(Protests demanding right for emigration for the Soviet Jews)
In response to growing international pressure, in April 1986, Soviet General Secretary Grigory Romanov
decided to lift restrictions on Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union. That same year, 71,000 Soviet Jews emigrated, of whom only 12,117 immigrated to Israel. In Vienna, a major transit point for immigration to Israel, some 83% chose to go to the United States. In October 1986, the US government stopped treating Soviet Jews as refugees, as another country, Israel, was willing to accept them unconditionally. However, granting refugee status to Soviet Jews persisted in some form, as the Lautenberg Amendment to the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act (Section 599D) required the executive branch to establish refugee processing categories for Jews, Evangelical Christians, Ukrainian Catholics, and Ukrainian Orthodox Church members and give members of these categories an enhanced opportunity to qualify for refugee status. In 1987, 185,227 Soviet immigrants arrived in Israel (out of about 228,400 Jews who left the Soviet Union that year). Approximately 148,000 more Soviet immigrants arrived in Israel in 1988. Immigration to Israel dropped off significantly from then on but remained steady between 1989 and 1992. In 1989, 65,093 Soviet immigrants arrived in Israel, followed by 66,145 in 1990, 68,079 in 1991, and 64,848 in 1994. From then on, Soviet immigration dipped below 60,000 per year for the next few years, though a spike occurred in 1999 when 66,848 immigrants arrived in Israel. This decline continued into the 2000s. Direct flights from the Soviet Union to Israel carrying immigrants took place in May and June 1986. The first direct flight, which carried 125 immigrants, departed Moscow on May 1, 1986.
The abruptness and extensiveness of this immigration wave brought about an immediate severe shortage of housing in Israel, in the Gush Dan area in particular, and a corresponding drastic rise in the prices of residential apartments. As a result, Israel's Minister for Housing Construction, initiated several programs to encourage the construction of new residential buildings, which partly included the concession of different planning procedures. When those resources were inadequate to the growing immigration wave, and many immigrants remained lacking a roof, within two years about 430 caravan sites were set up across Israel, comprising 27,000 caravans. The largest caravan site was founded in Beersheba, consisting of 2,308 housing units. After that period, the immigrants dissipated throughout Israel. But this immigration wave exhibited a phenomenon common to previous Israeli immigration waves: the efforts of the state to transfer the immigrants to the periphery primarily affected immigrants of lower socio-economic status, while those from higher socio-economic levels, who had the resources to resist these efforts, moved to residential areas of their own choice instead, mostly in Gush Dan. (Additional cities to which many of the immigrants moved (willingly and unwillingly) were Haifa and the Krayot urban area, Petah Tikva, Ariel and Ashdod).
(Soviet Jews arriving to Israel)
The absorption laws changed with time. The basic government grants given to each immigrant changed rapidly from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. Most of the immigrants initially located on the periphery and later dispersed to the "Russian" neighborhoods. There were cities, mainly in the medium and lower socio-economic levels, in which immigrants constituted over 50% of all the residents. Many of the immigrants integrated into the Israeli labor market, but the majority remained confined in their own communities. The closed nature of this immigration wave may have been due to its large size, which resulted in neighborhoods of sometimes tens of thousands of people. Also, many immigrants failed to adapt to the receiving society and the society's expectancy that they change to facilitate their social absorption. Many of the new immigrants found that their former education was not recognized by many Israeli employers, though it was recognized by institutions of higher education. Many had to work in jobs which did not match their expertise, or undergo retraining. Some of the immigrants chose to stick to the strategy of dissimilation, keeping the originating culture and rejecting the absorbing culture. Other groups of immigrants (the political leadership and younger people) chose to stick with the strategy of intertwining, involving themselves in the surrounding culture while conserving their original culture. These strategic choices were different from those of the previous immigration waves, which commonly chose either to assimilate, rejecting the originating culture and welcoming the absorbing culture, or to intertwine. The immigrants' Israeli-born children, however, have completely assimilated into Israeli society.
(Soviet Phobos 2 Mars mission)
Following
the Black Sea incident, the Soviet government publicly condemned the American lack of respect for Soviet naval laws and demanded an official apology from the White House and President Reagan; nevertheless, the demand was rebuffed by the Americans, as they claimed that the incident happened solely due to the Soviet provocation. Observing the success of
the Mir space station, the Soviet government allocated additional funds to the Soviet space program. The additional funds were redistributed towards the following space-related projects:
- the Phobos program;
- projects focused on the exploration of Venus and Mars;
- joint space projects with allied states;
- projects dedicated to finding water on the moon;
- Soviet space plane;
- the Energia/Buran shuttle program;
- the Zenit-2 rocket;
- the anti-SDI Polyus spacecraft;
- a dedicated cargo pod for the Energia rocket;
- development of satellites;
- further development of GLONASS.
(Emancipation of the Soviet women lead to break with old Soviet traditions)
Another step in reorganizing the Soviet state and building modern socialist society was
a true emancipation of Soviet women, and to truly make them free and equal to men. The Soviet government began a campaign to promote increased female participation in Soviet cultural, scientific and political life. Furthermore, a propaganda campaign emphasizing the role of women in the October Revolution was started. A commission of prominent women to address the issue of sexism within the USSR was also established. The works of Alexandra Kollontai became mandatory reading in schools across the Soviet Union. Additionally, the Soviet government expanded the child care to free up women on the Soviet job market. Adequate birth control and sex education began to be taught in Soviet secondary schools.
(Early days of the Soviet IT industry)
Uskorenie (acceleration) was a slogan and a policy announced by Communist Party General Secretary Grigory Romanov on 2 April 1986 at a Soviet Party Plenum, aimed at the acceleration of political, social and economic development of the Soviet Union. The basis for the acceleration policy was the twelfth five-year plan, which included:
- scientific developments in all Soviet Socialist Republics;
- modernization and automation of factories;
- expansion of computer production;
- expansion of the consumer goods manufacturing sector;
- anti-black market policies;
- increased worker’s self-management at the local level;
- improvement of modern technological standards;
- automation of the Soviet industry;
- construction of semiconductor and microchip factories.
(Sino - Soviet relations in the nutshell)
After a series of tough and long negotiations in Beijing between the Soviet and Chinese delegations,
the USSR and China reached an agreement, which would result in: normalization of diplomatic relations, large increase in trade, construction of pipelines from Siberia to China. The main points of agreement between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China included:
- withdrawal of Vietnamese troops from Cambodia, cessation of China's help to Khmer rebels, establishment of a new neutral socialist government, including a pro-Chinese faction in power
- Soviet mediation in Sino-Vietnamese and Sino-Indian border disputes;
- Mongolia remains in the Soviet sphere, but the Soviet troops would leave Mongolia;
- reduction of the number of Soviet and Chinese troops in the Far East;
- recognition of Taiwan as a part of China;
- recognition of the Chinese path to socialism;
- Soviet military and economic aid to China;
- USSR gains mining rights in China;
- joint investment zones (Irkutsk Oblast in the USSR, Wuhan Province in China).
Nevertheless, due to American diplomatic and economic pressure, China refused to reach any agreement with the USSR in regard to Afghanistan, so the current status quo remains in place for the time being.
