The Collapse of the USSR - Timeline of Events

Joseph Stalin late 1920s to March 1953

1930s Ukrainian Terror-Famine

1937 Stalins purge 35,000 officers were imprisoned or shot
1939 Winter War with Finland although the USSR was victorious,
126,000 Soviet Soldiers died and it indicated to Hitler that the Soviet
Unions military was weak.
1939 The Stakhanovite movement over 3 million exceptionally
hardworking Russians inspired by the deeds of Aleksandr Stakhanov.
1939 The Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact Stalin put great faith in
this.
22nd June 1941 After Stalin receiving 84 warnings of German invasion and
German aircraft crossing into Soviet airspace 180 times, the Germans
launched Operation Barbarossa. They bombed major Soviet air bases
and the cities of Minsk, Kiev and Sevastopol At least 1,200 aircrafts were
destroyed within a few hours of the attack.
14th July Hitler became over-confident (the Germans believed you could
spit on a Soviet tank and it would explode) and order that the German
army on the Eastern Front should be reduced.
July 1941 thousands of Russians became guerrilla fighters and took up
weapons even after the Germans had taken over their land.
11th August The Army Chief of Staff noted that the Soviets were known to
have 360 divisions, when the original pre-invasion estimate had been only
200.
16th September A huge battle took place near Kiev and nearly 600,000
Russian soldiers were taken prisoner.
Mid-October to mid-November the Season of Mud.
Winter The temperature reached -20C and tens of thousands of German
troops died of frostbite.
During the first year of war the USSR lost 50% of its food producing
area, 75% of its coal, steel and iron ore and 1/3 of its rail network.
In 1941 the people of Leningrad and Moscow worked to dig anti-tank
ditches to defend their city.
October 1942 Commissars were abolished in small units so those with
proper expertise could prevail.
In 1941 there were only 100 priests and 7 bishops but, after the revival
of the Russian Orthodox Church, the church raised 150 million roubles
for the war effort.
By 1942 the military was taking up 57% of the national budget.
July 1942 Stalin issued Order 227 (Not a step back) the army was
ordered to stand and fight to the death as a result of this order and other
harsh punishments, 158,000 Soviet soldiers were condemned to be shot.
By the end of the war Andrey Vlasovs Russian Liberation Army
(which aimed to fight as Germanys ally for a socialist Russia and rid the
country of Stalins system of terror) numbered 50,000 (defeated on 1 st
August 1946).
January 1945 Russian troops began the final push to Berlin, bringing the
war to an end when Hitler committed suicide.
By 1945 The war had cost 19 million civilian deaths, 9 million soviet
deaths and the destruction of 1,200 towns, 70,000 villages, 65,000 km of
railway, 40,000 hospitals, 70% of the countrys industrial production and
100,000 collective farms.
1st August 1946 Vlasov and several other leaders of the Russian
Liberation Army were tried and hanged.
1946 Stalin introduced the Fourth Five Year Plan aimed at national
reconstruction and concentrated on heavy industry and transport.
The grain harvest of 1946 was barely half that of 1940 and the state
had to rely upon grain procurements (seizures), which accounted for 70%
of the harvest.
By 1947 the number of people in labour camps had risen to 4.7
million (from 1.6 million in 1942), the Dneiper Dam was back in
operation and coal production in the Danets Basin had overtaken that
of 1940.
1948 Transformation of nature adoption of the crackpot ideas of
the biologist Trofim Lysenko, who believed crops could be adapted to grow
anywhere.
After 1948 Stalin withdrew from the public limelight and made only
one important speech hysterical isolationism and paranoia.
Purge of the Leningrad Communist Party in 1949 carried out by the
secret police under Beria, leading to the arrest of thousands, e.g. leading
Communist Kuzntesov.
1952 Stalin replaced the Poitburo with a larger Presidium.
By 1953 there were still 2.5 million people in labour camps.
The Doctors Plot of 1953 Soviet newspapers claimed that nine
Moscow doctors (6 of whom were Jewish) had poisoned Zhdanov and had
attempted to murder high-ranking army officials. The charges were
completely false and confessions had been extracted using torture
techniques.
Mingrelian case of 1951 showed that Stalin believed that Beria, the
abusive head of the NKV, was becoming too powerful. Beria came from
Mingrelia and when a number of important Mingrelians were arrested, he
was ironically put in charge of the investigation.
Stalin died on 5th March 1953, after 25 years of rule.
Between 1928 and 1940 Russia had a compound annual growth rate of
between 5 and 6% - significantly more than in many western countries.

Descriptions of Stalin
- Chris Ward A sickly old man; unpredictable, dangerous, lied to by
terrified subordinates.
- Yuri Levada Hysterically isolationist
- George Kennan A great man, but one great in his incredibly
criminality.

Nikita Khrushchev (1953 1964)

Between 1953 and 1956 Khrushchev used his position as Secretary of

the Central Committee to replace over half of the secretaries of the
republics and regional party committees.
Between 1953 and 1956 there was a rise of 25% in the price of grain
procurements.
1953 Khrushchev launched the Virgin Land Scheme. Over 250,000
volunteers enlisted, 12,000 tractors were provided and 6 million acres
were freshly ploughed in the first year of the scheme.
1954 Vietnam was partitioned into the Communist Republic of North
Vietnam and the non-Communist Republic of South Vietnam. The US
strengthened South Vietnam so that it would act as a barrier against
further Communist expansion. Under Khrushchev, the USSR kept a
relatively low profile in events in Vietnam, until US bombers started
bombing North Vietnam.
Between 1955 and 1965 coal increased from 391 million tons to 578
million, tractor production increased from 314,000 to 804,000 and TV set
production from 495,000 to 3,655,000.
In 1956 an extra 35.9 million hectares of land was cultivated due to the
Virgin Land Scheme, which contributed over 50% of the total grain harvest
for the USSR.
24th February 1956 Khrushchevs Secret Speech at a closed
session of the 20th Party Congress Khrushchev delivered a speech on the
subject the cult of the individual and its consequences, listing Stalins
crimes (including mass arrests and deportations of thousands of people,
execution without trial).
1956 Khrushchev sent tanks into Hungary after anti-Soviet
demonstrations in Budapest and the leader Imre Nagy announcing his
intention to leave the Warsaw Pact. Over 20,000 Hungarians were killed
and Khrushchevs reputation very badly damaged.
When Khrushchev visited the Yugoslavian leader, Tito in 1956 and
bestowed Soviet favour, the idea was strengthened that the Kremlin had
accepted Yugoslavias right to develop its own brand of Communism.
In 1956 a new minimum wage was introduced.
By 1957, labour camps were opened and millions of people were set
free.
In 1957 Khrushchev set up 105 regional economic councils to take
the place of the national ministries move away from central planning
that mainly just added another level of complicated bureaucracy.
In 1957 the Party voted 7:4 for Khrushchevs dismissal from the role
of Party Secretary but Khrushchev overcame this by using his position and
rallying his supporters.
October 1957 launch of the first artificial satellite into Space
(Sputnik).
1958 Boris Pasternak had to refuse his Nobel Prize for Literature
because Khrushchev thought it was too critical of the Bolsheviks in the
Revolution and the Civil War.
November 1958 Khrushchev publicly challenged the rights of Western
powers to remain in Berlin and demanded that within 6 months West
Berlin should become a demilitarised, free city.
1958 1964 Pressure on religious groups Orthodox Churches were
destroyed in large numbers, leaving only 7500 out of 20,000 as places of
worship. Muslim and Jewish places of worship were also destroyed.
In 1959 the cultural thaw - a new history of the Party was approved
which criticised the excesses of the 1930s; the composer Shostakovitchs
work was allowed to be performed; books by western authors like Ernest
Kemingway appeared in Russian bookshops and cultural and sporting
exchanges were arranged with capitalist countries (e.g. football teams like
the Dinamo Moscow became popular in Europe.
September 1959 the USSR landed a red flag on the moon
1959 A new Seven-Year Plan was launched with realistic targets and
emphasis on power stations and consumer goods.
1960 65 The average household income rose by 3% per year.
By 1960 the Virgin Land Scheme was beginning to falter 13,000 square
miles of land had its topsoil removed by harsh, windy weather conditions.
His craze for maize had similar results even though 85 million acres
were planted, only 1/6 was harvested ripe.
1960 Khrushchevs coarse behaviour began to be somewhat humiliating,
e.g. when he banged his shoe on the table at a meeting of the United
Nations.
June 1961 Khrushchev threatened Kennedy saying that the West must be
ready to leave Berlin within 6 months, thus increasing the flight of people
from East to West Berlin.
October 1961 It was decided at the 22nd Congress that Stalins body
should be removed from Lenins mausoleum.
November 1961 Stalins name was removed from the Russian map
Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd.
November 1961 Construction began on the Berlin Wall 28 miles
long, came to symbolise Communist tyranny.
1961 Venera I explored Venus and in April 1961 Yuri Gagarin became
the first man in space in Vostok I.
1961 1965 Average grain output was 130 million tons per year.
June 1962 troops opened fire on rioters in Novocherkassk who were
protesting against the rise in meat and dairy products (due to food
shortages) and 24 were killed.
October 1962 The Cuban Missile Crisis following the installation of
highly powerful Soviet missiles in Communist Cuba, which were capable of
reaching almost any state in the USA, (Operation Anadyr) President
Kennedy announced a naval blockade of Cuba and placed US armed forces
on nuclear war alert. Khrushchev decided not to risk a nuclear war, but
back down, damaging his international standing.
The Test-Ban Treaty of 1963 was signed by the USA and the USSR, but
not Communist China, as the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong and
Khrushchev constantly bickered and did not get along Mao dismissed
Soviet leaders as fascists, unworthy of the Marxist-Leninist inheritance.
After the poor harvest of 1963, Khrushchev had to suffer the humiliation
of importing grain from the capitalist west.
October 1964 Khrushchev went on holiday to the Black Sea but was
summoned to a meeting where his leadership was attacked and he was
forced into retirement.
By 1965 the Soviet Union possessed over 4,700 scientific establishments
and employed more scientists that any other country (result of
Khrushchevs focus on technology and science).
By 1968 50% of Soviet households had a TV and a washing machine,
though few had cars and only 10% had a telephone (result of
Khrushchevs economic policies).

Leonid Brezhnev (1968 1982)

Soviet involvement in Vietnam (1965 73) The Soviet Union started

supplying the Vietcong (a guerrilla army dedicated to uniting the country
under Communist control) with large quantities of weapons and military
advisers. The war ended in 1973 with a Communist victory and the
withdrawal of US troops (see 1954 for more details).
In 1966 Brezhnev took the former Stalinist title of General Secretary of
the Party (rather than First Secretary), while the Presidium reverted to its
previous name of the Politburo.
1968 There was a massive invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet and
other Warsaw Pact troops, replacing the regime of the radical reformer
Dubcek (who came into power in January 1968) with a strongly pro-
Moscow regime.
In 1968 for the first time, the rate of growth of consumer goods
marginally exceeded that of heavy industry.
In 1969 there was talk of celebrating the 90th anniversary of Stalins birth,
but this was dropped due to opposition from East European states.
November 1969 after the cost of stockpiling Soviet nuclear missiles
became astronomical, talks began between the USSR and the USA to try
to agree limits to the development of nuclear weapons.
In 1970 the Soviet space probe Luna 16 landed on the moon and collected
fragments before returning safely.
By 1970 it became impossible to get anything published that was critical
of Stalin. However many dissidents turned to samizdat (having their works
copied and circulated freely) or tamidzat (sending work abroad for
publication).
May June 1970 Biologist, writer and dissident Zhores Medvedev was
confined in a psychiatric hospital, having been diagnosed with creeping
schizophrenia. He was, however, released quickly after a large protest
campaign led by his twin brother Roy, Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov.
The 1970s Human Rights Committee (led by Sakharov) demanded
freedom of speech.
April 1971 the space station Salyut 1 was sent into orbit.
June 1971 the cosmonauts in a space capsule docked with the station
and remained in space for 23 days.
In the early 1970s the USSR overtook the USA in terms of numbers of
inter-continental ballistic missiles and submarine launched missiles. The
Soviets also developed the anti-ballistic missile which could destroy
enemy missiles.
1971-1975 Average grain output was 181.6 million tons per year.
1972 Average grain output was 156 million tons per year.
1972 A Strategic Arms Limitation Treat (SALT 1) was signed.
By 1972 it became clear that Brezhnev was in charge of the USSR,
even though he had been supposedly sharing the leadership with Kosygin.
By the end of 1975 there were some 10,000 political and religious
prisoners in labour camps, many of which were dissidents.
The Helsinki Final Treaty in 1975 required economic and scientific co-
operation and the free exchange of information between East and
West, meaning that dissidents would be able to attract worldwide
attention to the fact that their government was reneging on its
promises. 35 different countries signed the agreement, saying the
participating states will respect human rights and fundamental
freedoms, including freedom of thought.
Between 1975 and 1985 the output of iron increased by less than 7%
(compared to a 56% increase between 1965 and 1975)
1976 1980 Average grain output was 205 million tons per year.
The Constitution of 1977 gave the Communist Party a much higher
profile, as the leading and guiding force of Soviet society and the
nucleus of its political system, its state organisations and public
organisations. It also noted that the elections to the Supreme
Soviet were to take place every five years instead of four.
In 1977 Party membership was around 16 million.
1977/8 Completion of the 3500km long Baikal-Amur railway.
By 1979 the average Russian worker had to work 4.5 hours to earn
enough to buy a loaf of bread; his American equivalent only 48 minutes.
1979 The Brezhnev Doctrine Soviet intervention in the internal
affairs of any Communist state was justified if socialism in that state was
considered to be threatened.
December 1979 The invasion of Afghanistan Soviet forces moved
into the country to help the government regain control, after it had been
harassed by Afghan nationalists and the Islamic Majaheddin. This decision
proved to be disasterous, as Thatcher and Regan urged a boycott of the
22nd Olympic Games in Moscow and brought to an end the SALT II
discussions taking place. More than a million Soviet servicemen were sent
to the country and there were over 50,000 Soviet casualties.
1980 over 25% of all investment went into agriculture and gross
agricultural output was 21% higher than the average for 1966.
There was a picture of economic and industrial stagnation by 1980
a very low annual increase of GDP of 2.7% despite heavy investment.
The GNP had fallen from 5.2% in 1970 to 2.2%, industrial growth from
6.3% to 2.6% and agricultural growth from 3.7% to 0.8%.
1980 The Aeroflot (the State airline) carried 100 million passengers.
1980 Output of refrigerators grew to 5.9 million (from 1.7 million in 1980).
In 1980 private plots made up 4% of the USSRs cultivated land but
produced 30% of its food.
In 1981 Party membership was around 17.4 million.
1981 1985 Average grain output was 181 million tons per year.
Throughout the 1980s the USSR continued to import 40 million tons of
grain from the USA and Argentina each year.
1985 The State savings bank held 221 billion roubles (compared to 18.7
billion roubles in 1965).
1985 Car manufacturers increased their output to 1,327000 (compared
201,200 in 1965) but this was barely 1/3 that of Britain, France or
Germany.

Yuri Andropov (November 1982 February 1984)

He tried to make improvements to peoples lives, saying first well

make enough sausages and then we wont have any dissidents.
He believed that the party needed to acquire an understanding of the
society in which we live in February 1983 he visited a lathe-making
factory and held brief conversations with workers.
July 1983 A degree was passed to provide industrial associations with
greater autonomy from the central planning authorities.
September 1983 A Soviet fighter shot down South Korean airliner KAL-
007, which had accidentally strayed into Soviet air space. 269
passengers were killed and tensions increased.
Industrial output was 5% higher in 1983 than the previous year and the
value of agricultural production rose by 7%.
By February 1984 he had already replaced about 1/5 of party secretaries
and ministers and about 1/3 of department heads of the secretariat of the
Central Committee.
He called for a summit with US President Reagan and for an arms
reduction treaty but Reagan regarded the USSR as the evil empire.
He allowed for the introduction of cheap new vodka Andropovka.
9th February 1984 After experiencing rapidly deteriorating health,
Andropov died before he could secure Gorbachev as his successor.

Konstantin Chernenko (February 1984 March 1985)

February 1984 Chernenko was aged 72 and was already terminally ill
with emphysema when he came to power.
December 1984 The only change to membership of the Politburo under
Chernenko occurred with the death of Ustinov, who wasnt even replaced.
The only significant policy innovation was the approval of a scheme to
turn several north-flowing rivers down southwards towards the Soviet
republics of Central Asia, which was ecologically dubious.
A new Party Programme was drafted (of little practical relevance), which
led to debates over the nature of socialism.
March 1985 Chernenko died following a heart attack after a mere 13
months in charge.
Dmitri Volkaganov stated Chernenko was not capable of leading the
country or the Party into the future. His rise to power symbolised the
deepening of the crisis in society, the total lack of positive ideas in the
Party, and the inevitability of the convulsions to come.

Mikhail Gorbachev (1985 1991)

1983 He said, Society had to change, it had to be constructed on

different principles.
Gorbachev gained power through appearing traditionalist, despite
using terms like glasnost and perestroika in a speech as early as
December 1984.
By the end of 1985 hed replaced 14 out of 25 heads of department and
39 out of 101 Soviet ministers.
1985 1987 Early Perestroika (restructuring, regeneration) with the
slogan acceleration (although economic measures were very slow to
emerge).
November 1985 Gosagropom A new super-ministry for the
cultivation and processing of foodstuffs, which merely added
another level of bureaucracy and was expected to work on the
placebo principle.
1985 Ligachevs anti-alcohol campaign to limit the production/sale of
alcohol led to a huge increase in illicit distilling and cost the USSR 67
billion roubles in loss of revenue (9% of the 1985 level of GNP) and
Gorbachev became known as Mineral water General Secretary.
In 1986 the Russian republic (RSFSR) had a population of 145 million
ethnic Russians and had 52% of the USSRs population.
26th April 1986 The Chernobyl nuclear explosion.
June 1986 Glavlit, which censored all printed materials prior to
publication, was instructed to relax its rule and Gorbachev believed under
all circumstances, Communists need the truth.
Glasnost Yakovlev released many films that had been censored (e.g.
Repentance, a satire on the Stalin years, and returned over 400,000
churches, mosques, synagogues and prayer houses to believers.
November 1986 The leaders of the satellite states were told that there
would be no Soviet military interventions.
December 1986 Gorbachev tried to get rid of the 74-year-old corrupt
leader of Kazakhstan, Kunayev, and tried to replace him with a Russian,
Kolbin. This led to huge protests in the capital, Alma Ata, at Gorbachev
sent troops into disperse demonstrators, killing 2 and injuring hundreds.
January 1987 the USSR stopped jamming the BBC.
27th January 1987 Central Committee plenum Gorbachev described
the USSRs condition as socialism in the process of self-development.
21st October 1987 Central Committee plenum Yeltsin spoke out,
saying that there was a vast lack of support within the party, especially
from Comrade Ligachev, prompting many speakers to defend the
traditionalist leader Ligachev. This embarrassed Gorbachev so he
temporarily moved away from his radical position to the centre of the
party.
October 1987 Gorbachev chastised Zhivkov, the Bulgarian leader, for
policies that he thought threatened the Communist Partys control. This
contradicted his statement that he would respect the satellite states
freedom to choose and not interfere in their internal affairs.
11th November 1987 Yeltsin resigned from the Politburo.
1987 It came as a shock that 40% of the entire state budget was spent on
the military and initial indicators showed that the 1987 output was going
to be lower than 1986.
January 1988 Law on State Enterprises allowed 60% of state
enterprises to move on a system of self-management, setting their own
prices and targets.
March 1988 A letter appeared in a Soviet newspaper from a Leningrad
teacher, condemning left-wing liberal development. It emerged that this
had been re-written by Ligachevs supporters in an attempt to discredit
Gorbachev, a plan which back-fired and Ligachev lost credibility.
May 1988 The Democratic Union was set up the first new non-
communist political group since the revolution.
8th December 1988 the cities of Leninakan and Spitak (in Armenia) were
devastated by an earthquake more than 25,000 people.
1988 The Supreme Soviet of 1459 members was replaced by the
Congress of Peoples Deputies of 2250 members and the smaller Supreme
Soviet of 450 representatives, which sat for 8 months a year.
1988 Meat was rationed in 26 out of 55 regions and sugar in 53.
1988 Payments to urban workers increased by 9%.
1988 The Estonian Peoples Front announced the restoration of
Estonian as the national language, the appointment of Estonians to
leading positions and the replacement of the command economy with the
market economy. Latvian and Lithuanians groups followed Estonias
example.
1988 Clashes between the Azeris and Armenians in Nagorno-
Karabakh (where 80% of the population was Armenian but Gorbachev
disallowed the move to Armenian jurisdiction), when 26 Armenians and 6
Azeris were killed.
January 1989 The Supreme Soviet placed Nagorno-Karabakh under direct
rule from Moscow (see January 1990 for further developments).
February 1989 The last Soviet soldier returned home from the
Afghanistan war.
March 1989 the first semi-free elections in 70 years were held in the
congress as a whole, 87% of those elected were Communists, but about
20% of the Party officials who stood were defeated.
During the spring and summer of 1989 there were 51 mass
demonstrations involving over 350,000 people.
March 1989 Yeltsin was elected with a huge majority as deputy for
Moscow.
April 1989 The growing nationalist movement in Georgia led to peaceful
demonstrations in the capital, Tbilsi. Local communist leaders used troops
against protesters, killing 20 people. This resulted in a surge of opinion
against the local communist party and demands for complete
independence.
From August 1989 Gorbachev allowed national areas more rights,
e.g. to be treated as equals and be allowed to express national culture and
language.
August 1989 On the 50th anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, 2 million
people took part in a human chain that stretched from Vilnius in
Lithuania to Talinn in Estonia.
Autumn 1989 the miners of Vorkuta went on strike with political
demands such as the abolition of Article 6 of the constitution (which gave
the Communist Party its dominant role in the political system).
October 1989 Demonstrations in East Germany anti- reform leader
Erich Honecker was replaced by Egon Krenz. This was necessary due to
economic instability production was a least 40% of West Germany.
9th November 1989 The Berlin Wall was opened.
17th November 1989 The Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia
The first big anti-Communist demonstration took place and some were
injured as police went into action to disperse the crowds.
In December 1989 The Congress of Peoples Deputies dropped its
previous system of some reserved seats.
29th December 1989 The Czechoslovakian Communists decided it was
time to go and the famous playwright and leader of the Civil Rights
movement, Charter 77, was elected President.
December 1989 In the satellite state, Romania, the brutal regime of the
Communist Ceausecu was overthrown (he was executed on 25 th
December).
1989 The drop in world oil and gas prices cut revenues, as this
accounted for 54% of the USSRs exports. There was a rise in inflation of
almost 10%.
1989 7.3 million working days were lost as a result of strikes; this went
up by 250% in 1990.
1989 Payments to urban workers increased by 13%.
By 1989 only 50% of the population of Latvia were native Latvians, whilst
72% of the Estonian population were Russians.
January 1990 60 Armenians were murdered by Azeris in Baku and
Moscow declared a state of emergency. Soviet troops retaliated, killing at
least 83 Azeris.
February 1990 Yavlinsky urged a crash programme in 400 days. Although
Gorbachev accepted it, his ministers rejected it.
March 1990 the Congress of Peoples Deputies elected Gorbachev
President of the USSR.
March 1990 Hungary elected a non-Communist leader, after a
peaceful decision to move towards free elections.
11th March 1990 Lithuania declared itself independent; its president
Landsbergis stated, We have never considered ourselves a genuine part
of the USSR. That is something Gorbachev does not quite understand. We
wish his perestroika well, but the time has come for us to go our own way.
April 1990 The Alliance for Germany won an overwhelming victory and
Helmut Kohls new government called for the unification of the two
German states.
April 1990 The Law of Secession made secession theoretically possible
but made the process very slow and complicated (2/3 of the population
were required to vote for independence in a referendum, thered be a five-
year transition period and smaller national groups could opt out and
remain in the USSR).
April 1990 Article 6 was abolished.
8th June 1990 The Russian republic announced its sovereignty,
which suggested that Russian laws took precedence over Soviet ones.
Yeltsins parliament could now prevent Gorbachevs policies being
implemented or even alter them.
August 1990 Gorbachev persuaded Yeltsin to support a joint Russian-
Soviet plan for rapid marketisation the 500-day programme, which
included large scale privatisation, devolution of power to the republics and
the setting up of market procedures. Conservative critics thought it would
lead to the break-up of the Soviet Union, so in October 1990 a
compromise document was accepted, known as Basic Guidelines.
7th November 1990 Gorbachev shaken by an assassination
attempt, a major factor in his decision to move to the right from October
1990 until March 1991 (as well as his fear of the strength of right wing
opposition). He increased his own powers, set up a Security Council,
replaced liberal Minister of the Interior Bakatin with hard-liner Boris Pugo
and gave Conservatives important posts.
December 1990 Poland elected a non-Communist leader, after a
peaceful decision to move towards free elections.
1990 Prime Minister Ryzhkov put forward a more gradual programme,
including recommendations for a 50% increase in most prices, which led to
a run on the shops.
1990 The State Bank had lost control current account deficit of
roughly 15 billion dollars.
1990 Industrial production fell by 1.2% and agricultural production by
2.3% (although many experts believe these figures have been
understated).
1991 Industrial output fell by 18% and agriculture by 17%.
January 1991 the Russian Supreme Soviet legalised private
property.
January 1991 Soviet paratroopers entered all three republics in the
Baltic, with the excuse that they were searching for deserters. Pro-
Russian movements complicated the situation (e.g. in Vilnius where a
group called Edinstvo stormed the Parliament building, calling for the
Lithuanian government to resign, and the Lithuanians protested against
this). Russian officials exaggerated this situation to Gorbachev, so Soviet
forces went into action 14 people were killed and 165 injured. A week
later in Riga (Latvia) Soviet troops attacked the Internal Affairs building
and 4 people were killed. Gorbachev claimed he hadnt given orders for
troops to use force and blamed local commanders.
From March 1991 Gorbachev turned by to liberal advisers.
In March 1991 a referendum on the subject of a new union treaty
indicated that 76.4% of voters were in favour of the Soviet Union
(although 6 republics refused to take part). 70% were also in favour of an
elected Russian President.
April 1991 Gorbachev, Yeltsin and the leaders of the 8 republics that had
participated in the referendum met to produce a constitution for a new
federation, which was ready by August and stated that the republics
would have sovereign power and the USSR would stand for Union of
Sovereign States, a single economic unit with Gorbachev as the
President.
12th June 1991 Yeltsin was formally elected President of the Russian
Federation. The man who came bottom was the communist Bakatin, with
just 3% of the vote.
June 1991 American Secretary of State James Barker warned Gorbachev
of signs of an up-coming coup.
11th July 1991 The Congress approved the general principle of the new
union and the date fixed for the signing of the Union Treaty was 20th
August.
23rd July 1991 The newspaper Sovetskaya Rossiya published A word to
the people, which complained about conditions in the USSR. It said The
Motherland, our country, the great state entrusted to us by history is
being broken up, is being plunged into darkness and obvlivion. It was
practically a manifesto for the August coup.
18th August 1991 - The August Coup A small group of conspirators
flew to Foros, where Gorbachev was on holiday, announced that Yeltsin
had been arrested (which he hadnt) and demanded that Gorbachev hand
over his powers temporarily. Gorbachev refused and the conspirators
announced that a state of emergency was operation. At least 25,000
protestors came onto the streets and formed a human chain around the
Whitehouse. By the end of the day there were 50,000 troops in Moscow
alone.
Yeltsin climbed onto a tank and said, the legally elected president has
been removed from power we are dealing with a right-wing, reactionary,
anti-constitutional coup dtat we appeal to citizens of Russia to demand
a return of the country to normal constitutional development.
21st August 1991 Faced by fearsome opposition, the conspirators lost the
nerve and ended their coup attempt by mid-day.
23rd August 1991 Yeltsin humiliated Gorbachev by making him read
out a list of conspirators, many of which were members of his cabinet.
25th August 1991 Gorbachev resigned his position of General
Secretary and on the 5th September 1991 the Congress of Peoples
Deputies was dissolved until new elections took place. This meant that
Gorbachev was practically deprived of his two vital power bases.
1st December 1991 A referendum showed that 90% of Ukrainians were in
favour of complete independence from the USSR. Without Ukraine (the
second largest state) and the Baltic States the New Union Treaty was a
non-starter.
8th December 1991 Yeltsin met with Kravchuck, the Ukrainian President,
and the leader of Belarus to agree to form a much weaker union the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). This would be a
voluntary association with a joint unified military command but no
President. All this was done without informing Gorbachev, until the 9th
December.
On 21st December 11 of the former Soviet republics signed the
agreement (all of them except the Baltic States and Georgia).
The USSR and the position of President of the USSR would cease to exist
on the 31st December 1991 so Gorbachev resigned on 25th December
saying, Sadly, the old system has tumbled before the new one could
begin functioning.