Milestones in the fall of the Soviet Union
From the perestroika reforms to the resignation on December 25, 1991, of the last Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, here are main milestones in the demise of the world's first communist state.
- 1985-1989: Gorbachev and perestroika -
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader in March 1985. Aged 54 at the time, he is young compared to the geriatric Soviet leaders of the period. He sets out on a vast reform plan.
His "perestroika" (restructuring) and "glasnost" (openness) reforms are aimed at saving a Soviet economy rocked by plunging oil prices, a chronic shortage of consumer goods and growing state debt.
Millions of Soviets discover new freedoms, but also shortages, economic chaos and nationalist revolts. In addition, the Red Army, bogged down in Afghanistan for the past 10 years, withdraws in 1989.
- 1989: Berlin Wall falls -
In May communist Hungary opens its border with Austria, the first chink in the Iron Curtain. The following month the anti-communist Solidarity (Solidarnosc) trade union ends the monopoly of the Communist Party in Poland after semi-free elections. Gorbachev does not step in.
Eastern Europe's communist regimes topple one after another that autumn, and Moscow again stands by and watches.
On November 9 the Berlin Wall falls. The Velvet Revolution follows in Czechoslovakia and Romania executes its Stalinist leader Nicolae Ceausescu on Christmas Day. The socialist bloc has vanished.
- 1990: Baltic states independent -
In 1990 Soviet republics start pulling away.
Lithuania proclaims its independence in March and three months later the Russian Federation declares it sovereignty under the leadership of Boris Yeltsin, a former political ally of Gorbachev who has become his arch enemy.
In January 1991 Soviet troops intervene in Lithuania, leaving 14 dead, but then withdraw in a sign that Moscow's cause is lost.
- 1991: Attempted coup -
After Boris Yeltsin is elected President of Soviet Russia by universal suffrage in June 1991, Gorbachev tries to save the Soviet Union from breaking up with a new treaty giving republics a large degree of autonomy.
A handful of hardline communists opposed to the treaty reform foment a coup on August 19, in a bid to prevent its signature the next day.
Gorbachev, on holiday at the time, is kept under house arrest in his dacha in Crimea.
The coup is foiled on August 21 thanks to the determination of Yeltsin who leads the resistance. The next day Gorbachev returns to Moscow, but his power is weakened compared to the popular Russian president.
In the following days Gorbachev resigns from his post as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (PCUS).
Now banned by the authorities in many republics, the party's activities are suspended in Russia by Yeltsin.
The Soviet republics one after another declare their independence over a matter of weeks. The independence of the three Baltic States is recognised by the Soviet Union on September 6, and they are admitted to the United Nations on the 17.
Ukraine also breaks away.
- December 1991: The CIS -
The leaders of the three slavic Soviet republics, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (former Belorussia) declare that the Soviet Union no longer exists on December 8. They decide to found a Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) open to all the states of the former Soviet Union.
On December 21 at Almaty in Kazakhstan eight other republics join the CIS. Yeltsin refuses entry to Georgia, which is mired in a civil war.
The three Baltic states do not send representatives to the Kazakh capital.
On December 24 the Russian Federation takes the place of the USSR as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
- Gorbachev resigns -
The following day Gorbachev announces his resignation. Immediately afterwards control of the Soviet nuclear arsenal is transferred to the Russian President Yeltsin.
The United States recognises the 12 former Soviet republics who have declared their independence. At the Kremlin, the Russian flag replaces the Soviet one.