The Rise and Fall of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
A Brief Timeline on the Creation and Dissolution of a Superpower That Existed Once
The Soviet Union was a socialist country from 1922 to 1991. It emerged as the successor to Bolshevik Russia. It was one of the two world’s superpowers from 1945 until its dissolution in 1991.
Let’s see the key events that happened since the creation and dissolution of this giant union of states.
April 1917 — Many fighters, including Lenin, return to Russia from Germany.
October 1917 — Lenin along with the workers and sailors, overthrow the Bolsheviks, then the caretaker government led by Alexander Kerensky. Also, he captured the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, and finally Moscow.
1918 — Russia cedes most of its territory to Germany under the Treaty of Brest — Lidovsk. Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan have declared independence from Russia.
1918–20 — Civil war breaks out against the Bolsheviks. It erupted into a war against red and white. The territories of Murmansk and Archangel in northern Russia were occupied by Britain, France, and the United States until 1919. Japan controlled the eastern part of Russia, Vladivostok, until 1922.
1918–21 — War Communist policies are introduced. The government-controlled the economy as a whole. The military confiscated the agricultural harvests of millions of farmers in the Don area for their own use and for the needs of the townspeople.
1920 — Russia fights Poland
1921 — Russia signs a peace treaty with Poland.
1921 — New economic policies are announced. The Russian economy turned slightly towards a market economy. The Russian economy began to stabilize a little.
1922 — Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Transcaucasia are annexed by the Soviet Union. In 1936, these areas were partitioned into Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
1922 — Germany recognizes the Soviet Union.
1924 — the Soviet Union adopts a Proletarian dictatorial constitution. After Lenin’s death, Joseph Stalin was appointed.
1928 — The Soviets begin to follow the first five-year plan, with priority lists of what to do and goals set by the government.
An integrated farming program called Collectivisation of agriculture was launched. Millions of wealthy peasants and their families were killed and their lands confiscated.
1936–38 — A coup against Stalin’s regime is identified, led by Leon Trotsky. Thousands of dissidents in the armed forces, the Communist Party, and the government were sentenced to death or long prison terms.
1933 — The USA recognizes the Soviet Union.
1934 — The Soviet Union joins the League of Nations.
August 1939 — the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany sign an agreement of nonaggression. World War II broke out as Germany invaded Poland.
September 1939 — Soviet troops enter Poland, which is divided between Germany and the Soviet Union.
1939–40 — Finland surrenders part of its territory to the Soviet Union, ending the Russian-Finnish war — now known as the Republic of Karelia.
1940 — Soviet troops occupy Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, annexing the Soviet Union; Romania ceded Pacifica and northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union. It led to the formation of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic. That is what is now known as the Republic of Moldova.
April 1941 —The Soviet Union and Japan sign an agreement not to invade.
June 1941 — Germany invades the Soviet Union. By the end of that year, it had occupied most of Belarus and Ukraine. And occupied many areas around Leningrad (present-day St. Petersburg). Although the Soviets defended Moscow with their strong counterattack until June 1942 German troops were stationed near Stalingrad (now Volgograd) and the Caucasus oil fields.
1943 — German troops fail to capture Stalingrad. World War II ended when Soviet troops launched a counter-offensive and captured Berlin in May 1945.
1945 — The Soviet Union and its allies reach an agreement on post-war Europe Europe during the Yalta and Potsdam summits.
August 1945 — Soviet Union declares war on Japan, eventually annexing the southern half of the Sakhalin and Kuril Islands.
1948–49 — Siege of Berlin: The Soviet Union fails to stop the distribution of supplies to the Soviet-controlled city of Berlin by Western forces.
1949 — The Soviet Union detonates its first nuclear device; Recognized by the Communist government in China.
1950 —The Soviet Union and China sign a 30-year alliance agreement.
1950–53 — The Korean War shows significant deterioration in relations between the Soviet Union and the West.
1953 March — Stalin dies, succeeding Georgie Malenkov as Prime Minister and Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.
1953 — The Soviet Union detonates its first hydrogen bomb.
1955 — George Malenko is replaced by Nikolai Bulgan as Soviet Prime Minister.
1955 — The Warsaw Pact is established.
1956 — Soviet troops help quell the uprising in Hungary.
February 1956 — Khrushchev delivers a secret speech at the 20th Communist Party Conference condemning Stalin’s dictatorship and individual human worship.
1957 — Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the Earth.
1958 — Khrushchev becomes Soviet prime minister, ousting Bulgan.
In the late 1950s — due to various differences of opinion — the relationship between the Soviet Union — China broke down.
1960 — A US spy plane, U -2, is shot down over Soviet territory.
1961 — Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to go into space.
1962 — A so-called ‘missile crisis’ erupts in Cuba over Soviet missiles.
1963 — The Soviet Union signs an agreement with the United States and Britain to ban atmospheric nuclear testing. A “hotline” connection was established between the United States and the Soviet Union.
1964 — Khrushchev is appointed the first secretary of the Communist Party by Leonid Brezhnev. Alexei Kozikin became Prime Minister.
1968 — Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia to stop liberalization; The “Brezhnev doctrine” gave the communist countries the right to interfere in the policies of other communist countries that threatened the international communist movement.
1969 — Soviet and Chinese forces clash.
1972 — The Soviet Union and the USA sign the SALT-1 Arms Control Agreement.
1974 —The Soviet Union agrees to relax its immigration policies in exchange for trade status with the United States’ Most Favored Nation.
1977 — Brezhnev is elected president under the new constitution.
1979 — The Soviet Union and the USA sign the SALT-2 agreement. Soviet troops occupied Afghanistan, and the Soviets officially ended negotiations to ease relations with the West.
1980 — Nikolai Dikonov is appointed Prime Minister of Kozulin; Kozikin passed away.
1982 — Brezhnev dies, replaced by KGB leader Yuri Andropov.
1984 — Konstantin Chernenko replaces Androbov after his death.
1985 — Chernenko dies, is replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary of the Communist Party; Andre Chromico became president. Gorbachev began his campaign against alcohol. He also advocated for transparency (Glasnost) and for policies of restructuring (perestroika) within the party.
1986 — Chernobyl nuclear power plant explodes, spreading radiation to Ukraine, Belarus, and beyond.
1987 — The Soviet Union and the USA agree to eliminate interim nuclear missiles. Boris Yeltsin was fired as leader of the Moscow party for criticizing the pace of reforms.
1988 — Gorbachev replaces Chromikov as president; He challenged the extreme nationalists in areas such as Kazakhstan, the Baltic Republics, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Special Convention of the Communist Party approved a way to allow the private sector.
1989 — Soviet-imposed communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe begins to collapse. The event started in Poland and continued to Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. Before that, there were several mass rallies. Following that, the Berlin Wall was demolished on November 9 in East Germany.
Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan. Nationalist riots were suppressed in Georgia; The Communist Party of Lithuania declared itself separate from the Soviet Communist Party and became an independent party. It was the first election in which the new people’s representatives openly contested for Congress or Parliament.
1990 — Soviet troops are sent to Azerbaijan to prevent an ethnic conflict between Armenians and Azeris; The Communist Party voted to end one-party rule. Gorbachev opposed the independence of the Baltic states and imposed sanctions on Lithuania. Boris Yeltsin was elected President of Russia.
August 1991 — Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov, Vice President Gennady Yanayev, heads of the Interior Ministry, and Gorbachev are placed under house arrest in Crimea by the KGB. All of them were later arrested. Boris Yeltsin banned the Soviet Communist Party in Russia. Yeltsin supported the independence of the Baltic states. Following Ukraine, many countries declared themselves independent.
September 1991 — Congress of People’s Representatives votes to dissolve the Soviet Union.
1991 December 08 — Leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus signed the Commonwealth of Independent States.
December 25, 1991 — Gorbachev resigns as Soviet president; The United States recognized the independence of the remaining Soviet republics.
December 26, 1991 — Russian government seizes Soviet offices.
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