The Soviet Union holds its first contested elections
1989 · Event
For the first time since 1917, Soviet voters get a choice — and use it to humiliate the Party: dozens of unopposed officials lose to 'against all', while Yeltsin takes Moscow with 89% and Sakharov enters parliament. The televised Congress debates that follow transfix the country and shred the Party's aura.
On these timelines: Fall of the Soviet Union, Russia & the USSR, Master, Cold War
More from Fall of the Soviet Union
- Dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991)
- Resignation of Gorbachev (1991)
- Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader (1985)
- Ukraine votes to leave the Soviet Union (1991)
- The Warsaw Pact dissolves itself (1991)
- The Pan-European Picnic breaches the Iron Curtain (1989)
- The Communist Party surrenders its monopoly (1990)
- The Red Army leaves Afghanistan (1989)
Around 1989
- Yugoslav Wars (1991)
- Chernobyl disaster (1986)
- Gulf War (1990)
- (Everything I Do) I Do It for You (Bryan Adams) (1991)
- Invention of the World Wide Web (1989)
- Another Brick in the Wall (Part II) (Pink Floyd) (1979)
- That's The Way Love Goes (Janet Jackson) (1993)
- Pop music: the 1980s (1980)
- Pop music: the 1990s (1990)
- Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989)