August 1991 Coup Attempt Communist hard liners Gennady Yanayev, Pugo, Marshal Yazov, Marshal Sergei Akhromeyev, Pavlov, and another announce take-over.
	20 August	Yeltsin speaks to crowd from tank then barricades himself in Parliament building.
	21 August	Latvia declares its independence. Gorbachev returns from house arrest in Crimea.
	22 August	Pugo commits suicide.  Marshal Akhromeyev hangs himself on second attempt.
	23 August	Boris Yeltsin closes Pravda and disbands the Communist Party. Statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky outside Lubyanka is toppled.
	24 August	Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of Communist Party. The Ukrainian government declares independence from Moscow, the issue will be put to a public referendum in December.
	31 August	The Republics of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan declare their independence from the Soviet Union.
	5 September	State Council set up by Congress of People's Deputies to govern in emergency. The Soviet government began dismantling its old power structures and severely weakened its constitution.  Power was shifted dramatically away from the central authority to the republics.
	7 September	The Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia are recognized by the Soviet Union.
	13 September	Both the United States and Soviet Union agree to stop shipping arms to the warring parties in Afghanistan.
	5 October	Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev pledged to match the United States in reducing tactical nuclear weapons.
	27 October	The Supreme Soviet of Turkmenistan pass a law declaring its independence from the Soviet Union.
	Fall	Leningrad is renamed 'St. Petersburg'
	1 November	COMECON is dissolved
	15 November	Economic freedom to import and export established.
	1 December	Ukrainian referendum on independence is held.  90.3% of the people vote for independence.
	8 December	Presidents of Belarus, Russia, Ukraine sign treaty to abolish USSR and form Commonwealth of Independent States.
	25 December	Gorbachev announces his resignation and USSR ceases to exist.