The Collapse of the Soviet Union

Russian civil war

The Russian Civil war was when the Red Army, led by Trotsky, fought the White army which consisted of anti Bolshevik citizens. The Red Army prevailed showing they can not only gain power but contain it.

This would end up leading to the USSR being created.

Creation of the Politburo

While the Russian civil war was going on, the Bolsheviks created the politburo to provide strong and continuous leadership during the Russian Revolution in 1917. This would set the stage for how Communist would end up ruling.

Stalin’s Five Year Plans

In 1928, Joseph Stalin made Five Year Plans to develop the Soviet Union’s economy and to increase the output of steel, oil, coal, and electricity. This put leashes on businesses and strongly influenced how Communism controlled all that went on within the country. These plans would help the production of many things that helped the USSR exist.

World War II

World War II was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's nations. It was the most widespread war in history and marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and major bombings on nations. It made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history.

JOE-1

In 1949, The United States assigned the name Joe-1 to a Russian project that was their first nuclear weapon test. This atomic bomb went off on 29 August 1949 at 7 in the morning, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR. The response in the west was President Truman notified the world that the Russians had a nuclear test. The Russians were trying to keep it a secret but were unable to keep it which mounted pressure in the cold war to who would build the first hydrogen bomb.

Hydrogen Bomb

In 1952, The Americans would have the first test of a thermonuclear bomb, or a hydrogen bomb. They had accelerated quickly in the nuclear arms race after Russia’s detonation in 1949. The following year, Russia detonated a hydrogen bomb keeping them in the nuclear race while the whole world made a big leap forward in the nuclear race, and a fearful one at that.

Warsaw Pact

On May 14, 1955, the Warsaw pact was made. It was a collective defense treaty among eight communist states of Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. The pact was made to maintain military control of Eastern and Central Europe, even though it’s purpose was to “keep peace” in those areas.

This helped Russia maintain power of military through the Cold War.

sputnik

Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was a 58 cm diameter polished metal sphere, with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957

Laika

In 1957, the Russians successfully placed a dog, Laika, into orbit in space. This would set the stage for human spaceflight and would, at the time, give the Russians a lead in the space race

Sputnik 3

In 1958, with Russia and the U.S still going head to head in the space race, Russia launched Sputnik 3. Like it’s American counterpart, Vanguard 1, it was successful in making it into orbit. This would be another example of how Russia was staying in the space race.

Creation of the Berlin Wall

In 1961, East Germany would create a wall that cut of West and East Germany. West Germany referred to it as the “Wall of Shame”. Along with its guard towers, East Germany erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. This is what they claimed but really the wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc. This would help Russia maintain its Communist state.

1968 Invasion of Czechoslovakia

Soviet Union led troops from the Warsaw Pact in an invasion of Czechoslovakia to remove reformist trends in Prague. Although this was successful, the Soviet Union’s action had accidental costs for the unity of the communist bloc. So this kept the Soviet Union in power, but would ultimately help towards their ultimate demise.

Salt I 1972

The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT). SALT I froze the number of strategic ballistic missile launchers at existing levels . It provided the addition of submarine-launched ballistic missile launchers after older intercontinental ballistic missile and launchers had been undone

Salt II 1979

Did the same thing Salt I did but also involved international treaties between the U.S. and Soviet Union.

Soviet-Afghan war 1979-1989

Soviet-led Afghan forces against groups called the Mujahideen, mostly collected of Peshawar Seven and the Tehran Eight. This being part of the cold war made Russia worry about Afghan and the United States and try to maintain power.

Gorbachev becomes leader 1985

Gorbachev would be the last leader of the Soviet Union. He served as General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1985 until 1991, and as the country's head of state in 1988.

Voting reforms by gorbachev

Perestroika 1986

This was a political movement for reformation within the Communist Party. It involved Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986 which would start the changing of the Soviet Union.

Glasnost

Glasnost was a policy that called for increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the Soviet Union.

Chernobyl disaster 1986

Chernobyl was a nuclear accident on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, which was controlled by the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of the western USSR and Europe. This would affect many in the communities and make it a barren wasteland to this day.

Free electiin Poland, Czechoslovakia, hungary

Lithuania and Latvia protests 1988

Many Lithuanians and Latvians formed human chains along the Baltic seacoast Saturday to protest pollution. They demonstrated environmental awareness in the Soviet Union to help one of the many problems they had.

Fall of the Berlin wall 1989

When the Cold War began to die in Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party announced a change in his city's relations with the West. This would mark the end of the wall and a huge symbol of communism that resulted from the Soviet Union in Europe.

Gorbachev steps down 1991

Gorbachev announces that he would be resigning as president of the Soviet Union. He did this in the midst of the Soviet Union Republics gaining independence. This would end the collapse of the USSR.

Boris yeltsin becomes president