Divyanshu67/squad_v2 huggingface dataset:
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In May 1985, Gorbachev delivered a speech in Leningrad advocating reforms and an anti-alcohol campaign to tackle widespread alcoholism. Prices on vodka, wine, and beer were raised in order to make these drinks more expensive and a disincentive to consumers, and the introduction of rationing. Unlike most forms of rationing intended to conserve scarce goods, this was done to restrict sales with the overt goal of curtailing drunkenness. Gorbachev's plan also included billboards promoting sobriety, increased penalties for public drunkenness, and to censor drinking scenes from old movies. Although this program was not a direct copycat of Tsar Nicholas II's outright prohibition during World War I, Gorbachev faced the same adverse economic reaction as did the last Tsar. The disincentivization of alcohol consumption was a serious blow to the state budget according to Alexander Yakovlev, who noted annual collections of alcohol taxes decreased by 100 billion rubles. Alcohol production migrated to the black market, or through moonshining as some made "bathtub vodka" with homegrown potatoes. Poorer, less educated Russians resorted to drinking unhealthy substitutes such as nail polish, rubbing alcohol or men's cologne, which only served to be an additional burden on Russia's healthcare sector due to the subsequent poisoning cases. The purpose of these reforms, however, was to prop up the existing centrally planned economy, unlike later reforms, which tended toward market socialism.

Question: When was Gorbachev's speech addressing alcohol abuse?
Answer: May 1985

Question: Other than increasing pricing what was another measure that was introduced to decrease alcohol consumption?
Answer: rationing

Question: What was censored?
Answer: drinking scenes from old movies

Question: Whose anti-alcohol program did Gorbachev's remind people of?
Answer: Tsar Nicholas II

Question: When did Tsar Nicholas II ban alcohol?
Answer: during World War I,
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On July 1, 1985, Gorbachev promoted Eduard Shevardnadze, First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party, to full member of the Politburo, and the following day appointed him minister of foreign affairs, replacing longtime Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. The latter, disparaged as "Mr Nyet" in the West, had served for 28 years as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Gromyko was relegated to the largely ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (officially Soviet Head of State), as he was considered an "old thinker." Also on July 1, Gorbachev took the opportunity to dispose of his main rival by removing Grigory Romanov from the Politburo, and brought Boris Yeltsin and Lev Zaikov into the CPSU Central Committee Secretariat.

Question: When did Eduard Shevardnadze gain full membership in the Politburo?
Answer: July 1, 1985

Question: Who was responsible for Shevardnadze's membership?
Answer: Gorbachev

Question: Who was minister of foreign affairs prior to Shevardnadze?
Answer: Andrei Gromyko

Question: What was Gromyko's western nickname?
Answer: "Mr Nyet"

Question: Which person did Gorbachev kick out of the Politburo on the first of July?
Answer: Grigory Romanov
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In the fall of 1985, Gorbachev continued to bring younger and more energetic men into government. On September 27, Nikolai Ryzhkov replaced 79-year-old Nikolai Tikhonov as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, effectively the Soviet prime minister, and on October 14, Nikolai Talyzin replaced Nikolai Baibakov as chairman of the State Planning Committee (GOSPLAN). At the next Central Committee meeting on October 15, Tikhonov retired from the Politburo and Talyzin became a candidate. Finally, on December 23, 1985, Gorbachev appointed Yeltsin First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party replacing Viktor Grishin.

Question: Who became Chairman of the Council of Ministers in 1985?
Answer: Nikolai Ryzhkov

Question: Who was Chairman of the Council of Ministers prior to Ryzhkov?
Answer: Nikolai Tikhonov

Question: How old was Tikhonov when he stopped being Chairman?
Answer: 79-year-old

Question: What is an analogous office to Chairman of the Council of Ministers?
Answer: chairman of the State Planning Committee

Question: Who was the new chairman of the State Planning Committee in 1985?
Answer: Nikolai Talyzin
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The CTAG (Latvian: Cilvēktiesību aizstāvības grupa, Human Rights Defense Group) Helsinki-86 was founded in July 1986 in the Latvian port town of Liepāja by three workers: Linards Grantiņš, Raimonds Bitenieks, and Mārtiņš Bariss. Its name refers to the human-rights statements of the Helsinki Accords. Helsinki-86 was the first openly anti-Communist organization in the U.S.S.R., and the first openly organized opposition to the Soviet regime, setting an example for other ethnic minorities' pro-independence movements.[citation needed]

Question: Who created the CTAG?
Answer: Linards Grantiņš, Raimonds Bitenieks, and Mārtiņš Bariss.

Question: What group was the first to oppose the Soviet government publicly?
Answer: Helsinki-86

Question: What party was Helsinki-86 in disagreement with?
Answer: Communist
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The "Jeltoqsan" (Kazakh for "December") of 1986 were riots in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, sparked by Gorbachev's dismissal of Dinmukhamed Konayev, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and an ethnic Kazakh, who was replaced with Gennady Kolbin, an outsider from the Russian SFSR. Demonstrations started in the morning of December 17, 1986, with 200 to 300 students in front of the Central Committee building on Brezhnev Square protesting Konayev's dismissal and replacement by a Russian. Protesters swelled to 1,000 to 5,000 as other students joined the crowd. The CPK Central Committee ordered troops from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, druzhiniki (volunteers), cadets, policemen, and the KGB to cordon the square and videotape the participants. The situation escalated around 5 p.m., as troops were ordered to disperse the protesters. Clashes between the security forces and the demonstrators continued throughout the night in Almaty.

Question: What is the English translation of the word Jeltoqsan?
Answer: December

Question: Who was fired by Gorbachev causing riots?
Answer: Dinmukhamed Konayev

Question: What position did Konayev hold in Kazakhstan prior to his removal?
Answer: First Secretary of the Communist Party

Question: Who took the place of Konayev?
Answer: Gennady Kolbin

Question: When were the first demonstrations in Kazakhstan to protest the removal and replacement of Konayev?
Answer: December 17, 1986
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On the next day, December 18, protests turned into civil unrest as clashes between troops, volunteers, militia units, and Kazakh students turned into a wide-scale confrontation. The clashes could only be controlled on the third day. The Almaty events were followed by smaller protests and demonstrations in Shymkent, Pavlodar, Karaganda, and Taldykorgan. Reports from Kazakh SSR authorities estimated that the riots drew 3,000 people. Other estimates are of at least 30,000 to 40,000 protestors with 5,000 arrested and jailed, and an unknown number of casualties. Jeltoqsan leaders say over 60,000 Kazakhs participated in the protests. According to the Kazakh SSR government, there were two deaths during the riots, including a volunteer police worker and a student. Both of them had died due to blows to the head. About 100 others were detained and several others were sentenced to terms in labor camps. Sources cited by the Library of Congress claimed that at least 200 people died or were summarily executed soon thereafter; some accounts estimate casualties at more than 1,000. The writer Mukhtar Shakhanov claimed that a KGB officer testified that 168 protesters were killed, but that figure remains unconfirmed.

Question: Who was demonstrating?
Answer: Kazakh students

Question: How many people were estimated by authorities to have attended the riots?
Answer: 3,000

Question: What were the attendance estimates from non governmental groups?
Answer: 30,000 to 40,000

Question: How did the Kazakh SSR government say the two protesters were killed?
Answer: blows to the head

Question: Who wrote about the KGB officer's testimony?
Answer: Mukhtar Shakhanov
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Gorbachev also radically expanded the scope of Glasnost, stating that no subject was off-limits for open discussion in the media. Even so, the cautious Soviet intelligentsia took almost a year to begin pushing the boundaries to see if he meant what he said. For the first time, the Communist Party leader had appealed over the heads of Central Committee members for the people's support in exchange for expansion of liberties. The tactic proved successful: Within two years political reform could no longer be sidetracked by Party "conservatives." An unintended consequence was that having saved reform, Gorbachev's move ultimately killed the very system it was designed to save.

Question: Whose support did Gorbachev seek in order to increase liberties?
Answer: the people's

Question: What party was Gorbachev in charge of?
Answer: Communist

Question: What group wanted to stop reforms?
Answer: "conservatives."
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On February 7, 1987, dozens of political prisoners were freed in the first group release since Khrushchev's "thaw" in the mid-1950s. On May 6, 1987, Pamyat, a Russian nationalist group, held an unsanctioned demonstration in Moscow. The authorities did not break up the demonstration and even kept traffic out of the demonstrators' way while they marched to an impromptu meeting with Boris Yeltsin, head of the Moscow Communist Party and at the time one of Gorbachev's closest allies. On July 25, 1987, 300 Crimean Tatars staged a noisy demonstration near the Kremlin Wall for several hours, calling for the right to return to their homeland, from which they were deported in 1944; police and soldiers merely looked on.

Question: When were the prisoners set free?
Answer: February 7, 1987,

Question: What sort of prisoners were released?
Answer: political

Question: Who demonstrated close to the Kremlin in July of 1978?
Answer: Crimean Tatars

Question: Prior to 1987 when was the last large release of prisoners?
Answer: mid-1950s.

Question: Who released the prisoners in the 1950s?
Answer: Khrushchev's
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On September 10, 1987, after a lecture from hardliner Yegor Ligachev at the Politburo for allowing these two unsanctioned demonstrations in Moscow, Boris Yeltsin wrote a letter of resignation to Gorbachev, who had been holidaying on the Black Sea. Gorbachev was stunned – no one had ever voluntarily resigned from the Politburo. At the October 27, 1987, plenary meeting of the Central Committee, Yeltsin, frustrated that Gorbachev had not addressed any of the issues outlined in his resignation letter, criticized the slow pace of reform, servility to the general secretary, and opposition from Ligachev that had led to his (Yeltsin's) resignation. No one had ever addressed the Party leader so brazenly in front of the Central Committee since Leon Trotsky in the 1920s. In his reply, Gorbachev accused Yeltsin of "political immaturity" and "absolute irresponsibility." No one backed Yeltsin.

Question: Who disagreed vocally about the demonstrations being permitted?
Answer: Yegor Ligachev

Question: Who resigned in September of 1987?
Answer: Boris Yeltsin

Question: What was Gorbachev's reaction to Yeltsin's resignation?
Answer: stunned

Question: What did Yeltsin dislike about the reforms?
Answer: slow pace

Question: Who took Yeltsin's side?
Answer: No one
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On June 14, 1987, about 5,000 people gathered again at Freedom Monument in Riga, and laid flowers to commemorate the anniversary of Stalin's mass deportation of Latvians in 1941. This was the first large demonstration in the Baltic republics to commemorate the anniversary of an event contrary to official Soviet history. The authorities did not crack down on demonstrators, which encouraged more and larger demonstrations throughout the Baltic States. The next major anniversary after the August 23 Molotov Pact demonstration was on November 18, the date of Latvia’s independence in 1918. On November 18, 1987, hundreds of police and civilian militiamen cordoned off the central square to prevent any demonstration at Freedom Monument, but thousands lined the streets of Riga in silent protest regardless.

Question: Where did the demonstrators meet in June of 1987?
Answer: Freedom Monument

Question: Where is Freedom Monument?
Answer: Riga

Question: What did the protesters do?
Answer: laid flowers

Question: Who were the protesters remembering?
Answer: Latvians

Question: Where did further protests take place?
Answer: Baltic States
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In spring 1987, a protest movement arose against new phosphate mines in Estonia. Signatures were collected in Tartu, and students assembled in the university's main hall to express lack of confidence in the government. At a demonstration on May 1, 1987, young people showed up with banners and slogans despite an official ban. On August 15, 1987, former political prisoners formed the MRP-AEG group (Estonians for the Public Disclosure of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), which was headed by Tiit Madisson. In September 1987, the Edasi newspaper published a proposal by Edgar Savisaar, Siim Kallas, Tiit Made, and Mikk Titma calling for Estonia's transition to autonomy. Initially geared toward economic independence, then toward a certain amount of political autonomy, the project, Isemajandav Eesti ("A Self-Managing Estonia") became known according to its Estonian acronym, IME, which means "miracle". On October 21, a demonstration dedicated to those who gave their lives in the 1918–1920 Estonian War of Independence took place in Võru, which culminated in a conflict with the militia. For the first time in years, the blue, black, and white national tricolor was publicly displayed.

Question: What was being protested in Estonia?
Answer: new phosphate mines

Question: When did the phosphate mine protests begin?
Answer: spring 1987

Question: What group was started by ex-political prisoners?
Answer: MRP-AEG group

Question: Who was in charge of the MRP-AEG group?
Answer: Tiit Madisson

Question: What was requested for Estonia in the proposal printed by the Edasi newspaper in 1987?
Answer: autonomy
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On October 17, 1987, about 3,000 Armenians demonstrated in Yerevan complaining about the condition of Lake Sevan, the Nairit chemicals plant, and the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant, and air pollution in Yerevan. Police tried to prevent the protest but took no action to stop it once the march was underway. The demonstration was led by Armenian writers such as Silva Kaputikian, Zori Balayan, and Maro Margarian and leaders from the National Survival organization. The march originated at the Opera Plaza after speakers, mainly intellectuals, addressed the crowd.

Question: When was the Yerevan demonstration?
Answer: October 17, 1987

Question: How many people demonstrated?
Answer: about 3,000

Question: What was the demonstrators' nationality?
Answer: Armenians

Question: The protesters were unhappy with the pollution in what body of water?
Answer: Lake Sevan

Question: Where did the protest march start?
Answer: Opera Plaza
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On July 1, 1988, the fourth and last day of a bruising 19th Party Conference, Gorbachev won the backing of the tired delegates for his last-minute proposal to create a new supreme legislative body called the Congress of People's Deputies. Frustrated by the old guard's resistance, Gorbachev embarked on a set of constitutional changes to try to separate party and state, and thereby isolate his conservative Party opponents. Detailed proposals for the new Congress of People's Deputies were published on October 2, 1988, and to enable the creation of the new legislature the Supreme Soviet, during its November 29–December 1, 1988, session, implemented amendments to the 1977 Soviet Constitution, enacted a law on electoral reform, and set the date of the election for March 26, 1989.

Question: What ws the final day of the 19th Party Conference?
Answer: July 1, 1988

Question: What did Gorbachev hope to create?
Answer: new supreme legislative body

Question: What was Gorbachev trying to separate?
Answer: party and state

Question: What was the proposed legislative body called?
Answer: Congress of People's Deputies

Question: What was the ideology of Gorbachev's opponents?
Answer: conservative
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On October 2, the Popular Front formally launched its political platform at a two-day congress. Väljas attended, gambling that the front could help Estonia become a model of economic and political revival, while moderating separatist and other radical tendencies. On November 16, 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR adopted a declaration of national sovereignty under which Estonian laws would take precedence over those of the Soviet Union. Estonia's parliament also laid claim to the republic's natural resources including land, inland waters, forests, mineral deposits, and to the means of industrial production, agriculture, construction, state banks, transportation, and municipal services within the territory of Estonia's borders.

Question: Whose laws would take precedence according to the declaration of national sovereignty?
Answer: Estonian

Question: Who claimed Estonia's national resources?
Answer: Estonia's parliament

Question: What was the name of the group that made its platform known on October 2?
Answer: the Popular Front
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In February 20, 1988, after a week of growing demonstrations in Stepanakert, capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (the Armenian majority area within Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic), the Regional Soviet voted to secede and join with the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia. This local vote in a small, remote part of the Soviet Union made headlines around the world; it was an unprecedented defiance of republic and national authorities. On February 22, 1988, in what became known as the "Askeran clash", two Azerbaijanis were killed by Karabakh police. These deaths, announced on state radio, led to the Sumgait Pogrom. Between February 26 and March 1, the city of Sumgait (Azerbaijan) saw violent anti-Armenian rioting during which 32 people were killed. The authorities totally lost control and occupied the city with paratroopers and tanks; nearly all of the 14,000 Armenian residents of Sumgait fled.

Question: How many Azerbaijanis died in the Askeran clash?
Answer: two

Question: When was the Askeran clash?
Answer: February 22, 1988

Question: Who killed the two Azerbaijanis?
Answer: Karabakh police.

Question: What was triggered by the radio broadcast of the deaths?
Answer: Sumgait Pogrom

Question: How many were killed in the ensuing riots?
Answer: 32
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Gorbachev refused to make any changes to the status of Nagorno Karabakh, which remained part of Azerbaijan. He instead sacked the Communist Party Leaders in both Republics – on May 21, 1988, Kamran Baghirov was replaced by Abdulrahman Vezirov as First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party. From July 23 to September 1988, a group of Azerbaijani intellectuals began working for a new organization called the Popular Front of Azerbaijan, loosely based on the Estonian Popular Front. On September 17, when gun battles broke out between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis near Stepanakert, two soldiers were killed and more than two dozen injured. This led to almost tit-for-tat ethnic polarization in Nagorno-Karabakh's two main towns: The Azerbaijani minority was expelled from Stepanakert, and the Armenian minority was expelled from Shusha. On November 17, 1988, in response to the exodus of tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis from Armenia, a series of mass demonstrations began in Baku's Lenin Square, lasting 18 days and attracting half a million demonstrators. On December 5, 1988, the Soviet militia finally moved in, cleared the square by force, and imposed a curfew that lasted ten months.

Question: Who did Gorbachev make First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party in 1988?
Answer: Abdulrahman Vezirov

Question: Who was First Secretary prior to Vezirov?
Answer: Kamran Baghirov

Question: How many soldiers died on September 17?
Answer: two

Question: People of what ethnicity were thrown out of Shusha?
Answer: Armenian

Question: How long did the Lenin Square protest last?
Answer: 18 days
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The rebellion of fellow Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh had an immediate effect in Armenia itself. Daily demonstrations, which began in the Armenian capital Yerevan on February 18, initially attracted few people, but each day the Nagorno-Karabakh issue became increasingly prominent and numbers swelled. On February 20, a 30,000-strong crowd demonstrated in Theater Square, by February 22, there were 100,000, the next day 300,000, and a transport strike was declared, by February 25, there were close to 1 million demonstrators – about a quarter of Armenia's population. This was the first of the large, peaceful public demonstrations that would become a feature of communism's overthrow in Prague, Berlin, and, ultimately, Moscow. Leading Armenian intellectuals and nationalists, including future first President of independent Armenia Levon Ter-Petrossian, formed the eleven-member Karabakh Committee to lead and organize the new movement.

Question: Where were the first demonstrations in Armenia?
Answer: Yerevan

Question: What is the capitol of Armenia?
Answer: Yerevan

Question: How many people protested on February 23?
Answer: 300,000,

Question: What sort of strike was called?
Answer: transport

Question: What percentage of Armenia's total population protested on February 25?
Answer: about a quarter
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Gorbachev again refused to make any changes to the status of Nagorno Karabakh, which remained part of Azerbaijan. Instead he sacked both Republics' Communist Party Leaders: On May 21, 1988, Karen Demirchian was replaced by Suren Harutyunyan as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia. However, Harutyunyan quickly decided to run before the nationalist wind and on May 28, allowed Armenians to unfurl the red-blue-gold First Armenian Republic flag for the first time in almost 70 years. On June 15, 1988, the Armenian Supreme Soviet adopted a resolution formally approving the idea of Nagorno Karabakh joining Armenia. Armenia, formerly one of the most loyal Republics, had suddenly turned into the leading rebel republic. On July 5, 1988, when a contingent of troops was sent in to remove demonstrators by force from Yerevan's Zvartnots International Airport, shots were fired and one student protester was killed. In September, further large demonstrations in Yerevan led to the deployment of armored vehicles. In the autumn of 1988 almost all the 200,000 Azerbaijani minority in Armenia was expelled by Armenian Nationalists, with over 100 killed in the process – this, after the Sumgait pogrom earlier that year carried out by Azerbaijanis against ethnic Armenians and subsequent expulsion of all Armenians from Azerbaijan. On November 25, 1988, a military commandant took control of Yerevan as the Soviet government moved to prevent further ethnic violence.

Question: How many protesters died in the airport violence?
Answer: one

Question: Who banned the Azerbaijani people from Armenia?
Answer: Nationalists

Question: Who had been previously removed from Azerbaijan?
Answer: Armenians

Question: Who took charge of Yerevan in November of 1988?
Answer: a military commandant
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Beginning in February 1988, the Democratic Movement of Moldova (formerly Moldavia) organized public meetings, demonstrations, and song festivals, which gradually grew in size and intensity. In the streets, the center of public manifestations was the Stephen the Great Monument in Chişinău, and the adjacent park harboring Aleea Clasicilor (The "Alee of the Classics [of the Literature]"). On January 15, 1988, in a tribute to Mihai Eminescu at his bust on the Aleea Clasicilor, Anatol Şalaru submitted a proposal to continue the meetings. In the public discourse, the movement called for national awakening, freedom of speech, revival of Moldavian traditions, and for attainment of official status for the Romanian language and return to the Latin alphabet. The transition from "movement" (an informal association) to "front" (a formal association) was seen as a natural "upgrade" once a movement gained momentum with the public, and the Soviet authorities no longer dared to crack down on it.

Question: When did the Democratic Movement of Moldova start operating?
Answer: February 1988

Question: Which monument was a popular meeting place?
Answer: Stephen the Great Monument

Question: Where was the Stephen the Great Monument located?
Answer: Chişinău

Question: What did the movement seek to make the official language of Moldova?
Answer: Romanian

Question: What was Moldova's previous name?
Answer: Moldavia
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On April 26, 1988, about 500 people participated in a march organized by the Ukrainian Cultural Club on Kiev's Khreschatyk Street to mark the second anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, carrying placards with slogans like "Openness and Democracy to the End." Between May and June 1988, Ukrainian Catholics in western Ukraine celebrated the Millennium of Christianity in Kievan Rus' in secret by holding services in the forests of Buniv, Kalush, Hoshiv, and Zarvanytsia. On June 5, 1988, as the official celebrations of the Millennium were held in Moscow, the Ukrainian Cultural Club hosted its own observances in Kiev at the monument to St. Volodymyr the Great, the grand prince of Kievan Rus'.

Question: What group was responsible for the April 25, 1988 protest?
Answer: Ukrainian Cultural Club

Question: Where did the march happen?
Answer: Kiev's Khreschatyk Street

Question: What did the marchers wish to commemorate? 
Answer: Chernobyl nuclear disaster,

Question: Which group held secret Milleneum of Christianity celebrations?
Answer: Ukrainian Catholics

Question: In what city did the Ukrainian Cultural Club have its Millennium celebration?
Answer: Kiev
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On June 16, 1988, 6,000 to 8,000 people gathered in Lviv to hear speakers declare no confidence in the local list of delegates to the 19th Communist Party conference, to begin on June 29. On June 21, a rally in Lviv attracted 50,000 people who had heard about a revised delegate list. Authorities attempted to disperse the rally in front of Druzhba Stadium. On July 7, 10,000 to 20,000 people witnessed the launch of the Democratic Front to Promote Perestroika. On July 17, a group of 10,000 gathered in the village Zarvanytsia for Millennium services celebrated by Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Bishop Pavlo Vasylyk. The militia tried to disperse attendees, but it turned out to be the largest gathering of Ukrainian Catholics since Stalin outlawed the Church in 1946. On August 4, which came to be known as "Bloody Thursday," local authorities violently suppressed a demonstration organized by the Democratic Front to Promote Perestroika. Forty-one people were detained, fined, or sentenced to 15 days of administrative arrest. On September 1, local authorities violently displaced 5,000 students at a public meeting lacking official permission at Ivan Franko State University.

Question: How many people attended the Lviv rally?
Answer: 50,000

Question: Where was the dispersal attempt made?
Answer: in front of Druzhba Stadium

Question: Who tried to stop the rally?
Answer: Authorities

Question: Who led the Millennium celebration in Zarvanytsia?
Answer: Pavlo Vasylyk

Question: Who wanted to break up the celebration?
Answer: militia
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On November 13, 1988, approximately 10,000 people attended an officially sanctioned meeting organized by the cultural heritage organization Spadschyna, the Kyiv University student club Hromada, and the environmental groups Zelenyi Svit ("Green World") and Noosfera, to focus on ecological issues. From November 14–18, 15 Ukrainian activists were among the 100 human-, national- and religious-rights advocates invited to discuss human rights with Soviet officials and a visiting delegation of the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (also known as the Helsinki Commission). On December 10, hundreds gathered in Kiev to observe International Human Rights Day at a rally organized by the Democratic Union. The unauthorized gathering resulted in the detention of local activists.

Question: What is the English translation of Zelenyi Svit?
Answer: Green World

Question: What sort of issues were Zenlenyi Svit and Noosfera concerned with?
Answer: ecological

Question: What sort of organization is Spadschnyna? 
Answer: cultural heritage

Question: What did people gather to observe on December 10th?
Answer: International Human Rights Day
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The Partyja BPF (Belarusian Popular Front) was established in 1988 as a political party and cultural movement for democracy and independence, à la the Baltic republics’ popular fronts. The discovery of mass graves in Kurapaty outside Minsk by historian Zianon Pazniak, the Belarusian Popular Front’s first leader, gave additional momentum to the pro-democracy and pro-independence movement in Belarus. It claimed that the NKVD performed secret killings in Kurapaty. Initially the Front had significant visibility because its numerous public actions almost always ended in clashes with the police and the KGB.

Question: When did The Partyja BDF start?
Answer: 1988

Question: Who found mass graves?
Answer: Zianon Pazniak

Question: What is Pazniak's occupation?
Answer: historian

Question: Where were the graves found?
Answer: Kurapaty

Question: In addition to the police who did the BDF often have conflicts with?
Answer: KGB
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Spring 1989 saw the people of the Soviet Union exercising a democratic choice, albeit limited, for the first time since 1917, when they elected the new Congress of People's Deputies. Just as important was the uncensored live TV coverage of the legislature's deliberations, where people witnessed the previously feared Communist leadership being questioned and held accountable. This example fueled a limited experiment with democracy in Poland, which quickly led to the toppling of the Communist government in Warsaw that summer – which in turn sparked uprisings that overthrew communism in the other five Warsaw Pact countries before the end of 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell. These events showed that the people of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union did not support Gorbachev's drive to modernize Communism; rather, they preferred to abandon it altogether.

Question: What was elected in 1989?
Answer: new Congress of People's Deputies

Question: Who was questioned on live TV?
Answer: Communist leadership

Question: Where was the Communist government overthrown first?
Answer: Warsaw

Question: When did the Berlin Wall get torn down?
Answer: 1989

Question: What did Eastern European people want to do with communism?
Answer: abandon it
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In the March 26 general elections, voter participation was an impressive 89.8%, and 1,958 (including 1,225 district seats) of the 2,250 CPD seats were filled. In district races, run-off elections were held in 76 constituencies on April 2 and 9 and fresh elections were organized on April 20 and 14 to May 23, in the 199 remaining constituencies where the required absolute majority was not attained. While most CPSU-endorsed candidates were elected, more than 300 lost to independent candidates such as Yeltsin, physicist Andrei Sakharov and lawyer Anatoly Sobchak.

Question: What percentage of people voted on March 26?
Answer: 89.8%

Question: How many constituencies had run-off elections?
Answer: 76

Question: How many CPSU endorsement having candidates lost to independents?
Answer: more than 300
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In the first session of the new Congress of People's Deputies, from May 25 to June 9, hardliners retained control but reformers used the legislature as a platform for debate and criticism – which was broadcast live and uncensored. This transfixed the population; nothing like this freewheeling debate had ever been witnessed in the U.S.S.R. On May 29, Yeltsin managed to secure a seat on the Supreme Soviet, and in the summer he formed the first opposition, the Inter-Regional Deputies Group, composed of Russian nationalists and liberals. Composing the final legislative group in the Soviet Union, those elected in 1989 played a vital part in reforms and the eventual breakup of the Soviet Union during the next two years.

Question: Who used the legislative session to debate and criticize?
Answer: reformers

Question: Who made up the Inter-Regional Deputies Group?
Answer: Russian nationalists and liberals.

Question: When did Yeltsin acquire a seat on the Supreme Soviet?
Answer: May 29
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The six Warsaw Pact countries of Eastern Europe, while nominally independent, were widely recognized in the international community as the Soviet satellite states. All had been occupied by the Soviet Red Army in 1945, had Soviet-style socialist states imposed upon them, and had very restricted freedom of action in either domestic or international affairs. Any moves towards real independence were suppressed by military force – in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Prague Spring in 1968. Gorbachev abandoned the oppressive and expensive Brezhnev Doctrine, which mandated intervention in the Warsaw Pact states, in favor of non-intervention in the internal affairs of allies – jokingly termed the Sinatra Doctrine in a reference to the Frank Sinatra song "My Way".

Question: What year did the Prague Spring take place?
Answer: 1968

Question: What happened to Prague and Hungary's attempts at independence?
Answer: suppressed by military force

Question: Under what doctrine was the Soviet Union required to intervene in the Warsaw Pact states?
Answer: Brezhnev Doctrine

Question: Other than being expensive what was wrong with the Brezhnev Doctrine?
Answer: oppressive

Question: What is the nickname for Gorbachev's new doctrine?
Answer: Sinatra Doctrine
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The Baltic Way or Baltic Chain (also Chain of Freedom Estonian: Balti kett, Latvian: Baltijas ceļš, Lithuanian: Baltijos kelias, Russian: Балтийский путь) was a peaceful political demonstration on August 23, 1989. An estimated 2 million people joined hands to form a human chain extending 600 kilometres (370 mi) across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which had been forcibly reincorporated into the Soviet Union in 1944. The colossal demonstration marked the 50th anniversary of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact that divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence and led to the occupation of the Baltic states in 1940.

Question: How many people were involved in the Baltic Chain?
Answer: estimated 2 million

Question: How long was the chain?
Answer: 600 kilometres

Question: What states did the chain extend over?
Answer: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

Question: What anniversary did the chain take place on?
Answer: 50th anniversary of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact

Question: What part of Europe was split up by the pact?
Answer: Eastern
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On December 7, 1989, the Communist Party of Lithuania under the leadership of Algirdas Brazauskas, split from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and abandoned its claim to have a constitutional "leading role" in politics. A smaller loyalist faction of the Communist Party, headed by hardliner Mykolas Burokevičius, was established and remained affiliated with the CPSU. However, Lithuania’s governing Communist Party was formally independent from Moscow's control – a first for Soviet Republics and a political earthquake that prompted Gorbachev to arrange a visit to Lithuania the following month in a futile attempt to bring the local party back under control.

Question: Who was in charge of Lithuania's Communist Party in 1989
Answer: Algirdas Brazauskas

Question: What party did  Lithuania's Communist Party break apart from?
Answer: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Question: Who was in charge of the loyalist faction?
Answer: Mykolas Burokevičius,

Question: What place's control was the Communist Party of Lithuania out from under after the split?
Answer: Moscow's

Question: Who visited with the hope of bringing back the Communist Party of Lithuania to the Soviet Party?
Answer: Gorbachev
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On July 16, 1989, the Popular Front of Azerbaijan held its first congress and elected Abulfaz Elchibey, who would become President, as its Chairman. On August 19, 600,000 protesters jammed Baku’s Lenin Square (now Azadliq Square) to demand the release of political prisoners. In the second half of 1989, weapons were handed out in Nagorno-Karabakh. When Karabakhis got hold of small arms to replace hunting rifles and crossbows, casualties began to mount; bridges were blown up, roads were blockaded, and hostages were taken.

Question: When was Abulfaz Elchibey elected to Chairman of the Popular Front?
Answer: July 16, 1989

Question: How many protesters filled Lenin Square on August 19th?
Answer: 600,000

Question: What did the protesters want?
Answer: release of political prisoners
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In a new and effective tactic, the Popular Front launched a rail blockade of Armenia, which caused petrol and food shortages because 85 percent of Armenia's freight came from Azerbaijan. Under pressure from the Popular Front the Communist authorities in Azerbaijan started making concessions. On September 25, they passed a sovereignty law that gave precedence to Azerbaijani law, and on October 4, the Popular Front was permitted to register as a legal organization as long as it lifted the blockade. Transport communications between Azerbaijan and Armenia never fully recovered. Tensions continued to escalate and on December 29, Popular Front activists seized local party offices in Jalilabad, wounding dozens.

Question: What did the Popular Front do to Armenian railways?
Answer: blockade

Question: What shortages were caused by the blockade?
Answer: petrol and food

Question: How much freight into Armenia originated in Azerbaijan? 
Answer: 85 percent

Question: When was the sovereignty law passed?
Answer: September 25

Question: What in Jalilibad was taken over by the Popular Front?
Answer: local party offices
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On April 7, 1989, Soviet troops and armored personnel carriers were sent to Tbilisi after more than 100,000 people protested in front of Communist Party headquarters with banners calling for Georgia to secede from the Soviet Union and for Abkhazia to be fully integrated into Georgia. On April 9, 1989, troops attacked the demonstrators; some 20 people were killed and more than 200 wounded. This event radicalized Georgian politics, prompting many to conclude that independence was preferable to continued Soviet rule. On April 14, Gorbachev removed Jumber Patiashvili as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party and replaced him with former Georgian KGB chief Givi Gumbaridze.

Question: What did the protesters want Georgia to leave?
Answer: Soviet Union

Question: What did the protesters hope to see become a part of Georgia?
Answer: Abkhazia

Question: How many people died in the April 9 attack?
Answer: 20

Question: What happened to Georgian politics as a result of the attack?
Answer: radicalized
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In late February, large public rallies took place in Kiev to protest the election laws, on the eve of the March 26 elections to the USSR Congress of People's Deputies, and to call for the resignation of the first secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Volodymyr Scherbytsky, lampooned as "the mastodon of stagnation." The demonstrations coincided with a visit to Ukraine by Soviet President Gorbachev. On February 26, 1989, between 20,000 and 30,000 people participated in an unsanctioned ecumenical memorial service in Lviv, marking the anniversary of the death of 19th Century Ukrainian artist and nationalist Taras Shevchenko.

Question: What were people protesting in Kiev during the last part of February?
Answer: election laws

Question: Who did the protesters want to resign? 
Answer: Volodymyr Scherbytsky

Question: What was Scherbytsky's nickname?
Answer: the mastodon of stagnation

Question: Who visited the Ukraine while the protests were taking place?
Answer: Gorbachev

Question: How many people attended the service in Lviv?
Answer: between 20,000 and 30,000
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On March 4, 1989, the Memorial Society, committed to honoring the victims of Stalinism and cleansing society of Soviet practices, was founded in Kiev. A public rally was held the next day. On March 12, A pre-election meeting organized in Lviv by the Ukrainian Helsinki Union and the Marian Society Myloserdia (Compassion) was violently dispersed, and nearly 300 people were detained. On March 26, elections were held to the union Congress of People's Deputies; by-elections were held on April 9, May 14, and May 21. Among the 225 Ukrainian deputies, most were conservatives, though a handful of progressives made the cut.

Question: What ideology's victims were being honored by the Memorial Society?
Answer: Stalinism

Question: How many people from the pre-election meeting in Lviv were detained?
Answer: nearly 300

Question: Members of what ideology were more heavily elected to the union Congress of People's Deputies?
Answer: conservatives

Question: How many deputies were elected?
Answer: 225
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From April 20–23, 1989, pre-election meetings were held in Lviv for four consecutive days, drawing crowds of up to 25,000. The action included an one-hour warning strike at eight local factories and institutions. It was the first labor strike in Lviv since 1944. On May 3, a pre-election rally attracted 30,000 in Lviv. On May 7, The Memorial Society organized a mass meeting at Bykivnia, site of a mass grave of Ukrainian and Polish victims of Stalinist terror. After a march from Kiev to the site, a memorial service was staged.

Question: How many people attended the Lviv pre-election meetings?
Answer: 25,000

Question: How long did the warning strike last?
Answer: one-hour

Question: Where did the strike take place?
Answer: eight local factories and institutions

Question: Prior to the warning strike when was the last labor strike in Lviv?
Answer: 1944

Question: At what sight was the Bykivnia meeting held?
Answer: mass grave
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From mid-May to September 1989, Ukrainian Greek-Catholic hunger strikers staged protests on Moscow's Arbat to call attention to the plight of their Church. They were especially active during the July session of the World Council of Churches held in Moscow. The protest ended with the arrests of the group on September 18. On May 27, 1989, the founding conference of the Lviv regional Memorial Society was held. On June 18, 1989, an estimated 100,000 faithful participated in public religious services in Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine, responding to Cardinal Myroslav Lubachivsky's call for an international day of prayer.

Question: What were the hunger strikers hoping to draw attention to?
Answer: plight of their Church.

Question: When did the Lviv regional Memorial Society have its first conference?
Answer: May 27, 1989

Question: How many people attended the services in western Ukraine?
Answer: an estimated 100,000
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On August 19, 1989, the Russian Orthodox Parish of Saints Peter and Paul announced it would be switching to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. On September 2, 1989, tens of thousands across Ukraine protested a draft election law that reserved special seats for the Communist Party and for other official organizations: 50,000 in Lviv, 40,000 in Kiev, 10,000 in Zhytomyr, 5,000 each in Dniprodzerzhynsk and Chervonohrad, and 2,000 in Kharkiv. From September 8–10, 1989, writer Ivan Drach was elected to head Rukh, the People's Movement of Ukraine, at its founding congress in Kiev. On September 17, between 150,000 and 200,000 people marched in Lviv, demanding the legalization of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. On September 21, 1989, exhumation of a mass grave begins in Demianiv Laz, a nature preserve south of Ivano-Frankivsk. On September 28, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Ukraine Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, a holdover from the Brezhnev era, was replaced by Vladimir Ivashko.

Question: What were the protesters on September 2 demonstrating against?
Answer: draft election law

Question: How many protesters were there in Lviv?
Answer: 50,000

Question: Who was put in charge of the People's Movement of Ukraine?
Answer: Ivan Drach

Question: Where did the People's Movement hold its founding congress?
Answer: Kiev
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On October 1, 1989, a peaceful demonstration of 10,000 to 15,000 people was violently dispersed by the militia in front of Lviv's Druzhba Stadium, where a concert celebrating the Soviet "reunification" of Ukrainian lands was being held. On October 10, Ivano-Frankivsk was the site of a pre-election protest attended by 30,000 people. On October 15, several thousand people gathered in Chervonohrad, Chernivtsi, Rivne, and Zhytomyr; 500 in Dnipropetrovsk; and 30,000 in Lviv to protest the election law. On October 20, faithful and clergy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church participated in a synod in Lviv, the first since its forced liquidation in the 1930s.

Question: How many people demonstrated on October 1?
Answer: 10,000 to 15,000

Question: Who attacked the protest?
Answer: militia

Question: Where did the attack occur?
Answer: in front of Lviv's Druzhba Stadium

Question: What was happening in the stadium at the time?
Answer: concert

Question: Prior to the October 20 synod, when was the last one held in Lviv?
Answer: 1930s
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On October 24, the union Supreme Soviet passed a law eliminating special seats for Communist Party and other official organizations' representatives. On October 26, twenty factories in Lviv held strikes and meetings to protest the police brutality of October 1 and the authorities' unwillingness to prosecute those responsible. From October 26–28, the Zelenyi Svit (Friends of the Earth – Ukraine) environmental association held its founding congress, and on October 27 the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet passed a law eliminating the special status of party and other official organizations.

Question: How many factories had strikes on October 26?
Answer: twenty

Question: Where were the strikes?
Answer: Lviv

Question: What were the strikes in protest against?
Answer: police brutality
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On October 28, 1989, the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet decreed that effective January 1, 1990, Ukrainian would be the official language of Ukraine, while Russian would be used for communication between ethnic groups. On the same day The Congregation of the Church of the Transfiguration in Lviv left the Russian Orthodox Church and proclaimed itself the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The following day, thousands attended a memorial service at Demianiv Laz, and a temporary marker was placed to indicate that a monument to the "victims of the repressions of 1939–1941" soon would be erected.

Question: What was made Ukraine's official language in 1990?
Answer: Ukrainian

Question: Who decided Ukraine's official language?
Answer: Ukrainian Supreme Soviet

Question: For what reason would the Russian be spoken?
Answer: communication between ethnic groups

Question: Where was the January 2 memorial service?
Answer: Demianiv Laz