East European History Table of Contents Courses History 0200 Topic 1 Topic 2 Topic 3 Topic 4 Topic 5 Midterm Review Final Exam Options Final Review Historical Timelines 1998-1953 1953-1998 History 1270 Outline Questions Useful Links Maps Related Sites News Sources Library Resources		A Chronology of East European History (Traditional Version)   1953 Stalin dies and is replaced by collective leadership in Soviet Union East German workers' uprising Hungary's Rakosi is challenged by Imre Nagy, a more liberal Hungarian communist who introduces New Course reforms 1955 Nagy is ousted again and goes into semi-retirement Warsaw Treaty Organization is founded including USSR, Hungary, Romania, East Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Albania. Soviet troops stationed throughout East Europe 1956 Laszlo Rajk, who had been unjustsly purged from Hungarian Communist Party is posthumously rehabilitated and then reburied in Budapest--occasion for mass procession Hungarian revolution led by Nagy who withdraws Hungary from Warsaw Pact. It ends in bloodshed due to Soviet invasion. Nagy is arrested & executed. Janos Kadar takes over and bring "gulas communism" to Hungary Polish October brings liberal Gomulka to power after Poznan workers' uprising 1963 Romania rejects Soviet economic integration in favor of Soviet-style industrialization Marx's "Notes on the Romanians" condemning Russian imperialism published in Romania 1965 Gheorghiu-Dej dies and Ceausescu comes to power in Romania 1966 Anti-abortion decree in Romania 1967 Ceausescu takes independent foreign policy stand in Middle East 1968 Prague Spring and Warsaw Pact invasion (with the exception of Romania) Brezhnev Doctrine Romania denounces invasion of Czechoslovakia Student protest in Poland--workers do not join. Regime uses anti-Semitic propaganda to isolate protesters 1970 Polish workers protest price increases just before Christmas and are violently suppressed 1971 Gierek replaces Gomulka in Poland 1975 Helsinki Accord signed 1976 New price increases in Poland, new protests and KOR forms bringing workers and intellectuals together 1977 Charter 77 signed by Prague dissidents 1978 Polish Cardinal Woytila of Cracow becomes Pope John Paul II 1979 Pope John Paul II visits Poland to great popular acclaim (1st of several visits under communism) 1980 Workers' protests in Gdansk, Poland result in formation of free trade union Solidarity led by Lech Walesa. Negotiations between Solidarity & government 1981 General Jaruzelski, Poland's president declares martial law and represses Solidarity 1984 Romania introduces stricter checks of women's bodies to insure they carry pregnancies to term 1985 Gorbachev comes to power in USSR and begins program of glasnost & perestsroika Romania attempts to pay back its foreign debt by extreme austerity measures 1989 Free elections in Poland bring non-communists into government Imre Nagy is reburied with honors in Budapest East Germans flee to the West via Hungary Berlin Wall falls. Revolutions in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania take place with Soviet blessings Milosevic eliminates autonomy of Kosovo and Vojvodina 1990 East and West Germany reunite Poland introduces economic "shock therapy" 1990+ Difficult economic times in EE during transition from socialism to capitalism 1991 Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Bosnia secede from Yugoslavia Gorbachev is ousted, the Soviet Union dissolves, and Russia comes into being under Yeltsin's leadership 1991-95 Wars in Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia. Ethnic cleansing in Croatia and Bosnia 1992 Germany leads the Western world in recognizing the independent Slovenia & Croatia: Yugoslav break-up is thus finalized Czechoslovakia splits into Slovakia and the Czech Republic as Slovakia secedes Albania is the last East European communist state to renounce communism 1995 Signing of the Dayton Peace Accord brings Yugoslav War to an end UN Peacekeepers in Macedonia 1997 Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic accepted into NATO 1998 Serb-Albanian fighting in Kosovo. NATO threatens to intervene
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