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-------------------- 2554 - UKRAINE - in 1987 updated to 2019
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- In 1987 people form Sonoma joined hands with citizens of Kanev in the Ukraine with a goal of peace and lasting friendship. Sister-cities were formed.
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- December 13, 1987 the Press Democrat newspaper ran a USSR portrait. Six days of special reporting on the Soviet Union with its 100 cultures and over 2,000 years of invasions, oppression, revolutions , literature and arts.
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- The clock was ticking on Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. The USSR had some major problems with the long run of communism. But, let’s start with history, back to 1000 B.C. when Crimmerians were farmers along the shores of the Black Sea. 700 B.C. the Seythian horsemen overran the farmers.
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----------------- 388 A.D. Kiev was the capital of the first Russian state
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----------------- 988 Vladimer the ruler declares Byzantine Christianity the official religion.
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------------------1240 Mongols conquer Kiev and have 200 years of control.
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---------------- 1555 Ivan the Terrible rules.
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---------------- 1682 Peter the Great makes St Petersburg the capital, later became Leningrad.
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---------------- 1762 Catherine the Great
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---------------- 1812 Napoleon invades Russia. 600,000 French troops and 570,000 die or are captured.
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---------------- 1867 Russia sells Alaska to US for $7 million.
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---------------- 1903 Lenin leads the Bolsheviks.
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--------------- 1914 Germany declares war on Russia. Rasputin is assassinated.
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--------------- 1917 Lenin rules from Leningrad.
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----------------1921 Josef Stalin leads the USSR.
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-----------------1928 The government wipes out all private business. 20 million citizens are sent to labor camps.
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---------------- 1939 Hitler and Stalin divide up Poland. WWI Germany invades and 20 million Russians are killed.
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---------------- 1949 The Iron Curtain and the Cold War.
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---------------- 1950 Stalin dies, Khrushchev rules.
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----------------- 1957 Russia launches Sputnik I. I am in high school and listen to the satellite pings on the radio.
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-----------------1962 John F Kennedy orders naval blockade of Cuba to remove Russian missiles. I graduate from college and get my degree and draft notice the same week. I enter the Air Force for a 6 year tour of duty.
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---------------- 1972 Nixon sign Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT). We move to Santa Rosa.
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------------------1979 Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.
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---------------- 1982 Mikhail Gorbachev is leader.
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-----------------1986 Gorbachev starts “ glasnost” openness and freedoms with the West.
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---------------- 1987 Gorbachev meets Ronald Reagan. This starts the beginning of the Press Democrat 6 article series on the lives in Russia at the time.
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----------------- 1987 Russia was an anxious nation with hopes for reform. A crisis of political infighting and rampant inefficiency of the communist system dominate the economy. They can put men in space, but, can not put food on the table.
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----------------- 1986 - A reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power station explodes, sending a radioactive plume across Europe. Desperate efforts are made to contain the damaged reactor within a huge concrete cover.
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---------------- 1991 - Ukraine declares independence following attempted coup in Moscow.
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---------------- 1990’s - About 250,000 Crimean Tatars and their descendants return to Crimea following collapse of Soviet Union.
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---------------- 1994 - Presidential elections: Leonid Kuchma succeeds Leonid Kravchuk, conducts policy of balancing overtures to the West and alliance with Russia.
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---------------- 1996 - New, democratic constitution adopted, and a new currency is introduced.
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---------------- 2000 - Chernobyl nuclear power plant is shut down, 14 years after the accident. Well over ten thousand people died as a direct result of the explosion, the health of millions more was affected.
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---------------- 2002 March - General election results in hung parliament. Parties opposed to President Kuchma allege widespread electoral fraud.
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---------------- 2002 May - Government announces decision to launch formal bid to join NATO.
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---------------- 2004 November - The Orange Revolution with opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko launches mass protest campaign over rigged elections that gave victory to pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovych. Supreme Court later annuls poll result.
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---------------- 2005 December - Viktor Yushchenko becomes president after winning December election re-run. Relations with Russia sour, leading to frequent disputes over gas supplies and pipeline transit fees.
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---------------- 2006 July - Socialist Party abandons Orange Revolution allies to form coalition with Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions and the Communists.
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----------------- 2011 - Yulia Tymoshenko Hero of the Orange Revolution was jailed for abuse of power in 2011, but freed after the 2014 revolution
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---------------- 2008 October - Global financial crisis leads to decline in demand for steel, causing price of one of the country's main exports to collapse. Value of Ukrainian currency falls sharply and investors pull out.
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---------------- Viktor Yushchenko spearheaded the Orange Revolution but disappointed in office
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---------------- 2010 February - Viktor Yanukovych is declared winner of second round of presidential election.
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---------------- 2010 June - Parliament votes to abandon NATO membership aspirations.
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---------------- 2011 October - A court jails former Yulia Tymoshenko for abuse of power over a gas deal with Russia in 2009.
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---------------- 2013 November - Tens of thousands of protesters take to the streets to protest at the government's sudden decision to abandon plans to sign an association agreement with the EU, blaming Russian pressure. Months of at times violent protests culminated in the collapse of the Yanukovych government in 2014.
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---------------- 2014 February - Security forces kill at least 77 protesters in Kyiv. President Yanukovych flees to Russia, opposition takes over.
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---------------- 2014 March - Russian forces annex Crimea, prompting biggest East-West showdown since Cold War. US and European Union impose ever-harsher sanctions on Russia.
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---------------- 2014 April - Pro-Russian armed groups seize parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions on Russian border. Government launches military operation in response.
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---------------- 2014 May - Leading businessman Petro Poroshenko wins presidential election on pro-Western platform.
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---------------- 2014 July - Pro-Russian forces shoot down Malaysian airliner over eastern Ukraine conflict zone, killing all 298 people on board. The wreck of the Malaysian airliner shot down over eastern Ukraine by pro-Russian armed group
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---------------- 2014 September - NATO confirms Russian troops and heavy military equipment entering eastern Ukraine.
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---------------- 2014 October - Parliamentary elections produce convincing majority for pro-Western parties.
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---------------- 2015 February - Germany and France broker a new Donbass deal at talks in Belarus, resulting in a tenuous ceasefire.
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---------------- 2016 - Economy returns to fragile growth after two years of turmoil.
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---------------- 2017 July - Ukraine's association agreement with the European Union is ratified by all signatories, and comes into force on 1 September.
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---------------- 2018 May - Russian President Putin officially opens a bridge linking southern Russia to Crimea, an action Ukraine calls illegal.
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---------------- 2018 October - The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople agrees to allow Ukraine to set up its own Orthodox Church independent of Russian ecclesiastical supervision.
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---------------- 2019 April-July - Television comedian Volodymyr Zelensky wins presidential election run-off in a landslide victory over incumbent Petro Poroshenko.
He takes office in May, and his Servant of the People party wins early parliamentary elections in July.
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---------------- 2019 August - Parliament appoints President Zelensky's aide Oleksiy Honcharuk prime minister.
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---------------- 2019 September - Russia and Ukraine swap prisoners captured in the wake of Moscow's seizure of Crimea and intervention in the Donbass.
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---------------- 2019 October - Ukraine becomes embroiled US impeachment row over allegations of President Trump attempting to put pressure on the country over investigating possible Democrat president rival Joe Biden.
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------------------ THIS WAS WHAT IT WAS LIKE IN 1987: ---------------------
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- In 25 years the gap separating Soviet and US GDP jumped from $1 trillion to $2 trillion. Despite free medical care infant mortality rates were 3 times the US. Consumers wait years to buy cars. Russia became a monolithic burearachy geared to perpetuate the system. There is no unemployment for doing nothing and getting paid.
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- After WWII Russia focused on military might. Every town has a war memorial.
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- Comparing education achievements with the US:
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--------------------USSR ---------------US in 1987:
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-------------------12.7% ---------------25.3% --------- get college degrees
--------------------2.0 ------------------21.4 ----------- get some college
-------------------58.6 ------------------38.2 ----------- get high school degrees
-------------------26.8 -------------------9.6 ----------- get some high school
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- There were 50 million people in Ukraine. Soviet Christianity was practiced by mostly the old and the women.
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- The Communist Party is responsible for policy making. The Nations Government caries out the policy. There is shared control of the army.
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- For Georgians wine grapes are something sacred. Gorbachev identifies chronic nationwide alcoholism as a key obstacle to economic recovery. The average family spends 33% of their income to alcohol.
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---------------------- World’s wine production in 1987:
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---------------------- France --------------- 22.8%
---------------------- Italy ------------------- 20.8
---------------------- USSR ---------------- 11.2
---------------------- Spain ----------------- 10.3
---------------------- California ------------- 5.2
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------------------Employment compared to the US in 1987:
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----------------------------------- USSR ------------ US
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------------- Agriculture ------ 19.4% ------------ 3 %
------------- Industry ----------- 38 --------------- 27
------------- Service ------------ 42.6 ------------- 70
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- Perestroika is Gorbachev’s economic reform program:
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------------------ Trade Unions for the working class created this:
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-------------------------------------------------------------USSR --------------- US in 1987
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---------- Days lost to illness each year ------------- 10.5 ----------------- 4.6
---------- Government worker to population ------ 1 in 15 ------------- 1 in 15
---------- Average monthly wage -------------------- $320 --------------- $1,486
---------- Cost of cheap car in months pay ----------- 22 ------------------- 4.4
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- Kanev, Ukraine and Sonoma are “sister cities”, seeing it to be important for people at the grass roots levels to get to know each other.
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- Richmond, Indiana and Serpukhov, 70 miles south of Moscow become sister-cities.
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- People-to-people and face-to-face for world peace. Citizen diplomacy.
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- Gerkascy, Ukraine to be sister-city with Santa Rosa, California.
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- All this was the picture in December, 1987. How would this compare to what it is today in 2019? How far have we come? I will send this to the Press Democrat. Maybe they can look into their archives and write an up date, 33 years later.
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- December 22, 2019 2554 1737
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--- to: ------ jamesdetrick@comcast.net ------ “Jim Detrick” -----------
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--------------------- Sunday, December 22, 2019 --------------------
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