<P> In the fall of 1985, Gorbachev continued to bring younger and more energetic men into government . On September 27, 55 - year - old Nikolai Ryzhkov replaced 79 - year - old Nikolai Tikhonov as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, effectively the Soviet prime minister, and on October 14, Nikolai Talyzin replaced Nikolai Baibakov as chairman of the State Planning Committee (GOSPLAN). At the next Central Committee meeting on October 15, Tikhonov retired from the Politburo and Talyzin became a candidate . Finally, on December 23, 1985, Gorbachev appointed Yeltsin First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party replacing Viktor Grishin . </P> <P> Gorbachev continued to press for greater liberalization . On December 23, 1986, the most prominent Soviet dissident, Andrei Sakharov, returned to Moscow shortly after receiving a personal telephone call from Gorbachev telling him that after almost seven years his internal exile for defying the authorities was over . </P> <P> The Baltic republics, forcibly reincorporated into the Soviet Union in 1944, pressed for independence, beginning with Estonia in November 1988 when the Estonian legislature passed laws resisting the control of the central government . While Gorbachev had loosened Soviet control over Eastern Europe, he had made it known that Baltic separatism would not be tolerated and be met with embargoes and force if need be, as there was a tacit agreement in the Politboro of the infeasibility of using force to keep Poland and Czechoslovakia communist, but said loss of power would not extend into the USSR itself . </P> <P> The CTAG (Latvian: Cilvēktiesību aizstāvības grupa, Human Rights Defense Group) Helsinki - 86 was founded in July 1986 in the Latvian port town of Liepāja by three workers: Linards Grantiņš, Raimonds Bitenieks, and Mārtiņš Bariss . Its name refers to the human - rights statements of the Helsinki Accords . Helsinki - 86 was the first openly anti-Communist organization in the U.S.S.R., and the first openly organized opposition to the Soviet regime, setting an example for other ethnic minorities' pro-independence movements . </P>

What was the first satellite state to break away from the ussr