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Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Leader
Even though Gorbachev does not know it, but the events he has set in motion will eventually bing the collapse of an entire empire, and remove the "Iron Curtain" which has divided Europe since World War II. -
Period: to
USSR Disintegration
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Perestroika Begins
Gorbachev proposes deep political and enconomic reforms, which include bringing democracy to some areas, and beginning Perestroika in earnest. -
Perestroika hits problems
Perestroika is resisted by bureacrats trying to block Gorbachev's economic reforms. Hardline communists newspaper, Sovetskaya Rossiya, publishes a clarion call for communists to resist Gorbachev's reforms. -
Boris Yeltsin
Gorbachev appoints a little-known provincial party boss as head of the Moscow Communist Party named Brois Yeltsin. Yeltsin believes in change-he ends up sacking officials and taking away privileges which are crucial to the party. -
Yeltsin is elected to Parliament
Elections are held for the new parliament set up as part of Gorbachev's reforms, and Yeltsin wins a massive vote putting him back in national politics. A fortnight after the elctions, a demonstration is broken up by the Soviet troops, they were ordered not to use live fire so instead they used poisonous gas and sharpened shovels and killed ninteen people, who were mostly woman. -
Soviet bloc crumbles
Gorbachev announces that countries in the Warsaw Pact are free to decide their own futures. Walesa takes office in August. -
Berlin Wall comes down
The berline wall- The most powerful symbol of the Cold War is torn down in an display of "People power". As freedom is extended across the Soviet bloc, Gorbachev becomes more unpopular at home. Shortages Worsen and living standards are falling. Dissatisfaction with perestroika starts to take hold. -
Protestors killed by Soviet troops
Soviet troops move in to break up demonstrations in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku. About 100 people die. -
Yeltsin leaves communists
Boris Yeltsin resigns from the communist party. At home gorbachev has nightmare economic decisions as more of the gloss starts to come off perestroika. Deserted by most radical ministers Gorbachev shifts significantly towards hardline policies. -
Coup Begins
Gorbachev is on the eve of signing a deal with the republics giving them greater freedom. Gorbachev is on holiday in the Crimea. The day before the coup, the plotters ask him to declare a state of emergency. When he refuses he is placed under house arrest, and remains cut off from the outside world until the coup collapses. -
Gorbachev returns
Gorbachev makes a dramatic return to Moscow from his detention in the Crimea. The coup has collapsed under the wight of public opposition. The next day Gorbachev resigns as Soviet communist party general secretary and desolves the central committee.
