Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, positioning him to launch the reform agenda later associated with perestroika and glasnost across the USSR, including the Russian SFSR.
At a CPSU Central Committee plenum, Gorbachev promoted uskorenie (“acceleration”)—an early economic-modernization push that preceded the broader restructuring associated with perestroika.
The 27th CPSU Congress convened as Gorbachev’s first party congress as leader, signaling a new policy direction that soon widened into perestroika and glasnost measures affecting politics, media, and economic management.
The explosion at Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant became a major political and social shock, widely linked to intensified public pressure for truthful information and greater transparency under glasnost.
Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov was released from internal exile in Gorky, a high-profile step associated with reduced political repression during early glasnost.
The USSR adopted the Law on the State Enterprise (Association), part of perestroika-era efforts to change enterprise governance and introduce greater autonomy and economic accountability within the state sector.
The Law on Cooperatives expanded the legal space for cooperatives in services, manufacturing, and trade—one of the most significant perestroika steps toward market-oriented activity within the Soviet system.
The 19th All-Union CPSU Conference backed major political reforms, including competitive elections and institutional changes that helped enable the later creation of the USSR Congress of People’s Deputies.
The USSR Supreme Soviet adopted constitutional reforms establishing a new Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR, reshaping the national political structure and enabling more public contestation under glasnost.
Elections were held for the USSR Congress of People’s Deputies—widely described as the first partially free, nationwide Soviet elections—bringing competitive campaigning and televised debate into Soviet politics.
Voters in the Russian SFSR elected deputies to the new republican legislature (Congress of People’s Deputies of the RSFSR), a key step in shifting political authority toward republican institutions during perestroika.
Boris Yeltsin was elected chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR, becoming the republic’s top official and a central figure in the escalating power struggle between Russian republican and Union institutions.
The First Congress of People’s Deputies of the Russian SFSR adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty, asserting the primacy of Russian laws and accelerating the “parade of sovereignties” within the USSR.
During the CPSU’s 28th Congress, Yeltsin publicly quit the Communist Party—an emblematic break with the party’s traditional political monopoly as pluralism expanded under late perestroika.
A Russian SFSR referendum approved establishing the post of President of the RSFSR to be elected by popular vote, moving the republic toward a separate, directly legitimized executive authority.
Boris Yeltsin won the first direct presidential election in Russian history (as the Russian SFSR), giving the republic’s executive office a powerful popular mandate amid rapid political transformation.
Communist hardliners attempted to seize power (the August Coup, 19–21 August 1991). Mass resistance in Moscow—including around the Russian parliament (“White House”)—and divisions within security forces contributed to the coup’s collapse.
Yeltsin issued a decree banning Communist Party activities in Russia (after earlier suspensions and property measures), a decisive institutional rupture that capped the Russian SFSR’s perestroika-era political break from CPSU dominance.
Perestroika and Glasnost in the Russian SFSR (1985–1991)
