Creation of the Politburo

(1917)
THE POLITBURO PARTY WAS FIRST CREATED IN RUSSIA IN ORDER TO MAKE
UP A STRONG AND CONTINUOUS THROUGHOUT THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION.
IT INCLUDED THE USSR, EAST GERMANY, AFGHANISTAN, CHINA AND
CZECHOSLOVAKIA, AND OTHERS. THE FIRST POLITBURO CONSISTED OF
LENIN, TROTSKY, KRESTINSKY, KAMENEV, AND STALIN. THIS MADE IT SO
THE SUPREME COURT POLITICAL BODY OF THE SOVIETS WAS STILL
ENTIRELY SEVERED FROM ANY DEMOCRACY OF THE WORKING CLASS.

Russian Civil War (1918-1920)

The Civil War occurred because after the November Revolution of 1917,
many groups began to oppose Lenins Bolsheviks. They were known as
the Whites, while the Bolsheviks were known as the Reds. The whites
consisted of monarchists, militarist, and for a shorter period, some foreign
nations. During the Civil War, the Soviet regime also had to deal with
struggles for independence in regions that it had given up under the Treaty
of Brest-Litovsk. For the years this was going on, it intimately tour Russia
apart.

Stalins Five Year Plans (1928)

This was the several plans made to produce and increase the
development of the national economy of the Soviet Union. Before these
plans, the USSR was receiving threats from external and internal sources.
The war scale rose when many Western nations proceeded to cut off
diplomatic relations with the Soviets. They began to worry that the West
was going to soon attack them again, and with this and many other
problems arising at this time, Stalin had to come up with a plan for their
industry to improve. Following the Five year plan, there happened to
become extreme industrialization for the Soviet Union, and from this a
whole new working class emerged in the region.

World War II (1939-1945)

As world war II began, the Soviet union had a non-aggression pact with
Germany, including secret protocols, dividing the whole eastern Europe
into Germany and Soviet spheres of influence. This was under Stalins
rule. Later in June 1944, Germany began to invade the Soviet Union. First,
Stalin ignored reports of their invasions, but later decided that they could
take and go against them. The Soviet Union was in no way prepared for
this war against Germany, they lost many soldiers and did much damage
to their country afterwards, which put Russia at a big loss as a nation.

Joe I (1949)
Led by Igor Kurchatov, the soviet effort took place at a secret location,
known as Arzamas-16. After the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the
program increased a large amount. The Joe-1 was a replica of the Fat Man
bomb and was named by the West, it went off on August 29, 1949, and its
estimated yield was 22 kilotons. This bomb made Russia look strong, and
completely powerful. Also, it showed the world that any industrial nation
could construct an atomic bomb even with the shock they experienced, but
the Soviets did not test another bomb for the next two years.

Hydrogen Bomb (1953)

The first hydrogen bomb of the Soviet Union was detonated on August 12,
1953. The work on this bomb went on many years, even three years
before the first atomic bomb was set off in Russia. Unlike the development
of the atomic bomb, the hydrogen bomb was a soviet-original design. The
United States tested their first version of this bomb in the Spring of 1954,
while the Soviets had done theirs on November 22, 1955. This bomb was
named the most powerful of them all, and became a by-product of wars.

Warsaw Pact (1955)

This pact was formally the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation, and Mutual
Assistance, and was a collective defense treaty for eight communist states
of central and eastern Europe during the period of the Cold War. This
became a part of Soviet military reaction to events, but was mainly
motivated by Soviets desire to maintain control over military forces in
central and eastern Europe.Though it was stressed by all that the Warsaw
Treaty was based on total equality of each nation and mutual noninterference in one another's internal affairs, the Pact quickly became a
powerful political tool for the Soviet Union to hold sway over its allies and
harness the powers of their combined military.

Laika and Sputnik 3 (1957)

Laika is known to be the first Soviet space dog and was the first animal in
space/the first animal to orbit the earth. She was a stray dog found on the
streets of Moscow, and was trained to go up into space. Her survival was
not something people were expecting, in fact, many believed that some
humans would not even survive the trip. Within hours, Laika died of
overheating, however details of her death werent specified until 2002. She
was put on the spacecraft Sputnik 2, which would later become Sputnik 3.
This put Russia at a high advantage during the space race for beating the
United States to this challenge.

Sputnik (1957)
Sputnik was the worlds first ever Earth satellite. The Soviet Union
launched it on October 4, 1957, and it was visible all around the Earth with
radio pulses that were detectable. This success came as a surprise, and is
what actually initiated the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the
United States. This satellite by itself provided scientists with a lot of new
information such as the density of the upper atmosphere being deducted
from its drags it left on the orbit, and the success put the Soviet Union as a
region looking good.

Creation of the Berlin Wall (1961)

The Berlin Wall is known as a barrier that existed from the period 1961 to
1989. It cut off the West Berlin from surrounding East Berlin and East
Berlin until it was reopened. For Russia, this left a strain on their
relationship with Europe.

1968 Invasion Of Czechoslovakia

On the date August 20, 1968, The Soviet Union led their
Warsaw Pact troops through the streets to invade
Czechoslovakia in hopes of cracking down on reformist trends
in Prague. Although this was a success, the Soviet Union had
not realized that consequences for the unity of the communist
bloc would occur.

SALT I (1969)
Salt stands for Strategic Arms Limitation Talk which was a
bilateral talk and international treaties between the Soviet
Union and the United States on the Cold War superpowers
and the problem of armament control. This led to the AntiBallistic Missile Treaty and an agreement between these two
nations. This helped the Russian country because it put both
of the countries to work together and be friendly.

SALT II (1972)
This is the second bilateral talk between the United States and
the Soviet Union. This had a goal of curtail the manufacture of
nuclear weapons. It was led to representatives of both
countries, and became the first nuclear arms treaty. It helped
the United States discourage from arming their third
generation, and banned new missile programs.

Soviet- Afghan War (1979)

Starting in 1979 and lasting about nine years, the SovietAfghan war was part of the Cold war, this war was when the
USSR entered neighboring Afghanistan and attempted to
shore up the newly established pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
The Soviets took full control over major cities and highways.
There was broad rebellion, but also many supporters.

Gorbachev becomes Leader(1985)

Becoming the last and eighth leader of the soviet union,
Gorbachev was a part of the communist party, and was very
active within it. He became the leader in 1985, and he created
many policies such as glasnost, perestroika. He summoned
conferences between the United States and the Soviet Union,
and his goals led to the end of the cold war. He made the
USSR much stronger with these policies and reforms, and
was granted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

Glasnost (1986)
This was a policy put into place by Gorbachev, and was created in order for there to
be an increase in openness and transparency in government institution. It allowed
people to have more freedoms, and unimprisoned people who were doing time for
disobeying the government, and even let them write books. It put the people in a
new position, and even made the USSR move better.

Perestroika (1986)
This was too created by Gorbachev, and was a political
movement for reforming the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union. It meant to make new and better reformation of USSR
political and economic systems.

Chernobyl Disaster (1986)

This was a huge nuclear accident that occurred at the
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, which happened
to be under jurisdiction of the central authorities of the Soviet
Union. An explosion and fire released large quantities of
radioactive particles into the atmosphere that began to spread
all over the western USSR and Europe.

Voting Reforms by Gorbachev (1987)

Gorbachev embarked on a series of multiple reforms for six
years in efforts to try to make great changes to the Soviet
Union. After much hard work and great ideas however, it was
evident that Gorbachev wasnt able to handle the reforms he
had made, which led to chaos, which unfortunately,
contributed to the demise of the USSR.

Free Elections in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary

(1989)
Gorbachev decided in in 1989 that it would be best to make the
poles in these three nations were free to determine their future
on their own. He believed that the communist leaders of the
Warsaw Pact countries should try hanging onto power by
being good communists, and this is by winning the support of
the masses. He also believed that they werent worth holding
onto, and that their cost of the USSR was too much.

Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989)

As the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the
spokesman for East Berlins Communist party proceeded to
announce that a change in his his cities relationship with the
West was soon to come. After strain had been put on the city
and caused much more tension that anticipated, the wall was
to come down, and people were allowed to pass the border as
they pleased. It was a huge celebration for the USSR.

Lithuania and Latvia Protests (1989)

These protests were a peaceful political demonstration that
occurred on August 23rd, 1989. Around two million people
joined in for this, and it was in order to form a human chain
spanning across the three Baltic states. It marked the 50th
anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that was between
the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The Soviet government
reacted to the event with much rhetoric, but failed to take any
constructive actions that could bring the widening gap
between the Baltic states and the Soviet Union, and Lithuania
was the first to declare indepence from the USSR.

Gorbachev Steps Down

After being the leader for almost seven years and executive
president for around two, Gorbachev had stepped down in
office in 1991. He stated that he was doing this in a 10 minute
speech he did on television. He stated Due to the situation
which has evolved as a result of the formation of the
Commonwealth of Independent states I hereby discontinue
my activities at the post of president of Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics. This was good because Gorbachev had
left office after doing much work the soviet union to make it
more of a free country.

Boris Yeltsin becomes President

First a supporter of Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin emerged into
power under perestroika reforms as the one of his most
powerful political opponents. He vowed to transmit Russia
socialist command economy and make it into a free market
economy and implemented economic shock therapy,etc. He
failed, and was the reason for the fall of the USSR.

Why the Soviet Union Collapsed

I believe that the Soviet Union collapsed because Gorbachev
left office and everything began to fall apart without him. Other
nations were fighting for their own freedom, and the Soviet
Union didnt have control over any of them anymore. I dont
think that the Soviet Union would have survived because the
group was beginning to fall apart, and no matter what they
could have planned to do to keep the Soviet Union alive, I
dont believe that it could ever be the way that it use to.