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Joseph Stalin Dies
When Stalin died many changes were put into place to the Soviet Union. The USSR leader after Stalin died was Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev put many nice policies into place that made the Soviet Union a nicer place to live in. -
Protests in Hungary
When Khrushchev introduced the poilicy of destalinaztion, all of Stalin's mean policies were eliminated. This made the USSR have more freedom. The Satellite Nations were treated differently then the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union had more freedom then the Satellite Nations did, this led to protests from the Satellite Nations demanding that they want freedom too. -
China is punished by Soviet Union because of China's independence
Krushchev punished China because of their independence by not sharing nuclear secrets with them. Also the Soviet Union ended technical economic aid to China. -
Krushchev was removed from power
Khrushchev was loosing popularity because of the cuban missile crisis. During this year Khrushchev was voted out of power by the Communist Party leaders. -
Warsaw Pact invade Czechoslavakia
The Warsaw pact invaded Czechoslavakia because the Czech leader, Alexander Dubcek loosended controls on censorship to offer his counrty socialism with a "human face" This reform in Czechoslavakia was called Prague Spring. The Soviet leader at the time was Leonid Brezhnev.He put many harsh policies into place. If any countries protested against these policies they would get punished. Since Czechoclavakia did, Prague Spring didn't last that long. -
S.A.L.T. treaties were signed
President Nixon and Soviet leader, Brezhnev signed the S.A.L.T. treaties. This treated limited the number of nuclear missiles the superpowers could build. -
Soviet invade Afganistan
A muslim revolt threatens to topple Afganistan's Communist regime. This revolt triggered a Soviet invasion on this day. -
Solidarity
Solidarity is a union of Polish workers. They demanded to the government that they want recognition of their union. The government finally respounded to their protest because millions of Poles supported the action. -
Hostages released from Islam
U.S people were held hostages because the young Islamic revolutionaries seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran. More then 60 American hostages were taken and kept for 444 days before released on this day. -
Perestroika was introduced
Perestroika is a policy that means economic restructuring. Gorbachev introduced this policy because he knew that the Soviet Union economy was in a rough spot and he thought that this policy would help. This policy could allow Local managers gain greater authority over their farms and factories, and people were allowed to open small businesses. -
democratization was introduced
Democratization is another new policy made by Gorbachev. Democratization would be a gradual opening of the political system. This policy made people have elections for a new legislative body. When people would vote, the candidates were hand-picked by the communist party, now they voters can chose which candidate they want to vote for by looking at a list of candidates. -
President Reagon and Gorbachev sign INF
The INF stands for Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. This treaty would ban nuclear missiles with ranges of 300 to 3,400 miles. -
The Soviet troops retreat from Afganistan
By the time the last of the Soviet troops left afganistan, they were facing "internel unrest" and economic problems were tearing the USSR itself apart. -
Germany unites
Many people were worried about the 2 Germany's uniting. The West German Chancellor Helmut Khol convinved people that it was okay for Germany to reunite again, he said also that Germany has learned from the past. -
Protests across East Germany
Before these protests, a wall was put up to seperate East Germany from West Germany, it was called the Berlin Wall. On this date many people in East Germany protested that they want a right to travel freely. The government put up the berlin wall because the East Germany side was communism and wanted to stay communism. The government was afraid that democratic West Germany will mingle with East Germany causing East Germany to turn democratic. -
Czech citizens demanded democracy and freedom
The Czech government resisted change in Czechoslavakia but, on this day 10,000 people gathered in Wenceslas Square in the center of Prague. 3 weeks later 25,000 students joined the protest. -
The Berlin Wall was opened
This event caused East Germany to go into West Germany. Everyone celebrated. The wall opened because Egon Krenz, East Germany's new leader, gambled that he could restore stability by allowing people to leave East Germany. This gamble did not work resulting in Krenz and his top officials forced to resign. -
More protesters show up making the demands of democracy and freedom louder in Czechoslavakia
500,000 protesters crowded around downton Prague. Because of this Milos Jake, leader of the government, and his entire Politburo resigned. -
Lithuania declared their independence
When Lithuania declared their independence Gorbachev didn't like it, so he sent Soviet troops to attack unarmed civilians in Lithuania's capital. 14 people were killed in this attack and more then 150 were wounded. This attack decreased Gorbachev's popularity. -
Yeltsin becomes the Russian Republic's first directly elected president.
The Russian people chose Boris Yeltsin for president because Gorbachev caused many unnesesary fights that resulted in deaths and injuries. After this many people lost popularity in Gorbachev and looked to Boris yeltsin for help/leadership. -
Hard-liners detain Gorbachev to resign his leadership
Hardliners are conservatives who opposed reform and hated Gorbachev. The hard-liners thought that Gorbachev was not doing a great job of leading the Soviet Union. They said they wanted to go back to the days of Stalin but, the Soviet people didn't want that, so protested to protect their freedom. -
Gorbachev resigning
When the CIS was formed it meant the death of the Soviet Union. Because of this Gorbachev reisgned as leader of the Soviet Union. -
Russians suffer economic hardships
Since communisam faded away, many factories shut down because these factories were dependent on government money. This resulted in thousands of people being unemployed. -
legislators oppose Yeltsin policies
The legislators didn't like the poilicies made by Yeltsin, so the legislators locked themselves in the parliament building. Yeltsin respounded to this by ordering troops to bombard building, this resulted in many being killed and many legislators surrendering. -
Chechyna and Yeltsin sign a peace treaty
When Chechyna declared there independence , Yeltsin denied it and sent 40.000 Russian troops into Chechyna. This created a war between Russia and Chechyna, but soon the war stopped because Yeltsin ened it because election day was coming. The 2 countries decided to sign a peace treaty.