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.
1917 Cheka, the first Soviet secret police, is founded.
1918 The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar (on 1 February according to the Julian calendar).
1920 Azerbaijan is added to the Soviet Union.
1920 Part of Petsamo Province is ceded by the Soviet Union to Finland.
1921 The second Peace of Riga between Poland and Soviet Union.
1922 The Treaty of Rapallo, pursuant to which Germany and the Soviet Union re-establish diplomatic relations, is signed.
1922 The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed.
1924 The United Kingdom recognizes the USSR.
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.
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.
1924 Diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Soviet Union are established.
1924 The Georgian opposition stages the August Uprising against the Soviet Union.
1924 The Uzbek SSR is founded in the Soviet Union.
1925 Diplomatic relations between Japan and the Soviet Union are established.
1925 The most famous Young Pioneer camp of the USSR, Artek, is established.
1925 Secret agent Sidney Reilly is executed by the OGPU, the secret police of the Soviet Union.
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.
1927 Metropolitan Sergius proclaims the declaration of loyalty of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Soviet Union.
1927 Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union.
1928 The Soviet Union introduces its First Five-Year Plan.
1929 The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky.
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.
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.
1931 ''Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR'', abbreviated as ''GTO'', is introduced in the Soviet Union.
1931 France and the Soviet Union sign a neutrality/no attack treaty.
1931 France and Soviet Union sign a treaty of non-aggression.
1933 Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Spain are established.
1933 Yevgeniy Abalakov is the first man to reach the highest point in the Soviet Union, Communism Peak (now called Ismoil Somoni Peak and situated in Tajikistan) (7495 m).
1933 United States recognizes Soviet Union.
1934 The Candidate of Science degree is established in the USSR.
1934 The Soviet steamship ''Cheliuskin'' sinks in the Arctic Ocean.
1934 In the Soviet Union, Politburo member Sergei Kirov is shot dead by Leonid Nikolayev at the Communist Party headquarters in Leningrad.
1935 Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Colombia are established.
1935 The world's first children's railway opens in Tbilisi, USSR.
1935 ''Pravda'' publishes a letter by Pavel Postyshev, who revives New Year tree tradition in the Soviet Union.
1936 In Berlin, Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, agreeing to consult on measures "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.
1936 The Soviet Union adopts a new constitution and the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic is established as a full Union Republic of the USSR.
1936 The Soviet Union adopts a new constitution and the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic is established as a full Union Republic of the USSR.
1937 Great Purge: The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin executes eight army leaders.
1939 World War II: 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.
1939 World War II: The Soviet Union joins Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland during the Polish Defensive War of 1939.
1939 Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland after their invasion during World War II.
1939 Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland.
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.
1940 The Yermolayev Yer-2, a long-range Soviet medium bomber, has its first flight.
1940 The Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Lithuania resulting in Lithuanian loss of independence.
1940 The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fall under the occupation of the Soviet Union.
1940 World War II: under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Romania requiring it to cede Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina.
1940 Romania cedes Bessarabia (current-day Moldova) to the Soviet Union.
1940 The United States' Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles issues a declaration on the U.S. non-recognition policy of the Soviet annexation and incorporation of three Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
1940 World War II: the Soviet Union formally annexes Latvia.
1941 Pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed.
1941 June deportation, the first major wave of Soviet mass deportations and murder of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians, begins.
1941 Germany invades the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. The Soviet 22 June Song is dedicated to this day.
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 will occupy Lithuania a few weeks later.
1941 Soviet leader Joseph Stalin consolidates the Commissariats of Home Affairs and National Security to form the NKVD and names Lavrenti Beria its chief.
1941 World War II: Siege of Leningrad begins. German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad.
1941 World War II: concerned that Reza Pahlavi the Shah of Persia is about to ally his petroleum-rich empire with Nazi Germany during World War II, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union invade Iran in late August and force the Shah to abdicate in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
1941 World War II: In their invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany reaches the Sea of Azov with the capture of Mariupol.
1941 World War II: Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov takes command of Red Army operations to prevent the further advance into Russia of German forces and to prevent the Wehrmacht from capturing Moscow.
1941 World War II: 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.
1941 World War II: The United Kingdom declares war on Finland in support of the Soviet Union during the Continuation War.
1942 Diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and the Soviet Union are established.
1942 World War II: 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 were to be immediately executed.
1942 The Soviet Union establishes diplomatic relations with Australia.
1944 The Soviet Union begins the forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from the North Caucasus to Central Asia.
1944 Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union government.
1944 World War II: the Soviet Union invades East Karelia and the previously Finnish part of Karelia, occupied by Finland since 1941.
1944 World War II: Romania is captured by the Soviet Union.
1944 World War II: The Fatherland Front takes power in Bulgaria through a military coup in the capital and armed rebellion in the country. A new pro-Soviet government is established.
1944 Armistice between Finland and Soviet Union is signed. (End of the Continuation War).
1944 Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia.
1945 The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
1945 Soviet forces capture the almost completely destroyed Polish city of Warsaw.
1945 World War II: The ''Wilhelm Gustloff'', overfilled with refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, leading to the deadliest known maritime disaster, killing approximately 9,000 people.
1945 World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań. The city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
1945 World War II: Soviet Union forces invade Austria and take Vienna; Polish and Soviet forces liberate Gdańsk.
1945 Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Brazil are established.
1945 Cold War: Yugoslav leader Josip "Tito" Broz signs an agreement with the Soviet Union to allow "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory".
1945 Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Guatemala are established.
1945 World War II: US troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.
1945 World War II: Soviet Union forces south of Berlin at Zossen attack the German High Command headquarters.
1945 World War II: Fuehrerbunker: After learning that Soviet forces have taken Eberswalde without a fight, Adolf Hitler admits defeat in his underground bunker and states that suicide is his only recourse.
1945 Elbe Day: United States and Soviet troops meet in Torgau along the River Elbe, cutting the ''Wehrmacht'' of Nazi Germany in two, a milestone in the approaching end of World War II in Europe.
1945 World War II: Fuehrerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for one day. Soviet soldiers raise the Victory Banner over the Reichstag building.
1945 World War II: Fall of Berlin: The Soviet Union announces the capture of Berlin and Soviet soldiers hoist their red flag over the ''Reichstag'' building.
1945 Carpathian Ruthenia is annexed by the Soviet Union.
1945 World War II: the leaders of the three Allied nations, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill, President of the United States Harry S Truman and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, meet in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.
1945 World War II: the Soviet Union declares war on Japan and begins the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation.
1945 Cold War: Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet Union embassy clerk, defects to Canada, exposing Soviet espionage in North America, signalling the beginning of the Cold War.
1945 Cold War: United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier.
1946 Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).
1946 Diplomatic relations between Switzerland and the Soviet Union are established.
1946 Estonian school girls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial that preceded the Bronze Soldier in Tallinn.
1946 Soviet Union established diplomatic relations with Argentina.
1946 The first in Europe artificial, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was initiated within Soviet nuclear reactor F-1.
1947 A meteor creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin, in the Soviet Union.
1947 The Voice of America begins transmitting radio broadcasts to the Soviet Union.
1947 The AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union.
1947 King Michael of Romania is forced to abdicate by the Soviet Union-backed Communist government of Romania.
1948 Cold War: Berlin Airlift – Military forces, under direction of the Russian-controlled government in East Germany, set-up a land blockade of West Berlin. * 1948
1948 Start of the Berlin Blockade: the Soviet Union makes overland travel between West Germany and West Berlin impossible.
1948 The Western allies begin an airlift to Berlin after the Soviet Union blockades West Berlin.
1948 U.S. President Harry S. Truman issues a peacetime military draft in the United States amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union.
1948 Whittaker Chambers accuses Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union.
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 deport more than 92,000 people from the Baltics to remote areas of the Soviet Union.
1949 The Soviet Union lifts its blockade of Berlin.
1949 Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as ''First Lightning'' or ''Joe 1'', at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
1949 The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic are established.
1950 The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China sign a mutual defense treaty.
1950 Cold War: Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union by disclosing top secret atomic bomb data.
1950 Cold War: The Soviet Union issues a statement denying that Klaus Fuchs served as a Soviet spy.
1950 Cold War: The Soviet Union issues a statement denying that Klaus Fuchs served as a Soviet spy.
1950 Cold War: In Philadelphia, Harry Gold pleads guilty to spying for the Soviet Union by passing secrets from atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs.
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.
1953 The Soviet Union breaks off diplomatic relations with Israel.
1953 East Germany Workers Uprising: in East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.
1953 Nuclear weapons testing: the Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of ''Joe 4'', the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.
1953 The Soviet Union publicly acknowledges that it had tested a hydrogen bomb.
1955 The Soviet Union ends state of war with Germany.
1955 Cold War: Eight communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.
1955 The USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration and thus normalize relations between both countries, discontinued since 1948.
1955 Mir Mine, the first diamond mine in the USSR, is discovered.
1956 In his speech ''On the Personality Cult and its Consequences'' Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union denounces the cult of personality of Joseph Stalin.
1956 Thousands of Hungarians protest against the government and Soviet occupation. (The Hungarian Revolution is crushed on November 4).
1956 Soviet troops enter Hungary to end the Hungarian revolution against the Soviet Union, that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded, and nearly a quarter million leave the country.
1957 Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches ''Sputnik 2.'' On board is the first animal to enter orbit, a dog named Laika.
1958 The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days.
1958 The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.
1958 United States Air Force C-130A-II is shot down by fighters over Yerevan in Armenia when it strays into Soviet airspace while conducting a sigint mission. All crew members are killed.
1959 The Soviet Union launches a large rocket, Lunik II, at the moon.
1959 Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the United States.
1960 The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 4.
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.
1960 Francis Gary Powers is charged with espionage resulting from his flight over the Soviet Union.
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.
1960 Cold War: in Moscow, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage.
1960 Nikita Khrushchev, leader of Soviet Union, disrupts a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly with a number of angry outbursts.
1960 Cold War: Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at United Nations General Assembly meeting to protest a Philippine assertion of Soviet Union colonial policy being conducted in Eastern Europe
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
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.
1961 In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin's body is removed from Lenin's Tomb.
1962 Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
1962 Cuban missile crisis: Adlai Stevenson shows photos at the UN proving Soviet missiles are installed in Cuba.
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.
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.
1963 The Soviet nuclear powered submarine K-33 collides with the Finnish merchant vessel M/S ''Finnclipper'' in the Danish straits.
1963 The so-called "red telephone" is established between the Soviet Union and the United States following the Cuban Missile Crisis.
1963 The British Government admits that former diplomat Kim Philby had worked as a Soviet agent.
1963 The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union sign a nuclear test ban treaty.
1963 The Hotline between the leaders of the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union goes into operation.
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
1964 Cold War: 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".
1965 Turkish prime minister Suat Hayri Urguplu returns from a visit to Moscow and announces the Soviet Union will provide aid to his country.
1965 Venera program: The Soviet Union launches the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus, the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.
1966 The Soviet Union launches the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft as part of the Luna program.
1966 The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
1966 The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
1967 Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Ivory Coast are established.
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.
1969 The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5.
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.
1969 Soviet and Chinese forces clash at a border outpost on the Ussuri River.
1969 Venera program: Soviet ''Venera 6'' begins its descent into the atmosphere of Venus, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure.
1969 Cold War: 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.
1970 The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.
1970 The domestic Soviet Aeroflot Flight 244 is hijacked and diverted to Turkey.
1970 Soviet Union enters ICAO, making Russian the fourth official language of organization.
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.
1971 Eighty-seven countries, including the US, UK, and USSR, sign the Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons in international waters.
1971 Mars probe program: ''Mars 2'' is launched by the Soviet Union.
1971 The crew of the Soviet ''Soyuz 11'' spacecraft are killed when their air supply escapes through a faulty valve.
1971 The Soviet Union says it will support the People's Republic of China's admission to the United Nations
1972 The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
1972 The United States suffers its first loss of an international basketball game in a disputed match against the Soviet Union at Munich, Germany.
1973 A Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashes near Goussainville, France, killing 14, the first crash of a supersonic passenger aircraft.
1973 Soviet Mars 5 space probe launched.
1973 The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Gabon are established.
1973 Soviet Soyuz Programme: ''Soyuz 13'', crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union.
1974 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1970, is exiled from the Soviet Union.
1974 Portugal and the Soviet Union establish diplomatic relations.
1974 U.S president Richard Nixon visits the U.S.S.R..
1974 Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Soviet Union to Canada while on tour with Bolshoi Ballet.
1975 The Soyuz 17 Soviet spacecraft returns to Earth.
1975 The Tupolev Tu-144 goes into service in Soviet Union.
1976 Cold War: Soviet air force pilot Lt. Viktor Belenko lands a MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate on the island of Hokkaidō in Japan and requests political asylum in the United States.
1978 Korean Air Flight 902 is shot down by Soviets.
1978 The Soviet Union signs a "friendship treaty" with the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
1979 SALT II is signed by the United States and the Soviet Union.
1979 Two Soviet Aeroflot jetliners collide in mid-air over Ukraine, killing 156
1979 Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the United States.
1979 Soviet Union invades Afghanistan
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.
1981 The Soviet submarine ''U 137'' runs aground on the east coast of Sweden.
1981 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).
1982 In the Soviet Union, Yuri Andropov becomes the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding Leonid I. Brezhnev.
1982 Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border.
1983 American schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war.
1983 Cold War: Samantha Smith, a U.S. schoolgirl, flies to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Secretary General Yuri Andropov.
1983 Cold War: Korean Air Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspace. All 269 on board die, including Congressman Lawrence McDonald.
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.
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.
1984 The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.
1985 Garry Kasparov 22, of the Soviet Union becomes the youngest World Chess Champion by beating Anatoly Karpov, also of the Soviet Union.
1985 Cold War: In Geneva, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time.
1986 The Soviet liner {{MS|Mikhail Lermontov||6}} runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.
1986 The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for 10 of those years.
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.
1986 United States Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth is sentenced to 365 years imprisonment for espionage for the Soviet Union.
1986 The Soviet passenger liner {{Ship||Admiral Nakhimov|ship|6}} sinks in the Black Sea after colliding with the bulk carrier ''Pyotr Vasev'', killing 423.
1986 Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife from internal exile in Gorky.
1987 19-year-old West German pilot Mathias Rust evades Soviet Union air defenses and lands a private plane in the Red Square in Moscow. He is immediately detained and will not be released until August 3, 1988.
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.
1988 Abdul Ahad Mohmand, the first Afghan in space, returns aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz TM-5 after 9 days on the Mir space station.
1988 In the Soviet Union, the unmanned Shuttle ''Buran'' is launched on her first and last space flight.
1989 Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet armoured column leaves Kabul.
1989 Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan: The Soviet Union officially announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan.
1989 Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations.
1989 An official news agency in the Soviet Union reports the landing of a UFO in Voronezh.
1989 The European Community and the Soviet Union sign an agreement on trade and commercial and economic cooperation.
1990 The first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow.
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 moved to June 3.
1990 Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
1990 Transnistria is unilaterally proclaimed a Soviet republic; the Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev declares the decision null and void.
1991 Soviet Union military troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius. Killed 14 people and wounding 1000.
1991 In two concurring referendums: 74% of the population of Latvia votes for independence from the Soviet Union, in stonia
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.
1991 Estonia, annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, issues a decision on the re-establishment of independence on the basis of historical continuity of her pre-World War II statehood.
1991 Latvia declares renewal of its full independence after the occupation of Soviet Union.
1991 Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.
1991 Belarus declares its independence from the Soviet Union
1991 Moldova declares independence from the USSR.
1991 Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
1991 Uzbekistan declares independence from the Soviet Union
1991 The Soviet Union recognizes the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
1991 Tajikstan gains independence from the Soviet Union.
1991 Turkmenistan achieves independence from the Soviet Union.
1991 Cold War: Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union.
1991 The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sign an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.
1991 Russian Federation gains independence from the USSR.
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.
1991 The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the USSR.
1991 All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date and the Soviet Union is officially dissolved.
1992 Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics become members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
1994 Former Central Intelligence Agency counter-intelligence officer and analyst Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia.
1995 Armenia adopts its constitution, four years after their independence from the Soviet Union
2001 FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
2005 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.
2007 Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.