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OVERVIEW
Economic stagnation and social and policial cynicism were large factors during this time. People wanted their freedoms they got a taste what they had never had before. There was a lack of flexibility economy where people pretend to work and pretend to buy things. Young soviets were exposed to western media and there was a lack of participation in politics. Secondary economies began to boom like the black market. -
Mikhail Gorbachev takes over
Gorbachev takes over and Perestroika reforms era begins
As Gorbachev’s reforms were enforced, in order to maintain better relations with the people of the USSR, domestic and economic issues were catalyzed through perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness). When small business broke out due to the new policy made under Gorbachev, people began to take notice to all of the freedoms that they had never had before and were taking advantage of these powers. -
Perestroika
Political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev along with his other major policy reform he introduced known as glasnost, meaning "openness". Creating tension by the backlash it had on the government -
Glasnost Era Begins
Glastnost was a policy which called for increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the Soviet Union. Small business and new ventures broke out due to the new policy made under Gorbachev, People took matters into their own hands with all of the freedoms that they had never had before and started seeing problems within the government, particularly with economics and spending towards specific parties. -
Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
Explosion destroyed Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine only heightened Gorbachev’s awareness of the dangers of nuclear power. The explosion showed that even without war and without nuclear missiles, nuclear power could destroy humankind. -
Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed
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 December 8, 1987, it was ratified by the United States Senate on May 27, 1988 and came into force on June 1 of that year with the goal of easing the tensions between the two countries with restrictions on nuclear forces. -
Electoral Law
As a part of the programs of Perestroika and democratization, the Soviet electoral system had been overhauled allowing voters a choice of candidate for the first time in decades. New multi-candidate elections established in USSR and used in the elections for the new Congress for People's Deputies, the highest body of state authority of the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991. -
Gorbachev's Speech to the UN
After speaking about the recent changes in the Soviet Union, Gorbachev amazed the global community when he announced drastic cuts in the Soviet military presence in Eastern Europe and along the Chinese border -- a move that ultimately allowed Soviet satellites to choose their own paths. His speech outlines Warsaw Pact troop reductions and a withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan. -
Revolutions of 1989
Due to the USSR becoming less involved in the international affairs, Gorbachev made it clear he was unwilling to use force to maintain control over the satellite states. The fence between Hungary and non-Communist Austria is dismantled. In Poland, Solidarity wins a majority in free elections. The non-violent Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia against the one-party government of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. This was also known as the Fall of Communism. -
Boris Yeltsin 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. He won 57% of the vote in a six-candidate contest and became the second democratically elected leader of Russia in history. Upon the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev and the final dissolution of the Soviet Union on 25 December 1991, Yeltsin remained in office as the President of the Russian Federation, the USSR's successor state. -
Yeltsin outlaws CPSU in Russia
Gorbachev resigns as general secretary of CPSU and dissolves the party - Christmas Day. He led the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States (1991) and began to transform Russia's economy into one based on free markets and private enterprise. -
Minsk Agreement ends the USSR
This left all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union as independent sovereign states. The dissolution of the world's largest communist state also marked an end to the Cold War.
