Mikhail Gorbachev Timeline

Mikhail Gorbachev 44

1932 – 1933 Famine in Stavropol kills half the village Gorbachev was an infant, and lost two aunts and an uncle Both his grandfathers were later arrested in the purges. He learned about the system early.
1949 Gorbachev wins the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Aged 18, for a record grain harvest driving a combine with his father The medal got a peasant's son from Stavropol into Moscow State University.
1953 Gorbachev marries Raisa Titarenko A philosophy student at Moscow State The first Soviet leader's wife to be visible in public, and his closest adviser for 46 years.
1955 Gorbachev graduates in law One of very few Soviet leaders with a legal training He went back to Stavropol rather than stay in Moscow, and rose through the regional party.
1961 Berlin Wall Erection Division of Berlin A wall built by the GDR to separate East and West Berlin, becoming a global symbol of the Iron Curtain.
1970 Gorbachev becomes first secretary of Stavropol Running an agricultural region of 2.4 million people at 39 The spa towns in his region meant a steady stream of visiting Politburo members.
1978 Gorbachev is brought to Moscow Central Committee secretary for agriculture Andropov, a fellow Stavropol man, was his patron.
1980 Gorbachev joins the Politburo At 49, its youngest member by twenty years Three general secretaries died in the next four and a half years.
1985 – 1991 Gorbachev in power Glasnost, Perestroika and the collapse of the USSR — 1985 to 1991 Gorbachev became Soviet leader on March 11, 1985 and resigned on December 25, 1991, the day the Soviet Union was dissolved. His reforms of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) inadvertently unleashed forces that ended the Cold War and dissolved the USSR.
1985 Acceleration is announced Uskoreniye - the first reform programme An attempt to fix the economy by speeding it up. It failed, and pushed him toward deeper change.
1985 The anti-alcohol campaign Vineyards uprooted, distilleries closed, prices tripled Life expectancy rose. So did moonshine, sugar shortages and a hole in the state budget.
1985 Reagan-Gorbachev Geneva Summit First meeting between the two Cold War leaders US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev held their first summit in Geneva, Switzerland, from 19 to 21 November 1985. Although no arms agreements were signed, the two leaders established a personal rapport that helped thaw Cold War tensions. It was the first US-Soviet summit in six years.
1986 Glasnost is named at the 27th Party Congress Openness as official policy Within three years the press was printing things that would have meant prison a decade earlier.
1986 Chernobyl Nuclear disaster, Ukraine The April 1986 explosion at Chernobyl released radiation across Europe, forcing 350,000 people to evacuate permanently.
1986 Reykjavik Summit Reagan and Gorbachev discuss nuclear arms reduction US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met in Reykjavik, Iceland to negotiate deep cuts to nuclear arsenals. The talks collapsed over disagreement on the Strategic Defense Initiative but laid groundwork for the 1987 INF Treaty. Observers later credited the summit with reshaping the endgame of the Cold War.
1986 Sakharov is released from internal exile Gorbachev telephones him in Gorky himself The dissident physicist returned to Moscow and was elected to parliament three years later.
1987 Nokia Cityman — Gorbachev's phone Nokia launches the Mobira Cityman 900 — a truly handheld mobile phone weighing 800 grams. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is famously photographed using one in Helsinki, generating enormous publicity. The "Gorba phone" becomes Nokia's first globally recognised product. At 24,000 Finnish marks — equivalent to a small car — it is firmly a luxury item, but it proves the concept of a truly portable mobile phone for ordinary use.
1987 Perestroika becomes law Enterprises allowed to set their own output and keep profits Restructuring without prices or private property - half a market, which worked worse than either.
1987 United States and Soviet Union sign the INF Treaty Reagan and Gorbachev agree to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in Washington. It was the first arms control agreement to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons. The treaty marked a major thaw in Cold War relations.
1988 Reagan and Gorbachev hold Moscow summit Superpower leaders exchange INF Treaty ratifications US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met in Moscow and exchanged instruments of ratification for the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The summit symbolized the easing of Cold War tensions. Reagan famously walked through Red Square with Gorbachev during the visit.
1988 Gorbachev renounces the Brezhnev Doctrine at the UN Announcing unilateral troop cuts of half a million Eastern Europe understood immediately that Soviet tanks would not come this time.
1989 Eastern Europe goes, and Moscow does nothing Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania Six governments fell in six months. Gorbachev's refusal to intervene is why it was mostly bloodless.
1989 The last Soviet soldier leaves Afghanistan Ending a nine-year war Gorbachev had called a bleeding wound 15,000 Soviet dead, and a military that no longer believed the leadership.
1989 The first contested Soviet elections Congress of People's Deputies, televised live Party officials lost seats to unknowns. Yeltsin took Moscow with 89 per cent.
1990 Gorbachev elected president New Soviet executive role created The Congress of People's Deputies elected Mikhail Gorbachev as the first President of the Soviet Union on March 15, 1990, creating a new executive role separate from the Communist Party.
1990 Gorbachev becomes president of the Soviet Union A new office, and the end of the party's monopoly on power Elected by the Congress rather than by voters - a weakness Yeltsin never let him forget.
1990 Bush-Gorbachev summit Chemical weapons accord signed US President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met in Washington for a four-day summit beginning May 30, 1990, signing an accord to end chemical weapons production.
1990 Bush-Gorbachev Helsinki summit Gulf crisis discussed President Bush and Soviet leader Gorbachev met in Helsinki on September 9, 1990 to discuss the Gulf crisis, with the Soviets backing the US position against Iraq.
1990 Gorbachev wins Nobel Peace Prize Recognised for ending Cold War Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 15, 1990, recognised for his leading role in ending the Cold War.
1990 The Nobel Peace Prize For his leading role in the peace process Celebrated abroad, resented at home, where the shops were empty.
1991 Soviet troops storm the Vilnius television tower Fourteen Lithuanians killed Gorbachev denied ordering it. Whatever the truth, the moral authority of perestroika did not recover.
1991 United States and Soviet Union Sign START I Landmark treaty cuts strategic nuclear arsenals President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in Moscow, committing both nations to cut their long-range nuclear arsenals by about a third. It was the first treaty to require actual reductions in strategic nuclear weapons rather than just limiting growth. The treaty took effect after the Soviet collapse, binding its successor states.
1991 August Coup Hardline Soviet officials attempt to oust Gorbachev A group of hardline Communist officials attempted to seize power from Mikhail Gorbachev and halt the Soviet Union's reforms. Boris Yeltsin rallied resistance from atop a tank outside the Russian parliament, and the coup collapsed within three days. Its failure accelerated the collapse of Soviet Communist Party authority and hastened the dissolution of the USSR later that year.
1991 The coup collapses and Gorbachev returns from Crimea Three days under house guard at Foros He came back to a country where Yeltsin, not he, had faced down the tanks.
1991 Gorbachev resigns as general secretary And tells the Central Committee to dissolve itself The party he had led for six years ceased to exist in a single afternoon.
1991 Soviet Union Recognizes Baltic Independence Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania regain sovereignty The Soviet State Council formally recognized the independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, ending five decades of forced incorporation into the USSR. The three Baltic states quickly gained recognition from the international community and the United Nations. Their restored independence became a milestone in the Soviet Union's collapse.
1991 Gorbachev resigns as Soviet president A televised address, then the red flag comes down over the Kremlin He handed the nuclear codes to Yeltsin. The state he led had been dissolved without him.
1991 Soviet Union dissolved Gorbachev resigns — December 25, 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991, and the Soviet flag was lowered over the Kremlin for the last time. The USSR was formally dissolved and replaced by 15 independent states. It was the end of a 69-year experiment in communism.
1993 Green Cross International An environmental organisation founded after leaving office He ran it for the rest of his life alongside his own foundation in Moscow.
1996 Gorbachev runs for president of Russia And receives 0.5 per cent of the vote The man the world credited with ending the Cold War came seventh in his own country.
1997 Gorbachev films a Pizza Hut advertisement To fund his foundation Widely mocked abroad. He said the foundation needed the money and he was not ashamed.
1999 Raisa Gorbacheva dies of leukaemia In a clinic in Münster He said afterwards that he had lost the person he could talk to about everything.
2014 Gorbachev warns of a new cold war Over Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea He backed the annexation as the will of the people, and was barred from Ukraine for it.
2022 Mikhail Gorbachev dies Aged 91, in Moscow, six months into the invasion of Ukraine No state funeral. Putin visited the coffin privately and did not attend the service.