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Strategic Defence Initiative
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) 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 strategic nuclear ballistic missiles.
It forced Gorbachev to acknowledge the impossibility of matching such a programme with the Soviet economic decline and to look for other ways to ensure security -
Introduction of Glasnost
Glasnost was a policy that called for increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the Soviet Union. Relaxation of censorship resulted in the Communist Party losing its grip on the media. Before long, much to the embarrassment of the authorities, the media began to expose severe social and economic problems which the Soviet government had long denied and covered up. Long-denied problems such as poor housing, food shortages, alcoholism, widespread pollution, cr -
Introduction of Perestroika
Perestroika referred to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system. -
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev came to power to be the president of the Soviet Union -
Reykjavik Summit
The Reykjavik Summit was a summit meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, held in Reykjavik, the capital city of Iceland, on October 11–12, 1986. The talks collapsed at the last minute, but the progress that had been achieved eventually resulted in the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty(INF) between the United States and the Soviet Union. -
INF Treaty
The INF treaty marks the end of Nuclear war drastically assymetrical reduction theatre nuclear weapons- destruction of 851 Soviet launchers and 1,836 missiles compared to 283 American launchers and 867 missiles.
Whereas the SALT treaties of 1973 and 1979 had imposed limits on the future deployment of strategic weapons, the INF Treaty decreed the total elimination of an entire class of nuclear weapons that were already operational. -
Gorbachev's speech at the UN
Gorbachev endorsed the principle of ‘freedom of choice and further announced a reduction in the Soviet military
presence in Eastern Europe
This signifies the end of the conventional arms race and was confirmed with the CFE Treaty in Nov 1990. Soviet Union will no longer militarily interfere with Eastern Europe -
Fall of Berlin Wall
On the evening of November 9, 1989, an announcement made by East German government official Günter Schabowski stated, "Permanent relocations can be done through all border checkpoints between the GDR (East Germany) into the FRG (West Germany) or West Berlin."
People began chipping at the Berlin Wall with hammers and chisels. There was an impromptu huge celebration along the Berlin Wall, with people hugging, kissing, singing, cheering, and crying. -
Secessionist tendencies
On the 11th of March 1990, Lithuania becomes independent. Following this, other baltic states like Latvia and Estonia tried to secede -
Reunification of West and East Germany
After the Berlin Wall came down, East and West Germany reunified into a single German state on October 3, 1990. -
Union Treaty
This treaty seek to give more autonomy to the Soviet republics.
Gorbachev hoped to prevent the secession of the republics and hence avert the collapse of the USSR -
August Coup 1991
The August coup occurs in response to a new union treaty to be signed on August 20.It was a coup d'état attempt by a group of members of the Soviet Union's government to take control of the country from Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. The coup leaders were hard-line members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) who were opposed to Gorbachev's reform program and the new union treaty that he had negotiated which decentralised much of the central government's power to the republics. -
Fall of USSR and the end of Cold War
On the 26th of December 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist