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| 1986, Feb. 25–March 6 |
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| At the 27th Party Congress, Mikhail Gorbachev stressed the need for radical change. Complaining that the economy had been stagnating since the 1970s, he called for a restructuring (perestroika) of Soviet society. The party adopted his suggestion and called for greater openness (glasnost) in public dealings. Perestroika and glasnost thereafter became words frequently used in Soviet reforms. | 1 |
| Boris Yeltsin also caused strong reactions with his speech that decried party privileges and abuses of power. | 2 |
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| April 26 |
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| The Chernobyl atomic power station exploded. Thirty-two people were killed at once; a fallout cloud drifted westward over Europe; parts of Belorussia and the Ukraine were permanently evacuated. On Oct. 2 the remaining Chernobyl atomic reactor was buried under a security mound of metal and concrete. Four years later, there was still a 30-mile exclusion zone around the site. | 3 |
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| June 27 |
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| Glavlit, the official censoring agency, was disbanded and its ten thousand workers were reassigned. | 4 |
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