SOVIET RUSSIA (1958-1991) Soviet Russia (1917-1958) Featured Article
1958-1964	Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev
	About N.S. Khrushchev
1959	Mikoyan, Kozlov, and Khrushchev visit USA Khrushchev launches his corn campaign 21st Party Congress
1959-1965	Seven-Year Plan "Anti-Party Group" denounced
1960    May	Khrushchev at UN Assembly in New York Boris Pasternak dies
1961    April 12	Yurii Gagarin becomes the first man in space (August) The Berlin Wall is built October 22nd Party Congress New Party program and rules Stalin's remains removed from Lenin Mausoleum Berlin Wall is built
1962	Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
October	Cuban Missile Crisis
1963	Russo-Chinese split deepens Central Committee Conference on Ideology Ehrenburg, Evtushenko and others attacked for non-conformity US-USSR "hotline" established    August US/USSR/Britain sign nuclear test ban treaty Founding of the Taganka Theater
1964	Joseph Brodsky trial (February-March)    October Khrushchev ousted; Brezhnev First Secretary Kosygin become Premier
1964-1982	Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev
	About L.I. Brezhnev [1] [2] [3]
1965	Demonstrations in Moscow against US air-raids in North Vietnam Mikhail Sholokhov wins Nobel Prize in literature
1966	23rd Party Congress (February) Andrei Sinyavski & Yulii Daniel trial for publishing abroad
1966-1970	Eighth Five-Year Plan
1967	Outer Space Treaty Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin's daughter, defects
1967	Andropov becomes head of the KGB Fiftieth anniversary of Bolshevik Revolution
1968	Moscow-NY commercial airline service (PanAm and Aeroflot) Prague Spring; Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia Dissident (inakomyshlyashchii) movement begins
1969	Preliminary round of SALT talks
1970	US-Soviet Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty US-USSR cultural exchange Centenary of Lenin's birth Alexander Solzhenitsyn wins Nobel Prize for literature
1970-1971	SALT talks
1971	Khrushchev dies (February) Solzhenitsyn deported from USSR 24th Party Congress
1971-1975	Ninth Five-Year Plan
1972	Nixon in Moscow for summit SALT Treaty signed Restrictions on Jewish emigration; Jackson-Vanik amendment SALT II negotiations begin Fiftieth anniversary of USSR
1974	Solzhenitsyn expelled to West Germany Third Moscow summit
1975	Apollo-Soyuz Mission Sakharov wins Nobel Peace Prize; visa to attend ceremonies denied
1976	25th Party Congress
1976-1981	Tenth Five-Year Plan
1977	Dissidents Ginzburg, Rudenko, Orlov, Shcharinskii arrested Master and Margarita staged at Taganka Theater
November	Brezhnev Constitution ratified
1978	Soviet UN Undersecretary for Political and Security Council Affairs defects to US (June 8) Solzhenytsin's Harvard speech
1979	Gorbachev is made a candidate member of Politburo (December) Soviets invade Afghanistan
1980	US grain embargo to protest invasion of Afghanistan Sakharov exiled 64 countries boycott Moscow Summer Olympics to protest Soviet invasion of Afghanistan Gorbachev promoted to full member of Politburo Death of Vladimir Vysotsky
1981	26th Party Congress
1981-1985	Eleventh Five-Year Plan
1982	Andropov promoted to Secretariat Brezhnev dies; Andropov becomes General Secretary
1983-1984	Yuri Andropov
	About Yuri Andropov
1983    September 5	Korean airliner shot down by Soviets
1984-1985	Konstantin Chernenko
	About Konstantin Chernenko
1984	Andropov dies; Chernenko becomes general secretary Soviets withdraw from Summer Olympics in Los Angeles Tarkovsky emigrates to Italy
1985	Chernenko dies; Gorbachev becomes General Secretary Anti-alcoholism program ('dry law') initiated Gorbachev calls for economic reforms (Perestroika)
1985-1991	Mikhail Gorbachev
	About M.S. Gorbachev
1986	27th Party Congress    April 26 Chernobyl disaster US/Soviet summit in Reykjavik (Reagan and Gorbachev) Gorbachev's anticorruption campaign
1986-1990	Twelfth Five-Year Plan
1987	Sakharov freed from 7 years of exile in Gorky Moscow showing of Abuladze's Repentance Mikhail Gorbachev TIME "Man of the Year" Josef Brodsky awarded Nobel Prize for literature Mathias Rust, 19 years old, lands his Cessna 172 in Red Square; Air-defense commander Koldunov removed Gorbachev sets 1991 as deadline for overhaul of the economy Soviet diplomats go to Israel for first official visit since 1967 US/Soviet summit in Washington
1988	Ethnic unrest in the Baltic republics
February 20	Nagorno-Karabakh soviet declares the region under Armenian control
February 27	Azerbaijani massacre of 32 Armenians in Sumgait suburb of Baku
March	Nina Andreeva's anti-Perestroika letter published in Sovetskaja Rossija
May 15	USSR begins pullout from Afghanistan US/Soviet summit in Moscow Trial of Churbanov, Brezhnev's son-in-law, for bribery and extortion
June 28	Second Party Conference. New Congress of Peoples' Deputies with elected seats announced Kremlin sends troops to Nagorno-Karabakh Gorbachev becomes president Gorbachev's speech at U.N. announcing significant cuts in Soviet military strength Armenian earthquake, over 150,000 killed Doctor Zhivago first published in Russia
1989
January	Gorbachev takes control of Nagorno-Karabakh
February 1	Yuri Levada's questionnaire in Lit gazeta Completion of Soviet pullout of Afghanistan
March 26	First multi-candidate elections; several uncontested candidates defeated, Yeltsin and Sakharov overwhelmingly win seats in the Congress of People's Deputies
April 6	Protesters in Georgia demand independence, Soviet troops move in Purging of "dead souls" in the Central Committee Soviet-Chinese summit in Beijing    May Coal miners strike in Siberia, Ukraine, Central Asia Demonstrations in Baltics for independence RUKH (Popular Movement of the Ukraine) demands independence
May 25-June 9	I. Congress of Peoples Deputies of the USSR begins political reforms
July	Coal miners strike in Vorkutka, Karaganda, Siberia and the Ukraine
September 4	Azerbaijani Popular Front imposes blockade on 85% of freight entering Armenia
October	Armenia and Azerbaijani engaged in civil war
November	The Berlin Wall comes down
Dec. 14	Andrei Sakharov dies
1990	Mikhail Gorbachev awarded Nobel Prize for peace
March	Elections of regional deputies of the Russian Federation Lithuania declares independence
June	28th Party Congress Yeltsin announces resignation from CP Supreme Soviet passes law to lift censorship from the press
June 12	I Congress of Peoples Deputies of RSFSR passes "Declaration of State Sovereignty of Russia" (Independence Day)
November    November 19	Law on Peasant Farms allows kolkhozniks to own private farms CFE Treaty signed in Paris