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Soviet Union [USSR] Table A. Chronology of Important Events
Period
Description
NINTH CENTURY
ca. 860
Rurik, a Varangian, according to earliest chronicle of Kievan
Rus', rules Novgorod and founds Rurikid Dynasty.
ca. 880
Prince Oleg, a Varangian, first historically verified ruler of
Kievan Rus'.
TENTH CENTURY
911
Prince Oleg, after attacking Constantinople, concludes treaty
with Byzantine Empire favorable to Kievan Rus'.
944
Prince Igor' compelled by Constantinople to sign treaty
adverse to Kievan Rus'.
ca. 955
Princess Olga, while regent of Kievan Rus', converts to
Christianity.
971
Prince Sviatoslav makes peace with Byzantine Empire.
988
Prince Vladimir converts Kievan Rus' to Christianity.
ELEVENTH CENTURY
1015
Prince Vladimir's death leads Rurikid princes into fratricidal
war that continues until 1036.
1019
Prince Iaroslav (the Wise) of Novgorod assumes throne of
Kievan Rus'.
1036
Prince Iaroslav the Wise ends fratricidal war and later
codifies laws of Kievan Rus' into Ruska Pravda
(Rus' Justice).
1037
Prince Iaroslav the Wise defeats Pechenegs; construction
begins on St. Sofia Cathedral in Kiev.
1051
Ilarion becomes first native metropolitan of Orthodox Church
in Kievan Rus'.
TWELFTH CENTURY
1113-25
Kievan Rus' experiences revival under Grand Prince Vladimir
Monomakh.
1136
Republic of Novgorod gains independence from Kievan Rus'.
1147
Moscow first mentioned in chronicles.
1156
Novgorod acquires its own archbishop.
1169
Armies of Prince Andrei Bogoliubskii of Vladimir-Suzdal' sack
Kiev; Andrei assumes title "Grand Prince of Kiev and all Rus'"
but chooses to reside in Suzdal'.
THIRTEENTH CENTURY
1219-41
Mongols invade: Kiev falls in 1240; Novgorod and Moscow submit
to Mongol "yoke" without resisting.
1242
Aleksandr Nevskii successfully defends Novgorod against
Teutonic attack.
1253
Prince Daniil of Galicia-Volhynia accepts royal crown of
Kievan Rus' from pope.
FOURTEENTH CENTURY
1327
Ivan, prince of Moscow, nicknamed Kalita ("Money Bags"),
affirmed as "Grand Prince of Vladimir" by Mongols; Moscow
becomes seat of metropolitan of Russian Orthodox Church.
1380
Dmitrii Donskoi defeats Golden Horde at Battle of Kulikovo,
but Mongol domination continues until 1480.
FIFTEENTH CENTURY
1462
Ivan III becomes grand prince of Muscovy and first Muscovite
ruler to use titles of tsar and "Ruler of all Rus'.
1478
Muscovy defeats Novgorod.
1485
Muscovy conquers Tver'.
SIXTEENTH CENTURY
1505
Vasilii III becomes grand prince of Muscovy.
1510
Muscovy conquers Pskov.
1533
Grand Prince Ivan IV named ruler of Muscovy at age three.
1547
Ivan IV (the Terrible or the Dread) crowned tsar of Muscovy.
1552
Ivan IV conquers Kazan' Khanate.
1556
Ivan IV conquers Astrakhan' Khanate.
1565
Oprichnina of Ivan IV creates a state within the state.
1571
Tatars raid Moscow.
1581
Ermak begins conquest of Siberia.
1584
Fedor I crowned tsar.
1589
Patriarchate of Moscow established.
1596
Union of Brest establishes Uniate Church.
1598
Rurikid Dynasty ends with death of Fedor; Boris Godunov named
tsar; Time of Troubles begins.
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
1601
Three years of famine begin.
1605
Fedor II crowned tsar; First False Dmitrii subsequently named
tsar after Fedor II's murder.
1606
Vasilii Shuiskii named tsar.
1606-07
Bolotnikov leads revolt.
1610
Second False Dmitrii proclaimed tsar.
1610-13
Poles occupy Moscow.
1611-12
Minin and Pozharskii organize counterattack against Poles.
1613
Mikhail Romanov crowned tsar, founding Romanov Dynasty.
1631
Metropolitan Mohila founds academy in Kiev.
1645
Alexis crowned tsar.
1648
Ukrainian Cossacks, led by Bohdan Khmel'nyts'kyi, revolt
against Polish landowners and gentry.
1649
Serfdom fully established by law.
1654
Treaty of Pereyaslavl' places Ukraine under tsarist rule.
1667
Church council in Moscow anathemizes Old Belief but removes
Patriarch Nikon; Treaty of Andrusovo ends war with Poland.
1670-71
Stenka Razin leads revolt.
1676
Fedor III crowned tsar.
1682
Half brothers Ivan V and Peter I named co- tsars; Peter's half
sister, Sofia, becomes regent.
1689
Peter I (the Great) forces Sofia to resign regency; Treaty of
Nerchinsk ends period of conflict with China.
1696
Ivan V dies, leaving Peter the Great sole tsar; port of Azov
captured from Ottoman Empire.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
1700
Calendar reformed; war with Sweden begins.
1703
St. Petersburg founded; becomes capital of Russia in 1713.
1705-11
Bashkirs revolt.
1708
First Russian newspaper published.
1709
Swedes defeated at Battle of Poltava.
1710
Cyrillic alphabet reformed.
1721
Treaty of Nystad ends Great Northern War with Sweden and
establishes Russian presence on Baltic Sea; Peter the Great
proclaims Muscovy the Russian Empire; Holy Synod replaces
patriarchate.
1722
Table of Ranks established.
1723-32
Russia gains control of southern shore of Caspian Sea.
1725
Catherine I crowned empress of Russia.
1727
Peter II crowned emperor of Russia.
1730
Anna crowned empress of Russia.
1740
Ivan VI crowned emperor of Russia.
1741
Elizabeth crowned empress of Russia.
1762
Peter III crowned emperor of Russia; abolishes compulsory
state service for the gentry; Catherine II (the Great) crowned
empress of Russia.
1768-74
War with Ottoman Empire ends with Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji.
1772
Russia participates in first partition of Poland.
1773-74
Emelian Pugachev leads peasant revolt.
1785
Catherine II confirms nobility's privileges in Charter to the
Nobility.
1787-92
War with Ottoman Empire ends with Treaty of Jassy; Ottomans
recognize 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea.
1793 and 1795
Russia participates in second and third partitions of Poland.
1796
Paul crowned emperor of Russia; establishes new law of
succession.
NINETEENTH CENTURY
1801
Alexander I crowned emperor; conquest of Caucasus region
begins.
1809
Finland annexed from Sweden and awarded autonomous status.
1812
Napoleon's army occupies Moscow but is then driven out of
Russia.
1817-19
Baltic peasants liberated from serfdom but given no land.
1825
"Decembrists' revolt" fails; Nicholas I crowned emperor.
1830
Polish uprising crushed.
1833
"Autocracy, Orthodoxy, and nationality" accepted as guiding
principles by regime.
1837
First Russian railroad, from St. Petersburg to Tsarskoe Selo,
opens; Aleksandr Pushkin, foremost Russian writer, dies in
duel.
1840s and 1850s
Slavophiles debate Westernizers over Russia's future.
1849
Russia helps to put down anti-Habsburg Hungarian rebellion at
Austria's request.
1853-56
Russia fights Britain, France, Sardinia, and Ottoman Empire in
Crimean War; Russia forced to accept peace settlement dictated
by its opponents.
1855
Alexander II crowned emperor.
1858
Treaty of Aigun signed with China; northern bank of Amur River
ceded to Russia.
1860
Treaty of Beijing signed with China; Ussuri River region
awarded to Russia.
1861
Alexander II emancipates serfs.
1863
Polish rebellion unsuccessful.
1864
Judicial system reformed; zemstvos created.
1869
War and Peace by Lev Tolstoy (1828-1910) published.
1873-74
Army reformed; Russian youths go "to the people."
1875
Kuril Islands yielded to Japan in exchange for southern
Sakhalin.
1877-78
War with Ottoman Empire ends with Treaty of San Stefano;
independent Bulgaria proclaimed.
1879
Revolutionary society Land and Liberty splits; People's Will
and Black Repartition formed.
1879-80
The Brothers Karamazov by Fedor Dostoevskii (1821-81)
published.
1881
Alexander II assassinated; Alexander III crowned emperor.
1894
Nicholas II crowned emperor.
1898
Russian Social Democratic Labor Party established and holds
first congress in March; Vladimir I. Lenin one of organizers
of party.
TWENTIETH CENTURY
1903
Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits into Bolshevik
and Menshevik factions.
1904-05
Russo-Japanese War ends with Russian defeat; southern Sakhalin
ceded to Japan.
1905
"Bloody Sunday" massacre in January begins Revolution of 1905,
a year of labor and ethnic unrest; government issues so-called
October Manifesto, calling for parliamentary elections.
1906
First Duma (parliament) elected.
1911
Stolypin, chief minister since 1906, assassinated.
1914
World War I begins.
1916
Rasputin murdered.
1917
March: (February, according to Julian calendar) February
Revolution, in which workers riot in Petrograd; Petrograd
Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies formed; Provisional
Government formed; Emperor Nicholas II abdicates; Petrograd
Soviet issues "Order No. 1."
April: Demonstrations lead to Aleksandr Kerensky's assuming
leadership in government; Lenin returns to Petrograd from
Switzerland.
July: Bolsheviks outlawed after attempt to topple government
fails.
September: Lavr Kornilov putsch attempt fails.
November: (October, according to Julian calendar) Bolsheviks
seize power from Provisional Government; Lenin, as leader of
Bolsheviks, becomes head of state; Russian Soviet Federated
Socialist Republic (Russian Republic) formed; Constituent
Assembly elected.
December: Vecheka (secret police) created; Finns and
Moldavians declare independence from Russia; Japanese occupy
Vladivostok.
1918
January: Constituent Assembly dissolved; Ukraine declares its
independence, followed, in subsequent months, by Armenia,
Azerbaydzhan, Belorussia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, and
Lithuania.
February: Basmachi Rebellion begins in Central Asia; calendar
changed from Julian to Gregorian.
March: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed with Germany; Russia
loses Poland, Finland, Baltic lands, Ukraine, and other areas;
Russian Social Democratic Labor Party becomes Russian
Communist Party (Bolshevik).
April: Civil War begins.
June: Concentration camps established.
July: Constitution of Russian Republic promulgated; imperial
family murdered.
Summer: War communism established; intervention in Civil War
by foreign expeditionary forces-- including those of Britain,
France, and United States--begins.
August: Attempt to assassinate Lenin fails; Red Terror begins.
November: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk repudiated by Soviet
government after Germany defeated by Allied Powers.
1919
January: Belorussia established as theoretically independent
Soviet republic.
March: Communist International (Comintern) formally founded at
congress in Moscow; Ukraine established as Soviet republic.
1920
January: Blockade of Russian Republic lifted by Britain and
other Allies.
February: Peace agreement signed with Estonia; agreements with
Latvia and Lithuania follow.
April: War with Poland begins; Azerbaydzhan established as
Soviet republic.
July: Trade agreement signed with Britain.
October: Truce reached with Poland.
November: Red Army defeats Wrangel's army in Crimea; Armenia
established as Soviet republic.
1921
March: War with Poland ends with Treaty of Riga; Red Army
crushes Kronshtadt naval mutiny; New Economic Policy
proclaimed; Georgia established as Soviet republic.
Summer: Famine breaks out in Volga region.
August: Aleksandr Blok, foremost poet of Russian Silver Age,
dies; large number of intellectuals exiled.
1922
March: Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic
formed, uniting Armenian, Azerbaydzhan, and Georgian
republics.
April: Joseph V. Stalin made general secretary of party;
Treaty of Rapallo signed with Germany.
May: Lenin suffers his first stroke.
June: Socialist Revolutionary Party members put on trial by
State Political Administration; Glavlit organized with
censorship function.
December: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union)
established, comprising Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, and
Transcaucasian republics.
1924
January: Lenin dies; constitution of Soviet Union put into
force.
February: Britain recognizes Soviet Union; other European
countries follow suit later in year.
Fall: Regime begins to delimit territories of Central Asian
nationalities; Turkmenia and Uzbekistan elevated to Soviet
republic status.
1925
April: Nikolai I. Bukharin calls for peasants to enrich
themselves.
November: Poet Sergei Esenin commits suicide.
December: Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) becomes All-
Union Communist Party (Bolshevik).
1926
April: Grigorii V. Zinov'ev ousted from Politburo.
October: Leon Trotsky and Lev B. Kamenev ousted from
Politburo.
1927
Fall: Peasants sell government less grain than demanded
because of low prices; peasant discontent increases; grain
crisis begins.
December: Fifteenth Party Congress calls for large-scale
collectivization of agriculture.
1928
January: Trotsky exiled to Alma-Ata.
May: Shakhty trial begins; first executions for "economic
crimes" follows.
July: Sixth Congress of Comintern names socialist parties main
enemy of communists.
October: Implementation of First Five-Year Plan begins.
1929
January: Trotsky forced to leave Soviet Union.
April: Law on religious associations requires registration of
religious groups, authorizes church closings, and bans
religious teaching.
Fall: Red Army skirmishes with Chinese forces in Manchuria.
October: Tadzhistan splits from Uzbek Republic to form
separate Soviet republic.
November: Bukharin ousted from Politburo.
December: Stalin formally declares end of New Economic Policy
and calls for elimination of kulaks; forced industrialization
intensifies, and collectivization begins.
1930
March: Collectivization slows temporarily.
April: Poet Vladimir Maiakovskii commits suicide.
November: "Industrial Party" put on trial.
1931
March: Mensheviks put on trial.
August: School system reformed.
1932
May: Five-year plan against religion declared.
December: Internal passports introduced for domestic travel;
peasants not issued passports.
1932-33
Terror: and forced famine rage in countryside, primarily in
southeastern Ukrainian Republic and northern Caucasus.
1933
November: Diplomatic relations with United States established.
1934
August: Union of Writers holds its First Congress.
September: Soviet Union admitted to League of Nations.
December: Sergei Kirov assassinated in Leningrad; Great Terror
begins, causing intense fear among general populace, and peaks
in 1937 and 1938 before subsiding in latter year.
1935
February: Party cards exchanged; many members purged from
party ranks.
May: Treaties signed with France and Czechoslovakia.
Summer: Seventh Congress of Comintern calls for "united front"
of political parties against fascism.
August: Stakhanovite movement to increase worker productivity
begins.
September: New system of ranks issued for Red Army.
1936
June: Restrictive laws on family and marriage issued.
August: Zinov'ev, Kamenev, and other high-level officials put
on trial for alleged political crimes.
September: Nikolai Ezhov replaces Genrikh Iagoda as head of
NKVD (police); purge of party deepens.
October: Soviet Union begins support for antifascists in
Spanish Civil War.
December: New constitution proclaimed; Kazakhstan and Kirgizia
become Soviet republics; Transcaucasian Soviet Federated
Socialist Republic spits into Armenian, Azerbaydzhan, and
Georgian Soviet republics.
1937
January: Trial of "Anti-Soviet Trotskyite Center."
June: Marshal Mikhail N. Tukhachevskii and other military
leaders executed.
1938
March: Russian language required in all schools in Soviet
Union.
July: Soviet and Japanese forces fight at Lake Khasan.
December: Lavrenty Beria replaces Ezhov; Great Terror
diminishes.
1939
May: Viacheslav Molotov replaces Maksim M. Litvinov as
commissar of foreign affairs; armed conflict with Japan at
Halhin Gol in Mongolia continues until August.
August: Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact signed; pact includes
secret protocol.
September: Stalin joins Adolf Hitler in partitioning Poland.
October: Soviet forces enter Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
November: Remaining (western) portions of Ukraine and
Belorussia incorporated into Soviet Union; Soviet forces
invade Finland.
December: Soviet Union expelled from League of Nations.
1940
March: Finland sues for peace with Soviet Union.
April: Polish officers massacred in Katyn Forest by Soviet
troops.
June: New strict labor laws enacted; northern Bukovina and
Bessarabia seized from Romania and subsequently incorporated
into Ukrainian Republics and newly created Moldavian Republic,
respectively.
August: Soviet Union annexes Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania;
Trotsky murdered in Mexico.
1941
April: Neutrality pact signed with Japan.
May: Stalin becomes chairman of Council of People's
Commissars.
June: Nazi Germany attacks Soviet Union ubder Operation
Barbarossa.
August: Soviet and British troops enter Iran.
November: Lend-Lease Law of United States applied to Soviet
Union.
December: Soviet counteroffensive against Germany begins.
1942
May Red Army routed at Khar'kov; Germans halt Soviet offensive;
treaty signed with Britain against Germany.
July: Battle of Stalingrad begins.
November: Red Army starts winter offensive.
1943
February: German army units surrender at Stalingrad; 91,000
prisoners taken.
May: Comintern dissolved.
July: Germans defeated in tank battle at Kursk.
September: Stalin allows Russian Orthodox Church to appoint
patriarch.
November: Teheran Conference held.
1944
January: Siege of Leningrad ends after 870 days.
May: Crimea liberated from German army.
June: Red Army begins summer offensive.
October: Tuva incorporated into Soviet Union; armed struggle
against Soviet rule breaks out in western Ukrainian, western
Belorussian, Lithuanian, and Latvian republics and continues
for several years.
1945
February: Stalin meets with Winston Churchill and Franklin D.
Roosevelt at Yalta.
April: Soviet Union renounces neutrality with Japan.
May: Red Army captures Berlin.
July-: Potsdam Conference attended by Stalin, Harry S August
Truman, and Churchill, who is later replaced by Clement R.
Attlee.
August: Soviet Union declares war on Japan; Soviet forces
enter Manchuria and Korea.
1946
March: Regime abolishes Ukrainian Catholic Church (Uniate);
Council of People's Commissars becomes Council of Ministers.
Summer: Beginning of "Zhdanovshchina," a campaign against
Western culture.
1947
Famine: in southern and central regions of European part of
Soviet Union.
September: Cominform established to replace Comintern.
1948
June: Blockade of Berlin by Soviet forces begins and lasts
through May 1949.
Summer: Trofim D. Lysenko begins his domination of fields of
biology and genetics that continues until 1955.
1949
January: Council for Mutual Economic Assistance formed;
campaign against "cosmopolitanism" launched.
August: Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb.
1952
October: All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) becomes
Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU); name of Polituro
is changed to Presidium.
1953
January: Kremlin "doctors' plot" exposed, signifying political
infighting.
March: Stalin dies; Georgii M. Malenkov, Beria, and Molotov
form troika (triumvirate); title of party chief changes from
general secretary to first secretary.
April: "Doctors' plot" declared a provocation.
July: Beria arrested and shot; Malenkov, Molotov, and Nikita
S. Khrushchev form new troika.
August: Soviet Union tests hydrogen bomb.
September: Khrushchev chosen CPSU first secretary;
rehabilitation of Stalin's victims begins.
1955
February: Nikolai A. Bulganin replaces Malenkov as prime
minister.
May: Warsaw Pact organized.
1956
February: Khrushchev's "secret speech" at Twentieth Party
Congress exposes Stalin's crimes.
September: Minimum wage established.
November: Soviet forces crush Hungarian Revolution.
1957
July: "Anti-party group" excluded from CPSU leadership.
August: First Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile tested
successfully.
October: World's first artificial satellite, Sputnik I,
launched.
1958
March: Khrushchev named chairman of Council of Ministers.
October: Nobel Prize for Literature awarded to Boris
Pasternak; campaign mounted against Pasternak, who refuses to
accept award.
1959
September: Khrushchev visits United States.
1960
May: Soviet air defense downs United States U-2 reconnaissance
aircraft over Soviet Union.
1961
April: Cosmonaut Iurii Gagarin launched in world's first
manned orbital space flight.
July: Khrushchev meets with President John F. Kennedy in
Vienna.
August: Construction of Berlin Wall begins.
October: Stalin's remains removed from Lenin Mausoleum.
1962
June: Workers' riots break out in Novocherkassk.
October: Cuban missile crisis begins, bringing United States
and Soviet Union close to war.
November: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of
Ivan Denisovich published in Soviet journal.
1963
August: Limited Test Ban Treaty signed with United States and
Britain.
1964
October: Khrushchev removed from power; Leonid I. Brezhnev
becomes CPSU first secretary.
1965
August: Volga Germans rehabilitated.
1966
February: Dissident writers Andrei Siniavskii and Iuii Daniel
tried and sentenced.
April: Brezhnev's title changes from first secretary to
general secretary; name of Presidium is changed back to
Politburo.
1967
April: Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Allilueva, defects to West.
September: Crimean Tatars rehabilitated but not allowed to
return home.
1968
June: Andrei Sakharov's dissident writings published in
samizdat.
July: Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons signed
by Soviet Union.
August: Soviet-led Warsaw Pact armies invade Czechoslovakia.
1969
March: Soviet and Chinese forces skirmish on Ussuri River.
May: Major General Petr Grigorenko, a dissident, arrested and
incarcerated in psychiatric hospital.
1970
Jewish: emigration to avoid persecution begins to increase
substantially.
October: Solzhenitsyn awarded Nobel Prize for December
Literature.
1972
May: Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) result in signing
of Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty) and Interim
Agreement on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms;
President Richard M. Nixon visits Moscow.
1973
June: Brezhnev visits Washington.
1974
February: Solzhenitsyn arrested and sent into foreign exile.
1975
July: Apollo/Soiuz space mission held jointly with United
States.
August: Helsinki Accords signed, confirming East European
borders and calling for enforcement of human rights.
December: Sakharov awarded Nobel Prize for Peace.
1976
Helsinki: watch groups formed to monitor human rights
safeguards.
1977
June: Brezhnev named chairman of Presidium of Supreme Soviet.
October: New constitution promulgated for Soviet Union.
1979
June: Second SALT agreement signed but not ratified by United
States Senate.
December: Soviet armed forces invade Afghanistan.
1980
January: Sakharov exiled to Gor'kiy.
August: Summer Olympics held in Moscow and boycotted by United
States.
1981
February: CPSU holds its Twenty-Sixth Party Congress.
1982
June: Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) begin.
November: Brezhnev dies; Iurii V. Andropov named general
secretary.
1983
September: Soviet fighter aircraft downs South Korean civilian
airliner KAL 007 near Sakhalin.
1984
February: Andropov dies; Konstantin U. Chernenko becomes
general secretary.
1985
March: Chernenko dies; Mikhail S. Gorbachev becomes general
secretary.
November: Gorbachev meets with President Ronald W. Reagan in
Geneva.
1986
February-March: CPSU holds its Twenty-Seventh Party Congress.
April-May: Nuclear power plant disaster at Chernobyl' releases
deadly radiation.
October: Gorbachev and Reagan hold summit at Reykjavik.
December: Ethnic riots break out in Alma-Ata.
1987
December: Soviet Union and United States sign Intermediate-
Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty).
1988
Winter: Ethnic disturbances begin in Caucasus.
May: Soviet authorities stop jamming Voice of America
broadcasts.
May-June: Reagan visits Moscow.
June: Millennium of establishment of Christianity in Kievan
Rus' celebrated in Moscow.
June-July: CPSU's Nineteenth Party Conference tests limits of
glasnost' and perestroika in unprecedented
discussions.
October: Gorbachev replaces Andrei Gromyko as chairman of
Presidium of Supreme Soviet; Gromyko and others removed from
Politburo.
December: Earthquake registering 6.9 on Richter scale strikes
Armenian Republic, destroying much of cities of Leninakan and
Spitak and resulting in 25,000 deaths.
1989
February: Soviet combat forces complete withdrawal from
Afghanistan.
March-: Initial and runoff elections held for the 2,250 April
seats in Congress of People's Deputies; some seats have more
than one candidate running; about 87 percent of elected
deputies CPSU members or candidate members.
May: Congress of People's Deputies meets, openly criticizes
past and present regimes before television audiences, and
elects 542 members to serve in Supreme Soviet; Gorbachev
elected by Congress of People's Deputies to new position of
chairman of Supreme Soviet.
Data as of May 1989
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