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Boris Yelstin elected President of Russia
Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet. -
U.S. boycott of 1980 Summer Olympics
The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan spurred Jimmy Carter to issue an ultimatum on January 20, 1980 that the United States would boycott the Moscow Olympics if Soviet troops did not withdraw from Afghanistan within one month. After an April 24 meeting, United States Olympic Committee President Robert Kane told the International Olympic Committee that the USOC would be willing to send a team to Moscow if there were a “spectacular change in the international situation” -
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) (“Star Wars”)
The Strategic Defense Initiative was proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983, to use ground-based and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons . The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic offense doctrine of Mutual assured destruction . -
“Caribbean Basin Initiative”
The Caribbean Basin Initiative was a unilateral and temporary United States program initiated by the 1983 Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act. The CBI came into effect on January 1, 1984, and aimed to provide several tariff and trade benefits to many Central American and Caribbean countries. -
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the CommunistParty of the Soviet Union
a former Soviet statesman. He was the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991 when the party was dissolved. -
Iran-Contra Affair
The officials in the National Security Council sold military weapons to Iran so it would help in freeing US prisoners in Lebanon. -
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) ratified
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is a 1987 agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union. Signed in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev on 8 December 1987, it was ratified by the United States Senate on 27 May 1988 and came into force on 1 June of that year. -
Berlin Wall collapses
The Berlin Wall was a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989,constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until it was opened in November 1989. -
1st McDonalds opens in Moscow
This symbols of capitalism and the enthusiastic reception it received from the Russian people were signs that times were changing in the Soviet Union. -
Germany is reunified
The German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany to form the reunited nation of Germany, and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then . -
end of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was formally enacted on December 26, 1991, as a result of the declaration no. 142-Н of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, acknowledging the independence of the erstwhile Soviet republics and creating the Commonwealth of Independent States, although five of the signatories ratified it much later or not at all. -
Warsaw Pact is dissolved
The Warsaw Pact is named this because the treaty was signed in Warsaw, included the Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria as members.
