Cold War (1985–1991)  

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The Cold War period of 1985–1991 began with the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev was a revolutionary leader for the USSR, as he was the first to promote liberalization of the political landscape (Glasnost) and capitalist elements into the economy (Perestroika); prior to this, the USSR had been strictly prohibiting liberal reform and maintained an inefficient command economy. The USSR, despite facing massive economic difficulties, was involved in a costly arms race with the United States under President Ronald Reagan. Regardless, the USSR began to crumble as liberal reforms proved difficult to handle and capitalist changes to the economy were badly instituted and caused major problems. The Cold War came to an end when the last war of Soviet occupation ended in Afghanistan, the Berlin Wall came down in Germany, and a series of mostly peaceful revolutions swept the Soviet Bloc states of eastern Europe in 1989.

Timeline of related events

1985

• January 20, 1985 – Ronald Reagan is sworn in for a second term as President of the United States
• March 10, 1985 – General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Konstantin Chernenko dies
• March 11, 1985 – Soviet Politburo member Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party
• March 24, 1985 – Major Arthur D. Nicholson, a US Army Military Intelligence officer is shot to death by a Soviet sentry in East Germany. He is listed as the last US casualty in the Cold War.

1986

• February 22-25, 1986 - People Power Revolution

• April 26, 1986 - The Chernobyl Disaster

1987

• January 1987 – Gorbachev introduces the policy of demokratizatsiya in the Soviet Union
• January 27, 1987 – The United States recognizes the independence of Mongolia and establishes diplomatic relations.
• March 4, 1987 – In a televised address, Reagan takes full responsibility for the Iran–Contra affair.
• June 12, 1987 – "Tear down this wall" speech by Reagan in West Berlin
• June 29, 1987 – June Struggle in South Korea
• July 15, 1987 – The Republic of China ends 38 years of martial law
• November 15, 1987 – Brașov rebellion in Romania
• December 8, 1987 – The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C.

1988

• February 12, 1988 – Hostile rendezvous off coast of Crimea in Black Sea when the Soviet frigate Bezzavetnyy rammed the American missile cruiser USS Yorktown
• February 20, 1988 – The regional soviet of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan decides to be part of Armenia, but the Kremlin refuses to do it. The subsequent First Nagorno-Karabakh War would be the first of the internal conflicts in the Soviet Union that would become the post-Soviet separatist conflicts.
• August 8, 1988 – 8888 Uprising in Burma
• August 17, 1988 – Pakistani president Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq dies
• August 20, 1988 – End of Iran–Iraq War
• September 17, 1988 – Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea; first time since 1976 that both Soviet Union and the United States participate; it is also the last Olympic Games for the Soviet Union and its satellite states
• October 5, 1988 – Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is defeated in a nationwide referendum
• December 21, 1988 - Pan Am Flight 103 bombing

1989

• January 7, 1989 - Japanese Emperor Hirohito dies, he was succeeded by his son Akihito.
• January 20, 1989 – George H. W. Bush becomes president of the United States
• February 1989 – End of Soviet–Afghan War; continuation of internal conflict without Soviet troops
• June 3, 1989 – Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini dies
• June 4, 1989 – Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in Beijing, People's Republic of China
• June 4, 1989 – Solidarity's decisive victory in the first partially free parliamentary elections in post-war Poland sparks off a succession of anti-communist Revolutions of 1989 across Central, later South-East and Eastern Europe
• August 14, 1989 – South African president Pieter Willem Botha resigns in reaction to the implementation of Tripartite Accord
• August 19, 1989 – The opening of the border gate between Austria and Hungary at the Pan-European Picnic set in motion a chain reaction, at the end of which there was no longer a GDR and the Eastern Bloc had disintegrated
• August 23, 1989 – Soviet Politburo member Alexander Yakovlev denounces the secret protocols of the Hitler-Stalin Pact
• August 24, 1989 – Tadeusz Mazowiecki becomes the Prime Minister of Poland forming the first non-communist government in the Communist bloc
• October 23, 1989 – End of Communism in Hungary
• November 9, 1989 – Fall of the Berlin Wall
• November 24, 1989 – Czechoslovak Communist leaders resign during the Velvet Revolution, effectively ending one-party rule in that country
• December 2–3, 1989 – Malta Summit between Bush and Gorbachev, who said, "I assured the President of the United States that I will never start a hot war against the USA."
• December 10, 1989 – Czechoslovak President Gustáv Husák's resignation amounted to the fall of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, leaving Ceaușescu's Romania as the only remaining hard-line Communist regime in the Warsaw Pact.
• December 25, 1989 – Execution of Nicolae Ceauşescu
• December 29, 1989 – Václav Havel assumes the presidency of Czechoslovakia at the conclusion of Velvet Revolution
• December 30, 1989 – The Securitate, the secret police of Romania, is dissolved.

1990

• January 13, 1990 – The Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, is dissolved.
• January 22, 1990 - the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the ruling party of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, is dissolved during its congress, ending the one party system in the country.
• February 1, 1990 – StB, the secret police of Czechoslovakia is dissolved.
• March 15, 1990 – Inauguration of Gorbachev as the first President of the Soviet Union
• April 12, 1990 - The republic of Slovenia within Yugoslavia holds its first multi-party elections
• April 22–23 and May 6–7, 1990 - the republic of Croatia within Yugoslavia holds its first multi-party elections
• April 25, 1990 – Violeta Chamorro is sworn in as president of Nicaragua, ending the Sandinista rule and the Contras insurgency
• May 22, 1990 – South and North Yemens are unified
• June 8. 1990- the Message from Turnberry, described as the "first official recognition of the end of the Cold War", is issued
• July 5–6, 1990 – NATO holds its 11th summit in London.
• July 13, 1990 – The 28th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union announces the end of its monopoly of power
• August 2, 1990 – Beginning of Gulf War
• September 9, 1990 – Helsinki Summit between Bush and Gorbachev
• September 12, 1990 – The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany is signed in Moscow
• October 3, 1990 – Official reunification of Germany
• November 6, 1990 – Hungary become the first Soviet Bloc country to join the Council of Europe
• November 11, 1990 - The republic of Macedonia within Yugoslavia holds its first multi-party elections
• November 18, 1990 - The republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina within Yugoslavia holds its first multiparty elections
• November 19, 1990 – NATO and Warsaw Pact sign the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe
• November 28, 1990 – Margaret Thatcher falls from power as UK Prime Minister; John Major takes office
• December 9, 1990 - The republic of Montenegro within Yugoslavia holds its first multi-party elections
• December 9–23, 1990 - The republic of Serbia within Yugoslavia holds its first multi-party elections
• December 22, 1990 – Lech Wałęsa becomes president of Poland; Polish government-in-exile ends
• December 23, 1990 - Slovenia holds an independence referendum resulting in a majority of Slovenians voting in favour of Slovenia seeking independence from Yugoslavia

1991

• January 1991 – Money transfers from the Czech budget to Slovakia are stopped, beginning the process that would lead to Velvet Divorce
• February 28, 1991 – End of Gulf War
• March 3, 1991 – Estonia and Latvia hold an independence referendum with a majority voting to restore independence.
• March 31, 1991 – Georgia holds an independence referendum resulting in a majority of Georgians voting in favour of Georgia becoming independent from the Soviet Union.
• May 1, 1991 – The Republic of China abolishes the Temporary Provisions against the Communist Rebellion which was in place during the Chinese Civil War
• May 19, 1991 - Croatia holds an independence referendum resulting in a majority of Croatians voting in favour of Croatia seeking independence from Yugoslavia
• May 29, 1991 – End of Eritrean War of Independence in Ethiopia
• June 27, 1991 – Beginning of the Yugoslav Wars in Slovenia
• June 28, 1991 – Comecon is dissolved.
• July 1, 1991 – The Warsaw Pact is dissolved.
• July 10, 1991 – Boris Yeltsin becomes president of Russia
• July 31, 1991 – Ratification of START I treaty between United States and the Soviet Union
• August 19, 1991 – Start of the Soviet Union coup d'état attempt
• August 21, 1991 – The Soviet Union coup d'état is dissolved.
• August 24, 1991 – Gorbachev resigns from the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
• September 6, 1991 – The Soviet Union recognizes the independence of the Baltic States
• September 8, 1991 - The Republic of Macedonia holds an independence referendum resulting in a majority of Macedonians voting in favour of Macedonia seeking independence from Yugoslavia
• September 21, 1991 – Armenia holds an independence referendum resulting in a majority of Armenians voting in favour of Armenia becoming independent from the Soviet Union.
• October 26, 1991 – Turkmenistan holds an independence referendum resulting in a majority of voting in favour of Turkmenistan becoming independent of the Soviet Union.
• November 6, 1991 – The Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet KGB are dissolved.
• November 7–8, 1991 – NATO holds its 12th summit in Rome.
• December 8, 1991 – The Belavezha Accords are signed by the leaders of Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, sealing the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the creation of CIS
• December 25, 1991 – Gorbachev resigns as Soviet President and the post is abolished; the red Soviet flag is lowered from the Moscow Kremlin, and in its place the flag of the Russian Federation is raised.
• December 26, 1991 – The Supreme Soviet dissolves the Soviet Union.

See also

• History of the Soviet Union (1982–1991)
• History of the United States (1980–1991)
• Post-Communism
• Reagan Doctrine
• Timeline of events in the Cold War
• Solidarity