Compiled by Yuli Kosharovsky and Enid Wurtman.
Employed Abbreviations: AA – the archive of the author; d.o.r. - Date of record (not the event); TM- a telephone message from Moscow in real time.
The sources of information are listed below. The numbers of the sources are placed in The Chronology in parentheses.
- Морозов Борис, “Еврейская эмиграция в свете новых документов“, “Центр Каммингса”, “Тель Авивский Университет”, “ЦХСД”, 1998.
- Энн Шенкарь, Бюллетень “Комитета действия” (англ.).
- “Википедия“, http://ru.wikipedia.org .
- “Еврейская электронная энциклопедия“ http://www.eleven.co.il .
- Краткая Еврейская Энциклопедия, том.8, “Общество по исследованию еврейских общин”, “Еврейский университет в Иерусалиме”, Иерусалим, 1996.
- Jewish Encyclopedia, CD-Rom Edition
- Friedman, Murray and Chernin, Albert, Editors, “A Second Exodus, The American Movement to Free Soviet Jews“, Hanover, Brandeis University Press, 1999.
- Gilbert, Martin, “Shcharansky, Hero of Our Time“, London, Macmillan London Limited, 1986.
- Levin, Nora, “The Jews in the Soviet Union since 1917, Paradox of Survival“, Volume I, Volume II, New York and London, New York University Press, 1988.
- Prital David, “Jews of the FSU in Israel and Diaspora“.
- Soviet Jewish Affairs, Chronicle of Events, Sources are Western Press reports, unless specifically stated.
- Rosenfeld Nancy “Unfinished Journey”.
- Eizen, Wendy, “Count Us In, The Struggle to Free Soviet Jews”, A Canadian Perspective, Toronto, Burgher Books, 1995.
- Washington Post.
- Wurtman Enid, Articles in “Jerusalem Post” and audiocassettes of telephone talks with refuseniks in Russia.
- Schroeter, Leonard, “The Last Exodus“, Jerusalem, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Jerusalem, 1974.
- Insight, 70 Years of Soviet Union.
- Нехемия Леванон, Код Натив, Ам овед, 1995, иврит.
- Юлий Кошаровский, “Мы снова евреи“, том 1, 2007.
- “Антиеврейские процессы в Советском Союзе 1969-1971 годов“, Издание Еврейского университета в Иерусалиме и Центра исследований восточноевропейского еврейства 1979 год.
- Пинкус Вениамин, “Национальное возрождение“, Центр наследия Бен-Гуриона, 1993, иврит.
- Интервью автору.
- “Сборник писем, петиций и обращений“, “Центр по изучению восточноевропейского еврейства”.
- Shindler, Colin, “Exit Visa, Détente, Human Rights and the Jewish Emigration Movement in the USSR“, London, Bachman and Turner, 1978.
- Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry. Newsletter.
- Gilbert, Martin, “The Jews of Hope, The Plight of Soviet Jewry Today“, London, Macmillan London Limited, 1984.
- Файн Вениамин, “Вера и разум“, Маханаим, Иерусалим 2007.
- Bulleten UCSJ “Alert“.
- Lerner, Alexander, “Change of Heart“, Minneapolis, Lerner Publication Company, Rehovot, Balaban Publishers, 1992.
- Lein, Evgeny “Lest we forget“.
- Israel Public Council for Soviet Jewry, Israel, Profile.
- Gilbert, Martin, “The Jews of Hope, The Plight of Soviet Jewry Today” London, Macmillian London Limited, 1984.
- Joel L. Lebowitz, James S.Langer, William I. Glaberson, Editors, “Fourth International conference on collective fenomena“, Annals of The New York Academy of Sciences, Published by The New York Academy of Science, ANYAA9 337, 1-223, 1980.
- Loel L. Lebowitz, Editor, “Fourth International conference on collective fenomena“, Annals of The New York Academy of Sciences, Published by The New York Academy of Science, ANYAA9 373, 1-233, 1981.
- Давид Зильберман, “Голодная демонстрация советских евреев в Москве 10-11 марта 1971 года, Дневник демонстранта, Сказание об исходе из России, Нацрат Элит, Израиль, 1971 год.
- Инна Аксельрод-Рубина “Жизнь как жизнь, воспоминания“, Иерусалим 2006.
- Информационный бюллетень по вопросам репатриации и еврейской культуры, еврейский информационный центр в Москве.
- Jerusalem post, Soviet Jewry, Jewish World by Enid Wurtman.
- Александр Парицкий, “Молитва”, Иерусалим 2006, Verba Pablishers, Jerusalem.
- Evgeny Lein, Lest we forget, The Refuseniks struggle and World Jewish Solidarity, The Jerusalem publishing cebter, Jerusalem, 1997.
- Anatoly Adamishin and Richard Schifter, Human Rights, Perestroika, and The End of The Cold War, United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC, 2009
- Baruch Gur, Open Gates, The Inside Story of the Mass Aliya from the Soviet Union and its Successor States, Jewish Agence for Israel, printet by Graphit, Jerusalem 1996.
- Lois Rosenblum interviews: Rosenblum Oral History Project: Involvement in the Soviet Jewry movement, interviews with Louis Rosenblum, 1996-1999, Louis Rosenblum Papers, MS 4926, Jewish Archives of the Western Reserve Historical Society.
- Jerry Goodman, Jews in the Soviet Union and the American Soviet Jewry Movement – A Time Line of Historic Events, 1917-1991.
- Pam Cohen, Time Line of the Soviet Jewry movement.
| 01.01.1989 | In a letter to WJC President Edgar Bronfman, Rabbi Adolf Shaevich requests to be allowed to participate in World Jewish Congress meetings. He denied he is a member of the Soviet Anti-Zionist Committee which he claims, has been disbanded.(see February 17, 1989). (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 96). | |
| 01.01.1989 | 4,748 people, including 269 non-Jews, emigrated from the USSR on Israeli visas in December 1988. Altogether 22,403 people, of whom 18,965 were Jews left the Soviet Union in 1988 on Israeli visas. Up to 400 Jews immigrated directly to the United States on American visas. Some 8,000 Soviet Jews were allowed to visit Israel on tourist visas while Israeli tourism to the Soviet Union increased to about 100 visitors a month. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 96). | |
| 06.01.1989 | In Lvov restoration of the Golden Rose synagogue begins. (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 96). | |
| 07.01.1989 | A local radio station in Vilnius begins Yiddish broadcasts on local cultural activities. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 96). | |
| 07.01.1989 | The Vilnius Jewish community re-establishes the local Jewish sports club Maccabi, which had been defunct since the Second World War. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 96). | |
| 08.01.1989 | Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Arens and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze meet in Paris. They agreed to expand and upgrade working conditions of their consular teams in Moscow and Tel Aviv. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 92). | |
| 12.01.1989 | From January 12th to 19th the seventh national population census since the Revolution is taken. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 96). | |
| 14.01.1989 | From January 14th to 16th several Leningrad refusenik families denied emigration on security grounds stage a hunger strike (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 96). | |
| 15.01.1989 | The Vienna CSCE Follow-up Meeting adopts a Concluding Document. The meeting ends on January 19th. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 93). | |
| 18.01.1989 | In a letter to President Bush and heads of government of other 34 countries that participated in the Vienna CSCE Follow-up Meeting, 16 Soviet Jewish activists list what they regard as conditions for Western participation in the CSCE human rights conference to be held in Moscow in 1991. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 96). | |
| 19.01.1989 | A group of Jews in Kuibyshev are given permission to establish a Jewish cultural center. The center, a club by the name Zvezda (Star), is officially opened on February 2nd 1989. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 96). | |
| 19.01.1989 | Tarbut (Culture), a language cooperative for the study of modern Hebrew is formed in Riga. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 96). | |
| 19.01.1989 | A Jewish cultural club is established in Chelyabinsk (RSFSR). (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 96). | |
| 21/01/1989 | Shimon Peres has talks in Bonn with Valentin Falin, head of Central Committee of the CPSU International Department and Polish Prime Minister Mieczyslaw Rakowski. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 93). | |
| 27.01.1989 | The CPSU Politburo commission investigating miscarriages of justice in the Stalin era decides to make public the USSR Supreme Court’s rehabilitation on 22 November 1955 of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, pp. 96-97). | |
| 28.01.1989 | Some 250 Holocaust survivors in Lithuania establish a Committee of Ghetto Prisoners and Fighters against the Nazi invaders at a meeting organized in Vilnius by the Jewish Cultural Society. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 97). | |
| 31.01.1989 | A large number of tombstones are desecrated in Jewish cemeteries in Kishinev and in the neighboring village of Soroki. (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989 page 97). | |
| 01.02.1989 | An Association of National Cultural Societies is established in Latvia. The Jewish Cultural Society is among the 18 societies belonging to the association. (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, p.97). | |
| 01.02.1989 | 3,308 people, including 512 non-Jews, emigrated from the Soviet Union on Israeli visas in January 1989. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 97). | |
| 12.02.1989 | The Soviet authorities permit Soviet Jews to receive grants from the New York based Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. The first recipients are: Mikhail Gluz, Artistic Director of the Moscow Jewish Musical Chamber Theatre and Director of the Solomon Mikhoels Cultural Center who is to write an opera about Bar Kochba, Vladimir Pliss, Cantor of the Moscow Choral Synagogue, who will study cantorial and choral arts in Israel, Lev Kuravsky , a teacher of Judaic studies at the synagogue, who will study advanced Talmud at a New York yeshiva, and as yet an unnamed Moscow Jewish cultural activist who will study curatorship at a US Jewish museum. (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 97). | |
| 12.02.1989 | The Solomon Mikhoels Cultural Center, which is based at the Moscow Jewish Musical Chamber Theater, is dedicated February 12th. The opening ceremony is attended by many Jewish leaders and delegations from abroad, including Mikhoel’s daughter and granddaughter. President of the World Jewish Congress, Edgar Bronfman, WJC Vice President Isi Leibler, and Elie Wiesel are among the speakers. Aryeh Levin, head of the Israeli consular delegation, and Western ambassadors to Moscow convey greetings on behalf of their governments. Officials from the Soviet Foreign Ministry’s Department for Humanitarian Relations and Ministry of Culture are present. “Courage to Remember”: The Jewish Catastrophe 1938-1945”, an exhibition on the Holocaust, presented by the Wiesenthal Center, is also opened on the theater’s premises. An evening devoted to the life of Solomon Mikhoels , which is organized by the Jewish Cultural Association, a group of artists, and the Shalom Theater, is held in a large cinema in Moscow on February 14th. Over 1,500 people attend. A festival of Jewish culture is held in Moscow, Leningrad and Tbilisi on February 12th to 22nd. American, Australian, Israeli and Soviet artists give joint concerts of Jewish and Israeli songs to a capacity audience at the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow on February 18th and 19th followed by concerts in Leningrad and Tbilisi. Some 30,000 Jews attend the concerts. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 97). | |
| 12.02.1989 | World Jewish Congress President Edgar Bronfman leading a WJC delegation to Moscow for the opening of the Solomon Mikhoels Cultural Center, (see February 12, 1989) is received by Eduard Shevardnadze. Soviet Jewish culture, religion, emigration, the plight of the refuseniks, and the situation in the Middle East are among the topics discussed. The WJC delegation holds discussions with Anatoly Dobrynin and Vadim Zagladin, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Soviet of Nationalities and of the Soviet of the Union of the Supreme Soviet respectively, and Yuri Reshetov, deputy head of the Department of Humanitarian and Cultural Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 93). | |
| 15.02.1989 | End of the war in Afghanistan. | |
| 17.02.1989 | January 17th-27th Eduard Shevardnadze visits Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Iran seeking a timetable and negotiating agenda for a Middle East conference. On February 22nd, he meets with Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Arens in Cairo. Agreement is reached on continuing contacts at the foreign minister level and level of Middle East experts to further the peace process. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 93). | |
| 17.02.1989 | In an interview with the Soviet weekly “Arguments and Facts” (from February 11-17), General David Dragunsky defends the record of the Soviet Anti-Zionist Committee and claims it still has much work to do. Dragunsky’s interview appears to contradict assertions by Soviet spokesman that the Committee is to be disbanded. (see January 1, 1989). (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 97). | |
| 19.02.1989 | The Moscow Jewish Theater Shalom stages “Roads of Artists” which is sung by Alla Joshpe and Stakhan Rakhimov. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 97). | |
| 19.02.1989 | An unofficial Jewish cultural club is established in Penza. | |
| (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 97). | ||
| 21.02.1989 | From February 21st to March 4th The Moscow Jewish Theater Shalom gives guest performances of “The Train to Happiness” in London’s Lyric Theatre. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 97). | |
| 22.02.1989 | A Judaic Studies Center is unofficially inaugurated in Moscow. Some 80 students, including 6 known Refuseniks are accepted. The opening of the center is broadcast on Soviet television on February 23rd. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 98). | |
| 25/02/1989 | An unofficial Jewish Cultural Society is established in Gorky. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 98). | |
| 26.02.1989 | The Executive Committee of the World Council for Yiddish and Yiddish Culture meets in Tel Aviv and admits the Jewish Cultural Association of Vilnius for membership. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 98). | |
| 26.02.1989 | An unofficial Jewish Cultural Society is established in Kharkov. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 98). | |
| 27.02.1989 | WJC Vice President Isi Leibler and officials of the Leningrad Central Synagogue reach agreement on the establishment of a cultural center and yeshiva in the synagogue. The agreement is subject to approval by the Soviet authorities. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 98). | |
| 28.02.1989 | Moscow Jewish activists set up Watch 1991 Group to monitor Soviet compliance with human rights conventions and the Helsinki Accords. (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 98). | |
| 28.02.1989 | A B’nai B’rith International delegation establishes chapters in Riga and Vilnius comprising 11 and 7 members respectively. Altogether 65 people are reported to have joined B’nai B’rith chapters in the USSR. (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 19, № 2, 1989, page 98). | |
| 01.03.1989 | A Jewish language society is established in Zaporozhe, Ukrainian SSR. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 96). | |
| 01.03.1989 | A Jewish Cultural Society is founded in Kazan, Tartar ASSR. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 96). | |
| 01.03.1989 | 2,947 people, including 549 non-Jews, emigrated from the USSR on Israeli visas in February. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 96). | |
| 02.03.1989 | The Minsk Association of Friends of Jewish Culture holds a meeting to commemorate the 47th anniversary of the massacre of 10,000 Minsk Jews by the Nazis. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 96). | |
| 02.03.1989 | A Sholem Aleichem co-operative providing Hebrew tuition is established in Samarkand Uzbek SSR by Binyamin Binyaminov, a capable linguist. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 96). | |
| 05.03.1989 | A founding conference of the Jewish Cultural Association of Lithuania takes place in Vilnius. (see January 5, 1988). The conference adopts a program and charter and elects a 35 member council, with Emanuel Zingeris as its chairman. The opening ceremony is attended by 500 delegates and 300 Soviet and foreign guests, including a World Jewish Congress delegation led by Kalman Sultanik, Yitzhak Arad, the director of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and Samuel Norich, the director of YIVO. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 96). | |
| 08.03.1989 | Members of the women’s groups Jewish Women Against Refusal and Jewish Women for Survival in Refusal and for Emigration hold hunger strikes in several Soviet cities in protest against instances of arbitrary emigration policy. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 96). | |
| 03.09.1989 | The Executive of the World Conference on Soviet Jewry, meeting in Jerusalem, appoints a Working Committee and an Advisory Committee to monitor Soviet compliance with the Vienna CSCE Concluding Document. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 96). | |
| 11.03.1989 | Longest term refusenik Yuli Kosharovsky and his family arrive in Israel. | |
| 19.03.1989 | A Jewish Cultural Association is founded in Leningrad. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 96). | |
| 19.03.1989 | A “Note Lurye” Society of Jewish Culture is established in Odessa. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 96). | |
| 25/03/1989 | The Moscow Shalom Jewish Theater presents “Radio Nanny Pays You a Visit” a production for school children. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 96). | |
| 26/03/1989 | Elections are held by the Soviet Congress of People’s Deputies. Among Jews elected are Leonid Shkolnik, former editor of Birobidzhanier Shtern, Alexander Gelman, a playwright and Genrikh Borovik, a political commentator. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 93). | |
| 29.03.1989 | Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen), a PLO Executive Committee member in Moscow for a session of the Soviet-Palestinian Middle East Committee, is received by Eduard Shevardnadze, Minister of Foreign Affairs. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 93). | |
| 30.03.1989 | Association of Activists and Friends of Soviet Jewish Culture is established in Moscow under the co-chairmanship of Tancred Golenpolsky, a Soviet literary critic and Russian writer Sergei Baruzdin. (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 96). | |
| ? .04.1989 | Tancred Golenpolsky began publishing an international Jewish newspaper. | |
| 01.04.1989 | A boys’ choir from the London School of Jewish Songs gives a series of concerts at the Moscow State’s Concert Hall (April 1st-3rd) and two performances in Kiev. The tour is sponsored by the Agudat Yisrael World Organization. More than 18,000 people attend the concerts. (11, , page 96). | |
| 01.04.1989 | 4,900 people, including 630 non-Jews, emigrated from the USSR on Israeli visas in March 1989. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 96). | |
| 02.04.1989 | The Sholem Aleichem Jewish Cultural Society is founded in Kishinev under the co-chairmanship of the composer Vladimir Bitkin and the writer Boris Sandler. It has branches in Orgeev, Bendery and Tiraspol. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 97). | |
| 02.04.1989 | On the eve of President Gorbachev’s visit to London some 40 refuseniks demonstrate outside the British embassy in Moscow in support of their demand to be allowed to emigrate. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989page 97). | |
| 04.04.1989 | About 100 Jews demonstrate outside the old Jewish Theater building in Riga, demanding that it be allocated to the Jewish Cultural Association. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 97). | |
| 04.04.1989 | The synagogue in Krasnoyarsk is desecrated as well as a matzah bakery in Irkutsk, the only one in Siberia. (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 97). | |
| 06.04.1989 | The USSR Council of Religious Affairs has canceled all decrees issued between 1961 and 1983 which banned activities such as charitable work and bell ringing. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 97). | |
| 04.09.1989 | On April 9th, 1989 in Tbilisi there were clashes with troops during which 16 people were killed. From this event began the process of consolidation of the Georgian society around the idea of national independence, and the restoration of Georgian statehood. | |
| 10.04.1989 | Israel participates in the First International Moscow Festival of Theatrical Schools from April 10th-20th. The festival is sponsored by RSFSR Union of Theater Workers and the USSR and RSFSR Ministries of Culture. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 93). | |
| 11.04.1989 | The Soviet and Israeli writers’ unions sign an agreement in Moscow on an exchange of publications. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 94). | |
| 13.04.1989 | A Jewish religious community is registered in Lvov. (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 97) | |
| 14.04.1989 | Soviet authorities permit the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to send Passover supplies to the USSR including 1,000 Hagadot with Russian translation. (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 97). | |
| 04/15/1989 | Members of the unofficial Society for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Israel (see July 10, 1988) demonstrate in Moscow calling to dissolve the Anti-Zionist Committee. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 97). | |
| 21.04.1989 | A modern Russian translation of the Passover Hagada appears in 10,000 copies in the USSR for the first time since the Revolution. It was published by the Moscow Choral Synagogue in conjunction with the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 97). | |
| 25.04.1989 | Anatoly Rybakov visits Israel on the occasion of the publication of a Hebrew edition of his book Children of the Arbat. (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 97). | |
| 26.04.1989 | Several hundred people attend a five hour open-air meeting by Pamyat (“Memory”) in the center of Leningrad. The principal theme of the meeting is about over-representation of Jews in the Soviet mass media. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, pp. 97-98). | |
| 26.04.1989 | The Association of Activists and Friends of Soviet Jewish Culture has released the first issue of a bi-monthly newspaper “Herald of Soviet Jewish Culture”. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 97) | |
| 30.04.1989 | A delegation of scholars from the Georgian Academy of Sciences and University of Tbilisi, headed by the Academy’s Vice-President Professor Andrea Apakidze and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem reach an agreement in principle on student exchange programs, joint scientific projects and conducting research into the history and culture of Georgian Jewry. (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 94). | |
| 01.05.1989 | About 2,500 Leningrad Jews participate in a commemoration of Holocaust Day organized by the Leningrad Jewish Cultural Association at the city’s old Jewish cemetery. Among the speakers are the Romanian and French Chief Rabbis Moses Rosen and Joseph Sitruk, a rabbi from Israel and the Soviet Jewish writer Masha Rolnikaite, a survivor of the Vilna ghetto. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 98). | |
| 01.05.1989 | 5, 507 people, including 950 non-Jews emigrated from the USSR on Israeli visas in April 1989. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 98). | |
| 01.05.1989 | From May 1st to 10th at the invitation of Konstantin Kharchev, Chairman of the USSR Council of Religious Affairs, the first international rabbinical delegation visits the Jewish communities and institutions of Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev. The delegation is led by Romanian Chief Rabbi Moses Rosen and Rabbi Arthur Schneir of the New York Park East Synagogue and includes Rabbi Professor Norman Lamm, President of Yeshiva University in New York, Joseph Sitruk, the Chief Rabbi of France, and Yisrael Lau, Shaar Yashuv Cohen, and Simcha Kook, the Chief Rabbis of Tel Aviv, Haifa and Rehovot respectively. The delegation is received by Vladimir Petrovsky, USSR Deputy Foreign Minister, T.H. Menteshashvilli, Secretary of the Supreme Soviet Presidium, representatives of the USSR Foreign Ministry and Ukrainian Councils for Religious Affairs, and Evgeny Velikhov, Vice President of the USSR Academy of Sciences. (11, vol. 19, #3, 1989, p. 98). | |
| 02.05.1989 | Rally in memory of the Jewish victims of fascism in Moscow, organized by the Moscow Jewish Cultural Association. Approximately 250 Jews gathered at Vostryakovskoye Jewish cemetery. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 98). | |
| 05.05.1989 | Former Prisoner of Zion Kislik Vladimir and his family arrive in Israel. (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 98). | |
| 07.05.1989 | A gravestone is unveiled in the Kiev Jewish cemetery on the tomb of the great Biblical exegete Malbim (acronym of Meir Leybush ben Yehiel Mechel 1809-1879), the Chief Rabbi of Bucharest in 1858-1864. Moses Rosen, the Romanian Chief Rabbi, and Rabbi Arthur Shneier of New York Park East Synagogue officiate at the ceremony. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 98). | |
| 08.05.1989 | Moscow Mayor Valery Zaikin signs an agreement on the return to the Moscow Choral Synagogue of the two-story building adjoining it. The building is to be used as a Jewish cultural center and museum. (see June 23, 1988). (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 98). | |
| 09.05.1989 | Oleg Derkovsky, Political Counselor of the Soviet Embassy in Washington, speaks to a meeting of the American Jewish Historical Society on behalf of Ambassador Dubinin. During the meeting the Society’s Emma Lazarus Award is presented to World Jewish Congress President Edgar Bronfman for his work on behalf of Soviet Jewry. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 98). | |
| 09.05.1989 | On the occasion of James Baker, the U.S. Secretary of State’s visit to Moscow, about 40 refuseniks demonstrate outside the city’s International Trade Center, urging the U.S. not to lift the Jackson-Vanik until a more liberal Soviet emigration law is adopted. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 98). | |
| 10.05.1989 | More than 200 Jews celebrate Israel Independence Day in the Vialki woods near Moscow. Among the speakers are Mikhail Chlenov and Victor Koretsky, the Chairman of the Moscow Jewish Cultural Association and the Society for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Israel respectively. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 98). | |
| 10.05.1989 | Several prominent semi-official Soviet personalities attend an Israeli Independence reception hosted by Aryeh Levin, head of the Israeli consular delegation in Moscow. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 94). | |
| 12.05.1989 | A commission for humanitarian cooperation within the framework of the CSCE is set up in the USSR. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, pp. 98-99). | |
| 14.05.1989 | The first unofficial Jewish self-help organization, Rahamim (Compassion) is founded in Moscow. The organization’s purpose is to assist elderly Jews, the disabled and families with special problems. (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 99). | |
| 14.05.1989 | The Judaic Study Center (see February 22, 89) begins a new semester in a building previously used by the mayor of Moscow. The building has been put at its disposal for a year. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 99). | |
| 16.05.1989 | Refuseniks from Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev and Kharkov demonstrate in Moscow May 16th and 19th and Leningrad May 18th in order to draw attention of delegates to the Paris Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE to their plight. In Leningrad the demonstrators are dispersed by the police, some are given jail sentences. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 99). | |
| 17.05.1989 | An international symposium “Freedom of Movement for All” is held in Moscow from May 17th to 19th in Moscow. Participants include leading Soviet, Western and Israeli jurists as well as representatives of refusenik organizations in the Soviet Union, former refuseniks from Israel and Soviet Jewish cultural activists. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 99). | |
| 17.05.1989 | From May 17th to 28th 1989 the Union of Hebrew teachers in the Soviet Union (see September 18, 88) conducts a seminar for trainee Hebrew teachers. The seminar is followed by examinations set by the Israeli Academy of Hebrew. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, p.99). | |
| 18.05.1989 | Refusenik scientists appeal to the Paris Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE, to draw attention to their plight. (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 99). | |
| 21.05.1989 | On May 21st-22nd, some 80 representatives of 42 Jewish cultural organizations from 32 cities meet in Riga at an all-Union round table on the problems of Soviet Jewry. The conference, sponsored by the Latvian and Moscow Jewish Cultural Associations, decides to convene a nationwide gathering of Jewish organizations in Moscow in December 1989. The conference is attended by delegations of the World Jewish Congress and B’nai Brith. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 99). | |
| 24.05.1989 | From May 24th – 26th a delegation of the US National Conference on Soviet Jewry, headed by Shoshana Cardin, visits the USSR, the first visit of its kind. The delegation meets Yuri Reshetov, head of the Soviet Foreign Ministry’s Department of International Humanitarian Co-operation, Konstantin Kharchev, Chairman of the Council for Religious Affairs, and Rudolf Kuznetsov, head of All-Union OVIR. The latter meeting takes place in the presence of OVIR officials from Kiev, Leningrad, Minsk, Moscow and Riga. The delegation meets with refuseniks and visits Jewish institutions in Moscow and Kiev. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 99). | |
| 25.05.1989 | From May 25th to June 9th, the Soviet Congress of People’s Deputies holds its first session. On May 25th Gorbachev is elected the first executive President of the Soviet Union. The results of the elections to the USSR Supreme Soviet are announced on May 27th. On June 3rd, Yevgeny Primakov is elected Chairman of the Supreme Soviet’s Soviet of the Union. On June 6th Rafik Nishanov, First Secretary of the Uzbek Communist Party, is elected Chairman of that body’s Council of Nationalities. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 94). | |
| 27.05.1989 | Registration for the elective study of Yiddish begins in three general education schools in Moscow. (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 99). | |
| 29.05.1989 | The Israeli consular delegation in Moscow moves into the Israeli embassy building. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 94). | |
| 30.05.1989 | In accordance with the Concluding Document of the CSCE Vienna meeting, the first Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE is held in Paris. (June 30th –July 23rd)(11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 95). | |
| 30.05.1989 | Mikhail Chlenov, Roman Spector and Alexander Smukler, representatives of the Moscow Jewish Cultural Association, and three refuseniks attend the Paris CSCE Conference for Human Dimension. This is the first time Soviet Jews have been permitted to attend an international human rights conference. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 99). | |
| 01.06.1989 | 4,783 people, including 984 non-Jews, emigrated from the USSR on Israeli visas in May 1989. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 99). | |
| 02.06.1989 | A yeshiva (Jewish rabbinical seminary) is reported to have been opened in Leningrad in May. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 100). | |
| 08.06.1989 | Israeli army medics arrive in the Soviet Union on board a Soviet plane from Cyprus to help victims of the Trans-Siberian railway disaster. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 95). | |
| 09.06.1989 | At the first session of the Congress of People’s Deputies some 200 deputies appeal to President Gorbachev to take action against increasing antisemitism. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 100). | |
| 11.06.1989 | Boris Gram, President of the Moscow Choral Synagogue is replaced by Vladimir Fedorovsky, aged 41. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 100). | |
| 11.06.1989 | Konstantin Kharchev, Chairman of the USSR Council for Religious Affairs, was replaced last month by Yuri Khristoradnov, a former First Secretary of the Gorky Oblast Party Committee and from 1988- June 3rd 1989, Chairman of the USSR Supreme Soviet’s Soviet of the Union. (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 100). | |
| 14.06.1989 | The founding meeting of the conservative Russian nationalist group the United Front of Toilers is held in Leningrad. Anti-perestroika activist Nina Andreeva is guest of honor. Leningrad Party leader Yuri Solovyev is also present. (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 100). | |
| 21.06.1989 | At the invitation of the USSR Council for Religious Affairs five master cantors from the U.S., Canada, and for the first time, Israel give performances to capacity audiences in concert halls and synagogues in Moscow, Leningrad, Odessa and Kiev from June 21st to 29th. The mission is sponsored by the American Society for the Advancement of Cantorial arts and the Gila and Haim Weiner Foundation. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 100). | |
| 27.06.1989 | An El Al aircraft lands in Yerevan airport to take 66 victims of the Armenian earthquake to Israel for further treatment. The mission is organized by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 95). | |
| 28.06.1989 | From June 28th to July 6th under the auspices of the World Council of Synagogues, a six member delegation of the Conservative Judaism movement, led by Franklin Kreutzer, President of the United Synagogue of America meets Jewish cultural activists, leaders of teachers groups and rabbis in Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 100). | |
| 29.06.1989 | On June 29-30, 42 gravestones in the Jewish cemetery in the Moldovan town of Orgeev are vandalized. Four adults and three juveniles are apprehended. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 100). | |
| 01.07.1989 | 5,593 people, including 1,217 non-Jews, emigrated from the USSR on Israeli visas in June. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 100). | |
| 03.07.1989 | A delegation of more than 50 Jewish athletes, journalists, coaches and officials from the two Lithuanian Maccabi clubs (see 7.1.89) as well as athletes from Hungary and Yugoslavia participate in 13th Maccabiah Games – an international Jewish sports competition, which is held in Israel every four years for 10 days. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 95). | |
| 04.07.1989 | A stone memorial is dedicated at the site in Riga where a packed synagogue was burned down by the Nazis. On the same day, swastikas and slogans “Kill the Jews” appear on the site. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 100). | |
| 04.07.1989 | Mikhail Gluz, Director of the Solomon Mikhoels Center and World Jewish Congress leaders Isi Leibler and Avi Becker sign an agreement in Israel on running the Mikhoels Center. The agreement provides, inter alia, for Israeli professors to conduct religious and cultural seminars for young Jews in Moscow and young Soviet Jews to spend a year in Israel studying Hebrew, Bible and Jewish history. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 100). | |
| 06.07.1989 | A Jewish Cultural Association is founded in Rostov. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 100). | |
| 18.07.1989 | Pamyat (“Memory”) holds a 500 strong anti-Semitic demonstration at the Sverdlov monument in central Moscow. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 100). | |
| 18.07.1989 | The 1989 award of the British All-Party Parliamentary Committee for the Release of Soviet Jewry is presented to veteran refusenik Vladimir Dashevsky, the leader of the national religious group Machanayim in the USSR, and Boris Chernobilsky. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 100). | |
| 19.07.1989 | 9 Israeli political observers visited the Soviet Union with a weekly visit at the invitation of the Moscow Union of Journalists. Israelis will visit Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 95). | |
| 25.07.1989 | The Alma Ata Executive Committee grants official status to several ethnic associations including a Jewish one. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, p.100). | |
| 25.07.1989 | Valery Estiani and Rafael Aligurashvili, the Georgian Minister of Culture and Foreign Trade Relations respectively, arrive in Tel Aviv for a nine day visit. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 96). | |
| 26.07.1989 | Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Adamishin meet American Jewish leaders in New York at the New York headquarters of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. The talks focus on Soviet Jewish emigration, grassroots antisemitism in the Soviet Union and the need to rebuild the Soviet Jewish community. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 100). | |
| 27.07.1989 | Soviet Jewish university graduates arrive in Israel for 12 weeks for the study of Hebrew at Kibbutz Ein Dor. The project is sponsored by the Mapam party, the Jewish Agency and Israel Foreign Ministry. (11, Volume 19, № 3, 1989, page 100). | |
| 28.07.1989 | Reopening of the Moscow Helsinki Group. | |
| ? .08.1989 | Tens of thousands of Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region of Azerbaijan sent a petition to Moscow for the transfer of an autonomous region in the Armenian SSR. | |
| 01.08.1989 | At a constituent conference in Moscow August 1st – 2nd, 35 Jewish activists representing Jewish communities from 15 cities establish the Irgun Tsiyoni , a Soviet chapter of the World Zionist Organization. Lev Gorodetsky of Moscow and Mark Dishne of Baku are elected chairman and vice chairman respectively. On August 8th a statement by the Soviet Anti-Zionist Committee condemning the formation of the Irgun Tsiyoni is published by the Soviet media. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 93). | ||
| 01.08.1989 | 5,694 persons including 1,157 non-Jews emigrated from the USSR on Israeli visas in July 1989. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 93). | ||
| 03.08.1989 | The Lvov synagogue, which was closed in 1963, is returned to the Lvov religious community by the local authorities. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990page 93) | ||
| 03.08.1989 | 20 Soviet Jewish women establish a Moscow branch of the Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO). The branch is headed by refusenik Inna Ioffe Uspensky. (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 89). | |
| 05.08.1989 | Leonid Sheynerman, a Soviet Jew, is beaten up in broad daylight in Moscow’s Pushkin Square by people wearing Pamyat badges. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 93). | |
| 15.08.1989 | According to new customs regulations religious items will now be allowed to be imported without quantitative restrictions and customs duties. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 93). | ||
| 21.08.1989 | Following a three day trial in Kaunas of a gang of Jewish grave robbers, the ringleader is sentenced to five years in prison and the other four gang members to lesser periods of imprisonment. (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 93). | |
| 21.08.1989 | An officially sponsored Jewish Cultural Club Haskalah (Enlightment) is founded in Krasnoyarsk (Siberia). (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 93). | |
| 21.08.1989 | The Lithuanian branch of the Soviet-Israel Friendship Society is officially registered. (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 93). | |
| 21.08.1989 | The Moscow Jewish Educational Society headed by Col. Yuri Sokol is given official recognition. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 93). | |
| 23.08.1989 | The Popular Fronts of the three Baltic republics held a joint action called the Baltic Way. | |
| 23.08.1989 | 16 representatives of the independent Jewish movement in the USSR appeal to the USSR Supreme Soviet and Soviet government to put an end to criminal actions by antisemites and to set up a Supreme Soviet commission on fighting antisemitism. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 93). | ||
| 23.08.1989 | An Israeli delegation consisting of Zvi Zilker, the Mayor of Ashdod, Yitzchak David, special adviser to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, and Israeli businessman Abram Iosebashvili visits Georgia at the invitation of the Georgian Peace Committee. The establishment in Tbilisi and Ashdod of centers for Israeli-Georgian cultural and economic links, joint enterprises and scientific expeditions, and a direct air route between Tbilisi and Tel Aviv are discussed with Nodar Chitanava, Chairman of the Georgian SSR Council of Ministers. (11, Volume 20, № 1 , 1990, pp. 90-91). | |
| 28.08.1989 | Supreme Council of Moldova adopted a law on minority languages, including Yiddish and Hebrew. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 93). | |
| 31.08.1989 | The Moscow Society for Jewish Culture and Education is officially registered at the beginning of August. (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 93). | |
| 01.09.1989 | The first Latvian Jewish school is opened in Riga with official approval. Yiddish as a foreign language and Jewish history, music and literature are included in the syllabus. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 93). | |
| 01.09.1989 | 6,776 people, including 1,700 non-Jews, emigrated from the Soviet Union on Israeli visas in August 1989. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 93). | |
| 03.09.1989 | September 3rd – 10th 1989 – Six young Estonian Jews take part in the sixth summer university of the European Union of Jewish Students in Montecampione, Italy. This is the first time Soviet Jews have attended the summer university. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 93). | |
| 07.09.1989 | The ultra-orthodox group of Habad opens a new rabbinical school in Tbilisi. (d.o.r). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 93). | |
| 07.09.1989 | The Los Angeles based Jewish rock band “Promised Land” joined by the Hasidic folk singer Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, begins a 3 week tour of the Soviet Union. They give 20 concerts in Leningrad, Kiev, Vilnius and Moscow. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 93). | ||
| 08.09.1989 | September 8-9th – The founding congress of the United Front of Workers of Russia, an umbrella organization for conservative organizations, is held in Sverdlovsk. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 93). | |
| 10.09.1989 | September 10th – 11th – Mikhail Chlenov, Chairman of the Jewish Cultural Association in Moscow , is a guest speaker at the annual meeting of the European Jewish Congress in London, the first Soviet Jew permitted to attend a WJC meeting. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, pp. 93-94). | ||
| 10.09.1989 | Soviet television program “International Panorama” aired an interview with Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Moshe Arens. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 91). | |
| 10.09.1989 | The constituent congress of the People’s Movement of Ukraine (Rukh) adopts a document entitled “Against anti-Semitism.” (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 93). | |
| 15.09.1989 | B’nai B’rith International opens a chapter in Leningrad, the fourth in the Soviet Union after Moscow, Riga and Vilnius (see December 12th – 19th 1988 and February 28th 1989). (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 94). | |
| 15.09.1989 | Following meetings in the Soviet Union with the chief rabbis of Moscow and Leningrad, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee ships food supplies for the High Holy Days for the first time directly to synagogues in the USSR. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 94). | ||
| 17.09.1989 | David Kimchi, President of the of the World Jewish Congress sponsored Israeli Foreign Relations Council, lectures on the Middle East peace process at the Moscow Institute of World Economics and International Relations. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 91). | |
| 18.09.1989 | Yitzchak Arad, Director of the Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and Shmuel Krakowski, head of Yad Vashem’s Archives, study previously inaccessible Holocaust materials in Moscow and in the Ukraine. (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 94). | |
| 18.09.1989 | Israel and Hungary re-establish diplomatic relations. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 91). | |
| 19.09.1989 | Yuri Reshetov, head of the Soviet Foreign Ministry’s Department of Humanitarian and Cultural Relations, addresses the 18th annual leadership assembly of the National Conference of Soviet Jewry in Washington. He is the first Soviet official to do so. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 94). | |
| 19.09.1989 | September 19th-20th a CPSU Central Committee plenum approves a program on nationalities policy and brings forward the next Party congress to October 1990. Several Politburo members and candidate members including Vladimir Shcherbitsky, Victor Chebrikov and Yuri Soloviev are retired. Vladimir Kryuchkov, Chairman of the KGB, Yuri Maslyukov, Chairman of the State Planning Commission become full Politburo members. Yevgeny Primakov, Chairman of the USSR Supreme Soviet’s Soviet of the Union and Boris Pugo, Chairman of the Party Control Committee become candidate Politburo members. Egor Stroev, Yuri Manaenkov, Gumer Usmanov and Andrey Girenko become Central Committee secretaries. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 91). | |
| 20.09.1989 | “Behind the Wall of Death – The Warsaw Ghetto”, an exhibition of paintings by the Polish artist Wieslaw Kluczyriski, opens in the Battle of Borodino Panorama Museum in Moscow (see Eastern Europe January 16th 1986). | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 94). | ||
| 21.09.1989 | Genrikh Borovik, Chairman of the Soviet Peace Committee and a member of the Standing Committee of the Supreme Soviet’s Permanent Committee on Foreign Relations, invites Shimon Peres to visit the Soviet Union. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 91). | |
| 22.09.1989 | Soviet police arrest a group of refuseniks who demonstrate outside the Lenin Library in Moscow. 5 demonstrators are sentenced to five days’ detention, and three to fines of 100 rubles each. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 94). | |
| 24.09.1989 | A memorial service is held in Paneriai (Ponary), a forest near Vilnius, where over 100,000 Nazi victims, most of them Jews, are buried (see November 30th 1989). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 94). | |
| 26.09.1989 | On the 48th anniversary of the Babi Yar massacre, thousands of people, including representatives of the Kiev Party and municipal authorities, take part in a Day of Remembrance at the Monument to the Victims of Facism at Babi Yar (reported now to be bearing inscriptions also in Yiddish). | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 94). | ||
| 26.09.1989 | On September 26-28, Soviet and Israeli delegations hold trade talks in Paris. On September 26th an agreement is signed on the opening of trade missions in each country. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, p.91). | |
| 26.09.1989 | 2 second year students of The Tel Aviv Institute of Cantorial Arts leave for Russia to officiate at the High Holiday services and give concerts in Moscow and Leningrad. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 94). | |
| 28.09.1989 | Eduard Shevardnadze and Moshe Arens meet at the UN in New York. Shevardnadze offers to mediate and stage direct talks between Israel and the PLO in Moscow. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 91). | |
| 01.10.1989 | 10,243 people, including 1,812 non-Jews, emigrated from the USSR on Israeli visas in September 1989. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 94). | |
| 01.10.1989 | On October 1st the Lautenberg Amendment defining national and religious minorities which may be granted refugee status in the U.S. approved. | |
| 01.10.1989 | New US immigration regulations coming into force include the requirement to apply for visas at the US embassy in Moscow. The administration also sets a ceiling of 50,000 on the number of Soviet refugees it will admit in the fiscal year 1990. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 94). | ||
| 05.10.1989 | Former Prisoner of Zion Dmitry Schiglik arrives in Israel. (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 94). | |
| 09.10.1989 | October 9th – December 29th- the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Poland and Romania. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, pp. 89-90). | |
| 10.10.1989 | At the invitation of USSR People’s Deputy Leonid Shkolnik, two Israeli diplomats based at the Netherlands embassy in Moscow pay a two day visit to Birobidzhan. The visit is arranged in co-operation with the Consular Department of the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 94). | |
| 10.10.1989 | Some 1000 Bratslav Hasidim from Israel, Belgium, France and the USA make a pilgrimage to the grave of Reb Nahman (1772-1811), their spiritutal leader, in the Ukrainian town of Uman.(d.o.r.). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 94). | |
| 11.10.1989 | The leadership of the Solomon Mikhoels Jewish Cultural Center and the leadership of ADDESK and VESK establish a Soviet Jewish Association on a federative basis. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 95). | |
| 11.10.1989 | Some 35 Soviet intellectuals – Jews and non-Jews – appeal to the USSR Supreme Soviet to condemn antisemitism officially. The appeal was initiated by the Association of Activists and Friends of Soviet Jewish Culture (ADDESK) (see March 31st 1989) and the Herald of Soviet Jewish Culture (VESK) (See April 26th 1989)(d.o.r.). | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 95). | ||
| 12.10.1989 | The Lvov Sholem Aleichem Society of Friends of the Yiddish Language and Culture is affiliated to the World Council for Yiddish Culture (see September 30th 1988). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 95). | |
| 16.10.1989 | The leadership of the Swedish Raoul Wallenberg Association and relatives of Wallenberg meet in Moscow with Deputy Foreign Minister Valentin Nikiforov and KGB Deputy Chairman Vadim Pirozhkov. They are shown the original documents pertaining to Wallenberg’s death in the Lubyanka prison in July 1947 and his cremation. Wallenberg’s personal effects are handed over to his family. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 95). | |
| 17.10.1989 | Talks are held in Moscow between El Al and Aeroflot on direct Moscow-Tel Aviv flights. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 91). | |
| 18.10.1989 | A Jewish evening school is opened in Vilnius. The school’s 800 students, both adults and children, will study modern Hebrew, Yiddish and Jewish history. Its 10 teachers are paid by the Lithuanian government. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, 95). | |
| 20.10.1989 | On October 20th – 27th a group of refuseniks hold a political symposium. The symposium, convened in collaboration with US Soviet Jewry campaigners and opened by the US Ambassador in Moscow, deals with Jewish emigration to the USA (see Ocotber 1st 1989). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 95). | |
| 22.10.1989 | The first Hebrew teachers’ training seminar, led by 3 teachers from Tel Aviv University, is opened in Moscow under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress. | |
| (11, Volume 20, №1, 1990, page 95). | ||
| 22.10.1989 | The RSFSR United People’s Front, a nationalist body, is founded in Yaroslavl. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 95). | ||
| 23.10.1989 | At the end of a 12 day visit by Soviet scientists Mikhail Bulanin and Gleb Denisov Tel Aviv University and Leningrad University sign an agreement on co-operation in molecular spectroscopy. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 92). | |
| 24.10.1989 | Rossiya, a club of RSFSR People’s Deputies, is established in Moscow under the aegis of Russian nationalist organizations and journals. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 95). | ||
| 25.10.1989 | The constituent conference of an All-Union Society of Soviet Jewish Culture opens in Moscow. The founders of the Society are the Soviet Cultural Fund, the USSR Writers’ Union, Novosti and Sovietish Heymland. Aron Vergelis, editor of Sovietish Heymland, is elected chairman of the society. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 95) | ||
| 29.10.1989 | The World ORT Union and the Soviet Academy of Sciences reach agreement on the establishment in Moscow of an ORT-run center for technological and creative education and training of Soviet educators at World ORT Union’s headquarters and Resource Center in London. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 95). | |
| 31.10.1989 | A Georgian Jewish Students’ Union is founded in Tbilisi by 150 students. The Union, the first to be officially recognized in the USSR, is affiliated to the World Union of Jewish Students. (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 95). | |
| 01.11.1989 | 11,558 persons, including 2,108 non-Jews, emigrated from the USSR on Israeli visas in October 1989. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 95). | |
| 02.11.1989 | The first Talmud Torah in the Soviet Union (headmaster Rabbi Zeev Kuravsky) opens in Moscow under the auspices of Habad Lubavich movement. It has 25 regular pupils while 70 pupils attend classes after regular school hours. (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 95). | |
| 02.11.1989 | November 2nd – 3rd a conference entitled Aspects of Judaism is held in Riga. It is attended by delegates representing some 60 Soviet, Hungarian, Israeli and West European organizations. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 95). | ||
| 11.06.1989 | A family club for teaching Hebrew, Armenian and Tatar opens in Moscow. (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 95). | |
| 11.07.1989 | On the anniversary of the October Revolution uniformed members of the Patriotic Front in Lenigrad, a splinter group of Pamyat, hand out antisemitic leaflets. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | ||
| 11.07.1989 | An inaugural meeting of the Center for Devotees of Jewish Culture is held in Sumgait, Azerbaijan SSR. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 95). | |
| 11.07.1989 | The International Committee of the Red Cross says the Soviet government has made available Auschwitz archival holdings to the Committee’s international tracing service. (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | |
| 11.11.1989 | The Supreme Soviet’s Commission on Nationalities Policy and Inter- Ethnic Relations approves in principle a draft law on rights of the USSR’s dispersed nationalities. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 92). | |
| 13.11.1989 | The Supreme Soviet gives initial approval to a draft new emigration law.(11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | |
| 15.11.1989 | November 15th – 20th the Synagogue Choir of the Jewish Community of Zurich gives a series of concerts in Moscow and Minsk. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | |
| 19.11.1989 | Former Prisoner of Zion and veteran refusenik Boris Chernobilsky arrives in Israel (see December 16th 1982). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | |
| 20.11.1990 | After the elections the Supreme Council of Georgia led by radical nationalist Zviad Gamsakhurdia is formed. | |
| 23.11.1989 | The synagogue in Lvov, closed for the past 27 years, is re-opened (see August 3rd 1989). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | |
| 26.11.1989 | Riga Jews gather at Rumbuli outside the city to honor the memory of 38,000 Latvian Jews massacred by the Nazis in November 1941. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | |
| 27.11.1989 | From November 27th to December 1st Israeli Minister of Agriculture Avraham Katz-Oz visits Moscow. Agreement is reached on the export of Israeli agricultural produce as well as on agricultural cooperation and youth exchanges. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 92). | |
| 30.11.1989 | 24 prominent representatives of Soviet Jewish cultural societies attend a month-long seminar on the Holocaust at the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem.(d.o.r.). | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | ||
| 30.11.1989 | A Jewish Research Center opens in Moscow under the aegis of the USSR Academy of Sciences Institute of Sociology. (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | |
| 30.11.1989 | More than 3,000 Vilnius Jews gather in the forest of Paneriai to re-dedicate the monument to Vilnius Jews massacred there by the Nazis. The monument is now provided with a plaque inscribed also in Hebrew (see July 8th 1988 and September 24th 1989). (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | |
| 01.12.1989 | Pope John Paul II receives Mikhail Gorbachev. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 92). | |
| 01.12.1989 | Former Israeli Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren visited Jewish communities in the Soviet Union in November 1989. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | |
| 01.12.1989 | 12,920 people, including 1,750 non-Jews emigrated from the USSR on Israeli visas in November 1989. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | |
| 02.12.1989 | The Ukrainian Cultural Fund sets up a republic-wide Society of Jewish Culture to coordinate the activities of Jewish educational organizations which have appeared in nearly 25 Ukrainian towns in the past year. (d.o.r.). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | |
| 02.12.1989 | On December 2nd-3rd Presidents Bush and Gorbachev hold a summit meeting off the coast of Malta. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 92). | |
| 04.12.1989 | On December 4th-6th talks continue in Moscow between El-Al and Aeroflot. Moscow denies an Israeli announcement that an agreement to begin direct flights in early 1990 has been signed. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 92). | |
| 06.12.1989 | Alexander Smukler, Vice President of the Moscow Soviet Jewish Cultural Association and President of the Moscow chapter of B’nai Brith (see December 12th -19th 1988), visits B’nai B’rith International headquarters in Washington. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | ||
| 10.12.1989 | The Moscow Jewish Cultural Association obtains official recognition. (d.o.r.). | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | ||
| 10.12.1989 | 26 women refuseniks and children from Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev hold a one day fast to draw attention to their plight. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | |
| 12/14/1989 | Academician Andrei Sakharov dies in Moscow, aged 68. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | |
| 12/17/1989 | The first congress of Maccabi clubs in the USSR is held in Leningrad. (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | |
| 12/18/1989 | December 18 – 21 a Congress of Jewish Organizations and Communities in the USSR is held in the Moscow Cinema Center. It establishes the Vaad, an umbrella organization of Jewish cultural bodies. Mikhail Chelnov from Moscow, Iosif Zissels from Chernovtsy and Shmuel Zilberg from Riga are elected chairmen. On December 18th around 40 Pamyat members staged a demonstration in front of the building and were dispersed by police. (see SJA, vol. 19, no.3, 6, 61 – 7). | |
| (Charter of the Vaad, 11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | ||
| 25.12.1989 | December 25th – 27th the first international conference on Jewish studies – The Historical Fates of the Jews in Russia and the USSR – Beginning of a Dialogue – is held in Moscow’s Shalom Theater. (see SJA, vol. 19, no.3, 1989. 69-72). (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | |
| 26.12.1989 | A Chanukah concert at the Moscow synagogue includes a tele-bridge with synagogues in New York, Paris, London, Montreal and Tel Aviv. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 1, 1990, page 96). | ||
| 29.12.1989 | A former dissident Vatslav Havel came to power in Czechoslovakia. | |
| 01.01.1990 | 9,330 people emigrated from the USSR on Israeli visas in December 1989. | |
| 85,089 people left on Israeli visas in 1989. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, p. 127). | ||
| 04.01.1990 | Ezer Weizman, Israel’s Minister of Science and Development, visits the USSR. He is received by Eduard Shevardnadze on January 10th 1990. An agreement is signed on scientific and technological cooperation. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 125). | ||
| 05.01.1990 | An Israeli delegation led by Dan Ronen, head of the Culture and Art Department of the Israeli Ministry of Education, tours Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan, and Azerbaijan. Agreements are reached on an exchange of folklore groups. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 125). | ||
| 10.01.1990 | The PLO mission in Moscow is upgraded to the rank of Embassy of the State of Palestine in the Soviet Union. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 125). | |
| 15.01.1990 | Society of Jewish Culture is registered in Novosibirsk. The Society is working closely with and actively helps the religious community. (37, № 38, page 21) | |
| 18.01.1990 | In Moscow, a meeting is held by the Moscow branch of the Liberal Union of Soviet Writers named “April”. The antisemitic organization Pamyat (“Memory”), led by Konstantin Smirnov Ostashvili, held a demonstration against “April”. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 127). | |
| 18.01.1990 | On June 18th-19th Mikhail Chlenov and Samuel Zilberg, co-leaders of the Federation of Jewish Communities – “Vaad”, attended the meeting of the Executive Committee of the World Jewish Congress. For the first time Soviet Jews took part in the meetings of the WJC. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 127). | |
| 22.01.1990 | Israeli Minister of Religious Affairs Zevulun Hammer began a week-long visit to the Soviet Union at the invitation of the Vaad. He was, also, received by the Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Adamishin. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 127). | |
| 23.01.1990 | An agreement on cooperation between the Soviet Chamber of Trade and Commerce and the Israeli Federation of Chambers of Commerce is signed in Moscow (see September 26th – 28th 1989). (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 125). | |
| 25.01.1990 | A six member Soviet economic delegation arrives in Israel for trade talks. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 125). | ||
| 27.01.1990 | To counter rumors of impending pogroms in Moscow, Kiev, Leningrad, Odessa and other Soviet cities, Leningrad KGB and the Odessa authorities issued a warning against antisemitic agitators. The Moscow Prosecutor and the Kiev authorities, in turn, said that the government will stop any attempt to disturb public order. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 127). | |
| 27.01.1990 | An Azerbaijani-Israeli Friendship Society is set up in Baku. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 125). | |
| 31.01.1990 | Eduard Schevardnadze assured members of the City Council of New York including Noach Dear who visited Moscow that the Soviet government would not tolerate riots. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 127). | |
| 01.02.1990 | 4,713 people left the USSR on Israeli visas in January 1990. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 127). | |
| 03.02.1990 | February 3rd – 7th 1990 – a Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee gives up the Party’s constitutionally guaranteed monopoly on power and votes to create a presidential system of government. | |
| (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 125). | ||
| 08.02.1990 | Czechoslovakia and Israel re-establish diplomatic relations. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 125). | |
| 11.02.1990 | Ukrainian National Front Rukh held a rally in Kiev against antisemitic agitators spreading rumors of pogroms. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 127). | |
| 13.02.1990 | After several Jewish apartments in Kharkov were attacked, the head of the city police department said that legal proceedings commenced against a number of persons who participated in the pogroms against the Jews. In an official statement, the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs said that these crimes were committed for financial gain and that 13 people were under arrest. (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 127). | |
| 15.02.1990 | Procuracy of Ukraine has opened a case against the person who spread rumors of impending pogroms. Local offices instructed prosecutors to open a case against those who spread fabrications and are fanning hostilities between people. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 127). | |
| 16.02.1990 | In Moscow National Library of Foreign Literature an exhibition of more than 300 books about the Jewish religion, culture and history was presented. The exhibition is the first of its kind. The books were published in Israel and in the Soviet Union. (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 127). | |
| 16.02.1990 | The first academic study on antisemitism in the Soviet Union was carried out by two professors at the University of Houston with the Institute of Sociology of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The study was funded by the American Jewish Committee. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 127). | |
| 18.02.1990 | In Kiev a rally was held protesting anti-Semitism perpetrated by the emissaries of Pamyat (“Memory”) visiting Kiev. | |
| 18.02.1990 | A mass rally in support of the democratic movement took place in Kharkov. In response to the demands of the protesters the Mayor of Kharkov and the head of the City Department of Internal Affairs promised to put an end to Pamyat “Memory” and other anti-Semitic organizations. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, pp. 127-128). | |
| 18.02.1990 | Anti-Jewish and anti-emigration speeches took place at anti-Gorbachev rally in Moscow. Similar meetings took place also on 31 January, 12 February and 23 February 1990. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 128). | |
| 20.02.1990 | Soviet Anti-Zionist Committee condemned the Zionist leaders in the Soviet Union and all those who are trying to help the World Zionist Organization and World Jewish Congress to legalize the Zionist movement in the USSR. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 128). | |
| 21.02.1990 | A Cultural Center of Bukharian Jews is founded in Uzbekistan. (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 128). | |
| 25.02.1990 | On February 25th-28th, a World Jewish Congress delegation led by Edgar Bronfman visited Moscow. The delegation met with senior Soviet officials. Bronfman is received by Shevardnadze. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 128). | |
| 27.02.1990 | A two-week seminar on “The Jewish World in the Twentieth Century” was convened In Moscow. The seminar was sponsored by the Department of Yiddish at Bar-Ilan University (Israel) and the Sorbonne University (France). Lectures were conducted on Jewish history, Israel and the Holocaust. There was also an intensive Yiddish language course. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 128). | |
| 27.02.1990 | Poland and Israel restore diplomatic relations. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 125). | |
| 28.02.1990 | A Friendship Society with Israel is founded in Birobidzhan. National Assembly deputy Leonid Shkolnik is elected as its chairman. (d.o.r.) (11, 128). | |
| 01.03.1990 | 5,788 people left the USSR on Israeli visas in February 1990. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 128). | |
| 03.08.1990 | Soviet Jewish emigration to Israel is discussed in Riyadh by Vladimir Polyakov, head of the USSR Foreign Ministry’s Middle East and North African Department and the Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al Faisal. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 126). | |
| 11.03.1990 | On March 11th, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR, led by Vytautas Landsbergis, declared Lithuanian independence. Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare independence. The constitution of the USSR was terminated and the Lithuanian constitution of 1938 was reinstated. | |
| 12.03.1990 | On March 12th to 15th an extraordinary session of the Congress of People’s Deputies was held in Moscow. On March 13th Congress passes an amendment and constitutional changes to create executive powers of the presidency and eliminate the leadership of the CPSU Gorbachev was elected the first executive president on March 15th. Anatoly Lukyanov succeeded him as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 126). | |
| 14.03.1990 | USSR and the Vatican established diplomatic relations. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 126). | |
| 23.03.1990 | On March 23rd the Communist Party of Estonia seceded from the Soviet Communist Party. | |
| 24.03.1990 | On March 24th-26th Gorbachev appointed an advisory board of 16 members called the “Presidential Council”. The Council receives the approval of Congress of People’s Deputies. Among the members is Middle East expert Yevgeny Primakov. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 126). | |
| 24.03.1990 | The Jewish film festival took place In Moscow on March 24th-31st. 31 feature and documentary films from 9 countries, including movies from Israel were presented. The festival was organized by San Francisco Jewish film organization and the Soviet-American Film Institute. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 128). | |
| 29/03/1990 | The USSR State Committee on National Issues was established. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 128). | |
| 01.04.1990 | 7,300 people emigrated from the USSR on Israeli visas in March 1990. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 128). | |
| 12.04.1990 | USSR Supreme Soviet adopted the law “On increasing the responsibility for violating equality of citizens of all nationalities and the violation of the territorial integrity of the USSR. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 128). | |
| 17.04.1990 | Moscow held a roundtable discussion between the representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, officials from the U.S. Embassy and the Palestinian delegation from the West Bank led by Faisal Al-Husseini. The Palestinians arrived in Moscow to protest the mass emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 128). | |
| 26.04.1990 | Jewish Agency office opened in Vilnius. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 128). | |
| 27.04.1990 | On April 27th-29th President Hafez al-Assad visited Moscow. Soviet Jewish emigration to Israel was one of the issues discussed with Gorbachev. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 126). | |
| 01.05.1990 | Leonid Lubman, a Jewish political prisoner, is released from Perm labor camp. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, page 129). | |
| 01.05.1990 | 10,500 Soviet Jews arrived in Israel in April 1990. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 129). | |
| 02.05.1990 | In Andijan, Uzbekistan, a pogrom against Jews and Armenians took place. Many Jewish homes were looted and burned and their inhabitants beaten. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 129). | |
| 03.05.1990 | Bulgaria restored diplomatic relations with Israel. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 126). | |
| 11.05.1990 | On Israel Independence Day Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis and Israeli President Chaim Herzog expressed deep regret over the fate of the Lithuanian Jewish community during the Second World War. (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 129). | |
| 14.05.1990 | On May 14th-16th, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak visited Moscow. The declaration signed by Mubarak and Gorbachev voiced their protest against the Israeli settlement policy – placing new immigrants in housing beyond the Green Line. They signed an agreement on long-term economic trade, scientific and technological cooperation. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 126). | |
| 14.05.1990 | USSR Supreme Soviet adopted a law under which anyone insulting or defaming the President of the USSR will be penalized. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 129). | |
| 14.05.1990 | In Moscow the First Congress of People’s Deputies is open. (Wikipedia). | |
| 20.05.1990 | Vaad, the roof organization of Soviet Jews, appealed to President Reagan to pressure the Soviet leader at the upcoming summit to take action against antisemitism and neo-Nazism in the USSR. (d.o.r.) (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 129). | |
| 22.05.1990 | USSR Supreme Soviet adopted a new law “On citizenship of the USSR.” (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 129). | |
| 29.05.1990 | Boris Yeltsin was elected chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 126). | |
| 31/05/1990 | On May31st- June 4th the Bush-Gorbachev summit in Washington and Camp David was convened. The framework for an agreement on strategic arms, Soviet-American trade and other issues were under discussion. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 126). | |
| 01.06.1990 | Approximately 40,000 Soviet Jews arrived in Israel in the first five months of 1990. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 129). | |
| 05.06.1990 | The second meeting of the CSCE conference on humanitarian issues was convened in Copenhagen June 5th to 29th. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 126). | |
| 05.06.1990 | Six members of the delegation of the Vaad lobbied delegates to the CSCE Conference in Copenhagen to take action against Soviet antisemitism and for support of Jewish emigration. The Conference adopted a resolution condemning antisemitism. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 129). | |
| 12.06.1990 | USSR Supreme Soviet adopts the law “On Press and Other Mass Media” prohibiting censorship and guaranteeing the freedom of mass media. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 129). | |
| 12.06.1990 | Congress of People’s Deputies of the RSFSR adopted the “Declaration of State Sovereignty of the RSFSR.” The declaration proclaimed full power of the RSFSR in all matters of public life with the exception of those which it has voluntarily handed over to the USSR, supremacy of RSFSR Constitution and Laws on the entire territory of the RSFSR. ” This marked the beginning of the “war of laws” between the Russian Federation and the Federal government. | |
| 16.06.1990 | On July 16th the Supreme Council of the Ukraine adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Ukrainian SSR. | |
| 26.06.1990 | The Vaad delegation visited the General Assembly of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem. (11, Volume 20, № 2-3, 1990, page 129). | |
| 09.08.1990 | The autonomous Republic of Tatarstan adopted the Declaration of Sovereignty which didn’t specify its membership in the Russian Federation or in the USSR. (Wikipedia) | |
| 01.11.1990 | Congress of People’s Deputies of the RSFSR passed a law on the economic sovereignty of Russia – a logical continuation of the sovereignty of Russia. (Wikipedia) | |
| 07.11.1990 | Shmuel Ben Zvi opened an office of the Jewish Agency in Moscow. (42, 119). | |
| 09.12.1990 | Lech Walesa a former leader of the trade union “Solidarity” came to power in Poland which represented the collapse of the Soviet sphere of influence. (Wikipedia). | |
| 12.01.1991 | Yeltsin signed an agreement with Estonia in which the Russian Federation and Estonia recognize each other as sovereign states. | |
| 11.03.1991 | Lithuania declared independence. | |
| 09.04.1991 | Georgia declared independence. | |
| 12.06.1991 | As a chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, Yeltsin was able to create the post of the President of the Russian Federation, and he won the general election for the position on June 12th. | |
| 19.08.1991 | August coup – creating of the Emergency Committee in opposition to Gorbachev reforms. | |
| 20.08.1991 | The Supreme Council of Estonia adopted the resolution “On the Independence of the State of Estonia”. On September 6th the Soviet Union officially recognized the independence of Estonia. | |
| 21.08.1991 | Latvia declared independence. | |
| 24.08.1991 | After the failure of the August coup the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR -Verkhovna Rada adopted the Act of Ukraine’s independence which was confirmed by the results of the referendum of December 1, 1991: for independence – 90.32% of the voters. | |
| 27.08.1991 | Moldova declared independence. | |
| 30/08/1991 | Azerbaijan declared independence. | |
| 23.09.1991 | Armenia declared independence. | |
| 27.10.1991 | Turkmenistan declared independence. | |
| 28.10.1991 | Khasbulatov elected as the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. | |
| 06.11.1991 | By the decree of the President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin, activity of the CPSU and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation on the territory of the RSFSR is stopped. (Wikipedia). | |
| 01.12.1991 | In the referendum in Ukraine supporters of independence won. According to Boris Yeltsin, it made the preservation of the USSR in any form completely impossible. | |
| 08.12.1991 | Agreements in the village of Bialowieza, Belarus by leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus stated that the Soviet Union ceased to exist. (Wikipedia). | |
| 16.12.1991 | Kazakhstan declared independence. | |
| 26.12.1991 | The disbanding of the Soviet Union and the creation 15 independent states from former republics of the Soviet Union. |