History
102: Basic Time Line of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the
USSR:
|
1975 |
August:
Helsinki Accords |
|
1976 |
Poland
price hikes lead to workers’ strikes and formation of KOR (Workers’ Defense
Committee) |
|
1977 |
Charter
77 formed under Vaclav Havel’s leadership |
|
1980 |
May:
Josip Broz TITO, President of the Socialist Federated Republic of Yugoslavia,
dies August:
Solidarity trade union formed in Gdansk, Poland |
|
1981 |
September:
Solidarity’s first national congress (over 10 million members) December:
Martial Law imposed |
|
1985 |
March:
Mikhail Gorbachev chosen as CPSU general secretary |
|
1986 |
April:
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station accident |
|
1987 |
January:
At CPSU plenum, Gorbachev pushes glasnost (openness) and perestroika
(restructuring) |
|
1988 |
February:
Polish government again raises prices May:
Workers’ strikes October:
Solidarity and Polish government begin discussion of Round Table December:
Gorbachev promises at UN to withdraw Soviet troops from Eastern Europe |
|
1989 |
February:
Hungarian Communists renounce “leading role” and propose multi-party
political system April:
Round Table concludes, Solidarity legalized again May:
Baltic Republics (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) declare themselves to be
sovereign June:
Solidarity claims victory in Polish parliamentary elections; Tiananmen Square
massacre July:
Gorbachev announces that each country can take its own path to socialism August:
First GDR refugees leave Soviet bloc via Hungary September:
Solidarity-led government takes power in Poland October:
Gorbachev visits GDR, encourages reform and independence; Hungarian Socialist
Workers’ Party disbands November:
Berlin Wall opened; Czechoslovakian Communist government resigns: “Velvet
Revolution” December:
Vaclav Havel chosen president of Czechoslovakia; Romanians overthrow
Ceaucescu communist regime and execute Ceaucescu |
|
1990 |
March:
Lithuania declares independence from USSR and German CDU wins election; SED
gets 16 percent of vote July:
Ukraine declares sovereignty; CPSU declares end to its monopoly on political
power October:
Unification of Germany; Gorbachev awarded Nobel Peace Prize December:
Lech Walesa elected President of Poland |
|
1991 |
June:
Croatia and Slovenia declare independence from Yugoslavia; Yugoslav Wars
begin July:
Soviet Republics negotiate new union treaty; Ukraine’s Supreme Soviet
declares independence; Warsaw Pact dissolved August:
Hard-line communists orchestrate coup in Moscow; defeated, but spells end of
USSR December:
Ukraine votes overwhelmingly for independence; USSR ceases to exist |
|
1992 |
April:
Bosnia declares independence; Bosnian war begins, goes until 1996: about
102,000 deaths |