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Gorbachev becomes leaer
Gorbachev becomes communist party general secretary. -
enter yeltsin
gorbachev appoints boris yeltsin as head of the mascrow communist party. -
perestrolka starts in earnest
gorbachev goes before the communists central committe and proposes deep political and economic reforms. -
perestroika hits problem
communist newspapaer sovetakaya rossiya publishes a clarion call for communist to resist gorbachev's reforms. -
yelstin elected to palirament
elections are held for the new parliament set up as part of gorbachev's reforms.it is called the congress of people's deputies.boris yeltsin wins a massive vote in a mascow constituency. -
soviet bloc crumbles
gorbachev announces that countries in the warsaw pact are free to decide on thier own featuers. lech walesa's solidarity movement has already trounced the communists in poland in june elcections.walesa takes offic in august. -
the berlin wall
the single most potent symbol of the cold war is torn down in an incredible display of people power. -
protesters killed by soviet troops
in mid-january soviet troops move in to brake up demonstrations in Azerbaijan's capital ,baku . at least 100 people die -
yeltsin leaves communists
yelstin publicly resign from the communist party -
ussr disbands
the soviet union is enterning its final days.
The Baltic states - the first to have sown the seeds of independence - have been the first to reap the harvest. Moscow officially recognised their status as sovereign states on 6 September 1991. Other republics have already begun moves to break away, or start them now. Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia and Moldova are among the first in the queue. -
yeltsin is russian president
russian's are still firmly bound within the soviet union ,are neverthless allowed to vote for their own president for the first time .they chose boris yeltsin -
gorbachev returns
gorbachev makes a dramaticreturn to Moscow from his detention in the Crimea. The coup has collapsed on 21 August, under the sheer weight of public opposition - and because of the armed forces' reluctance to support the plotters. The hardliners would have had to kill many protesters to storm the White House and detain Yeltsin. Even the weather has gone against them - heavy rain makes it virtually impossible to storm the building from the air. -
coup begins
early in the morning of 19 aug , the ploters make their move . some of gorbachev's clostest and most senior colleagues are among them ,aliong with military cheifs and the head of the KGB.
