Events in History Relating to USSR
May 7, 1895
In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention, the Popov lightning detector — a primitive radio receiver. In some parts of the former Soviet Union the anniversary of this day is celebrated as Radio Day.
April 22, 1912
Pravda, the "voice" of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, begins publication in Saint Petersburg.
October 25, 1917
Traditionally understood date of the October Revolution, involving the capture of the Winter Palace, Petrograd, Russia.
February 14, 1918
The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar (on 1 February according to the Julian calendar).
February 23, 1918
First victory of Red Army over the Kaiser's German troops near Narva and Pskov. In honor of this victory, the date is celebrated from 1923 onward as "Red Army Day"; it is renamed Defender of the Fatherland Day after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and is colloquially known as "Men's Day".
May 7, 1920
Treaty of Moscow: Soviet Russia recognizes the independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia only to invade the country six months later.
July 12, 1920
The Soviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty is signed. Soviet Russia recognized independent Lithuania.
March 18, 1921
The second Peace of Riga between Poland and Soviet Union.
April 3, 1922
Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
April 16, 1922
The Treaty of Rapallo, pursuant to which Germany and the Soviet Union re-establish diplomatic relations, is signed.
May 19, 1922
The Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union is established.
May 31, 1924
The Soviet Union signs an agreement with the Peking government, referring to Outer Mongolia as an "integral part of the Republic of China", whose "sovereignty" therein the Soviet Union promises to respect.
August 4, 1924
Diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Soviet Union are established.
August 28, 1924
Georgian opposition stages the August Uprising against the Soviet Union.
February 25, 1925
Diplomatic relations between Japan and the Soviet Union are established.
June 16, 1925
The most famous Young Pioneer camp of the USSR, Artek, is established.
July 25, 1925
Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) is established.
November 6, 1925
Secret agent Sidney Reilly is executed by the OGPU, the secret police of the Soviet Union.
April 24, 1926
The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next five years.
November 12, 1927
Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union.
July 20, 1929
Soviet troops attempt to cross the Amur River into Manchuria near Blagoveschensk as tensions mount between the Soviet Union and the Republic of China.
March 11, 1931
Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR, abbreviated as GTO, is introduced in the Soviet Union.
August 24, 1931
France and the Soviet Union sign a neutrality/no attack treaty.
July 28, 1933
Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Spain are established.
September 3, 1933
Yevgeniy Abalakov reaches the highest point of the Soviet Union – Communism Peak (7495 m).
December 1, 1934
In the Soviet Union, Politburo member Sergei Kirov is shot dead by Leonid Nikolayev at the Communist Party headquarters in Leningrad.
June 25, 1935
Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Colombia are established.
July 24, 1935
The world's first children's railway opens in Tbilisi, USSR.
December 28, 1935
Pravda publishes a letter by Pavel Postyshev, who revives New Year tree tradition in the Soviet Union.
November 25, 1936
In Berlin, Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, thus agreeing to consult on measures to take "to safeguard their common interests" in the case of an unprovoked attack by the Soviet Union against either nation. The pact is renewed on the same day five years later with additional signatories.
December 5, 1936
The Soviet Union adopts a new constitution and the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic is established as a full Union Republic of the USSR.
May 21, 1937
A Soviet station becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
June 11, 1937
Great Purge: The Soviet Union executes eight army leaders under Joseph Stalin.
August 23, 1939
Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, the Baltic states, Finland, Romania, and Poland are divided between the two nations.
September 17, 1939
The Soviet Union joins Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland during the Polish Defensive War of 1939.
September 28, 1939
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland after their invasion during World War II.
December 12, 1939
Winter War: Battle of Tolvajärvi – Finnish forces defeat those of the Soviet Union in their first major victory of the conflict.
December 14, 1939
Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for illegally invading Finland.
March 12, 1940
Winter War: Finland signs the Moscow Peace Treaty with the Soviet Union, ceding almost all of Finnish Karelia. Finnish troops and the remaining population are immediately evacuated.
June 1, 1940
The Leninist Communist Youth League of the Karelo-Finnish SSR holds its first congress.
June 14, 1940
The Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Lithuania resulting in Lithuanian loss of independence
June 17, 1940
The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fall under the occupation of the Soviet Union.
June 26, 1940
under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Romania requiring it to cede Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina.
June 28, 1940
Romania cedes Bessarabia (current-day Moldova) to the Soviet Union.
April 13, 1941
Pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed.
June 22, 1941
Germany invades the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. Russian The 22 June song is devoted to this day.
June 23, 1941
The Lithuanian Activist Front declares independence from the Soviet Union and forms the Provisional Government of Lithuania; it lasts only briefly as the Nazis occupy Lithuania a few weeks later.
July 20, 1941
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin consolidates the Commissariats of Home Affairs and National Security to form the NKVD and names Lavrenti Beria its chief.
September 8, 1941
Siege of Leningrad begins. German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad.
September 16, 1941
concerned that Reza Pahlavi the Shah of Persia was to align his petroleum-rich country with Germany during World War II, the United Kingdom and the USSR invade Iran in late August and force him to resign in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
October 8, 1941
In their invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany reaches the Sea of Azov with the capture of Mariupol.
November 6, 1941
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin addresses the Soviet Union for only the second time during his three-decade rule. He states that even though 350,000 troops were killed in German attacks so far, the Germans had lost 4.5 million soldiers and that Soviet victory was near.
November 12, 1941
Temperatures around Moscow drop to -12 ° C and the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time against the freezing German forces near the city.
December 6, 1941
The United Kingdom declares war on Finland in support of the Soviet Union during the Continuation War.
June 11, 1942
The United States agrees to send Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.
July 10, 1942
Diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and the Soviet Union are established.
July 28, 1942
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin issues Order No. 227 in response to alarming German advances into the Soviet Union. Under the order all those who retreat or otherwise leave their positions without orders to do so will be immediately executed.
October 10, 1942
The Soviet Union establishes diplomatic relations with Australia.
November 19, 1942
Battle of Stalingrad – Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus counterattacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favor.
May 15, 1943
Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International).
February 23, 1944
The Soviet Union begins forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from the North Caucasus to Central Asia.
March 3, 1944
The Order of Nakhimov and Order of Ushakov are instituted in USSR as the highest naval awards.
April 13, 1944
Diplomatic relations between New Zealand and the Soviet Union are established.
May 18, 1944
Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union government.
June 9, 1944
the Soviet Union invades East Karelia and the previously Finnish part of Karelia, occupied by Finland since 1941.
June 22, 1944
Opening day of the Soviet Union's Operation Bagration against Army Group Centre.
September 19, 1944
Armistice between Finland and Soviet Union is signed. (End of the Continuation War).
September 28, 1944
Soviet Army troops liberate Klooga concentration camp in Klooga, Estonia.
October 11, 1944
Tuvinian People's Republic or formerly Tannu Tuva is annexed by the U.S.S.R
October 20, 1944
The Soviet Army and Yugoslav Partisans liberate Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia
January 5, 1945
The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
February 3, 1945
The Soviet Union agrees to enter the Pacific Theatre conflict against Japan.
March 30, 1945
Soviet Union forces invade Austria and take Vienna; Polish and Soviet forces liberate Gdańsk.
April 2, 1945
Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Brazil are established.
April 5, 1945
Yugoslav leader Josip "Tito" Broz signs an agreement with the USSR to allow "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory."
April 16, 1945
The Red Army begins the final assault on German forces around Berlin.
April 16, 1945
More than 7,000 die when the German refugee ship Goya is sunk by a Soviet submarine torpedo.
April 18, 1945
Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Bolivia are established.
April 19, 1945
The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Guatemala are established.
April 20, 1945
US troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.
April 21, 1945
Soviet Union forces south of Berlin at Zossen attack the German High Command headquarters.
May 2, 1945
Fall of Berlin: The Soviet Union announces the capture of Berlin and Soviet soldiers hoist their red flag over the Reichstag building.
August 8, 1945
the Soviet Union declares war on Japan and begins the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation.
August 16, 1945
Puyi, the last Chinese emperor and ruler of Manchukuo, is captured by Soviet troops.
September 3, 1945
As combat in World War II ends in the Pacific Theater and the final official surrender of Japan is accepted aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China together celebrate V-J Day on the following day, because Kuomingtang represented China on the Missouri and the news reached the Communist Party of China's areas one-day late. There are still many "September 3" streets and primary schools in China.
September 5, 1945
Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet Union embassy clerk, defects to Canada, exposing Soviet espionage in North America, signalling the beginning of the Cold War.
October 18, 1945
The USSR's nuclear program receives plans for the United States plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
January 31, 1946
Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).
March 18, 1946
Diplomatic relations between Switzerland and the Soviet Union are established.
May 8, 1946
Estonian school girls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial that preceded the Bronze Soldier in Tallinn.
June 6, 1946
Soviet Union established diplomatic relations with Argentina.
February 17, 1947
The Voice of America begins to transmit radio broadcasts to the Soviet Union.
April 16, 1947
Bernard Baruch coins the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
July 6, 1947
The AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union.
March 18, 1948
Soviet consultants have left Yugoslavia in first sign of Tito-Stalin split.
June 24, 1948
Start of the Berlin Blockade. The Soviet Union makes overland travel between the West with West Berlin impossible.
June 26, 1948
The Western allies begin an airlift to Berlin after the Soviet Union blockades West Berlin.
July 20, 1948
U.S. President Harry S. Truman issues a peacetime military draft in the United States amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union.
August 3, 1948
Whittaker Chambers accuses Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union.
March 25, 1949
The extensive deportation campaign known as March deportation is conducted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to force collectivisation by way of terror. The Soviet authorities deported more than 92,000 people from Baltics to remote areas of the Soviet Union.
August 29, 1949
Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
October 16, 1949
The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic are established.
February 15, 1950
The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China sign a mutual defense treaty.
March 1, 1950
Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union by disclosing top secret atomic bomb data.
March 7, 1950
The Soviet Union issues a statement denying that Klaus Fuchs served as a Soviet spy.
July 20, 1950
In Philadelphia, Harry Gold pleads guilty to spying for the Soviet Union by passing secrets from atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs.
December 9, 1950
Harry Gold is sentenced to thirty years in jail for helping Klaus Fuchs pass information about the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union. His testimony is later instrumental in the prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
March 29, 1951
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage.
April 5, 1951
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are sentenced to death for performing espionage for the Soviet Union.
June 13, 1952
Catalina affair: a Swedish Douglas DC-3 is shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 fighter.
March 1, 1953
Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses. He dies four days later.
March 6, 1953
Georgy Maksimilianovich Malenkov succeeds Joseph Stalin as Premier of the Soviet Union and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
June 17, 1953
Workers Uprising: in East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.
August 20, 1953
The Soviet Union publicly acknowledges that it had tested a hydrogen bomb.
September 7, 1953
Nikita Khrushchev is elected first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
September 13, 1953
Nikita Khrushchev appointed secretary-general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
May 14, 1955
Eight communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.
June 2, 1955
The USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration and thus normalize relations between both countries, discontinued since 1948.
June 13, 1955
Mir Mine, the first diamond mine in the USSR, is discovered.
February 14, 1956
The XX Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union begins in Moscow. On the last night of the meeting, Premier Nikita Khrushchev condemns Joseph Stalin's crimes in a secret speech.
February 25, 1956
In his speech On the Personality Cult and its Consequences Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounces the cult of personality of Joseph Stalin.
March 9, 1956
Soviet military suppresses mass demonstrations in the Georgian SSR, reacting to Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy.
October 23, 1956
Thousands of Hungarians protest against the government and Soviet occupation. (The Hungarian Revolution is crushed on November 4).
November 4, 1956
Soviet troops enter Hungary to end the Hungarian revolution that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded, and nearly a quarter million leave the country.
December 6, 1956
A water polo match between Hungary and the USSR takes place during the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, against the backdrop of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
June 22, 1957
The Soviet Union launches an R-12 missile for the first time (in Kapustin Yar).
August 26, 1957
The USSR announces the successful test of an ICBM – a "super long distance intercontinental multistage ballistic rocket ... a few days ago," according to the Soviet news agency, ITAR-TASS.
September 29, 1957
20 MCi (740 petabecquerels) of radioactive material is released in an explosion at the Soviet Mayak nuclear plant at Chelyabinsk.
October 11, 1957
Space Race: M.I.T. scientists calculate Sputnik I's booster rocket's orbit.
November 3, 1957
Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter orbit, a dog named Laika.
April 14, 1958
The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days.
December 14, 1958
The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first expedition to reach The Pole of Relative Inaccessibility in the Antarctic.
January 2, 1959
Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the U.S.S.R.
October 7, 1959
U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits first ever photographs of the far side of the moon.
October 31, 1959
Lee Harvey Oswald attempts to renounce his American citizenship at the US Embassy in Moscow, USSR.
May 1, 1960
U-2 incident – Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Soviet Union, sparking a diplomatic crisis.
May 16, 1960
Nikita Khrushchev demands an apology from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union thus ending a Big Four summit in Paris.
July 8, 1960
Francis Gary Powers is charged with espionage resulting from his flight over the Soviet Union.
July 20, 1960
Belgium defends its intervention in the Congo to the United Nations Security Council while the government of the Congo appeals to the Soviet Union to send troops to push back the Belgians. The governments of the United States and France and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization warn the Soviets to stay out of the dispute.
August 19, 1960
in Moscow, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage.
August 19, 1960
Sputnik program: Sputnik 5 – the Soviet Union launches the satellite with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants.
September 29, 1960
Nikita Khrushchev, leader of Soviet Union, disrupts a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly with a number of angry outbursts.
October 12, 1960
Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at United Nations General Assembly meeting to protest a Philippine assertion of Soviet Union colonialist policy being conducted in Eastern Europe
October 24, 1960
Nedelin catastrophe: An R-16 ballistic missile explodes on the launch pad at the Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility, killing over 100. Among the dead is Field Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin, whose death is reported to have occurred in a plane crash
April 12, 1961
Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space in Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1).
June 16, 1961
Rudolf Nureyev defects at Le Bourget airport in Paris.
October 30, 1961
Nuclear testing: The Soviet Union detonates the hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba over Novaya Zemlya; at 58 megatons of yield, it is still the largest explosive device ever detonated, nuclear or otherwise. Nikita Kruschev announces that the scientists had planned to make it 100 megatons, but had reduced the yield to reduce fallout over the Soviet Union.
October 31, 1961
In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin's body is removed from Lenin's Tomb.
November 13, 1961
Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny succeeds Aleksandr Nikolayevich Shelepin as head of the KGB.
February 10, 1962
Captured American spy pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
October 28, 1962
Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.
November 20, 1962
Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.
June 16, 1963
Soviet Space Program: Vostok 6 Mission – Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
June 20, 1963
The so-called "red telephone" is established between the Soviet Union and the United States following the Cuban Missile Crisis.
August 5, 1963
The United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union sign a nuclear test ban treaty.
August 30, 1963
Hotline between U.S. and Soviet leaders goes into operation.
October 12, 1964
The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits
October 14, 1964
Leonid Brezhnev becomes General Secretary of the CPSU and leader of the Soviet Union, ousting Nikita Khrushchev.
November 27, 1964
Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appeals to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster".
March 18, 1965
Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.
May 12, 1965
The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon.
July 20, 1965
Turkish prime minister Suat Hayri Urguplu returns from a visit to Moscow and announces the Soviet Union will provide aid to his country.
November 16, 1965
The Soviet Union launches the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus, the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.
January 31, 1966
The Soviet Union launches the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft as part of the Luna program.
February 3, 1966
The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
March 1, 1966
Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface.
March 31, 1966
The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
January 23, 1967
Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Ivory Coast are established.
March 6, 1967
Joseph Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva defects to the United States.
April 24, 1967
Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.
October 18, 1967
The Soviet probe Venera 4 reaches Venus and becomes the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet.
August 21, 1968
Soviet Union-dominated Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring; on the same day, Nicolae Ceauşescu, leader of Communist Romania, publicly condemns the Soviet maneuver, encouraging the Romanian population to arm itself against possible Soviet reprisals.
September 15, 1968
The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.
January 19, 1969
Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire 3 days earlier in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turned into another major protest.
March 2, 1969
Soviet and Chinese forces clash at a border outpost on the Ussuri River.
June 5, 1969
The International communist conference begins in Moscow.
November 17, 1969
Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.
May 24, 1970
The drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole begins in the Soviet Union.
May 26, 1970
The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.
October 15, 1970
The domestic Soviet Aeroflot Flight 244 is hijacked and diverted to Turkey.
November 14, 1970
Soviet Union enters ICAO, making Russian the fourth official language of organization.
November 17, 1970
Luna program: The Soviet Union lands Lunokhod 1 on Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) on the Moon. This is the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world and is released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft.
February 11, 1971
Eighty-seven countries, including the US, UK, and USSR, sign the Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons in international waters.
May 19, 1971
Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union.
June 30, 1971
The crew of the Soviet Soyuz 11 spacecraft are killed when their air supply escapes through a faulty valve.
July 20, 1971
The Soviet Union says it will support the People's Republic of China's admission to the United Nations
November 27, 1971
The Soviet space program's Mars 2 orbiter releases a descent module. It malfunctions and crashes, but it is the first man-made object to reach the surface of Mars.
March 4, 1972
Libya and the Soviet Union sign a cooperation treaty.
May 26, 1972
The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
September 1, 1972
In Reykjavík, Iceland, American Bobby Fischer beats Russian Boris Spassky and becomes the world chess champion.
September 10, 1972
The United States loses its first international basketball game in a disputed match against the Soviet Union at Munich, Germany.
September 28, 1972
Canada defeats the USSR in the eighth and final game of the ice hockey Summit Series.
June 3, 1973
A Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashes near Goussainville, France, killing 14, the first crash of a supersonic passenger aircraft.
October 15, 1973
The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Gabon are established.
December 18, 1973
Soviet Soyuz Programme: Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union.
February 13, 1974
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1970, is exiled from the Soviet Union.
June 9, 1974
Portugal and the Soviet Union establish diplomatic relations.
September 16, 1976
Shavarsh Karapetyan saves 20 people from the trolleybus that had fallen into Erevan reservoir.
October 6, 1977
The first prototype of the MiG-29, designated 9-01, makes its maiden flight.
January 24, 1978
Soviet satellite Cosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor onboard, burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada's Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered.
April 14, 1978
1978 Tbilisi Demonstrations: Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against Soviet attempts to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.
December 5, 1978
The Soviet Union signs a "friendship treaty" with the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
March 5, 1979
Soviet probes Venera 11, Venera 12 and the American solar satellite Helios 2 all are hit by "off the scale" gamma rays leading to the discovery of soft gamma repeaters.
June 18, 1979
SALT II is signed by the United States and the Soviet Union.
November 9, 1979
Nuclear false alarm: the NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland detected purported massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early warning radars, the alert is cancelled.
February 22, 1980
Miracle on Ice: In Lake Placid, New York, the United States hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4-3, in what is considered to be one of the greatest upsets in sports history.
March 8, 1980
The first festival of rock music kicks off in the Soviet Union.
March 18, 1980
At Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia, 50 people are killed by an explosion of a Vostok-2M rocket on its launch pad during a fueling operation.
November 30, 1981
In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin to negotiate intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe (the meetings ended inconclusively on December 17).
March 5, 1982
Venera 14, a Soviet satellite, arrives at the planet Venus.
November 12, 1982
In the Soviet Union, Yuri Andropov becomes the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding Leonid I. Brezhnev.
March 8, 1983
President Ronald Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "evil empire."
July 7, 1983
Samantha Smith, a U.S. schoolgirl, flies to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Secretary General Yuri Andropov.
September 1, 1983
Korean Air Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspace. All 269 on board are killed, including United States Congressman Lawrence McDonald.
September 6, 1983
The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Flight KAL-007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.
September 12, 1983
The USSR vetoes a UN Security Council Resolution deploring the Soviet shooting down of a Korean civilian jetliner on September 1.
September 26, 1983
Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a worldwide nuclear war.
November 29, 1983
Soviet war in Afghanistan: The United Nations General Assembly passes United Nations Resolution 37/37, stating that Soviet Union forces should withdraw from Afghanistan.
February 13, 1984
Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
May 8, 1984
The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.
April 7, 1985
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declares a moratorium on the deployment of middle-range missiles in Europe.
April 19, 1985
U.S.S.R performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalatinsk U.S.S.R.
July 2, 1985
Andrei Gromyko is appointed the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.
November 9, 1985
Garry Kasparov 22, of the Soviet Union becomes the youngest World Chess Champion by beating Anatoly Karpov, also of the Soviet Union.
November 19, 1985
In Geneva, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time.
February 16, 1986
The Soviet liner Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.
February 19, 1986
The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for 10 of those years.
March 4, 1986
The Soviet Vega 1 begins returning images of Comet Halley and the first images ever of its nucleus.
April 26, 1986
A nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine), creating the world's worst nuclear disaster.
August 28, 1986
United States Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth is sentenced to 365 years imprisonment for espionage for the Soviet Union.
August 31, 1986
The Soviet passenger liner Admiral Nakhimov sinks in the Black Sea after colliding with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev, killing 423.
December 19, 1986
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife from internal exile in Gorky.
May 15, 1987
The Soviet Union launches the Polyus prototype orbital weapons platform. It fails to reach orbit.
May 28, 1987
19-year-old West German pilot Mathias Rust evades Soviet Union air defenses and lands a private plane in Red Square in Moscow. He is immediately detained and is not released until August 3, 1988.
April 14, 1988
In a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
May 15, 1988
Soviet war in Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Red Army begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
May 29, 1988
U.S. President Ronald Reagan begins his first visit to the Soviet Union when he arrives in Moscow for a superpower summit with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
November 15, 1988
In the Soviet Union, the unmanned Shuttle Buran is launched on her first and last space flight.
February 2, 1989
Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet Union armored column leaves Kabul.
February 15, 1989
Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan: The Soviet Union officially announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan.
April 7, 1989
Soviet submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway killing 42 sailors.
October 9, 1989
An official news agency in the Soviet Union reports the landing of a UFO in Voronezh.
December 18, 1989
The European Community and the Soviet Union sign an agreement on trade and commercial and economic cooperation.
February 7, 1990
Collapse of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power.
March 11, 1990
Lithuania declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.
March 15, 1990
Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first executive president of the Soviet Union.
July 27, 1990
The Supreme Soviet of the Belarusian Soviet Republic declares independence of Belarus from the Soviet Union. Until 1996 the day is celebrated as the Independence Day of Belarus; after a referendum held that year the celebration of independence is transferred to June 3.
October 15, 1990
Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and open up his nation.
March 3, 1991
In two concurring referendums: 74 % of the population of Latvia votes for independence from the Soviet Union, in Estonia – 83 %.
March 31, 1991
Georgian independence referendum, 1991: nearly 99 percent of the voters support the country's independence from the Soviet Union.
April 9, 1991
Georgia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
August 19, 1991
Collapse of the Soviet Union, August Coup: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Crimea.
August 20, 1991
Collapse of the Soviet Union, August Coup: more than 100,000 people rally outside the Soviet Union's parliament building protesting the coup aiming to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev.
August 21, 1991
Latvia declares renewal of its full independence after the occupation of Soviet Union.
August 24, 1991
Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
August 28, 1991
Collapse of the Soviet Union: Ukraine declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
August 28, 1991
Collapse of the Soviet Union – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
August 31, 1991
Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
September 6, 1991
The Soviet Union recognizes the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
December 1, 1991
Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union.
December 8, 1991
The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sign an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.
December 25, 1991
Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day). Ukraine's referendum is finalized and Ukraine officially leaves the Soviet Union.
December 31, 1991
All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date and the Soviet Union is officially dissolved.
January 1, 1992
Russian Federation proclaimes its complete independence from the Soviet Union, a few days after its collapse.
March 25, 1992
Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth after a 10-month stay aboard the Mir space station.]
February 22, 1994
Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union.
April 28, 1994
Former C.I.A. official Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia.
March 14, 1995
Space Exploration: Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American astronaut to ride to space on-board a Russian launch vehicle.
March 22, 1995
Cosmonaut Valeriy Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in space.
July 5, 1995
Armenia adopts its constitution, four years after their independence from the Soviet Union
February 18, 2001
FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
May 10, 2002
F.B.I. agent Robert Hanssen is given a life sentence without the possibility of parole for selling United States secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
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