The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) formally ceased to exist on 26 December 1991. The increasing political unrest led the establishment of the Soviet military and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to attempt a coup d'état to oust Mikhail Gorbachev and re-establish a strong central regime in August 1991.[2] On December 26, 1991, the dissolution of the Soviet Union was finalized by declaration no. 142-H of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union,[1] acknowledging the independence of the twelve republics of the Soviet Union, and creating the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). On the previous day, 25 December 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned, declaring his office extinct, and handed over the Soviet nuclear missile launching codes to Russian President Boris Yeltsin. That same evening at 7:32 P.M. the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time and replaced with the Russian tricolor. Two weeks later, 8 of the remaining 9 republics signed the Alma-Ata Protocol formally establishing the CIS and declaring that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist.[3][4] The dissolution of the state also marked an end to the Cold War. The Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union led to the end of decades-long hostility between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, which had been the defining feature of the Cold War. Many former Soviet republics have retained close links with Russia and formed multilateral organizations such as the Eurasian Economic Community, the Union State, the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, and the Eurasian Union to enhance economic and security cooperation. According to a 2006 poll by VCIOM 66% of all Russians regretted the collapse of the Soviet Union.[108] 50% of respondents in Ukraine in a similar poll held in February 2005 stated they regret the disintegration of the Soviet Union.[109] The final collapse of the USSR was one of the most sudden and dramatic territorial losses that has befallen any state in history. Between 1990 and 1992 the Kremlin had lost direct government control over about one-third of Soviet territory—most of it acquired in the period between 1700 and 1945—which had about one-half of the Soviet population by the time of the dissolution. The collapse of the Soviet Union, and the breakdown of economic ties that followed, led to a severe economic crisis and catastrophic fall in the standards of living in the 1990s in post-Soviet states and the former Eastern Bloc,[110] which was even worse than the Great Depression.[111][112] Even before Russia's financial crisis of 1998, Russia's GDP was half of what it had been in the early 1990s,[112] and some populations are still poorer as of 2009 than they were in 1989, including Ukraine, Moldova, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. The collapse of the Soviet Union hit the Cuban economy severely. The country lost approximately 80% of its imports, 80% of its exports and its Gross Domestic Product dropped by 34%. Food and medicine imports stopped or severely slowed. The largest immediate impact was the loss of nearly all of the petroleum imports by the USSR. The economy of North Korea, however, suffered even greater catastrophe. The collapse of the USSR and its Warsaw Pact allies caused the total implosion of an economy already stagnant from poor planning and massive military spending. According to Angus Maddison, per capita GDP fell from USD$2,800 in 1988 to $1,200 in 1998. Furthermore, natural disasters ruined harvests and the country suffered a catastrophic famine that killed between a few hundred thousand and 2 million people. 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: 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 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. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_of_Soviet_Union

• published: 12 Apr 2014
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