Key events that led to the end of communism.
- Chernenko dies and is replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev as general secretary of the Communist Party
- Andrey Gromyko becomes president.
- Gorbachev begins an anti-alcohol campaign and promulgates the policies of glasnost, and perestroika.
- 1985: Becomes Communist Party Secretary General
- 1986; Chernobyl nuclear power station explodes, showering large areas in Ukraine, Belarus and beyond with radioactive material.
- 1987: Signs superpower treaty with US to begin scrapping nuclear warheads.
- 1987: Proposes economic and political reform — perestroika and glasnost.