This week In National Press Club history

Dec. 25, 1991: President Mikhail Gorbachev steps down, bringing an end to the Soviet Union. A series of speeches at the National Press Club between 1988 and 1991 forecast the end of the Cold War.

In July 1988, Soviet Marshal Sergei Akhromeyev announces that Hungary and Poland are free to leave the Soviet Bloc. In November 1989, Polish Solidarity leader Lech Walesa declares the Iron Curtain “is no more.” And Russia’s first elected president, Boris Yeltsin, in June 1991 speaks for only five minutes, but answers many questions ranging from his personal religions views to the Soviet Union’s future, maintaining, ”There is no turning back from the path Russia has chosen.”

Premier Nikita Krushchev could hardly have predicted these events when he appeared at the National Press Club in October 1959.

This Week In National Press Club History is brought to you by the History and Heritage Committee, which preserves and revitalizes the Club’s 100-year history through lobby displays, events, panel discussions and its long-standing oral history project. For information about the committee and its activities, or to join the committee, contact Gilbert Klein at [email protected].

Compiled by Elizabeth Smith Brownstein, with material from the Club’s archives, former president Art Wiese, and Reliable Sources: 100 Years of National Press Club History. Check the website for more on the Club's history at www.press.org/about/history.