istoryworld
Events relating to russia
The USSR enters a brief period of coalition leadership by Alexei Kosygin as prime minister and Leonid Brezhnev as Party First Secretary
Surgeons Michael Bakey in the USA and Vasilii Kolesov in the USSR pioneer coronary bypass surgery, using the patient's mammary artery
Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov is the first to walk in space, moving round outside the Voshkod 2 spacecraft for more than ten minutes
The Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 is the first to achieve a soft-landing on the moon and to send back photographic data from the surface
The Soviet spacecraft Luna 10 orbits the moon and broadcasts the Internationale to the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party
Leonid Brezhnev, taking the title General Secretary (last used by Stalin), makes it plain that he is the Soviet leader
Alexander Solzhenitsyn's novel Cancer Ward is smuggled to New York for publication
Russian chess player Boris Spassky beats Tigran Petrosian to become world champion
Russian ballerina Natalia Makarova defects to the west while on tour with the Kirov company in London
Alexander Solzhenitsyn wins the Nobel Prize for Literature but declines collecting it in Stockholm for fear of being denied re-entry to Russia
The Soviets put into orbit the first space station, Salyut 1, but the crew of three die on returning to earth
The SALT 1 treaty is signed by the US and USSR, limiting anti-ballistic missiles
Russian composer Alfred Schnittke's First Symphony alarms the Soviet authorities and is denied a Moscow premiere
The first volume of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, an exposé of Stalin's labour camps, is published in Paris
Alexander Solzhenitsyn is deported from the USSR to West Germany for publishing The Gulag Archipelago
Soviet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Kirov company while on tour in Canada
Anatoly Karpov becomes world chess champion by default when Bobby Fischer fails to defend his title
Astronauts Tom Stafford and Aleksei Leonov shake hands when their Apollo and Soyuz craft successfully dock in space
Communist measures in Afghanistan provoke a Muslim jihad and the murder of more than 100 Russians in Herat
After 18 years as General Secretary of the Communist party in the USSR, Leonid Brezhnev dies in office
New Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev brings glasnost ('openness') and perestroika ('reform') to the USSR
Seven groups of Afghan mujaheddin form a united front against the Soviet army
22-year-old Gary Kasparov defeats Anatoly Karpov and becomes the youngest-ever world champion in chess
The Soviets launch the first module (the living quarters) of their Mir Space Station
A Soviet nuclear power station explodes at Chernobyl, scattering radioactive material over a wide area
