BRIEF HISTORY OF RUSSIA
By Daryl R. Evans
Key Events and Dates in Russian History--From Founding of Country Up To Today
- 1985 Chernenko dies; Mikhail Gorbachev succeeds him.
- 1989 Multi-candidate elections for the new Congress of People's Deputies are held
the Soviet Union.
- 1990 Communist Party of the Soviet Union renounces its monopoly of power.
- 1991 Failed hard-line coup hastens dissolution of Soviet Union into fifteen sovereign
states.
- December 25, 1991 , Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev resigned, bringing an end
to the Soviet Union. Minutes after Gorbachev's announcement the Soviet flag with its
hammer and sickle was taken down from the Kermlin flagpole. It was replaced by the
Russian tricolored flag.
- 1992 Commonwealth of Independent States formed by eleven of the fifteen former
Soviet Republics.
- 1992 The Yelstin government implemented a major liberialization of prices the
first step in a plan to create a free-market economy.
- 1993,1994,1995 Russian economy shows many problems, unemployment high.
- 1996 Yelstin faces continued political unrest, pressure from ultranationalist
leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky and others.
- 1996 Violent Civil War in Chechneya continues, Yeltin's image is tarnished with
elections looming. Will Russia come back under Communist rule?