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.
Mikhail Gorbachev was elected
General Secretary by the Politburo on 11
March 1985, only three hours after
Konstantin Chernenko's death. At age 54, he was the youngest member of the Politburo.
Gorbachev's primary goal as General Secretary was to revive the
Soviet economy after the stagnant
Brezhnev years.
In an effort to revive the stagnant Soviet economy, in
1985 new
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began a process of increasing political liberalization (glasnost/perestroika) in the communist one-party state. In 1985, he announced that the Soviet economy was stalled and that reorganization was needed. Gorbachev soon realized that fixing the Soviet economy would be nearly impossible without reforming the political and social structure of the
Communist nation.[5] The reforms began in personnel changes. On 23
April 1985 Gorbachev brought his two proteges
Yegor Ligachev, and
Nikolai Ryzhkov into the Politburo as full members, and sensibly took the opportunity to keep the 'power' ministries happy by promoting
KGB Head Viktor Chebrikov from candidate to full member of the Politburo, and appointing
Minister of Defence Marshal Sergei Sokolov a Politburo candidate member. Nikonov was brought into the
CPSU Central Committee Secretariat.
However, this liberalization led to the emergence from
1986 onwards of nationalist movements and ethnic disputes within the diverse republics of the Soviet Union.[6] It also led to the revolutions of
1989, which saw the mainly peaceful (
Romania excepted) toppling of the Soviet-imposed
Communist regimes of the Warsaw Pact,[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 a ban on other political parties was not lifted until
1990.[9]
A 17 March 1991 referendum showed 76.4% of Soviet citizens voting to retain the
Union. However,
Estonia,
Latvia,
Lithuania,
Moldavia,
Georgia, and
Armenia did not participate.[10]
In May 1985 in
Leningrad Gorbachev made a speech advocating widespread reforms. One of the first reforms Gorbachev introduced was the anti-alcohol campaign, begun in May 1985, which was designed to fight widespread alcoholism in the Soviet Union. Prices of vodka, wine, and beer were raised, and their sales were restricted.[11] It was a serious blow to the state budget, a loss of approximately
100 billion rubles according to
Alexander Yakovlev, after alcohol production migrated to the black market economy.[11] The purpose of these reforms, however, was to prop up the existing centrally planned economy, unlike later reforms, which tended toward market socialism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union_collapse
- published: 19 Apr 2014
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