Central Europe, January 1980 - December 1988
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04.03.1980 YU 04.03.80 Josip Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia, dies.
1980 DDR 80 DDR leadership doubles the obligatory exchange for visitors from the FRG to 25 DM. Visitor numbers fall and stagnate until 1983 around 2.9 million.
03.1980 PL Striking shipworkers on Poland's Baltic coast elect electrician Lech Wałęsa as their leader. Their demands include the recognition of independent trade unions.
summer  
1980		 PL The independent trade union Solidarity calls for strikes. The centre of the work disputes is the Gdansk Lenin Shipyard.
06.08.1980 PL Polish Party leader Gierek resigns due to illness.
17.08.1980 PL Representatives of Solidarity meet government representatives in Gdánsk. The union's statute is approved.
18.09.1980 PL Solidarity trade union movement formed in Poland.
09.02.1981 PL General Jaruzelski takes over in Poland.
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13.02.1981		 DDR Chancellor Schmidt travels to the DDR for talks with Chairman of the Council of State, Erich Honecker.
11.03.1981 YU Students marching to protest about the standard of living conditions in university hostels in Priątina and other grievances are broken up and arrested.
23.08.1981 YU Protesters in Priątina at the Tito anniversary march are quelled by the army and police. Official statistics cite 12 dead and 150 wounded.
02.04.1981 YU Demonstrations throughout Kosovo demand republican status within the Federation.
03.04.1981 YU Martial law is imposed on Kosovo. Army tanks and APCs move in.
13.12.1981 PL Martial law declared in Poland following a summer of strikes. General Wojciech Jaruzelski becomes Party leader.
10.03.1982 YU Telephone and road connections out of Priątina to the rest of Kosovo are cut.
11.03.1982 YU 1 000 mark the anniversary of the protest in Priština last year.
28.04.1982 PL Martial law is lifted in Poland.
1983 DDR Open demonstration in DDR. Border controls for visitors from the West are slackened.
04.01.1983 WTO Warsaw Pact proposes a non-aggression treaty.
05.10.1983 PL Wałęsa wins Nobel Peace Prize.
1984 DDR DDR removes the automatically triggered weaponry along the border, a condition on a DM1bn loan from the FRG. Minefields are progressively removed by November 1985.
24.01.1986 DDR Honecker tells die Zeit that "It is a fortunate thing for mankind that there are two German states."
09.02.1986 DDR The right to travel is extended to urgent family circumstances.

19.02-
22.02.1986

DDR President of the Volkskammer, Sindermann, visits the BRD at the invitation of the SPD parliamentary party.
27.02.1986 DDR Honecker and Gorbachev meet in Moscow on the occasion of the XXVII Congress of the CPSU.
25.03.1986 DDR The Weimar Peace Movement pubishes a "Declaration on the Year of Peace"
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21.04.1976 		DDR XI Party Congress of the SED. Gorbachev's speech includes a challenge to indulge in self-criticism a an "essential requirement for the success of a revolutionary party."
06.05.1986 DDR DDR and BRD conclude a Cultural Treaty between the Germanies.
09.05.1986 DDR Members of the 'independent peace movement' demand "constructive dialogue" from Honecker.
01.09.1986 DDR Volkskammer president Sindemann meets MRD Green Party MPs.
02.09.1986 DDR The Berlin Environment Library is opened.
15.09.1986 DDR A Greenpeace protest in East Berlin is broken up by security forces.
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26.10.1986 		DDR Honecker visits China. Treaties on economic and scientific-technical co-operation are signed.
21.10.1986 DDR SED and SPD publish a 'joint basis for a nuclear weapons-free corridor in Central Europe."
31.12.1986 DDR During 1986, 26 178 citizens leave as refugees or emigrants for the BRD.
23.03.1987 YU Yugoslav newspapers publish front paper warnings from Prime Minister Branko Mikulić and Deputy Defence Minister General Milan Deljavić, that troops will be mobilised if widespread unrest threatens the ruling Communist Party. Deljavić warns the army cannot ignore political developments.
13.05.1987 DDR Rumours circulate about Soviet offers with regard to German unification and cutbacks in armed forces in the DDR.
12.06.1987 CS Prague's Supreme Court frees Frantiąek Adamik, overruling a two-year jail sentence imposed by a provincial court. The Catholic activist's sentence is reduced to 14 months, suspended for 3 years.
  DDR In West Berlin, Reagan demands: "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
13.06.1987 YU  Yugoslavia raises petrol prices by 24%, the second rise this month. Cigarettes go up by 20%. Tanjug says the rises are caused by higher taxes levied to finance a trans-Yugoslavia motorway.
30.06.1987 DDR "Law on state enterprises" is rubber stamped by parliament.

05.09.1987

 DDR For the first time, an unofficial demonstration by independent peace groups is tolerated in East Berlin.
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11.09.87		 DDR Kohl welcomes General Secretary Honecker to the Federal Republic of Germany.
17.09.1987 H Hungarian Democratic forum group leaders meet in Lakitelek with Party reformers, led by Imre Pozsgay.
13.10.1987 DDR At a meeting of CMEA countries the DDR rejects the proposed economic reforms.
14.11.1987 DDR The Environment Library is searched by the MfS. Sympathy protests in other German cities lead to further arrests.
17.12.1987 CS Gustav Husak resigns as Czechoslovak Communist Party leader and is replaced by Miloš Jakeš.
31.12.1987 DDR 16 958 individuals flee the DDR this year.
17.01.1988 DDR Over 100 people are arrested carrying their own banners at the Luxemburg-Liebknecht demonstration. Bäerbel Böhley, founder of Neues Forum, helps find legal aid for those arrested. She is later arrested and charged with "treasonable relationships." 
29.01.1988 BG Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Zhivkov pulls into line behind Gorbachev on his plan for the renewal of Socialism.
02.1988 RO Ceauçescu announces he wants to convert 7 000 villages to arable farming land, more than half the country's total.
13.02.1988 DDR At a memorial ceremony to the destruction of the war, 300 demonstrate for the freedom to travel.
19.02.1988 AL Albania signs a cultural agreement with Yugoslavia.
03.1988 RO Ceauçescu announces his "systemisation" plan, to halve the country's 13 000 villages by the end of the century.
25.03.1988 CS A demonstration takes place in Bratislava for religious freedom.
02.05.1988 PL Poland hit by widespread strikes.
22.05.1988 H Janos Kádár is replaced as Hungarian Communist Party first secretary by Karoly Grosz.
07.1988 YU Serbs demonstrate in support of demands for a unified republic and the scrapping of the autonomous republics of Vojvodina and Kosovo. 
PL Polish government spokesman Jerzy Urban: "The Solidarity movement .. belongs to the past for good."
16.08.1988 PL Widespread political strikes in Poland.
31.08.1988 PL Eighth anniversary of the 1980 Gdańsk agreement legalising Solidarity. General Czesław Kiszczak has a much publicised and demonstrative meeting with Lech Wałęsa.
15.09.1988 AL Albania signs a cultural agreement with the FRG.
24.09.1988 YU Nationalists demonstrate in Serbia.
25.09.1988 CS Official trade unions in Czechoslovakia add their voices to calls for democratic change.
30.09.1988 H Hungary announces an amnesty for political prisoners.
12.10.1988 DDR Honecker inspect the 3 millionth flat to be built in the DDR. In fact, there were less that 2 million built
27.10.1988 DDR Gorbachev relegates German unification to the processes of history.
13.11.1988 CS Authorities in Czechoslovakia allow Dubček to travel to Bologna to receive an honorary doctorate.
19.11.1988 DDR Authorities in the DDR ban the Soviet magazine 'Sputnik'.
  YU 1 000 000 demonstrate in Belgrade at Milošević's behest for independence from Yugoslavia.
24.11.1988 H The reformist Nemeth is named prime minister in Hungary. 
27.11.1998 AL 
H		 Albania takes up diplomatic relations with Hungary.
28.11.1988 AL Pravda speaks out for the normalisation of relations with Albania.
30.11.1988 PL Wałęsa gives his first ever interview to national TV.
12.1988 WTO Gorbachev declares to the UN that the Warsaw Pact will restructure to become strictly defensive.
01.12.1988 DDR Addressing the Central Committe, Honecker declares: "The people of the DDR has achieved a standard of living as never before in its history. In principle it is higher than in the FRG." He again rejects the new Soviet concept for society with the argument that "there is no valid model for all socialist countries."
30.12.1988 RO Ceauçescu rules out any political reforms. 
  YU  The Yugoslav federal government resigns.
31.12.1988 DDR During 1989 39 845 citizens leave as refugees or emigrants.
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