The Life and Times of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev

From the farmlands of Russia to the seat of Kremlin power: Key dates in the life of the man who propelled his nation into the 1990s, then saw it disintegrate even as it abandoned him.

1931 March 2: Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is born in Privolnoye in Stavropol region of southern Russia.

1945 As World War II ends, Gorbachev’s father, Sergei, returns to Khleborob kolkhoz (collective farm) in Privolnoye to join his son, at 14 already working as combine driver.

1950 Gorbachev enrolls in law school of Moscow State University at age 19, on strength of his academic and labor background. He thus did not have to serve in armed forces.

1952 Gorbachev joins Communist Party.

1954 He marries Raisa Titorenko. More cultured than her young husband, she will later be credited by him for offering advice on serious matters--probably making her unique among Soviet first ladies. In later years, she will be criticized for what some consider her expensive tastes and imperial airs.

1955 Gorbachev graduates with distinction from Moscow State law school and returns with Raisa to Stavropol, where he begins work in regional Komsomol (Young Communist League) organization.

1960 Gorbachev’s only child, Irina, is born.

He becomes first secretary of Komsomol organization for entire Stavropol region.

1967 After courses at Stavropol Agricultural Institute, he qualifies as a “scientific agricultural economist.”

1970 Gorbachev is named first secretary of Communist Party for Stavropol region.

1978 He is made Soviet Communist Party agriculture secretary.

1979 He is named a non-voting member of Politburo, the supreme organ in Soviet politics.

1980 Gorbachev becomes a full (voting) member of Politburo, by far the youngest at age 49.

1983 April 22: Party leader Yuri V. Andropov chooses Gorbachev to make traditional speech marking anniversary of V.I. Lenin’s birthday--a sure sign he is on his way up.

May: Gorbachev goes to Canada as agriculture secretary and demonstrates ability to handle questions from Western officials.

1984 Feb. 13: A few days after Andropov’s death, Konstantin U. Chernenko is named Soviet leader. Gorbachev becomes quasi-official No. 2 in party leadership.

December: He heads Soviet parliamentary delegation to Britain, impressing Western press and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who says: “I like Mr. Gorbachev. We can do business together.”

1985 March 11: Hours after death of Chernenko, Gorbachev is named his successor as party general secretary.

April: A landmark meeting of Communist Party Central Committee, to be known throughout Gorbachev era as the “April plenum,” lays down reformist line of perestroika.

July: Unlike his predecessors, Gorbachev declines to assume post of Soviet president, moving Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko (once known in the west as “Mr. Nyet”) into the job. Gorbachev moves faster toward consolidating power than did Stalin or Khrushchev.

November: He meets President Ronald Reagan at first of five summits with him.

1986 January: At 27th party congress, Gorbachev denounces Leonid I. Brezhnev’s “years of stagnation” and calls for full-scale overhaul of centralized economy. He also proposes process to rid Earth of nuclear weapons by year 2000.

November: Gorbachev meets Reagan in Reykjavik. They fail to agree substantially on arms control and U.S. “Star Wars” program.

Andrei D. Sakharov, physicist and Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights activist, is released from internal exile after call from Gorbachev.

1987 April: Gorbachev announces that Soviets no longer manufacture chemical weapons, and he pledges to destroy all stockpiles.

May: 19-year-old West German Mathias Rust lands a Cessna in Moscow’s Red Square, showing vulnerability of Soviet air defense. Gorbachev shakes up armed forces, firing Defense Minister Sergei Sokolov, a hard-liner, and chief of air defenses.

November: Gorbachev delivers keynote speech denouncing Stalin’s crimes. He fires Moscow party boss Boris N. Yeltsin for criticizing slow pace of perestroika reforms.

December: He meets Reagan in Washington to sign first treaty to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear weapons.

1988 May 29-June 2: Reagan and Gorbachev meet in Moscow, and Reagan declares that Soviet Union is no longer an “evil empire.”

October: Gorbachev engineers his election to chairmanship of Presidium of Soviet Union, or Soviet presidency, succeeding Gromyko. He vows that all political prisoners will be freed.

November: Gorbachev presides over dissolution of old Supreme Soviet, to be replaced by new supreme parliament, Congress of People’s Deputies, and a new, smaller working legislature, also named Supreme Soviet.

December: He announces unilateral 500,000-man cut in Soviet conventional forces and pullout of troops from Eastern Europe.

1989 Feb. 15: Last Soviet troops leave Afghanistan, ending engagement Gorbachev called his nation’s “bleeding wound,” which cost lives of 13,833 Soviet soldiers.

March 6: Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady Gerasimov says Eastern European countries are on their own and can live their way (he jokingly dubs it the “Sinatra Doctrine”).

April: Troops crush independence rally in Georgia, killing 20.

May-June: In Congress of People’s Deputies session, Gorbachev is overwhelmingly elected to newly retooled supreme post in government hierarchy, chairmanship of Supreme Soviet, or state presidency.

December: Gorbachev and Bush hail end of Cold War at Malta summit.

Gorbachev becomes first Soviet leader to meet with Pope.

1990 February: Communist Party surrenders its guaranteed monopoly on power after Gorbachev persuades Central Committee to embrace multi-party system.

March: Congress agrees on increase in Gorbachev’s powers by creating executive presidential post. He is elected to it, but not overwhelmingly.

Lithuania declares independence, Moscow imposes economic blockade.

July: At 28th Party Congress, Gorbachev dumps Yegor K. Ligachev, his former key ally turned right-wing critic, and all top government officials vacate posts in Politburo, greatly sapping Communist Party’s authority.

October: Gorbachev is awarded 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his “leading role in peace process.”

November: Supreme Soviet empowers Gorbachev to issue decrees in virtually all sectors of public activity.

1991 January: Soviet troops storm TV tower in Vilnius, Lithuania, with 14 people killed. Gorbachev is denounced at home and abroad over episode.

April: Warsaw Pact dissolved, leaving Soviets without formal allies.

June: Boris N. Yeltsin elected president of Russia.

July: Gorbachev suffers defeat by receiving no clear promises of aid at G-7 summit in London. West is now less inclined to help Soviets after violence in Baltics.

At Moscow summit, Bush and Gorbachev sign START treaty cutting nuclear stockpiles.

Aug. 19: With Gorbachev on vacation in Crimea, eight hard-liners calling themselves State Emergency Committee seize power.

Aug. 21: Coup collapses, giving more power and popularity to Yeltsin for his resistance at Russian government building and accelerating independence movements in republics.

Aug. 24: Gorbachev resigns as leader of Communist Party, orders seizure of its property, bans it from state organizations and suggests that party disband.

September: Congress of People’s Deputies hands power to interim authorities pending signature of Union Treaty to succeed hypercentralized 1922 accord that created Soviet Union. State Council, new collective Soviet leadership chaired by Gorbachev, recognizes independence of Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Nov. 25: Gorbachev and seven republics fail to agree on text of new Union Treaty.

Dec. 1: Ukrainians vote overwhelmingly for independence.

Dec. 8: Spurred by Yeltsin, the three Slavic republics--Russia, Ukraine and Belarus--proclaim formation of a “Commonwealth of Independent States” and say Soviet Union has ceased to exist--effectively rendering Gorbachev a leader without a country.

Dec. 25: Gorbachev resigns.