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| Soviet
Economic Reform - Events |
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| 12.11.1982 | Yuri Andropov becomes new leader in the Kremlin. |
| 02.02.1983 | US-Soviet strategic arms talks begin. |
| 13.02.1984 | Chernenko takes over at Kremlin. |
| 11.03.1985 | Gorbachev elected CPSU leader. |
| 02.1986 | Gorbachev announces Glasnost and Perestroika (In frame of Marxism-Leninism) to Congress of the CPSU. It is not pluralism. |
| 27.01.1987 | Gorbachev calls for glasnost. |
| 29.06.1987 | Parliament in session. Soviet PM Ryzhkov denounces "obsolete" Russian management methods, promising that inefficient factories will be closed down next year. "If efforts to improve [loss-making factories'] work turn out to be futile in the new conditions, [they] will have to be eliminated" through bankruptcy. Gorbachev insists unemployment will not be allowed. Ryzhkov hints at reforms gradually freeing prices of some goods. Gosplan and Gosssnab (state planning and supply committees) will also be drastically reorganised. |
| Autumn 1998 | People's Front - reformist Communists and National language groups in the Baltic. |
| 28.02.1988 | Mass rioting hits Azerbaijan |
| 23.03.1988 | Kremlin cracks down on unrest in Armenia. |
| 03.06.1988 | 500 Representatives of the intelligentsia found the Lithuanian Reform Movement "Sajudis", advocating "openness, democracy and sovereignty." |
| 01.12.1988 | Constitutional reform in the Soviet Union. |
| 15.03.1989 | Private agricultural holdings are allowed on leased land. |
| 26.03.1989 | First multi-candidate elections in the SU. Nationalists win local elections in Baltic. First round of voting to the USSR Congress of People's Deputies. Victory for Yeltsin with 87% of Moscow vote. |
| 05.1989 | Unrest in many republics of the Union. |
| 18.05.1989 | Parliaments in Lithuania and Estonia declare their economic independence from the Soviet Union. Governments vote themselves full control of their budgets and all industry on their territory. Lithuania follows Estonia's November decision with a declaration of "Lithuanian State Sovereignty." It also adopts a law establishing Lithuanian citizenship. |
| 13.07.1989 | Ukrainian coal miners strike. |
| 27.07.1989 | Moscow grants economic independence to the Baltic states. |
| 09.10.1989 | Gorbachev makes a sweeping attack on conservatives in the CPSU, warning also against the "excessive" demands of leftist radicals. |
| 22.09.1989 | The Supreme Soviet adopts a law on economic autonomy. |
| 27.11.1989 | USSR Supreme Soviet ratifies the Law on the Economic Sovereignty of the Baltic States. |
| 07.12.1989 | Article 6 of the Constitution of the USSR, guaranteeing the leading role of the Communist Party, is abolished. |
| 18.12.1989 | EC and USSR sign a trade and cooperation agreement. |
| 17.04.1990 | Moscow imposes an economic blockade on Lithuania. |
| 24.09.1990 | Abalkin and Shatalin plans are both rejected by the Supreme Soviet. Gorbachev calls on Aganbegyan to work out a compromise proposal. |
| 12.06.1990 | Russia's parliament declare its sovereignty within the Soviet Union. |
| 13.06.1990 | Yeltsin walks out from Congress of CPSU. Followed by reformists who establish own political movement outside party apparatus. |
| 30.06.1990 | Lithuanian Supreme Council agrees to suspend the effects of the declaration of independence for 100 days. The economic blockade is ended. Oil supplies from Russia are resumed. |
| 09.1990 | "This legal nit-picking is not serious." Gorbachev on Supremes Soviet's objections on constitutional grounds to granting him wider powers. MSG is granted special emergency powers to deal with the economy, budget, property relationships and law and order. Supreme Soviet votes for a combination of Shatalin's radical and PM Ryzhkov's cautious proposals, following a cue by Gorbachev. |
| 17.10.1990 | Supreme Soviet adopts the reform programme "Basic Directions for the Stabilisation of the Economy and Transition to a Market Economy), to be implemented mostly by presidential decree. |
| 01.11.1990 | Gorbachev's decree introducing a commercial exchange rate for the Rouble comes into effect, with an initial parity of 1.8 Rbl/US$. |
| 12.1990 | Fyodorov resigns from post of Finance Minister, accusing Yeltsin of not being serious about market reform. |
| 07.01.1991 | Parliament in Lithuania repeals a programme of price increases. Prunskeine resigns amidst criticism of her economic programme. |
| 17.03.1991 | Soviet referendum on the Union. 95.5% vote in favour of preserving the Union. |
| 16.05.1991 | Gorbachev issues a decree banning strikes. |
| 17.05.1991 | An evening bomb blast rips through the
headquarters of Democratic Russia, the main opposition group, destroying
most of the one storey building. No-one is injured, although a meeting should
have taken place there at the time. A few hours earlier a huge pile of petitions
in support of his presidential candidacy were moved from the building. "This
was an attempt not just to frighten Yeltsin and Popov, but the whole country."
Vladimir Bokser, leading DemRossiya official: "This was the worst act of
terrorism in the city for many decades." Russia's independent trade union movement, claiming 60m members, rejects Gorbachev's decree banning strikes. Ryzhkov receives the support of his successor Pavlov and the Russian CP for his candidature. Each candidate must gain the approval of 20% of Deputies. |
| 21.05.1991 | Opening the Russian Congress of People's Deputies, Yeltsin says the new generation of politicians will try to follow Sakharov's example. Yelena Bonner launches a blistering attack on the Communist establishemnt at a commemoration service for Sakharov's 70th birthday, attended by Gorbachev. She criticises the recent Kremlin pact with 9 larger republics on a carve-up as trampling on the smaller republics. "Until the party freely gives up all its wealth to the people who really earned it - everything down to the last rouble - Stalinism will still triumph." She reminds the audience Gorbachev himself rang Gorky in 1986 to tell them of their release. She warns pseudo-democrats: "Don't call yourselves friends of Sakharov those of you who latched on to him after Gorbachev phoned him." "Democracy is a long way off." |
| 22.05.1991 | Gorbachev warns the West that Soviet integration
into the world free market economy is essential for international stability.
Radical reform for the economy and encouragement for investors are imminent;
meddling will not be tolerated. Yavlinsky is drawing up an aid plan in the
US with Gorbachev's blessing but no official stamp. "I am convinced that
the peoples of these countries need perestroika as much as we do, particularly
when the Soviet Union is a pillar of stability in today's world. If that
pillar goes, we should calculate all the possible consequences .. If we
can find $100 billion to resolve the crisis and to ensure the survival of
perestroika, it's worth it." Gorbachev says he will not support any candidate, but indirectly praises Yeltsin for his cooperation on the Union Treaty. Deputies laugh when General Albert Makashov, a fringe candidate, says only patriotism could keep evil speculators and foreign capital at bay. |
| 27.06.1991 | Leading moderates from the CPSU and oppositional groupings hold talks on the establishment of a liberal party, including Shevardardnadze, Yakovlev, Bakatim, Popov and Sobchak. |
| 08.10.1991 | Draft Treaty on Economic Union :Last Union treaty was from before the Putsch and is therefore Bolshevik. New Economic Union must be independent of any political union. |
| 02.11.1991 | Yeltsin's new constitution for the Russian Federation suggest former ASSR's corresponding to Länder in the German model. Yeltsin previously: "Russia is a single, indivisible state." Presidential republic, ASSR laws must not contradict Federal Law. |
| 29.11.1991 | Soviet Central bank halts payments to the Union government, saying it has run out of money. |
| 30.11.1991 | Russian Federation agrees to bail the Soviet Government out of the financial crisis. |
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