History Hop Tags - Soviet

1725-05-21

The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky is instituted in Russia by the empress Catherine I. It would later be discontinued and then reinstated by the Soviet government in 1942 as the Order of Alexander Nevsky.

1895-05-07

In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention - the world's first radio receiver. In the former Soviet Union the anniversary of this day is celebrated as Radio Day.

1905-10-26

First Soviet (workers' council) formed, St Petersburg, Russia

1905-12-22

Arrest of St Petersburg Soviet members leads to an uprising of Moscow workers and fighting in the street

1912-05-05

Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing (4/22 OS)

1917-10-08

Leon Trotsky named chairman of the Petrograd Soviet as Bolsheviks gain control

1917-10-26

Petrograd Soviet accepts establishment of Military

1917-12-18

Soviet regiment (Stalin/Lenin) declares Finland Independent

1917-12-20

Cheka formed - Soviet state security force and forerunner to the KGB, under Felix Dzerzhinsky after decree by Lenin

1918-07-10

Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic forms

1918-08-30

Fanya Kaplan shoots at Lenin, new leader of Soviet Russia, attempting to assassinate him

1919-02-04

City of Bremen's Soviet Republic overthrown

1919-02-14

The Polish-Soviet War begins.

1919-04-20

Polish Army captures Vilno, Lithuania from Soviet Army

1919-08-06

Romanian forces bring down Hungarian Soviet Republic in Budapest

1919-11-16

Admiral Horthy conquerors Budapest from Béla Kuns Soviet Republic

1920-08-11

1st peace of Riga-Soviet Union recognizes Independence of Latvia

1920-10-14

Part of Petsamo province ceded by Soviet Union to Finland

1921-02-12

Soviet troops invade Georgia

1922-04-16

German-Russia treaty signed in Italy, Soviet Union recognized

1922-12-20

14 republics form Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (USSR)

1922-12-30

Soviet Union organized as a federation of RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Belorussian SSR & Transcaucasian SSR

1923-01-01

Union of Socialist Soviet Republics established

1923-02-09

Soviet Aeroflot airlines forms

1924-02-01

Ramsay MacDonald's incoming Labour government formally recognizes the Soviet Union

1924-08-28

Georgian opposition stages the August Uprising against the Soviet Union.

1924-10-27

The Uzbek SSR is founded in the Soviet Union.

1925-02-25

The diplomatic relations between Japan and the Soviet Union were established.

1925-05-12

Uzbekistan & Kirgizistan become autonomous Soviet republics

1925-11-06

British secret agent Sidney Reilly ('Ace of Spies') is executed by the OGPU, the secret police of the Soviet Union.

1927-08-19

Metropolitan Sergius proclaims the declaration of loyalty of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Soviet state.

1927-11-12

Trotsky expelled from Soviet CP; Stalin becomes undisputed dictator

1928-01-10

Soviet Union orders exile of Leon Trotsky

1928-08-13

Soviet Union Spartacan Games begins

1931-03-11

Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR, abbreviated as GTO, is introduced in the Soviet Union.

1932-10-19

British government signs trade agreement with Soviet Union

1932-11-29

France signs non-agression pact with Soviet Union

1933-08-17

Soviet Union test GIRD-R1 rocket ("Object 09")

1933-09-03

Yevgeniy Abalakov reaches the highest point of the Soviet Union - Communism Peak (7495 m).

1933-11-17

United States recognizes Soviet Union, opens trade

1933-11-25

1st Soviet liquid fuel rocket attains altitude of 261' (80m)

1934-02-13

The Soviet steamship Cheliuskin sinks in the Arctic Ocean.

1935-07-12

Belgium recognizes Soviet Union

1935-10-22

Establishment of the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union.

1935-12-28

Pravda publishes a letter by Pavel Postyshev, who revives New Year tree tradition in the Soviet Union.

1936-11-05

French writer Andre Gide criticizes Soviet regime

1936-12-05

Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Georgian SSR, Kazakh SSR & Kirghiz SSR becomes constituent republics of Soviet Union

1938-01-17

Supreme Soviet elects Michail Kalinin as presidium chairman

1938-02-19

Soviet arctic ice research station North Pole 1 evacuated, Denmark

1938-03-02

Trials of Soviet leaders begins in the Soviet Union

1939-09-17

Soviet Union invades Poland during WW II

1939-09-28

Estonia accepts Soviet military bases

1939-09-28

Soviet-German treaty agree on 4th partition of Poland (WW II) & gives Lithuania to USSR, last Polish troops surrender

1939-11-26

4 soviet soldiers killed on Finnish-Russian border

1939-11-28

Soviet government revokes Russian-Finnish non-aggression treaty

1939-12-14

Soviet Union attacks Finland-League of Nations drops Soviet Union

1940-03-02

Soviet armies conquer Tuppura Island Finland

1940-03-31

Karelo-Finnish SSR becomes 12th Soviet republic (until 1956)

1940-06-15

Soviet Army occupies Lithuania

1940-06-27

Soviet Army attacks Romania

1940-06-28

Romania cedes Bessarabia to Soviet Union

1940-07-21

Soviet Union annexes Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania

1940-08-06

Estonia is annexed into Soviet empire

1940-08-25

Lithuania, Latvia & Estonia incorporated into Soviet Union

1941-06-22

Estonians starts armed resistance against Soviet occupation

1941-06-22

Germany attacks the Soviet Union & occupies the Baltic states

1941-06-22

Germany, Italy & Romania declare war on Soviet Union

1941-06-25

Finland declares war on Soviet Union

1941-09-17

World War II: A decree of the Soviet State Committee of Defense, restoring Vsevobuch in the face of the Great Patriotic War, is issued

1941-09-29

Nazi mass murder at Babi Jar, Soviet Union

1941-11-06

USA lends Soviet Union $1 million

1942-01-28

Soviet troops under General Timoshenko's troops move into Ukraine

1942-05-26

Anglo-Soviet Treaty signed in London

1942-07-10

Netherland's government in exile (London) recognizes Soviet Union

1942-10-29

Nazis murder 16,000 Jews in Pinsk, Soviet Union

1942-11-20

Soviet army offensive during WWII, 1 million Russians breach German lines

1943-01-21

Soviet forces reconquer Worosjilowsk

1943-01-21

Soviet forces reconquer Gumrak airport near Stalingrad

1943-03-12

Soviet troops liberate Wjasma

1943-04-27

Soviet Union breaks contact with Polish government exiled in London

1943-08-05

Soviet forces reconquer Orel & Bjelgorod

1943-08-22

Soviet troops free Karkov

1943-09-16

Soviet army under general Vatutin reconquer Romny

1943-09-21

Soviet forces reach Dnjepr

1943-09-24

Soviet forces reconquer Smolensk

1943-10-30

Soviet forces under Fyodor Ivanovich Tolbukhin commenced offensive on the 4th Ukranian Front

1943-11-06

Soviet troops land on Kertsj peninsula

1943-11-06

Soviet forces reconquer Kiev

1943-12-28

All Kalmyk inhabitants of of the Russian Republic of Kalmukkie deported by the Soviet Union to Central Asia and Siberia. Many die on route

1944-01-14

Soviet army begins offensive at Oranienbaum/Wolchow

1944-02-01

Supreme Soviet enlarges soviet republics' autonomy

1944-04-02

Soviet Army marches into pro-German Romania

1944-04-10

Soviet forces liberate Odessa from Nazis

1944-04-13

The diplomatic relations between New Zealand and the Soviet Union are established.

1944-05-18

Expulsion of more than 200,000 Tartars from Crimea by Soviet Union begins, they are accused of collaborating with the Germans

1944-06-20

Soviet forces conquer Wiborg

1944-06-22

Opening day of the Soviet Union's Operation Bagration against Army Group Centre.

1944-06-29

Soviet Armies join in Bobroesjk

1944-07-23

Soviet Army marches into Lublin Poland

1944-07-24

Soviet forces liberate concentration camp Majdanek

1944-07-27

Soviet Army frees Majdanek concentration camp

1944-08-30

Soviet troops enter Bucharest Romania

1944-09-19

Armistice between Finland and Soviet Union is signed. (End of the Continuation War).

1944-09-26

Soviet forces occupy Estonia

1944-09-29

Soviet troops invade Yugoslavia

1944-10-18

Soviet troops invade Czechoslovakia during WW II

1944-10-23

Soviet army invades Hungary

1944-12-26

Budapest surrounded by soviet army

1945-01-18

Warsaw freed by Soviet army

1945-01-26

Soviet forces reach Auschwitz concentration camp

1945-01-30

"Wilhelm Gustloff" torpedoed off Danzig by Soviet sub-c 9,400 die

1945-04-02

Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Brazil are established.

1945-04-18

Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Bolivia are established.

1945-04-19

The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Guatemala are established.

1945-04-20

Soviet troops enter Berlin

1945-04-25

"Elbe Day" - US & Soviet forces meet at Torgau Germany on Elbe River during WWII invasion of Germany

1945-05-01

About 1,000 citizens of Demmin in Germany, commit suicide provoked by occupation by Soviet Red Army

1945-05-01

Soviet army reaches Rostock

1945-05-09

World War II: The Soviet Union marks Victory Day.

1945-06-29

Ruthenia, formerly in Czechoslovakia, annexed by Soviet Union, becomes Ukrainian SSR

1945-08-16

Puyi, the last Chinese emperor and ruler of Manchukuo, was captured by Soviet troops.

1946-03-12

Part of Petsamo province ceded by Soviet Union to Finland

1946-05-08

The Estonian school girls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial that preceded the Bronze Soldier in Tallinn.

1947-02-10

Province of Petsamo returned to Soviet Union by Finland

1947-07-03

Soviet Union doesn't participate in Marshall Plan

1947-07-06

The AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union.

1948-03-18

Soviet consultants have left Yugoslavia in first sign of Tito-Stalin split.

1948-05-17

Soviet Union recognized Israel

1948-06-24

Soviet Union begins Berlin Blockade

1948-06-26

US denounces Soviet blockade of Berlin

1948-08-20

US expels Soviet Consul General in New York, Jacob Lomakin

1948-10-06

The 1948 Ashgabat earthquake kills 100,000 in the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic.

1949-03-04

Andrei Vishinsky succeeds Molotov as Soviet Foreign minister

1952-06-13

Soviet fighters shoot Swedish Dakota down over East Sea, kills 8

1952-06-16

Soviet Fighters shoot Swedish Catalina reconnaissance flight down

1953-08-12

Soviet Union conducts secret test of its 1st hydrogen bomb

1953-09-14

Nikita Khrushchev appointed First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, succeeding Malenkov

1954-04-14

Soviet diplomat Vladimir Petrov asks for politics asylum in Canberra

1955-05-14

Warsaw Pact is signed by the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland & Romania

1955-05-31

Construction begins on Soviet cosmodrome launch facilities

1955-08-25

Last Soviet forces leave Austria

1955-10-03

Soviet battleship "Novorossiisk" strikes WW II mine in Baltic Sea

1956-02-25

Khrushchev denounces Stalin at 20th Soviet Party Conference

1956-10-23

Thousands of Hungarians protest against the government and Soviet occupation. (The Hungarian Revolution is crushed on November 4).

1956-10-24

Soviet troops invade Hungary, Imre Nagy becomes PM of Hungary

1956-11-02

Hungary appeals for UN assistance against Soviet invasion

1956-11-04

200,000 Russian troops attack anti-Soviet movement in Budapest, Hungary

1956-11-14

Hungarian revolt put down by Soviet invasion

1957-02-15

Andrei A Gromyko succeeds Dmitri Shepilov as Soviet foreign minister

1957-07-14

Soviet steamer "Eshghbad" sinks in Caspian Sea, drowning 270

1957-09-25

Soviet 7 year plan (1959-1965) announced

1957-10-08

Soviet spy Jack Sobel sentenced to 7 years (NYC)

1957-10-30

Soviet Union launches Sputnik II, carrying a dog named Laika

1957-11-04

2nd Soviet Earth-satellite launched

1957-11-15

US sentences Soviet spy Rudolf Ivanovich Abel to 30 years & $3,000

1958-03-27

Nikita Khrushchev becomes Soviet Premier as well as First Secretary of the Communist Party

1958-04-01

Marshal Nikolai Bulganin becomes director of Soviet State Bank

1958-08-15

Soviet Marshal Bulganin resigns as director of State Bank

1958-09-02

U.S. Air Force C-130A-II is shot down by fighters over Yerevan, Armenia when it strays into Soviet airspace while conducting a sigint mission. All crew lost.

1958-10-23

Soviet novelist Boris Pasternak, wins Nobel Prize for Literature

1959-01-28

Soviet Union wins 62-37 for 1st international basketball loss by US

1959-05-10

Soviet forces arrive in Afghanistan

1959-09-14

Soviet Union's Luna-2 is 1st spacecraft to land on the Moon

1959-09-15

Soviet Premier Khrushchev arrives in US to begin a 13-day visit

1959-09-27

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev concludes his US visit

1959-10-06

Soviet Luna 3, 1st successful photographic spacecraft, impacts Moon

1960-02-26

Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev voices support for Indonesia

1960-10-12

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe on his desk at UN General Assembly session

1961-02-13

Soviet Union fires a rocket from Sputnik V to Venus

1961-04-14

1st live television broadcast from Soviet Union

1961-06-16

Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defects to West in Paris

1961-08-07

Soviet premier Khrushchev predicts USSR economy will surpass US

1961-10-30

Soviet Union tests a 58 megaton hydrogen bomb named Tsar Bomba - most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated

1961-10-30

Soviet Party Congress unanimously approves a resolution removing Stalin's body from Lenin's tomb in Red Square

1962-03-18

Dmitri Shostakovitch becomes member of Supreme Soviet of USSR

1962-09-09

Soviet economist Liberman plead for autonomous businesses

1962-10-18

JFK meets Soviet minister of foreign affairs Andrei Gromyko

1962-10-26

JFK warns Russia that the USA will not allow Soviet missiles to remain in Cuba

1962-10-28

Cuban missile crisis: US President Kennedy receives letter from Soviet Leaderr Khrushchev suggesting agreement

1962-11-19

Fidel Castro accepts removal of Soviet weapons

1963-01-04

Soviet Luna (4) reaches Earth orbit but fails to reach Moon

1963-02-05

Soviet lunar probe failure

1963-09-20

JFK proposes a joint US-Soviet voyage to the moon

1964-10-14

Leonid Brezhnev & Alexei Kosygin replace Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev

1965-01-15

Soviet underground nuclear test creates the atomic lake Chagan, Kazakhstan

1965-04-23

Launch of 1st Soviet communications satellite

1965-11-12

Venera 2 launched by Soviet Union toward Venus

1966-02-03

1st soft landing on Moon (Soviet Luna 9)

1966-04-02

Soviet Union's Luna 10 becomes 1st spacecraft to orbit Moon

1966-05-04

Soviet government signs accord about building Fiat factory in USSR

1966-06-25

Kosmos 122, 1st Soviet weather satellite, launched

1967-10-18

Soviet Venera 4 becomes 1st probe to send data back from Venus

1968-08-20

During the night 200,00 Warsaw Pact Soviet led troops begin to invade Czechoslovakia in response to the Prague Spring

1968-08-21

Radio Prague (Czechoslovakia) at 12:50 AM announces a Soviet led invasion

1968-10-16

Czechoslovakia & Russian "accord" rules allies Soviet forces

1969-01-02

"Soviet Sport" calls Emile Zatopek a public enemy

1969-01-15

Soyuz 5 launched by Soviet Union

1969-01-16

Soviet Soyuz 4 & Soyuz 5 perform 1st transfer of crew in space

1969-03-26

Soviet weather satellite Meteor 1 launched

1969-11-12

Author Alexander Solzhenitsyn expelled from Soviet Writers Union

1970-05-24

The drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole begins in the Soviet Union.

1970-05-26

The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.

1970-09-24

Soviet Luna 16 lands on earth after 1st unmanned round trip to moon

1970-10-08

Soviet author Alexander Isayevich Solzhenitsyn wins Nobel Prize for Literature

1970-12-15

Soviet Venera 7 is 1st spacecraft to land on another planet (Venus)

1971-06-07

Soviet Soyuz 11 crew completes 1st transfer to orbiting Salyut

1971-09-13

Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet premier, buried in Moscow

1971-09-16

West German chancellor Willy Brandt meets with Soviet president Brezhnev

1971-11-27

Soviet Mars 2 becomes 1st spacecraft to crash land on Mars

1971-12-02

Soviet Mars 3 is 1st to soft land on Mars

1972-12-21

Soviet Union signs a separate peace with East Germany

1973-06-03

At Paris air show, Tupolev 144, a Soviet supersonic airliner ("Concorde-ski"), crashes, 15 killed

1973-12-28

The 'The Gulag Archipelago', a literary investigation of the police-state system in the Soviet Union written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, is published in the original Russian in Paris

1974-02-13

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian novelist and historian, is deported from the Soviet Union to Frankfurt, West Germany and stripped of his Soviet citizenship

1974-06-30

Soviet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defects to west

1974-09-19

The KGB begin a large-scale operation to discredit Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and cut his communications with Soviet dissidents

1975-10-09

Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov wins Nobel Peace Prize

1975-10-22

Soviet spacecraft Venera 9 soft-lands on Venus

1976-10-06

US Pres Gerald Ford says there is "no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe"

1976-12-18

Soviet dissident Viktor Bukovskiexchanged for Chile CP-leader Corvalan

1977-01-26

Soviet figure skaters Sergei Shakrai & Marine Tcherkasova are 1st to perform a quadruple twist lift, Helsinki

1977-09-29

Soviet space station Salyut 6 launched into Earth orbit

1977-10-07

USSR adoption of the Fourth Soviet Constitution.

1978-04-14

1978 Tbilisi Demonstrations: Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against Soviet attempts to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.

1978-07-05

Soyuz 30 spacecraft touches down in Soviet Kazakhstan

1978-07-13

Alexander Ginzburg sentenced by Soviet court to 8 years

1978-07-14

Anatoly Scharansky convicted of anti-Soviet agitation

1979-02-12

Kosmos 1076, 1st Soviet oceanographic satellite, launched

1979-06-18

US Pres Carter & Soviet Pres Leonid Brezhnev sign SALT II treaty limiting nuclear wepons

1979-08-19

Soviet Cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakov & Valery Ryumin returned to Earth aboard Soyuz 34 after a record 175 days in space

1979-11-15

British government identifies Sir Anthony Blunt, art advisor to the Queen, as 4th man in Soviet spy ring

1979-12-26

Soviet Special forces take over presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan.

1979-12-27

Soviet troops invade Afghanistan, Pres Hafizullah Amin overthrown

1980-03-08

The first festival of rock music kicks off in the Soviet Union.

1980-04-23

Soviet sub catches fire off Japan, 9 die

1980-10-23

Soviet PM Nikolai Tichonov succeeds Alexei Kosygin, due to illness

1981-08-19

2 US Navy F-14 jet fighters shoot down 2 Soviet-built Libyan SU-22

1981-10-27

The Soviet submarine U 137 runs aground on the east coast of Sweden.

1981-11-30

Cold War: 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).

1983-04-05

France throws out 47 Soviet diplomats

1983-05-03

Soviet leader Andropov decreases nuclear weapons in Europe

1983-09-01

Korean Boeing 747, flight 007, strays into Siberia & is shot down by a Soviet jet

1983-09-26

Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a worldwide nuclear war by judging missile attack from the US an error.

1984-03-21

Soviet sub crashes into USS aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk off Japan

1984-04-11

Gen Sec Konstantin U Chernenko named pres of Soviet Union

1985-03-11

Mikhail Gorbachev replaces Konstantin Chernenko as Soviet leader

1985-11-16

President Reagan arrives in Geneva for a summit with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev

1985-11-19

US President Reagan & Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for first time

1986-03-09

Soviet probe Vega 2 flies by Halley's Comet at 8,030 km

1986-03-13

Soyuz T-15 carries 2 cosmonauts to Soviet space station Mir

1986-04-27

Soviet authorities order the evacuation of the city of Pripyat (pop. 50,000) 1 day after the Chernobyl nuclear accident

1986-04-28

Soviet TV news program Vremya annouces a nuclear accident at Chernobyl nuclear power station, 2 days after the event

1986-08-30

Soviet authorities arrested Nicholas Daniloff (US News World Report)

1986-09-09

NYC jury indicts Gennadly Zakharov (Soviet UN employee) of spying

1986-09-30

US releases soviet spy Gennadiy Zakharov

1986-10-03

Soviet Yankee-class sub sinks off NC, 3 die

1987-03-20

Soviet filmmakers arrive in Hollywood for an entertainment summit

1987-12-08

US President Reagan & Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev sign a treaty eliminating medium range nuclear missiles

1988-07-07

Soviet Union launches Phobos 1 to probe Martian moon (unsuccessful)

1988-07-14

200,000 demonstrate in Soviet Armenia for incorporation of Nagorno-Karabak

1988-09-06

Crippled soviet Soyuz TM-5 lands safely with 2 cosmonauts aboard

1988-09-30

Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko retires as Soviet Foreign Minister

1988-10-01

Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and thus head of state of the Soviet Union

1988-10-26

US-Soviet effort to free 2 grey whales from frozen Arctic, Barrow, AK

1988-10-29

First scheduled Soviet shuttle launch (postponed)

1988-11-03

Soviet Union agrees to allow teaching of Hebrew

1988-11-15

Soviet space shuttle makes unmanned maiden flight (2 orbits)

1988-11-25

US & Soviet chess grand masters Donaldson & Akhmilovskaya wed

1988-12-02

5 gunmen who hijacked Soviet Aeroflot jet, surrender in Israel

1988-12-07

Gorbachev announces 10% unilateral Soviet troop reductions at UN

1988-12-29

Soviet Red Army Team edges NY Islanders, 3-2 at Nassau Coliseum

1988-12-30

Former Soviet Pres Brezhnev's son-in-law sentenced to 12-yr (bribery)

1989-01-08

Soviet Union promises to eliminate stockpiles of chemical weapons

1989-02-15

Soviet military occupation of Afgh nist n ends

1989-03-09

Soviet Union officially submits to jurisdiction of the World Court

1989-03-29

1st Soviet hockey players are permitted to play for the NHL

1989-04-07

Soviet sub sinks in Norwegian Sea, with about a dozen deaths

1989-04-17

Soviet-US agreement allows Soviets to fight US pros

1989-05-15

Soviet Pres Gorbachev in Beijing for 1st Sino-Soviet summit in 30 yrs

1989-05-16

Soviet president Mikhail S Gorbachev & Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping ended a 30-year rift when they formally met in Beijing

1989-05-25

Mikhail Gorbachev elected Executive President in the Soviet Union

1989-09-26

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze calls for total destruction of Soviet & US chemical weapons

1989-12-03

Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George H. W. Bush, declare the Cold War over

1990-01-20

Black January - crackdown of Azerbaijani pro-independence demonstrations by Soviet army in Baku.

1990-01-31

The first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow, USSR.

1990-03-14

Mikhail S Gorbachev becomes president of the Soviet Congress

1990-07-12

Boris Yeltsin quits Soviet Communist Party

1990-07-26

US beats Soviet Union 17-0 in baseball at Goodwill Games

1990-09-17

Soviet Union & Saudi Arabia restore diplomatic ties

1990-09-24

Supreme Soviet gives approval to switch to free market

1990-10-15

Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev wins Nobel Peace Prize

1990-10-27

Supreme Soviet of Kirghiz SSR chooses Askar Akayev as republic's first president.

1990-11-20

Soviet Union shows reluctance to endorse the use of force against Iraq

1990-12-04

Iraq announces it will release all 3,300 Soviet hostages

1990-12-20

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze resigns

1991-03-17

9 of 15 Soviet reps officially approve new union treaty

1991-03-19

Gorbachev says the Soviet Union will cut its oil exports by nearly half

1991-03-31

Georgian SSR votes on whether to remain in the Soviet Union

1991-03-31

Soviet Rep of Georgia endorsed independence; Warsaw Pact dissolves

1991-05-20

Soviet parliament approves law allowing citizens to travel abroad

1991-06-04

Robert Strauss becomes US ambassador to Soviet Union

1991-07-31

The Medininkai Massacre in Lithuania. Soviet OMON attacks Lithuanian customs post in Medininkai, killing 7 officers and severely wounding one other.

1991-09-21

Armenia votes on whether to remain in Soviet Union

1991-10-01

Soviet Union suspends petroleum product exports as its fuel shortages grow

1991-12-21

Soviet Union formally dissolves 11 of 12 republics sign treaty forming Commonwealth of Independent States

1992-01-01

The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic is renamed the Russian Federation, becoming the successor state to the Soviet Union.

1992-03-14

Soviet newspaper "Pravda" suspends publication

1992-10-25

Lithuania holds a referendum on its first post-Soviet constitution.

1993-09-22

Supreme Soviet dismisses president Boris Yeltsin

2001-02-18

FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He was ultimately convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

2001-06-27

Pope John Paul II beatifies 28 Ukrainian Greek Catholics, including 27 martyrs most of whom were killed by the Soviet secret police. Beatification takes place at the service in Lviv, western Ukraine during his first visit to this country.

2005-11-25

Polish Minister of National Defence Radek Sikorski opens Warsaw Pact archives to historians. Maps of possible nuclear strikes against Western Europe, as well as the possible nuclear annihilation of 43 Polish cities and 2 million of its citizens by Soviet-controlled forces, are released.

2006-11-12

The former Soviet republic of South Ossetia holds a referendum on independence from Georgia.

2007-04-27

Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.

2016-03-08

Drug in Sharapova doping case used by Soviet troops in 1980s

1875-11-07

Mikhail Kalinin, Soviet politician (d. 1946)

1877-09-11

Felix Dzerzhinsky [Iron Felix, Bloody Felix], Ivyanets, Lithuania, Soviet statesman, established and developed Soviet secret police (Cheka, forerunner to the KGB)

1878-12-18

Joseph Stalin [Josef], Gori, Russian Empire, Premier of the Soviet Union (1941-1953), (d. 1953)

1886-02-20

Bela Kun, Czehul Romania, head of Hungarian Soviet Republic (1919)

1888-04-12

Heinrich Neuhaus, Soviet musician (d. 1964)

1890-03-09

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, Soviet foreign minister (UN)

1890-03-16

Solomon Mikhoels, Soviet actor and chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (d. 1948)

1891-02-22

Vlas Chubar, Soviet politician (d. 1939)

1891-03-24

Sergey Ivanovich Vavilov, Soviet physicist (d. 1951)

1892-06-28

Edward H Carr, England, historian (History of Soviet Russia)

1893-02-21

Vsevolod Pudovkin, Soviet film director/theorist (Mother, Deserter)

1893-07-07

Vladimir Mayakovsky, Soviet Georgia, poet (Ode to Revolution)[NS=7/19]

1893-07-19

Vladimir Mayakovsky, Soviet Georgia, poet (Ode to Revolution)[OS=7/7]

1894-04-15

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, Kalinovka, Dmitriyevsky Uyezd, Kursk Governorate, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1953-64)

1895-09-23

Miron Merzhanov, Soviet architect (d. 1975)

1895-11-25

Anastas I Mikoyan, Armenia, member of Supreme Soviet

1896-01-02

Dziga Vertiv, [Denis A Kaufman], Russian director (Sjagai, Soviet!)

1897-12-02

Hovhannes Bagramyan, Marshall of the Soviet Union (d. 1982)

1899-03-18

Lavrenti Beria, chief of Soviet secret police under Stalin

1900-02-08

Ivan Ivanov-Vano Soviet animator and Russian animation director (d. 1987)

1901-07-05

Sergey Obraztsov, Soviet puppet master (d. 1992)

1902-11-08

Mihail A Suslov, Soviet-party ideologist [NS=Nov 22]

1903-01-12

Igor V Kurtshatov, Russian nuclear physicist - helped develop 1st Soviet nuclear weapon

1904-02-20

Aleksei N Kosygin, Soviet premier (1964-80)

1905-05-01

Nikolai Tikhonov, Soviet PM (1980-85)

1906-02-07

Oleg Antonov, Soviet aircraft designer (d. 1984)

1906-03-24

Klavdiya Shulzhenko, Soviet singer (d. 1984)

1906-08-01

William Hayter, Oxford, Oxfordshire, British diplomat and Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1953-1957)

1907-02-07

Yevgeniy Abalakov, Soviet mountaineer (d. 1948)

1908-03-02

Fyodor Matveyevich Okhlopkov, Yakut-born Soviet sniper (d. 1968)

1908-11-14

Harrison E Salisbury, journalist/author (50th Anniv of Soviet Union)

1910-06-21

Aleksandr Tvardovsky, Soviet poet (d. 1971)

1911-07-01

Sergei Sokolov, Soviet marshal

1912-01-01

Kim Philby, British spy/Soviet mole

1915-03-23

Vasily Zaitsev, Soviet World War II hero (d. 1991)

1915-12-16

Georgy Sviridov, Soviet neoromantic composer (The Blizzard, Time, Forward!)

1917-10-30

Nikolai Vasilievich Ogarkov, Soviet field marshal (d. 1994)

1918-03-18

Yevgeny Pepelyaev, Bodaybo, Irkutsk, Soviet Union, fighter pilot, (d. 2013)

1918-05-12

Julius Rosenberg, Soviet spy (d. 1953)

1919-04-23

Oleg Penkovsky, Soviet double-agent

1920-11-29

Yegor Ligachev, Soviet politician

1921-03-25

Aleksandr Lemberg, The Brain of Soviet Russia

1921-10-17

Maria Gorohovskaya, Soviet Gymnasts

1922-10-31

Anatoli Papanov, Soviet actor (d. 1987)

1922-12-01

Vsevolod Bobrov, Soviet ice hockey player (d. 1979)

1923-02-15

Yelena Bonner, Moscow, soviet disident/wife of Andre Sakharov

1924-02-17

Gevork Vartanian, Iran, Soviet intelligence agent (Operation Long Jump), (d. 2012)

1924-09-24

Nina Bocharova, Soviet gymnast

1924-12-06

Sergey Yablonsky, Moscow, Soviet and Russian mathematician and one of the founders of the Soviet school of mathematical cybernetics and discrete mathematics (d. 1998)

1925-12-12

Vladimir Shainsky, Soviet and Russian composer

1928-01-25

Eduard Shevardnadze, Soviet Georgia, foreign minister of USSR (-91)

1928-12-12

Chinghiz Aitmatov, Soviet-born Kyrgyz writer (Jamila)

1929-08-08

Larisa Bogoraz, Soviet dissident (d. 2004)

1929-10-22

Lev Yashin, Soviet-Russian football goalkeeper (Soviet Union 1954-1967)

1930-07-04

Yuri Tyukalov, Soviet Olympic rower

1930-10-10

Konstantin Vyrupayev, Soviet wrestler (Greco-Roman Bantamweight Olympic Gold 1956), (d. 2012)

1931-03-02

Mikhail Gorbachev, Privolnoye USSR, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1985-91)

1932-01-27

Boris Shahlin, Soviet Gymnasts

1933-06-14

Vladislav Rastorotsky, Soviet gymnastics coach

1933-09-18

Valentina Ponomaryova, Moscow, Soviet cosmonaut (Vostok 6 backup)

1935-07-19

Vasily Livanov, Russian and Soviet film actor

1935-12-05

Yury Vlasov, Soviet weightlifter

1936-01-12

Raimonds Pauls, The Soviet Story

1936-03-10

Henriks Pilipsons, The Last Soviet Movie

1937-09-11

Iosif Kobzon, Soviet singer and Russian businessman

1937-09-26

Valentin Pavlov, Soviet politician (d. 2003)

1937-11-06

Esko Salminen, The Finnish-Soviet Propaganda War 1941-1944

1938-01-23

Anatoly Marchenko, Siberia, Soviet dissident

1939-05-26

Merab Kostava, Georgian anti-Soviet leader

1939-11-26

Igor Klass, The Last Soviet Movie

1940-03-09

Rick Borowski, Air Superiority: U.S./Soviet Fighter Matchup

1940-05-15

Ivars Vigners, The Last Soviet Movie

1941-03-08

Andrei Mironov, Soviet actor (d. 1987)

1941-06-16

Aldrich Ames, CIA officer and spy for the Soviet Union

1942-05-14

Valeriy Brumel, Soviet athlete (d. 2003)

1942-12-30

Vladimir Bukovsky, The Soviet Story

1943-08-08

Yuliy Gusman, Soviet Park

1947-12-09

Jaak Jõerüüt, Soviet-born Estonian politician

1948-07-27

Peggy Fleming, Peggy Fleming Visits the Soviet Union

1949-03-12

Natalia Kuchinskaya, Soviet gymnast

1949-08-03

Valeri Vasiliev, Gorky Soviet Union, ice hockey defenceman (2x oly gold), (d. 2012)

1953-05-19

Shavarsh Karapetyan, Soviet Armenian finswimmer

1953-12-14

René Eespere, Soviet-born Estonian composer

1954-05-28

Youri Egorov, Soviet classical pianist (d.1988)

1955-06-11

Yuriy Sedykh, Soviet hammer thrower

1957-03-11

Elena Donaldson-Akhmilovskaya, Leningrad, Soviet Union, Chess Grandmaster, (d. 2012)

1957-07-29

Nellie Kim, Shurab, Tajik SSR, Soviet gymnast (Olympic-3 golds-1976)

1957-08-07

Alexander Dityatin, Leningrad, Russia, Soviet gymnast (3-time Olympic Champion)

1957-10-04

Alexander Tkachyov, Soviet gymnast

1958-01-10

Anatoly Pisarenko, Soviet weightlifter

1958-04-05

Sam Organ, Soviet War Scare 1983

1961-07-19

Maria Filatova, Soviet gymnast

1961-07-28

Alexander Kurlovitch, Soviet weightlifter

1961-12-11

Dzintars Belogrudovs, The Last Soviet Movie

1963-01-18

Yury Zakharevich, Soviet weightlifter

1965-01-26

Natalia Yurchenko, Soviet gymnast

1966-12-17

Valeri Liukin, Soviet gymnast

1966-12-22

Dmitry Bilozerchev, Soviet gymnast

1967-03-23

Aleksandrs Petukhovs, The Last Soviet Movie

1967-04-27

Aleksandr Lazarev, Soviet Park

1967-12-21

Mikhail Saakashvili, Soviet-born President of Georgia

1969-02-18

Alexander Mogilny, Khavarovsk, 1st soviet to defect to NHL (Sabres)

1973-02-09

Svetlana Boginskaya, Soviet gymnast

1992-07-31

Kerry Blanc, Private Specials 102: Extreme Soviet Sluts 6

1996-04-12

Susan Gordon, Private Specials 102: Extreme Soviet Sluts 6

1906-07-28

Soviet Union Premier Joseph Stalin (27) weds Ekaterina Svanidze (21) at St. David's Church in Tiflis

1926-07-20

Felix Dzerzhinsky [Iron Felix, Bloody Felix], Soviet statesman, established and developed Soviet secret police (Cheka, forerunner to the KGB), dies at 48

1927-06-07

Voikov, Soviet ambassador to Warsaw, murdered

1937-06-12

Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Marshal of the Soviet Union (b. 1893)

1938-07-29

Nikolai Krylenko, Russian/Soviet jurist and politician (b. 1885)

1938-11-09

Vasily Blyukher, Soviet military commander (b.1889)

1940-02-04

Nikolai Yezhov, Head of Soviet NKVD (b. 1895)

1942-10-08

Sergei Chaplygin, Soviet engineer

1946-06-03

Michail I Kalinin, Pres (Supreme Soviet), dies at 60

1953-03-05

Joseph Stalin, Premier of the Soviet Union (1941-53), dies at 73

1953-12-23

Lavrenti P Beria, soviet minister of internal security, executed

1963-08-30

Guy Burgess, English-born Soviet spy (b. 1911)

1964-05-17

Otto V Kuusinen, pres of Karelo-Finnish soviet rep (1940-56), dies 82

1964-10-10

Heinrich Neuhaus, Soviet pianist (b. 1888)

1968-05-28

Fyodor Matveyevich Okhlopkov, Yakut-born Soviet sniper (b. 1908)

1969-01-16

Jan Palach, protesting Soviet invasion of Czech, self immolates at 20

1971-06-30

Georgi T Dobrovolsky, Soviet cosmonaut (Soyuz 11-land accident), dies at 43

1971-11-15

Rudolf Abel, Soviet spy (b. 1903)

1977-12-05

Aleksandr Vasilevsky, Soviet military commander (b. 1895)

1980-12-18

Alexei N Kosygin, Soviet PM (1964-80), suffers heart attack at 76

1981-08-27

Valery Kharlamov, Soviet ice hockey player (b. 1948)

1982-01-25

Mihail A Suslov, Soviet party ideologist, dies at 79

1982-09-21

Hovhannes Bagramyan, Soviet general (b. 1897)

1982-11-10

Leonid Ilich Brezhnev, Soviet 1st sect, dies of a heart attack at 77

1983-05-29

Arvīds Pelše, Soviet Latvian statesman (b. 1899)

1984-02-09

Yuri Andropov, Gen Sec of Soviet Communist Party (1982-84), dies at 69

1984-04-04

Oleg Antonov, Soviet airplane engineer (b. 1906)

1984-08-25

Viktor Chukarin, Soviet gymnast (b. 1921)

1985-11-25

Aleksandr Lemberg, The Brain of Soviet Russia

1988-04-15

Youri Egorov, Soviet classical pianist (b. 1954)

1989-07-03

Andrei Gromyko, Soviet diplomat, dies just short of his 80th birthday

1990-03-20

Lev Yashin, Soviet footballer (b. 1929)

1990-06-05

Vasily V Kuznetsov, pres of USSR supreme soviet (1982-83, 85), dies

1991-08-25

Sergei Ajromeiev, soviet general, commits suicide

1992-05-25

Viktor Grishin, hardline soviet communist, dies at 78, dies

1993-07-18

Vladimir Pavlovich Barmin, Chief designer of Soviet launch pads, dies

1993-12-29

Frunzik Mkrtchyan, Soviet Armenian actor (b. 1930)

1994-01-17

Yevgeny Ivanov, Soviet spy involved in the Profumo affair (b. 1926)

1997-04-07

Georgi Shonin, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1935)

1997-06-01

Nikolai Tikhonov, Soviet PM (1980-85), dies at 92

1998-01-05

Georgi Sviridov, Soviet neoromantic composer, dies of a heart attack at 82

1998-02-28

Arkady Shevchenko, Soviet diplomat (b. 1930)

1998-05-26

Sergey Yablonsky, Soviet and Russian mathematician and one of the founders of the Soviet school of mathematical cybernetics and discrete mathematics, dies at 73

1998-12-18

Lev Demin, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1926)

2001-07-22

Maria Gorohovskaya, Soviet Gymnasts

2001-10-10

Vasily Mishin, Soviet rocket designer (b. 1917)

2003-01-12

Allan Nunn May, English physicist and Soviet spy (b. 1911)

2003-01-26

Valeriy Brumel, Soviet Olympic athlete (b. 1942)

2003-03-30

Valentin Pavlov, Prime Minister of the Soviet Union (b. 1937)

2004-04-06

Larisa Bogoraz, Soviet dissident (b. 1929)

2004-07-03

Andrian Nikolayev, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1929)

2007-06-16

Mikhail Kononov, Soviet actor (b. 1940)

2007-06-27

Ivars Vigners, The Last Soviet Movie

2008-01-10

Mikhail Minin, Russian Soviet soldier (b. 1922)

2008-05-30

Boris Shahlin, Soviet Gymnasts

2008-06-10

Chinghiz Aitmatov, Kyrgyzstani-Soviet writer, dies of lung and kidney failure at 79

2008-12-09

Yuri Glazkov, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1939)

2009-03-29

Vladimir Fedotov, Soviet football striker and manager (b.1943)

2009-09-29

Pavel Popovich, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1930)

2009-11-21

Konstantin Feoktistov, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1926)

2010-04-14

Sam Organ, Soviet War Scare 1983

2010-09-24

Gennady Yanayev, Soviet politician (b. 1937)

2011-12-14

Boris Chertok, prominent Soviet and Russian rocket engineer, dies at 99

2012-01-10

Gevork Vartanian, Soviet intelligence agent, dies at 87

2012-10-31

Konstantin Vyrupayev, Soviet wrestler, dies at 82

2013-01-04

Yevgeny Pepelyaev, Soviet fighter pilot, dies at 94

2013-01-16

Yevdokiya Mekshilo, Soviet skier, dies at 81

2013-02-01

Vladimir Yengibaryan, soviet boxer, dies at 80

2013-03-26

Yury Rudov, Soviet fencer, dies at 82

2013-05-13

Vladimir Romanovsky, Soviet sprint canoer, dies at 56

2013-12-18

Esko Salminen, The Finnish-Soviet Propaganda War 1941-1944

2014-04-17

Rick Borowski, Air Superiority: U.S./Soviet Fighter Matchup

2014-10-21

Henriks Pilipsons, The Last Soviet Movie

2016-04-28

Legend of Soviet Cold War era political journalism Valentin Zorin dies aged 91

2016-06-07

Victor Korchnoi, chess grandmaster who defected from Soviet Union, dies aged 85

2016-11-04

Famous Soviet-era clown Oleg Popov dies at 86

2017-01-05

Soviet cosmonaut Igor Volk dies aged 79

2017-03-25

Legendary Soviet Test Pilot Stepan Mikoyan Dies Aged 94

2017-06-20

Soviet actor and director Aleksey Batalov dies aged 88