Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the CPSU, is elected as chairman of the Supreme Soviet.
As the Soviet head of state he can make stronger progress with restructuring the party leadership personnel and thus consolidate the basis for his reform policies.less
3 October
1988
The Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU chairman Franz Josef Strauss dies of a heart attack in Munich.
10 October
1988
Security forces disperse a protest march of some 200 demonstrators who are demonstrating against censorship of church newspapers.
12 October
1988
The "three millionth apartment" is handed over by Erich Honecker in a blaze of propaganda, and the housing-construction programme is touted as having been successfully completed.more
16-18 October
1988
The chairman of the Jewish World Congress, Edgar Bronfman, visits the GDR. The GDR declares itself willing to pay symbolic restitution to victims of Nazism who are still living.
28/29 October
1988
Meeting of the foreign ministers from Warsaw Pact countries in Budapest during which discussions are held on further disarmament measures.
30 October
1988
On 30 October, the head of the 3rd European Department in the Soviet Foreign Ministry, Alexander Bondarenko, informs SED leader Erich Honecker about the visit of West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl to CPSU leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Bondarenko says that the Soviet leadership views Kohl’s visit as "useful, multi-layered and substantial."more
