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The Politburo unanimously supported Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary of the Communist Party.
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Singing Revolution: The Popular Front of Estonia was founded.
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Soviet war in Afghanistan: The Soviet government signed the Geneva Accords, which included a timetable for withdrawing their armed forces.
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A strike at the V.I. Lenin Steel Mill in Nowa Huta touched off months of striking across Poland.
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Singing Revolution: The liberalization movement Sąjūdis was founded in Lithuania.
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Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet troops left the country.
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The Polish Round Table Agreement legalized independent trade unions and reinstated the Senate.
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Free elections were held to the Polish parliament, resulting in a landslide Solidarity victory
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Singing Revolution: Two million people joined hands to form the Baltic Way across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to demonstrate for independence.
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The Hungarian parliament declared their country a republic.
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The East German government loosened restrictions on travel into the West, effecting the end of the Berlin Wall.
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El Salvador Civil War: The FMLN launched an offensive that would capture part of San Salvador.
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Velvet Revolution: The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced the end of its monopoly on political power.
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Romanian Revolution of 1989: Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu was captured in the countryside and executed.
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The Bulgarian Communist Party repealed its constitutional supremacy.
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Singing Revolution: The Lithuanian government declared its independence from the Soviet Union.
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Singing Revolution: Elections to the Latvian Supreme Soviet gave the majority of seats to a pro-independence coalition, led by the Popular Front of Latvia.
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Velvet Revolution: Elections in Czechoslovakia reduced the Communist Party to a minority.
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The First Congress of People's Deputies of Russia issued the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
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January Events: Soviet troops violently seized important buildings in cities throughout Lithuania.
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The Moldavian SSR became the Republic of Moldova.
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Russian presidential election, 1991: Boris Yeltsin was elected to the presidency of the Russian SFSR.
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The Kyrgyz SSR became the Republic of Kyrgyzstan.
Declares independance after negotiations -
Soviet coup attempt of 1991: A group of high-ranking officials calling themselves the State Emergency Committee announced that Gennady Yanayev was to replace Gorbachev as President of the Soviet Union.
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The Ukrainian parliament adopted the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine.
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Militants belonging to the separatist AllNational Congress of the Chechen People stormed a session of the Supreme Soviet of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR. NCChP leader Dzhokhar Dudaev was appointed to the presidency.
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A national referendum confirmed the Dudaev presidency. Dudaev unilaterally declared the independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.
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The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine signed the Belavezha Accords, dissolving the Soviet Union.
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Russian constitutional crisis of 1993: Yeltsin announced the dissolution of the Russian legislature. The legislature, in turn, responded by impeaching Yeltsin and declaring Aleksandr Rutskoy the new President of the Russian Federation Russian constitutional crisis of 1993: The army occupied the parliament building and arrested a number of its leaders. Russian constitutional crisis of 1993: A new 5th Russian constitution was approved by referendum, vastly increasing the power of the presidency
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First Chechen War: The leader of the Russian-backed Provisional Council of the Chechen Republic announced his intention to overthrow the Dudaev government.
First Chechen War: Russian troops invaded Chechnya. -
Russian presidential election, 1996: Yeltsin narrowly defeated his Communist challenger, Gennady Zyuganov.
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First Chechen War: The Khasav-Yurt Accord was signed, signaling the end of the war.