25 December 1991: Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the Soviet Union and turns over his presidential powers — including control of the nuclear launch codes — to Boris Yeltsin, the president of the Russian Federation. The USSR itself is officially dissolved the next day.

32 comments

  3. A referendum on the Act of Declaration of Independence was held in Ukraine on 1 December 1991. An overwhelming majority of 92.3% of voters approved the declaration of independence made on 24 August 1991. Ukraine officially leaves the Soviet Union.

    From 2 December 1991 onwards, Ukraine was globally recognized by other countries as an independent state.

    Kazakhstan was the last republic to leave the Union, proclaiming its independence on 16 December.

    Depicted: the Soviet red flag being lowered from the Kremlin for the last time at 7.32 PM and replaced with the flag of Russia on 25 December, 1991, after Mikhail Gorbachev announced his resignation.

    The following day, the Declaration 142-Н of the Supreme Soviet’s upper chamber, the Soviet of the Republics, recognised self-governing independence for the former Soviet republics, formally dissolving the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

    PS Also see the [Belovezha Accords](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belovezh_Accords) establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

  5. Mikhail Gorbachev’s efforts to democratize his country’s political system and decentralize its economy led to the downfall of communism and the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

    In part because he ended the Soviet Union’s postwar domination of eastern Europe, Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1990.

    Kudos to Gorbachev for not clinging to power and managing a peaceful dissolution of the USSR.

  6. Meanwhile Ukraine’s official Twitter account tweets:

    >OTD 30 years ago the USSR collapsed. The greatest geopolitical joy of the XX century!

  8. I know Gorbachev is a controversial (not to say hated) figure in modern day Russia, but I believe we here in Eastern Europe should be eternal grateful on his restraint and unwillingness to use force in order to prop de old communist regimes.

    As Brezhnev did in 1968 in Czechoslovakia.

  11. I’m never gonna understand why so many hate Gorbachev for letting the USSR dissolve, shouldn’t the blame be on Yeltsin who litteraly was the one who made Russia break out from the union only to lead the new Russian Federation close to both a political and economic collapse.

    Gorbachev tried to reinvigorate the USSR and return more of the original ideals of the Soviet Union that Stalin completely cut out during his decades in power.

  16. Actually the Soviet Union was officially dissolved with The Belovezh Accords (Russian: Беловежские соглашения). That took place on 08 Dec, 1991.

  17. “The End of History” as told by Francis Fukuyama. Capitalism and democracy had won to establish themselves as the world’s dominant economic and political systems. Everyone was overjoyed and the air was full of hope and optimism for a just, democratic and prosperous world free from conflict and the constant threat of nuclear annihilation.

    There certainly would not be anything more that would bother humanity to hold it back from achieving the pinnacle glory and it’s place among the stars.

    Right?

  18. It wasn’t even necessary. The New Union Treaty would’ve kept the USSR alive and reformed. Instead the hardliners tried a coup, failed, and the opportunists in the 9 republics decided to break away, going against the wishes of the population voiced in the March referendum.

    Leave to god damn Reddit to celebrate poverty, child prostitution and neoliberal economic policies. I hope Yeltsin and anyone who enabled him (that includes Clinton) will boil in hell for eternity.

  19. My take is that world would be far better place if the west treated Russia like it treated Germany after WW2, not like treated it after WW1.

  31. The collapse of the USSR plunged a huge country into chaos for 10 years. A sad story. I don’t remember that time very well, because I was still young. But I remember well the collapse of the infrastructure, global poverty, lack of assistance and protection from the state. Russia was saved by Putin in 2000. Many people remember this, which is why Putin is still in power. I don’t like Putin and I think it’s time for him to retire. But it is impossible to deny his contribution to the recovery of Russia after the collapse.

  32. May millions of Soviet people deceived, plundered, and murdered by the ruthless market rest In peace. One of the most horrendous day of humanity.

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