View source for Dissolution of the Soviet Union

{{Short description|none}}
{{Broader|History of the Soviet Union (1982&ndash;1991)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox event
| title = Dissolution of the Soviet Union{{Efn|{{lang-rus|Распад Советского Союза|r=Raspád Sovétskogo Soyúza}}, also negatively connoted as {{lang-rus|Развал Советского Союза|r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza}}, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''.}}
| Image_Name = Lowering the Soviet Flag.png
| Imagesize = 300px
| Image_Alt = The Soviet flag being lowered from the Moscow Kremlin and replaced with the flag of Russia
| caption = The [[flag of the Soviet Union]] being lowered from the [[Moscow Kremlin]] for the last time and replaced with the [[flag of Russia]] on 25 December 1991, moments after [[President of the Soviet Union|President]] [[Mikhail Gorbachev|Gorbachev]] announced his resignation, recognizing the [[Belovezha Accords]] and the [[Alma-Ata Protocol]]
| participants = {{bulleted list|[[Demographics of the Soviet Union#Ethnic groups|Nations]] of the Soviet Union|[[Government of the Soviet Union|Soviet government]]|Governments of the [[republics of the Soviet Union|republics]]|Governments of the [[Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics|autonomous republics]]|[[Nationalism|Nationalist]] and [[liberalism|liberal]] opposition}}
| date = {{nowrap|{{start and end dates|1988|11|16|1991|12|26|df=y}}}}<br />(3 years, 1 month, and 10 days)
| location = {{Collapsible list
|title=Soviet Union
|bullets=on
|'''[[Post-Soviet states|Former]] [[Republics of the Soviet Union|Soviet republics]]''':<br/>[[Armenia]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Belarus]],{{ref label|a|a}} [[Estonia]], [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], [[Kazakhstan]], [[Kyrgyzstan]],{{ref label|b|b}} [[Latvia]], [[Lithuania]], [[Moldova]],{{ref label|c|c}} [[Russia]], [[Tajikistan]], [[Turkmenistan]],{{ref label|d|d}} [[Ukraine]], [[Uzbekistan]]
|'''[[Post-Soviet states#Separatist conflicts|Self-proclaimed breakaway states]]''':<br/>[[Abkhazia]] (since 1992), [[Republic of Artsakh|Artsakh]] (1991–2023), [[Chechen Republic of Ichkeria|Chechnya]] (1991–2000), [[Republic of Crimea (Russia)|Crimea]] (1992; 2014), [[Gagauz Republic|Gagauzia]] (1990–95), [[Karakalpakstan]] (1992–93), [[Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic|Nakhchivan]] (1990–93), [[South Ossetia]] (since 1992), [[Tatarstan#Present-day|Tatarstan]] (1992–94), [[Transnistria]] (since 1990)
  }}
| result = {{bulleted list|[[Dissolution (politics)|Dissolution]] of the Soviet Union into [[post-Soviet states|15 independent states]]||Establishment of the [[Commonwealth of Independent States]] between eleven independent states|[[Post-Soviet states#Separatist conflicts|Several separatist movements]] in the former [[Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics|autonomies]] prove successful, with most either failing to combat the militaries of their respective republics or agreeing to rejoin them peacefully|Numerous [[Post-Soviet conflicts|military conflicts]] and ethnic clashes unfold during and after the dissolution, provoking humanitarian crises and leaving many [[internally displaced person|internally displaced]]|Republics declare [[multi-party system|multi-party]] [[Presidential republic|presidential]] or [[semi-presidential republic|semi-presidential]] systems|Republics move to adopt [[capitalism|capitalist]] [[market economy]]|[[Soviet ruble|Ruble]] zone active in most of the new states between 1991 and 1994, with national currencies adopted later|Unified [[Soviet Armed Forces]] divided {{Circa|1992}}–1993|[[Black Sea Fleet dispute]] between Russia and Ukraine from 1992 to 1997 and its [[Partition Treaty on the Status and Conditions of the Black Sea Fleet|partition]] in 1997.|Lease of [[Sevastopol Naval Base]] to [[Russia]], [[Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation|terminated in 2014]]|Issues with value loss of savings of former Soviet citizens|Issues with social and medical support for veterans of the [[Soviet–Afghan War]]|Relocation of the [[Soviet Armed Forces]] from [[East Germany]] and the rest of [[Central Europe]]|End of the [[Cold War]] with [[Western Bloc]] victory|End of [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]] rule|Decline of [[Communism|communist]] and left-wing movements around the world|[[China]] becomes the last major [[Communist state|Marxist–Leninist state]] in the world following [[Chinese economic reform|economic reforms]]|The [[United States]] becomes the world's sole [[superpower]] 

 }}
| partof = the [[Cold War (1985–1991)|Cold War]] and the [[Revolutions of 1989]]
| notes = <div style="text-align: left">{{nowrap|{{note|a}} Then romanized as ''Byelorussia'' ({{langx|ru|Белоруссия}}).}}<br/>{{note|b}} Then romanized as ''Kirghizia'' ({{langx|ru|Киргизия}}).<br/>{{note|c}} Then romanized as ''Moldavia'' ({{langx|ru|Молдавия}}).<br/>{{note|d}} Then romanized as ''Turkmenia'' ({{langx|ru|Туркмения}}).</div>
}}
{{History of Russia}}
{{History of the Soviet Union}}
{{Eastern Bloc sidebar|expanded=Decline}}

The [[Soviet Union|Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]] (USSR) was formally dissolved as a [[sovereign state]] and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration № 142-Н of the [[Soviet of Nationalities|Soviet of the Republics]] of the [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union]].<ref name="ReferenceC">{{in lang|ru}} [[:s:ru:Декларация Совета Республик ВС СССР от 26 December 1991 № 142-Н|Declaration № 142-Н]] of the [[Soviet of Nationalities|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.</ref> It also brought an end to the Soviet Union's federal government and [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|General Secretary]] (also [[President of the Soviet Union|President]]) [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]'s effort to [[Perestroika|reform the Soviet political and economic system]] in an attempt to stop a [[Era of Stagnation|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 15 top-level republics that served as the homelands for different ethnicities. By late 1991, amid a catastrophic political crisis, with several republics already departing the Union and Gorbachev continuing the waning of centralized power, the leaders of [[Treaty of Creation of the Soviet Union|three of its founding members]], the Russian, Belorussian, and Ukrainian SSRs, declared that the [[Belovezh Accords|Soviet Union no longer existed]]. Eight more republics [[Alma-Ata Protocol|joined their declaration]] shortly thereafter. Gorbachev resigned on 25 December 1991 and what was left of the [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union|Soviet parliament]] voted to dissolve the union.

The process began with growing unrest in the country's various constituent national republics developing into an [[Parade of sovereignties|incessant political and legislative conflict]] between them and the central government. [[Estonia SSR|Estonia]] was the first Soviet republic to [[Estonian Sovereignty Declaration|declare state sovereignty]] inside the Union on 16 November 1988. [[Lithuanian SSR|Lithuania]] was the first republic to declare full independence restored from the Soviet Union by the [[Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania|Act of 11 March 1990]] with its [[Baltic states|Baltic]] neighbors and the [[Southern Caucasus]] republic of [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] joining it over the next two months.

During the failed [[1991 August Coup|1991 August coup]], communist hardliners and military elites attempted to overthrow Gorbachev and stop the failing reforms. However, the turmoil led to the central government in Moscow losing influence, ultimately resulting in many republics proclaiming independence in the following days and months. The secession of the Baltic states was recognized in September 1991. The [[Belovezh Accords|Belovezha Accords]] were signed on 8 December by [[President of Russia|President]] [[Boris Yeltsin]] of [[Russia]], [[President of Ukraine|President]] [[Leonid Kravchuk|Kravchuk]] of [[Ukraine]], and [[Supreme Council of Belarus|Chairman]] [[Stanislav Shushkevich|Shushkevich]] of [[Belarus]], recognizing each other's independence and creating the [[Commonwealth of Independent States]] (CIS) to replace the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite news|access-date=30 March 2013|date=22 December 1991|title=The End of the Soviet Union; Text of Declaration: 'Mutual Recognition' and 'an Equal Basis'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/22/world/end-soviet-union-text-declaration-mutual-recognition-equal-basis.html|work=The New York Times|archive-date=22 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130322072459/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/22/world/end-soviet-union-text-declaration-mutual-recognition-equal-basis.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Kazakhstan]] 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]]. Russia, as by far the largest and most populous republic, became the USSR's de facto [[Succession of states#Soviet Union|successor state]]. On 25 December, Gorbachev resigned and turned over his presidential powers—including control of the [[Cheget|nuclear launch codes]]—to Yeltsin, who was now the first president of the [[Russia|Russian Federation]]. That evening, the [[Flag of the Soviet Union|Soviet flag]] was lowered from the [[Moscow Kremlin|Kremlin]] for the last time and replaced with the [[Flag of Russia|Russian tricolor flag]]. The following day, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union's upper chamber, the Soviet of the Republics, [[Dissolution (politics)|formally dissolved]] the Union.<ref name="ReferenceC" /> The events of the dissolution resulted in its 15 constituent republics gaining full [[independence]] which also marked the major conclusion of the [[Revolutions of 1989]] and the end of the [[Cold War]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-12-23/30-years-later-soviet-union-s-collapse-still-has-lessons-for-china |title=For China, USSR's 1991 Collapse is Still News It Can Use |newspaper=Bloomberg.com |date=23 December 2021 |access-date=4 January 2023 |archive-date=7 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230107200259/https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-12-23/30-years-later-soviet-union-s-collapse-still-has-lessons-for-china |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the [[Post–Cold War era|aftermath of the Cold War]], several of the [[Post-Soviet states|former Soviet republics]] have retained close links with Russia and formed [[Multilateralism|multilateral]] organizations such as the CIS, the [[Collective Security Treaty Organization]] (CSTO), the [[Eurasian Economic Union]] (EAEU), and the [[Union State]], for economic and military cooperation. On the other hand, the Baltic states and all of the other former [[Warsaw Pact]] states became part of the [[European Union]] (EU) and joined [[NATO]], while some of the other former Soviet republics like Ukraine, Georgia and [[Moldova]] have been publicly expressing interest in following the same path since the 1990s, despite Russian attempts to persuade them otherwise.

== Background ==
[[File:Life expectancy in USSR vs leader.png|thumb|Change of [[life expectancy]] in the largest republics of USSR before its dissolution]]

=== 1985: Gorbachev elected ===
{{see also|Glasnost|Perestroika}}
[[File:RIAN archive 850809 General Secretary of the CPSU CC M. Gorbachev (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Mikhail Gorbachev]] in 1987]]
[[Mikhail Gorbachev]] was elected [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|General Secretary]] by the [[Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo]] on 11 March 1985, just over four hours after his predecessor [[Konstantin Chernenko]] died at the age of 73.<ref>{{cite news  |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/12/world/chernenko-dead-moscow-73-gorbachev-succeeds-him-urges-arms-control-economic.html  |title=Chernenko is Dead in Moscow at 73; Gorbachev Succeeds Him and Urges Arms Control and Economic Vigor  |work=The New York Times  |date=12 March 1985  |access-date=5 October 2020  |archive-date=8 October 2020  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201008023935/https://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/12/world/chernenko-dead-moscow-73-gorbachev-succeeds-him-urges-arms-control-economic.html  |url-status=live  }}</ref> Gorbachev, aged 54, was the youngest member of the Politburo. His initial goal as general secretary was to revive the stagnating [[Soviet economy]], and he realized that doing so would require reforming underlying political and social structures.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.archontology.org/nations/ussr/ussr_state/gorbachev.php|title=Михаил Сергеевич Горбачёв (Mikhail Sergeyevičh Gorbačhëv)|access-date=3 April 2009|date=27 March 2009|publisher=Archontology|archive-date=11 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191111111753/http://www.archontology.org/nations/ussr/ussr_state/gorbachev.php|url-status=live}}</ref> The reforms began with personnel changes of senior [[Era of Stagnation|Brezhnev-era]] officials who would impede political and economic change.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Carrere D'Encausse |first1=Helene|title=The End of the Soviet Empire: The Triumph of the Nations|url=https://archive.org/details/endofsovietemp00carr |url-access=registration |date=1993|publisher=BasicBooks |location=New York, NY|isbn=978-0-465-09812-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/endofsovietemp00carr/page/16 16]|edition=English |translator-first= Franklin|translator-last= Philip}}</ref> On 23 April 1985, Gorbachev brought two protégés, [[Yegor Ligachev]] and [[Nikolai Ryzhkov]], into the Politburo as full members. He kept the "power" ministries favorable by promoting KGB Chief [[Viktor Chebrikov]] from candidate to full member and appointing Minister of Defence Marshal [[Sergei Sokolov (Marshal)|Sergei Sokolov]] as a Politburo candidate.
The freedom of speech brought by Gorbachev's reforms allowed [[nationalist]] movements and ethnic disputes within the Soviet Union to be expressed and grow into dominant political movements.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Beissinger |first=Mark R. |date=August 2009 |title=Nationalism and the Collapse of Soviet Communism |url=https://www.princeton.edu/~mbeissin/beissinger.ceh.article.pdf |journal=Contemporary European History |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=5–6|doi=10.1017/S0960777309005074 |access-date=9 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170928150043/http://www.princeton.edu/~mbeissin/beissinger.ceh.article.pdf |archive-date=28 September 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> It also led indirectly to the [[revolutions of 1989]] in which Soviet-imposed socialist regimes of the [[Warsaw Pact]] were toppled peacefully ([[Romanian Revolution|with the notable exception of Romania]]),<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7972755.stm |title=Gorbachev's role in 1989 turmoil |work=BBC News |date=1 April 2009 |access-date=30 March 2013 |archive-date=9 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090409121205/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7972755.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> 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]] (CPSU) in 1989 introduced limited competitive elections to a new central legislature, the [[Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union|Congress of People's Deputies]]<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/30/world/the-gorbachev-plan-restructuring-soviet-power.html |title=The Gorbachev Plan: Restructuring Soviet Power |work=The New York Times |date=30 June 1988 |access-date=30 March 2013 |archive-date=16 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516202450/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/30/world/the-gorbachev-plan-restructuring-soviet-power.html |url-status=live }}</ref> (although the ban on other political parties was not lifted until 1990).<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/08/opinion/the-third-russian-revolution-transforming-the-communist-party.html |title=The Third Russian Revolution; Transforming the Communist Party |work=The New York Times |date=8 February 1990 |access-date=30 March 2013 |archive-date=16 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516201709/http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/08/opinion/the-third-russian-revolution-transforming-the-communist-party.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

On 1 July 1985, Gorbachev sidelined his main rival by removing [[Grigory Romanov]] from the Politburo and brought [[Boris Yeltsin]] into the [[Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee Secretariat]]. On 23 December 1985, Gorbachev appointed Yeltsin [[First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party]], replacing [[Viktor Grishin]].

=== 1986: Sakharov returns ===
Gorbachev continued to press for greater [[liberalization]]. On 23 December 1986 [[Andrei Sakharov]], the most prominent [[Soviet dissidents|Soviet dissident]], returned to Moscow shortly after receiving a personal telephone call from Gorbachev telling him that after almost seven years his internal [[exile]] for defying the authorities was over.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/23/newsid_2540000/2540121.stm |title=1986: Sakharov comes in from the cold |work=BBC News |date=23 December 1972 |access-date=30 March 2013 |archive-date=26 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101226190108/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/23/newsid_2540000/2540121.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== 1987: One-party democracy ===
At the 28–30 January Central Committee [[Plenary session|plenum]], Gorbachev suggested a new policy of [[Demokratizatsiya (Soviet Union)|''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]]'' and stated that no subject was off limits for open discussion in the media. On 7 February, dozens of political prisoners were freed in the first group release since the [[Khrushchev Thaw]] in the mid-1950s.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/08/world/soviet-releasing-some-prisoners-under-new-law.html |title=Soviet Releasing Some Prisoners Under New Law |work=The New York Times |date=8 February 1987 |access-date=30 March 2013 |archive-date=16 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516192758/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/08/world/soviet-releasing-some-prisoners-under-new-law.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

On 10 September, [[Boris Yeltsin]] wrote a letter of resignation to Gorbachev.<ref>O'Clery, Conor. ''Moscow 25 December 1991: The Last Day of the Soviet Union''. Transworld Ireland (2011). {{ISBN|978-1-84827-112-8}}, p. 71.</ref> At the 27 October 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.<ref name="O'Clery, Conor 2011">Conor O'Clery, ''Moscow 25 December 1991: The Last Day of the Soviet Union''. Transworld Ireland (2011). {{ISBN|978-1-84827-112-8}}, p. 74</ref> 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]]'' 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.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/01/world/critic-of-gorbachev-offers-to-resign-his-moscow-party-post.html | work=The New York Times | first=Bill | last=Keller | title=Critic of Gorbachev Offers to Resign His Moscow Party Post | date=1 November 1987 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=27 January 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110127091545/https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/01/world/critic-of-gorbachev-offers-to-resign-his-moscow-party-post.html | url-status=live }}</ref> On 11 November, Yeltsin was fired from the post of [[First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party]].

=== Protest activity ===
[[File:Metsamor nuclear power plant, cooling towers (Armenia, June 2015).jpg|thumb|Environmental concerns over the [[Armenian Nuclear Power Plant|Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant]] drove initial demonstrations in [[Yerevan]].]]

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 ({{langx|lv|Cilvēktiesību aizstāvības grupa|lit=Human Rights Defense Group|label=}}) [[Helsinki-86]] was founded in July 1986 in the [[Latvia]]n port town of [[Liepāja]]. Helsinki-86 was the first openly [[Anti-communism|anti-Communist]] organization in the U.S.S.R., and the first openly organized opposition to the Soviet regime, setting an example for other ethnic minorities' pro-independence movements.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Road to Freedom|url=http://www.lvarhivs.gov.lv/Praga68/index.php?id=1050|website=The Virtual Exhibition|publisher=Latvia National Archives|access-date=27 August 2019|archive-date=12 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312075248/http://www.lvarhivs.gov.lv/Praga68/index.php?id=1050|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 26 December 1986, 300 Latvian youths gathered in Riga's Cathedral Square and marched down Lenin Avenue toward the [[Freedom Monument]], shouting, "Soviet Russia out! Free Latvia!" Security forces confronted the marchers, and several police vehicles were overturned.<ref name="ethnopolitics1" />

The ''[[Jeltoqsan]]'' ('December') of 1986 were riots in [[Almaty|Alma-Ata]], [[Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic|Kazakhstan]], sparked by Gorbachev's dismissal of [[Dinmukhamed Kunaev]], the First Secretary of the [[Communist Party of Kazakhstan]] and an [[Kazakhs|ethnic Kazakh]], who was replaced with [[Gennady Kolbin]], an outsider from the [[Russian SFSR]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kuzio |first=Taras |title=Nationalist riots in Kazakhstan |date=1988 |journal=[[Central Asian Survey]] |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=79–100 |doi=10.1080/02634938808400648 |quote=Violent nationalist riots erupted in Alma-Ata, the capital of Kazakhstan, on 17 & 18 December 1986 <!-- |access-date=31 March 2022 -->}}</ref> Demonstrations started in the morning of 17 December 1986, with 200 to 300 students in front of the Central Committee building on [[Brezhnev Square]]. 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]], 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.<ref>{{cite news|last=Barringer|first=Felicity|date=24 May 1987|title=Russian Nationalists Test Gorbachev|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/24/world/russian-nationalists-test-gorbachev.html|access-date=23 June 2011|archive-date=2 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120602010609/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/24/world/russian-nationalists-test-gorbachev.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 25 July 1987, 300 [[Crimean Tatars]] staged a noisy demonstration near the [[Moscow Kremlin Wall|Kremlin Wall]] for several hours, calling for the right to return to their homeland, from which they were [[Deportation of the Crimean Tatars|deported]] in 1944; police and soldiers looked on.<ref>{{cite news|last=Barringer|first=Felicity|date=26 July 1987|title=Tartars Stage Noisy Protest in Moscow|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/26/world/tartars-stage-noisy-protest-in-moscow.html|access-date=23 June 2011|archive-date=7 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130607102308/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/26/world/tartars-stage-noisy-protest-in-moscow.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 23 August 1987, the 48th anniversary of the secret protocols of the 1939 [[Molotov Pact]], 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.<ref>{{cite news|last=Keller|first=Bill|date=24 August 1987|title=Lithuanians Rally For Stalin Victims|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/24/world/lithuanians-rally-for-stalin-victims.html|access-date=23 June 2011|archive-date=16 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150116173504/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/24/world/lithuanians-rally-for-stalin-victims.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 14 June 1987, about 5,000 people gathered again at Freedom Monument in [[Riga]], and laid flowers to commemorate the anniversary of [[Stalin]]'s [[Population transfer in the Soviet Union|mass 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.<ref>{{cite news|date=19 November 1987|title=Latvian Protest Reported Curbed|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/19/world/latvian-protest-reported-curbed.html|access-date=30 March 2013|archive-date=16 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516193541/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/19/world/latvian-protest-reported-curbed.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 17 October 1987, about 3,000 Armenians demonstrated in [[Yerevan]] complaining about the condition of [[Lake Sevan]], the Nairit chemicals plant, and the [[Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant]], and air pollution in Yerevan. Police tried to prevent the protest but took no action to stop it once the march was underway.<ref name="afm1987">{{cite web|url=http://www.armeniaforeignministry.com/fr/nk/nk_file/article/49.html |title=Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Republic of Armenia Official Site |publisher=Armeniaforeignministry.com |date=18 October 1987 |access-date=23 June 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070914104126/http://www.armeniaforeignministry.com/fr/nk/nk_file/article/49.html |archive-date=14 September 2007  }}</ref> The following day 1,000 Armenians participated in another demonstration calling for Armenian national rights in [[Karabakh]] and the proposed unification of both [[Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic|Nakhchivan]] and [[Nagorno-Karabakh]] to Armenia. The police tried to physically prevent the march and after a few incidents, dispersed the demonstrators.<ref name="afm1987" />

== Timeline ==
{{see also|Belovezha Accords#Aftermath}}

=== 1988 ===

==== Moscow loses control ====
{{main|Parade of sovereignties}}
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 of the Soviet Union|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 Party opponents. Detailed proposals for the new Congress of People's Deputies were published on 2 October 1988,<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/02/world/government-in-the-soviet-union-gorbachev-s-proposal-for-change.html | work=The New York Times | title=Government in the Soviet Union: Gorbachev's Proposal for Change | date=2 October 1988 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=8 March 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308233652/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/02/world/government-in-the-soviet-union-gorbachev-s-proposal-for-change.html | url-status=live }}</ref> 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]], enacted a law on electoral reform, and set the date of the election for 26 March 1989.<ref name="ipu.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.ipu.org/english/parline/reports/arc/2263%5F89.htm |title=Union of Soviet SOSocialist Republics: Parliamentary elections Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, 1989 |publisher=Ipu.org |access-date=11 December 2011 |archive-date=5 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005230636/http://www.ipu.org/english/parline/reports/arc/2263%5F89.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

On 29 November 1988, the Soviet Union ceased [[Radio jamming#Cold War era|jamming]] 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.antentop.org/008/files/jamm008.pdf|title=Radio Jamming in the Soviet Union, Poland and others - East European Countries|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518084207/http://www.antentop.org/008/files/jamm008.pdf|archive-date=18 May 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== 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]] was founded in April 1988. On 16 June 1988, Gorbachev replaced [[Karl Vaino]], the "old guard" leader of the [[Communist Party of Estonia]], with the comparatively liberal [[Vaino Väljas]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GDoQAAAAIBAJ&pg=3060,6601998&dq=vaino+v%C3%A4ljas&hl=en|title=Estonia Gets Hope|date=23 October 1989|work=Ellensburg Daily Record|publisher=[[United Press International|UPI]]|page=9|access-date=18 March 2010|location=Helsinki, Finland}}{{dead link|date=June 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> 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.<ref name="ethnopolitics1">{{cite journal |last=Ulfelder |first=Jay |title=Baltic Protest in the Gorbachev Era: Movement Content and Dynamics |url=http://www.ethnopolitics.org/ethnopolitics/archive/volume_III/issue_3-4/ulfelder.pdf |date=March–June 2004 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110920084102/http://www.ethnopolitics.org/ethnopolitics/archive/volume_III/issue_3-4/ulfelder.pdf |archive-date=20 September 2011 |journal=[[Ethnopolitics|The Global Review of Ethnopolitics]] |volume=3 |number=3–4 |pages=23–43 |doi=10.1080/14718800408405171 |s2cid=143191904 |access-date=31 March 2022}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/04/world/estonia-ferment-soviet-role-model-or-exception.html | work=The New York Times | first=Bill | last=Keller | author-link1=Bill Keller | title=Estonia Ferment: Soviet Role Model or Exception? | date=4 October 1988 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=19 August 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210819003105/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/04/world/estonia-ferment-soviet-role-model-or-exception.html | url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref>Website of Estonian Embassy in London (National Holidays)</ref> 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.<ref>Walker, Edward (2003). ''Dissolution''. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 63. {{ISBN|0-7425-2453-1}}.</ref> At the same time the [[Estonian Citizens' Committees]] started registration of citizens of the [[Estonia|Republic of Estonia]] to carry out the elections of the [[Congress of Estonia]].

[[File:Mitingas Vingio parke Vilniuje 1988 m. (2).jpg|thumb|right|[[Anti-Sovietism|Anti-Soviet]] rally of about 250,000 in [[Lithuania]], whose [[Sąjūdis]] movement helped restore independence]]

The [[Latvian Popular Front]] was founded in June 1988. On 4 October, Gorbachev replaced [[Boris Pugo]], the "old guard" leader of the [[Communist Party of 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 language|Latvian]] the country's official language.<ref name="ethnopolitics1"/>

The Popular Front of Lithuania, called [[Sąjūdis]] ("Movement"), was founded in May 1988. On 19 October 1988, Gorbachev replaced [[Ringaudas Songaila]], the "old guard" leader of the [[Communist Party of Lithuania]] - who had been in office for nearly a year - with the relatively liberal [[Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas]]. In October 1988, Brazauskas bowed to pressure from Sąjūdis members, and legalized the flying of the historic yellow-green-red flag of independent Lithuania, and in November 1988 he passed a law making [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] the country's official language; also, the former national anthem, "[[Tautiška giesmė]]", was later reinstated.<ref name="ethnopolitics1" /> Following a violent protest action in the capital on 28 October, many of Songalia's remaining holdovers within the CPL either resigned or retired in protest of the police brutality of that day.

==== Rebellion in the Caucasus ====
On 20 February 1988, after a week of growing demonstrations in [[Stepanakert]], capital of the [[Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast]] (the ethnically Armenian-majority area within the [[Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic]]), the Regional Soviet voted to secede and join with the [[Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic|Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia]].<ref>Pages 10–12 ''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. [[NYU]]. {{ISBN|0-8147-1945-7}}</ref> 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]]", 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 (or injuring?) 50.<ref>Elizabeth Fuller, "Nagorno-Karabakh: The Death and Casualty Toll to Date", RL 531/88, 14 December 1988, pp. 1–2.</ref><ref>Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War – Page 63 by Stuart J. Kaufman</ref> 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]] (Azerbaijan) saw violent anti-Armenian rioting during which at least 32 people were killed.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Vaserman|first1=Arie|last2=Ginat|first2=Ram|title=National, territorial or religious conflict? The case of Nagorno-Karabakh|journal=Studies in Conflict & Terrorism|date=1994|volume=17|issue=4|page=348|doi=10.1080/10576109408435961|quote=These events contributed to the anti-Armenian riots of February 28–29 in Sumgait near Baku. According to official data, 32 Armenians were killed during the riots, but various Armenian sources claimed that more than 200 people were killed.}}</ref> The authorities totally lost control and occupied the city with paratroopers and tanks; nearly all of the 14,000 Armenian residents of Sumgait fled.<ref>''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. {{ISBN|0-8147-1945-7}}, p. 40</ref>

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 in response – on 21 May 1988, [[Kamran Baghirov]] was replaced by [[Abdulrahman Vezirov]] as First Secretary of the [[Azerbaijan Communist Party]]. From 23 July to September 1988, a group of Azerbaijani intellectuals began working for a new organization called the [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Popular Front of Azerbaijan]], loosely based on the [[Estonian Popular Front]].<ref>Page 82 ''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. {{ISBN|0-8147-1945-7}}</ref> On 17 September, when gun battles broke out between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis near [[Stepanakert]], two soldiers were killed and more than two dozen injured.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/20/world/gunfire-erupts-in-tense-soviet-area.html |title=Gunfire Erupts in Tense Soviet Area |work=The New York Times |date=20 September 1988 |access-date=23 June 2011 |first=Bill |last=Keller |archive-date=9 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309014126/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/20/world/gunfire-erupts-in-tense-soviet-area.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This led to almost tit-for-tat ethnic polarization in Nagorno-Karabakh's two main towns: the Azerbaijani minority was expelled from [[Stepanakert]], and the Armenian minority was expelled from [[Shushi|Shusha]].<ref>Page 69 ''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. {{ISBN|0-8147-1945-7}}</ref> 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]]'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.<ref>Page 83 ''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. {{ISBN|0-8147-1945-7}}</ref>

The rebellion of fellow Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh had an immediate effect in Armenia itself. Daily demonstrations, which began in the Armenian capital [[Yerevan]] 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 [[Freedom Square, Yerevan|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.<ref>''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. {{ISBN|0-8147-1945-7}}, p. 23</ref> 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]], formed the eleven-member [[Karabakh Committee]] to lead and organize the new movement.

On the same day, when Gorbachev replaced Baghirov with Vezirov as First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party, he also replaced [[Karen Demirchian]] with Suren Harutyunyan as First Secretary of the [[Communist Party of Armenia (Soviet Union)|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 [[Flag of Armenia|First Armenian Republic flag]] for the first time in almost 70 years to mark the 1918 declaration of the First Republic.<ref>Pages 60–61 ''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. {{ISBN|0-8147-1945-7}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/16/world/armenian-legislature-bakcs-calls-for-annexing-disputed-territory.html |title=Armenian Legislature {{sic|nolink=y|Bakcs}} Calls For Annexing Disputed Territory |work=The New York Times |date=16 June 1988 |access-date=23 June 2011 |first=Bill |last=Keller |archive-date=15 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815134529/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/16/world/armenian-legislature-bakcs-calls-for-annexing-disputed-territory.html |url-status=live }}</ref> 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]], shots were fired and one student protester was killed.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/11/world/anger-alters-the-chemistry-of-armenian-protest.html |title=Anger Alters the Chemistry of Armenian Protest |work=The New York Times |date=11 July 1988 |access-date=23 June 2011 |first=Felicity |last=Barringer |archive-date=6 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606174149/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/11/world/anger-alters-the-chemistry-of-armenian-protest.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In September, further large demonstrations in Yerevan led to the deployment of armored vehicles.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/23/world/parts-of-armenia-are-blocked-off-by-soviet-troops.html |title=Parts Of Armenia Are Blocked Off By Soviet Troops |work=The New York Times |date=23 September 1988 |access-date=23 June 2011 |first=Bill |last=Keller |archive-date=7 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130607143440/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/23/world/parts-of-armenia-are-blocked-off-by-soviet-troops.html |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref>Pages 62–63 ''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. {{ISBN|0-8147-1945-7}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/26/world/soviet-army-puts-armenian-capital-under-its-control.html |title=Soviet Army Puts Armenian Capital Under Its Control |work=The New York Times |date=26 November 1988 |access-date=23 June 2011 |first=Philip |last=Taubman |archive-date=6 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606200840/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/26/world/soviet-army-puts-armenian-capital-under-its-control.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

On 7 December 1988, the [[Spitak earthquake]] 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 that the entire [[Karabakh Committee]] be arrested.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/12/world/amid-the-rubble-armenians-express-rage-at-gorbachev.html |title=Amid the Rubble, Armenians Express Rage at Gorbachev |work=The New York Times |date=12 December 1988 |access-date=23 June 2011 |first=Felicity |last=Barringer |archive-date=25 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141225223900/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/12/world/amid-the-rubble-armenians-express-rage-at-gorbachev.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In [[Tbilisi]], the capital of [[Soviet Georgia]], 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.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/29/world/tension-called-high-in-armenia-capital-with-1400-arrests.html |title=Tension Called High In Armenia Capital, With 1,400 Arrests |work=The New York Times |date=29 November 1988 |access-date=23 June 2011 |first=Felicity |last=Barringer |archive-date=7 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130607145945/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/29/world/tension-called-high-in-armenia-capital-with-1400-arrests.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Western republics ====
{{more citations needed|section|date=December 2017}}<!--Moldova section has no citations; Lviv section has 2 paragraphs without citations-->

Beginning in February 1988, the Democratic Movement of [[Moldova]] (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 Chișinău, and the adjacent park harboring ''Aleea Clasicilor'' (The "[[Alley of Classics, Chișinău|Alley of Classics]] [of Literature]"). On 15 January 1988, in a tribute to [[Mihai Eminescu]] at his bust on the Aleea Clasicilor, [[Anatol Șalaru]] 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]] 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]] 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, [[Catholic Church in Ukraine|Ukrainian Catholics]] in western Ukraine celebrated the Millennium of Christianity in [[Kyivan Rus]] in secret by holding services in the forests of Buniv, [[Kalush, Ukraine|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]], the grand prince of [[Kyivan Rus]].

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, Terebovlia Raion|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 [[Lviv University|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]] student club ''[[Hromada]]'', and the environmental groups ''Zelenyi Svit'' ("Green World") and ''Noosfera'', to focus on ecological issues. From 14 to 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]] at a rally organized by the Democratic Union. The unauthorized gathering resulted in the detention of local activists.<ref name="ukrweekly.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/2001/330121.shtml |title=Independence: a timeline (PART I) (08/19/01) |publisher=Ukrweekly.com |access-date=11 December 2011 |archive-date=21 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111121105454/http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/2001/330121.shtml |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The [[Belarusian Popular Front]] 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]] outside [[Minsk]] by historian [[Zianon Pazniak]], the Belarusian Popular Front's first leader, gave additional momentum to the pro-democracy and pro-independence movement in Belarus.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/18/world/graves-of-500-stalin-victims-are-reported-outside-minsk.html | work=The New York Times | title=Graves of 500 Stalin Victims Are Reported Outside Minsk | date=18 August 1988 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701212506/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/18/world/graves-of-500-stalin-victims-are-reported-outside-minsk.html | url-status=live }}</ref> It claimed that the [[NKVD]] performed secret killings in Kurapaty.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/28/world/stalin-s-victims-an-uneasy-enshrinement.html | work=The New York Times | first=Bill | last=Keller | title=Stalin's Victims: An Uneasy Enshrinement | date=28 December 1988 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701211537/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/28/world/stalin-s-victims-an-uneasy-enshrinement.html | url-status=live }}</ref> Initially the Front had significant visibility because its numerous public actions almost always ended in clashes with the police and the [[KGB]].

=== 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,{{disputed inline|date=June 2021}} 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]], which quickly led to the toppling of the Communist government in Warsaw that summer and 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]] 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 effect on how Soviets saw events in their country and made censorship almost impossible.<ref>Pages 188–189. Conor O'Clery. ''Moscow 25 December 1991: The Last Day of the Soviet Union''. Transworld Ireland (2011)</ref>
[[File:RIAN archive 25981 Academician Sakharov.jpg|thumb|left|[[Andrei Sakharov]], formerly exiled to [[Nizhny Novgorod|Gorky]], was elected to the [[Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union|Congress of People's Deputies]] in March 1989.]]
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,<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/15/world/this-time-many-candidates-for-soviet-voters.html | work=The New York Times | first=Francis X. | last=Clines | title=This Time, Many Candidates for Soviet Voters | date=15 May 1989 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701202050/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/15/world/this-time-many-candidates-for-soviet-voters.html | url-status=live }}</ref> in the 199 remaining constituencies where the required absolute majority was not attained.<ref name="ipu.org" /> While most CPSU-endorsed candidates were elected, more than 300 lost to independent candidates such as Yeltsin, the physicist [[Andrei Sakharov]] 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,<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/30/world/moscow-maverick-in-shift-is-seated-in-supreme-soviet.html | work=The New York Times | first=Bill | last=Keller | author-link1=Bill Keller | title=Moscow Maverick, in Shift, Is Seated in Supreme Soviet | date=30 May 1989 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701203449/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/30/world/moscow-maverick-in-shift-is-seated-in-supreme-soviet.html | url-status=live }}</ref> 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 country, 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.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/31/world/gorbachev-urges-a-postponement-of-local-voting.html | work=The New York Times | first=Bill | last=Keller | author-link1=Bill Keller | title=Gorbachev Urges a Postponement of Local Voting | date=31 May 1989 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701225651/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/31/world/gorbachev-urges-a-postponement-of-local-voting.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/25/world/soviet-legislature-votes-to-abolish-official-seats.html | work=The New York Times | first=Esther B. | last=Fein | title=Soviet Legislature Votes to Abolish Official Seats | date=25 October 1989 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701204252/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/25/world/soviet-legislature-votes-to-abolish-official-seats.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

{{main|Revolutions of 1989}}
[[File:EasternBloc BasicMembersOnly.svg|thumb|Map of the [[Eastern Bloc]]]]

The six [[Warsaw Pact]] countries of Eastern Europe, while nominally independent, were widely recognized as the [[Soviet satellite states]] (along with [[Mongolian People's Republic|Mongolia]]). 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]]". [[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. The Polish Solidarity Union, as established through the 1980 August Accords, presented Lech Wałęsa as their candidate, who became the first democratically elected president of Poland. The elections in Poland inspired other Eastern European Soviet Nations to pursue peaceful democratic transitions, 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; {{langx|et|Balti kett}}, {{langx|lv|Baltijas ceļš}}, {{langx|lt|Baltijos kelias}}, {{langx|ru|link=no|Балтийский путь}}) was a peaceful political demonstration on 23 August 1989.<ref>{{cite book |title=Central and East European Politics: From Communism to Democracy |first=Sharon L. |last=Wolchik |author2=Jane Leftwich Curry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ciKIBazTof8C&pg=PA238 |page=238 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7425-4068-2 |access-date=27 June 2015 |archive-date=24 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124205846/https://books.google.com/books?id=ciKIBazTof8C&pg=PA238 |url-status=live }}</ref> An estimated 2&nbsp;million people joined hands to form a [[Human chain (politics)|human chain]] extending {{convert|600|km}} across [[Estonia]], [[Latvia]] 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 of the Soviet Union|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.<ref>{{cite book| first=Alfred Erich |last=Senn | author-link=Alfred Erich Senn | title=Gorbachev's Failure in Lithuania | year=1995 |publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]] |isbn=0-312-12457-0|page = 78}}</ref>

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]]. 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.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/02/world/communists-in-baltics-shying-from-kremlin.html | work=The New York Times | first=Anne | last=Cooper | title=Communists in Baltics Shying From Kremlin | date=2 September 1989 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701203948/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/02/world/communists-in-baltics-shying-from-kremlin.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

On 7 December 1989, the [[Communist Party of Lithuania]], under the leadership of [[Algirdas Brazauskas]], split from the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] 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.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/08/world/upheaval-east-lithuania-legalizes-rival-parties-removing-communists-monopoly.html | work=The New York Times | first=Esther B. | last=Fein | title=Upheaval in the East; Lithuania Legalizes Rival Parties, Removing Communists' Monopoly | date=8 December 1989 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=12 March 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312213146/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/08/world/upheaval-east-lithuania-legalizes-rival-parties-removing-communists-monopoly.html | url-status=live }}</ref> 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 ====
[[File:April9victims.jpg|thumb|Photos of victims of the [[April 9 tragedy]] in [[Tbilisi]], [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]]]

On 16 July 1989, the [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Popular Front of Azerbaijan]] held its first congress and elected [[Abulfaz Elchibey]], who would become president, as its chairman.<ref>Page 86 ''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. {{ISBN|0-8147-1945-7}}</ref> On 19 August, 600,000 protesters jammed Baku's Lenin Square (now Azadliq Square) to demand the release of political prisoners.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/20/world/huge-azerbaijani-rally-asks-moscow-to-free-prisoners.html | work=The New York Times | title=Huge Azerbaijani Rally Asks Moscow to Free Prisoners | date=20 August 1989 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701201717/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/20/world/huge-azerbaijani-rally-asks-moscow-to-free-prisoners.html | url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref>''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. {{ISBN|0-8147-1945-7}}, p. 71</ref>

In a new and effective tactic, the Popular Front launched a rail blockade of Armenia,<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/26/world/a-gorbachev-deadline-on-armenia-issue.html | work=The New York Times | first=Bill | last=Keller | author-link1=Bill Keller | title=A Gorbachev Deadline on Armenia Issue | date=26 September 1989 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701231923/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/26/world/a-gorbachev-deadline-on-armenia-issue.html | url-status=live }}</ref> which caused petrol and food shortages because 85 percent of Armenia's freight came from Azerbaijan.<ref name="Black Garden' 2003">''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. {{ISBN|0-8147-1945-7}}, p. 87</ref> 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.<ref name="Black Garden' 2003" /> 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.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/27/world/11-armenians-leave-prison-find-celebrity.html | work=The New York Times | first=Esther B. | last=Fein | title=11 Armenians Leave Prison, Find Celebrity | date=27 August 1989 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701205301/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/27/world/11-armenians-leave-prison-find-celebrity.html | url-status=live }}</ref> Soon after his release, [[Levon Ter-Petrossian]], 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.<ref>Page 72 ''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. {{ISBN|0-8147-1945-7}}</ref>

On 7 April 1989, Soviet troops and armored personnel carriers were sent to [[Tbilisi]] after more than 100,000 people protested in front of Communist Party headquarters with banners calling for [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] to secede from the Soviet Union and for [[Abkhazia]] to be fully integrated into Georgia.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/08/world/soldiers-patrolling-soviet-georgia-amid-wave-of-nationalist-protests.html | work=The New York Times | title=Soldiers Patrolling Soviet Georgia Amid Wave of Nationalist Protests | date=8 April 1989 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701222408/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/08/world/soldiers-patrolling-soviet-georgia-amid-wave-of-nationalist-protests.html | url-status=live }}</ref> On [[April 9 tragedy|9 April 1989]], troops attacked the demonstrators; some 20 people were killed and more than 200 wounded.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/10/world/at-least-16-killed-as-protesters-battle-the-police-in-soviet-georgia.html | work=The New York Times | first=Esther B. | last=Fein | title=At Least 16 Killed as Protesters Battle the Police in Soviet Georgia | date=10 April 1989 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701221119/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/10/world/at-least-16-killed-as-protesters-battle-the-police-in-soviet-georgia.html | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/26/world/kremlin-calls-georgia-violence-a-local-operation.html |title=Kremlin Calls Georgia Violence a Local Operation |date=25 April 1989 |access-date=24 June 2014 |first=Esther |last=Fein |newspaper=The New York Times |archive-date=16 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150116173451/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/26/world/kremlin-calls-georgia-violence-a-local-operation.html |url-status=live }}</ref> 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]] 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.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/18/world/soviet-troops-struggle-to-curb-georgia-strife.html | work=The New York Times | title=Soviet Troops Struggle To Curb Georgia Strife | date=18 July 1989 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701202820/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/18/world/soviet-troops-struggle-to-curb-georgia-strife.html | url-status=live }}</ref> 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 ====
{{More citations needed section|date=January 2018}}

On 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.osaarchivum.org/files/holdings/300/8/3/text/70-2-130.shtml|title=Update on the Moldavian Elections to the USSR Congress of People's Deputies|date=24 May 1989|access-date=9 August 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226110546/http://www.osaarchivum.org/files/holdings/300/8/3/text/70-2-130.shtml|archive-date=26 February 2012}}</ref> 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, Chișinău 1989|Grand National Assembly]] ({{langx|ro|Marea Adunare Națională}}) was the Front's first major achievement. Such mass demonstrations, including one attended by 300,000 people on 27 August,<ref>Esther B. Fein, "Baltic Nationalists Voice Defiance But Say They Won't Be Provoked", in ''[[The New York Times]]'', 28 August 1989</ref> 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.<ref name="King, p.140">King, p.140</ref>

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]]. 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 Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union; [[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 for parliamentary seats: 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 preserve 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 police constables 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 in parliament. 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 to 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.&nbsp;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&nbsp;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]], 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.<ref name="ukrweekly.com" />

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.
[[File:Kurapaty 1989 meeting.jpg|thumb|Meeting in [[Kurapaty]], [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Belarus]], 1989]]
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]]) to build a monument to thousands of people shot by Stalin-era police in the Kuropaty Forest near [[Minsk]] in the 1930s.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/25/world/byelorussia-plans-to-build-memorial-to-stalin-s-victims.html | work=The New York Times | title=Belarus Plans to Build Memorial to Stalin's Victims | date=25 January 1989 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701203451/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/25/world/byelorussia-plans-to-build-memorial-to-stalin-s-victims.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/01/world/marchers-in-minsk-demand-further-chernobyl-cleanup.html | work=The New York Times | title=Marchers in Minsk Demand Further Chernobyl Cleanup | date=1 October 1989 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701203329/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/01/world/marchers-in-minsk-demand-further-chernobyl-cleanup.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Strike action of Kuzbass and Donbass miners ====
[[Strike action]] of miners in [[Kuznetsk basin|Kuzbass]] started in 1989; it was actively supported 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 in what would be called the [[Fergana massacre]]; about 100 people were killed.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/12/world/uzbekistan-riots-reported-quelled.html | work=The New York Times | title=Uzbekistan Riots Reported Quelled | date=12 June 1989 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701220427/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/12/world/uzbekistan-riots-reported-quelled.html | url-status=live }}</ref> As a consequence, most of the Meskhetian community fled away from Uzbekistan. Uzbek outrage over the events soon reached the capital and soon Moscow acted fast. On 23 June 1989, Gorbachev removed [[Rafiq Nishonov]] as First Secretary of the [[Communist Party of the Uzbek SSR]] for being unable to stop the race riots in the region and replaced him with [[Islam Karimov]], who went on to lead Uzbekistan as a Soviet Republic and subsequently as an independent state until his death in 2016. 

In [[Kazakhstan]] 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.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/20/world/soviets-report-an-armed-rampage-in-kazakhstan.html | work=The New York Times | first=Esther B. | last=Fein | title=Soviets Report an Armed Rampage in Kazakhstan | date=20 June 1989 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701230921/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/20/world/soviets-report-an-armed-rampage-in-kazakhstan.html | url-status=live }}</ref> 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 {{convert|90|mi|km|order=flip|abbr=off}} 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.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/26/world/rioting-youths-reportedly-attack-the-police-in-soviet-kazakhstan.html | work=The New York Times | first=Esther B. | last=Fein | title=Rioting Youths Reportedly Attack The Police in Soviet Kazakhstan | date=26 June 1989 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701230143/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/26/world/rioting-youths-reportedly-attack-the-police-in-soviet-kazakhstan.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

With the government and CPSU shocked by the riots, on 22 June 1989, as a result of the riots, Gorbachev removed [[Gennady Kolbin]] (the ethnic Russian whose appointment caused riots in December 1986) as First Secretary of the [[Communist Party of Kazakhstan]] 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 five 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviet-communist-party-gives-up-monopoly-on-political-power |title=Soviet Communist Party gives up monopoly on political power: This Day in History – 2/7/1990 |publisher=History.com |access-date=23 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180122002621/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviet-communist-party-gives-up-monopoly-on-political-power |archive-date=22 January 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1990, all fifteen constituent republics of the USSR held their first competitive elections, with reformers and [[ethnic nationalist]]s winning many seats. The CPSU lost the elections in five republics:
* In [[1990 Lithuanian parliamentary election|Lithuania]], to [[Sąjūdis]], 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]], on 18 March
* In [[1990 Latvian Supreme Soviet election|Latvia]], to the [[Latvian Popular Front]], on 18 March (run-off elections on 25 March 1 April, and 29 April)
* 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]] to decline further.<ref name="Russia, The Tsarist and Soviet Legacy">Acton, Edward (1995). ''Russia, The Tsarist and Soviet Legacy''. Longman Group Ltd. {{ISBN|0-582-08922-0}}.</ref>

==== 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]] was elected, representing [[Yekaterinburg|Sverdlovsk]], garnering 72 percent of the vote.<ref>Leon Aron, ''Boris Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life''. HarperCollins, 2000. pp. 739–740.</ref> 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]]. 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]].<ref>{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/12/newsid_4493000/4493177.stm | publisher=BBC News | title=1990: Yeltsin Resignation Splits Soviet Communists | date=12 July 1990 | access-date=29 October 2012 | archive-date=23 October 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023134854/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/12/newsid_4493000/4493177.stm | url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Landsbergis, Vytautas-0085.jpg|thumb|249x249px|Lithuania's [[Vytautas Landsbergis]]]]

==== 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]], 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 Russian]]s".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bandelj |first=Nina |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RlhoP8snGTgC&pg=PA41 |title=From Communists to Foreign Capitalists: The Social Foundations of Foreign Direct Investment in Postsocialist Europe |date=2008 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-691-12912-9 |pages=41 |access-date=11 October 2015 |archive-date=24 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124205849/https://books.google.com/books?id=RlhoP8snGTgC&pg=PA41 |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Edgar Savisaar 2005.jpg|thumb|Estonia's [[Edgar Savisaar]] |235x235px]]

On 25 March 1990, the [[Estonian Communist Party]] voted to split from the CPSU after a six-month transition.<ref>{{cite news |date=26 March 1990 |title=Upheaval in the East; Party in Estonia Votes Split and Also a Delay |work=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/26/world/upheaval-in-the-east-party-in-estonia-votes-split-and-also-a-delay.html |access-date=7 February 2017 |archive-date=1 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701214430/http://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/26/world/upheaval-in-the-east-party-in-estonia-votes-split-and-also-a-delay.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

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.
[[File:Ivars Godmanis saeima.jpg|thumb|Latvia's [[Ivars Godmanis]]|223x223px]]
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]] 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.<ref>{{Cite web |date=6 September 2019 |title=О символике эстонии Эстония |trans-title=About the symbolism of Estonia |url=http://estonia.news-city.info/docs/sistemsf/dok_ierskz.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190906230101/http://estonia.news-city.info/docs/sistemsf/dok_ierskz.htm |archive-date=6 September 2019 |website= |language=ru}}</ref>

==== Caucasus ====
During the first week of January 1990, in the Azerbaijani [[exclave]] of [[Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic|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]].<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/07/world/upheaval-east-azerbaijan-angry-soviet-crowd-attacks-what-left-iran-border-posts.html | work=The New York Times | title=Upheaval in the East: Azerbaijan; Angry Soviet Crowd Attacks What Is Left Of Iran Border Posts | date=7 January 1990 | access-date=7 February 2017 | archive-date=1 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701213144/http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/07/world/upheaval-east-azerbaijan-angry-soviet-crowd-attacks-what-left-iran-border-posts.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:The tragedy of January 20.jpg|thumb|left|Azerbaijani stamp with photos of [[Black January]] ]]

Ethnic tensions had escalated between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis in spring and summer 1988.<ref>''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. {{ISBN|0-8147-1945-7}}, p. 90</ref> 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.<ref name="ReferenceA">Page 89 ''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. {{ISBN|0-8147-1945-7}}</ref> On 11 January, Popular Front radicals stormed party buildings and effectively overthrew the communist powers in the southern town of [[Lenkoran]].<ref name="ReferenceA" /> 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]], 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.<ref name="ReferenceB">Page 93 ''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. {{ISBN|0-8147-1945-7}}</ref> 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.<ref>''Black Garden'' de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. {{ISBN|0-8147-1945-7}}, p. 94</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Əkbərov |first1=Nazim Fərrux oğlu |title=Nazim Əkbərov Səkinə xanım Əliyeva haqqında |url=http://www.aqra.az/az/nazim-əkbərov-səkinə-xanim-əliyeva-haqqinda/ |website=aqra.az |publisher="Aqra" Elmin İnkişafına Dəstək İctimai Birliyi |access-date=18 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181117235638/http://www.aqra.az/az/nazim-%C9%99kb%C9%99rov-s%C9%99kin%C9%99-xanim-%C9%99liyeva-haqqinda/ |archive-date=17 November 2018 |location=Baku, Azerbaijan |language=az |date=30 December 2013 |trans-title=Nazim Akbarov: About the woman Sakina Aliyeva}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bolukbasi |first=Suha |title=Azerbaijan: A Political History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4lgBAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA138 |year=2013 |publisher=[[I.B. Tauris]] |location=London, England |isbn=978-0-85771-932-4 |page=138 |access-date=19 November 2018 |archive-date=24 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124205851/https://books.google.com/books?id=4lgBAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA138 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Ростовский |first1=Михаил |script-title=ru:Анатомия распада |url= https://www.mk.ru/editions/daily/article/2004/02/06/119762-anatomiya-raspada.html |access-date=19 November 2018 |newspaper=[[Moskovskij Komsomolets]] |date=6 February 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119203925/https://www.mk.ru/editions/daily/article/2004/02/06/119762-anatomiya-raspada.html |archive-date=19 November 2018 |location=Moscow, Russia |language=ru |trans-title=Anatomy of Decay}}</ref>

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.<ref>"Conflict, cleavage, and change in Central Asia and the Caucasus" Karen Dawisha and Bruce Parrott (eds.), Cambridge University Press. 1997 {{ISBN|0-521-59731-5}}, p. 124</ref> 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").<ref>{{cite web |url=http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps35389/1995/wf950018.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050314090710/http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps35389/1995/wf950018.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 March 2005 |title=CIA World Factbook (1995) |publisher=CIA World Factbook |access-date=11 December 2011 }}</ref> In May 1990 Mutalibov was elected chairman of the Supreme Soviet unopposed.<ref>"Conflict, cleavage, and change in Central Asia and the Caucasus", Karen Dawisha and Bruce Parrott (eds.), Cambridge University Press. 1997 {{ISBN|0-521-59731-5}}, p. 125</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Yuenger|first=James|date=24 August 1990|title=Armenia declares its independence|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-08-24-9003110411-story.html|access-date=11 October 2021|website=[[Chicago Tribune]]|location=Moscow|archive-date=2 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302005437/https://www.chicagotribune.com/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.parliament.am/legislation.php?ID=2602&lang=eng&sel=show|title=Legislation: National Assembly of RA|website=Parliament.am|access-date=24 September 2021|archive-date=7 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210907000238/http://www.parliament.am/legislation.php?sel=show&ID=2602&lang=eng|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=About Armenia - Armenian Declaration of Independence - The Government of the Republic of Armenia|url=https://www.gov.am/en/independence/|access-date=11 October 2021|website=gov.am|archive-date=28 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028174933/https://www.gov.am/en/independence/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Western republics ====
{{more citations needed section|date=January 2018}}
On 21 January 1990, [[People's Movement of Ukraine|Rukh]] organized a {{convert|300|mi|km|adj=on}} 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 field its own candidates for the parliamentary and local elections on 4 March. At those [[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]].
[[File:Leonid Kravchuk (1).jpg|left|thumb|256x256px|[[Leonid Kravchuk]] became Ukraine's leader in 1990.]]
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]]. 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&nbsp;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&nbsp;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&nbsp;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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/2001/340119.shtml|title=Independence: a timeline (CONCLUSION) (08/26/01)|publisher=Ukrweekly.com|access-date=30 March 2013|archive-date=24 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120624201208/http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/2001/340119.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref>

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 ====
{{main|1990 Dushanbe riots}}
[[File:RIAN_archive_699865_Dushanbe_riots%2C_February_1990.jpg|thumb|Tajik nationalist protesters squared off against the [[Soviet Army]] in [[Dushanbe]] ]]

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. A state of emergency was declared in the capital on 12 February following disturbances caused by demonstrators at the republican party headquarters demanding that the refugees leave Tajikistan.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tolz |first1=Vera |last2=Newton |first2=Melanie |title=The Ussr In 1990: A Record Of Events |date=11 July 2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-30685-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JAeiDwAAQBAJ |language=en |quote=Radio Moscow reported on February 12 that a state of emergency had been declared in the capital of Tajikistan and an overnight curfew imposed by the Presidium of the republican Supreme Soviet}}</ref> 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.

{{main|Osh riots (1990)}}

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.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Osh |year=2008 |encyclopedia=[[Encarta]] |location=Redmond, Washington |publisher=Microsoft® Student 2009 [DVD] <!-- |access-date=31 March 2022 -->}}</ref>
[[File:Saparmurat Niyazov (2).jpg|left|thumb|240x240px|[[Saparmurat Niyazov]], last head of the [[Turkmen SSR]] and first [[president of Turkmenistan]]]]
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.<ref>{{cite book| author = Erika Dailey, Helsinki Watch | title = Human Rights in Turkmenistan |location=New York |publisher=Helsinki Watch |date = 1993}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| author = |title = Presidential elections and independence referendums in the Baltic states, the Soviet Union and Successor states |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Commission on security and cooperation in Europe |date = 1992}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| author = Sally N Cummings | title = Sovereignty After Empire |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |date = 2011 }}</ref>

=== 1991 ===
[[File:Georgia, Ossetia, Russia and Abkhazia (en).svg|thumb|Following Georgia's [[Independence Day (Georgia)|declaration of independence]] in 1991, [[South Ossetia]] and [[Abkhazia]] declared their desire to leave [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] and remain part of the [[Soviet Union]]/[[Russia]].<ref name="princeton">{{cite web |title=Georgia: Abkhazia and South Ossetia |url=https://pesd.princeton.edu/?q=node/274 |website=pesd.princeton.edu |publisher=Encyclopedia Princetoniensis |access-date=11 February 2019 |archive-date=4 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180804112845/https://pesd.princeton.edu/?q=node%2F274 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]

==== Moscow's crisis ====
On 14 January 1991, [[Nikolai Ryzhkov]] 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.<ref>[http://soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1991march&Year=1991&Theme=4e6174696f6e616c6974696573&navi=byTheme 1991: March Referendum] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140330025028/http://soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1991march&Year=1991&Theme=4e6174696f6e616c6974696573&navi=byTheme |date=30 March 2014 }} SovietHistory.org</ref> 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).<ref>Charles King, ''The Ghost of Freedom: History of the Caucasus''</ref> 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 ====
[[File:Борис Николаевич Ельцин-1 (cropped) (cropped).jpg|thumb|255x255px|[[Boris Yeltsin]], Russia's first democratically elected president]]
On 12 June 1991, [[Boris Yeltsin]] 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]], who won 16 percent of the vote. Following Yeltsin's election as president, the RSFSR declared itself autonomous from the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The world transformed : 1945 to the present|last=Hunt |first=Michael H.|isbn=9780199371020|pages=321|oclc=907585907|date = 26 June 2015|publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref> 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%.<ref name="Cornell">Cornell, Svante E., [http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/publications/0419dissertation.pdf ''Autonomy and Conflict: Ethnoterritoriality and Separatism in the South Caucasus – Case in Georgia''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070630141309/http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/publications/0419dissertation.pdf |date=30 June 2007 }}. Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Report No. 61. p. 163. University of Uppsala, {{ISBN|91-506-1600-5}}.</ref>

On 9 April 1991, two years after the massacres in Tbilisi and a year and two months after Lithuania's declaration of restored 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 ====
{{main|January Events|The Barricades|Tallinn TV Tower}}

On 13 January 1991, Soviet troops, along with the [[KGB]] [[Spetsnaz]] [[Alpha Group]], [[January Events|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]], 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.

[[File:Riga barricade 1991.jpg|thumb|left|Barricade erected in [[Riga]] to prevent the Soviet Army from reaching the Latvian Parliament, July 1991]]

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.<ref>{{cite web|author=Ken Polsson|date=2007–2010|url=http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/worldhis/wor1991.htm|title=Chronology of World History January — February 1991|access-date=24 January 2011|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806120236/http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/worldhis/wor1991.htm|url-status=live|archive-date=6 August 2011}}</ref>

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.<ref>''Маркедонов Сергей'' [https://polit.ru/article/2011/04/01/ussr/ Референдум распада] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814163442/https://polit.ru/article/2011/04/01/ussr/ |date=14 August 2021 }}</ref> 77.8% of those who voted supported the idea of restoring independence.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The road to independence |url=http://www.estonica.org/en/History/1985-1991_Restoration_of_independence/The_road_to_independence/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815043515/http://www.estonica.org/en/History/1985-1991_Restoration_of_independence/The_road_to_independence/ |archive-date=15 August 2021 |access-date=13 October 2020 |website=www.estonica.org}}</ref>

On 11 March, Denmark recognized Estonia's independence.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://yeltsin.ru/day-by-day/1991/03/16/1524/ |title=Лед тронулся |trans-title=The ice has broken |work=Rossiyskaya Gazeta |date=16 March 1991 |language=ru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211030002104/https://yeltsin.ru/day-by-day/1991/03/16/1524/ |archive-date=30 October 2021 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

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 ====
{{main|1991 Soviet coup attempt}}
[[File:Image0 ST.jpg|thumb|Tanks in [[Red Square]] during the 1991 August coup attempt]]

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 [[New Union Treaty|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, Crimea|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]]. Even the isolated Gorbachev was able to stay abreast of developments by tuning into the BBC World Service on a small transistor radio.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gerbner |first=George |author-link=George Gerbner |title=Instant History: The Case of the Moscow Coup |url=http://www.asc.upenn.edu/gerbner/Asset.aspx?assetID=883 |date=1993 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150116221008/http://web.asc.upenn.edu/gerbner/Asset.aspx?assetID%3D883 |archive-date=16 January 2015 |journal=[[Political Communication (journal)|Political Communication]] |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=193–203 |issn=1058-4609 |access-date=24 May 2017 |url-status=dead |doi=10.1080/10584609.1993.9962975 |s2cid=143563888 }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ostrovsky |first=Alexander Vladimirovich |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XM1VywAACAAJ |title=Глупость или измена?: расследование гибели СССР |date=2011 |publisher=Crimean Bridge-9D |isbn=978-5-89747-068-6 |pages=864 |language=ru |trans-title=Stupidity or Treason?: Investigation into the Death of the USSR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Андрей Грачев - к годовщине путча: "Из Фороса Горбачев вернулся заложником Ельцина" |trans-title=Andrey Grachev - on the anniversary of the coup: "Gorbachev returned from Foros as Yeltsin's hostage" |url=https://sobesednik.ru/obshchestvo/20210819-andrei-gracev-k-godovshhine-putca-iz-f |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211223085337/https://sobesednik.ru/obshchestvo/20210819-andrei-gracev-k-godovshhine-putca-iz-f |archive-date=23 December 2021 |access-date=23 December 2021 |website=sobesednik.ru |language=ru}}</ref>

==== Fall: August to December ====
[[File:RIAN archive 848095 Signing the Agreement to eliminate the USSR and establish the Commonwealth of Independent States.jpg|thumb|Signing of the [[Belovezh Accords|agreement]] to establish the [[Commonwealth of Independent States]], 8 December|225x225px]]

On 24 August 1991, Gorbachev resigned as general secretary of the CPSU<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 August 1991 |title=Заявление М. С. Горбачева о сложение обязанностей генерального секретаря КПСС (24 августа 1991) |trans-title=Statement by M. S. Gorbachev on the resignation of the duties of General Secretary of the CPSU (August 24, 1991) |url=http://www.illuminats.ru/component/content/article/29-new/1198-statement-by-mikhail-gorbachev-on-the-addition-of-duties-the-secretary-general-of-the-cpsu-24-august-1991?directory=29 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721014247/http://www.illuminats.ru/component/content/article/29-new/1198-statement-by-mikhail-gorbachev-on-the-addition-of-duties-the-secretary-general-of-the-cpsu-24-august-1991?directory=29 |archive-date=21 July 2018 |access-date=24 November 2020 |website=www.illuminats.ru |language=ru}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ruspravo.org/list/89358/1.html |title=Page 1. Постановление Верховного Совета СССР от 29 августа 1991 г. N 2371-I "О ситуации, возникшей в стране в связи с имевшим место государственным переворотом" |date=7 December 2013 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207002848/http://www.ruspravo.org/list/89358/1.html |archive-date=7 December 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> 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.

The Soviet Union recognized the independence of Baltic republics on 6 September 1991.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vdu.lt/en/prof-alpo-russi-about-recognition-of-independence-of-baltic-states/|title=Prof. Alpo Russi. About Recognition of Independence of Baltic States|work=[[Vytautas Magnus University]]|date=20 January 2020}}</ref> Georgia cut all ties with the Soviet Union on 7 September, citing the failure to receive a "sufficiently grounded answer" why the USSR did not recognise its independence when it had recognised the Baltic States' secession.<ref>{{cite web |author=Cherian |first=Regi |date=6 September 2016 |title=September 7, 1991: Georgia revolts, cuts ties with USSR |url=https://gulfnews.com/today-history/september-7-1996-georgia-revolts-cuts-ties-with-ussr-1.1892039 |work=Gulf News}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/en/sc/documents/resolutions/1991.shtml|title=Resolutions adopted by the United Nations Security Council in 1991|work=[[United Nations]]|access-date=17 June 2016|archive-date=19 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170719210549/http://www.un.org/en/sc/documents/resolutions/1991.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://research.un.org/en/docs/ga/quick/regular/46|title=46th Session (1991–1992) – General Assembly – Quick Links – Research Guides at United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library|work=[[United Nations]]|access-date=17 June 2016|archive-date=30 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160830083857/http://research.un.org/en/docs/ga/quick/regular/46|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 6 November, Yeltsin&nbsp;– who had by then taken over much of the Soviet government&nbsp;– issued a decree banning all Communist Party activities on Russian territory.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://kremlin.ru/acts/bank/385|title=Указ Президента РСФСР от 06.11.1991 г. № 169|website=Президент России|access-date=22 October 2020|archive-date=1 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301170411/http://kremlin.ru/acts/bank/385|url-status=live}}</ref>

By 7 November 1991, most newspapers referred to the 'former Soviet Union'.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Schmemann|first1=Serge|title=Pre-1917 Ghosts Haunt a Bolshevik Holiday|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/07/world/pre-1917-ghosts-haunt-a-bolshevik-holiday.html?pagewanted=all|access-date=21 December 2017|work=The New York Times|date=7 November 1991|archive-date=22 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222053646/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/07/world/pre-1917-ghosts-haunt-a-bolshevik-holiday.html?pagewanted=all|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Grand Kremlin Palace façade, 1982-2008.jpg|thumb|left|The [[State Emblem of the Soviet Union|state emblem of the Soviet Union]] and the СССР letters (top) in the façade of the [[Grand Kremlin Palace]] were replaced by five double-headed [[Coat of arms of Russia|Russian eagles]] (bottom) after the dissolution of the [[Soviet Union]], the eagles having been removed by the Bolsheviks after the revolution.]]

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]] (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]] (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, that the Soviet Union no longer existed "as a subject of [[international law]] and a geopolitical reality".

On 10 December, the agreement was ratified by the [[Verkhovna Rada|Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Про ратифікацію Угоди про створення Співдружності Незалежних Держав |trans-title=On the ratification of the Agreement on the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States |url=https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/go/1958-12 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124205855/https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1958-12 |archive-date=24 January 2023 |access-date=20 June 2022 |website=Official website of the Parliament of Ukraine |language=uk}}</ref> and the [[Supreme Council of Belarus]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://belzakon.net/%D0%97%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE/%D0%9F%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5_%D0%92%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%85%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE_%D0%A1%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B0_%D0%A0%D0%91/1994/96572|title=Постановление Верховного Совета РБ № 1296-XII О ратификации Соглашения об образовании Содружества Независимых Государств от 10.12.1991 - Белзакон.net|website=belzakon.net|access-date=23 December 2021|archive-date=23 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211223192600/https://belzakon.net/%D0%97%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE/%D0%9F%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5_%D0%92%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%85%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE_%D0%A1%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B0_%D0%A0%D0%91/1994/96572|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 12 December, the [[Supreme Soviet of Russia|Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR]] formally ratified the Belavezha Accords,<ref>{{Cite web |date=12 December 1991 |title=Постановление ВС РСФСР от 12.12.1991 N 2014-I "О ратификации Соглашения о создании Содружества Независимых Государств" |trans-title=Resolution of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR of 12.12.1991 N 2014-I "On ratification of the Agreement on the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States" |url=http://base.garant.ru/10164306/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201113130902/http://base.garant.ru/10164306/ |archive-date=13 November 2020 |access-date=7 November 2020 |website=base.garant.ru |language=ru}}</ref> denounced the [[Treaty on the Creation of the USSR|1922 Union Treaty]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lawmix.ru/abrolaw/13907|title=Постановление Верховного Совета РСФСР от 12.12.1991 № 2015-I - Сейчас.ру|website=www.lawmix.ru|access-date=7 November 2020|archive-date=25 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125075549/https://www.lawmix.ru/abrolaw/13907|url-status=live}}</ref> and recalled the Russian deputies from the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The legality of this ratification raised doubts among some members of the Russian parliament, since according to the 1978 RSFSR Constitution consideration of this document was in the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR.<ref name="sssr.net.ru">''V.Pribylovsky, Gr.Tochkin'' [http://sssr.net.ru/denons.html . Kto i kak uprazdnil SSSR] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126160310/http://sssr.net.ru/denons.html |date=26 January 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://n-discovery.spb.ru/news_full.php?id=379 |title=Из СССР В СНГ: подчиняясь реальности. &#124; www.n-discovery.spb.ru |date=3 April 2015 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403001152/http://n-discovery.spb.ru/news_full.php?id=379 |archive-date=3 April 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>''Бабурин С. Н.'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20171107165055/http://www.ni-journal.ru/archive/2006/n_506/38b39a96/39cf8ddd/ На гибель Советского Союза]</ref><ref name="sovross.ru">''Воронин Ю. М.'' [http://www.sovross.ru/articles/555/9021/ Беловежское предательство] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200812180933/http://www.sovross.ru/articles/555/9021/ |date=12 August 2020 }}</ref> Additionally, the Soviet Constitution did not allow a republic to unilaterally recall its deputies.<ref>The Russian SFSR has constitutional right to "freely secede from the Soviet Union" ([[s:ru:Конституция РСФСР 1978 года (в редакции 1 ноября 1991 года)#Глава 7. РСФСР - союзная республика в составе СССР|art. 69 of the RSFSR Constitution]], [[s:ru:Конституция СССР (1977)/редакция 26 декабря 1990 года#Глава 8. СССР — союзное государство|art. 72 of the USSR Constitution]]), but according to USSR laws [[s:ru:Закон о выходе союзной республики из СССР|1409-I]] (enacted on 3 April 1990) and [http://iv.garant.ru/SESSION/PILOT/loadfavorite.html?pid=6335703&page=1&para_id=2147483649 1457-I]{{dead link|date=May 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (enacted on 26 April 1990) this can be done only by a referendum and only if two-thirds of all registered voters of the republic has supported that motion. No special referendum on the secession from the USSR was held in the RSFSR</ref> However, no one in either Russia or the Kremlin objected. Any objections from the latter would have likely had no effect, since what was left of 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]].<ref>''Исаков В. Б.'' Расчленёнка. Кто и как развалил Советский Союз: Хроника. Документы. — М., Закон и право. 1998. — C. 58. — 209 с.</ref><ref>''Станкевич З. А.'' История крушения СССР: политико-правовые аспекты. — М., 2001. — C. 299—300</ref><ref>''Лукашевич Д. А.'' Юридический механизм разрушения СССР. — М, 2016. — С. 254—255. — 448 с.</ref> (In 1996 the [[State Duma]] had voiced the same position.)<ref>{{Cite web |date=10 April 1986 |title=Постановление Государственной Думы Федерального Собрания РФ от 10 апреля 1996 года № 225-II ГД «Об Обращении Государственной Думы Федерального Собрания Российской Федерации "К членам Совета Федерации Федерального Собрания Российской Федерации" |trans-title=Resolution of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of April 10, 1996 No. 225-II GD "On the Appeal of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation "To the members of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation" |url=http://pravo.gov.ru/proxy/ips/?docbody=&link_id=16&nd=102040638 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026061236/http://pravo.gov.ru/proxy/ips/?docbody=&link_id=16&nd=102040638 |archive-date=26 October 2020 |access-date=22 October 2020 |language=ru}}</ref> Later that day, Gorbachev hinted for the first time that he was considering stepping down.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Schmemann |first=Serge |date=1991-12-13 |title=Gorbachev is Ready to Resign as Post-Soviet Plan Advances |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/13/world/soviet-disarry-gorbachev-is-ready-to-resign-as-post-soviet-plan-advances.html |url-status=live |access-date= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180917211606/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/13/world/soviet-disarry-gorbachev-is-ready-to-resign-as-post-soviet-plan-advances.html |archive-date=2018-09-17 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> On the surface, it appeared that the largest republic had formally seceded. However, this is not the case. Rather, Russia apparently took the line that it did not need to follow the secession process delineated in the Soviet Constitution because it was not possible to secede from a country that no longer existed.

On 16 December 1991, the [[Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic|Kazakh SSR]] became the last republic to formally secede from the Soviet Union, causing the Soviet Union to neither control any territory nor claim to control any territory (although Soviet embassies still existed).<ref>{{cite web | url=https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/kazakhstan-not-russia-was-last-republic-leave-ussr-195400 | title=Kazakhstan, Not Russia, Was the Last Republic to the Leave the USSR | date=22 October 2021 }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encharter.org/fileadmin/user_upload/document/EN.pdf#page=211|title=Concluding document of The Hague Conference on the European Energy Charter|access-date=11 December 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131024073327/http://www.encharter.org/fileadmin/user_upload/document/EN.pdf#page=211|archive-date=24 October 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1991/dec/19/european-energy-charter|date=19 December 1991|title=European Energy Charter (Hansard, 19 December 1991)|website=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]|access-date=23 September 2023|archive-date=28 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928233922/https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1991/dec/19/european-energy-charter|url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://soveticus5.narod.ru/gazety/pr911219.htm#x003|title=ПРАВДА № 296 (26744). Четверг, 19 декабря 1991 г.|website=soveticus5.narod.ru|access-date=23 December 2021|archive-date=23 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211223190224/http://soveticus5.narod.ru/gazety/pr911219.htm#x003|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[Image:Cold War border changes.png|thumb|254x254px|Changes in national boundaries after the end of the [[Cold War]]]]
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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://base.garant.ru/6334158/|title=Заявление Совета Республик Верховного Совета СССР от 18.12.1991 N 138-Н О поддержке Соглашения Республики Беларусь, РСФСР и Украины о создании Содружества Независимых Государств &#124; ГАРАНТ|website=base.garant.ru|access-date=20 June 2022|archive-date=7 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407115029/https://base.garant.ru/6334158/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Gorbachev met with Yeltsin and accepted the ''fait accompli'' of the Soviet Union's dissolution.<!-- On what date? --> 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.

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 11 of the 12 remaining republics – all except [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] – signed the [[Alma-Ata Protocol]], which confirmed the dissolution of the Soviet Union and formally established the CIS.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cis.minsk.by/reestr/ru/index.html#reestr/view/text?doc=6|title=ПРОТОКОЛ к Соглашению о создании Содружества Независимых Государств, подписанному 8 декабря 1991 года в г. Минске Республикой Беларусь, Российской Федерацией (РСФСР), Украиной|trans-title=PROTOCOL to the Agreement on the Creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, signed on December 8, 1991 in г. Minsk Republic of Belarus, Russian Federation (РСФСР), Ukraine|website=cis.minsk.by|access-date=23 December 2021|archive-date=11 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150511073849/http://cis.minsk.by/reestr/ru/index.html#reestr/view/text?doc=6|url-status=live}}</ref> They also "accepted" Gorbachev's resignation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ng.ru/style/2000-01-06/1-162.html|title=Посткремлевская жизнь правителей|website=www.ng.ru|access-date=20 June 2022|archive-date=7 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407115029/https://www.ng.ru/style/2000-01-06/1-162.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The command of the Armed Forces of the USSR was entrusted to the Minister of Defense Yevgeny Shaposhnikov.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.panorama.ru/prav/minobor.shtml|title=Минобороны. Министерство обороны РФ|website=www.panorama.ru|access-date=23 December 2021|archive-date=25 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225004736/http://www.panorama.ru/prav/minobor.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cis.minsk.by/reestr/ru/index.html#reestr/view/text?doc=3412|title=Loading...|website=cis.minsk.by|access-date=23 December 2021|archive-date=11 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150511073849/http://cis.minsk.by/reestr/ru/index.html#reestr/view/text?doc=3412|url-status=live}}</ref> Even at this moment, Gorbachev had not 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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Clines |first=Francis X. |date=1991-12-22 |title=11 Soviet States Form Commonwealth Without Clearly Defining Its Powers |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/22/world/end-soviet-union-11-soviet-states-form-commonwealth-without-clearly-defining-its.html |url-status=live |access-date= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170414022306/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/22/world/end-soviet-union-11-soviet-states-form-commonwealth-without-clearly-defining-its.html |archive-date=2017-04-14 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

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 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gorby.ru/userfiles/file/zayavleniem_ob_otstavke_prezidenta_sssr_m.pdf|title=Заявление Президента СССР об отставке от 25 декабря 1991 г.|access-date=24 March 2021|archive-date=4 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904230942/https://www.gorby.ru/userfiles/file/zayavleniem_ob_otstavke_prezidenta_sssr_m.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> He declared the office extinct, and ceded all of its powers (such as control of the nuclear arsenal)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.libussr.ru/doc_ussr/usr_19889.htm|title=Указ Президента СССР от 25.12.1991 N УП-3162|website=www.libussr.ru|access-date=24 March 2021|archive-date=12 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412222644/http://www.libussr.ru/doc_ussr/usr_19889.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> to Yeltsin.

[[File:RIAN archive 469069 Final session of the Council for Nationalities of the USSR Supreme Soviet.jpg|thumb|The upper chamber of the Supreme Soviet in its ultimate session, voting the USSR out of existence, 26 December]]

On the night of 25 December, at 7:35&nbsp;p.m. Moscow time, after Gorbachev appeared on television, the [[Flag of the Soviet Union|Soviet flag]] was lowered<ref>{{Cite web |title=С флагштока над Кремлем спущен советский флаг, поднят российский |trans-title=The Soviet flag is lowered from the flagpole over the Kremlin; the Russian flag is raised |url=https://www.interfax.ru/30years/800619 |date=25 December 1991 |website=[[Interfax]] |access-date=27 March 2023 |archive-date=1 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220101022148/https://www.interfax.ru/30years/800619 |url-status=live }}</ref> and the [[Flag of Russia|Russian tricolor]] raised in its place at 7:45 pm,<ref>{{Cite news|last=Clarity|first=James F.|date=26 December 1991|title=END OF THE SOVIET UNION; On Moscow's Streets, Worry and Regret|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/26/world/end-of-the-soviet-union-on-moscow-s-streets-worry-and-regret.html|access-date=2 June 2021|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=2 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302163000/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/26/world/end-of-the-soviet-union-on-moscow-s-streets-worry-and-regret.html|url-status=live}}</ref> 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."<ref>{{Cite book|title=The world transformed : 1945 to the present|last=Hunt |first=Michael H.|isbn=9780199371020|pages=323–324|oclc=907585907|date = 26 June 2015|publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref> 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.

Gorbachev's speech, as well as the replacement of the Soviet flag with the Russian flag, symbolically marked the end of the Soviet Union. However, the final legal step in the Soviet Union's demise came on 26 December, when the [[Soviet of Nationalities]], the upper chamber of the [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union]], ratified the Belavezha Accords, effectively voting the Soviet Union out of existence<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://vedomosti.sssr.su/1991/52/|title=Ведомости Верховного Совета СССР № 52. 25 декабря 1991 г.|website=vedomosti.sssr.su|access-date=20 June 2022|archive-date=19 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319192339/https://vedomosti.sssr.su/1991/52/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vt5OLD3vp4UC&q=26+december+1991+ussr&pg=PR5| title=Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States: Documents, Data, and Analysis| isbn=9781563246371| last1=Brzezinski| first1=Zbigniew| last2=Brzezinski| first2=Zbigniew K.| last3=Sullivan| first3=Paige| year=1997| publisher=M.E. Sharpe| access-date=7 October 2020| archive-date=24 January 2023| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124205853/https://books.google.com/books?id=Vt5OLD3vp4UC&q=26+december+1991+ussr&pg=PR5| url-status=live}}</ref> (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]]).<ref name="sssr.net.ru" /> The following day Yeltsin moved into Gorbachev's former office,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.novayagazeta.ru/society/66087.html |title=Как меня хоронили - Общество - Новая Газета |date=27 July 2016 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160727023444/http://www.novayagazeta.ru/society/66087.html |archive-date=27 July 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> 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]], 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.

Other issues were also addressed at Alma-Ata on 21 December 1991, including UN membership. In a document additional to the main Alma-Ata Declaration, 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 "with the support of the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States", Russia was the successor state to the USSR.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/?pdf=CDL(1994)054-e|title=Agreements establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States|publisher=European Commission for Democracy through Law|location=Strasbourg|date=8 September 1994|website=Council of Europe|quote=Done at Minsk, December 8,1991, and done at Alma Alta, December 21,1991}}</ref> After being circulated among the other UN member states, Russia attended the UN Security Council meeting on the last day of the year, 31 December 1991, with no objection raised.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.justsecurity.org/80395/united-nations-response-options-to-russias-aggression-opportunities-and-rabbit-holes/#_ftn1 | title=United Nations Response Options to Russia's Aggression: Opportunities and Rabbit Holes | date=March 2022 }}</ref> But questions of [[Succession of states|state succession]], settlement of external debt, and division of assets abroad [[Succession, continuity and legacy of the Soviet Union|remain disputed between Russia and Ukraine to this day]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Uvarov |first=Alexey |date=2022-11-29 |title=The heavy legacy of the Soviet regime |url=https://ridl.io/the-heavy-legacy-of-the-soviet-regime/ |access-date=2022-12-05 |website=Riddle Russia |language=en-GB |archive-date=5 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205210624/https://ridl.io/the-heavy-legacy-of-the-soviet-regime/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In April 1992, the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia refused to ratify the Belovezhskaya Agreements<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://leftinmsu.narod.ru/polit_files/books/Lukyanova_gos.htm|title=Е.А. Лукьянова РОССИЙСКАЯ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОСТЬ И КОНСТИТУЦИОННОЕ ЗАКОНОДАТЕЛЬСТВО В РОССИИ /1917-1993/|publisher=leftinmsu.narod.ru|access-date=7 December 2019|archive-date=15 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215012053/http://leftinmsu.narod.ru/polit_files/books/Lukyanova_gos.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="rusplt.ru">{{Cite web|url=https://rusplt.ru/society/dodavit-gnoy-poka-ne-poluchaetsya.html|title=Илья Константинов: "Додавить гной пока не получается"|publisher=rusplt.ru|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207090112/https://rusplt.ru/society/dodavit-gnoy-poka-ne-poluchaetsya.html|access-date=8 December 2019|archive-date=7 December 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.business-gazeta.ru/article/427760|title=Руслан Хасбулатов: "Капитуляция произошла потому, что наша страна ориентирована на вождя"|website=БИЗНЕС Online|date=12 June 2019|access-date=22 December 2021|archive-date=22 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211222185624/https://www.business-gazeta.ru/article/427760|url-status=live}}</ref> and to exclude references to the Constitution and laws of the USSR from the text of the Constitution of the RSFSR.<ref name="sovross.ru" /><ref name="zavtra.ru">{{Cite web |url=http://zavtra.ru/content/view/2010-05-1241/ |title=Завтра — еженедельная газета |date=28 November 2014 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141128132233/http://zavtra.ru/content/view/2010-05-1241/ |archive-date=28 November 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> According to some Russian politicians, this was one of the reasons for the [[1993 Russian constitutional crisis|political crisis of September – October 1993]].<ref name="sovross.ru" /><ref name="rusplt.ru" /><ref name="zavtra.ru" /> 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 ==
[[Image:Russian borders before and after 1991.png|thumb|300px|Russian national border change since 1991. This map shows that some portions of the border were continuously held by Russia for more than 200 years before being given to the newly independent states of the "[[near abroad]]".]]
[[Image:GDP of Russia since 1989.svg|thumb|Russian [[Gross domestic product|GDP]] since the end of the [[Soviet Union]] (from 2014 are forecasts)]]
[[Image:Russian male life expectancy.jpg|thumb|180px|Russian male life expectancy, 1980–2007]]

=== Economic decline, hunger, and excess mortality ===
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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ghodsee|first=Kristen|date=2017|title=Red Hangover: Legacies of Twentieth-Century Communism|url=https://www.dukeupress.edu/red-hangover|publisher=[[Duke University Press]]|pages=63–64|isbn=978-0822369493|author-link=Kristen Ghodsee|access-date=4 August 2018|archive-date=7 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207032254/https://www.dukeupress.edu/red-hangover|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1080/05775132.2015.1012402| title =After the Wall Fell: The Poor Balance Sheet of the Transition to Capitalism| journal =[[Challenge (economics magazine)|Challenge]]| volume = 58| issue = 2| pages =135–138| year = 2015| last1 =  Milanović | first1 = Branko| s2cid =153398717|author-link=Branko Milanović}}</ref>  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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=End of the USSR: visualising how the former Soviet countries are doing, 20 years on {{!}} Russia {{!}} The Guardian |url=https://amp.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/aug/17/ussr-soviet-countries-data |access-date=21 January 2021 |website=amp.theguardian.com |date=17 August 2011 |archive-date=28 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128064905/https://amp.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/aug/17/ussr-soviet-countries-data |url-status=live }}</ref> In a 2001 study by the economist [[Steven Rosefielde]], he calculated that there were 3.4&nbsp;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]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Rosefielde|first1=Steven|date=2001 |title=Premature Deaths: Russia's Radical Economic Transition in Soviet Perspective|journal=[[Europe-Asia Studies]]|volume=53 |issue=8 |pages=1159–1176|doi= 10.1080/09668130120093174|s2cid=145733112}}</ref> Nearly all of the [[post-Soviet states]] suffered deep and prolonged recessions after shock therapy,<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Weber |first=Isabella |author-link=Isabella Weber |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1228187814 |title=How China escaped shock therapy : the market reform debate |date=2021 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-429-49012-5 |location=Abingdon, Oxon |pages=6 |oclc=1228187814}}</ref> with poverty increasing more than tenfold.<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E0D8163FF931A25753C1A9669C8B63 Study Finds Poverty Deepening in Former Communist Countries] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228105849/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E0D8163FF931A25753C1A9669C8B63 |date=28 February 2009 }}, New York Times, October 12, 2000</ref> Catastrophic drops in caloric intake followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1345216431 |title=Sanctions as War: Anti-Imperialist Perspectives on American Geo-Economic Strategy |date=2023 |publisher= Haymarket Books|isbn=978-1-64259-812-4 |location= |pages=55 |oclc=1345216431|last1=Davis |first1=Stuart }}</ref>

=== Post-Soviet conflicts ===
{{Main|List of conflicts in territory of the former Soviet Union}}

According to the scholar Marcel H. Van Herpen, the end of the Soviet Union marked the end of the last European empire, and some authors called it the death of [[Russian imperialism|Russian colonialism and imperialism]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Putin's Wars: The Rise of Russia's New Imperialism|first=Marcel H.|last=Van Herpen|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2015|isbn=9781442253599|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q1IWCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA2|pages=1–2|access-date=24 December 2021|archive-date=24 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124205854/https://books.google.com/books?id=q1IWCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA2|url-status=live}}</ref>

As the Soviet Union began to collapse, social disintegration and political instability fueled a surge in ethnic conflict.<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Drobizheva |editor-first=Leokadia |editor2=Rose Gottemoeller |editor3=Catherine McArdle Kelleher |editor4=Lee Walker |title=Ethnic Conflict in the Post-Soviet World: Case Studies and Analysis |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |year=1998 |isbn=978-1563247415}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Aklaev">{{Cite web | last = Aklaev | first = Airat | title = Causes and Prevention of Ethnic Conflict: An Overview of Post-Soviet Russian-Language Literature | publisher = Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences | date = 2008-10-23 | url = http://www.wilsoncenter.org/subsites/ccpdc/pubs/aklaev/1.htm | accessdate = 2010-05-29 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100110052433/http://www.wilsoncenter.org/subsites/ccpdc/pubs/aklaev/1.htm | archive-date = 2010-01-10 | url-status = dead }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Aklaev" /> 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.<ref>{{Cite web | last = Lapidus | first = Gail W. | title = Ethnic Conflict in the Former Soviet Union | publisher = Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University | year = 2005 | url = http://cisac.stanford.edu/research/ethnic_conflict_in_the_former_soviet_union/ | accessdate = 2010-05-29 | archive-date = 11 October 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131011030819/http://cisac.stanford.edu/research/ethnic_conflict_in_the_former_soviet_union/ | url-status = live }}</ref>

===China===
{{main|Sino-Soviet relations|China–Russia relations}}

After decades of hardship following the [[Sino-Soviet split]], the People's Republic of China entered a gradual rapprochement with the Soviet Union in 1989 when Gorbachev visited the country. Afterwards, the border treaty was [[1991 Sino-Soviet Border Agreement|demarcated in 1991]], and they signed the [[2001 Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship|Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation]] in 2001, which was renewed in June 2021 for five more years.<ref>{{cite web|date=2021-06-28|title=Russia, China extend friendship and cooperation treaty -Kremlin|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/china/russia-china-extend-friendship-cooperation-treaty-kremlin-2021-06-28/|access-date=2021-08-22|website=Reuters|language=en|archive-date=10 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221210222535/https://www.reuters.com/world/china/russia-china-extend-friendship-cooperation-treaty-kremlin-2021-06-28/|url-status=live}}</ref> Both countries are members of the [[Shanghai Cooperation Organisation]] which was founded in 1996.
 
On the eve of a 2013 [[state visit]] to [[Moscow]] by [[Paramount leader|Chinese leader]] [[Xi Jinping]], [[President of the Russian Federation|Russian President]] [[Vladimir Putin]] remarked that the two nations were forging a [[Special relationship (international relations)|special relationship]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jI8_kZmr2INskAt4erPYLeDxW9Zw?docId=CNG.456411c08037199e9bc2690b1b0726fa.211 | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130411013534/http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jI8_kZmr2INskAt4erPYLeDxW9Zw?docId=CNG.456411c08037199e9bc2690b1b0726fa.211 | url-status=dead | archive-date=2013-04-11 | title=AFP: Chinese leader Xi, Putin agree key energy deals}}</ref> The two countries have enjoyed close relations militarily, economically, and politically, while supporting each other on various global issues.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Trofimov|first1=Yaroslav|last2=Grove|first2=Thomas|date=2020-06-20|title=Weary Russia Tries to Avoid Entanglement in U.S.-China Spat|language=en-US|work=The Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/weary-russia-tries-to-avoid-entanglement-in-u-s-china-spat-11592654401|access-date=2020-06-21|issn=0099-9660|archive-date=10 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221210223317/https://www.wsj.com/articles/weary-russia-tries-to-avoid-entanglement-in-u-s-china-spat-11592654401|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Bob Savic |title=Behind China and Russia's 'Special Relationship' |work=[[The Diplomat]] |url=https://thediplomat.com/2016/12/behind-china-and-russias-special-relationship/ |access-date=4 January 2023 |archive-date=10 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221210222538/https://thediplomat.com/2016/12/behind-china-and-russias-special-relationship/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=DD Wu |title=China and Russia Sign Military Cooperation Roadmap |work=The Diplomat |url=https://thediplomat.com/2017/06/china-and-russia-sign-military-cooperation-roadmap/ |access-date=4 January 2023 |archive-date=29 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200129044838/https://thediplomat.com/2017/06/china-and-russia-sign-military-cooperation-roadmap/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Commentators have debated whether the bilateral strategic partnership constitutes an alliance.<ref>{{cite web |last=Stent |first=Angela |date=2020-02-24 |title=Russia and China: Axis of revisionists? |url=https://www.brookings.edu/research/russia-and-china-axis-of-revisionists/ |access-date=2021-08-22 |website=[[Brookings Institution]] |language=en-US |archive-date=10 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221210222555/https://www.brookings.edu/research/russia-and-china-axis-of-revisionists/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Baev|first=Pavel K.|date=2020-06-15|title=The limits of authoritarian compatibility: Xi's China and Putin's Russia|url=https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-limits-of-authoritarian-compatibility-xis-china-and-putins-russia/|access-date=2021-08-22|website=Brookings|language=en-US|archive-date=10 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221210222556/https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-limits-of-authoritarian-compatibility-xis-china-and-putins-russia/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Sokolsky|first1=Richard|last2=Rumer|first2=Eugene|title=Chinese-Russian Defense Cooperation Is More Flash Than Bang|url=https://carnegieendowment.org/2021/06/17/chinese-russian-defense-cooperation-is-more-flash-than-bang-pub-84787|access-date=2021-08-22|website=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace|language=en|archive-date=4 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230104081006/https://carnegieendowment.org/2021/06/17/chinese-russian-defense-cooperation-is-more-flash-than-bang-pub-84787|url-status=live}}</ref> Russia and China officially declared their relations 'Not allies, but better than allies'.<ref>{{cite news |title=Russia and China: 'Not allies, but better than allies' |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/russia-and-china-not-allies-but-better-than-allies/articleshow/84437525.cms |newspaper=The Economic Times |access-date=15 July 2021 |archive-date=10 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221210223527/https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/russia-and-china-not-allies-but-better-than-allies/articleshow/84437525.cms |url-status=live }}</ref> The relations between the two countries are currently being put to the test after [[Russian invasion of Ukraine|Russia invading Ukraine]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Aitken |first=Peter |date=2022-02-23 |title=Chinese media accidentally posts CCP rules on Russia-Ukraine coverage, hint at Taiwan takeover |url=https://www.foxnews.com/world/chinese-news-media-rules-russia-ukraine-coverage |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=[[Fox News]] |language=en-US |archive-date=23 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220223153157/https://www.foxnews.com/world/chinese-news-media-rules-russia-ukraine-coverage |url-status=live }}</ref> Unlike in the Soviet era, Putin ruled Russia is increasingly China's "junior partner".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Long |first=Katherine |date=21 March 2023 |title=Meet China's 'junior partner' |url=https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2023/03/21/chinas-new-era-with-its-junior-partner-00088193 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430091522/https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2023/03/21/chinas-new-era-with-its-junior-partner-00088193 |archive-date=30 April 2023 |access-date=2023-04-30 |website=POLITICO}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Leonhardt |first=David |date=2022-03-08 |title=China's Russia Problem |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/08/briefing/china-russia-xi-jinping-vladimir-putin.html |access-date=2023-04-30 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=30 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430091522/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/08/briefing/china-russia-xi-jinping-vladimir-putin.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Cuba ===
{{Main|Special Period|Dollarization of Cuba}}
{{See also|United States embargo against 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<ref>{{cite book |last=Henken |first=Ted |date=2008 |title=Cuba: A Global Studies Handbook |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mv7anQoCbzgC&pg=PT467 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=438 |isbn=9781851099849 |access-date=30 June 2014 |via=[[Google Books]] |archive-date=24 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124205854/https://books.google.com/books?id=Mv7anQoCbzgC&pg=PT467 |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://culanth.org/fieldsights/1084-there-is-no-food-coping-with-food-scarcity-in-cuba-today |title="There is no food": Coping with Food Scarcity in Cuba Today |first=Hanna |last=Garth |publisher=[[Society for Cultural Anthropology]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170613221118/https://culanth.org/fieldsights/1084-there-is-no-food-coping-with-food-scarcity-in-cuba-today |date=23 March 2017 |archive-date=13 June 2017 |access-date=9 August 2020 }}</ref>

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.<ref name=":0a">{{Cite magazine |last=Kozameh |first=Sara |title=How Cuba Survived and Surprised in a Post-Soviet World |url=https://jacobinmag.com/2021/01/we-are-cuba-review-socialism-soviet-union |date=30 January 2021 |magazine=[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]] |access-date=27 June 2023 |archive-date=2 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210202211848/https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/01/we-are-cuba-review-socialism-soviet-union |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/01/will-cuba-rejoin-the-imf/|title=Will Cuba rejoin the IMF?|website=World Economic Forum|date=9 January 2015|access-date=2018-10-19|archive-date=30 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221030202211/https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/01/will-cuba-rejoin-the-imf/|url-status=live}}</ref> After assessing the economic situation in the country they concluded that from 1989 to 1993, Cuba's economic decline was more grave than that experienced by any other [[Socialism|socialist]] [[Eastern Europe]]an country.<ref name=":1b">{{Cite news|url=https://www.ascecuba.org/asce_proceedings/cuba-1990-1994-political-intransigence-versus-economic-reform/|title=Cuba 1990–1994: Political Intransigence versus Economic Reform - ASCE|work=ASCE|access-date=2018-10-18|language=en-US|archive-date=30 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221030203710/https://www.ascecuba.org/asce_proceedings/cuba-1990-1994-political-intransigence-versus-economic-reform/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1993 a series 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]] in 1991.<ref name=":0b">{{Cite news|url=https://www.ascecuba.org/asce_proceedings/output-and-productivity-in-cuba-collapse-recovery-and-muddling-through-to-the-crossroads/|title=Output and Productivity in Cuba: Collapse, Recovery, and Muddling Through to the Crossroads - ASCE|work=ASCE|access-date=2018-10-29|language=en-US|archive-date=30 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221030221658/https://www.ascecuba.org/asce_proceedings/output-and-productivity-in-cuba-collapse-recovery-and-muddling-through-to-the-crossroads/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The main aspect of these reforms was to legalize the then illegal U.S. Dollar and regulate its usage in the island's economy.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ascecuba.org/c/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/v09-kil_orro.pdf |title=Dollarization in Cuba and implications for the future transition |last1=Roberto |first1=Fernandez |last2=Kildegaard |first2=Ane |website=ascecuba.org |publisher=Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy |access-date=October 25, 2022 |archive-date=20 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120054312/https://www.ascecuba.org/c/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/v09-kil_orro.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== North Korea ===
{{Main|1990s North Korean famine}}

When the Soviet Union dissolved, it ended all aid and trade concessions such as cheap oil to North Korea.<ref>Noland, Marcus, Sherman Robinson and Tao Wang, [http://www.iie.com/publications/wp/99-2.pdf Famine in North Korea: Causes and Cures] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706214340/http://www.iie.com/publications/wp/99-2.pdf |date=2011-07-06 }}, ''Institute for International Economics''.</ref> Without Soviet aid, the flow of imports to the North Korean agricultural sector ended, and the government proved to be too inflexible to respond.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Hunger and human rights: the politics of famine in North Korea|last=Stephan.|first=Haggard|date=2005|publisher=U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea|others=Noland, Marcus, 1959-, Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.|isbn=978-0977111107|edition=1st|location=Washington, DC|oclc=64390356}}</ref> Energy imports fell by 75%.<ref>{{Cite book| last1= Oberdorfer| first1=Don| last2=Carlin| first2=Robert | title=The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History | publisher = Basic Books| year = 2014 | page = 181 | isbn = 9780465031238 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Two_Koreas/lfMWBQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA181 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book | title = Nothing to Envy: Love, Life and Death in North Korea | last = Demick | first = Barbara | author-link = Barbara Demick | year = 2010 | publisher = Fourth Estate | location = Sydney| isbn = 9780732286613 |page=67}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book| last1= Oberdorfer| first1=Don| last2=Carlin| first2=Robert | title=The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History | publisher = Basic Books| year = 2014 | page = 308 | isbn = 9780465031238 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Two_Koreas/lfMWBQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA308&printsec=frontcover }}</ref>

=== Israel ===
{{Main|1990s post-Soviet aliyah}}
Between 1989 and 2006, about 1.6 million Soviet Jews and their non-Jewish spouses and their relatives, as defined by the [[Law of Return]], emigrated from the former Soviet Union. About 979,000, or 61%, migrated to Israel.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Maltz |first=Judy |title=A special Haaretz interactive project marking 25 years since the Soviet Union let the Jewish people go |url=http://www.haaretz.com/st/c/prod/eng/25yrs_russ_img/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221211113207/http://www.haaretz.com/st/c/prod/eng/25yrs_russ_img/ |archive-date=Dec 11, 2022 |website=Haaretz}}</ref>

===Afghanistan===
{{main|Afghan Civil War (1989–1992)}}
As the Soviet Union began to disintegrate, it also lost support to [[Mohammad Najibullah]]'s regime in [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]] following the [[Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan|withdrawal]] in 1989.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ariananews.co/news/26-%D8%AF%D9%84%D9%88-%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B2-%D8%AE%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%AC-%D9%86%DB%8C%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AA%D8%B4-%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%AE-%D8%A7%D8%B2-%D8%A7%D9%81/|title=26 دلو سالروز خروج نیروهای ارتش سرخ از افغانستان|date=14 February 2012|website=خبرگزاری آریانا نیوز|access-date=28 July 2023|archive-date=28 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230728032532/https://ariananews.co/news/26-%D8%AF%D9%84%D9%88-%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B2-%D8%AE%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%AC-%D9%86%DB%8C%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AA%D8%B4-%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%AE-%D8%A7%D8%B2-%D8%A7%D9%81/|url-status=live}}</ref> The end of [[Soviet–Afghan War|Soviet war in Afghanistan]] would lead into a continuing [[Afghan Civil War (1992–1996)|multi-sided civil war]], only for the [[Taliban]] to rise in 1996. Because of 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]] following the [[September 11 attacks]] in 2001, only to end with the US' withdrawal in 2021 and the Taliban [[Fall of Kabul (2021)|regaining control of Afghanistan]].

=== 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]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://en.rfs.ru/rfs/information/general/history/ |title=History of the Football Union of Russia |access-date=4 June 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160909203359/http://en.rfs.ru/rfs/information/general/history/ |archive-date=9 September 2016 |website=Russian Football Union}}</ref>

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]], [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], [[Kazakhstan]], [[Kyrgyzstan]], [[Moldova]], Russia, [[Tajikistan]], [[Turkmenistan]], [[Ukraine]], 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.olympic.org/barcelona-1992|title=Barcelona 1992 Summer Olympics - results & video highlights|date=23 November 2018|access-date=14 December 2018|archive-date=14 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200514172015/https://www.olympic.org/barcelona-1992|url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.olympic.org/albertville-1992|title=Albertville 1992 Winter Olympics - results & video highlights|date=3 October 2018|access-date=14 December 2018|archive-date=12 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200512132006/https://www.olympic.org/albertville-1992|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== 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]] and [[Kazakhstan]]. Between 1993 and 1997, many newly independent republics implemented their own [[Telephone numbering plan|numbering plans]] such as [[Belarus]] ([[Telephone numbers in Belarus|+375]]) and [[Ukraine]] ([[Telephone numbers in Ukraine|+380]]).{{citation needed|date=January 2019}} The [[Domain name|Internet domain]] ''[[.su]]'' remains in use alongside the internet domains of the newly created countries.

=== Glasnost and "Memorial" ===
{{See also|Decommunization}}
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 ==
{{see also|Parade of sovereignties}}
''States with [[List of states with limited recognition|limited recognition]] are shown in italics.''
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="margin:1em auto;"
! width="240"|Subdivision
! Sovereignty proclaimed
! Renamed
! Independence proclaimed
! Secession recognized
|-
! style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flag|Estonian SSR}}
| style="text-align:center"| [[Estonian Sovereignty Declaration|16 November 1988]]
| style="background:#EEEEEE"|{{small|since 8 May 1990:<br />'''{{flag|Estonia|name=Republic of Estonia}}'''}}
| style="text-align:center"| [[Estonian Restoration of Independence|8 May 1990]]
| rowspan="3" style="text-align:center;" |6 September 1991
|-
! style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"|{{flag|Lithuanian SSR}}
| style="text-align:center"| 26 May 1989
|style="background:#EEEEEE"|<small>since 11 March 1990:<br />'''{{flag|Lithuania|1988|name=Republic of Lithuania}}'''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| [[Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania|11 March 1990]]
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flag|Latvian SSR}}
| style="text-align:center"| 28 July 1989
|style="background:#EEEEEE"|<small>since 4 May 1990:<br />'''{{flag|Latvia|name=Republic of Latvia}}'''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| [[On the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia|4 May 1990]]
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flag|Azerbaijan SSR}}
| style="text-align:center"| 23 September 1989
|style="background:#EEEEEE"|<small>since 5 February 1991:<br />'''{{flag|Azerbaijan|1918|name=Republic of Azerbaijan}}'''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| [[Day of Restoration of Independence (Azerbaijan)|18 October 1991]]
| {{center|26 December 1991}}
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| ''{{nobold|{{flag|Nakhichevan ASSR}}}}''
| style="text-align:center"| 23 September 1989{{Efn|As part of the Azerbaijan SSR.}}
|style="background:#EEEEEE"|<small>since 17 November 1990:<br />''{{flag|Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic|1991}}''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| 19 January 1990
| {{no|{{small|''Peacefully reincorporated into Azerbaijan<br />under [[Heydar Aliyev]] in 1993''}}}}
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flagdeco|Moldavian SSR}} ''{{nobold|[[Gagauz Republic|Gagauz ASSR]]}}''
| style="text-align:center"| 12 November 1989
|style="background:#EEEEEE"| <small>since 19 August 1990:<br />{{flagdeco|Gagauzia|1990}} ''[[Gagauz Republic]]''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| 26 December 1991{{Efn|Only declared secession from the Moldavian SSR as a separate republic of the Soviet Union; remained a ''de facto'' independent state following the final Soviet collapse until reintegration.}}
| {{no|{{small|''Peacefully reincorporated into Moldova<br />with [[Gagauzia|an autonomous status]] on 14 January 1995''}}}}
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flag|Georgian SSR}}
| style="text-align:center"| 26 May 1990
|style="background:#EEEEEE"|<small>since 14 November 1990:<br />'''{{flag|Georgia|1990|name=Republic of Georgia}}'''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| [[Independence Day (Georgia)|9 April 1991]]
| rowspan="9" style="text-align:center;" | 26 December 1991
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flag|Russian SFSR}}
| style="text-align:center"| [[Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|12 June 1990]]
| style="background:#EEEEEE"| <small>since 25 December 1991:<br />'''{{flag|Russia|1991|name=Russian Federation}}'''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| [[Belovezha Accords|12 December 1991]]
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flag|Uzbek SSR}}
| style="text-align:center"| 20 June 1990
|style="background:#EEEEEE"|<small>since 31 August 1991:<br />'''{{flag|Uzbekistan|name=Republic of Uzbekistan}}'''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| [[Independence Day (Uzbekistan)|1 September 1991]]
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flag|Moldavian SSR}}{{Efn|Renamed ''SSR of Moldova'' in its Declaration of Sovereignty.}}
| style="text-align:center"| 23 June 1990
|style="background:#EEEEEE"| <small>since 23 May 1991:<br />'''{{flag|Moldova|name=Republic of Moldova}}'''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| [[Moldovan Declaration of Independence|27 August 1991]]
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flag|Ukrainian SSR}}
| style="text-align:center"| [[Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine|16 July 1990]]
|style="background:#EEEEEE"| <small>since 24 August 1991:<br />'''{{flag|Ukraine|1991}}'''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| [[Declaration of Independence of Ukraine|24 August 1991]]
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flag|Byelorussian SSR}}
| style="text-align:center"| [[Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic|27 July 1990]]
|style="background:#EEEEEE"| <small>since 19 September 1991:<br />'''{{flag|Belarus|1991|name=Republic of Belarus}}'''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| [[Belovezha Accords|25 August 1991]]
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flag|Turkmen SSR}}
| style="text-align:center"| 22 August 1990
|style="background:#EEEEEE"| <small>since 27 October 1991:<br />'''{{flag|Turkmenistan|1991}}'''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| [[Independence Day (Turkmenistan)|27 October 1991]]
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flag|Armenian SSR}}
| style="text-align:center"| [[Declaration of State Sovereignty of Armenia|23 August 1990]]
|style="background:#EEEEEE"| <small>since 23 August 1990:<br />'''{{flag|Armenia|name=Republic of Armenia}}'''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| [[1991 Armenian independence referendum|21 September 1991]]
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flag|Tajik SSR}}
| style="text-align:center"| 24 August 1990
|style="background:#EEEEEE"| <small>since 31 August 1991:<br />'''{{flag|Tajikistan|1991|name=Republic of Tajikistan}}'''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| [[Independence Day (Tajikistan)|9 September 1991]]
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| ''{{nobold|{{flag|Abkhaz ASSR}}}}''
| style="text-align:center"| 25 August 1990
|style="background:#EEEEEE"| <small>since 23 July 1992:<br />''{{flag|Abkhazia|Republic|name=Republic of Abkhazia}}''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| 23 July 1992{{Efn|Seceded from Georgia.}}
| {{n/a|''[[International recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia|Limited recognition since 2008]]''}} 
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flagicon image|Flag of Tatar ASSR.svg}} ''{{nobold|[[Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Tatar ASSR]]}}''
| style="text-align:center"| 30 August 1990
|style="background:#EEEEEE"| <small>since 7 February 1992:<br />{{flagdeco|Tatarstan}} ''[[Tatarstan#Modern times|Republic of Tatarstan]]''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| [[1992 Tatarstani sovereignty referendum|21 March 1992]]{{Efn|Seceded from Russia.}}
| {{no|{{small|''Peacefully reincorporated into Russia<br />with autonomy on 15 February 1994''}}}}
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flagdeco|Moldavian SSR}} ''{{nobold|[[Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic|Pridnestrovian Moldavian SSR]]}}''
| style="text-align:center"| [[1989–1990 Transnistrian referendum|2 September 1990]]
|style="background:#EEEEEE"| <small>since 5 November 1991:<br />''{{flag|Transnistria|name=Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic}}''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| [[1991 Transnistrian independence referendum|25 August 1991]]
| {{n/a|''Not recognized''}}
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flag|Kazakh SSR}}
| style="text-align:center"| 25 October 1990
|style="background:#EEEEEE"| <small>since 10 December 1991:<br />'''{{flag|Kazakhstan|1991|name=Republic of Kazakhstan}}'''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| [[Independence Day (Kazakhstan)|16 December 1991]]
| {{center|26 December 1991}}
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flagicon image|Flag of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR.svg}} ''{{nobold|[[Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Checheno-Ingush ASSR]]}}''
| style="text-align:center"| 27 November 1990
|style="background:#EEEEEE"| <small>since 8 June 1991:<br />''{{flag|Chechen Republic of Ichkeria|name=Chechen Republic}}''</small>{{Efn|''{{flag|Chechen Republic of Ichkeria}}'' in 1994–2000. It was not internationally recognized, with Russia supporting another government of its ''de jure'' autonomous Chechen Republic in 1993–96, until partially recognizing the government of Ichkeria. After not having any recognized government in 1991–93 and in 1996–99, the Chechen Republic was restored as an autonomous part of the Russian Federation under [[Akhmat Kadyrov]].}}
| style="text-align:center"| 1 November 1991
| {{no|{{small|''{{nowrap|Disestablished in 1999–2000 during<br />the [[Second Chechen War]]}}''}}}}
|- 
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flagdeco|Georgian SSR}} ''{{nobold|[[South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast|South Ossetian AO]]}}''{{Efn|Full name is "''South Ossetian Soviet Republic''" since 28 November 1990; initially it was called "''South Ossetian Soviet Democratic Republic''".}}
| style="text-align:center"| 20 September 1990{{Efn|Previously called for an autonomy status inside the Georgian SSR as the South Ossetian ASSR since 10 November 1989.}}
|style="background:#EEEEEE"| <small>since 18 November 1991:<br />''{{flag|South Ossetia|name=Republic of South Ossetia}}''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| 29 May 1992
| {{n/a|''[[International recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia|Limited recognition since 2008]]''}} 
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flagicon image|Flag of Karakalpak ASSR.svg}} ''{{nobold|[[Karakalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Karakalpak ASSR]]}}''
| style="text-align:center"| 14 December 1990
|style="background:#EEEEEE"|<small>since 9 January 1992:<br />''{{flagicon image|Flag of Karakalpak ASSR.svg}} [[Karakalpakstan|Republic of Karakalpakstan]]''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| 9 January 1992{{Efn|Seceded from Uzbekistan.}}
| {{no|{{small|''Peacefully reincorporated into Uzbekistan<br />with autonomy on 9 January 1993''}}}} 
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flag|Kirghiz SSR}}
| style="text-align:center"| 15 December 1990
|style="background:#EEEEEE"|<small>since 5 February 1991:<br />'''{{flag|Kyrgyzstan|1991|name=Republic of Kyrgyzstan}}'''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| [[Independence Day (Kyrgyzstan)|31 August 1991]]
| {{center|26 December 1991}}
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flagdeco|Ukrainian SSR}} ''{{nobold|[[Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1991–1992)|Crimean ASSR]]}}''
| style="text-align:center"| 12 February 1991
|style="background:#EEEEEE"| <small>since 26 February 1992:<br />''{{flagdeco|Crimea}} [[Republic of Crimea (1992–1995)|Republic of Crimea]]''{{Efn|''Autonomous Republic of Crimea'' in 1998–2014.}}</small>
| style="text-align:center"| 5 May 1992{{Efn|Proclaimed self-governance.}} {{small|(first attempt)}}<br />[[Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Crimea|11 March 2014]]{{Efn|Seceded Ukraine.}} {{small|(second attempt)}}
| {{n/a|{{small|''Peacefully rejoined Ukraine on 6 May 1992, gaining autonomy in 1998;<br />[[Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation|Incorporated]] into Russia in March 2014, following a [[2014 Crimean status referendum|referendum]] with [[Political status of Crimea|limited recognition]]''}}}}
|-
!style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| {{flagdeco|Azerbaijan SSR}} ''{{nobold|[[Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast|Nagorno-Karabakh AO]]}}''
| style="text-align:center"| 2 September 1991
|style="background:#EEEEEE; text-align:left"| <small>since 2 September 1991:<br />{{flagdeco|Armenia}} ''[[Republic of Artsakh|Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh]]''</small>
| style="text-align:center"| 6 January 1992
| {{no|{{small|''[[2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh|Reincorporated]] into Azerbaijan in 2023 after a<br />decades-long [[Nagorno-Karabakh conflict|ethnic conflict]] with [[Armenians]]''}}}}

|}

== Legacy ==
{{Main|Post-Soviet states}}
{{further|Nostalgia for the Soviet Union|Succession, continuity and legacy of the Soviet Union}}
[[File:USSR Map timeline.gif|thumb|right|upright=1.35|Animated map showing independent states and territorial changes to the Soviet Union in chronological order]]

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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Former Soviet Countries See More Harm From Breakup |url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/166538/former-soviet-countries-harm-breakup.aspx |publisher=Gallup |date=19 December 2013 |access-date=20 December 2018 |archive-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111230251/https://news.gallup.com/poll/166538/former-soviet-countries-harm-breakup.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |last=Balmforth |first=Tom |date=19 December 2018 |title=Russian nostalgia for Soviet Union reaches 13-year high |work=[[Reuters]] |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-politics-sovietunion/russian-nostalgia-for-soviet-union-reaches-13-year-high-idUSKBN1OI20Q |access-date=31 January 2019 |archive-date=10 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201210195537/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-politics-sovietunion/russian-nostalgia-for-soviet-union-reaches-13-year-high-idUSKBN1OI20Q |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2005, Russian president [[Vladimir Putin]] called the dissolution of the USSR as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2005/04/25/2031_type70029type82912_87086.shtml|title=2005 Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly|access-date=24 July 2022|archive-date=29 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150329140607/http://archive.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2005/04/25/2031_type70029type82912_87086.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In a similar poll held in February 2005, 50% of respondents in Ukraine stated they regretted the disintegration of the Soviet Union.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120616043508/http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/20626/russians_ukrainians_evoke_soviet_union/ "Russians, Ukrainians Evoke Soviet Union"]}}, [[Angus Reid Global Monitor]] (01/02/05)</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ratinggroup.ua/research/ukraine/c910ad1d40079f7a2a28377c27494738.html/|title=Динаміка ностальгії за СРСР|website=ratinggroup.ua|access-date=5 June 2017|archive-date=7 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170607225755/http://ratinggroup.ua/research/ukraine/c910ad1d40079f7a2a28377c27494738.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:2018-05-09. День Победы в Донецке f171.jpg|thumb|Pro-Russian separatists in [[Donetsk]] celebrating the [[Victory Day (9 May)|Soviet victory]] over [[Nazi Germany]], 9 May 2018]]
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]],<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/966616.stm "Child poverty soars in eastern Europe"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912021554/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/966616.stm |date=12 September 2017 }}, BBC News, 11 October 2000</ref> which was even worse than the [[Great Depression]].<ref>[https://archive.today/20120530044004/http://worldbank.org/transitionnewsletter/janfeb2002 "What Can Transition Economies Learn from the First Ten Years? A New World Bank Report"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230107200302/https://archive.today/20120530044004/http://worldbank.org/transitionnewsletter/janfeb2002 |date=7 January 2023 }}, ''Transition Newsletter'', World Bank, [http://www.k-a.kg/?nid=5&value=6 K-A.kg] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220015055/http://www.k-a.kg/?nid=5&value=6 |date=20 February 2012 }}</ref><ref name="Russia">[https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/08/books/who-lost-russia.html "Who Lost Russia?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180729141454/https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/08/books/who-lost-russia.html |date=29 July 2018 }}, ''The New York Times'', 8 October 2000</ref> An estimated seven million premature deaths took place in the former USSR after it collapsed, with around four million in Russia alone.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Azarova |first1=Aytalina |last2=Irdam |first2=Darja |last3=Gugushvili |first3=Alexi |last4=Fazekas |first4=Mihaly |last5=Scheiring |first5=Gábor |last6=Horvat |first6=Pia |last7=Stefler |first7=Denes |last8=Kolesnikova |first8=Irina |last9=Popov |first9=Vladimir |last10=Szelenyi |first10=Ivan |last11=Stuckler |first11=David |last12=Marmot |first12=Michael |last13=Murphy |first13=Michael |last14=McKee |first14=Martin |last15=Bobak |first15=Martin |date=1 May 2017 |title=The effect of rapid privatisation on mortality in mono-industrial towns in post-Soviet Russia: a retrospective cohort study |journal=The Lancet Public Health |language=en |volume=2 |issue=5 |pages=e231–e238 |doi=10.1016/S2468-2667(17)30072-5 |issn=2468-2667 |pmc=5459934 |pmid=28626827 |doi-access=free |last16=King |first16=Lawrence}}</ref> [[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.<ref>{{cite book| last =Scheidel| first =Walter| author-link =Walter Scheidel| title =The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century| publisher =[[Princeton University Press]]| year =2017| isbn =978-0691165028| page =222| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=NgZpDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA222| access-date =7 October 2020| archive-date =24 January 2023| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20230124205855/https://books.google.com/books?id=NgZpDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA222| url-status =live}}</ref> Even before the [[1998 Russian financial crisis]], the Russian GDP was half of what it had been in the early 1990s.<ref name="Russia" /> By 1999, around 191 million people in post-Soviet states and former Eastern Bloc countries were living on less than $5.50 a day.<ref>{{cite book  |last1=Ghodsee|first1=Kristen|last2=Orenstein|first2=Mitchell A.|author-link1=Kristen Ghodsee|date=2021|title=Taking Stock of Shock: Social Consequences of the 1989 Revolutions|location=New York|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|page=43|doi=10.1093/oso/9780197549230.001.0001 |isbn=978-0197549247}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2mhvEuGHLI|title=Richard Nixon on "Inside Washington"|date=6 April 2015|access-date=25 May 2020|time=4:20|publisher=Inside Washington, [[Seoul Broadcasting System]], [[Richard V. Allen]]|via=[[Richard Nixon Foundation]], [[YouTube]]|archive-date=7 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407024749/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2mhvEuGHLI|url-status=live}} 30 March 1992.</ref>{{better source needed|date=June 2021}} Khrushchev's son [[Sergei Khrushchev]] became 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]] 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.

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]].<ref name="melt">{{cite news|first=Ian|last=Cummins|title=The Great Meltdown|work=The Australian|date=23 December 1995}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Gorbachev Factor|last=Brown|first=Archie|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1997|isbn=978-0-19288-052-9|location=Oxford|url=https://archive.org/details/gorbachevfactor00brow_0}}</ref> That was especially true of the policies of ''[[perestroika]]'' and ''[[glasnost]]'', 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".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Gorbachev and Yeltsin as Leaders|last=Breslauer|first=George|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2002|isbn=978-0521892445|location=Cambridge|pages=274–275}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kotz, David and Fred Weir|title=The Collapse of the Soviet Union was a Revolution from Above|journal=The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union|pages=155–164}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Dissolution: Sovereignty and the Breakup of the Soviet Union|last=Edward|first=Walker|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|year=2003 |isbn= 978-0-74252-453-8|location=Oxford|page=185|url=https://archive.org/details/dissolutionsover00walk}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{Cite web |agency=Associated Press |date=25 January 2016 |title=Vladimir Putin accuses Lenin of placing a 'time bomb' under Russia |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/25/vladmir-putin-accuses-lenin-of-placing-a-time-bomb-under-russia |access-date=28 March 2022 |website=The Guardian |language=en |archive-date=30 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220330120900/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/25/vladmir-putin-accuses-lenin-of-placing-a-time-bomb-under-russia |url-status=live }}</ref>

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."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.history.com/news/chernobyl-disaster-timeline|title=Chernobyl Disaster: The Meltdown by the Minute|first=Jesse|last=Greenspan|website=HISTORY|access-date=9 August 2020|archive-date=24 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924030437/https://www.history.com/news/chernobyl-disaster-timeline|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Japan Times|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2006/04/21/commentary/world-commentary/turning-point-at-chernobyl/|title=Turning point at Chernobyl|first=Mikhail|last=Gorbachev|date=21 April 2006|access-date=9 August 2020|archive-date=5 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805202658/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2006/04/21/commentary/world-commentary/turning-point-at-chernobyl/|url-status=live}}</ref>

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:<blockquote>Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate? Why did the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] 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!<ref name="journalofdemocracy.org">{{Cite web|title=30 Years After Tiananmen: Memory in the Era of Xi Jinping|url=https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/30-years-after-tiananmen-memory-in-the-era-of-xi-jinping/|access-date=2020-12-11|website=Journal of Democracy|language=en-US|archive-date=13 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220913154055/https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/30-years-after-tiananmen-memory-in-the-era-of-xi-jinping/|url-status=live}}</ref></blockquote>

According to political scientists [[Steven Levitsky]] and Lucan Way in their book In ''Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism'' (2022), the cohesion of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU) leadership had declined by the 1980s. Most party leaders were born after the Soviet Union's origins during the [[Russian Civil War]], and memories of the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front during World War II]] were fading.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Steven|last1=Levitsky|last2=Way|first2=Lucan|date=13 September 2022 |title=Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism |publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0691169521}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{div col}}
* [[1980s oil glut]]
* [[American decline]]
* [[Breakup of Yugoslavia]]
* [[Dissolution of Czechoslovakia]]
* [[Dissolution of the Russian Empire]]
* [[German reunification]]
* [[History of the Soviet Union (1982–91)]]
* [[History of Russia (1991–present)]]
* [[Predictions of Soviet collapse]]
* [[Post-Soviet studies]]
* [[Russian money in London]]
* [[Separatism in Russia]]
* [[Strong dollar policy]]
* [[Superpower collapse]]
* [[Yemeni reunification]]
* [[Fall of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia|Fall of Socialism in Ethiopia]]
* ''[[The Commanding Heights]]'' (book){{div col end}}

== Notes ==
{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
{{See also|Bibliography of the Post Stalinist Soviet Union#The Dissolution of the Soviet Union and Bloc}}
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Aron, Leon (2000). ''Boris Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life''. HarperCollins. {{ISBN|0-00-653041-9}}.
* {{cite journal |last1=Aron |first1=Leon Rabinovich |date=25 April 2006 |title=The 'Mystery' of the Soviet Collapse |journal=Journal of Democracy |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=21–35 |doi=10.1353/jod.2006.0022 |s2cid=144642549 |url=https://contact.iet.ru/files/text/guest/Aron/2006_17.pdf |access-date=23 September 2018 |language=en |issn=1086-3214 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180923200627/https://contact.iet.ru/files/text/guest/Aron/2006_17.pdf |archive-date=23 September 2018 |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Beissinger |first1=Mark R. |s2cid=46642309 |title=Nationalism and the Collapse of Soviet Communism |journal=Contemporary European History |date=2009 |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=331–347 |doi=10.1017/S0960777309005074 |jstor = 40542830 |language=en |issn=1469-2171}}
* {{cite book |last1=Boughton |first1=J. M. |date=1999 |chapter=After the Fall: Building Nations Out of the Soviet Union |chapter-url=http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/history/2012/pdf/c8.pdf |title=Tearing Down Walls: The International Monetary Fund 1990 |publisher=[[International Monetary Fund]] |pages=349–408 |access-date=8 March 2015 |archive-date=18 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141218011643/http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/history/2012/pdf/c8.pdf |url-status=live }}
* [[Archie Brown (historian)|Brown, Archie]]. ''The Gorbachev Factor''. Oxford University Press (1997). {{ISBN|978-0-19288-052-9}}.
* {{cite journal |last1=Cohen |first1=Stephen F. |author-link1=Stephen F. Cohen |title=Was the Soviet System Reformable? |journal=Slavic Review |date=27 January 2017 |volume=63 |issue=3 |pages=459–488 |doi=10.2307/1520337 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/slavic-review/article/abstracts/ADA2625B6EEA4035C6B77383D41730F9 |access-date=23 September 2018 |language=en |issn=0037-6779 |jstor=1520337 |s2cid=163376578 |archive-date=23 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180923200558/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/slavic-review/article/abstracts/ADA2625B6EEA4035C6B77383D41730F9 |url-status=live }}
* Crawshaw, Steve (1992). ''Goodbye to the USSR: The Collapse of Soviet Power''. Bloomsbury. {{ISBN|0-7475-1561-1}}
* {{cite journal |ref=Dallin2013 |last1=Dallin |first1=Alexander |title=Causes of the Collapse of the USSR |journal=Post-Soviet Affairs |date=October 1992 |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=279–302  |doi=10.1080/1060586X.1992.10641355 |language=en |issn=1060-586X}}
* Dawisha, Karen & Parrott, Bruce (editors) (1997). ''Conflict, cleavage, and change in Central Asia and the Caucasus''. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-59731-5}}.
* [[Thomas de Waal|de Waal, Thomas]]. ''Black Garden''. NYU (2003). {{ISBN|0-8147-1945-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Dobbs |first=Michael |title=Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire |publisher=Vintage Books |year=1998 |location=New York |isbn=978-0-307-77316-6}}
* Efremenko, Dmitry (2019). ''Perestroika and the 'Dashing Nineties': At the Crossroads of History'' //  [http://inion.ru/site/assets/files/3500/2019_ss_rossiiskie_geostrategicheskie_imperativy.pdf ''Russian Geostrategic Imperatives: Collection of essays''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412040722/http://inion.ru/site/assets/files/3500/2019_ss_rossiiskie_geostrategicheskie_imperativy.pdf |date=12 April 2019 }} / Russian Academy of Sciences. Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences. Moscow. pp.&nbsp;112–126. 
* [[Mikhail Gorbachev|Gorbachev, Mikhail]] (1995). ''Memoirs''. Doubleday. {{ISBN|0-385-40668-1}}.
* Gvosdev, Nikolas K., ed. (2008). ''The Strange Death of Soviet Communism: A Post-Script''. Transaction Publishers. {{ISBN|978-1-41280-698-5}}
* Kotkin, Stephen (2008). ''Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000'' (2nd ed.) [https://www.amazon.com/Armageddon-Averted-Soviet-Collapse-1970-2000-dp-0195368649/dp/0195368649/ excerpt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211031133512/https://www.amazon.com/Armageddon-Averted-Soviet-Collapse-1970-2000-dp-0195368649/dp/0195368649/ |date=31 October 2021 }}
* 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.
* {{cite book |last=Martinez|first=Carlo |date=2020 |title=The End of the Beginning: Lessons of the Soviet collapse|url= |location= |publisher=[[LeftWord Books]] |isbn=978-9380118789}}
* {{cite journal |ref=Mayer2002 |last1=Mayer |first1=Tom |title=The Collapse of Soviet Communism: A Class Dynamics Interpretation |journal=Social Forces |date=1 March 2002 |volume=80 |issue=3 |pages=759–811 |doi=10.1353/sof.2002.0012 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/32075/summary |access-date=23 September 2018 |language=en |issn=0037-7732 |jstor=3086457 |citeseerx=10.1.1.846.4133 |hdl=hein.journals/josf80 |s2cid=144397576 |archive-date=23 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180923235128/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/32075/summary |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book|first=Chris|last=Miller|title=The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy: Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of the USSR|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CIkwDAAAQBAJ|date=13 October 2016|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-1-4696-3018-2}}
* [[Conor O'Clery|O'Clery, Conor]] (2011). ''Moscow 25 December 1991: The Last Day of the Soviet Union''. Transworld Ireland. {{ISBN|978-1-84827-112-8}}
* [[Serhii Plokhii|Plokhy, Serhii]] (2014). ''The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union''. Oneworld. {{ISBN|978-1-78074-646-3}}.
* {{cite journal |last1=Segrillo |first1=Angelo |author-link1=Angelo Segrillo |title=The Decline of the Soviet Union: A Hypothesis on Industrial Paradigms, Technological Revolutions and the Roots of Perestroika |journal=LEA Working Paper Series |date=December 2016 |issue=2 |pages=1–25 |url=http://lea.vitis.uspnet.usp.br/arquivos/artthedeclineofthesovietunionversionforLEAsite.pdf |access-date=23 September 2018 |archive-date=21 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221072715/http://lea.vitis.uspnet.usp.br/arquivos/artthedeclineofthesovietunionversionforLEAsite.pdf |url-status=live }}
* Strayer, Robert (1998). ''Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse? Understanding Historical Change''. M. E. Sharpe. {{ISBN|978-0-76560-004-2}}.
* Suny, Ronald (1993). ''Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union''. Stanford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-80472-247-6}}.
* Walker, Edward W. (2003). ''Dissolution: Sovereignty and the Breakup of the Soviet Union''. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. {{ISBN|978-0-74252-453-8}}.
* {{cite book |last=Zubok |first=Vladislav M. |author-link=Vladislav Zubok |date=2021 |title=Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union |url= |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-25730-4}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCltB4lB2-M U.S. television coverage of Mikhail Gorbachev's December 25, 1991 speech to the Soviet people ], Retrieved from YouTube on July 31, 2024
* [https://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/12/20-years-since-the-fall-of-the-soviet-union/100214/ Photographs of the fall of the USSR by photojournalist Alain-Pierre Hovasse, a first-hand witness of these events.]
* [http://library.gwu.edu/ead/ms2203.xml Guide to the James Hershberg poster collection] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010070730/http://library.gwu.edu/ead/ms2203.xml |date=10 October 2017 }}, 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".
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081122005246/http://www.thoughtequity.com/video/clip/5110171AA3013_047.do Lowering of the Soviet flag on December 25, 1991]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121215042851/http://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552510 U.S. Response to the End of the USSR] from the [https://web.archive.org/web/20120312181034/http://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552494/browse?type=title Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives]
* {{cite web|last=Miller|first=Chris|title=The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy|url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?424370-2/chris-miller-discusses-struggle-save-soviet-economy|publisher=C-Span|date=5 March 2017}}

{{Cold War}}
{{Eastern Bloc}}
{{1991 Independence of Ukraine}}
{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Soviet Union topics}}
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{{Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict}}
{{Boris Yeltsin}}
{{China topics}}
{{Secession in Countries}}
{{2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine}}
{{Portalbar|Soviet Union|1990s|History|Politics}}
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[[Category:History of the Soviet Union by period]]
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