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| 1989, Jan |
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| Azerbaijan and Armenia remained under martial law in response to intercommunal violence. | 1 |
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| Jan. 5 |
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| In a continuing process of de-Stalinization, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union called for the annulment of hundreds of thousands of verdicts handed down during the Stalinist purges from the 1930s to the 1950s. | 2 |
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| Jan. 23 |
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| An earthquake rocked the republic of Tajikistan, causing landslides and killing more than 274 people. | 3 |
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| Feb. 3 |
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| Twenty more villages were evacuated in Belorussia (Belarus) because of continuing high levels of radiation contamination from Chernobyl. | 4 |
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| March |
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| New presidents were appointed in the republics of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Georgia. | 5 |
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| April 8 |
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| The Supreme Soviet amended Article 70 of the criminal code, which had been used to punish dissidents, drastically decreasing the maximum prison term and fine. The move was likely a result of numerous nationalist outbreaks. | 6 |
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| April 9 |
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| In Tbilisi, Georgia, Interior Ministry troops and the army used gas and clubs to attack a massive protest. Twenty were killed and more than 4,000 were injured. On April 14, the party leadership of Georgia resigned, accepting blame for the shootings in Tbilisi. | 7 |
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| April 25 |
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| Gorbachev secured the “retirement” of 74 “old guard” party members, in another step toward his reforms. | 8 |
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| May 22 |
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| Gorbachev was officially elected to the new post of chairman of the Supreme Soviet (state president). He had been de facto Soviet president since October 1988. | 9 |
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| May 18 |
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| Estonia voted to give itself full control over its economy, introducing its own currency, the koru, to replace the ruble. On the same day, Lithuania declared itself “sovereign.” | 10 |
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| May 31 |
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| Boris Yeltsin, the most prominent radical of the Congress of People's Deputies, criticized Gorbachev for the failures of perestroika (restructuring) and put forth an alternative economic program to cut capital spending. He also warned the congress of the increasing threat of Gorbachev's powers and the possibility of a “new dictatorship.” | 11 |
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| July |
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| Thousands of striking miners demanding better working and living conditions in the Donbass and Kuzbass coalfields and in other areas posed what Gorbachev called the most serious threat yet to perestroika. | 12 |
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