1957 — Decentralization proposal (sovnarkhozy) adopted in May; anti-party group defeated (June); demotion of Marshal Zhukov (October); ‘Sputnik’ launched (October)
1958 — Boris Pasternak awarded Nobel Prize for Doctor Zhivago; new penal code, eliminating category of ‘enemies of the people’ (December)
1959 — Sino-Soviet split becomes public; Twenty-First Party Congress; Khrushchev launches maize campaign 1960 American reconnaissance plane, U-2, shot down inside Russia
1961 — Capital punishment extended to economic crimes (May); Twenty-Second Party Congress (October); Stalin’s body removed from Kremlin (31 October); first manned space flight
1962 — Publication of A.Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; Novocherkassk disorders (June); Cuban missile crisis (October)
1963 — Exceptionally poor harvest
1964 — Removal of N. S. Khrushchev (14 October)
1965 — CC approves plan for economic reform (September); publication of A. Nekrich’s 22 June 1941
1966 — Trial of dissident writers Iu. Daniel and Andrei Siniavskii (February); Twenty-Third Party Congress (March) 1968 Demonstration by Crimean Tatars (April); invasion of Czechoslovakia (August); first issue of Chronicle of Current Events
1970 — Establishment of Human Rights Committee (November)
1971 — Jewish demonstration in Moscow, beginning of large-scale Jewish emigration
1972 — SALT-I (arms limitations); Shevardnadze becomes party boss in Georgia
1974 — Deportation of Solzhenitsyn from USSR
1975 — Helsinki agreement on European Security and Co-operation; Sakharov awarded Nobel Prize for peace
1976 — Twenty-fifth Party Congress
1977 — New Soviet constitution; Brezhnev becomes President of the USSR
1978 — Trial of Anatolii Shcharanskii
1979 — SALT-II (arms limitation agreement); Soviet intervention in Afghanistan
1980 — Exile of Sakharov to Gorky (January)
1981 — Twenty-Sixth Party Congress
1982 — Death of L. I. Brezhnev (10 November), replaced by Andropov
1984 — Andropov dies, replaced by Chernenko (February)
1985 — Chernenko’s death, replacement by Mikhail Gorbachev (11 March)
1985–1995 — From Perestroika to Dissolution of the USSR
1985 — Mikhail Gorbachev elected General Secretary (11 March); Eduard Shevardnadze appointed Foreign Minister (2 July); first superpower summit between Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan in Geneva (November)
1986 — Tbilisi disorders, with twenty demonstrators slain by Soviet troops (9 April); Chernobyl disaster (26 April); riots in Alma-Ata (December)
1987 — Twenty-seventh Party Congress (February-March); new law on ‘socialist enterprise’; Yeltsin dismissed as Moscow party chief (November)
1988 — Nineteenth Party Conference transforms role of Communist Party (June)
1989 — Ethnic conflict erupts in Nagorno-Karabakh (February); USSR Congress of People’s Deputies elected in partly democratic elections (March); anti-perestroika letter by Nina Andreeva; Gorbachev announces plan to withdraw from Afghanistan (April); miners’ strike (July 1989); first national movement, Sajudis, forms in Lithuania (November)
1990 — Election of People’s Deputies of Russian Federation (March); formation of Communist Party of the Russian Federation, with Ivan Polozkov as leader (June); Twenty-eighth Party Congress, with defection of Boris Yeltsin and leaders of Democratic Platform to establish their own party; Gorbachev elected President of the USSR (September)
1991 — Soviet troops attack TV centre in Vilnius, killing 14 (January); Boris Yeltsin elected President of the Russian Federation (June); ultimatum to Gorbachev to resign in favour of Gennadii Ianaev signals beginning of attempted coup (18 August); Yeltsin makes his way to White House to lead opposition to putsch (19 August); attempted coup collapses (21 August); Yeltsin announces plans for economic reform (October); Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and Azerbaijan declare independence (August-September); Chechnya declares independence (November); Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus agree on formation of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) (8 December); CIS formally constituted in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan (21 December); resignation of Gorbachev (25 December); formal dissolution of the USSR (31 December)
1992 — Gaidar introduces radical ‘shock therapy’ economic reforms (January); constitutional referendum (April); Tashkent summit (March); Black Sea accord between Ukraine and Russia (August); privatization vouchers issued (1 October); Yeltsin appoints V. Chernomyrdin as Prime Minister (14 December)
1993 — START-II signed by United States and Russia (3 January); leaders of Central Asia agree in principle on loose union (January); mounting conflict between Yeltsin and Parliament, which votes to strip the President of his economic powers (March); national referendum of 25 April shows support for Yeltsin (58 per cent of votes) and constitution; Yeltsin dismisses parliament and announces new elections (21 September); after parliament impeaches Yeltsin and poses armed resistance, Yeltsin storms the Parliament building, with upward of 200 killed (3–4 October); many CIS states (Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, followed by others) establish their own national currencies (November); national vote to approve constitution (57 per cent) and to elect new Duma, with nearly a quarter of the votes for V. Zhirinovskii’s nationalist party (12 December)
1994 — Russian-Belarus economic union (5 January); State Duma amnesties those involved in the October 1993 events (26 February); speculative pyramid scheme based on MMM stock fund fails (29 July); Yeltsin signs agreement with Bashkortostan to define its powers and sovereignty (3 August); Yeltsin, at stopover at Shannon airport, fails to meet with Irish prime minister, reportedly because of illness and inebriation (30 September); crash of ruble (11 October); after peace talks with Chechnya collapse, Moscow launches military assault (11 December)
1995 — Rehabilitation of 1.5 million victims from World War II in Gulag (25 January); removal of Sergei Kovalev, critic of Chechnya conflict, as human rights commissioner (10 March); founding congress of pro-government party, ‘Our Home is Russia,’ headed by Viktor Chernomyrdin; Chechen armed unit seizes hostages in Budennovsk, with casualties and successful escape of Chechens (June); Duma elections make the Communist Party the largest party with 22 per cent of the vote, while reducing Zhirinovskii’s Liberal Democratic Party to 11 per cent (17 December)
1996 — Treaty of the Four (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan) seeks to enhance integration in economic and foreign policy (29 March); formation of the ‘Shanghai Five’ (Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and China) on multilateral non-aggression and policy coordination (26 April); the Paris Club of governmental creditors agrees to reschedule the Russian state debt of 38 billion dollars (29 April); first round of the presidential election, giving Yeltsin 35 per cent of the vote, but not an absolute majority, with 32 per cent voting for Ziuganov of the Communist Party and 15 per cent for the popular ex-general Lebed (16 June); Yeltsin appoints Lebed as secretary of the Security Council, with the latter throwing his support behind Yeltsin (18 June); run-off for the presidential election, with Yeltsin winning 54 per cent of the vote against Ziuganov’s 40 per cent (3 July); liberal economist and architect of the second privatization, Anatolii Chubais, appointed chief of staff of Presidential Administration (15 July); Lebed and the Chechen leader, Aslan Maskhadov, announce the Khasaviurt Accord (31 August); Yeltsin dismisses Lebed (17 October); Yeltsin successfully undergoes quintuple bypass heart surgery (5 November); three-quarters of the country’s miners go on strike to protest wage arrears (3–11 December); the Shanghai Five agree to reduce military forces along common borders (27 December)