rajpurkar/squad huggingface dataset:
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

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
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

On October 25, 1989, the Supreme Soviet voted to eliminate special seats for the Communist Party and other official organizations in national and local elections, responding to sharp popular criticism that such reserved slots were undemocratic. After vigorous debate, the 542-member Supreme Soviet passed the measure 254-85 (with 36 abstentions). The decision required a constitutional amendment, ratified by the full congress, which met December 12–25. It also passed measures that would allow direct elections for presidents of each of the 15 constituent republics. Gorbachev strongly opposed such a move during debate but was defeated.

Question: What did the Communist Party lose on October 25, 1989 with regards to elections?
Answer: special seats

Question: Who voted to get rid of the special seats?
Answer: the Supreme Soviet

Question: When did congress meet to ratify the amendment to remove special election seats?
Answer: December 12–25
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

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
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

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
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

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
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

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
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

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
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

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: Who attacked the protest?
Answer: troops

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
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

In Ukraine, Lviv and Kiev celebrated Ukrainian Independence Day on January 22, 1989. Thousands gathered in Lviv for an unauthorized moleben (religious service) in front of St. George's Cathedral. In Kiev, 60 activists met in a Kiev apartment to commemorate the proclamation of the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1918. On February 11–12, 1989, the Ukrainian Language Society held its founding congress. On February 15, 1989, the formation of the Initiative Committee for the Renewal of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church was announced. The program and statutes of the movement were proposed by the Writers Association of Ukraine and were published in the journal Literaturna Ukraina on February 16, 1989. The organization heralded Ukrainian dissidents such as Vyacheslav Chornovil.

Question: What is commemorated on January 22 in Ukraine?
Answer: Ukrainian Independence Day

Question: What is a moleben?
Answer: religious service

Question: Where was the moleben held?
Answer: in front of St. George's Cathedral.
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

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
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

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
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

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
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

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
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

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
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

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
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

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: Where were the strikes?
Answer: Lviv

Question: What were the strikes in protest against?
Answer: police brutality

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

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
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

In mid-November The Shevchenko Ukrainian Language Society was officially registered. On November 19, 1989, a public gathering in Kiev attracted thousands of mourners, friends and family to the reburial in Ukraine of three inmates of the infamous Gulag Camp No. 36 in Perm in the Ural Mountains: human-rights activists Vasyl Stus, Oleksiy Tykhy, and Yuriy Lytvyn. Their remains were reinterred in Baikove Cemetery. On November 26, 1989, a day of prayer and fasting was proclaimed by Cardinal Myroslav Lubachivsky, thousands of faithful in western Ukraine participated in religious services on the eve of a meeting between Pope John Paul II and Soviet President Gorbachev. On November 28, 1989, the Ukrainian SSR's Council for Religious Affairs issued a decree allowing Ukrainian Catholic congregations to register as legal organizations. The decree was proclaimed on December 1, coinciding with a meeting at the Vatican between the pope and the Soviet president.

Question: When was The Shevchenko Ukrainian Language Society made official?
Answer: mid-November

Question: The three human rights activists reburied November 19th were prisoners where?
Answer: Gulag Camp No. 36

Question: Where was Gulag Camp No. 36 located?
Answer: Perm in the Ural Mountains

Question: Where were the activists reburied?
Answer: Baikove Cemetery.

Question: Who met with Gorbachev on November 22?
Answer: Pope John Paul II
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

On September 30, 1989, thousands of Belorussians, denouncing local leaders, marched through Minsk to demand additional cleanup of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster site in Ukraine. Up to 15,000 protesters wearing armbands bearing radioactivity symbols and carrying the banned red-and-white Belorussian national flag filed through torrential rain in defiance of a ban by local authorities. Later, they gathered in the city center near the government's headquarters, where speakers demanded resignation of Yefrem Sokolov, the republic's Communist Party leader, and called for the evacuation of half a million people from the contaminated zones.

Question: What did the Belorussians wish to be cleaned up?
Answer: Chernobyl disaster site

Question: Where did the Chernobyl Disaster occur?
Answer: Ukraine

Question: When did the Chernobyl disaster happen?
Answer: 1986

Question: What symbol did the protesters wear on their arms?
Answer: radioactivity symbols

Question: How was the weather during the protest?
Answer: torrential rain
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

Thousands of Soviet troops were sent to the Fergana Valley, southeast of the Uzbek capital Tashkent, to re-establish order after clashes in which local Uzbeks hunted down members of the Meskhetian minority in several days of rioting between June 4–11, 1989; about 100 people were killed. On June 23, 1989, Gorbachev removed Rafiq Nishonov as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Uzbek SSR and replaced him with Karimov, who went on to lead Uzbekistan as a Soviet Republic and subsequently as an independent state.

Question: Who went to the Fergana Valley to restore order?
Answer: Soviet troops

Question: Where is the Fergana Valley located?
Answer: southeast of the Uzbek capital

Question: Who were targeted by the local Uzbeks?
Answer: members of the Meskhetian minority

Question: Who was fired from First Secretary position by Gorbachev? 
Answer: Rafiq Nishonov

Question: Who replaced Nishonov?
Answer: Karimov
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

In Kazakhstan on June 19, 1989, young men carrying guns, firebombs, iron bars and stones rioted in Zhanaozen, causing a number of deaths. The youths tried to seize a police station and a water-supply station. They brought public transportation to a halt and shut down various shops and industries. By June 25, the rioting had spread to five other towns near the Caspian Sea. A mob of about 150 people armed with sticks, stones and metal rods attacked the police station in Mangishlak, about 90 miles from Zhanaozen, before they were dispersed by government troops flown in by helicopters. Mobs of young people also rampaged through Yeraliev, Shepke, Fort-Shevchenko and Kulsary, where they poured flammable liquid on trains housing temporary workers and set them on fire.

Question: Where was the fatal June 19th riots?
Answer: Zhanaozen

Question: Who were the rioters?
Answer: young men

Question: What did the rioters try to take over?
Answer: police station and a water-supply station

Question: How many towns had riots of their own following the initial riots?
Answer: five

Question: What was attacked in Mangishlak?
Answer: police station
Title: Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

Ethnic tensions had escalated between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis in spring and summer 1988. On January 9, 1990, after the Armenian parliament voted to include Nagorno-Karabakh within its budget, renewed fighting broke out, hostages were taken, and four Soviet soldiers were killed. On January 11, Popular Front radicals stormed party buildings and effectively overthrew the communist powers in the southern town of Lenkoran. Gorbachev resolved to regain control of Azerbaijan; the events that ensued are known as "Black January." Late on January 19, 1990, after blowing up the central television station and cutting the phone and radio lines, 26,000 Soviet troops entered the Azerbaijani capital Baku, smashing barricades, attacking protesters, and firing into crowds. On that night and during subsequent confrontations (which lasted until February), more than 130 people died – the majority of whom were civilians. More than 700 civilians were wounded, hundreds were detained, but only a few were actually tried for alleged criminal offenses.

Question: Which two groups saw increasing ethnic conflicts in 1988?
Answer: Armenians and Azerbaijanis

Question: Who was killed in the January 9 riots?
Answer: four Soviet soldiers

Question: How many people died in the Soviet response to the clashes?
Answer: more than 130

Question: What were the January incidents called?
Answer: Black January

Question: How many Soviet troops occupied Baku?
Answer: 26,000