2013 Event In Kiev, Russia, anti-government protesters topple the last surviving monument of Vladimir Lenin; the monument fell in Bessarabska Square; it was was pounded with hammers and only some parts of the Soviet hero's legs remained 2012 Event Soyuz, a spacecraft originally designed for the Soviet space program, lands safely in Kazakhstan, with Oleg Kononenko of Russia, Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands, and Don Pettit of the United States, onboard 2010 Event In a BBC interview, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said it was 'impossible' for coalition forces to secure victory in Afghanistan 1997 Death Nikolai Tikhonov, politician, Soviet prime minister 1980-85, dies at 92 1993 Event Supreme Soviet dismisses president Boris Yeltsin 1993 Death Vladimir Pavlovich Barmin, Chief designer of Soviet launch pads, dies 1992 Death Viktor Grishin, hardline soviet communist, dies at 78, dies 1992 Event Soviet newspaper "Pravda" suspends publication 1991 Event Soviet Union formally dissolves 11 of 12 republics sign treaty forming Commonwealth of Independent States 1991 Event Armenia votes on whether to remain in Soviet Union 1991 Event Soviet Union recognizes Estonian independence 1991 Death Sergei Ajromeiev, soviet general, commits suicide 1991 Event Robert Strauss becomes U.S. ambassador to Soviet Union 1991 Event Soviet parliament approves law allowing citizens to travel abroad 1991 Event Georgian SSR votes on whether to remain in the Soviet Union 1991 Event Soviet Republic of Georgia endorsed independence, Warsaw Pact dissolves 1991 Event 9 of 15 Soviet reps officially approve new union treaty 1990 Event Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze resigns 1990 Event Iraq announces it will release all 3,300 Soviet hostages 1990 Event Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev wins Nobel Peace Prize 1990 Event Supreme Soviet gives approval to switch to free market 1990 Event Soviet Union and Saudi Arabia restore diplomatic ties 1990 Event U.S. beats Soviet Union 17-0 in baseball at Goodwill Games 1990 Event Boris Yeltsin quits Soviet Communist Party 1990 Death Vasily V Kuznetsov, President of U.S.S.R. supreme soviet (1982-83, 85), dies 1990 Event Mikhail Gorbachev becomes president of the Soviet Congress 1989 Event Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze calls for total destruction of Soviet and U.S. chemical weapons 1989 Death Andrei Gromyko, Soviet diplomat, dies just short of his 80th birthday 1989 Event Mikhail Gorbachev elected Executive President in the Soviet Union 1989 Event Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping ended a 30-year rift when they formally met in Beijing 1989 Event Soviet President Gorbachev in Beijing for 1st Sino-Soviet summit in 30 yrs 1989 Event Soviet sub sinks in Norwegian Sea, with about a dozen deaths 1989 Event 1st Soviet hockey players are permitted to play for the NHL 1989 Event Soviet Union officially submits to jurisdiction of the World Court 1989 Event Soviet military occupation of Afghanistan ends 1989 Event Soviet Union promises to eliminate stockpiles of chemical weapons 1988 Event Former Soviet President Brezhnev's son-in-law sentenced to 12-yr (bribery) 1988 Event Soviet Red Army Team edges New York Islanders, 3-2 at Nassau Coliseum 1988 Event Gorbachev announces 10% unilateral Soviet troop reductions at UN 1988 Event 5 gunmen who hijacked Soviet Aeroflot jet, surrender in Israel 1988 Event U.S. and Soviet chess grand masters Donaldson and Akhmilovskaya wed 1988 Event Soviet space shuttle makes unmanned maiden flight (2 orbits) 1988 Event Soviet Union agrees to allow teaching of Hebrew 1988 Event U.S. - Soviet effort free 2 grey whales from frozen Arctic, Barrow, AK 1988 Event Mikhail Gorbachev becomes president of Soviet Union 1988 Event Crippled soviet Soyuz TM-5 lands safely with 2 cosmonauts aboard 1988 Event 200,000 demonstrate in Soviet Armenia for incorp of Nagorno-Karabak 1988 Event Soviet Union launches Phobos 1 to probe Martian moon (unsuccessful) 1987 Event President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev sign a treaty eliminating medium range nuclear missiles 1987 Event Soviet filmmakers arrive in Hollywood for an entertainment summit 1986 Event Soviet Yankee-class sub sinks off NC, 3 die 1986 Event U.S. releases soviet spy Gennadiy Zakharov 1986 Event New York City jury indicts Gennadly Zakharov (Soviet United Nations employee) of spying 1986 Event Soviet authorities arrested Nicholas Daniloff (U.S. News World Report) 1986 Event Soyuz T-15 carries 2 cosmonauts to Soviet space station Mir 1986 Event Soviet probe Vega 2 flies by Halley's Comet at 8,030 km 1985 Event President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for 1st time 1985 Event Mikhail Gorbachev replaces Konstantin Chernenko as Soviet leader 1984 Event General Sec Konstantin U Chernenko named President of Soviet Union 1984 Event Soviet sub crashes into USS aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk off Japan 1984 Death Yuri Andropov, General Secretary of Soviet Communist Party 1982 - 1984, dies at 69 1983 Event Korean Boeing 747 strays into Siberia and is shot down by a Soviet jet 1983 Event Soviet leader Andropov decreases nuclear weapons in Europe 1983 Event France throws out 47 Soviet diplomats 1982 Death Leonid Ilich Brezhnev, Soviet 1st sect, dies of a heart attack at 77 1982 Death Mihail A Suslov, Soviet party ideologist, dies at 79 1980 Death Alexei N Kosygin, Soviet Prime Minister 1964 - 1980, suffers heart attack at 76 1980 Event Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai Tichonov succeeds Alexei Kosygin, due to illness 1980 Event Soviet sub catches fire off Japan, 9 die 1979 Event Soviet troops invade Afghanistan, President Hafizullah Amin overthrown 1979 Event British government identifies Sir Anthony Blunt as 4th man in Soviet spy ring 1979 Event Soviet Cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakov and Valery Ryumin returned to Earth aboard Soyuz 34 after a record 175 days in space 1979 Event Kosmos 1076, 1st Soviet oceanographic satellite, launched 1978 Event Alexander Ginzburg sentenced by Soviet court to 8 years 1978 Event Soyuz 30 spacecraft touches down in Soviet Kazakhstan 1977 Event Soviet space station Salyut 6 launched into Earth orbit 1977 Event Soviet figure skaters Sergei Shakrai and Marine Tcherkasova are 1st to perform a quadruple twist lift, Helsinki 1976 Event Soviet dissident Viktor Bukovskiexchanged for Chile CP-leader Corvalan 1976 Event President Ford says there is "no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe" 1975 Event Soviet spacecraft Venera 9 soft-lands on Venus 1975 Event Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov wins Nobel Peace Prize 1974 Event Soviet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defects to west 1973 Birthday Sergey Brin, born in Moscow, Soviet Union, computer scientist, Google co-founder, speaker, National Academy of Engineering inductee 1973 Event At Paris air show, Tupolev 144, a Soviet supersonic airliner, crashes 1972 Event Soviet Union signs a separate peace with East Germany 1971 Event Soviet Mars 3 is 1st to soft land on Mars 1971 Event Soviet Mars 2 becomes 1st spacecraft to crash land on Mars 1971 Event West German chancellor Willy Brandt meets with soviet President Brezhnev 1971 Event Nikita Krushchev, Soviet premier, buried in Moscow 1971 Death Nikita Krushchev, Soviet premier, buried in Moscow 1971 Event Soviet Soyuz 11 crew completes 1st transfer to orbiting Salyut 1971 Event Soviet Union's Concorde, TU-144, makes its 1st appearance 1970 Event Soviet Venera 7 is 1st spacecraft to land on another planet (Venus) 1970 Event Soviet author Alexander I Solzhenitsyn wins Nobel Prize for Literature 1970 Event Soviet Luna 16 lands on earth after 1st unmanned round trip to moon 1969 Event Author Alexander Solzhenitsyn expelled from Soviet Writers Union 1969 Event Soviet weather satellite Meteor 1 launched 1969 Birthday Alexander Mogilny, Khavarovsk, 1st soviet to defect to NHL, Sabres 1969 Event Soviet Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform 1st transfer of crew in space 1969 Death Jan Palach, protesting Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, self immolates at 20 1969 Event Soyuz 5 launched by Soviet Union 1969 Event "Soviet Sport" calls Emile Zatopek a public enemy 1968 Event Czechoslovakia and Russian "accord" rules allies Soviet forces 1968 Event Radio Prague, Czechoslovakia at 12:50 AM announces a soviet led invasion 1967 Event Soviet Venera 4 becomes 1st probe to send data back from Venus 1967 Birthday Sergei Grinkov, born in Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian ice skater, Olympic and World figure skating champion 1966 Event Kosmos 122, 1st Soviet weather satellite, launched 1966 Event Soviet government signs accord about building Fiat factory in U.S.S.R. 1966 Event Soviet Union's Luna 10 becomes 1st spacecraft to orbit Moon 1966 Event 1st soft landing on Moon (Soviet Luna 9) 1965 Event Venera 2 launched by Soviet Union toward Venus 1965 Event Launch of 1st Soviet communications satellite 1964 Event Kosygin and Brezhnev replace Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev 1964 Death Otto V Kuusinen, President of Karelo-Finnish soviet rep (1940-56), dies 82 1963 Birthday Garry Kasparov, born in Azerbaijan, Soviet Union, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist 1963 Event Soviet lunar probe failure 1963 Event Soviet Luna (4) reaches Earth orbit but fails to reach Moon 1962 Event Fidel Castro accepts removal of Soviet weapons 1962 Event John F. Kennedy warns Russia U.S. will not allow Soviet missiles to remain in Cuba 1962 Event Soviet economist Liberman plead for autonomous businesses 1962 Event Dmitri Shostakovich becomes member of Supreme Soviet of U.S.S.R. 1961 Event Soviet Union tests a 58 megaton hydrogen bomb 1961 Event Soviet Party Congress unanimously approves a resolution removing Stalin's body from Lenin's tomb in Red Square 1961 Event Soviet premier Khrushchev predicts U.S.S.R. economy will surpass U.S. 1961 Event Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defects to West in Paris 1961 Event 1st live television broadcast from Soviet Union 1961 Event Soviet Union fires a rocket from Sputnik V to Venus 1960 Event Soviet premier Khrushchev voices support for Indonesia 1959 Event Soviet Luna 3, 1st successful photographic spacecraft, impacts Moon 1959 Event Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev concludes his U.S. visit 1959 Event Soviet Premier Khrushchev arrives in U.S. to begin a 13-day visit 1959 Event Soviet Union's Luna-2 is 1st spacecraft to land on the Moon 1959 Event Soviet Union wins 62-37 for 1st international basketball loss by US 1958 Event Soviet novelist Boris Pasternak, wins Nobel Prize for Literature 1958 Event Soviet Marshal Bulganin resigns as director of State Bank 1958 Event Nikita Khrushchev becomes Soviet premier and 1st Secretary of Communist Party 1957 Event U.S. sentences Soviet spy Rudolf Ivanovich Abel to 30 years and $3,000 1957 Event 2nd Soviet Earth-satellite launched 1957 Event Soviet Union launches, Sputnik II, carrying a dog named Laika 1957 Event Soviet spy Jack Sobel sentenced to 7 years (New York City) 1957 Event Soviet 7 year plan (1959-1965) announced 1957 Event Soviet steamer "Eshghbad" sinks in Caspian Sea, drowning 270 1957 Event Andrei A Gromyko succeeds Dmitri Shepilov as Soviet foreign minister 1956 Event Hungary appeals for United Nations assistance against Soviet invasion 1956 Event Soviet troops invade Hungary, Imre Nagy becomes Prime Minister of Hungary 1956 Event Khrushchev denounces Stalin at 20th Soviet Party Conference 1955 Event Soviet battleship "Novorossiisk" strikes WW II mine in Baltic Sea 1955 Event Last Soviet forces leave Austria 1955 Event Construction begins on Soviet cosmodrome launch facilities 1955 Event Warsaw Pact is signed by the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania 1954 Birthday Robert Kocharian, born in Stepanakert, Azerbaijan SSR, Soviet Union, politician, President of Armenia 1998 - 2008, President of Nagorno-Karabakh from 1994 - 1997 1954 Event Soviet diplomat Vladimir Petrov asks for politics asylum in Canberra 1953 Death Lavrenti P Beria, soviet minister of internal security, executed 1953 Event Soviet Union conducts secret test of its 1st hydrogen bomb 1953 Death Josef V Stalin, soviet leader responsible for 11M murders, dies at 73 1952 Event Soviet Fighters shoot Swedish Catalina reconnaissance flight down 1952 Event Soviet fighters shoot Swedish Dakota down over East Sea, kills 8 1949 Event West begins Berlin Airlift to get supplies around Soviet blockade 1949 Event Andrei Vishinsky succeeds Molotov as Soviet Foreign minister 1948 Event U.S. expels Soviet Consul General in New York, Jacob Lomakin 1948 Event U.S. denounces Soviet blockade of Berlin 1948 Event Soviet Union begins Berlin Blockade 1948 Event Soviet Union recognized Israel 1948 Birthday Anatoly Shcharansky, Soviet human rights activist 1947 Event Soviet Union doesn't partake in Marshall Plan 1947 Event Province of Petsamo returned to Soviet Union by Finland 1946 Death Michail I Kalinin, President (Supreme Soviet), dies at 60 1946 Event Part of Petsamo province ceded by Soviet Union to Finland 1945 Event Soviet army reach Rostock 1945 Event U.S. and Soviet forces meet at Torgau, Germany on Elbe River 1945 Event Soviet troops enter Berlin 1945 Event "Wilhelm Gustloff" torpedoed off Danzig by Soviet sub-c 7,700 die 1945 Event Soviet forces reach Auschwitz concentration camp 1945 Event Warsaw freed by Soviet army 1945 Event Liberation of Warsaw by Soviet troops (end of Nazi occupation) 1944 Event Budapest surrounded by soviet army 1944 Event Soviet army invades Hungary 1944 Event Soviet troops invade Czechoslovakia during WW II 1944 Event Soviet troops invade Yugoslavia 1944 Event Soviet forces occupy Estonia 1944 Event Soviet troops enter Bucharest, Romania 1944 Event Soviet Army frees Majdanek concentration camp 1944 Event Soviet forces liberate concentration camp Majdanek 1944 Event Soviet Army marches into Lublin Poland 1944 Event Soviet Armys join in Bobroesjk 1944 Event Soviet forces conquer Wiborg 1944 Event Expulsion of more than 200,000 Tartars from Crimea by Soviet Union begins, they are accused of collaborating with the Germans 1944 Event Soviet forces liberate Odessa from Nazis 1944 Event Soviet Army marches into pro-German Romania 1944 Event Supreme Soviet enlarges soviet republics' autonomy 1944 Event Soviet army begins offensive at Oranienbaum/Wolchow 1943 Event Soviet forces reconquer Kiev 1943 Event Soviet forces under Tolbuchin stick Sivash-bay about 1943 Event Soviet forces reconquer Smolensk 1943 Event Soviet forces reach Dnjepr 1943 Event Soviet army under general Vatutin reconquer Romny 1943 Event Soviet troops free Karkov 1943 Event Soviet forces reconquer Orel and Bjelgorod 1943 Event Soviet Union breaks contact with Polish government exiled in London 1943 Event Soviet troops liberate Wjasma 1943 Event Soviet forces reconquer Worosjilowsk 1943 Event Soviet forces reconquer Gumrak airport near Stalingrad 1942 Event Soviet army offensive, 1 million Russians breach German lines 1942 Event Nazi's murder 16,000 Jewish in Pinsk, Soviet Union 1942 Event Netherland's government in exile, London, recognizes Soviet Union 1941 Event USA lends Soviet Union $1 million 1941 Event Nazi mass murder at Babi Jar, Soviet Union 1941 Event Finland declares war on Soviet Union 1941 Event Estonians starts armed resistance against Soviet occupation 1941 Event Germany attacks the Soviet Union and occupies the Baltic states 1941 Event Germany, Italy and Romania declares war on Soviet Union during WW II 1940 Event Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia incorporated into Soviet Union 1940 Event Estonia is annexed into Soviet empire 1940 Event Soviet Union annexes Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania 1940 Event Romania cedes Bessarabia to Soviet Union 1940 Event Soviet Army attacks Romania 1940 Event Soviet Army occupies Lithuania 1940 Event Karelo-Finnish SSR becomes 12th Soviet republic (until 1956) 1940 Event Soviet armies conquer Tuppura Island Finland 1939 Event Soviet Union attacks Finland-League of Nations drops Soviet Union 1939 Event Soviet government revokes Russian-Finnish non-attack treaty 1939 Event 4 soviet soldiers killed on Finnish-Russian border 1939 Event Estonia accepts Soviet military bases 1939 Event Soviet Union invades Poland during WW II 1939 Event Molotov-Ribbentrop-pact (Soviet Union neutral/Poland divided) 1938 Event Trials of Soviet leaders begins in the Soviet Union 1938 Event Soviet arctic ice research station North Pole 1 evacuated, Denmark 1938 Birthday Anatoly Marchenko, Siberia, Soviet dissident 1938 Event Supreme Soviet elects Michail Kalinin as presidium chairman 1936 Event Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Georgian SSR, Kazakh SSR and Kirghiz SSR becomes constituent republics of Soviet Union 1936 Event French writer Andre Gide criticizes Soviet regime 1935 Event Belgium recognizes Soviet Union 1933 Event 1st Soviet liquid fuel rocket attains altitude of 261' (80m) 1933 Birthday Arif Melikov, born in Baku, Azerbaijan, name also Arif Malikov, Soviet composer, nationally acclaimed for composition Legend of Love whose ballet is among the finest works to emerge from the Soviet Union 1933 Event Soviet Union test GIRD-R1 rocket ("Object 09") 1932 Event France signs non-agression pact with Soviet Union 1932 Event British government signs trade agreement with Soviet Union 1932 Birthday William Odom, American, NASA director, Soviet Union expert, U.S. Army lieutenant general, advised Carter, Reagan 1931 Birthday Mikhail Gorbachev, born in Privolnoye, U.S.S.R., Soviet Secretary General from 1985 - 1991 1928 Event Soviet Union Spartacan Games begins 1928 Birthday Eduard Shevardnadze, Soviet Georgia, foreign minister of U.S.S.R., -91 1928 Event Soviet Union orders exile of Leon Trotsky 1927 Event Trotsky expelled from Soviet CP; Stalin becomes undisputed dictator 1927 Death Voikov, Soviet ambassador to Warsaw, murdered 1925 Event Uzbekistan and Kirgizistan become autonomous Soviet republics 1924 Event Soviet Union formally recognized by Britain 1923 Event Union of Soviet Socialist Republics form 1923 Birthday Yelena Bonner, Moscow, soviet disident/wife of Andre Sakharov 1923 Event Soviet Aeroflot airlines forms 1923 Event Union of Socialist Soviet Republics established 1922 Event Soviet Union organized as a federation of RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Belorussian SSR and Transcaucasian SSR 1922 Event 14 republics form Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (U.S.S.R.) 1922 Event German-Russia treaty signed in Italy, Soviet Union recognized 1921 Event Soviet troops invade Georgia 1920 Event Part of Petsamo province ceded by Soviet Union to Finland 1919 Event Admiral Horthy conquerors Budapest from Bela Kuns Soviet Republic 1919 Death Eugen Levine, head of 2nd Bavarian soviet republic, assassinated 1919 Event Polish Army captures Vilno, Lithuania from Soviet Army 1919 Event City of Bremen's Soviet Republic overthrown 1918 Event Lenin, new leader of Soviet Russia, shot and wounded after speech 1918 Event Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic forms 1917 Event Soviet regiment (Stalin/Lenin) declares Finland Independent 1917 Event New soviet government suspends freedom of press (temporary) 1917 Event Petrograd Soviet accepts establishment of Military 1917 Event Soviet accept establishment of Petrograd Military 1917 Event Trotski named chairman of Petrograd Soviet 1912 Event Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing (4/22 OS) 1912 Birthday Kim Philby, British spy/Soviet mole 1908 Birthday Harrison E Salisbury, journalist/author, 50th Anniv of Soviet Union 1905 Event 1st Soviet (workers' council) formed, St. Petersburg, Russia 1905 Birthday Nikolai Tikhonov, Soviet PM, 1980-85 1904 Birthday Aleksei N Kosygin, Soviet premier, 1964-80 1899 Birthday Lavrenti Beria, chief of Soviet secret police under Stalin 1896 Birthday Dziga Vertiv, Denis A Kaufman, Russian director, Sjagai, Soviet! 1895 Birthday Anastas I Mikoyan, Armenia, member of Supreme Soviet 1893 Birthday Vladimir Mayakovsky, Soviet Georgia, poet, Ode to Revolution 1893 Birthday Vladimir Mayakovsky, Soviet Georgia, poet, Ode to Revolution 1893 Birthday Vsevolod Pudovkin, Soviet film director/theorist, Mother, Deserter 1892 Birthday Edward H Carr, born in England, historian, History of Soviet Russia 1890 Birthday Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, Soviet foreign minister, UN 1886 Birthday Bela Kun, Czehul Romania, head of Hungarian Soviet Republic, 1919 1879 Birthday Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary, President of 1st Soviet,
