In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, ushering in the Space Age. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the earth, aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft on April 12, 1961.
Following the overthrow of Krushchev in 1964, the country returned to a collective leadership, until Leonid Brezhnev became leader. The 1970s and early 1980s were marked as the Era of Stagnation, a period in which economic growth slowed and social policies became static. The 1965 Kosygin reforms aimed for partial decentralization of the Soviet economy and shifting attention from heavy industry and arms to light industry and household equipment but were rejected by conservative communist leaders.
Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Red Square during the Moscow Summit, May 31, 1988
In 1979, the Communist-led revolution in Afghanistan broke out, Soviet armed forces invaded the country at the request of the new regime. The Afghanistan occupation drained economic resources without significant political results. Finally, Soviet troops took up arms from Afghanistan in 1989 due to international resistance, continuous guerrilla warfare, and the lack of support from the Soviet population.
Beginning in 1985, the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, seeking to enact liberal reforms within the Soviet system, introduced policies of glasnost (opening up) and perestroika (restructuring) to try to end periods of economic stagnation and democratize the government. However, this led to the emergence of nationalist and separatist movements.
Prior to 1991, the Soviet economy was the world’s second largest, but its later years suffered markedly by shortages, huge budget deficits, and inflation.
In 1991, economic and political turmoil began to boil, plus the Baltic republics chose to secede from the Soviet Union. In March, a referendum was held, in which the majority of the participating population voted to convert the Soviet Union into a renewed federation. In August 1991, there was an attempted coup by members of Gorbachev’s government, directed against Gorbachev and aimed at defending the Soviet Union. However, this coup failed and instead ended with the dissolution of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. On December 25, 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved into 15 separate countries.
