The main reason for the collapse of the USSR. Reasons for the collapse of the USSR

Wars and expansions have always led to the emergence of large states. But even huge and invincible powers are collapsing. The Roman, Mongolian, Russian and Byzantine empires had in their history both the peaks of their power and the fall. Consider the reasons for the collapse of the largest country of the XX century. Why the USSR collapsed, and what consequences it led to, read in our article below.

In what year did the USSR collapse?

The peak of the crisis in the USSR fell on the middle of the 80s of the last century. It was then that the Central Committee of the CPSU weakened control over the internal affairs of the countries of the socialist camp. Eastern Europe saw the decline of the communist regime. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the coming to power in Poland and Czechoslovakia of democratic forces, the military coup in Romania - all this is strong weakened the geopolitical power of the USSR.

The period of withdrawal of the socialist republics from the country fell at the beginning of the 90s.

Before this event, there was a rapid exit from the country of six republics:

• Lithuania. The first republic to secede from the Soviet Union. Independence was proclaimed on March 11, 1990, but not a single country in the world then decided to recognize the emergence of a new state.
• Estonia, Latvia, Azerbaijan and Moldova. The period from March 30 to May 27, 1990.
• Georgia. The last republic, the output of which occurred before the August GKChP.

The situation in the country was becoming unsettled. On the evening of December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev addresses the people and resigns as head of state.

The collapse of the USSR: causes and consequences

The cessation of the existence of the USSR was preceded by many factors, the main of which is economic crisis.

Analysts and historians cannot give an unambiguous answer to this question, so let's call main reasons :

• Economic downturn. The collapse of the economy led to a shortage of not only consumer goods (TVs, refrigerators, furniture), but also to interruptions in food supply.
• Ideology. The only communist ideology in the country did not let people with fresh ideas and new outlooks on life into its ranks. The result is a long-term lag behind the developed countries of the world in many spheres of life.
• Inefficient production. The stake on simple materials and inefficient production mechanisms worked at a high cost of hydrocarbons. After the collapse in oil prices, which occurred in the early 80s, the country's treasury had nothing to fill, and the rapid restructuring of the economy aggravated the situation in the country.

Consequences of the collapse:

• Geopolitical situation. The economic and military confrontation between the two superpowers of the 20th century: the USA and the USSR has ceased.
• New countries. On the territory of the former empire, which occupied almost 1/6 of the land, new state formations arose.
• Economic situation. None of the countries of the former Soviet Union managed to raise the standard of living of their citizens to the level of Western countries. In many of them there is a permanent economic downturn.

The collapse of the USSR and the formation of the CIS

In turbulent times for the country, there were timid attempts by the leadership to rectify the situation. In 1991, there was a so-called " coup d'état" or putsch (putsch). In the same year, on March 17, a referendum was held on the possibility of preserving the unity of the USSR. But the economic situation was so neglected that the majority of the population believed the populist slogans and spoke out against it.

After the USSR ceased to exist, new states appeared on the world map. If we do not take into account the countries of the Baltic region, the economy of 12 countries of the former republics were tightly interconnected.

In 1991, there was a serious question of cooperation.

• November 1991 Seven republics (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and countries of the Asian region) tried to create a Union of Sovereign States (USS).
• December 1991 On December 8, in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, a political pact was signed between Belarus, Russia and Ukraine on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. This union initially included three countries.

In December of the same year, some other Asian countries and Kazakhstan expressed their readiness to join the new union formation. The last to join the CIS was Uzbekistan (January 4, 1992), after which the composition of the participants was 12 countries.

USSR and the price of oil

For some reason, many financial experts, speaking of the demise of the Soviet Union, blame the low cost of hydrocarbons for this. In the first place put the price of oil, which in two years (in the period from 1985 - 1986) has almost halved.

In fact, this does not reflect the general picture that existed in the economy of the USSR at that time. With the 1980 Olympics, the country met with the fastest surge in oil prices ever. More than 35 dollars per barrel. But the systematic problems in the economy (the consequences of 20 years of Brezhnev's "stagnation") began precisely from that year.

War in Afghanistan

Another of the many factors that caused the weakening of the Soviet regime - ten year war in Afghanistan. The reason for the military confrontation was the successful attempt by the United States to change the leadership of this country. The geopolitical defeat near its borders left the USSR no other options but to bring Soviet troops into the territory of Afghanistan.

As a result, the Soviet Union received "its own Vietnam", which had a detrimental effect both on the country's economy and undermined the moral foundation of the Soviet people.

Although the USSR installed its ruler in Kabul, many consider this war, which finally ended in 1989, one of the main reasons for the collapse of the country.

3 more reasons that caused the collapse of the USSR

The country's economy and the war in Afghanistan were not the only reasons that "helped" to break up the Soviet Union. Let's call 3 more events, which occurred in the mid-late 90s of the last century, and many began to associate with the collapse of the USSR:

1. Fall of the Iron Curtain. Propaganda the Soviet leadership about the "terrible" standard of living in the United States and the democratic countries of Europe, collapsed after the fall iron curtain.
2. Man-made disasters. Since the mid-80s, all over the country have passed man-made disasters . The apogee was the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
3. Morality. The low morale of people holding public office helped development in the country theft and lawlessness .

Now you know why the USSR collapsed. Whether this is good or bad is up to everyone to decide. But the history of mankind does not stand still and, perhaps, in the near future, we will witness the creation of new state unions.

Video about the collapse of the USSR

A huge power that occupied 1/6 of the land by the time of its heyday and power. multinational federal state. A country with a rich, centuries-old history. Year of birth - 1922, year of collapse - 1991. So why did the Soviet empire cease to exist? Disputes about this do not subside even now, when humanity has entered the 21st century.

Causes of the collapse of the USSR

Among the indirect causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union should be attributed to the totalitarian regime that existed almost throughout its history. In the Leninist-Stalinist version, it was extremely tough, not allowing any manifestation of dissent, when the carriers of alternative thinking were dealt with with the help of violence and terror, the creation of a network of prisons and concentration camps. In the era of Khrushchev's "thaw", the regime softened somewhat, manifestations of pluralism and limited democracy became possible. During Brezhnev's "stagnation", fighters against the regime (dissidents) were forced to emigrate, they were persecuted in the press, they tried to hide in psychiatric hospitals, subjecting them to forced treatment. All these measures had a negative impact on the reputation of Soviet power abroad, in the eyes of the world community. No wonder the American President R. Reagan expressively called his main military adversary "the evil empire." Despite the fact that the Constitution of the USSR of 1977 is recognized as one of the most democratic in the world, in practice many of its provisions remained declarative and were not implemented. A state built on violence and with the help of violence has already existed for quite a long time. Is it any wonder that as soon as the winds of change blew, censorship was abolished, the principle of one-party system was abandoned, the “united and mighty” began to burst at the seams?

Another reason can be considered centralized planning and command-administrative methods of managing the economy. The private sector was virtually eliminated from economic life, and with it competition and market relations. The ideal was the city and the urban lifestyle. The village was rapidly dying out, abandoned to the mercy of fate and left to itself. The city pumped all the profits out of the village. Peasants for a long time remained tied to the land, like serfs, not even having passports. They worked not for money, but for workdays. And when M.S. Gorbachev, elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU in April 1985, allowed individual entrepreneurship and private trade, when the law on cooperatives came out, the whole country seemed to “go crazy”: everyone rushed to trade - from their hands, from the floor, from the stalls , who knew how and with anything. The monopoly of the state sector in the economy was fundamentally undermined.

Another reason for the collapse of the Soviet Union, albeit largely formal, was its vast territory itself. It was not for nothing that the USSR was called an empire and was compared either with Ancient Rome, or with Byzantium (remember the theory “Moscow is the third Rome”), or with the power of Alexander the Great. And still, the lessons of history did not go to the Soviet leaders for the future. The collapse of the state very often begins with conflicts in the border areas and with the erosion of the borders themselves. And in the last years of the existence of the USSR, with the filing of the same M.S. Gorbachev, and then B.N. Yeltsin, a real “parade of sovereignties” began. As a result, by the end of 1991, only Russia and Kazakhstan remained in the Union, all other republics adopted Declarations of Independence. Russia also accepted it, remaining a part of the USSR. A more absurd situation could not have been imagined.

The next reason for the collapse was the aggravation of ethnic hatred in the era of "perestroika". In former years, national problems were pushed inward or ignored. In the late 80s - early 90s. The "abscess" broke through: unrest in Alma-Ata, the Karabakh conflict, shooting at demonstrators in Tbilisi, etc. Chechnya also raised its head. In the wake of discussions about the state language, Tatarstan made an attempt to separate. From the "fraternal friendship of the Soviet peoples" in an instant there was only a myth. In the Soviet leadership, the overwhelming majority were people of very advanced age. In fact, there was such a form of government as gerontocracy. Gorbachev was the youngest member of the Politburo - he was only 56 years old. It is “everything” against the background of 70-80-year-old elders, some of whom already suffered from dementia and could not effectively govern the country. As accurately noted in R. Aldington's novel "The Death of a Hero", the people, relying on the imaginary wisdom of decrepit old men, have hopelessly degenerated.

The Soviet economy, tied to world oil prices, after their artificial fall, inspired by the United States in collusion with Saudi Arabia, began to experience serious difficulties. There was a shortage, i.е. lack of essential goods, queues grew. The government was forced to go even to the introduction of food stamps. Finally, the unbridled arms race and the militarization of the Soviet economy to the detriment of its civilian focus played a detrimental role.

Course of events

The perestroika policy initiated by Gorbachev deepened the internal crisis of the Soviet system. It was not subject to reform. The Warsaw Pact is disintegrating. However, in the 1991 referendum, the majority of citizens said "yes" to the renewed Union. Accelerated the process of disintegration of the GKChP coup in August of the same year. The final point was made at the talks in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) emerged from the ruins of the USSR. Faced with a fact, Gorbachev resigned as President of the USSR.

The collapse of the USSR (also the collapse of the USSR) is the processes of systemic disintegration in the national economy, social structure, public and political sphere of the Soviet Union, which led to the termination of its existence as a state in 1991.

background

In 1922, at the time of its creation, the Soviet Union inherited most of the territory, multinational structure and multi-confessional environment of the Russian Empire. In 1917-1921, Finland and Poland gained independence and declared sovereignty: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Tuva. Some territories of the former Russian Empire were annexed in 1939–1946.

The USSR included: Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, the Baltic states, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, the Tuva People's Republic, Transcarpathia, and a number of other territories.

As one of the winners in World War II, the Soviet Union, following its results and on the basis of international treaties, secured the right to own and dispose of vast territories in Europe and Asia, access to the seas and oceans, colossal natural and human resources. The country emerged from a bloody war with a fairly developed socialist-type economy for that time, based on regional specialization and interregional economic ties, most of which worked for the country's defense.

In the sphere of influence of the USSR were the countries of the so-called socialist camp. In 1949, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance was created, and later the collective currency, the transferable ruble, was put into circulation, which was in circulation in the socialist countries. Thanks to the strict control over ethno-national groups, the introduction into the mass consciousness of the slogan of indestructible friendship and brotherhood of the peoples of the USSR, it was possible to minimize the number of interethnic (ethnic) conflicts of separatist or anti-Soviet persuasion.

Separate actions of workers that took place in the 1960s–1970s, for the most part, were in the nature of protests against the unsatisfactory provision (supply) of socially significant goods and services, low wages and dissatisfaction with the work of the local authorities.

The Constitution of the USSR of 1977 proclaims a single, new historical community of people - the Soviet people. In the middle and late 1980s, with the beginning of perestroika, glasnost and democratization, the nature of protests and mass demonstrations changed somewhat.

The union republics that made up the USSR were, according to the Constitution, considered sovereign states; each of which was assigned the right to secede from the USSR by the Constitution, but there were no legal norms in the legislation regulating the procedure for this seceding. It was only in April 1990 that a corresponding law was adopted, providing for the possibility of the union republic secession from the USSR, but after the implementation of rather complex and difficult procedures.

Formally, the union republics had the right to enter into relations with foreign states, conclude agreements with them and exchange

diplomatic and consular representatives, participate in the activities of international organizations; for example, the Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSRs, based on the results of the agreements reached at the Yalta Conference, had their representatives in the UN from the moment it was founded.

In reality, such "initiatives from below" required detailed coordination in Moscow. All appointments to key party and economic positions in the union republics and autonomies were preliminary considered and approved at the center, the leadership and the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee played a decisive role under the one-party system.

Reasons for the disappearance of a great power

Among historians there is no consensus on the reasons for the collapse of the USSR. Rather, there were several. Here are the most basic ones.

Degradation of power

The USSR was formed by fanatics of the idea. Ardent revolutionaries came to power. Their main goal is to build a communist power, where everyone would be equal. All people are brothers. They work and live the same way.

Only the fundamentalists of communism were allowed to power. And every year there were less and less of them. The top bureaucracy was getting old. The country buried the General Secretaries. After Brezhnev's death, Andropov came to power. And two years later - his funeral. The post of General Secretary is occupied by Chernenko. A year later he is buried. Gorbachev becomes General Secretary. He was too young for the country. At the time of his election, he was 54 years old. Before Gorbachev, the average age of leaders was 75 years.

The new leadership proved to be incompetent. There was no longer that fanaticism and that ideology. Gorbachev became the catalyst for the collapse of the USSR. His famous perestroika led to a weakening of the monocentrism of power. And the union republics took advantage of this moment.

Everyone wanted independence

The leaders of the republics sought to get rid of centralized power. As mentioned above, with the advent of Gorbachev, they did not fail to take advantage of democratic reforms. The regional authorities had a lot of reasons for dissatisfaction:

• centralized decision-making hampered the activity of the union republics;
• time was lost;
• individual regions of a multinational country wanted to develop independently, because they had their own culture, their own history;
• a certain nationalism is peculiar to every republic;
• numerous conflicts, protests, coups only added fuel to the fire; and many historians consider the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the creation of a United Germany as the catalyst.

Crisis in all spheres of life

Something, but the crisis phenomena in the USSR were characteristic of all areas:

• on the shelves there was a catastrophic lack of essential goods;
• products of inadequate quality were produced (the pursuit of deadlines, the reduction in the cost of raw materials led to a drop in the quality of consumer goods);
• uneven development of individual republics in the union; the weakness of the raw materials economy of the USSR (this became especially noticeable after the decline in world oil prices);
• severe censorship in the media; active growth of the shadow economy.

The situation was exacerbated by man-made disasters. Especially the people rebelled after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The planned economy in this situation caused many deaths. The reactors were put into operation on time, but not in proper condition. And all information was hidden from people.

With the advent of Gorbachev, the veil to the West opened. And the people saw how others live. Soviet citizens smelled freedom. They wanted more.

The USSR turned out to be problematic in terms of morality. Soviet people engaged in sex, and drank, and indulged in drugs, and faced crime. Years of silence and denial made the confession too harsh.

The collapse of ideology

A huge country rested on the strongest idea: to build a bright communist future. The ideals of communism were instilled from birth. Kindergarten, school, work - a person grew together with the idea of ​​​​equality and brotherhood. Any attempt to think differently, or even a hint of an attempt, was severely suppressed.

But the main ideologists of the country grew old and passed away. The younger generation did not need communism. What for? If there is nothing to eat, it is impossible to buy anything, it is difficult to say, it is difficult to leave somewhere. Yes, and people are dying because of the restructuring.

Not the last role in the collapse of the USSR is assigned to the activities of the United States. Huge powers claimed world domination. And the States systematically "erased" the union state from the map of Europe (Cold War, initiating a fall in oil prices).

All these factors did not even leave a chance for the preservation of the USSR. The great power broke up into separate states.

fatal dates

The collapse of the USSR began in 1985. Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, announced the start of perestroika. In short, its essence meant the complete reform of the Soviet system of power and economy. As for the latter, a transition to private enterprise in the form of cooperatives is being tried here. If we take the ideological side of the issue, then the mitigation of censorship and the improvement of relations with the West were declared. Perestroika causes euphoria among the population, which receives unprecedented, by the standards of the Soviet Union, freedom.

And then what went wrong?

Almost all. The fact is that the economic situation in the country began to deteriorate. Plus, national conflicts are escalating - for example, the conflict in Karabakh. In 1989–1991, a total food shortage began in the USSR. On the outside, the situation is no better - the Soviet Union is losing ground in Eastern Europe. Pro-Soviet communist regimes are overthrown in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania.

Meanwhile, the population is no longer in euphoria due to food shortages. In 1990, disappointment with the Soviet government reaches its limit. At this time legalized

private property, stock and currency markets are formed, cooperation begins to take the form of Western-style business. In the external arena, the USSR finally loses its status as a superpower. Separatist sentiments are brewing in the Union republics. The priority of republican legislation over union legislation is massively announced. In general, it is clear to everyone that the Soviet Union is living out its last days.

Wait, there was some other coup there, tanks?

All right. First, on June 12, 1991, Boris Yeltsin became president of the RSFSR. Mikhail Gorbachev was still president of the USSR. In August of the same year, the Treaty on the Union of Sovereign States was published. By that time, all the union republics had declared their sovereignty. Thus, the USSR ceased to exist in its usual form, offering a soft form of confederation. 9 out of 15 republics were supposed to enter there.

But the signing of the treaty was thwarted by the old hardened communists. They created the State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP) and declared their disobedience to Gorbachev. In short, their goal is to prevent the collapse of the Union.

And then the famous August putsch happened, which also famously failed. The same tanks were driving to Moscow, Yeltsin's defenders block the equipment with trolleybuses. On August 21, a column of tanks is withdrawn from Moscow. Later, members of the GKChP are arrested. And the union republics massively declare independence. On December 1, a referendum is held in Ukraine, where independence is proclaimed on August 24, 1991.

And what happened on December 8th?

The last nail in the coffin of the USSR. Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, as the founders of the USSR, stated that "the Union of the SSR as a subject of international law and geopolitical reality ceases to exist." And they announced the creation of the CIS. On December 25-26, the authorities of the USSR as a subject of international law ceased to exist. On December 25, Mikhail Gorbachev announced his resignation.

3 more reasons that caused the collapse of the USSR

The country's economy and the war in Afghanistan were not the only reasons that "helped" to break up the Soviet Union. Let's name 3 more events that took place in the mid-late 90s of the last century, and many began to associate with the collapse of the USSR:

1. Fall of the Iron Curtain. The propaganda of the Soviet leadership about the "terrible" standard of living in the United States and the democratic countries of Europe collapsed after the fall of the Iron Curtain.
2. Man-made disasters. Since the mid-80s, man-made disasters have passed all over the country. The apogee was the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
3. Morality. The low morale of people holding public office helped the development of theft and lawlessness in the country.

1. If we talk about the main geopolitical consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union, then first of all it should be said that globalization could begin only from that moment. Before that, the world was divided. And often these boundaries were impassable. And when the Soviet Union collapsed, the world became a single information, economic, political system. The bipolar confrontation is a thing of the past, and globalization has taken place.
2. The second most important consequence is the most serious restructuring of the entire Eurasian space. This is the emergence of 15 states on the site of the former Soviet Union. Then followed the collapse of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia. The emergence of a huge number of not only new states, but also unrecognized republics, which sometimes waged bloody wars among themselves.
3. The third consequence is the emergence of a unipolar moment on the world political scene. For some time, the United States remained the only superpower in the world that, in principle, had the ability to solve any problems at its own discretion. At this time, there was a sharp increase in the American presence, not only in those regions that had fallen away from the Soviet Union. I mean both Eastern Europe and the former republics of the Soviet Union, but also in other regions of the globe.
4. The fourth consequence is a serious expansion of the West. If earlier the Eastern European states, like the West, were not considered, now they are not only considered, but actually institutionally became part of the Western alliances. I mean the members of the European Union and NATO.
5. The next most important consequence is the transformation of China into the second largest center of world development. China, after the Soviet Union left the historical arena, on the contrary, began to gain strength, using the opposite pattern of development. The opposite of the one proposed by Mikhail Gorbachev. If Gorbachev offered democracy without a market economy, then China offered a market economy while maintaining the old political regime and achieved amazing success. If at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union the economy of the RSFSR was three times the size of the Chinese, now the Chinese economy is four times the size of the economy of the Russian Federation.
6. And, finally, the last major consequence is that developing countries, primarily African ones, were left to fend for themselves. Because if during the bipolar confrontation each of the poles tried in one way or another to assist their allies outside their immediate zone of influence or outside their countries, then after the end of the Cold War, all this stopped. And all the flows of aid that went to development in different regions of the globe, both from the Soviet Union and from the West, abruptly ended. And this led to serious economic problems in virtually all developing countries in the 1990s.

findings

The Soviet Union was a large-scale project, but it was destined to fail, as this was facilitated by the domestic and foreign policies of states. Many researchers believe that the fate of the USSR was predetermined with the coming to power in 1985 of Mikhail Gorbachev. The official date for the collapse of the Soviet Union was 1991.

There are a great many possible reasons why the USSR collapsed, and the main ones are considered to be the following:

• economic;
• ideological;
• social;
• political.

Economic difficulties in the countries led to the collapse of the union of republics. In 1989, the government officially recognized the economic crisis. This period was characterized by the main problem of the Soviet Union - the shortage of goods. There were no goods on free sale except bread. The population is being transferred to special coupons, according to which it was possible to get the necessary food.

After the decline in world oil prices, the union of republics faced a big problem. This led to the fact that in two years foreign trade turnover decreased by 14 billion rubles. Low-quality products began to be produced, which provoked a general economic decline in the country. The Chernobyl tragedy in terms of losses amounted to 1.5% of the national income and led to riots. Many were outraged by the policies of the state. The population suffered from hunger and poverty. The main factor why the USSR collapsed was M. Gorbachev's ill-considered economic policy. The launch of mechanical engineering, the reduction of foreign purchases of consumer goods, the increase in wages and pensions, and other reasons undermined the country's economy. Political reforms were ahead of economic processes and led to the inevitable loosening of the established system. In the early years of his reign, Mikhail Gorbachev was wildly popular with the population, as he introduced innovations and changed stereotypes. However, after the era of perestroika, the country entered the years of economic and political hopelessness. Unemployment began, lack of food and essential goods, hunger, increased crime.

The political factor in the collapse of the union was the desire of the leaders of the republics to get rid of centralized power. Many regions wanted to develop independently, without the decrees of a centralized government, each had its own culture and history. Over time, the population of the republics begins to incite rallies and uprisings on ethnic grounds, which forced the leaders to make radical decisions. The democratic orientation of M. Gorbachev's policy helped them create their own internal laws and a plan for leaving the Soviet Union.

Historians identify another reason why the USSR collapsed. The leadership and foreign policy of the United States played a significant role in the end of the union. The US and the Soviet Union have always fought for world domination. It was in America's interests to wipe the USSR off the map in the first place. Evidence of this is the ongoing policy of the "cold curtain", the artificial underestimation of the price of oil. Many researchers believe that it was the United States that contributed to the formation of Mikhail Gorbachev at the helm of a great power. Year after year, he planned and implemented the fall of the Soviet Union.

On December 26, 1991, the Soviet Union officially ceased to exist. Some political parties and organizations did not want to recognize the collapse of the USSR, believing that the country was attacked and influenced by Western powers.

At the current stage of development of the Russian Federation and neighboring states, which are the successors of the former USSR, there are a lot of political, economic and cultural problems. Their solution is impossible without a thorough analysis of the events connected with the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This article contains clear and structured information about the collapse of the USSR, as well as an analysis of events and personalities directly related to this process.

Brief background

The years of the USSR are a history of victories and defeats, economic rise and fall. It is known that the Soviet Union as a state was formed in 1922. After that, as a result of many political and military events, its territory increased. The peoples and republics that were part of the USSR had the right to voluntarily withdraw from it. Repeatedly, the ideology of the country emphasized the fact that the Soviet state is a family of friendly peoples.

Regarding the leadership of such a huge country, it is not difficult to predict that it was centralized. The main organ of state administration was the CPSU party. And the leaders of the republican governments were appointed by the central Moscow leadership. The main legislative act regulating the legal state of affairs in the country was the Constitution of the USSR.

Reasons for the collapse of the USSR

Many powerful powers are going through difficult times in their development. Speaking about the collapse of the USSR, it should be noted that 1991 in the history of our state was very difficult and controversial. What contributed to this? There are a huge number of reasons that led to the collapse of the USSR. Let's try to focus on the main ones:

• authoritarian power and society in the state, the persecution of dissidents;
• nationalist tendencies in the union republics, the presence of ethnic conflicts in the country;
• one state ideology, censorship, a ban on any political alternative;
• economic crisis of the Soviet system of production (extensive method);
• the international fall in the price of oil;
• a number of unsuccessful attempts to reform the Soviet system;
• colossal centralization of state authorities;
• military failure in Afghanistan (1989).

These, of course, are far from all the reasons for the collapse of the USSR, but they can rightfully be considered fundamental.

The collapse of the USSR: the general course of events

With the appointment of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev to the post of General Secretary of the CPSU in 1985, the policy of perestroika began, which was associated with sharp criticism of the previous political system, the disclosure of archival documents of the KGB and the liberalization of public life. But the state of affairs in the country has not only not changed, but worsened. The people became more politically active, the formation of many organizations and movements, sometimes nationalistic and radical, began. MS Gorbachev, the President of the USSR, repeatedly came into conflict with the future leader of the country, B. Yeltsin, over the withdrawal of the RSFSR from the Union.

nationwide crisis

The collapse of the USSR occurred gradually in all sectors of society. The crisis has come both economic and foreign policy, and even demographic. This was officially announced in 1989.

In the year of the collapse of the USSR, the age-old problem of Soviet society became apparent - the shortage of goods. Even the essentials are disappearing from store shelves.

Softness in the country's foreign policy turns into the fall of regimes of Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Romania loyal to the USSR. New nation-states are being formed there.

On the territory of the country itself, it was also quite restless. Mass demonstrations begin in the union republics (a demonstration in Alma-Ata, the Karabakh conflict, unrest in the Ferghana Valley).

Rallies are also taking place in Moscow and Leningrad. The crisis in the country plays into the hands of the radical democrats headed by Boris Yeltsin. They are gaining popularity among the discontented masses.

Parade of Sovereignties

In early February 1990, the Central Committee of the Party announced the annulment of its dominance in power. Democratic elections were held in the RSFSR and the union republics, which were won by radical political forces in the form of liberals and nationalists.

In 1990 and early 1991, a wave of speeches swept through the entire Soviet Union, which later historians called the "parade of sovereignties." Many of the union republics during this period adopted Declarations of Sovereignty, which meant the supremacy of republican law over the all-union law.

The first territory that dared to leave the USSR was the Nakhichevan Republic. It happened back in January 1990. It was followed by: Latvia, Estonia, Moldova, Lithuania and Armenia. Over time, all the allied states will issue a Declaration of Independence (after the putsch of the State Emergency Committee), and the USSR will finally collapse.

The last president of the USSR

The central role in the process of the collapse of the Soviet Union was played by the last president of this state - MS Gorbachev. The collapse of the USSR took place against the backdrop of the desperate activities of Mikhail Sergeevich to reform Soviet society and the system.

M. S. Gorbachev was from the Stavropol Territory (the village of Privolnoe). The statesman was born in 1931 in the simplest family. After graduating from high school, he continued his studies at the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University, where he headed the Komsomol organization. There he met his future wife, Raisa Titarenko.

In his student years, Gorbachev was engaged in active political activity, joined the ranks of the CPSU and already in 1955 took the post of secretary of the Stavropol Komsomol. Gorbachev moved up the career ladder of a civil servant rapidly and confidently.

Rise to power

Mikhail Sergeevich came to power in 1985, after the so-called "epoch of the deaths of general secretaries" (three leaders of the USSR died in three years). It should be noted that the title "President of the USSR" (introduced in 1990) was worn only by Gorbachev, all previous leaders were called General Secretaries. The reign of Mikhail Sergeyevich was characterized by thorough political reforms, which were often not particularly thought out and radical.

Reform attempts

Such socio-political transformations include: prohibition, the introduction of cost accounting, money exchange, the policy of publicity, and acceleration.

For the most part, society did not appreciate the reforms and treated them negatively. And there was little benefit to the state from such radical actions.

In his foreign policy course, M. S. Gorbachev adhered to the so-called "policy of new thinking", which contributed to the detente of international relations and the cessation of the "arms race". For this position, Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize. But the USSR at that time was in a terrible position.

August coup

Of course, attempts to reform the Soviet society, and in the end to completely destroy the USSR, were not supported by many. Some supporters of the Soviet government united and decided to oppose the destructive processes that were taking place in the Union.

The GKChP putsch was a political uprising that took place in August 1991. Its goal is the restoration of the USSR. The putsch of 1991 was regarded by the official authorities as an attempted coup d'état.

The events took place in Moscow from 19 to 21 August 1991. Among the many street clashes, the main bright event, which ultimately led the USSR to collapse, was the decision to create the State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP). It was a new body formed by state officials, headed by the vice-president of the USSR Gennady Yanaev.

The main reasons for the putsch

The main reason for the August coup can be considered dissatisfaction with Gorbachev's policies. Perestroika did not bring the expected results, the crisis deepened, unemployment and crime grew.

The last straw for the future putschists and conservatives was the desire of the President to transform the USSR into the Union of Sovereign States. After the departure of M. S. Gorbachev from Moscow, the dissatisfied did not miss the opportunity of an armed uprising. But the conspirators failed to retain power, the putsch was crushed.

Significance of the GKChP coup

The putsch of 1991 launched an irreversible process of disintegration of the USSR, which was already in a state of continuous economic and political instability. Despite the desire of the putschists to preserve the state, they themselves contributed to its collapse. After this event, Gorbachev resigned, the structure of the CPSU collapsed, and the republics of the USSR began to gradually proclaim their independence. The Soviet Union was replaced by a new state - the Russian Federation. And 1991 is understood by many as the year of the collapse of the USSR.

Belovezhskaya agreements

The Belovezhskaya Accords of 1991 were signed on 8 December. The officials of three states - Russia, Ukraine and Belarus put their signatures under them. The agreements were a document that legislated the collapse of the USSR and the formation of a new organization of mutual assistance and cooperation - the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

As mentioned earlier, the GKChP putsch only weakened the central authorities and thus accompanied the collapse of the USSR. In some republics, separatist tendencies began to mature, which were actively promoted in the regional media. As an example, consider Ukraine. In the country, at a nationwide referendum on December 1, 1991, almost 90% of citizens voted for the independence of Ukraine, and L. Kravchuk was elected president of the country.

In early December, the leader issued a statement that Ukraine was renouncing the 1922 treaty establishing the USSR. The year 1991 thus became the starting point for Ukrainians on the way to their own statehood.

The Ukrainian referendum served as a kind of signal for President B. Yeltsin, who began to more persistently strengthen his power in Russia.

Creation of the CIS and the final destruction of the USSR

In turn, in Belarus, a new chairman of the Supreme Soviet, S. Shushkevich, was elected. It was he who invited the leaders of neighboring states Kravchuk and Yeltsin to Belovezhskaya Pushcha to discuss the current situation and coordinate subsequent actions. After minor discussions among the delegates, the fate of the USSR was finally decided. The treaty on the creation of the Soviet Union of December 31, 1922 was denounced, and instead a plan for the Commonwealth of Independent States was prepared. After this process, many disputes arose, since the treaty establishing the USSR was reinforced by the Constitution of 1924.

However, it should be noted that the 1991 Belovezhskaya Accords were adopted not by the will of three politicians, but by the will of the peoples of the former Soviet republics. Already two days after the signing of the agreement, the Supreme Soviets of Belarus and Ukraine adopted an act on the denunciation of the union treaty and ratified the agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 12, 1991, the same procedure took place in Russia. Not only radical liberals and democrats, but also communists voted for the ratification of the Belovezhskaya Accords.

Already on December 25, the President of the USSR M. S. Gorbachev resigned. So, relatively simply, they destroyed the state system, which lasted for years. Although the USSR was an authoritarian state, there were certainly positive aspects in its history. Among them are the social security of citizens, the presence of clear state plans in the economy and excellent military power. Many people still remember life in the Soviet Union with nostalgia.

The collapse of the USSR- the processes of systemic disintegration that took place in the economy (national economy), social structure, public and political sphere of the Soviet Union, which led to the demise of the USSR on December 26, 1991.

The collapse of the USSR led to the independence of 15 republics of the USSR and their appearance on the world political arena as independent states.

background

The USSR inherited most of the territory and the multinational structure of the Russian Empire. In 1917-1921. Finland, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Tuva gained independence. Some territories in 1939-1946. were annexed to the USSR (the Polish campaign of the Red Army, the annexation of the Baltic states, the annexation of the Tuva People's Republic).

After the end of World War II, the USSR had a vast territory in Europe and Asia, with access to the seas and oceans, colossal natural resources, and a developed socialist-type economy based on regional specialization and interregional economic ties. In addition, the leadership of the "countries of the socialist camp" was under the partial control of the authorities of the USSR.

In the 70-80s, interethnic conflicts (riots in 1972 in Kaunas, mass demonstrations in 1978 in Georgia, the events of 1980 in Minsk, the December events of 1986 in Kazakhstan) were insignificant, the Soviet ideology emphasized that the USSR was a friendly family of fraternal peoples . The USSR was headed by representatives of various nationalities (Georgian I. V. Stalin, Ukrainians N. S. Khrushchev, L. I. Brezhnev, K. U. Chernenko, Russians Yu. V. Andropov, Gorbachev, V. I. Lenin). Russians, the most numerous people, lived not only on the territory of the RSFSR, but also in all other republics. Each of the republics of the Soviet Union had its own anthem and its own party leadership (except for the RSFSR) - the first secretary, etc.

The leadership of the multinational state was centralized - the country was headed by the central bodies of the CPSU, which controlled the entire hierarchy of authorities. The leaders of the union republics were approved by the central leadership. This actual state of affairs was somewhat different from the idealized construction described in the Constitution of the USSR. The Byelorussian SSR and the Ukrainian SSR, following the results of the agreements reached at the Yalta Conference, had their representatives in the UN from the moment it was founded.

After Stalin's death, some decentralization of power took place. In particular, it became a strict rule to appoint a representative of the titular nation of the corresponding republic to the post of first secretary in the republics. The second party secretary in the republics was a protege of the Central Committee. This led to the fact that local leaders had a certain independence and unconditional power in their regions. After the collapse of the USSR, many of these leaders were transformed into presidents of the respective states (except for Shushkevich). However, in Soviet times, their fate depended on the central leadership.

Reasons for the collapse

Currently, among historians there is no single point of view on what was the main reason for the collapse of the USSR, and also on whether it was possible to prevent or at least stop the process of the collapse of the USSR. Possible reasons include the following:

• centrifugal nationalistic tendencies inherent, according to some authors, to every multinational country and manifested in the form of interethnic contradictions and the desire of individual peoples to independently develop their culture and economy;
• the authoritarian nature of Soviet society (persecution of the church, persecution of dissidents by the KGB, forced collectivism);
• the dominance of one ideology, ideological blindness, a ban on communication with foreign countries, censorship, the lack of a free discussion of alternatives (especially important for the intelligentsia);
• growing dissatisfaction of the population due to shortages of food and the most necessary goods (refrigerators, televisions, toilet paper, etc.), ridiculous prohibitions and restrictions (on the size of a garden plot, etc.), a constant lag in living standards from developed Western countries;
• disproportions in the extensive economy (characteristic of the entire existence of the USSR), which resulted in a constant shortage of consumer goods, a growing technical lag in all areas of the manufacturing industry (which in an extensive economy can only be compensated for by high-cost mobilization measures, a set of such measures under the general name "Acceleration »was adopted in 1987, but there were no longer economic opportunities to implement it);
• crisis of confidence in the economic system: in the 1960s-1970s. the main way to deal with the inevitable shortage of consumer goods in a planned economy was to rely on the mass character, simplicity and cheapness of materials, most enterprises worked in three shifts, produced similar products from low-quality materials. The quantitative plan was the only way to assess the effectiveness of enterprises, quality control was minimized. The result of this was a sharp drop in the quality of consumer goods produced in the USSR, as a result, already in the early 1980s. the term "Soviet" in relation to goods was synonymous with the term "low quality". The crisis of confidence in the quality of goods became a crisis of confidence in the entire economic system as a whole;
• a number of man-made disasters (plane crashes, the Chernobyl accident, the crash of the Admiral Nakhimov, gas explosions, etc.) and the concealment of information about them;
• unsuccessful attempts to reform the Soviet system, which led to stagnation and then the collapse of the economy, which led to the collapse of the political system (the economic reform of 1965);
• the decline in world oil prices, which shook the economy of the USSR;
• monocentric decision-making (only in Moscow), which led to inefficiency and loss of time;
• defeat in the arms race, the victory of "Reaganomics" in this race;
• The Afghan war, the Cold War, the ongoing financial assistance to the countries of the socialist bloc, the development of the military-industrial complex to the detriment of other sectors of the economy ruined the budget.

The possibility of the collapse of the USSR was considered in Western political science (Hélène d'Encausse, The Divided Empire, 1978) and the journalism of Soviet dissidents (Andrey Amalrik, Will the Soviet Union Survive Until 1984?, 1969).

Course of events

Since 1985, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, M. S. Gorbachev, and his supporters began the policy of perestroika, the political activity of the people increased sharply, mass movements and organizations were formed, including radical and nationalist ones. Attempts to reform the Soviet system led to a deepening crisis in the country. In the political arena, this crisis was expressed as a confrontation between the President of the USSR Gorbachev and the President of the RSFSR Yeltsin. Yeltsin actively promoted the slogan about the need for the sovereignty of the RSFSR.

General crisis

The collapse of the USSR took place against the backdrop of a general economic, foreign policy and demographic crisis. In 1989, for the first time, the beginning of the economic crisis in the USSR was officially announced (growth of the economy is replaced by a fall).

In the period 1989-1991. the main problem of the Soviet economy - a chronic commodity shortage - reaches its maximum; practically all basic goods disappear from free sale, except for bread. Rated supply in the form of coupons is being introduced throughout the country.

Since 1991, for the first time, a demographic crisis has been recorded (the excess of deaths over births).

Refusal to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries entails the massive fall of the pro-Soviet communist regimes in Eastern Europe in 1989. In Poland, the former leader of the Solidarity trade union Lech Walesa comes to power (December 9, 1990), in Czechoslovakia - the former dissident Vaclav Havel (December 29, 1989). In Romania, unlike other countries of Eastern Europe, the communists were removed by force, and the dictator-president Ceausescu, along with his wife, was shot by a tribunal. Thus, there is an actual collapse of the Soviet sphere of influence.

A number of interethnic conflicts flare up on the territory of the USSR.

The first manifestation of tension during the Perestroika period was the events in Kazakhstan. On December 16, 1986, a protest demonstration took place in Alma-Ata after Moscow tried to impose its protege V.G. This demonstration was suppressed by internal troops. Some of its members "disappeared" or were imprisoned. These events are known as "Zheltoksan".

The most acute was the Karabakh conflict that began in 1988. Mutual ethnic cleansings are taking place, and in Azerbaijan this was accompanied by mass pogroms. In 1989, the Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR announces the annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azerbaijan SSR begins a blockade. In April 1991, a war actually begins between the two Soviet republics.

In 1990, riots took place in the Fergana Valley, a feature of which is the mixing of several Central Asian nationalities (the Osh massacre). The decision to rehabilitate the peoples deported by Stalin leads to an increase in tension in a number of regions, in particular, in the Crimea - between the returned Crimean Tatars and Russians, in the Prigorodny region of North Ossetia - between Ossetians and returned Ingush.

Against the backdrop of a general crisis, the popularity of radical democrats led by Boris Yeltsin is growing; it reaches its maximum in the two largest cities - Moscow and Leningrad.

Movements in the republics for secession from the USSR and the "parade of sovereignties"

On February 7, 1990, the Central Committee of the CPSU announced the weakening of the monopoly on power, within a few weeks the first competitive elections were held. Many seats in the parliaments of the union republics were won by liberals and nationalists.

During 1990-1991. so-called. "parade of sovereignties", during which all the Union (one of the first was the RSFSR) and many of the autonomous republics adopted Declarations of Sovereignty, in which they challenged the priority of all-Union laws over republican ones, which began a "war of laws". They also took steps to control local economies, including refusing to pay taxes to the federal and federal Russian budgets. These conflicts cut off many economic ties, which further worsened the economic situation in the USSR.

The first territory of the USSR, which declared independence in January 1990 in response to the Baku events, was the Nakhichevan ASSR. Before the August coup, two union republics (Lithuania and Georgia) declared independence, four more refused to join the proposed new Union (SSG, see below) and transitioned to independence: Estonia, Latvia, Moldova, Armenia.

With the exception of Kazakhstan, there were no organized movements or parties in any of the Central Asian union republics that aimed at achieving independence. Among the Muslim republics, with the exception of the Azerbaijani Popular Front, the movement for independence existed only in one of the autonomous republics of the Volga region - the Ittifak party of Fauzia Bayramova in Tatarstan, which since 1989 has advocated the independence of Tatarstan.

Immediately after the events of the GKChP, independence was proclaimed by almost all the remaining union republics, as well as several autonomous ones outside of Russia, some of which later became the so-called. unrecognized states.

The process of secession of the Baltics

Lithuania

On June 3, 1988, the Sąjūdis movement “in support of Perestroika” was founded in Lithuania, tacitly setting as its goal the secession from the USSR and the restoration of an independent Lithuanian state. It held thousands of rallies and was actively working to promote its ideas. In January 1990, Gorbachev's visit to Vilnius gathered on the streets of Vilnius a huge number of supporters of independence (although formally it was about "autonomy" and "expansion of powers within the USSR"), numbering up to 250 thousand people.

On the night of March 11, 1990, the Supreme Council of Lithuania, headed by Vytautas Landsbergis, proclaimed the independence of Lithuania. Thus, Lithuania became the first of the union republics to declare independence, and one of the two that did so before the August events and the State Emergency Committee. The independence of Lithuania was not recognized then either by the central government of the USSR or by other countries (except Iceland). In response to this, the Soviet government launched an "economic blockade" of Lithuania in mid-1990, and later military force was also used.

The central union government undertook forceful attempts to prevent the achievement of independence by the Baltic republics. Starting from January 11, 1991, the Press House in Vilnius, television centers and nodes in cities, and other public buildings (the so-called “party property”) were occupied by Soviet units. On January 13, paratroopers of the 7th GVDD, with the support of the Alpha Group, stormed the TV tower in Vilnius, stopping republican television broadcasting. The local population put up massive opposition to this, as a result of which 13 people were killed, including an officer of the Alpha detachment, dozens of people were injured. On March 11, 1991, the KPL (CPSU) formed the Lithuanian National Salvation Committee, army patrols were introduced on the streets. However, the reaction of the world community and the increased influence of the liberals in Russia made further military actions impossible.

Leningrad journalist A. G. Nevzorov (host of the popular program "600 seconds") covered events in the republic. On January 15, 1991, on the First Program of Central Television, his television film-report entitled "Ours" about the January events of 1991 near the Vilnius TV tower was shown, which runs counter to the interpretation in foreign, as well as in the Soviet liberal media. In his report, Nevzorov glorified the Vilnius OMON, loyal to Moscow, and the Soviet troops stationed on the territory of Lithuania. The plot caused a public outcry, a number of Soviet politicians called it a fake, aiming to justify the use of troops against civilians.

On the night of July 31, 1991, unknown persons (later it was established that they were employees of the Vilnius and Riga OMON detachments) at the checkpoint in Medininkai (on the border of Lithuania with the Byelorussian SSR) 8 people were shot, including traffic policemen, employees of the Regional Protection Department and 2 fighters of the Aras special forces detachment of the self-proclaimed Republic of Lithuania. It is worth noting that earlier, for several months before this incident, OMON officers with “Our” stripes came to the border, using physical force to disperse unarmed Lithuanian customs officers and set fire to their trailers, which Nevzorov demonstrated in his reports. One of the three 5.45 caliber assault rifles from which the Lithuanian border guards were killed was subsequently discovered at the base of the Riga OMON.

After the August events of 1991, the Republic of Lithuania was immediately recognized by most countries in the world.

Estonia

In April 1988, the Popular Front of Estonia was formed in support of perestroika, which did not formally set as its goal the exit of Estonia from the USSR, but became the basis for achieving it.

In June-September 1988, the following mass events took place in Tallinn, which went down in history as the "Singing Revolution", at which protest songs were performed, and campaign materials and badges of the Popular Front were distributed:

• Night song festivals on the Town Hall Square and on the Singing Field, held in June, during the traditional Days of the Old Town;
• rock concerts held in August;
• musical and political event "Song of Estonia", which, according to the media, brought together about 300,000 Estonians, that is, about a third of the number of the Estonian people, held on September 11, 1988 at the Singing Field. During the last event, the dissident Trivimi Velliste publicly voiced a call for independence.

On November 16, 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR adopted the Declaration of Estonian Sovereignty by a majority of votes.

On August 23, 1989, the Popular Fronts of the three Baltic republics held a joint action called the Baltic Way.

On November 12, 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR adopted the Decree “On the historical and legal assessment of the events that took place in Estonia in 1940”, recognizing the declaration of July 22, 1940 on the entry of the ESSR into the USSR as illegal.

On March 30, 1990, the Supreme Council of the ESSR adopted a decision on the state status of Estonia. Confirming that the occupation of the Republic of Estonia by the Soviet Union on June 17, 1940 did not interrupt the de jure existence of the Republic of Estonia, the Supreme Council recognized the state power of the Estonian ESSR as illegal from the moment it was established and proclaimed the restoration of the Republic of Estonia.

On April 3, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a law declaring legally null and void the declarations of the Supreme Soviets of the Baltic republics on the annulment of entry into the USSR and subsequent decisions arising from this.

On May 8 of the same year, the Supreme Council of the ESSR decided to rename the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic into Republic of Estonia.

On January 12, 1991, during a visit to Tallinn by the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin, between him and the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Estonia Arnold Ruutel, the "Agreement on the Foundations of Interstate Relations between the RSFSR and the Republic of Estonia" was signed, in which both parties recognized each other as independent states.

On August 20, 1991, the Estonian Supreme Council adopted a resolution "On the State Independence of Estonia", and on September 6 of the same year, the USSR officially recognized the independence of Estonia.

Latvia

In Latvia in the period 1988-1990. there is a strengthening of the Popular Front of Latvia, advocating for independence, the struggle against the Interfront, advocating for the preservation of membership in the USSR, is growing.

On May 4, 1990, the Supreme Council of Latvia proclaims the transition to independence. On March 3, 1991, the demand was reinforced by a referendum.

A feature of the secession of Latvia and Estonia is that, unlike Lithuania and Georgia, before the complete collapse of the USSR as a result of the actions of the State Emergency Committee, they did not declare independence, but a “soft” “transitional process” to it, and also that, in order to gain control on its territory in the conditions of a relatively small relative majority of the titular population, republican citizenship was granted only to persons living in these republics at the time of their accession to the USSR, and their descendants.

Separation of Georgia

Beginning in 1989, a movement for secession from the USSR emerged in Georgia, which intensified against the backdrop of the escalation of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict. On April 9, 1989, clashes with troops took place in Tbilisi with casualties among the local population.

On November 28, 1990, during the elections, the Supreme Council of Georgia was formed, headed by the radical nationalist Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who later (May 26, 1991) was elected president in a popular vote.

On April 9, 1991, the Supreme Council declared independence based on the results of a referendum. Georgia became the second of the union republics to declare independence, and one of the two (with the Lithuanian SSR) that did so before the August events (GKChP).

The autonomous republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which were part of Georgia, declared their non-recognition of Georgia's independence and their desire to remain part of the Union, and later formed unrecognized states (in 2008, after the armed conflict in South Ossetia, their independence was recognized in 2008 by Russia and Nicaragua, in 2009 by Venezuela and Nauru).

Branch of Azerbaijan

In 1988, the Popular Front of Azerbaijan was formed. The beginning of the Karabakh conflict led to the orientation of Armenia towards Russia, at the same time led to the strengthening of pro-Turkish elements in Azerbaijan.

After the anti-Armenian demonstrations in Baku at the beginning demanded independence, they were suppressed on January 20-21, 1990 by the Soviet Army with numerous casualties.

Separation of Moldova

Since 1989, the movement for secession from the USSR and state unification with Romania has been intensifying in Moldova.

In October 1990, Moldovans clashed with the Gagauz, a national minority in the south of the country.

June 23, 1990 Moldova declared sovereignty. Moldova proclaimed independence after the events of the State Emergency Committee: August 27, 1991.

The population of eastern and southern Moldova, seeking to avoid integration with Romania, announced the non-recognition of the independence of Moldova and proclaimed the formation of the new republics of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic and Gagauzia, which expressed a desire to remain in the Union.

Branch of Ukraine

In September 1989, the movement of Ukrainian national democrats Narodny Rukh of Ukraine (People's Movement of Ukraine) was founded, which participated in the elections on March 30, 1990 in the Verkhovna Rada (Supreme Council) of the Ukrainian SSR was in the minority with the majority of members of the Communist Party of Ukraine. On July 16, 1990, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the Declaration on State Sovereignty of the Ukrainian SSR.

As a result of the plebiscite, the Crimean region becomes the Autonomous Republic of Crimea within the Ukrainian SSR. The referendum is recognized by the government of Kravchuk. In the future, a similar referendum is held in the Transcarpathian region, but its results are ignored.

After the failure of the August coup, on August 24, 1991, the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR adopted the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, which was confirmed by the results of a referendum on December 1, 1991.

Later, in Crimea, thanks to the Russian-speaking majority of the population, the autonomy of the Republic of Crimea was proclaimed as part of Ukraine.

Declaration of Sovereignty of the RSFSR

On June 12, 1990, the First Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR adopted the Declaration on State Sovereignty of the RSFSR. The Declaration affirmed the priority of the Constitution and Laws of the RSFSR over the legislative acts of the USSR. Among the principles of the declaration were:

• state sovereignty (clause 5), ensuring everyone's inalienable right to a decent life (clause 4), recognition of universally recognized norms of international law in the field of human rights (clause 10);
• norms of people's power: recognition of the multinational people of Russia as the bearer of sovereignty and source of state power, their right to the direct exercise of state power (clause 3), the exclusive right of the people to own, use and dispose of the national wealth of Russia; the impossibility of changing the territory of the RSFSR without the will of the people expressed through a referendum;
• the principle of ensuring that all citizens, political parties, public organizations, mass movements and religious organizations have equal legal opportunities to participate in the management of state and public affairs;
• separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers as the most important principle of the functioning of the rule of law state in the RSFSR (paragraph 13);
• development of federalism: a significant expansion of the rights of all regions of the RSFSR.

Parade of sovereignties in the autonomous republics and regions of the RSFSR

On August 6, 1990, the head of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, Boris Yeltsin, made a statement in Ufa: "take as much sovereignty as you can swallow".

From August to October 1990, there is a "parade of sovereignties" of the autonomous republics and autonomous regions of the RSFSR. Most autonomous republics proclaim themselves Soviet socialist republics within the RSFSR, the USSR. On July 20, the Supreme Soviet of the North Ossetian ASSR adopted the Declaration on State Sovereignty of the North Ossetian ASSR. Following this, the Declaration on State Sovereignty of the Karelian ASSR was adopted on August 9, the Komi SSR on August 29, the Udmurt Republic on September 20, the Yakut-Sakha SSR on September 27, the Buryat SSR on October 8, the Bashkir SSR-Bashkortostan on October 11, and on October 18 - Kalmyk SSR, October 22 - Mari SSR, October 24 - Chuvash SSR, October 25 - Gorno-Altai ASSR.

Attempted secession of Tatarstan

On August 30, 1990, the Supreme Council of the Tatar ASSR adopted the Declaration on State Sovereignty of the Republic of Tatarstan. The declaration, unlike some allied and almost all other autonomous Russian (except Checheno-Ingushetia) republics, did not indicate that the republic was either part of the RSFSR or the USSR, and it was announced that, as a sovereign state and a subject of international law, it concludes agreements and alliances with Russia and other states. During the mass collapse of the USSR and later Tatarstan, with the same wording, adopted declarations and resolutions on the act of independence and joining the CIS, held a referendum, and adopted a constitution.

On October 18, 1991, the Decree of the Supreme Council on the act of state independence of Tatarstan was adopted.

In the fall of 1991, in preparation for the signing on December 9, 1991 of the Treaty establishing the SSG as a confederal union, Tatarstan again announced its desire to join the SSG independently.

December 26, 1991, in connection with the Belavezha agreements on the impossibility of establishing the SSG and the formation of the CIS, a Declaration was adopted on the entry of Tatarstan into the CIS as a founder.

At the end of 1991, a decision was made and at the beginning of 1992, an ersatz currency (a surrogate means of payment) was put into circulation - Tatarstan coupons.

"Chechen Revolution"

In the summer of 1990, a group of prominent representatives of the Chechen intelligentsia came up with the initiative to hold the Chechen National Congress to discuss the problems of reviving national culture, language, traditions, and historical memory. On 23-25, the Chechen National Congress was held in Grozny, which elected an Executive Committee headed by its chairman, Major General Dzhokhar Dudayev. On November 27, the Supreme Council of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, under pressure from the executive committee of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, adopted the Declaration on State Sovereignty of the Chechen-Ingush Republic. On June 8-9, 1991, the 2nd session of the First Chechen National Congress was held, which declared itself the National Congress of the Chechen People (OKChN). The session decided to depose the Supreme Council of the CHIR and proclaimed the Chechen Republic of Nokhchi-cho, and proclaimed the Executive Committee of the OKCHN headed by D. Dudayev as a temporary authority.

The attempted coup d'etat in the USSR on August 19-21, 1991 became a catalyst for the political situation in the republic. On August 19, at the initiative of the Vainakh Democratic Party, a rally in support of the Russian leadership began on the central square of Grozny, but after August 21 it began to be held under the slogan of the resignation of the Supreme Council, along with its chairman, for "Aiding the putschists", as well as re-elections of parliament. On September 1-2, the 3rd session of the OKCHN declared the Supreme Council of the Chechen-Ingush Republic deposed and transferred all power on the territory of Chechnya to the Executive Committee of the OKChN. On September 4, the Grozny television center and the Radio House were seized. Chairman of the Grozny Executive Committee Dzhokhar Dudayev read out an appeal in which he named the leadership of the republic "criminals, bribe takers, embezzlers" and announced that with "On September 5, before the democratic elections are held, power in the republic passes into the hands of the executive committee and other general democratic organizations". In response, the Supreme Soviet declared a state of emergency in Grozny from 00:00 on September 5 to September 10, but six hours later the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet lifted the state of emergency. On September 6, the chairman of the Supreme Council of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Doku Zavgaev, resigned, and acting. Ruslan Khasbulatov became chairman. A few days later, on September 15, the last session of the Supreme Council of the Chechen-Ingush Republic took place, at which a decision was made to dissolve itself. As a transitional body, the Provisional Supreme Council (VVS) was formed, consisting of 32 deputies.

By the beginning of October, a conflict arose between supporters of the OKCHN Executive Committee, headed by its chairman Hussein Akhmadov, and his opponents, headed by Y. Chernov. On October 5, seven of the nine members of the Air Force decided to remove Akhmadov, but on the same day the National Guard seized the building of the House of Trade Unions, where the Air Force met, and the building of the republican KGB. Then they arrested the prosecutor of the republic Alexander Pushkin. The next day, the OKCHN Executive Committee “for subversive and provocative activities” announced the dissolution of the Air Force, taking over the functions "revolutionary committee for the transitional period with full power".

Declaration of Sovereignty of Belarus

In June 1988, the Belarusian Popular Front for Perestroika was officially established. Among the founders were representatives of the intelligentsia, including the writer Vasil Bykov.

On February 19, 1989, the organizing committee of the Belarusian Popular Front held the first authorized rally demanding the abolition of the one-party system, which gathered 40,000 people. The BPF rally against the supposedly undemocratic nature of the 1990 elections gathered 100,000 people.

Following the results of the elections to the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR, the Belarusian Popular Front managed to form a faction of 37 people in the parliament of the republic.

The Belarusian Popular Front faction became the center of uniting the pro-democracy forces in the parliament. The faction initiated the adoption of a declaration on the state sovereignty of the BSSR, proposed a program of large-scale liberal reforms in the economy.

1991 referendum on the preservation of the USSR

In March 1991, a referendum was held in which the overwhelming majority of the population in each of the republics voted for the preservation of the USSR.

In the six union republics (Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia), which had previously declared independence or transition to independence, an all-union referendum was not actually held (the authorities of these republics did not form Central Election Commissions, there was no universal vote of the population ) with the exception of some territories (Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria), but at other times independence referendums were held.

Based on the concept of a referendum, it was supposed to conclude a new union on August 20, 1991 - the Union of Sovereign States (USS) as a soft federation.

However, although the referendum was overwhelmingly in favor of preserving the integrity of the USSR, it had a strong psychological impact, calling into question the very idea of ​​"the inviolability of the union."

Draft new Union Treaty

The rapid growth of the processes of disintegration is pushing the leadership of the USSR, headed by Mikhail Gorbachev, to the following actions:

• Holding an all-union referendum, in which the majority of voters voted for the preservation of the USSR;
• Establishment of the post of President of the USSR in connection with the prospect of the loss of power by the CPSU;
• The project of creating a new Union Treaty, in which the rights of the republics were significantly expanded.

Mikhail Gorbachev's attempts to save the USSR were dealt a serious blow with the election of Boris Yeltsin on May 29, 1990 as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. This election was held in a stubborn struggle, on the third attempt and with a margin of three votes over the candidate from the conservative part of the Supreme Council, Ivan Polozkov.

Russia was also part of the USSR as one of the union republics, representing the vast majority of the population of the USSR, its territory, economic and military potential. The central bodies of the RSFSR were also located in Moscow, like the all-Union ones, but they were traditionally perceived as secondary in comparison with the authorities of the USSR.

With the election of Boris Yeltsin as the head of these authorities, the RSFSR gradually took a course towards declaring its own independence, and recognizing the independence of the other union republics, which made it possible to remove Mikhail Gorbachev, dissolving all the all-union institutions that he could lead.

On June 12, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR adopted the Declaration on State Sovereignty, establishing the priority of Russian laws over the union ones. From that moment on, the all-Union authorities began to lose control over the country; "parade of sovereignties" intensified.

On January 12, 1991, Yeltsin signs an agreement with Estonia on the foundations of interstate relations, in which the RSFSR and Estonia recognize each other as sovereign states.

As Chairman of the Supreme Council, Yeltsin was able to achieve the establishment of the post of President of the RSFSR, and on June 12, 1991 he won the popular elections for this position.

GKChP and its consequences

A number of state and party leaders, under the slogans of maintaining the unity of the country and in order to restore strict party-state control over all spheres of life, attempted a coup d'état (GKChP, also known as the "August putsch" on August 19, 1991).

The defeat of the putsch actually led to the collapse of the central government of the USSR, the resubordination of power structures to republican leaders and the acceleration of the collapse of the Union. Within a month after the putsch, the authorities of almost all the union republics declared their independence one after another. Some of them held referendums on independence to give legitimacy to these decisions.

Since the withdrawal of the Baltic republics from the USSR in September 1991, it consisted of 12 republics.

On November 6, 1991, by decree of the President of the RSFSR B. Yeltsin, the activities of the CPSU and the Communist Party of the RSFSR on the territory of the RSFSR were terminated.

The referendum in Ukraine, held on December 1, 1991, in which independence supporters won even in such a traditionally pro-Russian region as Crimea, made (according to some politicians, in particular, B. N. Yeltsin) the preservation of the USSR in any form finally impossible.

On November 14, 1991, seven of the twelve republics (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) decided to conclude an agreement on the creation of the Union of Sovereign States (USG) as a confederation with its capital in Minsk. The signing was scheduled for December 9, 1991.

Declaration of independence by the republics of the USSR

Union republics

Republic	Declaration of sovereignty	Declaration of Independence	De jure independence
Estonian SSR
Latvian SSR
Lithuanian SSR
Georgian SSR
Russian SFSR
Moldavian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
Byelorussian SSR
Turkmen SSR
Armenian SSR
Tajik SSR
Kirghiz SSR
Kazakh SSR
Uzbek SSR
Azerbaijan SSR

ASSR and AO

• January 19 - Nakhichevan ASSR.
• August 30 - Tatar ASSR (formally - see above).
• November 27 - Chechen-Ingush ASSR (formally - see above).
• June 8 - Chechen part of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR.
• September 4 - Crimean ASSR.

None of the republics fulfilled all the procedures prescribed by the USSR law of April 3, 1990 "On the procedure for resolving issues related to the withdrawal of a union republic from the USSR." The State Council of the USSR (established on September 5, 1991, a body consisting of the heads of the union republics chaired by the President of the USSR) formally recognized the independence of only three Baltic republics (September 6, 1991, resolutions of the USSR State Council No. GS-1, GS-2, GS-3). On November 4, V. I. Ilyukhin opened a criminal case against Gorbachev under Article 64 of the RSFSR Criminal Code (treason) in connection with these decisions of the State Council. According to Ilyukhin, by signing them, Gorbachev violated the oath and the Constitution of the USSR and damaged the territorial integrity and state security of the USSR. After that, Ilyukhin was fired from the USSR prosecutor's office.

The signing of the Belovezhskaya Accords and the creation of the CIS

In December 1991, the heads of the three republics, the founders of the USSR - Belarus, Russia and Ukraine gathered in Belovezhskaya Pushcha (the village of Viskuli, Belarus) to sign an agreement on the creation of the SSG. However, early agreements were rejected by Ukraine.

On December 8, 1991, they stated that the USSR was ceasing to exist, announced the impossibility of forming the SSG and signed the Agreement on the Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The signing of the agreements caused a negative reaction from Gorbachev, but after the August coup, he no longer had real power. As B. N. Yeltsin later emphasized, the Belovezhskaya Accords did not dissolve the USSR, but only stated its actual disintegration by that time.

On December 11, the USSR Committee for Constitutional Supervision issued a statement condemning the Belovezhskaya Accord. This statement had no practical consequences.

On December 12, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, chaired by R. I. Khasbulatov, ratified the Belovezhskaya Accords and decided to denounce the RSFSR union treaty of 1922 (a number of lawyers believe that the denunciation of this treaty was pointless, since it became invalid in 1936 with the adoption of the USSR constitution) and about the recall of Russian deputies from the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (without convening a Congress, which was regarded by some as a violation of the Constitution of the RSFSR in force at that time). As a result of the recall of the deputies, the Council of the Union lost its quorum. It should be noted that formally Russia and Belarus did not declare independence from the USSR, but only stated the fact of the termination of its existence.

On December 17, the Chairman of the Council of the Union, K. D. Lubenchenko, stated the absence of a quorum at the meeting. The Council of the Union, renamed the Meeting of Deputies, turned to the Supreme Council of Russia with a request to at least temporarily cancel the decision to recall Russian deputies so that the Council of the Union could resign itself. This appeal was ignored.

On December 21, 1991, at a meeting of presidents in Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan), 8 more republics joined the CIS: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, the so-called Alma-Ata agreement was signed, which became the basis of the CIS.

The CIS was founded not as a confederation, but as an international (interstate) organization, which is characterized by weak integration and the absence of real power in the coordinating supranational bodies. Membership in this organization was rejected by the Baltic republics, as well as Georgia (it joined the CIS only in October 1993 and announced its withdrawal from the CIS after the war in South Ossetia in the summer of 2008).

Completion of the collapse and liquidation of the power structures of the USSR

The authorities of the USSR as a subject of international law ceased to exist on December 25-26, 1991. Russia declared itself the successor of the USSR's membership (and not the legal successor, as is often erroneously stated) in international institutions, assumed the debts and assets of the USSR, and declared itself the owner of all the USSR's property abroad. According to data provided by the Russian Federation, at the end of 1991, the liabilities of the former Soviet Union were estimated at $93.7 billion, and assets at $110.1 billion. Vnesheconombank's deposits amounted to about $700 million. The so-called "zero option", according to which the Russian Federation became the legal successor of the former Soviet Union in terms of external debt and assets, including foreign property, was not ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, which claimed the right to dispose of the property of the USSR.

On December 25, President of the USSR M. S. Gorbachev announced the termination of his activities as President of the USSR "for reasons of principle", signed a decree resigning as the Supreme Commander of the Soviet Armed Forces and transferred control of strategic nuclear weapons to President of Russia B. Yeltsin.

On December 26, the session of the upper chamber of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which retained the quorum - the Council of the Republics (formed by the Law of the USSR of 05.09.1991 N 2392-1), - from which at that time only representatives of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan were not recalled, adopted under the chairmanship of A. Alimzhanov, declaration No. 142-N on the demise of the USSR, as well as a number of other documents (decree on the dismissal of judges of the Supreme and Supreme Arbitration Courts of the USSR and the Collegium of the USSR Prosecutor's Office (No. 143-N), resolutions on the dismissal of the chairman State Bank V. V. Gerashchenko (No. 144-N) and his first deputy V. N. Kulikov (No. 145-N)). December 26, 1991 is considered the day the USSR ceased to exist, although some institutions and organizations of the USSR (for example, the USSR State Standard, the State Committee for Public Education, the Committee for the Protection of the State Border) still continued to function during 1992, and the Committee for Constitutional Supervision of the USSR was not at all officially dissolved.

After the collapse of the USSR, Russia and the "near abroad" constitute the so-called. post-Soviet space.

Consequences in the short term

Transformations in Russia

The collapse of the USSR led to the almost immediate start of a broad program of reforms by Yeltsin and his supporters. The most radical first steps were:

• in the economic field - the liberalization of prices on January 2, 1992, which served as the beginning of "shock therapy";
• in the political field - the ban on the CPSU and the KPRSFSR (November 1991); liquidation of the Soviet system as a whole (September 21 - October 4, 1993).

Interethnic conflicts

In the last years of the existence of the USSR, a number of interethnic conflicts flared up on its territory. After its collapse, most of them immediately entered the phase of armed clashes:

• the Karabakh conflict - the war of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh for independence from Azerbaijan;
• the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict - the conflict between Georgia and Abkhazia;
• the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict - the conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia;
• Ossetian-Ingush conflict - clashes between Ossetians and Ingush in the Prigorodny district;
• Civil war in Tajikistan - inter-clan civil war in Tajikistan;
• The first Chechen war - the struggle of Russian federal forces with separatists in Chechnya;
• conflict in Transnistria - the struggle of the Moldovan authorities with the separatists in Transnistria.

According to Vladimir Mukomel, the number of those killed in interethnic conflicts in 1988-96 is about 100 thousand people. The number of refugees as a result of these conflicts amounted to at least 5 million people.

A number of conflicts did not lead to a full-scale military confrontation, however, they continue to complicate the situation on the territory of the former USSR until now:

• tensions between Crimean Tatars and the local Slavic population in Crimea;
• the position of the Russian population in Estonia and Latvia;
• state affiliation of the Crimean peninsula.

The collapse of the ruble zone

The desire to isolate themselves from the Soviet economy, which had entered a phase of acute crisis since 1989, prompted the former Soviet republics to introduce national currencies. The Soviet ruble was preserved only on the territory of the RSFSR, however, hyperinflation (in 1992 prices increased 24 times, in the next few years - an average of 10 times a year) almost completely destroyed it, which was the reason for replacing the Soviet ruble with the Russian one in 1993 . From July 26 to August 7, 1993, a confiscatory monetary reform was carried out in Russia, during which treasury notes of the State Bank of the USSR were withdrawn from the monetary circulation of Russia. The reform also solved the problem of separating the monetary systems of Russia and other CIS countries that used the ruble as a means of payment in domestic money circulation.

During 1992-1993. practically all union republics introduce their own currencies. The exceptions are Tajikistan (the Russian ruble remains in circulation until 1995), the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldavian Republic (introduces the Transnistrian ruble in 1994), partially recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia (the Russian ruble remains in circulation).

In a number of cases, national currencies originate from the coupon system introduced in the last years of the existence of the USSR by turning one-time coupons into a permanent currency (Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Georgia, etc.).

It should be noted that the Soviet ruble had names in 15 languages ​​- the languages ​​of all the union republics. For some of them, the names of national currencies initially coincided with the national names of the Soviet ruble (karbovanets, manat, rubel, som, etc.)

The collapse of the unified Armed Forces

During the first months of the existence of the CIS, the leaders of the main union republics are considering the formation of a unified armed forces of the CIS, but this process has not received development. The USSR Ministry of Defense functioned as the High Command of the Joint Armed Forces of the CIS until the October 1993 events. Until May 1992, after the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev, the so-called. the nuclear suitcase was in the possession of the Minister of Defense of the USSR Yevgeny Shaposhnikov.

the Russian Federation

The first military department appeared in the RSFSR in accordance with the law "On Republican Ministries and State Committees of the RSFSR" dated July 14, 1990, and was called the "State Committee of the RSFSR for Public Security and Cooperation with the USSR Ministry of Defense and the KGB of the USSR." In 1991, it was reformed several times.

The own Ministry of Defense of the RSFSR was established temporarily on August 19, 1991, and abolished on September 9, 1991. During the putsch of 1991, the authorities of the RSFSR also made attempts to establish the Russian Guard, the formation of which was entrusted by President Yeltsin to Vice President Rutskoi.

It was supposed to form 11 brigades numbering 3-5 thousand people. each. In a number of cities, primarily in Moscow and St. Petersburg, volunteers began to be accepted; in Moscow, this recruitment was terminated on September 27, 1991, by which time the commission of the Moscow mayor's office had managed to select about 3 thousand people for the proposed Moscow brigade of the national guard of the RSFSR.

A draft of the corresponding decree of the President of the RSFSR was prepared, the issue was worked out in a number of committees of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. However, the corresponding decree was never signed, and the formation of the National Guard was discontinued. From March to May 1992, Boris Yeltsin was and. about. Minister of Defense of the RSFSR.

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation were formed by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin dated May 7, 1992 No. 466 “On the Creation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”. In accordance with this decree, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation is being re-created.

On May 7, 1992, Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin assumed the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, although the law “On the President of the RSFSR” in force at that time did not provide for this.

On the Composition of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Order Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation In accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of May 7, 1992 No. 466 “On the Creation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation” and the act “On the Composition of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”, approved by the President of the Russian Federation on May 7, 1992, I order: Include in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation: associations, formations, military units, institutions, military educational institutions, enterprises and organizations of the Armed Forces of the former USSR stationed on the territory of the Russian Federation; Troops (forces) under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation stationed on the territory of the Transcaucasian Military District, the Western, Northern and Northwestern Groups of Forces, the Black Sea Fleet, the Baltic Fleet, the Caspian Flotilla, 14 Guards. army, formations, military units, institutions, enterprises and organizations on the territory of Mongolia, the Republic of Cuba and other states. Send the order to a separate company. Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Army General P. Grachev

On January 1, 1993, instead of the charter of the Armed Forces of the USSR, temporary general military charters of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation came into effect. December 15, 1993 adopted the Charter of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

In Estonia in the period 1991-2001. in accordance with the decision of the Supreme Council of Estonia of September 3, 1991, the Defense Forces (est. Kaitsejoud, Russian Ka?ytseyyyud), including the Armed Forces (est. Kaitsevagi, Russian Kaytsevyagi; army, aviation and navy; formed on the basis of conscription) numbering about 4500 people. and the voluntary paramilitary organization "Union of Defense" (Est. Kaitseliit, Russian National League) up to 10 thousand people.

Latvia

In Latvia, the National Armed Forces (Latvian. Nacionalie brunotie specki) up to 6 thousand people, consisting of the army, aviation, navy and coast guard, as well as the voluntary paramilitary organization "Guardian of the Earth" (literally; Latvian. Zemessardze, Russian Ze?messardze).

Lithuania

The Lithuanian Armed Forces (lit. Ginkluotosios pajegos) numbering up to 16 thousand people, consisting of the army, aviation, navy and special forces, formed on the basis of conscription until 2009 (since 2009 - on a contract basis), as well as volunteers.

Ukraine

At the time of the collapse of the USSR, there were three military districts on the territory of Ukraine, numbering up to 780 thousand military personnel. They included numerous formations of the Ground Forces, one missile army, four air armies, an air defense army and the Black Sea Fleet. On August 24, 1991, the Verkhovna Rada adopts a resolution on the subordination of all the Armed Forces of the USSR located on its territory to Ukraine. These included, in particular, 1272 intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads, there were also large stocks of enriched uranium. On November 3-4, 1990, the Ukrainian Nationalist Society (UNS) was created in Kyiv. On August 19, 1991, to resist the troops of the State Emergency Committee, the UNSO

Currently, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (ukr. Armed Forces of Ukraine) number up to 200 thousand people. Nuclear weapons have been taken to Russia. They are formed on an urgent call (21,600 people as of spring 2008) and on a contract basis.

Belarus

At the time of the death of the USSR, the Belarusian military district was located on the territory of the republic, numbering up to 180 thousand military personnel. In May 1992, the district was dissolved, on January 1, 1993, all military personnel were asked to swear allegiance to the Republic of Belarus, or quit.

At the moment, the Armed Forces of Belarus (Belor. Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus) number up to 72 thousand people, are divided into the army, aviation and internal troops. Nuclear weapons have been taken to Russia. Formed on call.

Azerbaijan

In the summer of 1992, the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan put forward an ultimatum to a number of units and formations of the Soviet Army stationed on the territory of Azerbaijan to transfer weapons and military equipment to the republican authorities in pursuance of the decree of the President of Azerbaijan. As a result, by the end of 1992, Azerbaijan received enough equipment and weapons to form four motorized infantry divisions.

The formation of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan took place in the conditions of the Karabakh war. Azerbaijan has been defeated.

Armenia

The formation of the national army began in January 1992. As of 2007, it consists of the Ground Forces, Air Force, Air Defense Forces, and Border Troops, and has up to 60 thousand people. Closely interacts with the army of the territory with an unsettled status Nagorno-Karabakh (Defense Army of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, up to 20 thousand people).

Due to the fact that at the time of the collapse of the USSR there was not a single military school on the territory of Armenia, the officers of the national army are trained in Russia.

Georgia

The first national armed groups already existed at the time of the collapse of the USSR (the National Guard, founded on December 20, 1990, also the Mkhedrioni paramilitaries). Units and formations of the disintegrating Soviet Army become a source of weapons for various formations. In the future, the formation of the Georgian army takes place in an environment of a sharp aggravation of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict, and armed clashes between supporters and opponents of the first president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia.

In 2007, the strength of the Armed Forces of Georgia reaches 28.5 thousand people, divided into Ground Forces, Air Force and Air Defense, Navy, National Guard.

Kazakhstan

Initially, the government announces its intention to form a small National Guard of up to 20 thousand people, entrusting the main tasks for the defense of Kazakhstan to the CSTO Armed Forces. However, already on May 7, 1992, the President of Kazakhstan issued a decree on the formation of a national army.

Currently, Kazakhstan has up to 74 thousand people. in regular troops, and up to 34.5 thousand people. in paramilitaries. It consists of the Ground Forces, Air Defense Forces, Naval Forces and the Republican Guard, four regional commands (Astana, West, East and South). Nuclear weapons have been taken to Russia. Formed by conscription, service life is 1 year.

Section of the Black Sea Fleet

The status of the former Black Sea Fleet of the USSR was settled only in 1997 with the division between Russia and Ukraine. For several years he maintained an indefinite status, and served as a source of friction between the two states.

The fate of the only full-fledged Soviet aircraft carrier Admiral Fleet Kuznetsov is noteworthy: it was completed by 1989. In December 1991, due to its uncertain status, it arrived from the Black Sea and joined the Russian Northern Fleet, which remains to this day. At the same time, all aircraft and pilots remained in Ukraine, re-staffing took place only in 1998.

The Varyag aircraft carrier (of the same type to Admiral Kuznetsov), which was being built simultaneously with the Admiral Kuznetsov, was at 85% readiness by the time the USSR collapsed. Sold by Ukraine to China.

Nuclear-free status of Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan

As a result of the collapse of the USSR, the number of nuclear powers increased, since at the time of the signing of the Belovezhskaya Accords, Soviet nuclear weapons were deployed on the territory of four union republics: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

The joint diplomatic efforts of Russia and the United States of America led to the fact that Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan renounced the status of nuclear powers, and transferred to Russia the entire military nuclear potential that ended up on their territory.

• On October 24, 1991, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a resolution on the non-nuclear status of Ukraine. On January 14, 1992, a trilateral agreement between Russia, the United States and Ukraine was signed. All atomic charges are being dismantled and taken to Russia, strategic bombers and missile launch silos are being destroyed with US money. In return, the United States and Russia provide guarantees for the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

On December 5, 1994, a Memorandum was signed in Budapest, by which Russia, the United States and Great Britain pledged to refrain from the use of force, economic coercion and convene the UN Security Council to take the necessary measures if there is a threat of aggression against Ukraine.

• In Belarus, the nuclear-free status is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution. The United States and Russia provide guarantees of independence and territorial integrity.
• Kazakhstan during 1992-1994 transfers to Russia up to 1150 units of strategic nuclear weapons.

Status of the Baikonur Cosmodrome

With the collapse of the USSR, the largest Soviet cosmodrome, Baikonur, finds itself in a critical situation - funding collapsed, and the cosmodrome itself ended up on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Its status was settled in 1994 with the conclusion of a long-term lease agreement with the Kazakh side.

The collapse of the USSR entails the introduction by the new independent states of their citizenship, and the replacement of Soviet passports with national ones. In Russia, the replacement of Soviet passports ended only in 2004; in the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, they continue to circulate to this day.

Citizenship of Russia (at that time - citizenship of the RSFSR) was introduced by the Law "On Citizenship of the Russian Federation" of November 28, 1991, entered into force from the moment of publication on February 6, 1992. In accordance with it, citizenship of the Russian Federation is granted to all citizens of the USSR, permanently residing in the territory of the RSFSR on the day the law enters into force, unless within a year after that they declare their renunciation of citizenship. On December 9, 1992, the Decree of the Government of the RSFSR No. 950 “On temporary documents certifying the citizenship of the Russian Federation” was issued. In accordance with these regulations, the population was issued inserts in Soviet passports on Russian citizenship.

In 2002, a new Law "On Citizenship of the Russian Federation" came into force, establishing citizenship in accordance with these inserts. In 2004, as noted above, Soviet passports are being replaced by Russian ones.

Establishment of a visa regime

Of the republics of the former USSR, Russia, as of 2007, maintains a visa-free regime with the following:

• Armenia,
• Azerbaijan (stay up to 90 days),
• Belarus,
• Kazakhstan,
• Kyrgyzstan (stay up to 90 days),
• Moldova (stay up to 90 days),
• Tajikistan (with Uzbek visa),
• Uzbekistan (with Tajik visa),
• Ukraine (stay up to 90 days).

Thus, the visa regime exists with the former Soviet Baltic republics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), as well as Georgia and Turkmenistan.

Status of Kaliningrad

With the collapse of the USSR, the territory of the Kaliningrad region, which was included in the USSR after the Second World War and in 1991 was administratively part of the RSFSR, also became part of the modern Russian Federation. At the same time, it was cut off from other regions of the Russian Federation by Lithuanian and Belarusian territory.

In the early 2000s, in connection with the planned entry of Lithuania into the European Union, and then into the Schengen zone, the status of transit ground communication between Kaliningrad and the rest of the Russian Federation began to cause certain friction between the authorities of the Russian Federation and the European Union.

Status of Crimea

On October 29, 1948, Sevastopol became a city of republican subordination within the RSFSR (belonging or not belonging to the Crimean region was not specified by the laws). The Crimean region was transferred in 1954 by the law of the USSR from the RSFSR to the Soviet Ukraine, as part of the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Pereyaslav Rada (“reunification of Russia and Ukraine”). As a result of the collapse of the USSR, an area became part of independent Ukraine, the majority of whose population is ethnic Russians (58.5%), pro-Russian sentiments are traditionally strong, and the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation is deployed. In addition, the main city of the Black Sea Fleet - Sevastopol - is a significant patriotic symbol for Russia.

During the collapse of the USSR, Crimea holds a referendum on February 12, 1991 and becomes the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within Ukraine, on September 4, 1991, the Declaration on the Sovereignty of Crimea was adopted, on May 6, 1992 - the Constitution of Crimea.

Crimean attempts to secede from Ukraine were thwarted, and in 1992 the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was established.

As a result of the collapse of the USSR, there was an uncertainty of borders between the former Soviet republics. The process of border delimitation dragged on until the 2000s. The delimitation of the Russian-Kazakh border was carried out only in 2005. By the time of entry into the European Union, the Estonian-Latvian border was actually destroyed.

As of December 2007, the border between a number of newly independent states was not delimited.

The absence of a delimited border between Russia and Ukraine in the Kerch Strait led to a conflict over the island of Tuzla. Disagreements over borders led to Estonian and Latvian territorial claims against Russia. However, some time ago, the Border Treaty between Russia and Latvia was signed and in 2007 came into force, resolving all painful issues.

Claims for compensation from the Russian Federation

In addition to territorial claims, Estonia and Latvia, which gained independence as a result of the collapse of the USSR, put forward to the Russian Federation, as the successor of the USSR, demands for multimillion-dollar compensation for their inclusion in the USSR in 1940. After the entry into force in 2007 of the Border Treaty between Russia and Latvia, painful territorial issues between these countries were removed.

The collapse of the USSR in terms of law

USSR legislation

Article 72 of the Constitution of the USSR of 1977 determined:

The procedure for the implementation of this right, enshrined in law, was not observed (see above), however, it was legitimized mainly by the internal legislation of the states that left the USSR, as well as subsequent events, for example, their international legal recognition by the world community - all 15 former Soviet republics are recognized by the world community as independent states and are represented in the UN. Until December 1993, the Constitution of the USSR was valid on the territory of Russia in accordance with Article 4 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation - Russia (RSFSR), despite numerous amendments made to it, excluding the mention of the USSR.

International law

Russia declared itself the successor of the USSR, which was recognized by almost all other states. The rest of the post-Soviet states (with the exception of the Baltic states) became the legal successors of the USSR (in particular, the obligations of the USSR under international treaties) and the corresponding union republics. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia declared themselves the successors of the respective states that existed in 1918-1940. Georgia declared itself the successor of the Republic of Georgia 1918-1921. Moldova is not a successor to the MSSR, since a law was passed in which the decree on the creation of the MSSR was called illegal, which is perceived by many as a legal justification for the TMR's claims to independence. Azerbaijan declared itself the successor of the ADR, while maintaining some of the agreements and treaties adopted by the Azerbaijan SSR. Within the framework of the UN, all 15 states are considered successors of the corresponding union republics, in connection with which the territorial claims of these countries to each other (including the pre-existing claims of Latvia and Estonia to Russia) are not recognized and the independence of state entities that were not in number of union republics (including Abkhazia, which had such a status, but lost it).

Expert assessments

There are different points of view on the legal aspects of the collapse of the USSR. There is a point of view that the USSR formally still exists, since its dissolution was carried out in violation of legal norms and ignoring the popular opinion expressed in the referendum. This point of view is repeatedly disputed by supporters of the opinion that it is pointless to require observance of formal rules from such significant geopolitical changes.

Russia

• No. 156-II of the State Duma "On deepening the integration of the peoples who united in the USSR, and the abolition of the Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR of December 12, 1991 "On the denunciation of the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR"";
• No. 157-II of the State Duma "On the legal force for the Russian Federation - Russia of the results of the USSR referendum on March 17, 1991 on the issue of preserving the USSR."

The first of the Decrees invalidated the corresponding Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR of December 12, 1991 and established that “legislative and other regulatory legal acts arising from the Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR of December 12, 1991 “On the denunciation of the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR” will be adjusted as the fraternal peoples move along the path of ever deeper integration and unity.
By the second of the Decrees, the State Duma denounced the Belovezhskaya Accords; The resolution read, in part:

1. To confirm for the Russian Federation - Russia the legal force of the results of the USSR referendum on the question of preserving the USSR, held on the territory of the RSFSR on March 17, 1991. 2. To note that the officials of the RSFSR, who prepared, signed and ratified the decision to terminate the existence of the USSR, grossly violated the will of the peoples of Russia on the preservation of the USSR, expressed at the USSR referendum on March 17, 1991, as well as the Declaration on State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, which proclaimed the desire of the peoples of Russia to create a democratic legal state as part of the renewed USSR. 3. To confirm that the Agreement on the Creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States of December 8, 1991, signed by the President of the RSFSR B.N. Yeltsin and the State Secretary of the RSFSR G.E. Burbulis and not approved by the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR - the highest body of state power of the RSFSR, and has no legal force in the part relating to the termination of the existence of the USSR.

On March 19, 1996, the Federation Council sent Appeal No. 95-SF to the lower house, in which it called on the State Duma "to return to the consideration of the mentioned acts and once again carefully analyze the possible consequences of their adoption", referring to the negative reaction of "a number of state and public figures of the participating states Commonwealth of Independent States”, caused by the adoption of these documents.

In a response to the members of the Federation Council, adopted by the Resolution of the State Duma of April 10, 1996 No. 225-II of the State Duma, the lower chamber actually disavowed its position expressed in the Resolutions of March 15, 1996, indicating:

… 2. The Resolutions adopted by the State Duma are primarily of a political nature, they assess the situation that has developed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, responding to the aspirations and hopes of the fraternal peoples, their desire to live in a single democratic state of law. Moreover, it was the Decrees of the State Duma that contributed to the conclusion of a quadripartite Treaty between the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic on deepening integration in the economic and humanitarian fields... 3. The Treaty on the Formation of the USSR of 1922, which the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR “denounced” on December 12, 1991, did not exist as an independent legal document. The original version of this Treaty was subjected to a radical revision and, already in a revised form, was included in the Constitution of the USSR of 1924. In 1936, a new Constitution of the USSR was adopted, with the entry into force of which the Constitution of the USSR of 1924 ceased to operate, including the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR of 1922. In addition, the Decree of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR of December 12, 1991 denounced the international treaty of the Russian Federation, which, in accordance with the norms of international law codified by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969, was not subject to denunciation at all. 4. The Resolutions adopted on March 15, 1996 by the State Duma in no way affect the sovereignty of the Russian Federation, and even more so of other member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States. In accordance with the Constitution of the USSR of 1977, the Russian Federation, like other union republics, was a sovereign state. This excludes all kinds of unjustified assertions that, allegedly, with the adoption of the Resolutions of March 15, 1996 by the State Duma, the Russian Federation "ceases" to exist as an independent sovereign state. Statehood does not depend on any treaties or regulations. Historically, it is created by the will of the peoples. 5. Resolutions of the State Duma do not and cannot liquidate the Commonwealth of Independent States, which in the current conditions is actually a real-life institution and which must be used to the maximum to deepen integration processes...

Thus, the denunciation did not entail any practical consequences.

Ukraine

During the inauguration of the first President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk, Mykola Plavyuk (the last President of the UNR in exile) presented Kravchuk with the state regalia of the UNR and a letter, where he and Kravchuk agreed that independent Ukraine, proclaimed on August 24, 1991, is the legal successor of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

Ratings

Estimates of the collapse of the USSR are ambiguous. The opponents of the USSR in the Cold War perceived the collapse of the USSR as their victory. In this regard, in the United States, for example, one can often hear disappointment in victory: the “Russians” who lost the war are still a nuclear power, protect national interests, interfere in foreign policy disputes, and so on. "The loser didn't lose... the loser doesn't think they've lost... and doesn't behave like the loser has since 1991," former US Strategic Nuclear Forces Commander Gen. Eugene Habiger said in an interview aired on the channel's Rehearsal for the End of the World CNN.

On April 25, 2005, President of Russia V. Putin in his message to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation stated:

A similar opinion was expressed in 2008 by the President of Belarus A. G. Lukashenko:

The first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin in 2006 emphasized the inevitability of the collapse of the USSR and noted that, along with the negative, one should not forget about its positive aspects:

A similar opinion was repeatedly expressed by the former chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus, S.S. Shushkevich, who noted that he was proud of his participation in the signing of the Belovezhskaya Accords, which formalized the disintegration of the USSR that actually took place by the end of 1991.

In October 2009, in an interview with the editor-in-chief of Radio Liberty, Lyudmila Telen, the first and only President of the USSR M. S. Gorbachev admitted his responsibility for the collapse of the USSR:

According to the data of the sixth wave of regular international surveys of the population within the framework of the Eurasian Monitor program, 52% of the polled residents of Belarus, 68% of Russia and 59% of Ukraine regret the collapse of the Soviet Union; do not regret, respectively, 36%, 24% and 30% of respondents; 12%, 8% and 11% found it difficult to answer this question.

Criticism of the collapse of the USSR

Some parties and organizations refused to recognize the collapse of the Soviet Union (for example, the Bolshevik Platform in the CPSU). According to some of them, the USSR should be considered a socialist country occupied by the Western imperialist powers with the help of new methods of warfare that drove the Soviet people into an informational and psychological shock. For example, O.S. Shenin has been the head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union since 2004. Sazhi Umalatova presents orders and medals on behalf of the Presidium of the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. Rhetoric about betrayal "from above" and calls for the liberation of the country from economic and political occupation are used for political purposes by Colonel Kvachkov, who received an unexpectedly high rating in the 2005 elections to the State Duma.

Critics consider the occupation of the USSR a temporary phenomenon and note that “The Soviet Union continues to exist de jure, in the status of a temporarily occupied country; de jure, the Constitution of the USSR of 1977 continues to operate, the legal personality of the USSR in the international arena is preserved”.

Criticism is justified by numerous violations of the Constitution of the USSR, the Constitutions of the Union republics and the current legislation, which, according to critics, accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union. Those who disagree to recognize the USSR as broken up elect and support the Soviets in the cities and republics of the Soviet Union, still electing their representatives to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Supporters of the Soviet Union refer to their important political achievement as being able to keep their Soviet passport while taking Russian citizenship.

The ideology of the occupied country and the inevitable liberation of the Soviet people from the "Americans" is reflected in contemporary art. For example, it can be clearly seen in the songs of Alexander Kharchikov and Vis Vitalis.