Dissolution of The Soviet Union

Dissolution of the Soviet Union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union
Dissolution of the Soviet Union

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was formally enacted on December 26, 1991, as a result of the declaration no. 142- of the
Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union,[1] acknowledging the independence of the erstwhile Soviet republics and creating the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) although five of the signatories ratified it much later or not at all. On the previous day,
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, resigned, declared his office extinct, and handed
over its powers including control of the Soviet nuclear missile launching codes to Russian President Boris Yeltsin. That evening at
7:32 p.m., the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time and replaced with the pre-revolutionary Russian Flag.
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Previously, from August to December, all the individual republics, including Russia itself, had seceded from the union. The week before
the union's formal dissolution, 11 republics all except the Baltic states and Georgia signed the Alma-Ata Protocol formally
establishing the CIS and declaring that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist.[2][3] The dissolution of the Soviet Union(Russian:
) also signaled the end of the Cold War. The Revolutions of 1989 and the end of the Soviet Union led to the end of decades-long
hostility between North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact, the defining feature of the Cold War.
Tanks at Red Square during the 1991 Soviet coup

d'tat attempt
Date
Several of the former Soviet republics have retained close links with Russia and formed multilateral organizations such as the Eurasian
Economic Community, the Union State, the Eurasian Customs Union, and the Eurasian Economic Union to enhance economic and
security cooperation. Several of the those former Soviet republics have joined NATO and the European Union or aspire to do so, to
enhance their security and economic cooperation.
March 11, 1985 December 25, 1991

(6 years, 9 months, 2 weeks and 1 day)[1]
Location
Soviet Union
People of the Soviet Union
Federal government
Participants
Republican governments
Autonomous SSRs
Contents
Outcome
1 1985
1.1 Moscow: Mikhail Gorbachev, New General Secretary
2 1986
2.1 Sakharov
2.2 Baltic republics
2.2.1 Latvia's Helsinki-86
2.3 Central Asia
2.3.1 Kazakhstan: Jeltoqsan riots
3 1987
3.1 Moscow: One-party democracy
3.2 Baltic republics: MolotovRibbentrop protests
3.2.1 Latvia leads
3.2.2 Estonias first protests
3.3 The Caucasus
3.3.1 Armenia: Environmental concerns and Nagorno-Karabakh
4 1988
4.1 Moscow loses control
4.2 Baltic Republics
4.2.1 Estonian Popular Front
Dissolution of the Soviet Union into

independent republics
Post-Soviet states (alphabetical order)

1. Armenia
2. Azerbaijan
3. Belarus
4. Estonia
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5. Georgia
6. Kazakhstan
7. Kyrgyzstan
8. Latvia
9. Lithuania
10. Moldova
11. Russia
12. Tajikistan
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4.2.2 Latvian Popular Front

4.2.3 Lithuanias Sjdis
4.3 Rebellion in the Caucasus
4.3.1 Azerbaijan: Violence
4.3.2 Armenia: Uprising
4.3.3 Georgia: First demonstrations
4.4 The Western republics
4.4.1 Democratic Movement of Moldova
4.4.2 Demonstrations in Lviv, Ukraine
4.4.3 Kurapaty, Byelorussia
5 1989
5.1 Moscow: Limited democratization
5.1.1 Congress of Peoples Deputies of the Soviet Union
5.1.2 Loss of satellite states
5.2 Baltic "Chain of Freedom"
5.2.1 Lithuanias Communist Party splits
5.3 Caucasus
5.3.1 Azerbaijans blockade
5.3.2 Armenias Karabakh Committee released
5.3.3 Massacre in Tbilisi, Georgia
5.4.1 Popular Front of Moldova
5.4.2 Ukraines Rukh
5.4.3 Belarus: Kurapaty
5.5 Central Asian republics
5.5.1 Fergana, Uzbekistan
5.5.2 Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan
6 1990
6.1 Moscow loses six republics
6.2 Rivalry between USSR and RSFSR
6.3.1 Lithuania
6.3.2 Estonia
6.3.3 Latvia
6.4 Caucasus
6.4.1 Azerbaijans Black January
6.5.1 Ukraine
7 1991
7.1 Moscows Crisis
7.2 Russias President Boris Yeltsin
7.3.1 Lithuania
7.3.2 Latvia
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7.4 August Coup

7.5 The fall: AugustDecember 1991
8 Chronology of Declarations of Restored States
8.1 Before the coup
8.2 During the coup
9 Chronology of Declarations of Newly Independent States
9.1 Before the coup
9.2 After the coup
10 Legacy
10.1 United Nations membership
11 See also
12 References
13 Further reading
14 External links
1985
Moscow: Mikhail Gorbachev, New General Secretary
Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary by the Politburo on March 11, 1985, three hours after predecessor Konstantin Chernenko's death
at age 74. Gorbachev, aged 54, was the youngest member of the Politburo. His initial goal as general secretary was to revive the Soviet economy,
and he realized that doing so would require reforming underlying political and social structures.[4] The reforms began with personnel changes of
senior Brezhnev-era officials who would impede political and economic change.[5] On April 23, 1985, Gorbachev brought two proteges, Yegor
Ligachev and Nikolai Ryzhkov, into the Politburo as full members. He kept the "power" ministries happy by promoting KGB Head Viktor
Chebrikov from candidate to full member and appointing Minister of Defence Marshal Sergei Sokolov as a Politburo candidate.
This liberalization, however, fostered nationalist movements and ethnic disputes within the Soviet Union.[6] It also led indirectly to the revolutions
of 1989, in which Soviet-imposed communist regimes of the Warsaw Pact were peacefully toppled (Romania excepted),[7] 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 in 1989 introduced limited competitive elections to a new central legislature, the Congress of People's
Deputies[8] (although the ban on other political parties was not lifted until 1990).[9]
Mikhail Gorbachev (1987 photo)
In May 1985, Gorbachev delivered a speech in Leningrad advocating reforms and an anti-alcohol campaign to tackle widespread alcoholism. The
prices of vodka, wine, and beer were raised, and sales restricted.[10] It was a serious blow to the state budget, a loss of approximately 100 billion rubles according to Alexander Yakovlev,
and much alcohol production migrated to the black market.[10] The purpose of these reforms, however, was to prop up the existing centrally planned economy, unlike later reforms, which
tended toward market socialism.
On July 1, 1985, Gorbachev promoted Eduard Shevardnadze, First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party, to full member of the Politburo, and the following day appointed him
minister of foreign affairs, replacing longtime Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. The latter, disparaged as "Mr Nyet" in the West, had served for 28 years as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Gromyko was relegated to the largely ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (officially Soviet Head of State), as he was considered an "old thinker."
Also on July 1, Gorbachev took the opportunity to dispose of his main rival by removing Grigory Romanov from the Politburo, and brought Boris Yeltsin and Lev Zaikov into the CPSU
Central Committee Secretariat.
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In the fall of 1985, Gorbachev continued to bring younger and more energetic men into government. On September 27, Nikolai Ryzhkov replaced 79-year-old Nikolai Tikhonov as
Chairman of the Council of Ministers, effectively the Soviet prime minister, and on October 14, Nikolai Talyzin replaced Nikolai Baibakov as chairman of the State Planning Committee
(GOSPLAN). At the next Central Committee meeting on October 15 Tikhonov retired from the Politburo and Talyzin became a candidate. Finally, on December 23, 1985, Gorbachev
appointed Yeltsin First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party replacing Viktor Grishin.
1986
Sakharov
Gorbachev continued to press for greater liberalization. On December 23, 1986, the most prominent Soviet dissident, Andrei Sakharov, returned to Moscow shortly after receiving a
personal telephone call from Gorbachev telling him that after almost seven years his internal exile for defying the authorities was over.[11]
Baltic republics
The Baltic republics, forcibly reincorporated into the Soviet Union in 1944,[12] pressed for independence, beginning with Estonia in November 1988 when the Estonian legislature passed
laws resisting the control of the central government.[13]
Latvia's Helsinki-86
The CTAG (Latvian: Cilvktiesbu aizstvbas grupa, Human Rights Defense Group) Helsinki-86 was founded in July 1986 in the Latvian port town of
Liepja by three workers: Linards Granti, Raimonds Bitenieks, and Mrti Bariss. Its name refers to the human-rights statements of the Helsinki
Accords. Helsinki-86 was the first openly anti-Communist organization in the U.S.S.R., and the first openly organized opposition to the Soviet regime,
setting an example for other ethnic minorities' pro-independence movements.
On December 26, 1986, in the early morning hours after a rock concert, 300 working-class 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.[14]
Central Asia
Kazakhstan: Jeltoqsan riots
The "Jeltoqsan" (Kazakh for "December") of 1986 were riots in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, sparked by Gorbachev's dismissal of Dinmukhamed Konayev, the
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and an ethnic Kazakh, who was replaced with Gennady Kolbin, an outsider from the Russian
SFSR.[15] Demonstrations started in the morning of December 17, 1986, with 200 to 300 students in front of the Central Committee building on Brezhnev
Square protesting Konayev's dismissal and replacement by a Russian. Protesters swelled to 1,000 to 5,000 as other students joined the crowd. The CPK
Central Committee ordered troops from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, druzhiniki (volunteers), cadets, policemen, and the KGB to cordon the square and
videotape the participants. The situation escalated around 5 p.m., as troops were ordered to disperse the protesters. Clashes between the security forces and
the demonstrators continued throughout the night in Almaty.
Figure of Liberty on the
Freedom Monument in Riga,
focus of 1986 Latvian
demonstrations.
On the next day, December 18, 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. The Almaty events were followed by smaller protests and demonstrations in Shymkent, Pavlodar, Karaganda, and Taldykorgan. Reports
from Kazakh SSR authorities estimated that the riots drew 3,000 people.[16] Other estimates are of at least 30,000 to 40,000 protestors with 5,000 arrested and jailed, and an unknown
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number of casualties.[17] Jeltoqsan leaders say over 60,000 Kazakhs participated in the protests.[17][18] According to the Kazakh SSR government, there
were two deaths during the riots, including a volunteer police worker and a student. Both of them had died due to blows to the head. About 100 others were
detained and several others were sentenced to terms in labor camps.[19] Sources cited by the Library of Congress claimed that at least 200 people died or
were summarily executed soon thereafter; some accounts estimate casualties at more than 1,000. The writer Mukhtar Shakhanov claimed that a KGB
officer testified that 168 protesters were killed, but that figure remains unconfirmed.
1987
Moscow: One-party democracy
At the January 2830, 1987, Central Committee plenum, Gorbachev suggested a new policy of "Demokratizatsiya" throughout Soviet society. He proposed
that future Communist Party elections should offer a choice between multiple candidates, elected by secret ballot. However, the CPSU 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, stating that no subject was off-limits for open discussion in the media. Even so, the cautious
Soviet intelligentsia took almost a year to begin pushing the boundaries to see if he meant what he said. For the first time, the Communist Party leader had
appealed over the heads of Central Committee members for the people's support in exchange for expansion of liberties. The tactic proved successful:
Within two years political reform could no longer be sidetracked by Party "conservatives." An unintended consequence was that having saved reform,
Gorbachev's move ultimately killed the very system it was designed to save.[20]
The Dawn of Liberty

monument in Almaty
(Alma-Ata).
On February 7, 1987, dozens of political prisoners were freed in the first group release since Khrushchev's "thaw" in the mid-1950s.[21] On May 6, 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, head of the Moscow Communist Party and at the time one of Gorbachev's closest allies.[22] On July 25, 1987, 300 Crimean Tatars staged a noisy
demonstration near the Kremlin Wall for several hours, calling for the right to return to their homeland, from which they were deported in 1944; police and soldiers merely looked on.[23]
On September 10, 1987, after a lecture from hardliner Yegor Ligachev at the Politburo for allowing these two unsanctioned demonstrations in Moscow, Boris Yeltsin wrote a letter of
resignation to Gorbachev, who had been holidaying on the Black Sea.[24] Gorbachev was stunned no one had ever voluntarily resigned from the Politburo. At the October 27, 1987,
plenary meeting of the Central Committee, Yeltsin, frustrated that Gorbachev had not addressed any of the issues outlined in his resignation letter, criticized the slow pace of reform,
servility to the general secretary, and opposition from Ligachev that had led to his (Yeltsin's) resignation.[25] No one had ever addressed the Party leader so brazenly in front of the Central
Committee since Leon Trotsky in the 1920s.[25] In his reply, Gorbachev accused Yeltsin of "political immaturity" and "absolute irresponsibility." No one backed Yeltsin.
Nevertheless, news of Yeltsin's insubordination and "secret speech" spread, and soon samizdat versions began to circulate. This 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 USSR.[26] On
November 11, 1987, Yeltsin was fired from the post of First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party.
Baltic republics: MolotovRibbentrop protests

On August 23, 1987, on the 48th anniversary of the secret protocols of the 1939 Molotov Pact between Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin that ultimately turned the then-independent Baltic
states over to the Soviet Union, thousands of demonstrators marked the occasion in the three Baltic capitals to sing independence songs and listen to speeches commemorating Stalins
victims. The gatherings were sharply denounced in the official press and closely watched by the police, but were not interrupted.[27]
Latvia leads
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On June 14, 1987, about 5,000 people gathered again at Freedom Monument in Riga, and laid flowers to commemorate the anniversary of Stalin's mass deportation of Latvians in 1941.
This was the first large demonstration in the Baltic republics to commemorate the anniversary of an event contrary to official Soviet history. The authorities did not crack down on
demonstrators, which encouraged more and larger demonstrations throughout the Baltic States. The next major anniversary after the August 23 Molotov Pact demonstration was on
November 18, the date of Latvias independence in 1918. On November 18, 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.[28]
Estonias first protests
In spring 1987, a protest movement arose against new phosphate mines in Estonia. Signatures were collected in Tartu, and students assembled in the university's main hall to express lack
of confidence in the government. At a demonstration on May 1, 1987, young people showed up with banners and slogans despite an official ban. On August 15, 1987, former political
prisoners formed the MRP-AEG group (Estonians for the Public Disclosure of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), which was headed by Tiit Madisson. In September 1987, the Edasi
newspaper published a proposal by Edgar Savisaar, Siim Kallas, Tiit Made, and Mikk Titma calling for Estonia's transition to autonomy. Initially geared toward economic independence,
then toward a certain amount of political autonomy, the project, Isemajandav Eesti ("A Self-Managing Estonia") became known according to its Estonian acronym, IME, which means
"miracle". On October 21, a demonstration dedicated to those who gave their lives in the 19181920 Estonian War of Independence took place in Vru, which culminated in a conflict
with the militia. For the first time in years, the blue, black, and white national tricolor was publicly displayed.[29]
The Caucasus
Armenia: Environmental concerns and Nagorno-Karabakh
On October 17, 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. The demonstration was led by Armenian writers such as Silva Kaputikian, Zori Balayan, and Maro Margarian and leaders from the
National Survival organization. The march originated at the Opera Plaza after speakers, mainly intellectuals, addressed the crowd.
The following day 1,000 Armenians participated in another demonstration calling for Armenian national rights in Karabagh. The demonstrators
demanded the annexation of Nakhchivan and Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, and carried placards to that effect. The police tried to physically
prevent the march and after a few incidents, dispersed the demonstrators. Nagorno-Karabakh would break out in violence the following year.[30]
Environmental concerns over the
Metsamor nuclear power plant drove
initial demonstrations in Yerevan.
1988
Moscow loses control
In 1988 Gorbachev started to lose control of two small but troublesome regions of the Soviet Union, as the Baltic republics were captured by their popular fronts, and the Caucasus
descended into violence and civil war.
On July 1, 1988, the fourth and last day of a bruising 19th Party Conference, Gorbachev won the backing of the tired delegates for his last-minute proposal to create a new supreme
legislative body called the Congress of People's Deputies. Frustrated by the old guard's resistance, Gorbachev embarked on a set of constitutional changes to try to separate party and state,
and thereby isolate his conservative Party opponents. Detailed proposals for the new Congress of People's Deputies were published on October 2, 1988,[31] and to enable the creation of
the new legislature the Supreme Soviet, during its November 29December 1, 1988, session, implemented amendments to the 1977 Soviet Constitution, enacted a law on electoral reform,
and set the date of the election for March 26, 1989.[32]
On November 29, 1988, the Soviet Union ceased to jam all foreign radio stations, allowing Soviet Citizens for the first time to have access to unrestricted news sources beyond
Communist control.[33]
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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.
Estonian Popular Front
The Estonian Popular Front was founded in April 1988. On June 16, 1988 Gorbachev replaced Karl Vaino, the "old guard" leader of the Communist Party of Estonia, with the
comparatively liberal Vaino Vljas, the Soviet ambassador to Nicaragua.[34] In late June 1988, Vljas bowed to pressure from the Estonian Popular Front and legalized the flying of the
old blue-white-black flag of Estonia, and agreed to a new state language law that made Estonian the official language of the Republic.[14]
On October 2, the Popular Front formally launched its political platform at a two-day congress. Vljas attended, gambling that the front could help Estonia become a model of economic
and political revival, while moderating separatist and other radical tendencies.[35] On November 16, 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.[36] 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.[37]
Latvian Popular Front
The Latvian Popular Front was founded in June 1988. On October 4, Gorbachev replaced Boris Pugo, the "old guard" leader of the Communist Party of Latvia, with the more liberal Jnis
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 October 6 he
passed a law making Latvian the country's official language.[14]
Lithuanias Sjdis
The Popular Front of Lithuania, called Sjdis ("Movement"), was founded in May 1988. On October 19, 1988, Gorbachev replaced Ringaudas Songaila, the "old guard" leader of the
Communist Party of Lithuania, with the relatively liberal Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas. In October 1988 Brazauskas bowed to pressure from Sjdis and legalized the flying of the
historic red-yellow-green flag of independent Lithuania, and in November 1988 passed a law making Lithuanian the country's official language.[14]
Rebellion in the Caucasus

Azerbaijan: Violence
In February 20, 1988, after a week of growing demonstrations in Stepanakert, capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (the Armenian majority area within Azerbaijan Soviet
Socialist Republic), the Regional Soviet voted to secede and join with the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia.[38] This local vote in a small, remote part of the Soviet Union made
headlines around the world; it was an unprecedented defiance of republic and national authorities. On February 22, 1988, in what became known as the "Askeran clash", two Azerbaijanis
were killed by Karabakh police. These deaths, announced on state radio, led to the Sumgait Pogrom. Between February 26 and March 1, the city of Sumgait (Azerbaijan) saw violent
anti-Armenian rioting during which 32 people were killed. The authorities totally lost control and occupied the city with paratroopers and tanks; nearly all of the 14,000 Armenian
residents of Sumgait fled.[39]
Gorbachev refused to make any changes to the status of Nagorno Karabakh, which remained part of Azerbaijan. He instead sacked the Communist Party Leaders in both Republics on
May 21, 1988, Kamran Baghirov was replaced by Abdulrahman Vezirov as First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party. From July 23 to September 1988, a group of Azerbaijani
intellectuals began working for a new organization called the Popular Front of Azerbaijan, loosely based on the Estonian Popular Front.[40] On September 17, when gun battles broke out
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between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis near Stepanakert, two soldiers were killed and more than two dozen injured.[41] This led to almost tit-for-tat ethnic polarization in NagornoKarabakh's two main towns: The Azerbaijani minority was expelled from Stepanakert, and the Armenian minority was expelled from Shusha.[42] On November 17, 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.
On December 5, 1988, the Soviet militia finally moved in, cleared the square by force, and imposed a curfew that lasted ten months.[43]
Armenia: Uprising
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 February 18,
initially attracted few people, but each day the Nagorno-Karabakh issue became increasingly prominent and numbers swelled. On February 20, a 30,000-strong crowd demonstrated in
Theater Square, by February 22, there were 100,000, the next day 300,000, and a transport strike was declared, by February 25, there were close to 1 million demonstrators about a
quarter of Armenia's population.[44] 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 future first President of independent Armenia Levon Ter-Petrossian, formed the eleven-member Karabakh
Committee to lead and organize the new movement.
Gorbachev again refused to make any changes to the status of Nagorno Karabakh, which remained part of Azerbaijan. Instead he sacked both Republics' Communist Party Leaders: On
May 21, 1988, Karen Demirchian was replaced by Suren Harutyunyan as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia. However, Harutyunyan quickly decided to run before the
nationalist wind and on May 28, allowed Armenians to unfurl the red-blue-gold First Armenian Republic flag for the first time in almost 70 years.[45] On June 15, 1988, the Armenian
Supreme Soviet adopted a resolution formally approving the idea of Nagorno Karabakh joining Armenia.[46] Armenia, formerly one of the most loyal Republics, had suddenly turned into
the leading rebel republic. On July 5, 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.[47] In September, further large demonstrations in Yerevan led to the deployment of armored vehicles.[48] In the autumn of 1988 almost all the 200,000
Azerbaijani minority in Armenia was expelled by Armenian Nationalists, with over 100 killed in the process[49] this, after the Sumgait pogrom earlier that year carried out by
Azerbaijanis against ethnic Armenians and subsequent expulsion of all Armenians from Azerbaijan. On November 25, 1988, a military commandant took control of Yerevan as the Soviet
government moved to prevent further ethnic violence.[50]
On December 7, 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 to be
confronted by protesters calling for Nagorno-Karabakh to be made part of the Armenian Republic during a natural disaster that on December 11, 1988, he ordered the entire Karabakh
Committee to be arrested.[51]
Georgia: First demonstrations
In November 1988 in Tbilisi, capital of Soviet Georgia, many demonstrators camped out in front of the republic's legislature calling for Georgia's independence[52] and in support of
Estonia's declaration of sovereignty.[53]
The Western republics

Democratic Movement of Moldova
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 Chiinu, and the adjacent park harboring Aleea Clasicilor (The "Alee of the Classics
[of the Literature]"). On January 15, 1988, in a tribute to Mihai Eminescu at his bust on the Aleea Clasicilor, Anatol alaru submitted a proposal to continue the meetings. In the public
discourse, the movement called for national awakening, freedom of speech, revival of Moldavian traditions, and for 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.
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Demonstrations in Lviv, Ukraine

On April 26, 1988, about 500 people participated in a march organized by the Ukrainian Cultural Club on Kiev'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, Ukrainian Catholics in western Ukraine celebrated the
Millennium of Christianity in Kievan Rus' in secret by holding services in the forests of Buniv, Kalush, Hoshiv, and Zarvantysia. On June 5, 1988, as the official celebrations of the
Millennium were held in Moscow, the Ukrainian Cultural Club hosted its own observances in Kiev at the monument to St. Volodymyr the Great, the grand prince of Kievan Rus'.
On June 16, 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 June
29. On June 21, 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 July 7,
10,000 to 20,000 people witnessed the launch of the Democratic Front to Promote Perestroika. On July 17, a group of 10,000 gathered in the village Zarvanytsia for Millennium services
celebrated by Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Bishop Pavlo Vasylyk. The militia tried to disperse attendees, but it turned out to be the largest gathering of Ukrainian Catholics since Stalin
outlawed the Church in 1946. On August 4, 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 September 1, local authorities violently displaced 5,000 students at a
public meeting lacking official permission at Ivan Franko State University.
On November 13, 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 November 1418, 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 December 10, hundreds gathered in Kiev to observe International Human Rights Day at a rally organized by the Democratic Union.
The unauthorized gathering resulted in the detention of local activists.[54]
Kurapaty, Byelorussia
The Partyja BPF (Belarusian Popular Front) was established in 1988 as a political party and cultural movement for democracy and independence, la the Baltic republics popular fronts.
The discovery of mass graves in Kurapaty outside Minsk by historian Zianon Pazniak, the Belarusian Popular Fronts first leader, gave additional momentum to the pro-democracy and
pro-independence movement in Belarus.[55] It claimed that the NKVD performed secret killings in Kurapaty.[56] 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, 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 which in turn
sparked uprisings that overthrew communism in the other five Warsaw Pact countries before the end of 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell. These events showed that the people of Eastern
Europe and the Soviet Union did not support Gorbachev's drive to modernize Communism; rather, they preferred to abandon it altogether.
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, but Muscovites quickly learned how to pick up signals on their home televisions. That had a major impact on how Russians saw events in their country, and made censorship
almost impossible.[57]
Congress of Peoples Deputies of the Soviet Union
The month-long nomination period for candidates for the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR lasted until January 24, 1989. For the next month, selection among the 7,531 district
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nominees took place at meetings organized by constituency-level electoral commissions. On March 7, 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
Academy of Sciences. The selection process was done in April.
In the March 26 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 April 2 and 9 and fresh elections were organized on April 20 and 14
to May 23,[58] in the 199 remaining constituencies where the required absolute majority was not attained.[32] While most CPSU-endorsed
candidates were elected, more than 300 lost to independent candidates such as Yeltsin, physicist Andrei Sakharov and lawyer Anatoly Sobchak.
Andrei Sakharov, formerly exiled to

Gorky, was elected to the Congress of
People's Deputies in March 1989.
In the first session of the new Congress of People's Deputies, from May 25 to June 9, 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; nothing like this freewheeling
debate had ever been witnessed in the U.S.S.R. On May 29, Yeltsin managed to secure a seat on the Supreme Soviet,[59] and in the summer he
formed the first opposition, the Inter-Regional Deputies Group, composed of Russian nationalists and 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 May 30, 1989, Gorbachev proposed that nationwide local elections, 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.[60]
On October 25, 1989, the Supreme Soviet voted to eliminate special seats for the Communist Party and other official organizations in national and local 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 December 1225. 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.[61]
Loss of satellite states
The six Warsaw Pact countries of Eastern Europe, while nominally independent, were widely recognized in the international community as the Soviet satellite states. All had been
occupied by the Soviet Red Army in 1945, had Soviet-style socialist states imposed upon them, and had very restricted freedom of action in either domestic or international affairs. Any
moves towards real independence were suppressed by military force in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Prague Spring in 1968. Gorbachev abandoned the oppressive and
expensive Brezhnev Doctrine, which mandated intervention in the Warsaw Pact states, in favor of non-intervention in the internal affairs of allies jokingly termed the Sinatra Doctrine in
a reference to the Frank Sinatra song "My Way".
Baltic "Chain of Freedom"

The Baltic Way or Baltic Chain (also Chain of Freedom Estonian: Balti kett, Latvian: Baltijas ce, Lithuanian: Baltijos kelias, Russian: ) was a peaceful political
demonstration on August 23, 1989.[62] An estimated 2 million people joined hands to form a human chain extending 600 kilometres (370 mi) across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which
had been forcibly reincorporated into the Soviet Union in 1944. The colossal demonstratiion marked the 50th anniversary of the MolotovRibbentrop Pact that divided Eastern Europe
into spheres of influence and led to the occupation of the Baltic states in 1940.
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In December 1989, the Congress of People's Deputies acceptedand Gorbachev signedthe

report by the Yakovlev Commission condemning the secret protocols of the Molotov
Ribbentrop pact.[63]
Lithuanias Communist Party splits
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 Sjdis. This was the
greatest victory for any national organization within the USSR and was a devastating
revelation to the Lithuanian Communist Party of its growing unpopularity.[64]
"Baltic Way" 1989 demonstration in iauliai,
Lithuania. The coffins are decorated with
national flags of the three Baltic Republics and
are placed symbolically beneath Soviet and Nazi
flags.
On December 7, 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 Burokeviius, was established and remained affiliated
with the CPSU. However, Lithuanias governing Communist Party was formally independent
from Moscow's control a first for 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.[65]
Caucasus
The Eastern Bloc
Azerbaijans blockade
On July 16, 1989, the Popular Front of Azerbaijan held its first congress and elected Abulfaz Elchibey, who would become President, as its Chairman.[66] On August 19, 600,000
protesters jammed Bakus Lenin Square (now Azadliq Square) to demand the release of political prisoners.[67] 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.[68]
In a new and effective tactic, the Popular Front launched a rail blockade of Armenia,[69] which caused petrol and food shortages because 85 percent of Armenia's freight came from
Azerbaijan.[70] Under pressure from the Popular Front the Communist authorities in Azerbaijan started making concessions. On September 25, they passed a sovereignty law that gave
precedence to Azerbaijani law, and on October 4, 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.[70] Tensions continued to escalate and on December 29, Popular Front activists seized local party offices in Jalilabad, wounding dozens.
Armenias Karabakh Committee released
On May 31, 1989, the 11 members of the Karabakh Committee, who had been imprisoned without trial in Moscows Matrosskaya Tishina prison, were released, and returned home to a
hero's welcome.[71] 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.[72]
Massacre in Tbilisi, Georgia
On April 7, 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 to secede from the Soviet Union and for Abkhazia to be fully integrated into Georgia.[73] On April 9, 1989, troops attacked the demonstrators; some 20 people were
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killed and more than 200 wounded.[74] This event radicalized Georgian politics, prompting many to conclude that independence was preferable to
continued Soviet rule. On April 14, Gorbachev removed Jumber Patiashvili as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party and replaced him
with former Georgian KGB chief Givi Gumbaridze.
On July 16, 1989, in Abkhazia's capital 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.[75]
This riot marked the start of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict.
Photos of victims (mostly young
women) of an April 1989 massacre in
Tbilisi, Georgia.

Popular Front of Moldova
In the March 26, 1989, elections to the Congress of People's Deputies, 15 of the 46 Moldavian deputies sent to Moscow were supporters of the Nationalist/Democratic movement.[76] The
Popular Front of Moldova founding congress took place two months later, on May 20, 1989. During its second congress (June 30July 1, 1989), Ion Hadrc was elected its president.
A series of demonstrations that became known as the Grand National Assembly (Romanian: Marea Adunare Naional) was the Fronts first major achievement. Such mass
demonstrations, including one attended by 300,000 people on August 27,[77] convinced the Moldavian Supreme Soviet on August 31 to adopt the language law making Moldovan the
official language, and replacing the Cyrillic alphabet with Latin characters.[78]
Ukraines Rukh
In Ukraine, Lviv and Kiev celebrated Ukrainian Independence Day on January 22, 1989. Thousands gathered in Lviv for an unauthorized moleben (religious service) in front of St.
George's Cathedral. In Kiev, 60 activists met in a Kiev apartment to commemorate the proclamation of the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1918. On February 1112, 1989, the Ukrainian
Language Society held its founding congress. On February 15, 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 Writers Association of Ukraine and were published in the journal Literaturna Ukraina on February 16, 1989.
The organization heralded Ukrainian dissidents such as Vyacheslav Chornovil.
In late February, large public rallies took place in Kiev to protest the election laws, on the eve of the March 26 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 Scherbytsky, lampooned as "the mastodon of stagnation." The demonstrations coincided with a visit to
Ukraine by Soviet President Gorbachev. On February 26, 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 March 4, 1989, the Memorial Society, committed to honoring the victims of Stalinism and cleansing society of Soviet practices, was founded in Kiev. A public rally was held the next
day. On March 12, A pre-election meeting organized in Lviv by the Ukrainian Helsinki Union and the Marian Society Myloserdia (Compassion) was violently dispersed, and nearly 300
people were detained. On March 26, elections were held to the union Congress of People's Deputies; by-elections were held on April 9, May 14, and May 21. Among the 225 Ukrainian
deputies, most were conservatives, though a handful of progressives made the cut.
From April 20-23, 1989, pre-election meetings were held in Lviv for four consecutive days, drawing crowds of up to 25,000. The action included an one-hour warning strike at eight local
factories and institutions. It was the first labor strike in Lviv since 1944. On May 3, a pre-election rally attracted 30,000 in Lviv. On May 7, 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 Kiev to the site, a memorial service was staged.
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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 September 18. On May 27, 1989, the founding conference of
the Lviv regional Memorial Society was held. On June 18, 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 August 19, 1989, the Russian Orthodox Parish of Saints Peter and Paul announced it would be switching to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. On September 2, 1989,
tens of thousands across Ukraine protested a draft election law that reserved special seats for the Communist Party and for other official organizations: 50,000 in Lviv, 40,000 in Kiev,
10,000 in Zhytomyr, 5,000 each in Dniprodzerzhynsk and Chervonohrad, and 2,000 in Kharkiv. From September 810, 1989, writer Ivan Drach was elected to head Rukh, the People's
Movement of Ukraine, at its founding congress in Kiev. On September 17, between 150,000 and 200,000 people marched in Lviv, demanding the legalization of the Ukrainian Greek
Catholic Church. On September 21, 1989, exhumation of a mass grave begins in Demianiv Laz, a nature preserve south of Ivano-Frankivsk. On September 28, First Secretary of the
Communist Party of the Ukraine Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, a holdover from the Brezhnev era, was replaced by Vladimir Ivashko.
On October 1, 1989, a peaceful demonstration of 10,000 to 15,000 people was violently dispersed by the militia in front of Lviv's Druzhba Stadium, where a concert celebrating the Soviet
"reunification" of Ukrainian lands was being held. On October 10, Ivano-Frankivsk was the site of a pre-election protest attended by 30,000 people. On October 15, several thousand
people gathered in Chervonohrad, Chernivtsi, Rivne, and Zhytomyr; 500 in Dnipropetrovsk; and 30,000 in Lviv to protest the election law. On October 20, 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 October 24, the union Supreme Soviet passed a law eliminating special seats for Communist Party and other official organizations' representatives. On October 26, twenty factories in
Lviv held strikes and meetings to protest the police brutality of October 1 and the authorities' unwillingness to prosecute those responsible. From October 26-28, the Zelenyi Svit (Friends
of the Earth Ukraine) environmental association held its founding congress, and on October 27 the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet passed a law eliminating the special status of party and
other official organizations.
On October 28, 1989, the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet decreed that effective January 1, 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 19391941" soon would be erected.
In mid-November The Shevchenko Ukrainian Language Society was officially registered. On November 19, 1989, a public gathering in Kiev
attracted thousands of mourners, friends and family to the reburial in Ukraine of three inmates of the infamous Gulag Camp No. 36 in Perm in
the Ural Mountains: human-rights activists Vasyl Stus, Oleksiy Tykhy, and Yuriy Lytvyn. Their remains were reinterred in Baikove Cemetery.
On November 26, 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 Soviet President Gorbachev. On November
28, 1989, the Ukrainian SSR's Council for Religious Affairs issued a decree allowing Ukrainian Catholic congregations to register as legal
organizations. The decree was proclaimed on December 1, coinciding with a meeting at the Vatican between the pope and the Soviet president.
On December 10, 1989, the first officially sanctioned observance of International Human Rights Day was held in Lviv. On December 17, an
estimated 30,000 attended a public meeting organized in Kiev by Rukh in memory of Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov, who died on December
14. On December 26, the Supreme Soviet of Ukrainian SSR adopted a law designating Christmas, Easter, and the Feast of the Holy Trinity
official holidays.[54]
Mustafa Dzhemilev, leader of newly

founded Crimean Tatar National
Movement
In May 1989, a Soviet dissident, Mustafa Dzhemilev, was elected to lead the newly founded Crimean Tatar National Movement. He also led the campaign for return of Crimean Tatars to
their homeland in Crimea after 45 years of exile.
Belarus: Kurapaty
On January 24, 1989, the Soviet authorities in Belarus agreed to the demand of the democratic opposition to build a monument to thousands of people shot by Stalin-era police in the
Kuropaty Forest near Minsk in the 1930s.[79]
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On September 30, 1989, thousands of Belorussians, 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 banned red-and-white
Belorussian national flag 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 resignation of Yefrem Sokolov, the republic's Communist Party leader, and called for the
evacuation of half a million people from the contaminated zones.[80]
Central Asian republics

Meeting in Kurapaty, Belarus, 1989
Fergana, Uzbekistan
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 Meskhetian minority in several days of rioting between June 4-11, 1989; about 100 people were killed.[81] On June
23, 1989, Gorbachev removed Rafiq Nishonov as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Uzbek SSR and replaced him with Karimov, who went on
to lead Uzbekistan as a Soviet Republic and subsequently as an independent state.
Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan
Islam Karimov became

leader of the Uzbek SSR in
1989 and later led
Uzbekistan to independence.
In Kazakhstan on June 19, 1989, young men carrying guns, 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.[82] By June 25, 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 90 miles 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.[83]
On June 22, 1989, 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 Nazarbayev, an ethnic Kazakh who went on to lead Kazakhstan as a Soviet Republic and subsequently as an
independent state for decades.
1990
Nursultan Nazarbayev
became leader of the Kazakh
SSR in 1989 and later led
Kazakhstan to independence.
Moscow loses six republics

On February 7, 1990, the Central Committee of the CPSU accepted Gorbachevs recommendation that the party give up its monopoly on political power.[84] In 1990, all fifteen constituent
republics of the USSR held their first competitive elections, with reformers and ethnic nationalists winning many seats. The CPSU lost the elections in six republics:
In Lithuania, to Sjdis, on February 24 (run-off elections on March 4, 7, 8, and 10).
In Moldova, to the Popular Front of Moldova, on February 25.
In Estonia, to the Estonian Popular Front, on March 18.
In Latvia, to the Latvian Popular Front, on March 18 (run-off elections on March 25, April 1, and April 29).
In Armenia, to the Pan-Armenian National Movement, on May 20 (run-off elections on June 3 and July 15).
In Georgia, to Round Table-Free Georgia, on October 28 (run-off election on November 11).
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The constituent republics began to declare their national 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 economy and refusing to pay taxes. This conflict caused economic dislocation as supply lines were disrupted, and caused the Soviet
economy to decline further.[85]
Rivalry between USSR and RSFSR

On March 4, 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
Sverdlovsk, garnering 72 percent of the vote.[86] On May 29, 1990, Yeltsin was elected chair of the Presidium of the 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 RSFSR and the Soviet Union. On June 12, 1990, the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR adopted a declaration of sovereignty. On July 12, 1990, Yeltsin resigned from the
Communist Party in a dramatic speech at the 28th Congress.[87]
Baltic Republics
Lithuania
Gorbachevs visit to the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on January 1113, 1990, provoked a pro-independence rally attended by an estimated 250,000 people. On March
11, the newly elected parliament of the Lithuanian SSR elected Vytautas Landsbergis, leader of Sjdis, to chair the Supreme Council of Lithuania, becoming the first
non-communist leader of any Soviet Republic.
Landsbergis promptly restored Lithuanian independence, becoming the first Soviet Republic to break away from the USSR entirely. The Soviet Army, however,
attempted to suppress the movement. It also initiated an economic blockade and stationed troops there ostensibly "to secure the rights of ethnic Russians".[88]
Lithuanias
Vytautas
Landsbergis
Estonia
On March 25, 1990, the Estonian Communist Party voted to split from the CPSU after a six-month transition.[89]
On March 30, 1990, the Estonian Supreme Council declared the Soviet occupation of Estonia since World War II to be illegal and began reestablishing Estonia as an
independent state.
On April 3, 1990, Edgar Savisaar of the Popular Front of Estonia was elected Chairman of the Council of Ministers (the equivalent of being Estonia's Prime Minister).
Estonias Edgar
Savisaar
Latvia
Latvia declared the restoration of independence on May 4, 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 LatvianSoviet Peace Treaty of 1920, in which the Soviet Union recognized
Latvia's independence as inviolable "for all future time". May 4 is a national holiday in Latvia.
On May 7, 1990, Ivars Godmanis of the Latvian Popular Front was elected Chairman of the Council of Ministers (the equivalent of being Latvia's Prime Minister).
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Caucasus
Azerbaijans Black January
During the first week of January 1990, in the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, the Popular Front led crowds in the storming and destruction of the frontier fences
and watchtowers along the border with Iran, and thousands of Soviet Azerbaijanis crossed the border to meet their ethnic cousins in Iranian Azerbaijan.[90] It was the
first instance the Soviet Union had lost control of an external border.
Azerbaijani stamp with photos

of Black January
Latvias Ivars
Ethnic tensions had escalated between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis in spring and summer 1988.[91]On January 9, 1990, after the
Godmanis
Armenian parliament voted to include Nagorno-Karabakh within its budget, renewed fighting broke out, hostages were taken, and
four Soviet soldiers were killed.[92] On January 11, Popular Front radicals stormed party buildings and effectively overthrew the
communist powers in the southern town of Lenkoran.[92] Gorbachev resolved to regain control of Azerbaijan; the events that ensued are known as "Black
January." Late on January 19, 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 the majority of whom 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. This marked the first time the Soviet Army took one of its own cities by force.[93]
The army had gained control of Baku, but by January 20 it essentially lost Azerbaijan. Nearly the entire population of Baku turned out for the mass funerals of "martyrs" buried in the
Alley of Martyrs.[93] 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 and the power behind the throne.[94]
Following the hardliners' takeover, the September 30, 1990 elections (runoffs on October 14) were characterized by intimidation; several Popular Front candidates were jailed, two were
murdered, and unabashed ballot stuffing took place even in the presence of Western observers.[95] 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").[96] In May 1990
Mutalibov was elected Chairman of the Supreme Soviet unopposed.[97]

Ukraine
On January 21, 1990, 1990 Rukh organized a 300-mile (480 km) human chain between Kiev, 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 (1919 Unification Act). On January 23, the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church held
its first synod since its liquidation by the Soviets in 1946, an act the gathering declared invalid. On February 9, 1990, Rukh was officially registered by the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice.
However, the registration came too late for Rukh to put forth its own candidates for the parliamentary and local elections on March 4. At the 1990 elections of people's deputies to the
Supreme Council, candidates from the Democratic Bloc won landslide victories in western Ukrainian oblasts. A majority of the seats were forced into run-off elections. On March 18,
Democratic candidates scored further victories in the run-offs. The Democratic Bloc gained about 90 out of 450 seats in the new parliament.
On April 6, 1990, the Lviv City Council voted to return St. George Cathedral to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The Russian Orthodox Church refused to yield. On April 2930,
1990, the Ukrainian Helsinki Union was disbanded to form the Ukrainian Republican Party. On May 15, the new parliament convened. The bloc of conservative communists held 239
seats; the Democratic Bloc, which was now evolved into the National Council, had 125 deputies. On June 4, 1990, two candidates remained in the protracted race for parliament chair. The
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leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Volodymyr Ivashko, was elected with 60 percent of the vote as more than 100 opposition deputies
boycotted the election. On June 56, 1990, Metropolitan Mstyslav of the U.S.-based 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 church headed by Metropolitan Filaret.
On June 22, 1990, 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 July 11, 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 July 18. On July 16,
the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine was overwhelmingly approved by Parliament. The vote was 355 for
and four against. The people's deputies voted 3395 to proclaim July 16, a Ukrainian national holiday.
Leonid Kravchuk became

Ukraine's leader in 1990.
On July 23, 1990, Leonid Kravchuk was elected to replace Ivashko as parliament chairman. On July 30, Parliament
adopted a resolution on military service demanding Ukrainian soldiers "in regions of national conflict such as
Armenia and Azerbaijan" to regain Ukrainian territory. On August 1, Parliament voteed overwhelmingly to shut
down the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. On August 3, it adopted a law on economic sovereignty of the Ukrainian
republic. On August 19, the first Ukrainian Catholic liturgy in 44 years was celebrated at St. George Cathedral. On
September 57, the International Symposium on the Great Famine of 19321933 was held in Kiev. On September 8,
The first "Youth for Christ" rally since 1933 is held in Lviv, with 40,000 participants. In September 28-30, the Green
Party of Ukraine holds its founding congress. On September 30, nearly 100,000 march in Kiev to protest the new
union treaty proposed by Gorbachev.
Viacheslav Chornovil, a
prominent Ukrainian dissident and
a lead figure of Rukh.
On October 1, 1990, parliament reconvened amid mass protests calling for the resignation of Kravchuk and Prime Minister Vitaliy Masol, a leftover from the previous regime. Students
erected a tent city on October Revolution Square, where they continue the protest.
On October 17, Masol resigned, and on October 20, Patriarch Mstyslav I of Kiev and all Ukraine arrived at Saint Sophias Cathedral, ending a 46-year banishment from his homeland. On
October 23, 1990, Parliament voted to delete Article 6 of the Ukrainian Constitution, which referred to the "leading role" of the Communist Party.
On October 2528, 1990, Rukh held its second congress and declared that its principal goal was the "renewal of independent statehood for Ukraine." On October 28, UAOC faithful,
supported by Ukrainian Catholics, demonstrated near St. Sophias Cathedral as newly elected Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Aleksei and Metropolitan Filaret celebrated liturgy at the
shrine. On November 1, leaders of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and 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 November 18, 1990, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church enthroned Mstyslav as Patriarch of Kiev and all Ukraine during ceremonies at Saint Sophias Cathedral. Also on
November 18, Canada announced that its consul general to Kiev would be Ukrainian-Canadian Nestor Gayowsky. On November 19, the United States announced that its consul to Kiev
would be Ukrainian-American John Stepanchuk. On November 19, 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 December 15, the Democratic Party of Ukraine was founded.[98]
1991
Moscows Crisis
On January 14, 1991, Nikolai Ryzhkov resigned from his post as Chairman of the 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 March 17, 1991, in a Union-wide referendum 76.4 percent of voters endorsed retention of a reformed Soviet Union.[99] The Baltic republics, Armenia, Georgia, Checheno-Ingushetia
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(an autonomous republic within Russia that had a strong desire for independence, and by now referred to itself as Ichkeria)[100] and Moldova boycotted the referendum. In each of the
other nine republics, a majority of the voters supported the retention of a reformed Soviet Union.
Russias President Boris Yeltsin

On June 12, 1991, Boris Yeltsin won 57 percent of the popular vote in the democratic elections for the newly created post of President of the
Russian SFSR, defeating Gorbachev's preferred candidate, Nikolai Ryzhkov, who won 16 percent of the vote. In his election campaign, Yeltsin
criticized the "dictatorship of the center," but did not yet suggest that he would introduce a market economy.
Baltic Republics
Lithuania
On January 13, 1991, Soviet troops, along with the KGB Spetsnaz Alpha Group, 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 July 31, 1991, Russian OMON from
Riga, the Soviet military headquarters in the Baltics, 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.
Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first

democratically elected President
Latvia
The bloody attacks in Lithuania prompted Latvians to organize defensive 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.
August Coup
Barricade erected in Riga to prevent

the Soviet Army from reaching the
Latvian Parliament, July 1991.
Faced with growing separatism, Gorbachev sought to restructure the Soviet Union into a less centralized
state. On August 20, 1991, the Russian SFSR was scheduled to sign a New Union Treaty that would have
converted the Soviet Union into a 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 Russian Federation, as well as those of regional and local authorities to get rid of Moscows 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.
Tanks in Red Square during the 1991

coup attempt.
On August 19, 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 under
house arrest and cut off his communications. The coup leaders issued an emergency decree suspending political activity and banning most newspapers.
Coup organizers expected some popular support but found that public sympathy in large cities and in the republics was largely against them, manifested by public demonstrations,
especially in Moscow. Russian SFSR President Yeltsin condemned the coup and garnered popular support.
Thousands of Muscovites came out to defend the White House (the Russian Federation's parliament and Yeltsin's office), the symbolic seat of Russian sovereignty at the time. The
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organizers tried but ultimately failed to arrest Yeltsin, who rallied opposition to the coup with speech-making 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 BBC World Service on a small transistor radio.[101]
After three days, on August 21, 1991, the coup collapsed. The organizers were detained and Gorbachev returned as president, albeit with his power
much depleted.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin
speaks atop a tank outside the White
House in defiance of the August 1991
coup.
The fall: AugustDecember 1991

On August 24, 1991, Gorbachev dissolved the Central Committee of the CPSU, resigned as the party's
general secretary, and dissolved all party units in the government. Five days later, the Supreme Soviet
indefinitely suspended all CPSU activity on Soviet territory, effectively ending communist rule in the Soviet
Union.
As the last unifying force dissolved, the Soviet Union collapsed rapidly in late 1991. Between August and December, 10 republics declared their
independence, largely out of fear of another coup. By the end of summer, Gorbachev no longer had the authority to influence events outside of
Moscow, and even there he was challenged by Yeltsin, who had begun taking over what remained of the Soviet government.
The final round of the Soviet Union's collapse began with a Ukrainian popular referendum on December 1, 1991, in which 90 percent of voters
opted for independence. The secession of Ukraine, the second-most powerful republic, ended any realistic chance of even a diminished Soviet
Union remaining united. The leaders of the three principal Slavic republics, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus (formerly Byelorussia), agreed to discuss
possible alternatives to the union.
Signing of the agreement to establish

the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS), December 8, 1991.
On December 8, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus secretly met in Belavezhskaya Pushcha, in western Belarus, and signed the Belavezha Accords, which proclaimed the
formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and declared that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. They also invited other republics to join the CIS. Gorbachev called it
an unconstitutional coup but by that point there was no more doubt that "the USSR, as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality, is ceasing its existence", as the preamble of
the Accords put it.
On December 12, the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR formally ratified the Belavezha Accords and renounced the 1922 Union Treaty. The Russian deputies were also recalled from
the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The legality of this action was questionable, since Soviet law did not allow a republic to unilaterally recall its deputies.[102] However, no one in Russia
objected, nor were there objections from the Kremlin, though they would have likely had no effect since what remained of the Soviet government already had been rendered dysfunctional.
In effect, the largest and most powerful republic had seceded from the Union. Later that day, Gorbachev hinted for the first time that he was considering stepping down.[103]
On December 17, 1991, along with 28 European countries, the European Community, and four non-European countries, the three Baltic Republics and nine of the twelve former Soviet
republics signed the European Energy Charter in the Hague as sovereign states.[104]
Doubts remained over the authority of the Belavezha Accords to disband the Soviet Union, since they were signed by only three republics. However, on December 21, 1991,
representatives of 11 of the 12 former republics all except Georgia signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, which confirmed the dissolution of the Union and formally established the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). They also "accepted" Gorbachev's resignation, even though it hadn't been tendered yet. Gorbachev then told CBS News that he would resign
as soon as he saw that the CIS was indeed a reality.[105]
In a nationally televised speech early in the morning of December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned as president of the USSR or, as he put it, "I hereby discontinue my activities at the post
of President of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics." The office was declared extinct, and all of its powers (such as control of the nuclear arsenal) were ceded to Russia's president. A
week earlier, Gorbachev had met with Yeltsin and accepted the Soviet Union's dissolution as fait accompli. 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 sovereign state.
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On the night of December 25, 1991, at 7:32 p.m. Moscow time, after Gorbachev left the Kremlin, the Soviet flag was lowered for the last time, and
the Russian tricolor was raised in its place, symbolically marking the end of the Soviet Union. The next day, December 26, 1991, the Council of
Republics, the upper chamber of the Union's Supreme Soviet, issued a formal Declaration recognizing that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist as a
state and subject of international law, and voted both itself and the Soviet Union out of existence. (The other chamber of the Supreme Soviet, the
Council of the Union, had been unable to work since December 12, 1991, when the recall of the Russian deputies left it without a quorum). The
following day Yeltsin moved into Gorbachev's former office, though the Russian authorities had taken over the suite two days earlier. By December
31, 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.
Five double-headed Russian

coat-of-arms eagles (below)
substituting the former state emblem
of the Soviet Union and the ""
letters (above) in the facade of the
Grand Kremlin Palace after the
dissolution of the USSR.
The Alma-Ata Protocol also addressed other issues, including UN membership. Notably, Russia was authorized to assume the Soviet Union's UN membership, including its permanent
seat on the Security Council. The Soviet Ambassador to the UN delivered a letter signed by Russian President Yeltsin to the UN Secretary-General dated December 24, 1991, informing
him that by virtue of the Alma-Ata Protocol, Russia was the successor state to the USSR. After being circulated among the other UN member states, with no objection raised, the
statement was declared accepted on the last day of the year, December 31, 1991.
Chronology of Declarations of Restored States

Before the coup
Lithuania March 11, 1990
Estonia (transitional) March 30, 1990
Latvia (transitional) May 4, 1990
During the coup

Estonia (effective) August 20, 1991
Latvia (effective) August 21, 1991
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Chronology of Declarations of Newly Independent States

States with limited recognition are shown in italics.
Before the coup

Armenia August 23, 1990
Abkhazia August 25, 1990
Transnistria September 2, 1990
Georgia April 9, 1991
After the coup

Gagauzia August 19, 1991
Ukraine August 24, 1991
Belarus August 25, 1991
Moldova August 27, 1991
Kyrgyzstan August 31, 1991
Uzbekistan September 1, 1991
Nagorno-Karabakh September 2, 1991
Zviazda, a state newspaper of the
Tajikistan September 9, 1991
Belarusian SSR, issue from August
Azerbaijan October 18, 1991
25, 1991. Headline says, Belarus is
Turkmenistan October 27, 1991
independent!
Chechen Republic of Ichkeria November 1, 1991
South Ossetia November 28, 1991
Russia December 12, 1991 (the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR formally ratified the Belavezha Accords, renounced the 1922 Union Treaty, and recalled Russian
deputies from the Supreme Soviet of the USSR).
Kazakhstan December 16, 1991
Legacy
According to a 2014 poll, 57 percent of citizens of Russia regretted the collapse of the Soviet Union, while 30 percent said they did not. Elderly people tended to be more nostalgic than
younger Russians.[106] 50% of respondents in Ukraine in a similar poll held in February 2005 stated they regret the disintegration of the Soviet Union.[107]
The breakdown of economic ties that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union led to a severe economic crisis and catastrophic fall in living standards in post-Soviet states and the former
Eastern Bloc,[108] which was even worse than the Great Depression.[109][110] Even before Russia's financial crisis in 1998, Russia's GDP was half of what it had been in the early
1990s.[110]
United Nations membership

In a letter dated December 24, 1991, Boris Yeltsin, the President of the Russian Federation, informed the United Nations Secretary-General that the membership of the USSR in the
Security Council and all other UN organs was being continued by the Russian Federation with the support of the 11 member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The other fourteen independent states established from the former Soviet Republics were all admitted to the UN:
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The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic had already joined the UN as original members on October 24, 1945, together with the
USSR. After declaring independence, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic changed its name to Ukraine on August 24, 1991, and on September 19, 1991, the Byelorussian Soviet
Socialist Republic informed the UN that it had changed its name to the Republic of Belarus.
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were admitted to the UN on September 17, 1991.
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan were admitted to the UN on March 2, 1992.
Georgia was admitted to the UN on July 31, 1992.
See also
Breakup of Yugoslavia
Dissolution of Czechoslovakia
German reunification
History of Russia (1992present)
History of the Soviet Union (198291)

Predictions of Soviet collapse
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Georgia" (http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/10/world/at-least-16-killed-as-protesters-battlethe-police-in-soviet-georgia.html). New York Times.
75. "Soviet Troops Struggle To Curb Georgia Strife" (http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/18/world
/soviet-troops-struggle-to-curb-georgia-strife.html). New York Times. July 18, 1989.
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77. Esther B. Fein, "Baltic Nationalists Voice Defiance But Say They Won't Be Provoked", in the
New York Times, August 28, 1989
78. King, p.140
79. "Belarus Plans to Build Memorial to Stalin's Victims" (http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01
/25/world/byelorussia-plans-to-build-memorial-to-stalin-s-victims.html). New York Times.
January 25, 1989.
80. "Marchers in Minsk Demand Further Chernobyl Cleanup" (http://www.nytimes.com/1989/10
/01/world/marchers-in-minsk-demand-further-chernobyl-cleanup.html). New York Times.
October 1, 1989.
81. "Uzbekistan Riots Reported Quelled" (http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/12/world/uzbekistanriots-reported-quelled.html). New York Times. June 12, 1989.
82. Fein, Esther B. (June 20, 1989). "Soviets Report an Armed Rampage in Kazakhstan"
(http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/20/world/soviets-report-an-armed-rampagein-kazakhstan.html). New York Times.
83. Fein, Esther B. (June 26, 1989). "Rioting Youths Reportedly Attack The Police in Soviet
Kazakhstan" (http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/26/world/rioting-youths-reportedly-attackthe-police-in-soviet-kazakhstan.html). New York Times.
84. "Soviet Communist Party gives up monopoly on political power: This Day in History
2/7/1990" (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviet-communist-party-givesup-monopoly-on-political-power). History.com. Retrieved June 23, 2011.
85. Acton, Edward, (1995) Russia, The Tsarist and Soviet Legacy, Longmann Group Ltd (1995)
ISBN 0-582-08922-0
86. Leon Aron, Boris Yeltsin A Revolutionary Life. Harper Collins, 2000. page 739740.
87. "1990: Yeltsin Resignation Splits Soviet Communists" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday
/hi/dates/stories/july/12/newsid_4493000/4493177.stm). BBC News. July 12, 1990.
88. Nina Bandelj, From Communists to Foreign Capitalists: The Social Foundations of Foreign
Direct Investment in Postsocialist Europe (http://books.google.nl/books?id=RlhoP8snGTgC&
pg=PA41&dq=%22to+secure+the+rights+of+ethnic+Russians%22&client=firefoxa#v=onepage&q=%22to%20secure%20the%20rights%20of%20ethnic%20Russians%22&
f=false), Princeton University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-691-12912-9, p. 41
89. "Upheaval in the East; Party in Estonia Votes Split and Also a Delay" (http://www.nytimes.com
/1990/03/26/world/upheaval-in-the-east-party-in-estonia-votes-split-and-also-a-delay.html).
New York Times. March 26, 1990.
90. "Upheaval in the East: Azerbaijan; Angry Soviet Crowd Attacks What Is Left Of Iran Border
Posts" (http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/07/world/upheaval-east-azerbaijan-angry-sovietcrowd-attacks-what-left-iran-border-posts.html). New York Times. January 7, 1990.
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Page 93 Black Garden de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. ISBN 0-8147-1945-7
Black Garden de Waal, Thomas. 2003. NYU. ISBN 0-8147-1945-7, p. 94
"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
"CIA World Factbook (1995)" (http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps35389
/1995/wf950018.htm). CIA World Factbook. Retrieved December 11, 2011.
"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
"Independence: a timeline (CONCLUSION) (08/26/01)" (http://www.ukrweekly.com
/old/archive/2001/340119.shtml). Ukrweekly.com. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
1991: March Referendum (http://soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&
SubjectID=1991march&Year=1991&Theme=4e6174696f6e616c6974696573&navi=byTheme)
SovietHistory.org
Charles King, The Ghost of Freedom: History of the Caucasus
http://www.asc.upenn.edu/gerbner/Asset.aspx?assetID=883
The On paper, the Russian SFSR had the constitutional right to "freely secede from the Soviet
Union" (art. 69 of the RSFSR Constitution, art. 72 of the USSR Constitution), but according to
USSR laws 1409-I (enacted on April 3, 1990) and 1457-I (http://iv.garant.ru/SESSION/PILOT
/loadfavorite.html?pid=6335703&page=1&para_id=2147483649) (enacted on April 26, 1990)
this could be done only by referendum with two-thirds of all registered voters supporting it. No
special referendum on the secession from the USSR was held in the Russian SFSR
Francis X. Clines, "Gorbachev is Ready to Resign as Post-Soviet Plan Advances"
(http://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/13/world/soviet-disarry-gorbachev-is-ready-to-resignas-post-soviet-plan-advances.html), New York Times, December 13, 1991.
"Concluding document of The Hague Conference on the European Energy Charter"
(http://www.encharter.org/fileadmin/user_upload/document/EN.pdf#page=211) (PDF).
Retrieved December 11, 2011.
Francis X. Clines, "11 Soviet States Form Commonwealth Without Clearly Defining Its
Powers" (http://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/22/world/end-soviet-union-11-soviet-statesform-commonwealth-without-clearly-defining-its.html), New York Times, December 22, 1991.
"Over Half of Russians Regret Loss of Soviet Union" (http://en.ria.ru/russia/20140115
/186524071/Over-Half-of-Russians-Regret-Loss-of-Soviet-Union.html)
"Russians, Ukrainians Evoke Soviet Union" (http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/20626
/russians_ukrainians_evoke_soviet_union/), Angus Reid Global Monitor (01/02/05)
"Child poverty soars in eastern Europe" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/966616.stm), BBC
News, October 11, 2000
"What Can Transition Economies Learn from the First Ten Years? A New World Bank Report"
(http://worldbank.org/transitionnewsletter/janfeb2002), Transition Newsletter, World Bank,
K-A.kg (http://www.k-a.kg/?nid=5&value=6)
"Who Lost Russia?" (http://query.nytimes.com
/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B03E4D91E3AF93BA35753C1A9669C8B63), New York Times,
October 8, 2000
Further reading
"After the Fall: Building Nations out of the Soviet Union" (http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/history/2012/pdf/c8.pdf) (PDF). History of the International Monetary Fund
24 of 25
23-06-2015 12:07
19901999 Tearing Down Walls. International Monetary Fund.

Aron, Leon. Boris Yeltsin : A Revolutionary Life. Harper Collins (2000). ISBN 0-00-653041-9
Crawshaw, Steve. Goodbye to the USSR: The Collapse of Soviet Power. Bloomsbury (1992). ISBN 0-7475-1561-1
Dawisha, Karen & Parrott, Bruce (Editors). "Conflict, cleavage, and change in Central Asia and the Caucasus". Cambridge University Press (1997). ISBN 0-521-59731-5
de Waal, Thomas. Black Garden. NYU (2003). ISBN 0-8147-1945-7
Gorbachev, Mikhail. Memoirs. Doubleday (1995). ISBN 0-385-40668-1
O'Clery, Conor. Moscow December 25, 1991: The Last Day of the Soviet Union. Transworld Ireland (2011). ISBN 978-1-84827-112-8
External links
Photographs of the fall of the USSR by photojournalist Alain-Pierre Hovasse, a first-hand witness of these events. (http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/12/20-years-sincethe-fall-of-the-soviet-union/100214/)
Guide to the James Hershberg poster collection (http://library.gwu.edu/ead/ms2203.xml), Special Collections Research Center, The Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George
Washington University. This collection contains posters documenting the changing social and political culture in the former Soviet Union and Europe (particularly Eastern Europe)
during the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the breakup of the Soviet Union. A significant portion of the posters in this collection were used in a 1999 exhibit at
Gelman Library titled "Goodbye Comrade: An Exhibition of Images from the Revolution of '89 and the Collapse of Communism."
Lowering of the Soviet flag in December 25, 1991 (http://www.thoughtequity.com/video/clip/5110171AA3013_047.do)
U.S. Response to the End of the USSR (http://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552510) from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives
(http://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552494/browse?type=title)
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