CHRONOLOGY - Russia: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 427

1955
Abortion relegalized.
(February) Malenkov, Khrushchev's rival,
replaced by Bulganin as prime minister.
(May) West Germany joins NATO; Warsaw Pact
established.
Khrushchev and Bulganin visit Yugoslavia.
(July) Geneva summit with U.S. President
Dwight Eisenhower; agreement signed to end
four-power occupation of Austria.

(October) Nobel Prize in literature awarded to
Pasternak; government pressures him to decline
the prize.
(December) Promulgation of school reforms and
new criminal code.
U.S.-USSR cultural exchange agreement.

1958-1959
Berlin crisis (November 1958-March 1959).

1959
First post-World War II census establishes Soviet
population at 212 million.
Russian spacecraft Lunik III photographs moon.
Galina Ulanova appointed ballet mistress of the
Bolshoi Ballet.
(September) Khrushchev visits United States
accompanied by Anastas Mikoyan and Frol
Kozlov.
Khrushchev launches campaign to encourage
Soviet citizens to plant and consume corn.
Twenty-first Party Congress.
USSR cancels economic and technical aid to
China.
Sino-Soviet split becomes evident.
(May) U-2 incident, in which American spy
plane is shot down over Soviet territory.
Paris conference.

1956
(February) Twentieth Party Congress; Khrush-
chev's “Secret Speech” condemns Stalin “cult
of personality.”
(June-October) Reforms in Poland; return of
Wladyslaw Gomulka to power.
(October-November) Soviet troops crush Hun-
garian revolt and support János Kádár as new
Hungarian leader.
Molotov resigns as foreign minister.

1957
(June) Khrushchev defeats attempt of “anti-
Party” group to remove him as first party sec-
retary (Malenkov, Kaganovich, and Molotov
ousted).
(September) Nuclear accident near Cheliabinsk.
(October) Sputnik I launched; Defense Minister
Zhukov is dismissed.
Boris Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago is published outside
the Soviet Union.
USSR successfully tests intercontinental ballistic
missiles.

1959-1965
Seven-Year Plan.

1960
Khrushchev at U.N. General Assembly in New
York City.
Death of Boris Pasternak.

1957-1965
Regional economic councils established; decen-
tralization of economic organization.

1961
(April) Yury Gagarin becomes first man to travel
in space.
(June) Khrushchev and Kennedy hold summit
in Geneva.
(August) Berlin Wall erected.
(October) Twenty-second Party Congress meets;
Stalin's body is removed from Lenin mau-
soleum.

1958
(February) Khrushchev begins antireligious cru-
sade.
(March) Bulganin ousted, Khrushchev becomes
premier.