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The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
(USSR) which resulted in the end of the country's and its federal government's existence as a sovereign state, thereby resulting in its constituent republics gaining full
sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...
on 26 December 1991. It brought an end to
General Secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
's (later also
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
) effort to reform the Soviet political and economic system in an attempt to stop a period of political stalemate and economic backslide. The Soviet Union had experienced internal stagnation and ethnic separatism. Although highly centralized until its final years, the country was made up of fifteen top-level republics that served as homelands for different ethnicities. By late 1991, amid a catastrophic political crisis, with several republics already departing the Union and the waning of centralized power, the leaders of three of its founding members declared that the Soviet Union no longer existed. Eight more republics joined their declaration shortly thereafter. Gorbachev resigned in December 1991 and what was left of the Soviet parliament voted to end itself. The process began with growing unrest in the Union's various constituent national republics developing into an incessant political and legislative conflict between them and the central government.
Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
was the first Soviet republic to declare state sovereignty inside the Union on 16 November 1988.
Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
was the first republic to declare full independence restored from the Soviet Union by the Act of 11 March 1990 with its
Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...
neighbours and the
Southern Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...
republic of
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
joining it in a course of two months. In August 1991, communist hardliners and military elites tried to overthrow Gorbachev and stop the failing reforms in a coup, but failed. The turmoil led to the government in Moscow losing most of its influence, and many republics proclaiming independence in the following days and months. The secession of the Baltic states was recognized in September 1991. The Belovezh Accords were signed on 8 December by
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
of
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
,
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Kravchuk of
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, and
Chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...
Shushkevich of
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
, recognising each other's independence and creating the
Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of and has an estimated population of 239,796,010. ...
(CIS) to replace the Soviet Union.
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
was the last republic to leave the Union, proclaiming independence on 16 December. All the ex-Soviet republics, with the exception of Georgia and the Baltic states, joined the CIS on 21 December, signing the
Alma-Ata Protocol The Alma-Ata Protocols were the founding declarations and principles of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus had agreed to the Belovezh Accords on 8 December 1991, dissolving the Soviet Union ...
. On 25 December, Gorbachev resigned and turned over his presidential powers—including control of the nuclear launch codes—to Yeltsin, who was now the first president of the
Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. That evening, the
Soviet flag The State Flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (), commonly known as the Soviet flag (), was the official state flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1922 to 1991. The flag's design and symbolism are derived from ...
was lowered from the
Kremlin The Kremlin ( rus, Московский Кремль, r=Moskovskiy Kreml', p=ˈmɐˈskofskʲɪj krʲemlʲ, t=Moscow Kremlin) is a fortified complex in the center of Moscow founded by the Rurik dynasty, Rurik dynasty. It is the best known of th ...
and replaced with the Russian tricolour flag. The following day, the
Supreme Soviet of the USSR The Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( rus, Верховный Совет Союза Советских Социалистических Республик, r=Verkhovnyy Sovet Soyuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respubl ...
's upper chamber, the Soviet of the Republics formally dissolved the Union. Declaration № 142-Н of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, formally establishing the dissolution of the Soviet Union as a state and subject of international law. In the
aftermath of the Cold War Aftermath may refer to: Companies * Aftermath (comics), an imprint of Devil's Due Publishing * Aftermath Entertainment, an American record label founded by Dr. Dre * Aftermath Media, an American multimedia company * Aftermath Services, an Americ ...
, several of the
former Soviet republics The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...
have retained close links with Russia and formed multilateral organizations such as the CIS, the
Collective Security Treaty Organization The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is an intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia consisting of six post-Soviet states The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics ...
(CSTO), the
Eurasian Economic Union The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU or EEU)EAEU is the acronym used on thorganisation's website However, many media outlets use the acronym EEU. is an economic union of some post-Soviet states located in Eurasia. The Treaty on the Eurasian Econo ...
(EAEU), and the
Union State The Union State,; be, Саю́зная дзяржа́ва Расі́і і Белару́сі, Sajuznaja dziaržava Rasii i Bielarusi, links=no. or Union State of Russia and Belarus,; be, Саю́зная дзяржа́ва, Sajuznaja dziar ...
, for economic and military cooperation. On the other hand, the Baltic states and most of the former
Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...
states became part of the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
and joined
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
, while some of the other former Soviet republics like Ukraine, Georgia and
Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...
have been publicly expressing interest in following the same path since the 1990s.


Background


1985: Gorbachev elected

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
was elected
General Secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
by the
Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction ...
on 11 March 1985, just over four hours after his predecessor
Konstantin Chernenko Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko uk, Костянтин Устинович Черненко, translit=Kostiantyn Ustynovych Chernenko (24 September 1911 – 10 March 1985) was a Soviet politician and the seventh General Secretary of the Commun ...
died at the age of 73. Gorbachev, aged 54, was the youngest member of the Politburo. His initial goal as general secretary was to revive the stagnating
Soviet economy The economy of the Soviet Union was based on state ownership of the means of production, collective farming, and industrial manufacturing. An administrative-command system managed a distinctive form of central planning. The Soviet economy was ...
, and he realized that doing so would require reforming underlying political and social structures. The reforms began with personnel changes of senior Brezhnev-era officials who would impede political and economic change. On 23 April 1985, Gorbachev brought two protégés,
Yegor Ligachev Yegor Kuzmich Ligachyov (also transliterated as Ligachev; russian: Егор Кузьмич Лигачёв, link=no; 29 November 1920 – 7 May 2021) was a Soviet and Russian politician who was a high-ranking official in the Communist Party ...
and
Nikolai Ryzhkov Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov ( uk, Микола Іванович Рижков; russian: Николай Иванович Рыжков; born 28 September 1929) is a Soviet, and later Russian, politician. He served as the last Chairman of the Counci ...
, into the Politburo as full members. He kept the "power" ministries favorable by promoting KGB Chief
Viktor Chebrikov Viktor Mikhailovich Chebrikov (russian: Виктор Михайлович Чéбриков; 27 April 1923 – 2 July 1999) was a Soviet public official and security administrator and head of the KGB from December 1982 to October 1988.Montgomery, ...
from candidate to full member and appointing Minister of Defence Marshal Sergei Sokolov as a Politburo candidate. That
liberalization Liberalization or liberalisation (British English) is a broad term that refers to the practice of making laws, systems, or opinions less severe, usually in the sense of eliminating certain government regulations or restrictions. The term is used m ...
, however, fostered
nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...
movements and ethnic disputes within the Soviet Union. It also led indirectly to the
revolutions of 1989 The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Natio ...
in which Soviet-imposed socialist regimes of the
Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...
were toppled peacefully ( with the notable exception of Romania), which in turn increased pressure on Gorbachev to introduce greater democracy and autonomy for the Soviet Union's constituent republics. Under Gorbachev's leadership, the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...
(CPSU) in 1989 introduced limited competitive elections to a new central legislature, the Congress of People's Deputies (although the ban on other political parties was not lifted until 1990). On 1 July 1985, Gorbachev sidelined his main rival by removing Grigory Romanov from the Politburo and brought
Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
into the Central Committee Secretariat. On 23 December 1985, Gorbachev appointed Yeltsin
First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party The First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was the position of highest authority in the city of Moscow roughly equating to that of mayor. The position was created on November 10, 1917, following t ...
replacing
Viktor Grishin Viktor Vasilyevich Grishin (russian: Ви́ктор Васи́льевич Гри́шин; – 25 May 1992) was a Soviet politician. He was a candidate (1961–1971) and full member (1971–1986) of the Politburo of the Central Committee of ...
.


1986: Sakharov returns

Gorbachev continued to press for greater
liberalisation Liberalization or liberalisation (British English) is a broad term that refers to the practice of making laws, systems, or opinions less severe, usually in the sense of eliminating certain government regulations or restrictions. The term is used m ...
. On 23 December 1986, the most prominent
Soviet dissident Soviet dissidents were people who disagreed with certain features of Soviet ideology or with its entirety and who were willing to speak out against them. The term ''dissident'' was used in the Soviet Union in the period from the mid-1960s until ...
,
Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for nu ...
, returned to Moscow shortly after receiving a personal telephone call from Gorbachev telling him that after almost seven years his internal
exile Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...
for defying the authorities was over.


1987: One-party democracy

At the 28–30 January 1987, Central Committee
plenum Plenum may refer to: * Plenum chamber, a chamber intended to contain air, gas, or liquid at positive pressure * Plenism, or ''Horror vacui'' (physics) the concept that "nature abhors a vacuum" * Plenum (meeting), a meeting of a deliberative assem ...
, Gorbachev suggested a new policy of ''demokratizatsiya'' throughout Soviet society. He proposed that future Communist Party elections should offer a choice between multiple candidates, elected by secret ballot. However, the party delegates at the Plenum watered down Gorbachev's proposal, and democratic choice within the Communist Party was never significantly implemented. Gorbachev also radically expanded the scope of ''
glasnost ''Glasnost'' (; russian: link=no, гласность, ) has several general and specific meanings – a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information, the inadmissibility of hushing up problems, ...
'' and stated that no subject was off limits for open discussion in the media. On 7 February 1987, dozens of political prisoners were freed in the first group release since the
Khrushchev Thaw The Khrushchev Thaw ( rus, хрущёвская о́ттепель, r=khrushchovskaya ottepel, p=xrʊˈɕːɵfskəjə ˈotʲ:ɪpʲɪlʲ or simply ''ottepel'')William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, London: Free Press, 2004 is the period ...
in the mid-1950s. On 10 September 1987,
Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
wrote a letter of resignation to Gorbachev. At the 27 October 1987, plenary meeting of the Central Committee, Yeltsin, frustrated that Gorbachev had not addressed any of the issues outlined in his resignation letter, criticized the slow pace of reform and servility to the general secretary.Conor O'Clery, ''Moscow 25 December 1991: The Last Day of the Soviet Union''. Transworld Ireland (2011). , p. 74 In his reply, Gorbachev accused Yeltsin of "political immaturity" and "absolute irresponsibility". Nevertheless, news of Yeltsin's insubordination and "secret speech" spread, and soon ''
samizdat Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...
'' versions began to circulate. That marked the beginning of Yeltsin's rebranding as a rebel and rise in popularity as an anti-establishment figure. The following four years of political struggle between Yeltsin and Gorbachev played a large role in the dissolution of the Soviet Union. On 11 November 1987, Yeltsin was fired from the post of
First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party The First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was the position of highest authority in the city of Moscow roughly equating to that of mayor. The position was created on November 10, 1917, following t ...
.


Protest activity

In the years leading up to the dissolution, various protests and resistance movements occurred or took hold throughout the Soviet Union, which were variously suppressed or tolerated. The CTAG ( lv, Cilvēktiesību aizstāvības grupa, lit=Human Rights Defense Group, label=)
Helsinki-86 The CTAG ( lv, 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 r ...
was founded in July 1986 in the
Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
n port town of
Liepāja Liepāja (; liv, Līepõ; see #Names and toponymy, other names) is a state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest-city in the Kurzeme Planning Region, Kurzeme Region and the third-largest city in the country after R ...
. Helsinki-86 was the first openly
anti-Communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...
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. On 26 December 1986, 300 Latvian youths gathered in Riga's Cathedral Square and marched down Lenin Avenue toward the
Freedom Monument The Freedom Monument ( lv, Brīvības piemineklis, ) is located in Riga, Latvia, honouring soldiers killed during the Latvian War of Independence (1918–1920). It is considered an important symbol of the freedom, independence, and sovereignty ...
, shouting, "Soviet Russia out! Free Latvia!" Security forces confronted the marchers, and several police vehicles were overturned. The ''
Jeltoqsan The Jeltoqsan ( kk, Желтоқсан көтерілісі , translit=Jeltoqsan köterılısı , lit=December uprising), also spelled Zheltoksan, or December of 1986 were protests that took place in Almaty, Alma-Ata, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Repub ...
'' ('December') of 1986 were riots in
Alma-Ata Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to 1936 as an autonomous republic as part of t ...
,
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
, sparked by Gorbachev's dismissal of
Dinmukhamed Kunaev Dinmukhamed Akhmetuly "Dimash" Kunaev (also spelled Kunayev; kk, Дінмұхаммед (Димаш) Ахметұлы Қонаев, Dınmūhammed (Dimaş) Ahmetūly Qonaev, russian: Динмухаме́д Ахме́дович (Минлиахме ...
, the First Secretary of the
Communist Party of Kazakhstan The Communist Party of Kazakhstan ( kk, Қазақстан Коммунистік партиясы, ''Qazaqstan Kommunistık Partiasy'', QKP; russian: Коммунистическая партия Казахстана) is a banned political pa ...
and an ethnic Kazakh, who was replaced with
Gennady Kolbin Gennady Vasilyevich Kolbin (; 7 May 1927 – 15 January 1998) was the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR from 16 December 1986 to 22 June 1989. Early life Kolbin was born in 1927 in Nizhny Tagil. Fr ...
, an outsider from the
Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
. Demonstrations started in the morning of 17 December 1986, with 200 to 300 students in front of the Central Committee building on
Brezhnev Square Republic Square ( kz, Республика Алаңы, ''Respublika Alañy'', russian: Площадь Республики), also known as Independence Square or New Square is the main square in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It is used for public events. T ...
. On the next day, 18 December, protests turned into civil unrest as clashes between troops, volunteers, militia units, and Kazakh students turned into a wide-scale confrontation. The clashes could only be controlled on the third day. On 6 May 1987,
Pamyat The Pamyat Society (russian: Общество «Память», russian: Obshchestvo «Pamyat», ; English language, English translation: "''Memory''" Society), officially National Patriotic Front "Memory" (NPF "Memory"; russian: Национал ...
, a Russian nationalist group, held an unsanctioned demonstration in Moscow. The authorities did not break up the demonstration and even kept traffic out of the demonstrators' way while they marched to an impromptu meeting with Boris Yeltsin. On 25 July 1987, 300
Crimean Tatars , flag = Flag of the Crimean Tatar people.svg , flag_caption = Flag of Crimean Tatars , image = Love, Peace, Traditions.jpg , caption = Crimean Tatars in traditional clothing in front of the Khan's Palace ...
staged a noisy demonstration near the
Kremlin Wall The Moscow Kremlin Wall is a defensive wall that surrounds the Moscow Kremlin, recognisable by the characteristic notches and its Kremlin towers. The original walls were likely a simple wooden fence with guard towers built in 1156. The Kremlin w ...
for several hours, calling for the right to return to their homeland, from which they were
deported Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...
in 1944; police and soldiers looked on. On 23 August 1987, the 48th anniversary of the secret protocols of the 1939
Molotov Pact Molotov may refer to: * Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986), Soviet politician and diplomat, and foreign minister under Joseph Stalin * Molotov cocktail, hand-held incendiary weapon Arts and entertainment *Molotov (band), a Mexican rock/rap band ...
, thousands of demonstrators marked the occasion in the three Baltic capitals to sing independence songs and attend speeches commemorating Stalin's victims. The gatherings were sharply denounced in the official press and closely watched by the police but were not interrupted. On 14 June 1987, about 5,000 people gathered again at Freedom Monument in
Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...
, and laid flowers to commemorate the anniversary of
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
's
mass deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...
of Latvians in 1941. The authorities did not crack down on demonstrators, which encouraged more and larger demonstrations throughout the Baltic States. On 18 November 1987, hundreds of police and civilian militiamen cordoned off the central square to prevent any demonstration at Freedom Monument, but thousands lined the streets of Riga in silent protest regardless. On 17 October 1987, about 3,000 Armenians demonstrated in
Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Y ...
complaining about the condition of
Lake Sevan Lake Sevan ( hy, Սևանա լիճ, Sevana lich) is the largest body of water in both Armenia and the Caucasus region. It is one of the largest freshwater high-altitude (alpine) lakes in Eurasia. The lake is situated in Gegharkunik Province, ...
, the Nairit chemicals plant, and the
Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant The Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (ANPP) (), also known as the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant, (Armenian: Մեծամորի ատոմային էլեկտրակայան) is the only nuclear power plant in the South Caucasus, located 36 kilometers west o ...
, and air pollution in Yerevan. Police tried to prevent the protest but took no action to stop it once the march was underway. The following day 1,000 Armenians participated in another demonstration calling for Armenian national rights in
Karabakh Karabakh ( az, Qarabağ ; hy, Ղարաբաղ, Ġarabaġ ) is a geographic region in present-day southwestern Azerbaijan and eastern Armenia, extending from the highlands of the Lesser Caucasus down to the lowlands between the rivers Kura (Caspia ...
and the annexation of Nakhchivan and
Nagorno-Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh ( ) is a landlocked country, landlocked region in the Transcaucasia, South Caucasus, within the mountainous range of Karabakh, lying between Lower Karabakh and Syunik Province, Syunik, and covering the southeastern range o ...
to Armenia. The police tried to physically prevent the march and after a few incidents, dispersed the demonstrators.


Timeline


1988


Moscow loses control

In 1988, Gorbachev started to lose control of two regions of the Soviet Union, as the Baltic republics were now leaning towards independence, and the Caucasus descended into violence and civil war. On 1 July 1988, the fourth and last day of a bruising 19th Party Conference, Gorbachev won the backing of the tired delegates for his last-minute proposal to create a new supreme legislative body called the Congress of People's Deputies. Frustrated by the old guard's resistance, Gorbachev embarked on a set of constitutional changes to attempt separation of party and state, thereby isolating his conservative Party opponents. Detailed proposals for the new Congress of People's Deputies were published on 2 October 1988, and to enable the creation of the new legislature. The Supreme Soviet, during its 29 November – 1 December 1988, session, implemented amendments to the
1977 Soviet Constitution The 1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union, officially the Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was the constitution of the Soviet Union adopted on 7 October 1977 until its dissolution on 21 December 1991. ...
, enacted a law on electoral reform, and set the date of the election for 26 March 1989. On 29 November 1988, the Soviet Union ceased to
jam Jam is a type of fruit preserve. Jam or Jammed may also refer to: Other common meanings * A firearm malfunction * Block signals ** Radio jamming ** Radar jamming and deception ** Mobile phone jammer ** Echolocation jamming Arts and entertai ...
all foreign radio stations, allowing Soviet citizens – for the first time since a brief period in the 1960s – to have unrestricted access to news sources beyond Communist Party control.


Baltic republics

In 1986 and 1987, Latvia had been in the vanguard of the Baltic states in pressing for reform. In 1988 Estonia took over the lead role with the foundation of the Soviet Union's first popular front and starting to influence state policy. The
Estonian Popular Front The Popular Front of Estonia ( et, Eestimaa Rahvarinne; RR), introduced to the public by the Estonian politician Edgar Savisaar under the short-lived name Popular Front for the Support of Perestroika, was a political organisation in Estonia in ...
was founded in April 1988. On 16 June 1988, Gorbachev replaced
Karl Vaino Karl Genrikhovich Vaino ( et, Karl Vaino; russian: Карл Генрихович Вайно; ''alias'' Kirill Voinov; 28 May 1923 – 12 February 2022) was an Estonian SSR politician. From 1978 to 1988 he served as the First Secretary of the ...
, the "old guard" leader of the
Communist Party of Estonia The Communist Party of Estonia ( et, Eestimaa Kommunistlik Partei, abbreviated EKP) was a subdivision of the Soviet communist party which in 1920-1940 operated illegally in Estonia and, after the 1940 occupation and annexation of Estonia by the ...
, with the comparatively liberal
Vaino Väljas Vaino Väljas (; born 28 March 1931 in Külaküla, Hiiumaa) is a former Soviet and Estonian politician. He was the Chairman of the 6th Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR from 18 April 1963 to 19 March 1967, first secretary of communist party o ...
. In late June 1988, Väljas bowed to pressure from the Estonian Popular Front and legalized the flying of the old blue-black-white flag of Estonia, and agreed to a new state language law that made Estonian the official language of the Republic. On 2 October, the Popular Front formally launched its political platform at a two-day congress. Väljas attended, gambling that the front could help Estonia become a model of economic and political revival, while moderating separatist and other radical tendencies. On 16 November 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR adopted a declaration of national sovereignty under which Estonian laws would take precedence over those of the Soviet Union. Estonia's parliament also laid claim to the republic's natural resources including land, inland waters, forests, mineral deposits, and to the means of industrial production, agriculture, construction, state banks, transportation, and municipal services within the territory of Estonia's borders. At the same time the Estonian Citizens' Committees started registration of citizens of the
Republic of Estonia A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
to carry out the elections of the
Congress of Estonia The Congress of Estonia ( Estonian: ''Eesti Kongress'') was an innovative grassroots parliament established in Estonia in 1990–1992 as a part of the process of regaining of independence from the Soviet Union. It also challenged the power and au ...
. The
Latvian Popular Front The Popular Front of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Tautas fronte) was a political organisation in Latvia in the late 1980s and early 1990s which led Latvia to its independence from the Soviet Union. It was similar to the Popular Front of Estonia and the ...
was founded in June 1988. On 4 October, Gorbachev replaced
Boris Pugo Boris Karlovich Pugo, OAN ( lv, Boriss Pugo, russian: Борис Карлович Пуго; 19 February 1937 – 22 August 1991) was a Soviet Communist politician of Latvian origin. Biography Early life and education Pugo was born in Kalinin, ...
, the "old guard" leader of the
Communist Party of Latvia The Communist Party of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Komunistiskā partija, LKP) was a political party in Latvia. History Latvian Social-Democracy prior to 1919 The party was founded at a congress in June 1904. Initially the party was known as the Latvia ...
, with the more liberal Jānis Vagris. In October 1988 Vagris bowed to pressure from the Latvian Popular Front and legalized flying the former carmine red-and-white flag of independent Latvia, and on 6 October he passed a law making Latvian the country's official language. The Popular Front of Lithuania, called
Sąjūdis Sąjūdis (, "Movement"), initially known as the Reform Movement of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Persitvarkymo Sąjūdis), is the political organisation which led the struggle for Lithuanian independence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was es ...
("Movement"), was founded in May 1988. On 19 October 1988, Gorbachev replaced
Ringaudas Songaila Ringaudas Bronislovas Songaila (20 April 1929 – 25 June 2019) was an official of the Lithuanian SSR nomenclatura. In 1987–1988, he was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Lithuania or the ''de facto'' head of state. Biography Song ...
, the "old guard" leader of the
Communist Party of Lithuania The Communist Party of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos komunistų partija; russian: Коммунистическая партия Литвы) is a banned communist party in Lithuania. The party was established in early October 1918 and operated clan ...
, with the relatively liberal
Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas (, 1932 – 2010) was the first President of Lithuania, President (fourth overall) of a newly re-independent post-Soviet states, post-Soviet Lithuania from 1993 to 1998 and Prime Minister of Lithuania, Prime Ministe ...
. In October 1988, Brazauskas bowed to pressure from Sąjūdis and legalized the flying of the historic yellow-green-red flag of independent Lithuania and in November 1988, he passed a law making Lithuanian the country's official language; also, the former national anthem,
Tautiška giesmė "" (; literally "The National Hymn") is the national anthem of Lithuania, also known by its opening words, "" (official translation of the lyrics: "Lithuania, Our Homeland", literally: "Lithuania, Our Fatherland"), and as "" ("The National Anthem ...
, was later reinstated.


Rebellion in the Caucasus

On 20 February 1988, after a week of growing demonstrations in
Stepanakert / az, Xankəndi, italic=no , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = File:StepanakertCollage.jpg , imagesize = 300px , image_caption = From top left: Holy Mother ...
, capital of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO), DQMV, hy, Լեռնային Ղարաբաղի Ինքնավար Մարզ, ԼՂԻՄ was an autonomous oblast within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic that was created on July 7, 1923. Its cap ...
(the Armenian majority area within the
Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic Azerbaijan ( az, Азәрбајҹан, Azərbaycan, italics=no), officially the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (Azerbaijan SSR; az, Азәрбајҹан Совет Сосиалист Республикасы, Azərbaycan Sovet Sosialist R ...
), the Regional Soviet voted to secede and join with the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia. This local vote in a small, remote part of the Soviet Union made headlines around the world; it was an unprecedented defiance of republican and national authorities. On 22 February 1988, in what became known as the "
Askeran clash The Askeran clash on 22—23 February 1988 in the town of Askeran was one of the starting points of Armenian- Azerbaijani conflict, which triggered the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. The Askeran clash was followed by the Sumgait pogroms. Backgr ...
", thousands of Azerbaijanis marched towards Nagorno-Karabakh, demanding information about rumors of an Azerbaijani having been killed in Stepanakert. They were informed that no such incident had occurred, but refused to believe it. Dissatisfied with what they were told, thousands began marching toward Nagorno-Karabakh, killing 50. Karabakh authorities mobilised over a thousand police to stop the march, with the resulting clashes leaving two Azerbaijanis dead. These deaths, announced on state radio, led to the Sumgait Pogrom. Between 26 February and 1 March, the city of
Sumgait Sumgait (; az, Sumqayıt, ) is a city in Azerbaijan, located near the Caspian Sea, on the Absheron Peninsula, about away from the capital Baku. The city has a population of around 345,300, making it the second largest city in Azerbaijan after Ba ...
(Azerbaijan) saw violent anti-Armenian rioting during which at least 32 people were killed. The authorities totally lost control and occupied the city with paratroopers and tanks; nearly all of the 14,000 Armenian residents of Sumgait fled. Gorbachev refused to make any changes to the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, which remained part of Azerbaijan. He instead sacked the Communist Party Leaders in both Republics – on 21 May 1988,
Kamran Baghirov Kamran Baghirov Mammad oglu ( az, Камран Бағиров Мәммәд оғлу, italic=no, Kamran Bağirov Məmməd oğlu; January 24, 1933 – October 25, 2000), was the 12th First Secretary of Azerbaijan Communist Party. Biography Fro ...
was replaced by
Abdulrahman Vezirov Abdurrahman Vazirov Khalil oglu ( az, Әбдүррәһман Вәзиров Хәлил оғлу, italic=no, Əbdürrəhman Vəzirov Xəlil oğlu; 26 May 1930 – 10 January 2022) was the 13th First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party an ...
as First Secretary of the
Azerbaijan Communist Party The Azerbaijan Communist Party ( az, Azərbaycan Kommunist Partiyası; russian: Коммунистическая партия Азербайджана) was the ruling political party in the Azerbaijan SSR, making it effectively a branch of the ...
. From 23 July to September 1988, a group of Azerbaijani intellectuals began working for a new organization called the
Popular Front of Azerbaijan The Azerbaijani Popular Front Party (APFP; az, Azərbaycan Xalq Cəbhəsi Partiyası, ) is a political party in Azerbaijan, founded in 1992 by Abulfaz Elchibey. After Elchibey's death in 2000, the party split into two wings, the ''reform'' wi ...
, loosely based on the
Estonian Popular Front The Popular Front of Estonia ( et, Eestimaa Rahvarinne; RR), introduced to the public by the Estonian politician Edgar Savisaar under the short-lived name Popular Front for the Support of Perestroika, was a political organisation in Estonia in ...
. On 17 September, when gun battles broke out between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis near
Stepanakert / az, Xankəndi, italic=no , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = File:StepanakertCollage.jpg , imagesize = 300px , image_caption = From top left: Holy Mother ...
, two soldiers were killed and more than two dozen injured. This led to almost tit-for-tat ethnic polarization in Nagorno-Karabakh's two main towns: the Azerbaijani minority was expelled from
Stepanakert / az, Xankəndi, italic=no , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = File:StepanakertCollage.jpg , imagesize = 300px , image_caption = From top left: Holy Mother ...
, and the Armenian minority was expelled from
Shusha / hy, Շուշի , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = ShushaCollection2021.jpg , image_caption = Landmarks of Shusha, from top left:Ghazanchetsots Cathedral • Yukhari Govhar ...
. On 17 November 1988, in response to the exodus of tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis from Armenia, a series of mass demonstrations began in
Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...
's Lenin Square, lasting 18 days and attracting half a million demonstrators in support of their compatriots in that region. On 5 December 1988, the Soviet police and civilian militiamen moved in, cleared the square by force, and imposed a curfew that lasted ten months. The rebellion of fellow Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh had an immediate effect in Armenia itself. Daily demonstrations, which began in the Armenian capital
Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Y ...
on 18 February, initially attracted few people, but each day the Nagorno-Karabakh issue became increasingly prominent and the numbers swelled. On 20 February, a 30,000-strong crowd demonstrated in the Theater Square, by 22 February, there were 100,000, the next day 300,000, and a transport strike was declared, by 25 February, there were close to a million demonstrators—more than a quarter of Armenia's population. This was the first of the large, peaceful public demonstrations that would become a feature of communism's overthrow in Prague, Berlin, and, ultimately, Moscow. Leading Armenian intellectuals and nationalists, including the future first president of independent Armenia
Levon Ter-Petrossian Levon Hakobi Ter-Petrosyan ( hy, Լևոն Հակոբի Տեր-Պետրոսյան; born 9 January 1945), also known by his initials LTP, is an Armenian politician who served as the first president of Armenia from 1991 until his resignation in 1998 ...
, formed the eleven-member
Karabakh Committee Karabakh Committee ( hy, Ղարաբաղ կոմիտե) was a group of Armenian intellectuals recognized by many Armenians as the ''de facto'' leaders in the late 1980s. The Committee was formed in 1988, with the stated objective of reunification of ...
to lead and organize the new movement. On the same day, when Gorbachev replaced Baghirov by Vezirov as First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party, he also replaced
Karen Demirchian Karen Serobi Demirchyan ( hy, Կարեն Սերոբի Դեմիրճյան; 17 April 1932 – 27 October 1999) was a Soviet and Armenian politician. He served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia from 1974 to 1988. Soon after ...
by Suren Harutyunyan as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia. However, Harutyunyan quickly decided to run before the nationalist wind and on 28 May, allowed Armenians to unfurl the red-blue-orange First Armenian Republic flag for the first time in almost 70 years to mark the 1918 declaration of the First Republic. On 15 June 1988, the Armenian Supreme Soviet adopted a resolution formally approving the idea of Nagorno-Karabakh's unification as part of the republic. Armenia, formerly one of the most loyal Republics, had suddenly turned into the leading rebel republic. On 5 July 1988, when a contingent of troops was sent in to remove demonstrators by force from Yerevan's
Zvartnots International Airport Zvartnots International Airport ( hy, Զվարթնոց միջազգային օդանավակայան, translit=Zvart'nots' mijazgayin ōdanavakayan) is located near Zvartnots, west of Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia. It acts as the main ...
, shots were fired and one student protester was killed. In September, further large demonstrations in Yerevan led to the deployment of armored vehicles. In the autumn of 1988 almost all of the 200,000 Azerbaijani minority in Armenia was expelled by Armenian nationalists, with over 100 killed in the process. That, after the Sumgait pogrom earlier that year, which had been carried out by Azerbaijanis to ethnic Armenians and led to the expulsion of Armenians from Azerbaijan, was for many Armenians considered an act of revenge for the killings at Sumgait. On 25 November 1988, a military commandant took control of Yerevan as the Soviet government moved to prevent further ethnic violence. On 7 December 1988, the
Spitak earthquake The 1988 Armenian earthquake, also known as the Spitak earthquake ( hy, Սպիտակի երկրաշարժ, ), occurred on December 7 at with a surface wave magnitude of 6.8 and a maximum MSK intensity of X (''Devastating''). The shock occurre ...
struck, killing an estimated 25,000 to 50,000 people. When Gorbachev rushed back from a visit to the United States, he was so angered with being confronted by protesters calling for Nagorno-Karabakh to be made part of the Armenian Republic during a natural disaster that on 11 December 1988, he ordered for the entire
Karabakh Committee Karabakh Committee ( hy, Ղարաբաղ կոմիտե) was a group of Armenian intellectuals recognized by many Armenians as the ''de facto'' leaders in the late 1980s. The Committee was formed in 1988, with the stated objective of reunification of ...
to be arrested. In
Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...
, the capital of
Soviet Georgia The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (Georgian SSR; ka, საქართველოს საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა, tr; russian: Грузинская Советская Соц ...
, many demonstrators camped out in front of the republic's legislature in November 1988 calling for Georgia's independence and in support of Estonia's declaration of sovereignty.


Western republics

Beginning in February 1988, the Democratic Movement of
Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...
(formerly Moldavia) organized public meetings, demonstrations, and song festivals, which gradually grew in size and intensity. In the streets, the center of public manifestations was the Stephen the Great Monument in Chişinău, and the adjacent park harboring ''Aleea Clasicilor'' (The " Alley of Classics
f Literature F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. Hist ...
). On 15 January 1988, in a tribute to
Mihai Eminescu Mihai Eminescu (; born Mihail Eminovici; 15 January 1850 – 15 June 1889) was a Romanian Romantic poet from Moldavia, novelist, and journalist, generally regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active membe ...
at his bust on the Aleea Clasicilor,
Anatol Şalaru Anatol is a masculine given name, derived from the Greek name Ἀνατόλιος ''Anatolius'', meaning "sunrise". The Russian version of the name is Anatoly (also transliterated as Anatoliy and Anatoli). The French version is Anatole. A rare ...
submitted a proposal to continue the meetings. In the public discourse, the movement called for national awakening, freedom of speech, the revival of Moldovan traditions, and for the attainment of official status for the
Romanian language Romanian (obsolete spellings: Rumanian or Roumanian; autonym: ''limba română'' , or ''românește'', ) is the official and main language of Romania and the Moldova, Republic of Moldova. As a minority language it is spoken by stable communi ...
and return to the Latin alphabet. The transition from "movement" (an informal association) to "front" (a formal association) was seen as a natural "upgrade" once a movement gained momentum with the public, and the Soviet authorities no longer dared to crack down on it. On 26 April 1988, about 500 people participated in a march organized by the Ukrainian Cultural Club on Kyiv's
Khreschatyk Khreshchatyk ( uk, Хрещатик, ) is the main street of Kyiv, Ukraine. The street has a length of . It stretches from the European Square (northeast) through the Maidan and to Bessarabska Square (southwest) where the Besarabsky Market ...
Street to mark the second anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, carrying placards with slogans like "Openness and Democracy to the End". Between May and June 1988, Ukrainian Catholics in western Ukraine celebrated the Millennium of Christianity in
Kyivan Rus Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...
in secret by holding services in the forests of Buniv, Kalush, Hoshi, and Zarvanytsia. On 5 June 1988, as the official celebrations of the Millennium were held in Moscow, the Ukrainian Cultural Club hosted its own observances in Kyiv at the monument to
St. Volodymyr the Great Vladimir I Sviatoslavich or Volodymyr I Sviatoslavych ( orv, Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь, ''Volodiměrъ Svętoslavičь'';, ''Uladzimir'', russian: Владимир, ''Vladimir'', uk, Володимир, ''Volodymyr''. Se ...
, the grand prince of
Kyivan Rus Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...
. On 16 June 1988, 6,000 to 8,000 people gathered in Lviv to hear speakers declare no confidence in the local list of delegates to the 19th Communist Party conference, to begin on 29 June. On 21 June, a rally in Lviv attracted 50,000 people who had heard about a revised delegate list. Authorities attempted to disperse the rally in front of Druzhba Stadium. On 7 July, 10,000 to 20,000 people witnessed the launch of the Democratic Front to Promote Perestroika. On 17 July, a group of 10,000 gathered in the village Zarvanytsia for Millennium services celebrated by Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Bishop Pavlo Vasylyk. The militia tried to disperse attendees, but it turned out to be the largest gathering of Ukrainian Catholics since Stalin outlawed the Church in 1946. On 4 August, which came to be known as "Bloody Thursday", local authorities violently suppressed a demonstration organized by the Democratic Front to Promote Perestroika. Forty-one people were detained, fined, or sentenced to 15 days of administrative arrest. On 1 September, local authorities violently displaced 5,000 students at a public meeting lacking official permission at Ivan Franko State University. On 13 November 1988, approximately 10,000 people attended an officially sanctioned meeting organized by the cultural heritage organization ''Spadschyna'', the
Kyiv University Kyiv University or Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv ( uk, Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка), colloquially known as KNU ...
student club ''
Hromada A hromada ( uk, територіальна громада, lit=territorial community, translit=terytorialna hromada) is a basic unit of administrative division in Ukraine, similar to a municipality. It was established by the Government of Ukra ...
'', and the environmental groups ''Zelenyi Svit'' ("Green World") and ''Noosfera'', to focus on ecological issues. From 14–18 November, 15 Ukrainian activists were among the 100 human-, national- and religious-rights advocates invited to discuss human rights with Soviet officials and a visiting delegation of the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (also known as the Helsinki Commission). On 10 December, hundreds gathered in Kyiv to observe
International Human Rights Day Human Rights Day is list of minor secular observances#December, celebrated annually around the world on 10 December every year. The date was chosen to honor the United Nations General Assembly's adoption and proclamation, on 10 December 1948, ...
at a rally organized by the Democratic Union. The unauthorized gathering resulted in the detention of local activists. The
Belarusian Popular Front The Belarusian Popular Front "Revival" (BPF, be, Беларускі Народны Фронт "Адраджэньне", БНФ; ''Biełaruski Narodny Front "Adradžeńnie"'', ''BNF'') was a social and political movement in Belarus in the late 1 ...
was established in 1988 as a political party and cultural movement for democracy and independence, similar to the Baltic republics' popular fronts. The discovery of mass graves in
Kurapaty Kurapaty ( be, Курапаты, ) is a wooded area on the outskirts of Minsk, Belarus, in which a vast number of people were executed between 1937 and 1941 during the Great Purge by the Soviet secret police, the NKVD. The exact count of victi ...
outside
Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...
by historian
Zianon Pazniak Zianon Stanislavavič Pazniak ( be, Зянон Станіслававіч Пазняк, born 24 April 1944) is a Belarusian nationalism, Belarusian nationalist politician, one of the founders of the Belarusian Popular Front and leader of the Co ...
, the Belarusian Popular Front's first leader, gave additional momentum to the pro-democracy and pro-independence movement in Belarus. It claimed that the
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...
performed secret killings in Kurapaty. Initially the Front had significant visibility because its numerous public actions almost always ended in clashes with the police and the
KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
.


1989


Moscow: limited democratization

Spring 1989 saw the people of the Soviet Union exercising a democratic choice, albeit limited, for the first time since 1917, when they elected the new Congress of People's Deputies. Just as important was the uncensored live TV coverage of the legislature's deliberations, where people witnessed the previously feared Communist leadership being questioned and held accountable. This example fueled a limited experiment with democracy in
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, which quickly led to the toppling of the Communist government in Warsaw that summer – which in turn sparked uprisings that overthrew governments in the other five Warsaw Pact countries before the end of 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell. This was also the year that
CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
became the first non-Soviet broadcaster allowed to beam its TV news programs to Moscow. Officially, CNN was available only to foreign guests in the Savoy Hotel (Moscow), Savoy Hotel, but Muscovites quickly learned how to pick up signals on their home televisions. That had a major impact on how Soviets saw events in their country and made censorship almost impossible. The month-long nomination period for candidates for the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union lasted until 24 January 1989. For the next month, selection among the 7,531 district nominees took place at meetings organized by constituency-level electoral commissions. On 7 March, a final list of 5,074 candidates was published; about 85% were Party members. In the two weeks prior to the 1,500 district polls, elections to fill 750 reserved seats of public organizations, contested by 880 candidates, were held. Of these seats, 100 were allocated to the CPSU, 100 to the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, 75 to the Communist Youth Union (Komsomol), 75 to the Committee of Soviet Women, 75 to the War and Labour Veterans' Organization, and 325 to other organizations such as the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academy of Sciences. The selection process was done in April. In the 26 March general elections, voter participation was an impressive 89.8%, and 1,958 (including 1,225 district seats) of the 2,250 CPD seats were filled. In district races, run-off elections were held in 76 constituencies on 2 and 9 April and fresh elections were organized on 14 and 20 April to 23 May, in the 199 remaining constituencies where the required absolute majority was not attained. While most CPSU-endorsed candidates were elected, more than 300 lost to independent candidates such as Yeltsin, the physicist
Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for nu ...
and the lawyer Anatoly Sobchak. In the first session of the new Congress of People's Deputies (from 25 May to 9 June), hardliners retained control but reformers used the legislature as a platform for debate and criticism, which was broadcast live and uncensored. This transfixed the population since nothing like such a freewheeling debate had ever been witnessed in the Soviet Union. On 29 May, Yeltsin managed to secure a seat on the Supreme Soviet, and in the summer he formed the first opposition, the Inter-Regional Deputies Group, composed of Russian nationalism, Russian nationalists and Liberalism in Russia, liberals. Composing the final legislative group in the Soviet Union, those elected in 1989 played a vital part in reforms and the eventual breakup of the Soviet Union during the next two years. On 30 May 1989, Gorbachev proposed that local elections across the Union, scheduled for November 1989, be postponed until early 1990 because there were still no laws governing the conduct of such elections. This was seen by some as a concession to local Party officials, who feared they would be swept from power in a wave of anti-establishment sentiment. On 25 October 1989, the Supreme Soviet voted to eliminate special seats for the Communist Party and other official organizations in union-level and republic-level elections, responding to sharp popular criticism that such reserved slots were undemocratic. After vigorous debate, the 542-member Supreme Soviet passed the measure 254–85 (with 36 abstentions). The decision required a constitutional amendment, ratified by the full congress, which met 12–25 December. It also passed measures that would allow direct elections for presidents of each of the 15 constituent republics. Gorbachev strongly opposed such a move during debate but was defeated. The vote expanded the power of republics in local elections, enabling them to decide for themselves how to organize voting. Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia had already proposed laws for direct presidential elections. Local elections in all the republics had already been scheduled to take place between December and March 1990. The six
Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...
countries of Eastern Europe, while nominally independent, were widely recognized as the Soviet satellite states. All had been occupied by the Soviet Red Army in 1945, had Soviet-style socialist states imposed upon them, and had very restricted freedom of action in either domestic or international affairs. Any moves towards real independence were suppressed by military force – in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Prague Spring in 1968. Gorbachev abandoned the oppressive and expensive Brezhnev Doctrine, which mandated intervention in the Warsaw Pact states, in favor of non-intervention in the internal affairs of allies – jokingly termed the Sinatra Doctrine in a reference to the Frank Sinatra song "My Way (song), My Way". Polish People's Republic, Poland was the first republic to democratize following the enactment of the April Novelization, as agreed upon following the Polish Round Table Agreement talks from February to April between the government and the Solidarity (Polish trade union), Solidarity trade union, and soon the Pact began to dissolve itself. The last of the countries to overthrow Communist leadership, Romanian Socialist Republic, Romania, only did so following the violent Romanian Revolution.


Baltic Chain of Freedom

The Baltic Way or Baltic Chain (also Chain of Freedom et, Balti kett, lv, Baltijas ceļš, lt, Baltijos kelias, russian: link=no, 'Балтийский путь') was a peaceful political demonstration on 23 August 1989. An estimated 2 million people joined hands to form a Human chain (politics), human chain extending across Estonia,
Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
and Lithuania, which had been forcibly reincorporated into the Soviet Union in 1944. The colossal demonstration marked the 50th anniversary of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact that divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence and led to the occupation of the Baltic states in 1940. Just months after the Baltic Way protests, in December 1989, the Congress of People's Deputies accepted—and Gorbachev signed—the report by the Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev, Yakovlev Commission condemning the secret protocols of the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact which led to the annexations of the three Baltic republics. In the March 1989 elections to the Congress of Peoples Deputies, 36 of the 42 deputies from Lithuania were candidates from the independent national movement
Sąjūdis Sąjūdis (, "Movement"), initially known as the Reform Movement of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Persitvarkymo Sąjūdis), is the political organisation which led the struggle for Lithuanian independence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was es ...
. That was the greatest victory for any national organization within the Soviet Union and was a devastating revelation to the Lithuanian Communist Party of its growing unpopularity. On 7 December 1989, the
Communist Party of Lithuania The Communist Party of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos komunistų partija; russian: Коммунистическая партия Литвы) is a banned communist party in Lithuania. The party was established in early October 1918 and operated clan ...
under the leadership of Algirdas Brazauskas, split from the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...
and abandoned its claim to have a constitutional "leading role" in politics. A smaller loyalist faction of the Communist Party, headed by hardliner Mykolas Burokevičius, was established and remained affiliated with the party. However, Lithuania's governing Communist Party was formally independent from Moscow's control, a first for a Soviet republics and a political earthquake that prompted Gorbachev to arrange a visit to Lithuania the following month in a futile attempt to bring the local party back under control. The following year, the Communist Party lost power altogether in multiparty parliamentary elections, which had caused Vytautas Landsbergis to become the first noncommunist leader (Chairman of the Supreme Council of Lithuania) of Lithuania since its forced incorporation into the Soviet Union.


Caucasus

On 16 July 1989, the
Popular Front of Azerbaijan The Azerbaijani Popular Front Party (APFP; az, Azərbaycan Xalq Cəbhəsi Partiyası, ) is a political party in Azerbaijan, founded in 1992 by Abulfaz Elchibey. After Elchibey's death in 2000, the party split into two wings, the ''reform'' wi ...
held its first congress and elected Abulfaz Elchibey, who would become president, as its chairman. On 19 August, 600,000 protesters jammed Baku's Lenin Square (now Azadliq Square) to demand the release of political prisoners. In the second half of 1989, weapons were handed out in Nagorno-Karabakh. When Karabakhis got hold of small arms to replace hunting rifles and crossbows, casualties began to mount; bridges were blown up, roads were blockaded, and hostages were taken. In a new and effective tactic, the Popular Front launched a rail blockade of Armenia, which caused petrol and food shortages because 85 percent of Armenia's freight came from Azerbaijan.''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. , p. 87 Under pressure from the Popular Front the Communist authorities in Azerbaijan started making concessions. On 25 September, they passed a sovereignty law that gave precedence to Azerbaijani law, and on 4 October, the Popular Front was permitted to register as a legal organization as long as it lifted the blockade. Transport communications between Azerbaijan and Armenia never fully recovered. Tensions continued to escalate and on 29 December, Popular Front activists seized local party offices in Jalilabad District (Azerbaijan), Jalilabad, wounding dozens. On 31 May 1989, the 11 members of the Karabakh Committee, who had been imprisoned without trial in Moscow's Matrosskaya Tishina prison, were released and returned home to a hero's welcome. Soon after his release,
Levon Ter-Petrossian Levon Hakobi Ter-Petrosyan ( hy, Լևոն Հակոբի Տեր-Պետրոսյան; born 9 January 1945), also known by his initials LTP, is an Armenian politician who served as the first president of Armenia from 1991 until his resignation in 1998 ...
, an academic, was elected chairman of the anti-communist opposition Pan-Armenian National Movement, and later stated that it was in 1989 that he first began considering full independence as his goal. On 7 April 1989, Soviet troops and armored personnel carriers were sent to
Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...
after more than 100,000 people protested in front of Communist Party headquarters with banners calling for
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
to secede from the Soviet Union and for Abkhazia to be fully integrated into Georgia. On April 9 tragedy, 9 April 1989, troops attacked the demonstrators; some 20 people were killed and more than 200 wounded. This event radicalized Georgian politics, prompting many to conclude that independence was preferable to continued Soviet rule. Given the abuses by members of the armed forces and police, Moscow acted fast. On 14 April, Gorbachev removed Jumber Patiashvili as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party as a result of the killings and replaced him with former Georgian
KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
chief Givi Gumbaridze. On 16 July 1989, in Abkhazia's capital 1989 Sukhumi riots, Sukhumi, a protest against the opening of a Georgian university branch in the town led to violence that quickly degenerated into a large-scale inter-ethnic confrontation in which 18 died and hundreds were injured before Soviet troops restored order. This riot marked the start of the Abkhaz–Georgian conflict, Georgian-Abkhaz conflict. On 17 November 1989, the Supreme Council of Georgia held its fall plenary session, which lasted two days. One of the resolutions that came out of it was as a declaration against what it called an "illegal" accession into the Soviet Union of the country 68 years ago, forced against its will by the Red Army, the CPSU and the All-Russian Council of People's Commissars.


Western republics

In the 26 March 1989, elections to the Congress of People's Deputies, 15 of the 46 Moldovan deputies elected for congressional seats in Moscow were supporters of the Nationalist/Democratic movement. The Popular Front of Moldova founding congress took place two months later, on 20 May. During its second congress (30 June – 1 July 1989), Ion Hadârcă was elected its president. A series of demonstrations that became known as the Grand National Assembly, Chişinău 1989, Grand National Assembly ( ro, Marea Adunare Naţională) was the Front's first major achievement. Such mass demonstrations, including one attended by 300,000 people on 27 August, convinced the Moldovan Supreme Soviet on 31 August to adopt the language law making Romanian language, Romanian the official language, and replacing the Cyrillic alphabet with Latin characters.King, p.140 In Ukraine, Lviv and Kyiv celebrated Ukrainian Independence Day on 22 January 1989. Thousands gathered in Lviv for an unauthorized ''moleben'' (religious service) in front of St. George's Cathedral, Lviv, St. George's Cathedral. In Kyiv, 60 activists met in a Kyiv apartment to commemorate the proclamation of the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1918. On 11–12 February 1989, the Ukrainian Language Society held its founding congress. On 15 February 1989, the formation of the Initiative Committee for the Renewal of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church was announced. The program and statutes of the movement were proposed by the National Writers' Union of Ukraine, Writers' Union of Ukraine and were published in the journal ''Literaturna Ukraina'' on 16 February 1989. The organization heralded Ukrainian dissidents such as Vyacheslav Chornovil. In late February, large public rallies took place in Kyiv to protest the election laws, on the eve of the 26 March elections to the USSR Congress of People's Deputies, and to call for the resignation of the first secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, lampooned as "the mastodon of stagnation". The demonstrations coincided with a visit to Ukraine by General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Soviet General Secretary
Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
. On 26 February 1989, between 20,000 and 30,000 people participated in an unsanctioned ecumenical memorial service in Lviv, marking the anniversary of the death of 19th-century Ukrainian artist and nationalist Taras Shevchenko. On 4 March 1989, the Memorial Society, committed to honoring the victims of Stalinism and cleansing society of Soviet practices, was founded in Kyiv. A public rally was held the next day. On 12 March, A pre-election meeting organized in Lviv by the Ukrainian Helsinki Union and the Roman Catholic Marian movements and societies, Marian Society ''Myloserdia'' (Compassion) was violently dispersed, and nearly 300 people were detained. On 26 March, elections were held to the union Congress of People's Deputies; by-elections were held on 9 April 14 May, and 21 May. Among the 225 Ukrainian representatives to the Congress, most were conservatives, though a handful of progressives were also elected. From 20 to 23 April 1989, pre-election meetings were held in Lviv for four consecutive days, drawing crowds of up to 25,000. The action included a one-hour warning strike at eight local factories and institutions. It was the first labor strike in Lviv since 1944. On 3 May, a pre-election rally attracted 30,000 in Lviv. On 7 May, The Memorial Society organized a mass meeting at Bykivnia, site of a mass grave of Ukrainian and Polish victims of Stalinist terror. After a march from Kyiv to the site, a memorial service was staged. From mid-May to September 1989, Ukrainian Greek-Catholic hunger strikers staged protests on Moscow's Arbat to call attention to the plight of their Church. They were especially active during the July session of the World Council of Churches held in Moscow. The protest ended with the arrests of the group on 18 September. On 27 May 1989, the founding conference of the Lviv regional Memorial Society was held. On 18 June 1989, an estimated 100,000 faithful participated in public religious services in Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine, responding to Cardinal Myroslav Lubachivsky's call for an international day of prayer. On 19 August 1989, the Russian Orthodox Parish of Saints Peter and Paul announced it would be switching to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. On 2 September 1989, tens of thousands across Ukraine protested a draft election law that reserved special seats for the Communist Party and for other official organizations: 50,000 in Lviv, 40,000 in Kyiv, 10,000 in Zhytomyr, 5,000 each in Dniprodzerzhynsk and Chervonohrad, and 2,000 in Kharkiv. From 8–10 September 1989, writer Ivan Drach was elected to head Rukh, the People's Movement of Ukraine, at its founding congress in Kyiv. On 17 September, between 150,000 and 200,000 people marched in Lviv, demanding the legalization of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. On 21 September 1989, exhumation of a mass grave began in Demianiv Laz, a nature preserves south of Ivano-Frankivsk. On 28 September, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, a holdover from the Brezhnev era, was replaced in this office by Vladimir Ivashko. On 1 October 1989, a peaceful demonstration of 10,000 to 15,000 people was violently dispersed by the militia in front of Lviv's Druzhba Stadium, where a concert celebrating the Soviet "reunification" of Ukrainian lands was being held. On 10 October, Ivano-Frankivsk was the site of a pre-election protest attended by 30,000 people. On 15 October, several thousand people gathered in Chervonohrad, Chernivtsi, Rivne, and Zhytomyr; 500 in Dnipropetrovsk; and 30,000 in Lviv to protest the election law. On 20 October, faithful and clergy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church participated in a synod in Lviv, the first since its forced liquidation in the 1930s. On 24 October, the union Supreme Soviet passed a law eliminating special seats for Communist Party and other official organizations' representatives. On 26 October, twenty factories in Lviv held strikes and meetings to protest the police brutality of 1 October and the authorities' unwillingness to prosecute those responsible. From 26–28 October, the ''Zelenyi Svit'' (Friends of the Earth – Ukraine) environmental association held its founding congress, and on 27 October the Ukrainian Parliament passed a law eliminating the special status of party and other official organizations as deputies of parliament. On 28 October 1989, the Ukrainian Parliament decreed that effective 1 January 1990, Ukrainian would be the official language of Ukraine, while Russian would be used for communication between ethnic groups. On the same day, The Congregation of the Church of the Transfiguration in Lviv left the Russian Orthodox Church and proclaimed itself the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The following day, thousands attended a memorial service at Demianiv Laz, and a temporary marker was placed to indicate that a monument to the "victims of the repressions of 1939–1941" soon would be erected. In mid-November, The Shevchenko Ukrainian Language Society was officially registered. On 19 November 1989, a public gathering in Kyiv attracted thousands of mourners, friends, and family to the reburial in Ukraine of three inmates of the infamous Gulag Camp No. 36 in Perm in the Ural Mountains: human-rights activists Vasyl Stus, Oleksiy Tykhy, and Yuriy Lytvyn (dissident), Yuriy Lytvyn. Their remains were reinterred in Baikove Cemetery. On 26 November 1989, a day of prayer and fasting was proclaimed by Cardinal Myroslav Lubachivsky, thousands of faithful in western Ukraine participated in religious services on the eve of a meeting between Pope John Paul  II and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Gorbachev. On 28 November 1989, the Ukrainian SSR's Council for Religious Affairs issued a decree allowing Ukrainian Catholic congregations to register as legal organizations. The decree was proclaimed on December 1, coinciding with a meeting at the Vatican between the pope and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Soviet General Secretary. On 10 December 1989, the first officially sanctioned observance of International Human Rights Day was held in Lviv. On 17 December, an estimated 30,000 attended a public meeting organized in Kyiv by Rukh in memory of Nobel laureate
Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for nu ...
, who died on 14 December. On 26 December, the Supreme Soviet of Ukrainian SSR adopted a law designating Christmas, Easter, and the Trinity Sunday, Feast of the Holy Trinity official holidays. In May 1989, a Soviet dissident, Mustafa Dzhemilev, was elected to lead the newly founded Crimean Tatars, Crimean Tatar National Movement. He also led the campaign for the return of Crimean Tatars to their homeland in Crimea after 45 years of exile. On 24 January 1989, the Soviet authorities in Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Byelorussia agreed to the demand of the democratic opposition (the
Belarusian Popular Front The Belarusian Popular Front "Revival" (BPF, be, Беларускі Народны Фронт "Адраджэньне", БНФ; ''Biełaruski Narodny Front "Adradžeńnie"'', ''BNF'') was a social and political movement in Belarus in the late 1 ...
) to build a monument to thousands of people shot by Stalin-era police in the Kuropaty Forest near
Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...
in the 1930s. On 30 September 1989, thousands of Belarusians, denouncing local leaders, marched through Minsk to demand additional cleanup of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster site in Ukraine. Up to 15,000 protesters wearing armbands bearing radioactivity symbols and carrying the White-red-white flag, banned red-and-white national flag used by the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic, government-in-exile filed through torrential rain in defiance of a ban by local authorities. Later, they gathered in the city center near the government's headquarters, where speakers demanded the resignation of Yefrem Sokolov, the republic's Communist Party leader, and called for the evacuation of half a million people from the contaminated zones.


Strike action of Kuzbass and Donbass miners

Started in 1989 strike action of miners in Kuznetsk basin, Kuzbass, it was actively supported eventually by miners of Donets basin, Donbass.


Central Asian republics

Thousands of Soviet troops were sent to the Fergana Valley, southeast of the Uzbek capital Tashkent, to re-establish order after clashes in which local Uzbeks hunted down members of the Meskhetians, Meskhetian minority in several days of rioting between 4–11 June 1989; about 100 people were killed. On 23 June 1989, Gorbachev removed Rafiq Nishonov as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Uzbek SSR and replaced him with Karimov, who went on to lead Uzbekistan as a Soviet Republic and subsequently as an independent state until his death in 2017. In
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
on 19 June 1989, young men carrying guns, Incendiary device, firebombs, iron bars, and stones rioted in Zhanaozen, causing a number of deaths. The youths tried to seize a police station and a water-supply station. They brought public transportation to a halt and shut down various shops and industries. By 25 June, the rioting had spread to five other towns near the Caspian Sea. A mob of about 150 people armed with sticks, stones and metal rods attacked the police station in Mangishlak, about from Zhanaozen before they were dispersed by government troops flown in by helicopters. Mobs of young people also rampaged through Yeraliev, Shepke, Fort-Shevchenko and Kulsary, where they poured flammable liquid on trains housing temporary workers and set them on fire. With the government and CPSU shocked by the riots, on 22 June 1989, as a result of the riots, Gorbachev removed
Gennady Kolbin Gennady Vasilyevich Kolbin (; 7 May 1927 – 15 January 1998) was the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR from 16 December 1986 to 22 June 1989. Early life Kolbin was born in 1927 in Nizhny Tagil. Fr ...
(the ethnic Russian whose appointment caused riots in December 1986) as First Secretary of the
Communist Party of Kazakhstan The Communist Party of Kazakhstan ( kk, Қазақстан Коммунистік партиясы, ''Qazaqstan Kommunistık Partiasy'', QKP; russian: Коммунистическая партия Казахстана) is a banned political pa ...
for his poor handling of the June events and replaced him with Nursultan Nazarbayev, an ethnic Kazakh who went on to lead Kazakhstan as the Soviet Republic and subsequently to independence. Nazarbayev would lead Kazakhstan for 27 years until he stepped down as president on 19 March 2019.


1990


Moscow loses six republics

On 7 February 1990, the Central Committee of the CPSU accepted Gorbachev's recommendation that the party give up its One-party state, monopoly on political power. In 1990, all fifteen constituent republics of the USSR held their first competitive elections, with reformers and ethnic nationalists winning many seats. The CPSU lost the elections in six republics: * In 1990 Lithuanian parliamentary election, Lithuania, to
Sąjūdis Sąjūdis (, "Movement"), initially known as the Reform Movement of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Persitvarkymo Sąjūdis), is the political organisation which led the struggle for Lithuanian independence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was es ...
, on 24 February (run-off elections on 4, 7, 8 and 10 March) * In 1990 Moldovan parliamentary election, Moldova, to the Popular Front of Moldova, on 25 February * In 1990 Estonian Supreme Soviet election, Estonia, to the
Estonian Popular Front The Popular Front of Estonia ( et, Eestimaa Rahvarinne; RR), introduced to the public by the Estonian politician Edgar Savisaar under the short-lived name Popular Front for the Support of Perestroika, was a political organisation in Estonia in ...
, on 18 March * In 1990 Latvian Supreme Soviet election, Latvia, to the
Latvian Popular Front The Popular Front of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Tautas fronte) was a political organisation in Latvia in the late 1980s and early 1990s which led Latvia to its independence from the Soviet Union. It was similar to the Popular Front of Estonia and the ...
, on 18 March (run-off elections on 25 March 1 April, and 29 April) * In 1990 Armenian parliamentary election, Armenia, to the Pan-Armenian National Movement, on 20 May (run-off elections on 3 June and 15 July) * In 1990 Georgian Supreme Soviet election, Georgia, to Round Table-Free Georgia, on 28 October (run-off election on 11 November) The constituent republics began to declare their fledgling states' sovereignty and began a "war of laws" with the Moscow central government; they rejected union-wide legislation that conflicted with local laws, asserted control over their local economies, and refused to pay taxes to the Soviet government. Landsbergis, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Lithuania, also exempted Lithuanian men from conscription, mandatory service in the Soviet Armed Forces. This conflict caused economic dislocation as supply lines were disrupted, and caused the
Soviet economy The economy of the Soviet Union was based on state ownership of the means of production, collective farming, and industrial manufacturing. An administrative-command system managed a distinctive form of central planning. The Soviet economy was ...
to decline further.Acton, Edward (1995). ''Russia, The Tsarist and Soviet Legacy''. Longman Group Ltd. .


Rivalry between USSR and RSFSR

On 4 March 1990, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic held relatively free elections for the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia.
Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
was elected, representing Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk, garnering 72 percent of the vote. On 29 May 1990, Yeltsin was elected chair of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR, Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, despite the fact that Gorbachev asked Russian deputies not to vote for him. Yeltsin was supported by democratic and conservative members of the Supreme Soviet, who sought power in the developing political situation. A new power struggle emerged between the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, RSFSR and the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. On 12 June 1990, the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR adopted a Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, declaration of sovereignty. On 12 July 1990, Yeltsin resigned from the Communist Party in a dramatic speech at the 28th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 28th Congress.


Baltic republics

Gorbachev's visit to the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on 11–13 January 1990, provoked a pro-independence rally attended by an estimated 250,000 people. On 11 March, the newly elected parliament of the Lithuanian SSR elected Vytautas Landsbergis, the leader of
Sąjūdis Sąjūdis (, "Movement"), initially known as the Reform Movement of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Persitvarkymo Sąjūdis), is the political organisation which led the struggle for Lithuanian independence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was es ...
, as its chairman and proclaimed the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania, making Lithuania the first Soviet Republic to declare independence from the Soviet Union. Moscow reacted with an economic blockade keeping the troops in Lithuania ostensibly "to secure the rights of ethnic Russians". On 25 March 1990, the Estonian Communist Party voted to split from the CPSU after a six-month transition. On 30 March 1990, the Estonian Supreme Council declared the Soviet occupation of Estonia since the Second World War to be illegal and began a period of national transition towards the formal reestablishment of national independence within the republic. On 3 April 1990, Edgar Savisaar of the Popular Front of Estonia was elected chairman of the Council of Ministers (the equivalent of being Prime Minister), and soon a majority-pro independence cabinet was formed. Latvia On the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia, declared the restoration of independence on 4 May 1990, with the declaration stipulating a transitional period to complete independence. The Declaration stated that although Latvia had de facto lost its independence in World War II, the country had ''de jure'' remained a sovereign country because the annexation had been unconstitutional and against the will of the Latvian people. The declaration also stated that Latvia would base its relationship with the Soviet Union on the basis of the Latvian–Soviet Peace Treaty, Latvian–Soviet Peace Treaty of 1920, in which the Soviet Union recognized Latvia's independence as inviolable "for all future time". 4 May is now a national holiday in Latvia. On 7 May 1990, Ivars Godmanis of the
Latvian Popular Front The Popular Front of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Tautas fronte) was a political organisation in Latvia in the late 1980s and early 1990s which led Latvia to its independence from the Soviet Union. It was similar to the Popular Front of Estonia and the ...
was elected chairman of the Council of Ministers (the equivalent of being Latvia's Prime Minister), becoming the first premier of the restored Latvian republic. Оn 8 May 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR adopted a law officially declaring the reinstatement of the 1938 Constitution of the independent Republic of Estonia.


Caucasus

During the first week of January 1990, in the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, the Popular Front led crowds in the storming and destruction of the frontier fences and watchtowers along the border with Iran, and thousands of Soviet Azerbaijanis crossed the border to meet their ethnic cousins in Iranian Azerbaijan. It was the first time the Soviet Union had lost control of an external border outside of wartime. Ethnic tensions had escalated between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis in spring and summer 1988. On 9 January 1990, after the Armenian parliament voted to include Nagorno-Karabakh within its budget, renewed fighting broke out, hostages were taken, and four Soviet soldiers were killed.Page 89 ''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. On 11 January, Popular Front radicals stormed party buildings and effectively overthrew the communist powers in the southern town of Lenkoran. Gorbachev resolved to regain control of Azerbaijan; the events that ensued are known as "Black January". Late on 19 January 1990, after blowing up the central television station and cutting the phone and radio lines, 26,000 Soviet troops entered the Azerbaijani capital
Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...
, smashing barricades, attacking protesters, and firing into crowds. On that night and during subsequent confrontations (which lasted until February), more than 130 people died. Most of these were civilians. More than 700 civilians were wounded, hundreds were detained, but only a few were actually tried for alleged criminal offenses. Civil liberties suffered. Soviet Defence Minister Dmitry Yazov stated that the use of force in Baku was intended to prevent the ''de facto'' takeover of the Azerbaijani government by the non-communist opposition, to prevent their victory in upcoming free elections (scheduled for March 1990), to destroy them as a political force, and to ensure that the Communist government remained in power. The army had gained control of Baku, but by 20 January it had essentially lost Azerbaijan. Nearly the entire population of Baku turned out for the mass funerals of "martyrs" buried in the Alley of Martyrs.Page 93 ''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. Thousands of Communist Party members publicly burned their party cards. First Secretary Vezirov decamped to Moscow and Ayaz Mutalibov was appointed his successor in a free vote of party officials. The ethnic Russian Viktor Polyanichko remained second secretary. In reaction to the Soviet actions in Baku, Sakina Aliyeva, Chair of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic called a special session where it was debated whether or not Nakhchivan could Secession, secede from the USSR under Article 81 of the Soviet Constitution. Deciding that it was legal, deputies prepared a declaration of independence, which Aliyeva signed and presented on 20 January on national television. It was the first declaration of secession by a recognized region in the USSR. Aliyeva and the Nakhchivan Soviet's actions were denounced by government officials who forced her to resign and the attempt at independence was aborted. Following the hardliners' takeover, the 30 September 1990 elections (runoffs on 14 October) were characterized by intimidation; several Popular Front candidates were jailed, two were murdered, and unabashed Electoral fraud, ballot stuffing took place, even in the presence of Western observers. The election results reflected the threatening environment; out of the 350 members, 280 were Communists, with only 45 opposition candidates from the Popular Front and other non-communist groups, who together formed a Democratic Bloc ("Dembloc"). In May 1990 Mutalibov was elected chairman of the Supreme Soviet unopposed. On 23 August 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Armenia, Declaration of Independence of Armenia. The document proclaimed the independent Republic of Armenia with its own symbols, army, financial institutions, foreign and tax policy.


Western republics

On 21 January 1990, People's Movement of Ukraine, Rukh organized a human chain between Kyiv, Lviv, and Ivano-Frankivsk. Hundreds of thousands joined hands to commemorate the proclamation of Ukrainian independence in 1918 and the reunification of Ukrainian lands one year later (Act Zluky, 1919 Unification Act). On 23 January 1990, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church held its first synod since its liquidation by the Soviets in 1946 (an act which the gathering declared invalid). On 9 February 1990, the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice officially registered Rukh. However, the registration came too late for Rukh to stand its own candidates for the parliamentary and local elections on 4 March. At the 1990 Ukrainian parliamentary election, 1990 elections of People's Deputy of Ukraine, people's deputies to the Supreme Council of Ukraine, Supreme Council (''Verkhovna Rada''), candidates from the Democratic Bloc (Ukraine), Democratic Bloc won landslide victories in Western Ukraine, western Ukrainian oblasts. A majority of the seats had to hold run-off elections. On 18 March, Democratic candidates scored further victories in the run-offs. The Democratic Bloc gained about 90 out of 450 seats in the new parliament. On 6 April 1990, the Lviv City Council voted to return St. George's Cathedral, Lviv, St. George Cathedral to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The Russian Orthodox Church refused to yield. On 29–30 April 1990, the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, Ukrainian Helsinki Union disbanded to form the Ukrainian Republican Party. On 15 May the new parliament convened. The bloc of conservative communists held 239 seats; the Democratic Bloc, which had evolved into the National Council, had 125 deputies. On 4 June 1990, two candidates remained in the protracted race for parliament chair. The leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU), Vladimir Ivashko, Volodymyr Ivashko, was elected with 60 percent of the vote as more than 100 opposition deputies boycotted the election. On 5–6 June 1990, Metropolitan Mstyslav (Skrypnyk), Mstyslav of the U.S.-based Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, Ukrainian Orthodox Church was elected patriarch of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) during that Church's first synod. The UAOC declared its full independence from the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, which in March had granted autonomy to the Ukrainian Orthodox church headed by the Metropolitan Filaret (Denysenko), Filaret. On 22 June 1990, Vladimir Ivashko, Volodymyr Ivashko withdrew his candidacy for leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine in view of his new position in parliament. Stanislav Hurenko was elected first secretary of the CPU. On 11 July, Ivashko resigned from his post as chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament after he was elected deputy general secretary of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...
. The Parliament accepted the resignation a week later, on 18 July. On 16 July Parliament overwhelmingly approved the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine – with a vote of 355 in favour and four against. The people's deputies voted 339 to 5 to proclaim 16 July a Ukrainian national holiday. On 23 July 1990, Leonid Kravchuk was elected to replace Ivashko as parliament chairman. On 30 July, Parliament adopted a resolution on military service ordering Ukrainian soldiers "in regions of national conflict such as Armenia and Azerbaijan" to return to Ukrainian territory. On August 1, Parliament voted overwhelmingly to shut down the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. On 3 August, it adopted a law on the economic sovereignty of the Ukrainian republic. On 19 August, the first Ukrainian Catholic liturgy in 44 years was celebrated at St. George Cathedral. On 5–7 September, the International Symposium on the Holodomor, Great Famine of 1932–1933 was held in Kyiv. On 8 September, The first "Youth for Christ" rally since 1933 took place held in Lviv, with 40,000 participants. In 28–30 September, the Party of Greens of Ukraine, Green Party of Ukraine held its founding congress. On 30 September, nearly 100,000 people marched in Kyiv to protest against the new union treaty proposed by Gorbachev. On 1 October 1990, parliament reconvened amid mass protests calling for the resignations of Kravchuk and of Prime Minister Vitaliy Masol, a leftover from the previous régime. Students erected a tent city on Maidan Nezalezhnosti, October Revolution Square, where they continued the protest. On 17 October Masol resigned, and on 20 October, Mstyslav (Skrypnyk), Patriarch Mstyslav I of Kyiv and all Ukraine arrived at Saint Sophia's Cathedral, Kyiv, Saint Sophia's Cathedral, ending a 46-year banishment from his homeland. On 23 October 1990, Parliament voted to delete Article 6 of the Ukrainian Constitution, which referred to the "leading role" of the Communist Party. On 25–28 October 1990, Rukh held its second congress and declared that its principal goal was the "renewal of independent statehood for Ukraine". On 28 October UAOC faithful, supported by Ukrainian Catholics, demonstrated near St. Sophia's Cathedral as newly elected Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Aleksei and Metropolitan Filaret celebrated liturgy at the shrine. On 1 November, the leaders of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, respectively, Metropolitan Volodymyr Sterniuk and Patriarch Mstyslav, met in Lviv during anniversary commemorations of the 1918 proclamation of the Western Ukrainian National Republic. On 18 November 1990, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church enthroned Mstyslav as Patriarch of Kyiv and all Ukraine during ceremonies at Saint Sophia's Cathedral. Also on 18 November, Canada announced that its consul-general to Kyiv would be Ukrainian-Canadian Nestor Gayowsky. On 19 November, the United States announced that its consul to Kyiv would be Ukrainian-American John Stepanchuk. On 19 November, the chairmen of the Ukrainian and Russian parliaments, respectively, Kravchuk and Yeltsin, signed a 10-year bilateral pact. In early December 1990 the Party of Democratic Rebirth of Ukraine was founded; on 15 December, the Democratic Party of Ukraine was founded. On 27 July 1990 the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR passed a Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Declaration of State Sovereignty, asserting its sovereignty as a republic inside the Soviet Union.


Central Asian republics

On 12–14 February 1990, anti-government riots took place in Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, Tajikistan's capital, Dushanbe, as tensions rose between nationalist Tajiks and ethnic Armenians, Armenian refugees, after the Sumgait pogrom and anti-Armenian riots in Azerbaijan in 1988. Demonstrations sponsored by the nationalist Rastokhez movement turned violent. Radical economic and political reforms were demanded by the protesters, who torched government buildings; shops and other businesses were attacked and looted. During these riots 26 people were killed and 565 injured. In June 1990, the city of Osh and its environs experienced bloody Osh riots (1990), ethnic clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz people, Kirghiz nationalist group Osh Aymaghi and Uzbeks, Uzbek nationalist group Adolat over the land of a former collective farm. There were about 1,200 casualties, including over 300 dead and 462 seriously injured. The riots broke out over the division of land resources in and around the city. In Turkmen SSR, the National conservatism, national conservative :ru:Агзыбирлик, People's Democratic Movement "Agzybirlik" ("Unification") became a supporter of independence, uniting the Turkmen intelligentsia and moderate and radical Turkmenization, Turkmen nationalists. They did not have a pronounced and eminent leader. Since 1989, small rallies have been held in Ashgabat, Ashghabad and Krasnovodsk for the independence of Turkmenistan, as well as for the assignment of the status of the "state language" to the Turkmen language in the republic. The rallies also demanded that the republican leadership leave most of the oil revenues in the republic itself, and ''"not feed Moscow"''. Turkmen oppositionists and dissidents actively cooperated with opposition from Uzbek SSR, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan SSR, Azerbaijan and Georgian SSR, Georgia. The leadership of Soviet Turkmenistan, led by Saparmurat Niyazov, opposed independence, suppressing Turkmen dissidents and oppositionists, but following the 1990 Turkmen Supreme Soviet election, elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Turkmen SSR in January 1990, several dissidents were able to be elected to the republican parliament as independent candidates, who, together with their supporters, managed to actively participate in political life and express their opinions. The role of the Communist Party of Turkmenistan was very strong in this republic, especially in the west and south, where the Russian-speaking population lived. Over 90% of the seats in the republican parliament were held by communists. Despite all of the above, during the dissolution of the USSR, there were practically no high-profile events in Turkmenistan, and the Turkmen SSR was considered by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, CPSU to be one of the "most exemplary and loyal republics" of the Soviet Union to Moscow.


1991


Moscow's crisis

On 14 January 1991,
Nikolai Ryzhkov Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov ( uk, Микола Іванович Рижков; russian: Николай Иванович Рыжков; born 28 September 1929) is a Soviet, and later Russian, politician. He served as the last Chairman of the Counci ...
resigned from his post as Premier of the Soviet Union, Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Soviet Union), Council of Ministers, or premier of the Soviet Union, and was succeeded by Valentin Pavlov in the newly established post of Prime Minister of the Soviet Union. On 17 March 1991, in a 1991 Soviet Union referendum, Union-wide referendum 77.85% percent of voters endorsed retention of a reformed Soviet Union. The Baltic republics, Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, Armenia, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, Georgia, and Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, Moldova boycotted the referendum as well as Chechen–Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Checheno-Ingushetia (an Autonomous republics of the Soviet Union, autonomous republic within Russia that had a strong desire for independence, and by now referred to itself as Ichkeria). In each of the other nine republics, a majority of the voters supported the retention of a reformed Soviet Union, the same in the Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia who also voted for the continuation of the state.


Russia's President Boris Yeltsin

On 12 June 1991,
Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
was elected President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic with 57 percent of the popular vote in 1991 Russian presidential election, the country's first Presidential election, defeating Gorbachev's preferred candidate,
Nikolai Ryzhkov Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov ( uk, Микола Іванович Рижков; russian: Николай Иванович Рыжков; born 28 September 1929) is a Soviet, and later Russian, politician. He served as the last Chairman of the Counci ...
, who won 16 percent of the vote. Following Yeltsin's election as president, the RSFSR declared itself autonomous from the Soviet Union. In his election campaign, Yeltsin criticized the "dictatorship of the center", but did not yet suggest that he would introduce a market economy.


The Caucasus: Georgia takes the lead

In response to the USSR-wide referendum, on 31 March 1991, an 1991 Georgian independence referendum, independence referendum was held on the matter of Georgian independence. Boycotted by the South Ossetian and Abkhaz minorities, who showed up in the all-Union plebiscite earlier that month, a record 99.5% of Georgian voters voted for the restoration of Georgian independence as against 0.5% against. Voter turnout was 90.6%.Cornell, Svante E.
''Autonomy and Conflict: Ethnoterritoriality and Separatism in the South Caucasus – Case in Georgia''
. Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Report No. 61. p. 163. University of Uppsala, .
On 9 April 1991, two years after the massacres in Tbilisi and a year and two months after Lithuania's declaration of independence, the Supreme Council of the Georgian SSR in plenary session declared the formal reconstitution of Georgia's independence from the Soviet Union, 70 years after the Soviet Armed Forces overthrew the Democratic Republic. This landmark declaration of independence by Georgia made it the first of the Caucasian republics to officially secede from the Soviet Union and the 3rd republic overall so far.


Baltic republics

On 13 January 1991, Soviet troops, along with the
KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
Spetsnaz Alpha Group, Vilnius massacre, stormed the Vilnius TV Tower in Lithuania to suppress the independence movement. Fourteen unarmed civilians were killed and hundreds more injured. On the night of 31 July, Russian OMON from
Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...
, the Soviet military headquarters in the Baltics, Soviet OMON assaults on Lithuanian border posts, assaulted the Lithuanian border post in Medininkai and killed seven Lithuanian servicemen. This event further weakened the Soviet Union's position internationally and domestically, and stiffened Lithuanian resistance. The bloody attacks in Lithuania prompted Latvians to organize defensive barricades (the events are still today known as "The Barricades") blocking access to strategically important buildings and bridges in Riga. Soviet attacks in the ensuing days resulted in six deaths and several injuries; one person died later of their wounds. Оn 9 February, Lithuania held an independence 1991 Lithuanian independence referendum, referendum with 93.2% voting in favor of independence. On 12 February, the independence of Lithuania was recognized by Iceland. On 3 March, a 1991 Estonian independence referendum, referendum was held on the independence of the Republic of Estonia, which was attended by those who lived in Estonia before the Soviet annexation and their descendants, as well as persons who have received the so-called "green cards" of the Congress of Estonia. 77.8% of those who voted supported the idea of restoring independence. On 11 March, Denmark recognized Estonia's independence. When Estonia reaffirmed its independence during the coup (see below) in the dark hours of 20 August 1991, at 11:03 pm Tallinn time, many Estonian volunteers surrounded the Tallinn TV Tower in an attempt to prepare to cut off the communication channels after the Soviet troops seized it and refused to be intimidated by the Soviet troops. When Edgar Savisaar confronted the Soviet troops for ten minutes, they finally retreated from the TV tower after a failed resistance against the Estonians.


August Coup

Faced with growing separatism, Gorbachev sought to restructure the Soviet Union into a less centralized state. On 20 August, the Russian SFSR was scheduled to sign a New Union Treaty that would have converted the Soviet Union into a Union of Sovereign States, federation of independent republics with a common president, foreign policy and military. It was strongly supported by the Central Asian republics, which needed the economic advantages of a common market to prosper. However, it would have meant some degree of continued Communist Party control over economic and social life. More radical reformists were increasingly convinced that a rapid transition to a market economy was required, even if the eventual outcome meant the disintegration of the Soviet Union into several independent states. Independence also accorded with Yeltsin's desires as president of the RSFSR, as well as those of regional and local authorities to get rid of Moscow's pervasive control. In contrast to the reformers' lukewarm response to the treaty, the conservatives, "patriots", and Russian nationalists of the USSR – still strong within the CPSU and the military – were opposed to weakening the Soviet state and its centralized power structure. On 19 August 1991, Gorbachev's vice president, Gennady Yanayev, Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov, Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov, KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov and other senior officials acted to prevent the union treaty from being signed by forming the "General Committee on the State Emergency", which put Gorbachev – on holiday in Foros, Ukraine, Foros, Crimea – under house arrest and cut off his communications. The coup leaders issued an emergency decree suspending political activity and banning most newspapers. Thousands of Muscovites came out to defend the White House, Moscow, White House (the Russian Federation's parliament and Yeltsin's office), the symbolic seat of Russian sovereignty at the time. The organizers of the coup tried but ultimately failed to arrest Yeltsin, who rallied opposition to the coup by making speeches from atop a tank. The special forces dispatched by the coup leaders took up positions near the White House, but members refused to storm the barricaded building. The coup leaders also neglected to jam foreign news broadcasts, so many Muscovites watched it unfold live on
CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
. Even the isolated Gorbachev was able to stay abreast of developments by tuning into the BBC World Service on a small transistor radio. After three days, on 21 August 1991, the coup collapsed. The organizers were detained and Gorbachev was reinstated as president, albeit with his power much depleted.


Fall: August to December

On 24 August 1991, Gorbachev resigned as general secretary of the CPSU and dissolved all party units in the government. On the same day, the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR passed a Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, calling for a national referendum on the independence of Ukraine from the Soviet Union. Five days later, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union indefinitely suspended all CPSU activity on Soviet territory, effectively ending Communist rule in the Soviet Union and dissolving the only remaining unifying force in the country. Gorbachev established a State Council of the Soviet Union on 5 September, designed to bring him and the highest officials of the remaining republics into a collective leadership. The State Council was also empowered to appoint a premier of the Soviet Union. The premiership never functioned properly, though Ivan Silayev ''de facto'' took the post through the Committee on the Operational Management of the Soviet Economy and the Inter-Republican economic committee of the USSR, Inter-Republican Economic Committee and tried to form Silayev's Government, a government, though with rapidly shrinking powers. The Soviet Union collapsed with dramatic speed in the last quarter of 1991. Between August and December, 10 republics seceded from the union, largely out of fear of another coup. By the end of September, Gorbachev no longer had the ability to influence events outside of Moscow. He was challenged even there by Yeltsin, who had begun taking over what remained of the Soviet government, including the Kremlin. On 17 September 1991, United Nations General Assembly resolution, General Assembly resolution numbers 46/4, 46/5, and 46/6 admitted Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to the United Nations, conforming to United Nations Security Council resolution, Security Council resolution numbers United Nations Security Council Resolution 709, 709, United Nations Security Council Resolution 710, 710, and United Nations Security Council Resolution 711, 711 passed on 12 September without a vote. On 6 November, Yeltsin–who had by then taken over much of the Soviet government–issued a decree banning all Communist Party activities on Russian territory. By 7 November 1991, most newspapers referred to the country as the 'former Soviet Union'. The final round of the Soviet Union's collapse began on 1 December 1991. That day, a 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum, Ukrainian popular referendum resulted in 91 percent of Ukraine's voters voting to affirm the independence declaration passed in August and formally secede from the Union. The secession of Ukraine, long second only to Russia in economic and political power, ended any realistic chance of Gorbachev keeping the Soviet Union together even on a limited scale. The leaders of the three Slavic republics, Russia, Ukraine, and
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
(formerly Byelorussia), agreed to discuss possible alternatives to the union. On 8 December, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus secretly met in Belavezhskaya Pushcha, in western Belarus, and signed the Belavezha Accords, which proclaimed the Soviet Union had ceased to exist and announced formation of the
Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of and has an estimated population of 239,796,010. ...
(CIS) as a looser association to take its place. They also invited other republics to join the CIS. Gorbachev called it an unconstitutional coup. However, by this time there was no longer any reasonable doubt that, as the preamble of the Accords put it, "the USSR, as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality, is ceasing its existence". On 10 December, the agreement was ratified by the Verkhovna Rada, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Supreme Council of Belarus. On 12 December, the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR formally ratified the Belavezha Accords, denounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, 1922 Union Treaty, and recalled the Russian deputies from the
Supreme Soviet of the USSR The Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( rus, Верховный Совет Союза Советских Социалистических Республик, r=Verkhovnyy Sovet Soyuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respubl ...
. The legality of this ratification raised doubts among some members of the Russian parliament, since according to the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1978 consideration of this document was in the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR.''V.Pribylovsky, Gr.Tochkin'
. Kto i kak uprazdnil SSSR
/ref>''Воронин Ю. М.'
Беловежское предательство
/ref> However, no one in either Russia or the Kremlin objected. Any objections from the latter would have likely had no effect, since the Soviet government had effectively been rendered impotent long before December. A number of lawyers believe that the denunciation of the union treaty was meaningless since it became invalid in 1924 with the adoption of the 1924 Constitution of the Soviet Union, first constitution of the USSR. (In 1996 the State Duma had voiced the same position.) Later that day, Gorbachev hinted for the first time that he was considering stepping down. On the surface, it appeared that the largest republic had formally seceded. However, this is not the case as Russia apparently took the line that it was not possible to secede from a country that no longer existed. On 17 December 1991, along with 28 European countries, the European Economic Community, and four non-European countries, the three Baltic Republics and nine of the twelve remaining Soviet republics signed the European Energy Charter in the Hague as sovereign states. On the same day, members of the lower house of the union parliament (Council of the Union) held a meeting of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union. The meeting adopted a statement in connection with the signing of the Belovezhskaya Agreement and its ratification by the parliaments of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, in which it noted that it considers the decisions made on the liquidation of state power and administration bodies illegal and not meeting the current situation and the vital interests of the peoples and stated that in the event further complication of the situation in the country reserves the right to convene in the future the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. On 18 December, the upper chamber of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (Council of Republics) adopted a statement, according to which it accepts with understanding the Agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States and considers it a real guarantee of a way out of the acute political and economic crisis. Doubts remained over whether the Belavezha Accords had legally dissolved the Soviet Union, since they were signed by only three republics. However, on 21 December, representatives of 8 of the 12 remaining republics – all except Estonia,
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
,
Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
, and Lithuania – signed the
Alma-Ata Protocol The Alma-Ata Protocols were the founding declarations and principles of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus had agreed to the Belovezh Accords on 8 December 1991, dissolving the Soviet Union ...
, which confirmed the dissolution of the Union and formally established the CIS. They also "accepted" Gorbachev's resignation. The command of the Armed Forces of the USSR was entrusted to the Minister of Defense Yevgeny Shaposhnikov. Even at this moment, Gorbachev hadn't made any formal plans to leave the scene yet. However, with a majority of republics now agreeing that the Soviet Union no longer existed, Gorbachev bowed to the inevitable, telling CBS News that he would resign as soon as he saw that the CIS was indeed a reality. In a nationally televised speech in the evening of 25 December, Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union – or, as he put it, "I hereby discontinue my activities at the post of President of the USSR." He declared the office extinct, and all of its powers (such as control of the nuclear arsenal) were ceded to Yeltsin. A week earlier, Gorbachev had met with Yeltsin and accepted the ''fait accompli'' of the Soviet Union's dissolution. On the same day, the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR adopted a statute to change Russia's legal name from "Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic" to "Russian Federation", showing that it was now a fully sovereign non-communist state. On the night of 25 December, at 7:32 p.m. Moscow time, after Gorbachev appeared on television, the
Soviet flag The State Flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (), commonly known as the Soviet flag (), was the official state flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1922 to 1991. The flag's design and symbolism are derived from ...
was lowered and the State Anthem of the Soviet Union was played for the last time, and the Flag of Russia, Russian tricolor was raised in its place at 7:45 pm, symbolically marking the end of the Soviet Union. In his parting words, Gorbachev defended his record on domestic reform and détente, but conceded, "The old system collapsed before a new one had time to start working." On that same day, the President of the United States George H. W. Bush held a brief televised speech officially recognizing the independence of the 11 remaining republics. On 26 December, the Soviet of Republics, the upper chamber of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, voted the Soviet Union out of existence (the lower chamber, the Soviet of the Union, had been unable to work since 12 December, when the recall of the Russian deputies left it without a quorum). The following day Yeltsin moved into Gorbachev's former office, though the Russian authorities had taken over the suite two days earlier. The Soviet Armed Forces were placed under the command of the
Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of and has an estimated population of 239,796,010. ...
, but were eventually subsumed by the newly independent republics, with the bulk becoming the Russian Armed Forces, Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. By the end of 1991, the few remaining Soviet institutions that had not been taken over by Russia ceased operation, and individual republics assumed the central government's role. The Alma-Ata Protocol also addressed other issues, including UN membership. Notably, Russia was authorized to assume the Soviet Union's UN membership, including its permanent seat on the UN Security Council, Security Council. The Soviet Ambassador to the UN delivered a letter signed by Russian President Yeltsin to the UN Secretary-General dated 24 December 1991, informing him that by virtue of the Alma-Ata Protocol, Russia was the successor state to the USSR. After being circulated among the other UN member states, with no objection raised, the statement was declared accepted on the last day of the year, 31 December 1991. But questions of Succession of states, state succession, settlement of external debt, and division of assets abroad remain disputed between Russia and Ukraine to this day. In April 1992, the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia refused to ratify the Belovezhskaya Agreements and to exclude references to the Constitution and laws of the USSR from the text of the Constitution of the RSFSR. According to some Russian politicians, this was one of the reasons for the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, political crisis of September - October 1993. In a 1993 Russian constitutional referendum, referendum on 12 December 1993, a Constitution of Russia, new Russian constitution was adopted, in which there was no mention of the union state.


Consequences


Economic decline

In the decades following the end of the Cold War, only five or six of the post-Soviet states are on a path to joining the wealthy capitalist states of the West, and most are falling behind, some to such an extent that over 50 years will be needed before they catch up to how they were before the end of communism. However, virtually all the former Soviet republics were able to turn their economies around and increase GDP to multiple times what it was under the USSR. In a 2001 study by the economist Steven Rosefielde, he calculated that there were 3.4 million premature deaths in Russia from 1990 to 1998, which he partly blames on the Shock therapy (economics), "shock therapy" that came with the Washington Consensus.


Post-soviet conflicts

According to the scholar Marcel H. Van Herpen, the end of the Soviet Union also marked the end of Russian imperialism, Russian colonialism and imperialism. As the Soviet Union began to collapse, social disintegration and political instability fueled a surge in ethnic conflict. Social and economic disparities, along with ethnic differences, created an upsurge in nationalism within groups and discrimination between groups. In particular, disputes over territorial boundaries have been the source of conflict between states experiencing political transition and upheaval. Territorial conflicts can involve several different issues: the reunification of ethnic groups which have been separated, restoration of territorial rights to those who experienced forced deportation, and restoration of boundaries arbitrarily changed during the Soviet era. Territorial disputes remain significant points of controversy as minority groups consistently oppose election outcomes and seek autonomy and self-determination. In addition to territorial disputes and other structural causes of conflict, legacies from the Soviet and pre-Soviet eras, along with the suddenness of the actual sociopolitical change, have resulted in conflict throughout the region. As each group experiences dramatic economic reform and political democratization, there has been a surge in nationalism and interethnic conflict. Overall, the fifteen independent states that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union face problems stemming from uncertain identities, contested boundaries, apprehensive minorities, and an overbearing Russian hegemony. Russia under Vladimir Putin, who has termed the dissolution of the USSR as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century", began to revive Russian nationalism and Russian irredentism, irredentism, leading them to Russo-Georgian War, invade Georgia in 2008, Russo-Ukrainian War, Ukraine in 2014 and 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine again in 2022.


Special Period and Dollarization of Cuba

The "Special Period", officially known as the "Special Period in the Time of Peace" was an extended period of economic crisis in Cuba that began in 1991 It was defined primarily by extreme reductions of rationed foods at state-subsidized prices, the severe shortages of hydrocarbon energy resources in the form of gasoline, diesel fuel, diesel, and other petroleum derivatives that occurred upon the implosion of economic agreements between the petroleum-rich Soviet Union and Cuba, and the shrinking of an economy overdependent on Soviet imports. During its existence, the Soviet Union provided Cuba with large amounts of Petroleum, oil, food, and machinery. In the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's gross domestic product shrunk 35%, imports and exports both fell over 80%, and many domestic industries shrank considerably. In a speculated attempt to re-join the International Monetary Fund, IMF and the World Bank, executive director Jacques de Groote and another IMF official were invited to Havana in late 1993. After assessing the economic situation in the country they concluded that from 1989 to 1993, the Cuba's economic decline was more grave than that experienced by any other Socialism, socialist Eastern European country. In 1993 a serious of economic reforms began to go into effect, initially enacted to offset the economic imbalances which was a result of the dissolution of the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in 1991. The main aspect of these reforms was to legalize the then illegal U.S. Dollar and regulate its usage in the island's economy.


North Korean famine

In 1991 when the Soviet Union dissolved, it ended all aid and trade concessions such as cheap oil to North Korea. Without Soviet aid, the flow of imports to the North Korean agricultural sector ended, and the government proved to be too inflexible to respond. Energy imports fell by 75%. The economy went into a downward spiral, with imports and exports falling in tandem. Flooded coal mines required electricity to operate pumps, and the shortage of coal worsened the shortage of electricity. Agriculture reliant on electrically powered irrigation systems, artificial fertilizers and pesticides was hit particularly hard by the economic collapse.


Conflict in Afghanistan

As the Soviet Union began to disintegrate, it also lost support to the Mohammad Najibullah's regime in Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, Afghanistan in 1992 after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, withdrawal in 1989. The end of Soviet aid led to a Afghan Civil War (1992–1996), multi-sided civil war only for the Taliban to rise. Due to this, U.S. policies in the war are also thought to have contributed to a Allegations of CIA assistance to Osama bin Laden, "blowback" of unintended consequences against American interests, which led to the United States entering into its own War in Afghanistan (2001–2021), war in Afghanistan in 2001, only to end with the Taliban Fall of Kabul (2021), regaining control of Afghanistan in 2021.


Sports and "Unified Team"

The breakup of the Soviet Union saw a massive impact in the sporting world. Before its dissolution, the Soviet Union national football team, Soviet football team had just qualified for UEFA Euro 1992, Euro 1992, but its place was instead taken by the CIS national football team. After the tournament, the former Soviet Republics competed as separate independent nations, with FIFA allocating the Soviet team's record to Russia national football team, Russia. Before the start of the 1992 Winter Olympics, 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville and the 1992 Summer Olympics, Summer Olympics in Barcelona, the Olympic Committee of the Soviet Union formally existed until 12 March 1992, when it disbanded but it was succeeded by the Russian Olympic Committee. However, 12 of the 15 former Soviet Republics competed together as the Unified Team at the Olympics, Unified Team and marched under the Olympic flag in Barcelona, where they finished first in the medal rankings. Separately, Lithuania at the 1992 Summer Olympics, Lithuania, Latvia at the 1992 Summer Olympics, Latvia, and Estonia at the 1992 Summer Olympics, Estonia also competed as independent nations in the 1992 Games. The Unified Team also competed in Albertville earlier in the year (represented by six of the twelve ex-republics) and finished second in the medal ranking at those Games. Afterwards, the individual NOCs of the non-Baltic former republics were established. Some NOCs made their debuts at the 1994 Winter Olympics, 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, and others did so at the 1996 Summer Olympics, 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Members of the Unified Team at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona consisted of Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
,
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
,
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
, Kyrgyzstan,
Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...
, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan,
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, and Uzbekistan. At those Summer Games, the Unified Team secured 45 gold medals, 38 silver medals, and 29 bronze medals; four medals more than second-place United States, and 30 more than third-place Germany. In addition to great team success, the Unified Team also saw great personal success. Vitaly Scherbo of Belarus secured six gold medals for the team in gymnastics and also became the most decorated athlete of the Summer Games. Gymnastics, athletics, wrestling, and swimming were the strongest sports for the team, as the four combined earned 28 gold medals and 64 medals in total. Only six of the countries competed earlier at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The Unified team placed second, three fewer medals than Germany. However, much like the Summer Games, the Unified team had the most decorated medalist in the Winter Games as well, with Lyubov Yegorova (cross-country skier), Lyubov Yegorova of Russia, a cross-country skier winning five total medals.


Telecommunications

The Soviet Union's List of country calling codes, calling code of Telephone numbers in the Soviet Union, +7 is still used by
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
and
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
. Between 1993 and 1997, many newly independent republics implemented their own Telephone numbering plan, numbering plans such as
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
(Telephone numbers in Belarus, +375) and
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
(Telephone numbers in Ukraine, +380). The Domain name, Internet domain ''.su'' remains in use alongside the internet domains of the newly created countries.


Glasnost and "Memorial"

The lifting of total censorship and communist propaganda led to disclosure to public of such political and historical issues as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Katyn massacre, revision of the Stalinist repressions (disambiguation), Stalinist repressions, revision of the Russian Civil War, the White movement, the New Economic Policy, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, censorship, pacification and procrastination by the Soviet authorities. In 1989, the Soviet Union established a civil rights society, Memorial (society), Memorial, which specialized in research and recovery of memory for victims of political repressions as well as support for a general human rights movement.


Chronology of declarations

''States with List of states with limited recognition, limited recognition are shown in italics.''


Legacy

In 2013, the American Gallup (company), Gallup analytics company found that a majority of citizens in four former Soviet countries regretted the dissolution of the Soviet Union: Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Ukraine. In Armenia, 12% of respondents in 2013 said the Soviet collapse did good, while 66% said it did harm. In Kyrgyzstan, 16% of respondents in 2013 said the Soviet collapse did good, while 61% said it did harm. Ever since the Soviet collapse, annual polling by the Levada Center has shown that over 50 percent of Russia's population regretted its collapse. Consistently, 57% of citizens of Russia regretted the collapse of the Soviet Union in a poll in 2014 (while 30 percent said otherwise), and in 2018 a Levada Center poll showed that 66% of Russians lamented the fall of the Soviet Union. In a similar poll held in February 2005, 50% of respondents in Ukraine stated they regretted the disintegration of the Soviet Union. In 2013, according to Gallup (company), Gallup, 56% of Ukrainians said that the dissolution of the Soviet Union did more harm than good, with only 23% saying it did more good than harm. However, a similar poll conducted in 2016 by a Ukrainian group showed only 35% Ukrainians regretting the Soviet collapse and 50% not regretting it. The breakdown of economic ties that followed the Soviet collapse led to a severe economic crisis and catastrophic fall in the standard of living in post-Soviet states and the former Eastern Bloc, which was even worse than the Great Depression."Who Lost Russia?"
''The New York Times'', 8 October 2000
An estimated 7 million premature deaths took place in the former USSR after it collapsed, with around 4 million in Russia alone. Poverty and economic inequality surged between 1988 and 1989 and between 1993 and 1995, with the Gini ratio increasing by an average of 9 points for all former socialist countries. Even before the 1998 Russian financial crisis, the Russian GDP was half of what it had been in the early 1990s. By 1999, around 191 million people in post-Soviet states and former Eastern Bloc countries and were living on less than $5.50 a day. In the Kitchen Debate of 1959, Nikita Khrushchev claimed that then US Vice-president Richard Nixon's grandchildren would live "under communism," and Nixon claimed that Khrushchev's grandchildren would live under "freedom." In a 1992 interview, Nixon commented that during the debate, he was sure Khrushchev's claim was wrong, but Nixon was not sure that his own assertion was correct. Nixon said that events had proved that he was indeed right because Khrushchev's grandchildren now lived in "freedom" in reference to the recent end of the Soviet Union. Khrushchev's son Sergei Khrushchev was a naturalized American citizen.


United Nations membership

In a letter dated 24 December 1991, Boris Yeltsin, the Russian President, informed the United Nations Secretary-General that the membership of the Soviet Union in the Security Council and all other UN organs would be continued by the Russian Federation with the support of the 11 member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. However, the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic had already joined the UN as original members on 24 October 1945, together with the Soviet Union. After declaring independence, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic changed its name to
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
on 24 August 1991, and on 19 September, the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic informed the UN that it had changed its name to the Republic of Belarus. All of the twelve other independent states that were established from the former Soviet republics were admitted to the UN: * 17 September 1991: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania * 2 March 1992: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan * 31 July 1992: Georgia


Historiographic explanations

Historiography on the Soviet collapse can be roughly classified in two groups: intentionalist historian, intentionalist accounts and structuralism, structuralist accounts. Intentionalist accounts contend that Soviet collapse was not inevitable and resulted from the policies and decisions of specific individuals, usually Gorbachev and Yeltsin. One characteristic example of intentionalist writing is the historian Archie Brown (historian), Archie Brown's ''The Gorbachev Factor'', which argues Gorbachev was the main force in Soviet politics at least from 1985 to 1988 and even later and that he largely spearheaded the political reforms and developments, as opposed to being led by events. That was especially true of the policies of ''perestroika'' and ''
glasnost ''Glasnost'' (; russian: link=no, гласность, ) has several general and specific meanings – a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information, the inadmissibility of hushing up problems, ...
'', market initiatives, and foreign policy stance, as the political scientist George W. Breslauer, George Breslauer has seconded by labelling Gorbachev a "man of the events". In a slightly different vein, David Kotz and Fred Weir have contended that Soviet elites were responsible for spurring on both nationalism and capitalism from which they could personally benefit, which is demonstrated also by their continued presence in the higher economic and political echelons of post-Soviet republics. In contrast, structuralist accounts take a more deterministic view in which Soviet dissolution was an outcome of deeply-rooted structural issues, which planted a time bomb. For example, Edward Walker has argued that minority nationalities were denied power at the Union level, confronted by a culturally-destabilizing form of economic Modernization theory, modernization, and subjected to a certain amount of Russification, but they were at the same time strengthened by several policies pursued by the Soviet government (indigenization of leadership, support for local languages, etc.). Over time, they created conscious nations. Furthermore, the basic legitimating myth of the Soviet federative system (that it was a voluntary and mutual union of allied peoples) eased the task of secession and independence. On 25 January 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin supported that view by calling Lenin's support of the right of secession for the Soviet republics a "delayed-action bomb". An opinion piece by Gorbachev in April 2006 stated: "The Chernobyl disaster, nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl 20 years ago this month, even more than my launch of perestroika, was perhaps the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union." The end of the Soviet Union caught many people by surprise. Before 1991, many predictions of Soviet collapse, thought that Soviet collapse was impossible or unlikely. It also had a profound impact on the policy-making circles of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in particular on General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, CCP general secretary Xi Jinping, who states:
Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate? Why did the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...
fall from power? An important reason was that the struggle in the field of ideology was extremely intense, completely negating the history of the Soviet Union, negating the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, negating Lenin, negating Stalin, creating historical nihilism and confused thinking. Party organs at all levels had lost their functions, the military was no longer under Party leadership. In the end, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, a great party, was scattered, the Soviet Union, a great socialist country, disintegrated. This is a cautionary tale!


See also

* Breakup of Yugoslavia * Dissolution of Czechoslovakia * Dissolution of Russia * German reunification * Yemeni reunification * History of the Soviet Union (1982–91) * History of Russia (1991–present) * Predictions of Soviet collapse * Post-Soviet studies * American decline * ''The Commanding Heights'' (book) * Superpower collapse


Notes


References


Further reading

* Aron, Leon (2000). ''Boris Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life''. HarperCollins. . * * * * Archie Brown (historian), Brown, Archie. ''The Gorbachev Factor''. Oxford University Press (1997). . * * Crawshaw, Steve (1992). ''Goodbye to the USSR: The Collapse of Soviet Power''. Bloomsbury. * * Dawisha, Karen & Parrott, Bruce (editors) (1997). ''Conflict, cleavage, and change in Central Asia and the Caucasus''. Cambridge University Press. . * Thomas de Waal, de Waal, Thomas. ''Black Garden''. NYU (2003). * Efremenko, Dmitry (2019). ''Perestroika and the 'Dashing Nineties': At the Crossroads of History'' //
''Russian Geostrategic Imperatives: Collection of essays''
/ Russian Academy of Sciences. Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences. Moscow. pp. 112–126. * Mikhail Gorbachev, Gorbachev, Mikhail (1995). ''Memoirs''. Doubleday. . * Gvosdev, Nikolas K., ed. (2008). ''The Strange Death of Soviet Communism: A Post-Script''. Transaction Publishers. * Kotkin, Stephen (2008). ''Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000'' (2nd ed.
excerpt
* Kotz, David, and Fred Weir (2006). "The Collapse of the Soviet Union was a Revolution from Above". In ''The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union'', edited by Laurie Stoff, 155–164. Thomson Gale. * * * * Conor O'Clery, O'Clery, Conor (2011). ''Moscow 25 December 1991: The Last Day of the Soviet Union''. Transworld Ireland. * Serhii Plokhii, Plokhy, Serhii (2014). ''The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union''. Oneworld. . * * Strayer, Robert (1998). ''Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse? Understanding Historical Change''. M. E. Sharpe. . * Suny, Ronald (1993). ''Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union''. Stanford University Press. . * Walker, Edward W. (2003). ''Dissolution: Sovereignty and the Breakup of the Soviet Union''. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. .


External links


Photographs of the fall of the USSR by photojournalist Alain-Pierre Hovasse, a first-hand witness of these events.

Guide to the James Hershberg poster collection
, Special Collections Research Center, The Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University. This collection contains posters documenting the changing social and political culture in the former Soviet Union and Europe (particularly Eastern Europe) during the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the breakup of the Soviet Union. A significant portion of the posters in this collection were used in a 1999 exhibit at Gelman Library titled "Goodbye Comrade: An Exhibition of Images from the Revolution of '89 and the Collapse of Communism".
Lowering of the Soviet flag on December 25, 1991

23 августа - 24 ноября 1991. Последний этап борьбы за обновленный Союз. "Разбегание" республик и раздел имущества СССР

1 - 25 декабря 1991. Развал СССР. Беловежские соглашения и отставка Президента СССР

U.S. Response to the End of the USSR
from th
Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives
*
«С ядерной кнопкой все будет в порядке». Кто поставил жирную точку в истории СССР
{{Authority control Dissolution of the Soviet Union, History of the Soviet Union by period 1980s in the Soviet Union 1991 in the Soviet Union 1991 in politics 1991 in Russia 1991 in international relations Dissolutions of countries, Soviet Union December 1991 events in Europe Aftermath of the Revolutions of 1989 December 1991 events in Russia